The 45th Hunger Games: The Tribute of District 4 (Watty Awards 2012 completed)

Chapter 13

“You don’t need too much, training, I see,” Lolly said, walking around and scrutinizing my posture. “Your body slope is already pleasing for the eyes, but it would look better if your posture was correct.”

She pulled back my shoulders and I could feel the muscles there ache. I was graceful, but I was never used to this kind of strain.

“Now, the heels.”

It took me a good hour to walk in the heels that Lolly had me walk in. It was easy enough to get used to, once I got over the strange feeling of being elevated six inches. The shoes were designed in a way that they were heel-less, so I really had to just depend on the balls of my feet. I couldn’t rock my feet, because I would end up falling back.

Lolly then made me wear a skirt that had a long train. Since I was already used to the feeling of these shoes, I had that mastered immediately. I didn’t hunch my shoulders or look at the ground. We even practiced on stairs to make sure that I kept my eyes straight and never at the ground.

Lolly let me out an hour early, so I got to relax for a little while before my brother started with me.

We were alone in a sitting room, so we could talk privately. He looked irritated at the moment, so that wasn’t very good. I assumed that they were talking to the other mentors, which was it wasn’t Mari who was with me this time.

“You’re going to have that interview tomorrow, and we need them to have a lasting memory of what you are. It will be your identity, your lasting impression. Are we still sticking to that pretty girl from District 4 thing?” he sounded doubtful, but it had worked so well. “Caesar will probably ask about your 11. They probably didn’t expect that. I didn’t either.”

I looked at him like he wasn’t serious. “Right, because all those years of training me, I was just zoning out and pretending that I was paying attention.”

He grinned. “You’re my younger sister. I don’t expect you to listen to me at all.”

I rolled my eyes. “So what do you want me to do?”

“You could be the perfect tribute: smart, attractive and deadly. We already have your little romance with Slate leaked, so that’ll give you even more attention.” He paused as he thought about it. “All I can really do is make sure you don’t say anything stupid in your interview.”

For the rest of the time that remained with him, he asked me a variety of questions. Some didn’t even relate to the Hunger Games or my personal life. Some were just silly, but he said I needed to be ready for anything. Since I was from 4, I wasn’t very shy in front of crowds, so Aldo wasn’t very worried about my freezing in front of an audience.

The ambiance that we had by dinner was completely chill. Alta was talking about the dress that she had ready for me. Lolly was excited for the interviews because she could just feel that everything was going according to plan. Alta and Mari were conversing quietly, talking about their own strategies when Xavier and me were finally in the arena.

Xavier and I even had a few bonding moments, talking about the different local games that we used to play from District 4. Alta and Beagan had an interest in this and asked if we could show them.

We ended up looking silly as we played Fish or Fire, Hook the Clam and Setting Sailors with Alta, Beagan and Lolly. Mari eventually joined in during our third round of Hook the Clam. Aldo, who had very few moments of happiness after his Games, gave in and even won a round of Setting Sailors.

He even contributed a few more games from his childhood.

When I went to bed, I was in high spirits and a good mood.