Peeta's Story- The Hunger Games

Chapter 18

I am being dragged out of bed in the morning before I have even fully opened my eyes. "Lemme go!" I shout, kicking and screaming until I hear a low chuckle. I stop writhing for a second. "Haymitch?" I look up and see him grinning down at me. "Why are you kidnapping me?"

He chuckles and says, "It's time for your session with me! Me in the morning and Effie after lunch! It'll be like two doses of crazy in a day." He seems to be in a pretty good mood.

I slap my hands over my face. "But I'm so tired," I groan. "How early is it anyway?"

"It's already 10 in the morning, boy," Haymitch says, and I sit up in surprise. "Katniss got up hours ago."

"I don't care about Katniss. I'm no Katniss. Go away! I want sleep!" I say. Suddenly, I sit up quickly. "Wait. It's 10? Impossible!" I look towards the window and see bright sunshine seeping through a crack in the curtains. I'm seriously getting my brain checked soon, because it seems to be malfunctioning.

I roll out of bed and bump my head against the nightstand. Stumbling up, I follow Haymitch out of the room. He raises an eyebrow as he says, "We'll definitely need to clean you up before Effie sees you." I couldn't agree more.

He closes the door behind up and sits down, clasping his hands. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions and you answer them as you would during the actual interview. I want to see where you're at."

It's a good thing I love performing and being in front of a camera or else I would be shivering in fear right now. "So," he begins, clapping his hands together, "Here we have Peeta Mellark of District 12-"

He stops as I burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" he asks, annoyed.

I giggle- what an unmanly thing to do!- and say, "You need to say it with a Capitol accent, like this: 'Heeyah way have Peeta Mayllark of Daystrict 12.'" I admit, it's a pretty bad imitation of the Capitol accent, but Haymitch is cracking up and turning red.

He catches his breath and begins again. "In a seriousness, though, Peeta Mellark of District 12 will be interviewed in his allotted time. May the odds every be in your favor, Mr. Mellark!"

I nod pompously as a joke, but Haymitch seems to like it. "So, Peeta, what are your feelings about the Hunger Games?"

I think for a second before responding. "Well, I feel like they'll be a breeze, I mean, who would want to kill this beautiful face? And these muscles? Well no one beats these." I kiss my bicep and Haymitch doubles over in laughter.

"That... was... great..." he gasps. "The Capitol loves humor, so if you can respond confidently and with humor all the time, you're all set."

We spend hours with him drilling me, but most of the time we spend laughing together. Finally, lunch comes, and I head downstairs quickly. "I'm so hungry," I mutter.

"Me too," Haymitch says from behind me. "Especially at night. I always get hungry at night."

"Do you think we're allowed to take food up to our room?" I mutter sneakily.

He frowns at me, "You know, you do have room service..."

"Right. I knew that," I say, even though I forgot all about that.

I sit down at the table and look at the food. It looks delicious- a chicken breast in a creamy sauce with a side of mashed potatoes and sweet corn. I shift in my seat trying my best not to eat until I see Haymitch hungrily wolf down his portion. "Shouldn't we wait for Katniss?" I ask.

He swallows and rolls his eyes. "She'll come down eventually. She's with Effie right now."

I feel bad for her. "Poor girl," I say, though I can't help smirking. "She's probably being stuffed into dresses right now."

"Don't be too happy," Haymitch warns me. "You've got Effie next!"

I groan. He looks up at me and says, "I don't know what I'm going to do with Katniss though. I mean, you, I was always sure you could handle the interview, but I'm not entirely sure she can. She seems more like an action than words type of person."

I nod because I know exactly what he means. In second grade, she punched Braedan for teasing her instead of telling him to knock it off. Even back then, she preferred to do rather than to speak. Thank goodness she's laid off the violence, though.

"Speak of the devil..." Haymitch mutters as we hear heavy footsteps in the hallway.

I turn to the door and see Katniss stalk into the room. I stifle a giggle as I see her hair is piled up into an elaborate bun with sparkles in it. "Ugh!" she says, kicking off the high heels she's wearing. I do a mental double-take. Katniss is wearing heels? She sneaks a furtive glance at me and I look down at my food. I wonder what Effie's done to put her in such a terrible mood. I guess I'll find out soon enough. She keeps sighing as she eats and I feel so awkward, plucking at my food.

Haymitch is humming contentedly to himself and I can't help but feel that he's enjoying making the silence even more awkward.

I walk up to Effie's room, dreading what's awaiting me. When I push open the door, the scene that greets me isn't as bad as I imagined. There are no super elaborate trendy clothes, just a few plain suits for me to wear. "Peeta, you're late." She frowns at me and I apologize quickly.

"Now, I'm here to teach you etiquette, because here, etiquette is everything. Hopefully, you'll be more agreeable than Katniss." I laugh and she raises an eyebrow.

"Just saying," I explain, "I'm not entirely sure she enjoys those high heels you stuffed her into."

Effie waves an airy hand. "Pish, posh. She secretly loves finding her inner lady."

I hide a scoff behind my hand before saying, "Let's get to business."

She claps excitedly and says, "First, let's decide on which suit to wear. Portia gave me these two choices." She holds up a plain black suit and a blue one. They all seem fine to me, so I shrug. "Put them on," she instructs and I obey.

When I slip on the black suit, Effie steps forward, her eyes bright with excitement. "And this is not just any plain black suit!" she announces proudly. Uh oh, this can't be good. "It can be any color you want it to be! It's earth friendly because it uses less fabric."

I bite back an argument to this statement and nod as she shows me the button on my sleeve that changes the suit's color. I must admit, out of all the extravagant clothes in the Capitol, this seems like the best. "So you've seen that one," she says and hands me the blue one.

"Does this change color, too?" I ask her while surveying it.

"Goodness, no! That would be too boring! It's so cool that- well, try it on you'll see."

I change into the suit and show her. "It seems normal to me," I say.

She frowns at me. "Tsk tsk tsk, Peeta, normal isn't good. Now do a 360 turn."

I gasp because when I turn, feathers sprout out of the suit. Great, now I look like a demented peacock.

"Now jump up and down," she instructs me, and the feathers disappear to be replaced by shiny sequins. She squeals happily and I roll my eyes.

"Sorry, Effie, but I like the other one better."

She makes a puppy face and pouts. "But that one's so PLAIN compare to this one."

I shake my head no and she gives in, throwing the trippy color changing suit to me. "Awesome," I say, about to leave, but she stops me.

"Where do you think you're going?"

I turn around, surprised as she says, "We're not even close to done yet. From now til dinner, we're going to work on presentation. "

I groan. Great, I get to pose and look pretty for a few hours. Does someone want to save me from this nightmare?

--alright guys, I'll have the next chapter up in a few hours or so..... vampire diaries is on tonight and i'm skipping watching it to write another less boring chapter to appease y'all so keep an eye out for it!

also, does anyone want me to dedicate a chapter to them? i am so thankful to all my readers, so i figure if i dedicate this to someone, it might as well be to you all! so let me know! first come, first serve ;)

xox amanda