I lay there for a little bit, groaning to myself and dragging myself to my feet. He was completely, one hundred percent perfect, he was funny, kind, and he understood me even if he had no clue what I was going through. Why couldn’t I just admit it, why could I not just tell him my feelings, chances are that even if he wasn’t interested he might pretend, because that’s what he did, he was nice, and I knew he wouldn’t want me to feel bad about myself. I quickly changed into my pajamas and waited until later, when I knew everyone would already be in bed. I wandered into the dark hallway, about to open the door to his room when I saw a smiling face in the hallway a little ways away.
“Hello Sherlock, or should I say, Sherbot?” it was Irene. My blood ran cold, half of me wanted to run into John’s room and avoid that chilling tone in her voice.
“You’re up late.” I muttered, trying to back up a little bit, but she moved closer.
“I could be wrong, or I’d say that you and John have a little thing going huh?” she asked.
“No, just, you know, friends.” I assured, now quite terrified. What was the purpose of moving closer, what was she doing? Whatever she was, I wanted it to stop, I had no interest in her, I really hoped she wasn’t interested in me.
“Why waste your precious time with him?” she asked, still moving closer as she spoke.
“I, uh, was just making sure he was okay, it’s been a couple of rough nightmare nights.” I said again, debating to just turn the handle and let John save me from this.
“Well how about, you just let him be, he’ll be fine.” She assured. Now she was way too close for my liking, a foot, maybe less.
“Please, just, go back to bed.” I begged, but before I could say anything else she jammed her lips onto mine, pushing me into John’s door. I panicked, trying to free myself from this absolute horror and seeing one last option. I turned the handle, falling into the room with Irene, still kissing me, falling on top of me.
“Sherlock bloody….” John stopped, pulling his blankets up to his chin when he saw Irene, who got to her feet with a huff and scampered away, as if I had offended her in anyway. My heart was pounding in my chest, but not in the good love way, it was the type of feel when you just did something you never ever want to do again.
“What was that about!” he demanded, looking terrified. I closed the door, wiping my mouth on the sleeve of my robe.
“Totally not my idea, I promise!” I assured.
“Well I could figure that out myself, but what an entrance!” John said, but he didn’t sound excited, more embarrassed of witnessing it.
“Blah, that was awful.” I decided.
“You’ve never kissed anyone before have you?” he asked.
“Terrible first kiss, ya.” I agreed.
“Well, I’m sorry it wasn’t memorable. You just have to wait for number two I guess.” He said. I gave him a small smile before locking the door behind me, just in case, I’ve been having quite a miserable day as far as intruders. I didn’t want to tell him that I really hoped he’d be my first voluntary kiss, that if that happened the memory would be tattooed into my heart for all eternity. I climbed into the chair again, pulling the blanket over myself and taking his hand again, as if it was routine by now. Even though we’ve held hands a couple of times, it made me freak out, just the presence of him so close…
“Well, I can’t guarantee you won’t have nightmares tonight.” He laughed, but yet again I just smiled shyly. There wasn’t much I could say after that, I couldn’t get over the thought of Irene, her filthy lips, disgusting. I closed my eyes first this time, trying to fall asleep the best I could. I heard him mutter something, probably a good night, and apparently he fell asleep as well.

                I woke up to the most unnatural feeling ever, sunlight. Someone had opened the blinds, and the real light was shining over me for the first time in what felt like forever. I hadn’t been outside since the coffee shop, actually, which felt like ages ago when in reality it was only four days ago.
“Wakey wakey!” John exclaimed, obviously just out of the shower and in the Twelve training outfit.
“What is this poison!” I groaned, pulling my blanket up to cover my head.
“It’s called sunlight; it’s what happens when you go outside for once.” John pointed out. I groaned, I didn’t want sunlight, I wanted peace for now, and sleep, lots of sleep.
“Close the curtain, I need to sleep.” I moaned.
“Sorry, Mrs. Hudson came knocking, you slept through that, apparently we need to practice for interviews today before twelve, when the evaluations are.” He said.
“Didn’t we already practice?” I groaned.
“Not good enough, so get up!” he demanded. I got to my feet grouchily, pulling my robe around my shoulders and frowning at him.
“It’s seven o’clock in the morning!” I exclaimed with horror.
“Yes, it is, but apparently that’s when Mrs. Hudson wants us up.” he pointed out. “You’re so lazy.”
“If you must know I hadn’t slept for a year or so, so this whole week is very nice to me.” I objected. John just glared at me, opening the door and making me follow him out.
“What if I see…her?” I asked.
“Then you pretend nothing ever happened.” he pointed out.
“She’s jealous of you.” I whispered, just so no one else heard.
“Why would she be jealous of me?”
“Because she still thinks we’re a couple.”
“Then let her think that, it’ll keep her away won’t it?” He decided, walking into the living room, where Mrs. Hudson and Molly were already up.
“Good morning dears.” Mrs. Hudson muttered.
“Who’s good idea was this?” I groaned.
“If you want him to do well on that interview, I believe you have to put the effort in.” Mrs. Hudson pointed out.
“If I remember correctly, I answered three questions in that interview, and he asked at least seven.”
“Oh ya, and the rest of the time you just kind of stared at him.” John remembered with a laugh.
“Not really helping John.” I muttered. He just rolled his eyes and sat on the empty couch. I sat next to John, leaning my head on my fingertips.
“Who’s great idea was this, getting up at seven?” I hissed.
“Stop being such a baby Sherlock, we need to practice for the interviews with what little time we have.” Mrs. Hudson sighed, as if it was obvious.
“Speaking of time, where’s Irene, she really should be out here right now, Sherlock can you run and get her?” Molly asked.
“I’ll do it, don’t worry.” John assured before I could protest. I gave him a sort of ‘thank you’ glare as he went back into the hallway. So, John wanted Irene to think we’re a couple? I wondered how far he was willing to go in front of everyone else to keep her away from me. I felt so special that he was actually looking out for me when I was supposed to be watching out for him. There was an angry yell, and John came jogging back.
“She’ll be out in a minute.” He decided with a smile, plopping down on the couch again.
“Well, I think I ordered breakfast early, I’m not quite sure where it is at the moment.” Mrs. Hudson said, looking over the couches as if it had magically appeared.
“Well, why’ll we’re here, what are you going to do for your interview?” Molly asked John. He gave me a glance, as if asking whether or not to tell her, but I just rolled my eyes.
“Well, we were thinking kind of innocent childish thing, Sherlock said if parents see someone that looks and acts like a kid then they wouldn’t want them being killed.” John said simply.
“Good thinking Sherlock!” Molly said with a smile in my direction.
“And we all know what Irene is doing.” Mrs. Hudson pointed out with a bit of a frown.
“Well, we can all guess. She hadn’t really talked to me about it yet.” Molly shrugged. I can tell being ignored was getting to her a little bit, she always liked to talk to the tributes, and Irene wouldn’t talk and John and I were a restricted pair, she didn’t know half of what we did.
“It’s not your fault, she’s just stubborn.” John assured, taking the words out of my mouth, not that I was actually going to talk though. Molly smiled thankfully, but I could tell she didn’t fully believe him. Irene came out of the hallway not long before breakfast, she was dressed in her training outfit and her hair was tied into a tight bun with a blue sparkly bird hairpin. I thought that was extremely stupid looking, but apparently she thought it looked good. We all sat around the table, said a prayer now more than ever for good luck and what not, and then started to eat. I was nervous, I couldn’t tell myself why, but there was a twist in my stomach that made me want to curl up in a little ball and hide. Of course, I’d take John with me and go where the capital wouldn’t find us, which was pretty much nowhere, they had spies and planes and whatnot, just long enough for him to avoid the deathtrap games. I nibbled on some bacon while Molly was telling the two tributes about how to act in the interviews. Irene was obviously tuning out, not even looking at her mentor, but John looked as if he was trying to memorize every word of what she said. I heard something about sitting up straight and smiling when appropriate, but I followed Irene’s lead and just tuned out.
“What do you think Sherlock, any tips?” Molly asked.
“Play your roles, it’s a TV show, you can be whoever you want, as long as it sells.” I shrugged. Mrs. Hudson looked like she was going to applaud that, and John looked very impressed. I thought that was stupid, I just said what was on my mind, and I thought that was well said. Molly went on again, so I just stared at a blank space in the world and zoned out, pretending I was back in my house again, my old house, the real one, where I wasn’t a victor, where no one knew my name, when I was just some nerd that got thrown in the mud. Life was so much easier back then, even if it seemed like hell on earth. At least back then I didn’t have to see my one love get hacked to pieces on live TV. When breakfast was over we had some time to prepare, since the rest of the afternoon would be dedicated to getting them ready for the interview. Molly took John and Irene, setting up the armchairs to look like Caser and the tribute’s chairs and made John sit down first, since Irene was eating a piece of cake from god knows where. I sat on the opposite couch, staying as far as possible from her as I could. I was still quite traumatized by that kiss, thing, I wanted to erase it from all of time and space, but for now I just had to live with it. Irene wasn’t acting like anything had happened, I hadn’t seen her even glance at me, but I wasn’t complaining. Molly was asking dumb questions to John, who was sitting up nice and straight with a look of interest on his face. I remembered my interview, what he said was true, I had answered only some of the questions, and for the rest my throat had seemed to close up. At least I had something for people to remember me by, even if it wasn’t exactly positive. I made a face at John when Molly’s back was turned, and in the middle of his sentence about his positivity for the upcoming games he broke into a fit of laughter. Immediately Molly seemed to suspect me, and turned to make sure I wasn’t doing anything. I had just enough time to wipe the face off and look away with the most bored expression.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Nothing, just, nerves I guess.” He muttered. Molly didn’t seem to think that was very reasonable, but she kept going, asking John how his future would be if he was crowned victor. I made another face at him, sticking my tongue out and probably looking like a stupid lizard or something, and he lost it again. Once again, Molly turned, and I looked away. John went on as if nothing had happened, leaving Molly to wonder if she was hallucinating or not. It went on that way for a couple of times before I couldn’t help but laughing myself, and Molly got all mad and sent me to my room as if I was a little kid. Apparently distracting John from this important situation was immature. I knew she was secretly happy for yelling at me because of something other than being mean or rude though. I shut the door, leaving it unlocked in case John was able to escape, and looked over the investors again, trying to memorize their faces for future reference. To my annoyance, John didn’t get time off, and they called me out just as they were stepping into the elevator. I was just able to wave and wish him good luck before the doors shut, blocking out whatever he was about to say next. I sighed, wandering back to my room to do what Sherlocks do best, sit and reconsider my life choices.