Percy’s POV

I wake up the next morning feeling oddly cheerful. I mean, I’ve made it this far. I’ve done really good, getting a really good score. Heck, I feel as if I may stand a chance in the Games. Maybe I can win it this year. Who knows, right?

   I roll over and look up at the ceiling. So…tonight is the interview night. Right…..

  When I walked into the dining room, Katniss was rushing out, throwing me a very, very dirty look.

“ What did I do?” I ask Haymitch and Effie.

  “ I told her  that you wanted to be coached separately,” Haymitch shrugs.

“ I did?”

“ Yes, douche bag,” he snarls.

“ Uh, why?”

“ Because I said so,” he said simply. “ Eat up, kid. You’ve got a four session with me this morning. After that you’ve got a session with Effie.”

 “ A four hour session with you? For what?”

  “ Content,” he says shortly before excusing himself from the table. Not, of course, without snatching a bottle filled with a honey-gold liquid.

  “ And you’ve got to improve your presentation with me,” Effie chirps cheerfully. “ Eat up. You don’t want to be late for your session with Haymitch,” she says, patting me on the cheek.

   Right….

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“ So…,”Haymitch says as I lounge on the couch in front of him.

“ So…?” I imitate him.

“ What are we going to do with you, kid?” he says, drumming his fingers on the couch’s arm thoughtfully. “ How are we going to present you…”

“ Present me?”

“ For the interview. Are you going to be charming? Fierce? Brainiac? Funny”

“ Oh…”

“ You look as if you’re  witty enough. Let’s try that angle.”

“ I’m witty?” I ask him, feeling quite pleased someone said I’m witty.

“ Apparently not,” he rolls his eyes.

“ Ouch. That hurt. That really hurt,” I say, making a sad face.

“ Shut up. Let’s start now,” he says, waving his hand impatiently.” I’ll be the interviewer.”

“ Duh,” I say, rolling my eyes. He ignored my sarcasm.

Four hours later, I swear my voice has faded into nothingness. Okay, that’s exaggerating. But I’m hoarse, that I can tell you.

“ Good, good,” Haymitch says, looking incredibly pleased. “ Looks like you won’t have much problem when interacting with people.”

“ Gee, thanks,” I say hoarsely. “ Can I have a drink now?”

“ Oh, yeah. Sure. Sorry, forgot about that,” he chuckled, waving at an Avox young man. The Avox hurries over and hands me a glass of water.

“  Thanks,” I say to him. He merely nodded before scuttling off. “ Why are we not supposed to talk to them except to give orders and such?” I ask Haymitch.

“ Because it’s the rule. Unless, of course, you want to join them as an Avox too, that is,” he says, taking a swig from his glass of wine.

“ Ah…well, no thanks. I adore my voice very much,” I say.

“ Good for you. Now scram. It’s your session with Effie,” he says, shooing me out of the sitting room.

“ I thought we’re going to have some lunch first before the next session!” I protested. He gives me the  evil eye. “ Well, I’m starving. What do you expect?” Then to my astonishment, he actually smiled.

“ You are going to get along really well with Caesar,” he comments.

“ Caesar Flickerman? The host? Why?” I ask him as I follow him to the dining room.

“ It’s just a hunch. Now shut up, please,” he says as he took a seat next to Katniss.

“ Okay, fine,” I say, as I load my dish with mashed potatoes and buttered buns. “ How’re you doing, Katniss?”

She ignores my question, shoveling the food as fast as she could.

What the heck did I do? Can anybody actually enlighten me?

After lunch is my session with Effie. Yippee….

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“ Let’s see now, sweetie,” she says as she circles me. “ Hmm…straighten up, now. We don’t want you to slouch,” she whacks my back. “ Chins up,” she pushes my chin up with the end of her ruler. “ Try smiling.”

I smile.

“ That is grinning. You don’t want you to grin. We want you to smile,” she says as she pinches my lips and adjusts it to the ‘smile’ option.

“ Honestly, Effie, would it make any difference? Since, you know, I’ll be talking most of the time,” I tell her. “ They won’t notice if I’m smiling or not anyway.”

“ Well, of course you are going to be talking and probably no one is going to notice but you don’t want to look as if you’re scowling, right? As if you don’t like to be here,” she purses her lips as she surveys the ‘imperfections’ on me.

“ Oh, yeah. I’m here to be butchered but I’m supposed to like it here. Oh, yeah. Definitely liking it,” I grumble under my breath. To which, she whacks me again on the back.

“ Straight up. And watch your tongue, will you?” she says, looking incredibly annoyed. “ You don’t want to talk like that in front of the audience.”

“ Yeah, you’re right. Wouldn’t want the audience to be upset right?”

She didn’t reply, though.

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I didn’t sleep so well that night.

I suppose it’s got to do with the fact that tomorrow I will be running around in the arena , trying to stay alive.

I had finally gotten my eyelids to close when someone screeched at my ear.

“ Rise and shine, pretty boy!”

“ It’s still early, Deia,” I complain, pulling the pillow onto my head.

“ We’ve got lots of thing to do today, Percy,” came the slow and deep voice of Tolip. “ You don’t want to be late or anything.”

“ The interviews isn’t going to happen until this evening. Can’t I sleep in?” I whine. “ I didn’t get my beauty sleep last night.”

“ Be macho, man,” Deilly says, pulling me into a sitting position. “ Us guys don’t need no beauty sleep. ‘Sides, you look good already. Um…minus the stink, that is.”

“ Fine…I’ll go and shower. Just give me a minute, will you? And give me some privacy. I’ll need that,” I grumble, dragging myself out of the bed and in to the shower.

Several minutes later ( I didn’t get to dry myself properly ), I’m on one of the chair that stylists usually use, you know, the spindly one? Yeah, I’m in that chair, patiently (NOT!) and willingly ( AS IF!) let my face be made up.

“ You know, it is so unmanly for a guy to get his face made up, you know. I mean, yeah, it’d probably help us look good but don’t you think the original look is better?” I ask them as they were buffing my nails and applying foundation and all.

“ Use the secret weapon?” Deia asks Tolip. She grimaces before nodding.

“ Secret weapon? What secret weap-“ I falter when I see Deilly pulling a huge roll of silver duct tape. “ Oh, come on, gu-“ My voice went muffled as Deilly puts a long, thick strip of the duct tape on my mouth.

“ You are going to look wonderful!” Deia giggles.

Great….

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I nearly dozed off….

“ Is Percy ready yet?” came Portia’s voice.

 “ Almost,” Tolip replies. “ Is he asleep?” I hear her murmur to herself.

Then, I felt someone slapping me gently on the face, making me nearly jump out of the chair.

“ Ugh..ugh…ga…ga….” I squint at them through my eyelids.

“ Why does he have duct tape on his mouth?” Portia asks curiously.

“ He won’t stop chatting,” Deia says brightly. “ So, we decided to silence him using duct tape so he won’t interrupt our work,” she flashes a bug smile at Portia.

Portia merely shrugged. “ Hey, Percy?” she asks. “ You awake?”

“ Mhmm…,” I reply, still feeling drowsy.

“ Take off the duct tape,” I hear Portia say, the tone of amusement was evident in her voice. “ My, my…see, Percy? If you had let them do their job, you wouldn’t have to feel the pain,” she says as I  yell when Deilly pulls (did I say pull? Sorry, I meant RIP) the duct tape off of my mouth.

“ Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind,” I say, rubbing my bottom face. “ So, what do you think of their work?”

“ You look hot,” Deia giggles. Deilly jabs her in the ribs and she immediately shuts up. “ Sorry,” she say, her plumpish cheeks reddening.

“ Well, you look, as Deia puts it, hot. I’m sure everyone would agree,” Portia say, nodding approvingly at the team’s work. “ Now, for the final touch,” she say, gesturing at Deilly. “ Your costume.” Deilly lays down a bag that is usually used to cover fancy clothes. “ Put it on, now.”

“ Nice,” I comment, eyeing the garment Portia had designed.

It was a simple dark tuxedo. Really, it was. But when I shift slightly you can see a fiery design moving all over me.

Sweet.

“ Thank you, Percy,” Portia smile warmly, while the  rest of the team whoops and prances around the room. “ You nervous?”

“ Me? Nah…,” I chuckle. “ Heck yes I’m nervous. You should put a bullet through me if I’m not.” Her smile got wider.

“ I know you would do great,” she puts her arm around me and gives me a squeeze. “ From Deia’s stories, I think you are a charmer. So, I think you won’t have any trouble with charming the audience, right?”

“ Oh, the audience? Nah…I’m a natural, aren’t I? ‘Course, they would be charmed if only I didn’t bolt or wet myself,” I say.

“ Well, let’s hope you won’t do either of those. C’mon, they’re starting to roll the ball,” Portia says, steering me towards the door.

A/N: Please v-com!