Cato

Mortar wakes me in the morning so we can 'get started'. He's supposed to give me an angle for the interviews tomorrow. I am dreading this.

After a while we settle on ruthless killing machine, which I'm not particularly fond of. Mortar asks me random questions that I am supposed to look tough and deadly when I answer.

"Are you prepared?" Mortar asks, pretending to be the interviewer.

"Probably," I say casually. Mortar rolls his eyes.

"You look the part, okay? You just have to act it," he says. "You are bloody, brutal Cato form District Two. Now try again."

"You told me to be honest," I retort.

"I told you to be strong! You need to be very sure of yourself when you answer. No I-think-so's or maybes. Now try. Again."

"Yes."

"I'm gonna need you to try a little harder."

"Yes!" I yell angrily.

"Come on, boy! I'm trying to help you! If you look menacing, the other tributes'll stay away and you'll seem promising to sponsors. I'm trying to keep you alive. You'll have a better chance of winning if you listen to me."

"I don't want to win! Winning means killing my friends!"

"This isn't summer camp. You don't have friends anymore. Clove isn't your friend. Those tributes from One and Four aren't your friends! They are your enemies! They-"

"They're just kids! We're all just kids! Do you really think that just because you turned into a monster in the arena that everyone does?!" I'm screaming now, and I've risen from my chair involuntarily, heated by his accusations, by my own doubts.

"I'm done trying with you. Play the part. Get the sponsors. Stay alive. You're on your own now." Mortar stands and exits, leaving me alone in my room with my thoughts. I wonder if Clove is having such an awful time with Lav.

Clove

"We need an angle. Some specific personality that you'll uphold to get sponsors," Lav says. "I played the role of innocent in my Games. Any ideas what you could be?"

I shake my head. Lav peers at me for a while.

"How about fierce? You were reaped. You may be scared, but you're pushing that away. You're prepared to do what it takes to survive."

I nod slowly. I don't exactly feel this way, but maybe it'll get me sponsors, which could keep Cato and I alive a little longer. But why would that matter? Well both die in the end. Why am I even thinking like this? I know why. Because I still want Cato to make it.

"Does that work?" Lav asks. I nod again and she gets to work on asking me random questions that I could be asked tomorrow and helping me figure out how to respond. It's sort of fun. Mostly because Lav is very kind, which you wouldn't think she could ever be if you'd seen how ruthless she was in her Games.

I decide to take dinner in my room. I don't want to see Cato right now, because he might find out my plots to still try and keep him alive. I know he'll be sad going home without me, but he has a family- a pregnant mother- and he can help to comfort my family as well.

I force myself to fall asleep, and dream about a future where Cato and I somehow both survive the Games.

-

I'm woken up early in the morning by my prep team. They take me to their prep room and begin to make me beautiful. Lav has explained how I need to look fierce, so that's how they plan to present me.

For my hair, Lilliana pulls the majority of it up in a ponytail. Then she makes several little balls from it. She makes two smaller ponytails like this on the sides and connects all three in a half up half down hairstyle.

Meanwhile, Anora and Beckson do my makeup. They don't do much. Just mascara, blush, a little black eyeliner, and a mild orange colored lipgloss.

After my hair and makeup are done, Spencer come in in with orange heels and my dress. It's a frilly orange thing made from tulle that looks a lot like my reaping dress. It's much longer though and I'm eternally grateful for Madeline's lessons on how to walk in long fancy dresses and heels like these.

The nerves finally hit me as Spencer leads me to the elevator where we meet Freya, Madeline, Mortar, Lav, and Cato, who looks particularly attractive in a black suit with a gray jacket, his hair all spiked up like he loves it.

We all ride down to the ground floor and Cato and I are put in line between District 1 and 3. The interviews take place on a stage constructed in front of the Training Center.

In just a few minutes, the line begins to move as we all make our way onstage, where we will all sit in a big arc throughout the interviews.

Caesar Flickerman, the man who has hosted the interviews for more than forty years, bounces onto the stage, earning shouts and cheers from the crowd. He has the same face under a coating of pure white makeup that he's had all that time. Same midnight blue suit dotted with a thousand tiny electric bulbs that twinkle like stars. Same hairstyle that he dies a different color for each Hunger Games.

This year, his hair is died powder blue, and his eyelids and lips are tinted the same color. He looks rather freakish, but definitely not as frightening as last year, when his color was crimson and he seemed to be bleeding.

Caesar tells a few jokes to warm up the audience, then gets down to business.

Glimmer, looking provocative in a see-through gold gown, joins Caesar at center stage for her interview. I take it from her flowing blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and tall, lush body that her angle for the interviews is sexy. All I make of it is disgusting.

"Glimmer, are you prepared?" Caesar asks when Glimmer reaches him.

"Yes, Caesar, I am very prepared," Glimmer responds, eyeing the audience meaningfully.

"I like it. That's assurance. That's self-assurance..."

I tune out the rest of what he says, trying to prepare myself for my interview. There's just Marvel's, then mine. Each is three minutes, then a buzzer goes off signaling time's up. Marvel's buzzer goes off, then it's my turn. I stand shakily and put on my signature smirk as I walk to center stage.

"Welcome, Clove!" Caesar bellows. I give what I hope is a charming smile. "What a nice job your stylist has done on that dress!"

I just keep smiling as the audience gives a round of applause, not knowing what to say or if I should say anything at all.

"Now, are you prepared?" Caesar asks.

"Yes. I'm prepared to do what it takes to survive," I say, thinking of what Lav has told me to act like.

"Such ferocity! Don't you just love that?!" He shouts at the audience, earning another round of hoots and hollers. "What is your strategy for the Games, Clove?" He asks, turning back to me.

"I'm very good with knives," I say. Lav said a little self-praise wasn't bad. "I plan to use that to my advantage."

"Of course, of course. Now, I've noticed your lovely interview dress looks a lot like that from your reaping. What do you think of it?" Caesar remarks.

"I think it's lovely," I respond.

"It is. What about your reaping? What was going through your head when you were reaped?"

What was going through my head? I'm going to die.

"I thought, 'This is a little unfortunate, but I'm going to try my hardest to win,'" I say confidently.

"Determination." Caesar nods. "What about your family and friends? Did they come to see you off?"

Oh no. Not my family. I can't talk about my family.

"Yes," I say simply. Caesar gives me a look that means elaborate. "My mother came. And my aunt and cousins. My oldest cousin Kimber... She... I'm going to try hard to get home to her," My words come out rushed and strangled, barely making it past my lips.

"Hm." Caesar looks like he actually feels bad for me. "What about friends? Have you got a special young man back home?" He gives his powder blue eyebrows a little waggle.

Cato. Cato. Cato.

"Um... No," I say.

"Nonsense! Surely such a pretty girl would have someone."

"No. There's no one."

"Oh, sure," Caesar says, but let's me off the hook. "What has been your favorite part of your time here in the Capitol?"

My favorite part? Maybe none of it!

"The... training equipment. The array of weapons in the Training Center is spectacular," I say. Surely this makes me seem fierce.

"Oh, yes, I've heard it is," Caesar says. "So, you said you're good with knives? You must be pretty good to have gotten a ten. Can you tell us about your private session?"

"Well, yes, I threw knives."

"You must be very good indeed."

"Yes," I say with a laugh. The audience cheers.

"We're almost out of time, but I have just one more question. It's about your district partner. Cato, isn't it? Do you find him a threat?"

I swallow hard.

"No," I say. "I don't think he could kill me." It's true. Let the audience make what they want of that.

Then the buzzer goes off and I make my way back to my spot between Marvel and Cato.

Cato

"I don't think he could kill me," Clove says. I swear I almost cried right there. It's true. I could never hurt her. I hold her gaze as she takes her place beside me. Her features are unreadable.

The first thing Caesar asks when I take my place at center stage is if I'm prepared. I try to play the role. Play the role. Get the sponsors. Stay alive. Keep Clove alive.

"It's an honor representing my district," I say.

"You're a fighter," Caesar cuts in.

"I'm prepared. I'm viscous. I'm ready to go," I say. I see Mortar nodding in the front row of the audience.

"You are ready to go. What about the other tributes? Can you take them? Do you see any major threats?" Caesar asks.

"I can take them," I say. Technically I could take Clove, but I don't mention the fact that I'd probably kill myself too if I did.

The interview rushes by, with me maintaining my tough composure, and soon enough the buzzer goes off, signaling the end of my time.

"Cato!" Caesar bellows as the audience cheers.

Next up are the tributes from 3, then Marina, who looks nice in strapless, knee-length, cream colored dress, and seems to be taking an angle similar to Clove's. Jonah is in a black tuxedo and white shoes. He is playing the role of innocent and he fits it perfectly.

Nothing very exiting happens until it's District 12's turn. Caesar asks the boy, who he calls Peeta, if he has a 'special someone' back home. Peeta, in response, says he's had a crush on this one girl forever, and later reveals that the girl is Katniss.

And so they are named the star-crossed lovers of District 12.