The Ultimate Games - Book One

Finalist Interviews: Willow and Dakota

Piper Papilon's P.O.V:

'' Hello and welcome back Panem! I am here with our next two finalists, Willow Sage, from District Seven and Dakota Reece from District Eleven. How are you both doing girls?'' I ask, smiling after the crowd stops applauding.

'' Good.'' They reply together.

'' Well that's good.''  I smile. '' Are either of you shocked you are sitting here today?''

'' Yes.'' Answer Willow immediately, sounding confident.

'' Nope.'' Replies Dakota simultaneously.

'' I will come back to you Willow, I'll start with Dakota.'' I say, and they both nod understandingly. '' Tell me Dakota, did you ever imagine you would be sitting here with me, after such a dramatic reaping.''

'' To be honest, I though I was as good as dead meat, dead in the bloodbath for sure, I never in my wildest reveries would picture myself here.'' She explains.

'' I know we already went over this is the interviews before your Games, but tell me, how did you feel when your boyfriend didn't-'' I begin, but she corrects me.

'' Ex-boyfriend.'' She interrupts.

'' Sorry, your ex-boyfriend didn't volunteer for you?'' I finish.

'' Gutted to be honest. I mean, when he said it, that he would take my place, I told him not to, even though a part of me wished he would. I felt crap inside.'' She explains.

'' Did he come to see you after you left the arena?'' I ask.

'' Nope, he tried but I didn't want to see him, my sister told me he has a new girlfriend.'' She answers.

'' What? A new girlfriend?'' I gasp.

'' I suppose he had good reason to, I would prefer if he moved on if I was to die as opposed to mourning me for the rest of his life.’’  She explains.

‘’ So you won’t be going back to him?’’ I ask.

‘’ He’s happy now, that’s fine with me, I probably won’t make it past the Ultimate Games, so it doesn’t matter.’’ She replies.

‘’ You don’t think you’ll win?’’ I question.

‘’ I know I won’t.’’ She replies.

‘’ But you survived the qualifier round.’’ I argue.

‘’ That’s because of my alliance, they kept me alive.’’ She answers.

‘’ Speaking of your alliance, how did that happen? It really was a weird collection of people. You had yourself, and Amy, the terminally ill girl. There was Maverick from ten with his throwing knives and finally Casper, the sword wielder from Nine.’’

‘’ I am not really sure how it happened, but I think we went well together.’’ She admits. ‘’ I mean, three out of the four of us made it, and the one that died wasn’t properly killed, he sacrificed himself for Amy.’’

‘’ Oh yes, about that. Was there anything going on between the two of them?’’ I ask.

‘’ Not that I knew of, you’ll have to ask Amy yourself, but I am pretty sure that he kept that from her, she only found out  the second he allowed his life to be taken instead of hers.’’ She explains, causing the crowd to sympathetically awe.

‘’ How cute.’’ I smile, blinking my eyes to stop my tears from fully forming. ‘’ Tell me Dakota, do you think your location helped you survive?’’