possession of the president•coriolanus snow

9|falling into the president's hands

Pearl knew this was coming. She didn't expect to be one of his favored victors after all she did and said. "I can't imagine him liking me," she remarked.

"It's not that. He actually... he actually does like you."

Pearl's face turned pale in alarm. Snow couldn't be fond of her, especially not when she hated his guts. "He what?"

"The way Coriolanus talked about you confused me." Tigris looked anxious. "But he said that he  wants to teach you a lesson, Pearl..."

Pearl felt her heartbeat raise. What lesson? She just wanted to disappear. Suddenly, the girl who wanted to publicly execute Snow wanted to disappear into the depths of District 4 and never speak again.

That was one of the final things Tigris had said before Pearl was sent to her interview.

She tried to wave and keep on her confident mask as she walked onto the stage towards Lucky Flickerman. The audience roared, and she made a mental promise not to insult Snow in this interview. She was already terrified of what he would do next.

"Pearl Bazin of District 4, the victor of the 15th annual Hunger Games!"

Pearl took her seat. She still wore a white dress, but this time it resembled a gown more. It was long and wide. A single red rose was hanging from her new necklace. Tigris couldn't have done this on purpose, right?

"Pearl, that was quite an impressive victory. In your first interview, you spoke about being an innocent and pure pearl. What do you think of yourself now?"

Of course Lucky had to cut deep with his questions. Pearl was going to do her best to truthfully answer, while covering up the extremely personal parts.

"I feel like I'm no longer a white pearl. I've been stained red."

The crowd cheered a bit as Lucky made an expression similar to the one he made in his first interview with her. He didn't seem to be bringing up the rebellious side of her, which made Pearl calm down a bit. She didn't need any more trouble at the moment.

"Wow. When you first entered the arena, you didn't hesitate to kill." Lucky looked over at the large screen. "Actually, can we roll the clip?"

Pearl felt like she was going to black out when an image of her came into the giant screen behind her and Lucky. The clip of her shooting her trident towards one of the tributes played. The audience disgustingly cheered extremely loud.

Pearl wasn't sure what to think. How could they cheer for that?

Then there was the clip of her beating her attacker with her trident, with the help of Apollo. God, she missed him.

The crowd cheered once again.

"I did what I had to do to survive," Pearl said a bit quieter than normal."

Lucky nodded in understanding. "A lot of fans were speculating that there was some sort of romance going on between you and Apollo. Is that true?"

Pearl thought about the boy who looked like sunshine until they got into the arena. Him and his tall figure carried so much confidence and humor.

He showed that he was a monster deep down just like the other Careers. But then Pearl was confused again because he was so desperate to redeem himself. The blood in his mouth as he yelled for her would never not haunt her.

There was no romance there. There was just a tiny spark between two tributes that was forced to be put out by the sick Capitol.

"No, there wasn't. When I was in the Career pack, I did find friendship in Apollo though. He was good company..."