If Crane Never Made The Call

Splitting Ways

I get up early the next morning and try to figure out how I'm going to tell Haymitch I want to train alone. I walk out into the living room as sunlight streams in through gaps in the curtains. Haymitch sits on the couch all alone drinking a full glass of liquor. I sneak up behind him and pull the drink from his hands.

"Hey!" He screams loud enough to wake up everyone in the Capitol.

"You wanna try that again, I don't think the gohsts of district thirteen heard you." I say putting the cup on the table.

"Don't ever speak of district thirteen like that or the Capital will cut your tolnge out so fast you won't know what hit you." He whispers seriously.

"Sorry. We need to talk before Katniss wakes up."

"About what?" He asks raising an eyebrow.

"I want to be trained alone from now on. I don't have anything against training with Katniss it's just..."

"Your jealous she got such a high score and now you don't want her to know your weeknesses because she could kill you." He says all too easily.

"No, well maybe, whatever. The truth is I need your help with something and I don't want her getting involved."

"Ok. Shall we go eat breakfast or are you just going to keep me away from my liquor as we sit here?" I hand him back his drink and we walk over to the table. The food arrives the same time as Katniss and Effie. They take a seat in their usual spots and start piling food onto their plates.

"So what's todays scedule." Katniss asks.

"Well as you know its interview day, and on interview day we teach you how to answer questions and how to act on stage. So you and Peeta will get four hours each with Effie and I before your on screen chat with Ceaser." Haymitch says unenthusiastically.

"I thought Peeta and I were training together?"

"Oh he said he wants to train alone from now on." She nods her head and gives me one of her special looks. We finish our meal in silence and then go to our training sessions.

I start with Haymitch and his question answering techniques. He teaches me how to answer certain questions, do hand gestures, and make appealing conversation. After two hours of teaching I bring up the question I've been wanting to ask.

"How do I get Ceaser to ask a certain question?"

"Huh, no one usually asks that. I'm not supposed to tell you this but we give Ceaser questions to ask you that would be interesting for the crowd and then he works off of them to turn it into a conversation." He says casually.

"Could you get him to ask me something about a girl, for the crowd?" I cross my fingers behind my back as he eyes me suspiciously.

"Sure. But only if it helps your game." He says almost questioningly.

"Definatly." I continue training for the next two hours by Haymitch asking me random questions and me making something up to answer them. Once he's finished asking every question he can come up with he lets me go find Effie because times up.

I find Effie pulling heels off of Katniss next to the waterfall. She yanks a heel off and Katniss goes flying into the water she's sitting in front of. I give a chuckle and run to grab her a towel. I hand her the towel and she looks at me with another one of her 'I'm going to kill you' looks.

"Switch time." I say my voice shaking. She gets up and goes to her room to change into dry clothes. "So," I say once she's left. "what do we start with?"

Effie has me start with body language when answering questions and making comments. We start with positioning. She has me sit down on a chair and talk about random things while positioning myself in the right way. Next we work on sponser making angles. For me she picks 'the boy with the bread that caught on fire' I don't really like it but it's better than 'mama's baker boy' which was one of the options she gave me after I didn't want any of her other ones.

After a couple hours she teaches me how to get on stage, address the crowd with waves and smiles, and sit down flawlessly. I rock it. Once I've done the pattern for an hour she lets me go because I've done everything beautifully and she has nothing left to teach me. I head to my room and find the avox I met on my first day delivering towels.

"Hey." I say quietly so no one else can hear me. She nods her head politely and rushes out. "Wait!" She stops in her tracks and spins around staring at the floor. "Can you tell me your name. Or be more friendly?" She bites her lip and nods. I walk over to the desk and pick up a pen and paper thats been left there for some reason. She takes the pen and starts to write.

"Lavinia" I read out loud. "Pretty name." She smiles and scurries out. I sit down on my bed and think about the way she try's to keep me and her out of trouble. How her eyes sparkle in the sunlight, the way her red hair makes her look like a cute fox. Before I know it over an hour has passed and Portia is knocking on my door.

"Hi."

"Peeta, there's only one hour till the interveiws start! We have to get you dressed!" She pulls me out of the room and takes me back to the prep room. My prep team starts immediately. They make me take a shower and then start fixing my hair and putting grease in it. When they've finished they send me to Portia.

Portia puts me in a black tux with red trim down the front, a red bowtie that has fire crawling up it, and sleeves with a flame designs from my wrists to my elbows. I suit up and walk out for Portia to see. See smiles and fixes my hair, adding more grease.

"Perfect." She says spinning me in front of the mirror. "Your ready."