I watched as my stylist, Elizabeth, slowly set out the clothes I'd be wearing for my interview, it consisted of a coal black tux with a fiery red bowtie. Elizabeth had wanted to experiment with the fake fire that Cinna had used for Katniss and Peeta years earlier, but when she caught her first look at my face I guess she understood I wouldn't go for it, either way I had to admit the woman had a way with fabric even with limited ideas thanks to the boredom of District 12 she'd managed to design something that didn't look nearly as goofy as what I'd seen the other tributes wearing."What do you think?" She asked, running her hand through her bright red hair absentmindedly.
"Its... good." I was disappointed with myself for that response, despite trying to actually put some gratitude into my words they'd come out flat as usual, I'm afraid I wasn't exactly great with words or emotions. Growing up in the ghettos of district twelve you don't have much time be grateful for and therefore rarely expressed any form of thanks. However, I did feel bad, Elizabeth had been the only one that had showed any interest in my wellbeing since I arrived at the Capitol. The person which had escorted me through the journey from District 12 to here couldn't even glance in my direction without feeling sick, I'd gotten used to that reaction whenever I was looked upon so it didn't bother me. What did disgust me about her was the pity she showed me, I'd outgrown the idea of pity it was a stupid feeling and one that I had never felt. My district partner Elaine hadn't talked to me at all, I barely knew her but I remembered being there the day that her parents were killed by the peacekeepers, it had been just a couple a months before William burned me, and I knew that Elaine wasn't in the best of mental places. Elizabeth on the other hand had shown genuine interest in me, she talked to me about my life and my plans for the future, a future I would most likely never see, when she looked at me it was as if she didn't even acknowledge my face. But most of all she didn't pity me, she treated me like any other human being and that was the main reason I liked her.
I walked over to the neatly ordered outfit laid out for me, as I began to undress Elizabeth turned around and opened the door.
"Its fine," I said "you can stay if you want, I don't care."
She smiled slightly and closed the door, it's not like I was getting completely naked after all I was keeping my boxers on the entire time. As I pulled the dress pants on Elizabeth walked up to me and pointed at one of the many scars on my left bicep.
"What about that one?" she said.
We'd been playing a game ever since I got to the Capitol, she'd choose a scar and I'd tell her the story behind how I'd gotten it. This particular one was from my early days of living on the streets, I'd made a huge mistake while trying to steal some sausage from the butcher and got caught.
Elizabeth looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to start my story.
"It was probably around the first months of living on the streets, I was really hungry and this was the first time I'd try to steal. It was a from a butcher, can't remember his name, all I remember is he was fat which back then meant that he didn't need any of the food I would steal from him. Anyways I went in to his store while he was away and took what I needed, I stuffed it all in a backpack that I also found in the story and got ready to run," I took a breath, Elizabeth was looking on intently, taking in every word that came out of my mouth. ", so as I ran out the door I made the biggest mistake a thief like me could me, I got greedy. I saw this huge box of chocolate, I hadn't eaten chocolate in months and I knew some other street rats that could really use one. So I stuffed them into my bag, but in the time that I was stuffing, the butcher came back. He caught me pretty easily I was still scrawny back then so I couldn't squirm out of his grasp, he threatened me saying he was going cut my arm off for what I had stolen. He got his cleaver and started digging slowly into my flesh. I can't remember much after that, I somehow got a hold on a knife and stabbed him in the leg I got out with the backpack."
Elizabeth looked at me thoughtfully, she seemed startled when I asked a question of my own; "How old are you Elizabeth?", she didn't look much older than me but you never know with all these genetic modification going on. She could be fifty for all I know. She was medium height and about average weight, she had very pale skin which contrasted her fiery red hair nicely, her eyes were a deep blue as they stared at me shocked that I was interested with anything about her.
"I'm twenty," she said. "I just started designing for tributes this year, you're the first tribute I've ever helped, the funny thing is, I can't see myself liking this job, even though everyone says it's the best job you can get as a fashion designer." I was confused, from what I'd seen all the other stylists had loved prepping tributes for death. I sort of zoned out thinking about how these people could possibly feel good about themselves at night after prepping a child for death.
"I guess I just never thought about it..." says Elizabeth still ranting on about her new job, she was now pacing from the door to where I stood. "I your only two years younger than me Harrison, I could've gone to school with you, we could've been friends."
"Well we are now right?" I said trying to ease her.
She looked at me smiling but still slightly shocked to have heard me say that we are friends, I still had no emotion on my face, I'd learned never to show emotion especially when you were in a life death situation, like I currently was, emotions always got in the way.
I finished putting on my dress shirt and turned around to grab my bowtie, as I turned back to Elizabeth she was surprisingly close to me, I looked her right in the eye as she slowly moved her head towards mine, I was confused at first. The last time I had been this close to someone I'd been trying to pick the mayor's pocket, and then suddenly I understood what she was trying to do. As her lips got closer to mine I had to make a decision, she was two short to reach my lips by herself so I could either leave her hanging and move along with my day or I could move my head down. I decided on the latter and our lips met.
"This is weird," I thought to myself as I felt the unfamiliar feeling of someone's lips against mine. I'd never paid much attention to girls in twelve, not that any of them paid attention to me, after all they simply had to look at my face and they could forget about ever looking at me again, Elizabeth's arms wrapped around my wide shoulders as the kiss progressed and I continued feeling out of place. I'd say this was my first kiss but it was also my first time being this close to someone that I didn't intend to rob.
After we split it was extremely awkward, I didn't know what to do and neither did she, so I just kept on getting dressed. After I was finished Elizabeth fixed my crooked bowtie and gave me a hug.
"Good luck." She said before rushing out the door to take her seat, I too rushed out the door to get to my spot in line.
I stood behind the girl from District eleven and in front of Elaine as I waited for my name to be called, like always the interviews started with District One and ended with District Twelve. As the interviewer a girly, shallow and likeable Sequin Sparkles went through the Districts I didn't pay much attention, all these tributes would either being killing me or being killed by me once we were in the arena so there was no point in learning anything about them, as minutes turned to hours the girl from eleven was finally called meaning that my name was next, I hadn't seen the complete crowd but by the sounds of it the building was full of people waiting to catch their first in depth look at this year's tributes. Finally the District Eleven girl got off stage and it was my turn to finally step on it.
"Now let me introduce our next special guest, Devlin Summers, the volunteer from District 12." says Sequin followed by a little giggle.
I took a second to compose myself before stepping on stage, making sure no emotion was on my face. I had been told to make the crowd like me but I didn't really care at this point. I wasn't going to try. If they liked me great, if they didn't well screw 'em.
I stepped on stage and gave a small wave to the audience. As they caught their first glimpse of my face a collective gasp could be heard in the large amphitheatre, they'd seen my face before but only on T.V. never in person. I looked at Sequin expecting her to be surprised at my face, but she maintained her composure, I must say I was impressed, I hadn't even caught her flinch although I'm sure it was there.
Sequin Sparkles certainly lived up to her name, her long white gown had sequins and diamonds all over it, there was not one piece of her silk dress that did not have something shiny on it, many parts of her body were also imbedded with sparkly stuff, including her eyebrows, knuckles and shoulders, her hair was long and blonde and covered with a layer of Diamonds glued on to it... it almost hurt to look at her under the lighting. She was pretty much the typical Capitol woman, just slightly richer than most.
Sequin beckoned me to the seat next to her; I walked across the stage and took a seat, waiting for her to ask the first question.
"First of all Devlin, let me just say that your stylist did a fantastic job tonight! You look great! Although your outfit could use some more sequins!" she said, the crowd laughing.
"Thank you..." I said rather awkwardly, "You look pretty good too." the compliment sounds foreign coming from my mouth, like it didn't belong there.
"Well aren't you a sweetheart!" she winks at me and lets the audience get a good laugh in. "So tell me Devlin how the Capitol has been treating you so far?"
"Well it's definitely better than the street of twelve." I say, not joking. However the crowd laughs at my accidental joke.
"I bet that's the understatement of the year!" says Sequin laughing at her own joke along with the crowd. I don't laugh, I don't even crack a smile.
"Apart from the dirty street in District 12, is there anything you miss?" she asks.
"No, everything I cared about in twelve is gone, I have nothing there anymore, it's not really my home even, there's nothing for me there and that's why I'm here."
"Are you sure? Maybe a special someone you're not telling us about?" she asks, obviously wanting some gossip.
"No one back home." I say looking at Elizabeth, she blushes, but gladly no one notices the interaction to force the issue.
"How about family?" says Sequin obviously not giving up so easily.
"They're all dead." the crowd lets out an awe along with Sequin. I obviously lied, my brother's alive but he might as well be dead to me, I didn't care about him anymore, he wasn't going to hold me back!
"We're all glad you're here, in fact you should've come earlier!" She says, giggling hysterically apparently giving up on asking about my family, I wonder if it's very common to laugh at your own jokes in the Capitol, or maybe it's just Sequin.
"So which tribute stands out most this year?" she asks, moving on to talking about my competition.
"I guess Bryan Warside, he's insane but then again half the tributes in these games are insane, so maybe he doesn't stand out at all." I say, there was an alarming number of insane people who loved torturing in these games, maybe I'd should've volunteered last year.
"Do you think he's the biggest threat?" she asks, following up the previous question.
"Everyone's a threat if you give them a good enough reason, Bryan's has no reason, he just kills. so he's a pretty big threat." I reply, I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, but that sounded pretty damn smart.
"Who's the weakest tribute then?" she asks.
"I've learned the hard way that you shouldn't underestimate anyone, anyone in these games can be lethal if they have to." I respond quickly and crisply, but not rudely, Sequin seems pretty powerful in the Capitol and I wouldn't want a target on my back to start the games.
"Ok! What do you think gives you an advantage over other tributes?" she asks, keeping the interview flowing.
"I've actually survived and prospered with close to nothing, I know how to scavenge and move silently, I think these will be pretty big factors in the games." I reply, quickly getting tired of being in the spotlight for this long, shouldn't the timer have gone off by now?
"Devlin, why do you deserve to win?" she asks.
"I don't... not more than any of the others, we've all been through a lot our whole lives, once we get in the arena, we'll know who really deserves to win and who doesn't." I say.
"How about allies? Do you have any?" She asks.
"That's probably one of those things that would be best revealed in the arena Sequin, we wouldn't want to spoil all the surprises for the audience." I say, at this point I really want to get off the stage, I don't like the spotlight for too long and too long is about to happen.
"One last question Devlin, would you mind us asking, what happened to your face?" she asks.
I look at her, my face blank as I remember that day, the excruciating pain of the fire, and then all the years I've suffered since then. "My brother..." I begin, " he got mad one day, over food, it was a stupid argument, but he held me to the fire, my face that is." I continue stuttering through the story, anything related to that night is when I start losing control of myself. "He held me there as he watched my face..." I shook my head trying to calm myself. " He watched it just melt away, his little brother screaming and he... he didn't care." I sit there staring at my shoes on the verge of tears, my breaths come out in slow shaky breaths as I try to take control of my body. I won't let myself show anything in front of all these people. "The worst part was, my father... my father protected him from the peacekeepers, his son was missing half his face, and he didn't want the person responsible punished." I felt my breaths slowly come back to normal as I regain control of myself. The giant crowd is silent, no noise comes from in front of me. Many of the member of the audience are on the verge of tears, Elizabeth included. I'd never told her what happened to my face, and now she knew... now they all knew.
The timer finally goes off and Sequin stands up. "Thank you for that Devlin," she says "I think we all know that was something special that just happened on this stage."
I nod wave goodbye to the crowd and start to walk off the stage. As I walk off the crowd starts cheering loudly. My interview was finally over, now all I had to worry about was the arena.