Another Tribute

When I woke up this morning to find a note on my bedside table. It reads as follows:

Dear Auden,

After your session with the Gamemakers please report to the styling room from your makeover to get ready for the interviews. Your outfit for the session is in the closet. Good luck!

~ Deidre

The letter seems to be handwritten, but the script is so fancy I can barely read it. How fair is it that while everyone back home is working the Capitol people are practicing they're fancy writing?

I put this angry thought aside and get dressed and ready for the gamemakers. I leave my hair as is and put on the simple outfit Diedre has provided. It's a fitted black tank top with fitted black pants to match. Thankfully, she left me black ballet slippers instead of stilettos.

"Looks like we match again," Eli says cheerfully, appearing at breakfast wearing a fitted black t shirt and fitted black pants, but not as fitted as mine. I laugh, forgetting all about last night's fiasco.

"We're quite the pair," I say to him. He smiles, and I'm relieved he doesn't seem to be remembering last night either.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Auden Kwell," a servant says as he comes in from the big doors to get me to go see the Gamemakers. I try to confidantly follow him as he leads me to the stadium I'll be performing in, but I'm nervous as hell.

"Thank you," I say politely as he opens another large door for me to go through. As I enter the stadium, I see all the familiar stations. The only different thing is that now there's a panal of Capitol people waiting to judge me.

"You may begin, Auden Kwell," one of the people on the panal says. I nod and head over to the sword station to do the only thing I know I can do. The problem is, now I have nobody to spar with. What am I supposed to do?

"Permission to speak to the panal," I ask, unsure of what I'm about to do. They all look confused, but one of them speaks up. The fat man who told me I could start.

"Permission granted," he says, looking curious about what my words will be.

"I'd like to request a sparing partner," I say nervously. The panal looks intrigued.

"Sparing partner granted," the fat man says, snapping his fingers. Suddenly a buff looking man appears from the floor as if a panal has opened and released him. Then I realize that's exactly what'd happened.

"I will crush you now," the buff man says. I start to wonder what kind of human could have muscles like that, and then I realize none. Where his eyes should be there are beady, red blinking lights. They remind me of lasers.

"Let's dance, Metal Man," I say, acting overly confidant. And with that said, the droid moves forward to attack. Our swords meet and I can feel the power of the Metal Man. He might be a fake, but he's a darn good one. What was was I thinking? I'll never beat this guy.

He suddenly strikes out and I dart to the side. He looks confused for a moment but then his blinking eyes find me again. He strikes out quickly and hits his target. Blood oozes from my arm where he's made a deep gash. I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wonder if they allow contestants to die during the trials.

"She's not going to win, stop the droid," a man on the panel says. The man next to him nods in agreement, but the fat man ignores them.

"Let us see," he says. And with that, the Metal Man aims for me again, but I counter attack doing the trick I used to disarm the teacher the day before. Unfortunately, Metal Man has an iron grip on his sword and this doesn't do a thing. I retreat, rolling to the left. Metal Man loses sight of me, but finds me again about two seconds later. And that's when it hits me.

He may be stronger, but I'm faster.

I quickly take in his stance: shoulders held high, legs apart, sword at the ready. Then, I know what I have to do. I run over to the camoflage station and grab a bucket of red paint.

"Eat paint metal brain!" I yell, throwing the stuff at him. For a moment, he's confused. And this is the moment I choose to throw my sword under him and roll between his legs. As I come up out of the somersault, I grab my sword. He's looking for me, but it's too late. I stab him straight in the back and he crumples to the ground. As I wipe the sweat off my forehead, I see that the panal looks extremely impressed.

"Thank you, Auden Kwell," the fat man says, dismissing me. I bow towards them for some reason, and then exit. As I'm leaving, I hear the fat man talking to the others.

"Cunning and reasourceful. And quick. Very impressive," he says sounding pleased. He was right, and who doesn't love to be right?

"That droid cost us thousands of dollars," one of the men mutters. There's more murmering, but I'm out of earshot already.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Eli has left, so I return to go get ready for the interviews alone. Diedre and the stylists greet me as I enter the makeover room.

"Hi honey," Diedre says, ushering me into a salon chair.

"Hi Diedre."

"Oh dear, Auden. You need a shower before I'll even touch you! Go shower, quickly!" she says, wrinkling her nose as if I smell like rotten garbage. I don't smelll that bad do I?

I do as she says, and when I return she looks much peppier.

"Ok Auden, we're going to work with your wavy hair and put you into something so hip you'll be the apple of every boys eyes!" she says, grabbing a makeup brush and begining to attack my face. Her sylists follow suit, eager to make me over again. There's suprisingly quick, and as I look into the mirror my face is transformed again.

"Here's the dress Diedre," one of the stylists says, holding up a garment bag. Diedre looks excited to reveal her masterpiece.

"Alright Auden, here it is!" she says, unveiling the dress. I think it weighs more than I do.

"Wow, it's...feathery?"

"Yes, Auden. The feathers are coordinated to look like fluttering flames. Isn't it lovely?" she asks me. I have to nod, but I'm still worried about how I'm going to walk in it. All my worries fade as she slips in over me.

"Oh, it's not heavy."

"Nope, light as a feather!" she says, laughing her head off. As I look in the mirror, I have to admit I look pretty cool. It's over the top, but it also kind of makes me feel...special.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You look..."

'Pretty," Eli says, finishing Harpon's sentence. I give them a twirl for extra measure.

"I feel rediculous," I say to them.

"The Capitol people will love it," Eli says.

"Speaking of that, I have an idea for your interview," Harpon says, reaching into his pocket and taking out two defective looking rings. He gives one to each of us.

"Uh...what is it?" I ask Harpon.

"These are your district trinkets," he says, bringing both of the rings together to reveal that when you combine the symbol on my ring and the symbol on Eli's ring they make a mockingjay. I'd seen them used as symbols before but I'd never imagined actually using one.

"So we're presenting ourselves as a team?" Eli asks Harpon.

"Not only a team, but as friends. Best friends. The sponsers and the Captiol people have always loved that kind of thing," Harpon says eagerly. I wonder if he means just friendship, or more.

"That's kind of brilliant. That has worked in the past," Eli says, looking hopeful. I have to agree, but I'm still silently wondering if Harpons hoping some kind of magic will happen.

"Thank you, Eli. You two have to go now, but remember to get Link Magoo to ask you about your trinket!" Harpon says, ushering us out of the room.

"Who's Link Magoo?" I ask Eli as we're escorted down the corridor by an Avox girl.

"He's the interviewer," Eli says. Oh, ok. So we have to get this guy to ask us about our rings. No problem...I think.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As I take my seat next to Eli's, I get nervous all over again. Aren't we supposed to be prepped a little better for these interviews? As Link Magoo gets started, all the other tributes seem super well prepared. Nico is dressed handomely for the occasion, as similiar outfit to yesterday, but with a flashy cape and silver hair as well. I can see some of his blonde poking through, so I know it must be temporary.

"Next up we have Eli Leone from Distrcit Twelve!" Link Magoo announces. A round of applause erupts in the stadium, which makes me more nervous than ever. Link seems to like Eli as they talk about home and his interests, which mainly revolved around art. Suddenly, I see Eli fidget with the ring on his finger. This doesn't pass by Link.

"So, what's the ring on your finger? A promise ring perhaps?" he asks Eli.

"A kind of promise ring I suppose."

"Well then, tell us all about it!" Link says, thinking he hit the jackpot. It's always a tradgedy when tributes have lovers back home or, even worse,with them in the arena.

"It's a promise I made with Auden. You see, we're both good friends and we don't want to forget what's important."

"Which is?" Link asks.

"Friendship and family. We don't want to forget out home."

"So...what exactly is the symbol on there?" Link asks.

"When Auden and I combine our rings, it makes a mockingjay," Eli tells him. Link looks interested.

"Your time is pretty much up anyways, let's have our last tribiute, Auden Kwell, come on up!" he says, inviting me to have my interview. Before Eli leaves, Link insists we show him our symbol.

"Well isn't that just great? Two friends remembering what they love. Let's hear it for District Twelve!" Link says, dismissing Eli. He gently grabs my hand and squeezes it for luck before he goes back to sit down. I hear a chorus of "Awww" thorughout the whole stadium. Eli's darn good at this friends thing.

"So Auden, your dress is quite spectacular? Do you like it?"

"Oh yes. My stylists, especially Diedre, have really been so kind to me," I reply. Link keeps spouting questions, and I try my best to answer them in an 'appealing' way.

"How did you get the scar on your arm?" Link asks, pointing to where I was slashed by the droid. The medical staff had healed the wound, but a light scar remained.

"During my session with the Gamemakers."

"Why don't you tell us about it?" he asks. I almost do, but then I remember how forbidden it is to talk about such things.

"Uhm...I don't think I'm allowed to," I say to him.

"Oh well, that seems to be time up anyways! Thank you tributes for coming out tonight!" Link says, waving goodbye as we all leave the stadium to go back to our temporary homes.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"What did you do Eli?" I ask him as he, Harpon, and I sit on the couch watching the flat screen TV to see what scores we got.

"I did some camoflage and then shot some targets. Not super interesting to them probably, but I got a lot of bullseyes. What'd you do?" he asks. I can tell Harpon is listening to us even though his eyes are fixed on the screen.

"I did some sword fighting with a droid of some sort," I say. Suddenly, Link Magoo appears on the screen to announce the scores. This year they're all suprisingly high, nobody getting lower than a seven. Nico gets a nine, which is encouraging. Eli's score is a nine as well, which shocks him more than anything.

"Nice job, Eli," Harpon says.

"Uhm...thanks," Eli says, watching the screen to see my score. It's the shocker of the night.

"A...ten?" I say in disbelief. I guess when fat man said I impressed him, he meant it.

"Nice job Auden!" Eli says, giving me a hug. At first I'm stiff, but I hug him back. Harpon gives us an approving look.

"Good job guys, I'm proud," he says, getting up.

"Is this goodbye?" I ask him. He nods.

"I won't be seeing you tomorrow. Someone will come and escort you to the arena loading area. I'll be schmoozing the sponsers."

"Well...thanks Harpon," Eli says, shaking his hand. I do the same.

"You've been good tributes, may the odds be in your favor," Harpon says, leaving us alone. This reminds me how soon it will be just be, Eli, and Nico...in the arena.