Dependence - Book Two (Wattys 2013 Finalist)

Opening Ceremonies: Interviews - Part One

Piper Papillon’s POV:

‘’ Hello Panem! I warmly welcome all of you here tonight, for the interviews! So please, give a round of applause for our first six tributes, the tributes of Districts One, Two and Three!’’ I yell happily and the crowd roars excitedly.

As they scream, the tributes come out in pairs of two. Leading the group are the District One tributes, Brutis Glaze and Belle Cyrus. They are followed by Margo Mead and Ravina Quill. Osmo Overton and Echo Sparks bring up the rear.

‘’ Welcome tributes! Please have a seat and we can begin.’’ I instruct and the six sit facing the crowd in seats beside me.

The crowd begins to cheer their names and toss flowers – as they did in the tribute parade – and the tributes spend a few moments waving and blowing kisses which cause them to scream even louder.

‘’ OK, settle down.’’ I laugh. ‘’ Let’s get started. I will be asking you all questions at once, switching and swapping from one to another. So I will begin with Brutis, we’ve had hundreds of questions come in for you, so we’ve gathered the best. First question, what is your opinion of the randomness of the way the tribute pairings will work?’’

‘’ I don’t like it one bit.’’ He replies immediately and a few of the crowd laugh. ‘’ It’s stupid. We should be able to have some say in who we are paired with.’’

‘’ Oh, but you will. I can’t say at the moment because it’s a surprise for all of you, along with the citizens of the Capitol, but you will have some part in picking the partner you are going to be paired with.’’ I smile and the crowd cheers.

‘’ Interesting.’’ He smiles.

‘’ While we’re on the topic, we have had quite a number of people asking what would you do if you were paired with a weakling from one of the outlying Districts?’’ I ask and his smile vanishes.

‘’ I better bloody not!’’ He replies angrily.

‘’ Hopefully. But what would you do if you were?’’ I question.

‘’ I’d still win it, but I wouldn’t be happy about it. I want to win with another Career not some pathetic twelve year old girl!’’ He responds.

‘’ Well who would you want to be paired with, if you had the choice?’’ I ask.

‘’ Doll face over there. Or maybe one of the District Two tributes. They seem able.’’ He explains.

As he says doll face, Belle sighs aloud angrily.

‘’ Belle! We’ll move on to you now.’’ I smile and she stands and bows to the crowd.

‘’ Thank you Piper.’’ She says and takes her sit.

‘’ OK Belle, first question. What would be your ideal arena?’’ I ask.

‘’ I am not entirely sure, I know exactly what would be my worst one...that would be the desert arena like last year. But I dunno really, I suppose a plain one with no horrible surprises. A water supply would be nice too, and lots of trees to screw over the long ranged fighters.’’ She explains.

I laugh aloud, as does the crowd. ‘’ Oh Belle! You crack me up! Next question, who would you like and who would you not like to be paired with?’’

‘’ Well I don’t really know any of the other tributes yet, except that marshmallow.’’ She begins, nudging her head towards Brutis and the crowd laughs. ‘’ But I suppose Margo or Min Yan maybe. Someone strong.’’

‘’ And who would you not like to be with?’’ I ask, I already have a pretty good idea of the tribute in her mind.

‘’ That.’’ She explains and turns her head to Brutis, the crowd erupt into laughter again and toss a few flowers.