Chapter 11: Final Preparations

"Marvel! Wake up!"

My eyes fly open, and I'm greeted by the sight of Jasper's anxious face. "About time," he snaps. "I've been trying to wake you up for a good ten minutes now."

"Sorry," I mumble groggily.

He shakes his head. "Forget about it. But we've got interview practice today, so you'd better get up."

Jasper leaves the room – presumably, he goes to the dining hall – so I quickly get dressed and follow him out. No one else is there. "Star's already working with Glimmer," Jasper tells me in response to my questioning look. "Let's get started."

He surveys me for a moment and asks, "Do you have any thoughts on what angle you'd like to play, Marvel?"

I shrug. "Sort of, I guess. You said a few days ago that you thought the protective older brother angle could work, right?"

"I'm not sure about that anymore," he says dubiously. "That was true at the time, but you chose to play dumb around your allies, so you can't suddenly turn into some fiercely loyal older sibling who's intelligent enough to get out of the arena by sheer force of will. The other tributes would have an opportunity to expose you if you tried."

"The stupid angle was your idea," I remind him. "Did you think that one through all the way?"

"Of course," he says with a dismissive wave. "I just want to see what you come up with before I share my idea."

I sigh, shaking my head. "Now that you've told me that, there's clearly no point in me trying to decide. We'll just end up using your plan anyway."

Jasper frowns. "Think of it as practice. I won't be able to do all the work for you once you're in the arena."

That strikes a chord, so I rack my brain. Stupid won't work – the Capitol wants Careers who have a chance of winning. But at the same time, I can't act like a genius, because my allies still think I'm not all that bright. Jasper vetoed protective older brother… so I suppose that leaves the standard Career act, the one the audience never gets tired of.

"Arrogant," I say out loud.

Jasper gives me a genuine smile. "Good. Arrogant, or confident is what I was initially thinking – you still want to be likeable – but I think you could also pull off easygoing fairly well, so I was picturing… sort of a mix of those."

I nod slowly. "Yeah… yeah, that could work."

"Then let's practice. Pretend I'm Caesar Flickerman," he orders. I suppress a snort at the thought of my mentor wearing a bright red wig – or whatever this year's color will be.

"So, Marvel," Jasper begins, leaning forward, "can you give us any hints about your strategy for the arena?"

I smirk at him and lean back into my chair. "Well, I won't be too specific, but let's just say that the other tributes had better watch their backs."

"Good," Jasper praises, reverting to his true self. "Try adding a wink in there. Wink at the audience."

I do, and Jasper shudders.

"Right, well… we'll work on it. We're going for relaxed, kid, you don't want to look like you're trying to hard."

We keep this routine up until lunch – Jasper asks a question, I answer it, he makes a small correction, and we try again.

Lunch is good – we're served large wraps made of thick bread and meat, with sauce I don't recognize on the side. As soon as I swallow the last bite, Juna Gyde swoops into the room and snaps her bony fingers at me.

"Time to work on your presentation," she says airily. "I've just finished with Glimmer – she's back with Star now."

I stand up to follow her. Jasper calls out, "Juna – work on winking with him, will you?"

We do work on winking… and smiling… and laughing… and eyebrow raising… and after two hours of trying to block it all out, I think I start developing a twitch.

"Nicely done," Juna comments finally. "You may go."

I sigh quietly in exhaustion, wanting to sprint out of the room but somehow refraining from doing so for my escort's sake. I decide that the best plan is to go hide out in my room until dinner, because I don't think I'd be able to handle it if Jasper asks me to wink again to see what progress has been made – even normal blinking hurts as it is.

Dinner comes and goes, as does the night. This time I wake up to see not Jasper but Lumina looking down at me.

"We've got to start getting your ready for your interview tonight," she tells me. "Get up. We have a lot to do."

I don't spend much time with my prep team – I get the feeling that Lumina doesn't quite trust them to get everything right. They're dismissed after what can't be more than twenty minutes, and my stylist takes over.

"We're keeping it subtle," she says. She holds up a garment bag. "It's a regular suit, but it should be able to bring out some of your better features.

I try it on, and she's right. Looking in the mirror, it seems as if the dark blue color makes my eyes stand out – even though that sounds like something only a girl would say. But I think Lumina has done a good job, none the less.

"It makes you look taller," she observes. I grin.

"Great."

She spends about ten minutes on makeup – I spend the whole time squirming. "Quit," she says sternly. "I know you don't like it, but it's necessary to pull the whole appearance together."

"Right," I mutter. "I'll try to remember that."

"There," Lumina says triumphantly. She raises her eyebrows at me. "That's all. Was that so bad?"

Yes. "I guess not."

"Good," she says. "It's time to go." She looks me directly in the eyes. "Are your ready for this, Marvel?"

I smile. "Of course." And it's true. This is the final step before the Games begin for real.

So... major filler chapter. And it's short. I'm aware it's not super interesting... interviews next, though, and I have a better plan for that one. Then of course we'll get to the arena... which is always where the fun really begins, hahaha.

A couple things I want to mention. First, thanks a ton to everyone who voted on the poll I put up. :) I really appreciate it. It always helps me to know what you guys want to read about.

That brings me to the next thing - I've put a new poll up. I've been working sort of obsessively on a Battle Royale fic. I know a lot of people probably haven't heard of Battle Royale... and if that's the case, you need to read it. Now. If you like the Hunger Games - which if you're reading this story, it's safe to assume you do - you will absolutely love this book. It's actually a similar plot line to HG. A fight to the death between kids, but they're actually classmates and... I won't give anything away, but it's just incredible. It's a very unique writing style, and it's impossible not to fall in love with the characters. It's also a bit older - it was written in the 90's. I highly recommend that everyone read it. (Author is Kaushun Takami.)

Anyway, I've put a description of the fic I'm writing in a new poll and asked whether anyone on here would be interested in reading it. Originally I was just writing it for fun, but then I thought I might as well post it once it's finished. It would mean daily updates, haha. But hey, if there are any BR fans reading this... votes would be appreciated. You could also message me. That works too. c:

Thanks for putting up with that little rant - hopefully I've convinced at least a few of you to give the book a try! And of course, I hope you liked the chapter! Next one should be up relatively soon... it won't be as long of a wait as it was for this one since I actually have an idea of what I want to do with it.

~What the Quell