When Daryl woke up the next day, he had to adjust for a while, before reality hit him. He was on his way to Capitol, because his name was chosen yesterday. He quickly rose to his feet, as he was trying his best not to panic.
He took a quick shower before he went to the foot trail. Beth was already sitting on one of the chairs, slowly drinking something from her cup. „Mornin'" he said as he walked over to the table and sank down to one of the chairs. Beth had quickly looked at him, shot him a tiny smile. „Morning."
Before Daryl took something to eat, he look over to Beth, wondering how she can look so okay with everything that was going around. He wanted to ask her, but he stopped himself, taking some of the bread that was on table and stuffing it into his mouth.
It was Beth who spoke up first. „So I've heard we're going to be in Capitol in couple of hours."
„Mh-hmm." Daryl grunted.
„Do you think we have a chance?"
She surprised him with this question, it was luck that he just swallowed the bite he had in his mouth. „Dunno. Guess nobody ain't giving us much chance."
„Well I still have hope."
„Why?"
„If you don't have hope, what's the point of living?"
Daryl was looking at Beth as if it was the first time he saw living human being. The way that this girl spoke, how she thinks, it was almost hard to believe she was really from district 12.
„We're gonna be dead in two weeks, so I ain't believe in anything as stupid as hope."
Look of hurt crossed her face, before she shook her head. „Well, I think it's fate that we were chosen."
Daryl wanted to ask her why on earth would she think that, but he managed to just shrug. „Ain't no faith, we're just the unlucky ones."
Beth would surely said some more, but she was cut off by Rainbow. She entered the room with giant smile on her face and she sat down between them. For the next few hours, Rainbow was just talking. She was trying to walk them through what was going to happen in the following day, she was also trying to give them some advice, but Daryl didn't even listen to her. It was obvious she had no experience with any of the stuff she was talking about, it was as if she learned whole guide book and now she was reciting it.
It was almost a welcome interruption as the train arrived into the Capitol and they were force to leave. They took them right into some beauty center, where whole team took care of them. Letting other people trying to fix his look, Daryl was really uncomfortable with any of this, but he didn't have a choice. Even if he said something, nobody listened to him.
He was almost relieved when they finally let him and the stylist came into the room. She was really tiny, but what missed in her height she definitely fixed with her hair. She had them so piled up, they were almost twice her height.
„Ah, I told them to cut the hair!" She exclaimed as she entered the room, her voice was so high pitched, Daryl was in shock and he almost missed what she was saying. Almost.
„Wait what? No, no cutting hair!"
She looked at him with the cute smile, implying that she can do whatever she wants with him and it's not in his power to stop her. Daryl thought if he shouldn't just kill her now and run as far from here as possible, when she said. „Fine, no cutting, there's no time, anyway. I had this amazing costume, but it's not gonna fit you! So we'll have to go with classic." She tossed pile of clothing towards Daryl with a grin that obviously suggested that classic is some very offensive word.
Daryl took a look at the clothing he had been given and felt almost relieved that it was just classical suit. They made him put some very ugly bright green shirt with it, but it was still the best that he could hope for.
Few hours later, the stylist escorted him down to the stalls with the carriages and other tributes. It was half empty, most of them weren't here yet. Daryl just took a quick look around and went to the last carriage, that was for district 12. There was noone here, so Daryl just hanged there by himself and watched as other tributes were coming. Most of the guys had suits, it occurred to him, that the stylists had probably costumes prepared for some time and they were counting with noone older then 17 to wear them, now they had to improvise.
His eyes got the sight of some blonde girl approaching his carriage. He shortly looked at her, wanting to look away again, but he remained staring when he realized it was Beth. She looked so different and so not like the girl he met on the train. Her hair was bouffant up and she must have been wearing hair extensions, because he didn't remember her hair were so long before. Her whole face had been covered in make up and she was dressed in some sort of leather bright green overall. At least now he understood the point of his ugly shirt. Plus she was wobbling on a really high heels and she was looking mostly uncomfortable. She was stunning, but Daryl prefered the girl that was on the train with him.
Beth caught his look and grinned, slowly walking towards him. „What do you think?" She asked, when she leaned to grab Daryl's arm so she wouldn't fall. „You look different." Was all he could think of in the moment. She smiled at him. „So do you."
There was some sort of gong that hinted them they should get into the carriage and when it dingged, Rainbow started to quickly waving her arms to let them now, they should get in. Beth let go of Daryl's arm and look miserable, as if she wasn't sure she would be able to get in, so Daryl, before he could think twice about what he was doing, grabbed her around her waist and lifted her so she could easily get in. Beth looked surprised for a moment but then gratitude appeared in her face.
Daryl got into the carriage with the second gong, just a few seconds before it started moving forward.
The whole parade thing has been a blur, ever since the carriage went out from the stalls into the middle of people, all Daryl remembered was shouting, exultancy and noise. He barely remembered that Garrett, their president, would give some speech, but then, it's been the same each year. Before he could recover from all this, they had been back in the stalls. Their team around them, trying to tell them it was good.
Daryl jumped down from the carriage, immediately turning to help Beth. He grabbed her into his arms, supporting her legs and back. She looked surprised, but didn't really complain. Daryl also didn't put her down right there, Rainbow told them to go for the elevator, so he took her there, then put her down.
Beth smiled at him again, then almost immediately, taking down her shoes with „stupid heels." She throw them on the floor and when the elevator stopped in 12th floor, she didn't even bothered picking them up, she just walked out, leaving them behind.
Rainbow obviously had some speech prepared, but Beth cut her off asking where her room is. As soon as Rainbow pointed it out, she walked away. Daryl, on the other hand, was quite hungry, so he welcome the possibility to eat something before he went to his room to take a shower.
The showers were really weird, Daryl never saw something like this before. He had seen a bath, but this was just transparent tube with a lot of buttons. He pressed a whole lot of them, before he manage to make the water running. He just wanted to wash away the Capitol touch he had felt all around him. Once he was done, he headed to his room. Thinking he may go to bed, but the events from the whole day just haunted him, so he headed back to dining room instead.
He had almost deja-vu, as he found Beth, sitting there, clutching a cup. She finally looked normal again, she washed all the make up off of her and she changed her clothes to something normal. He was thinking about turning and leaving, but Beth looked at him, before he manage to get out.
„Hey," she didn't smile this time, Daryl felt a little disappointment.
„Hi." He answered, slowly walking to the table and sitting down.
They both sith in a silence for a while, before Beth started the conversation again. „Tomorrow is a big day, huh? Do you know how to use some weapon?"
Daryl paused, didn't know if he should tell her or not. Then he settled for „Mh-hmm. Kinda."
She smiled. „Good for you, I can't."
„Well you have a week to learn. Where's your hope?"
„Didn't say I was giving up." She smiled again.
They both stayed up pretty late into night, just talking. Well Beth was mostly doing the talking, Daryl just listen and nodded, amazed how she can talk that much. She was slowly creeping up to him. There was something about this little blonde girl and Daryl made promise to himself. He will make sure that this girl is the one walking home from that arena.