PREPARATION
Me and Asher wake up and are instructed to go down to the dining room for breakfast. We eat and discuss other possible alliances with our mentors then we leave for preparation.
When my stylists take a single look at me, they act disgusted.
"We should dye her skin peach orange," recommended a stylist named Kvailai.
"No," declined one of the boys, named Curabiter.
They make my skin look flawless and they do my makeup, which is all a gray color.
"She's ready!" shouted Kvailai.
Creepy. These people are pretty weird with their breast tattoos and Afro hairdos.
I'm sent in to a strange, bright room where I'm supposed to meet my designer. I already hate this, and I can tell that the designer will be weirder than the rest.
"Wow," he comments. Apparently I wasn't as big of a disappointment as he expected me to be. I felt overly exposed as this random Capitol man observes my nude body. It's all kinds of creepy, and embarrassing.
His name was Aurum. He had aqua skin and dark blue hair, the color of the ocean. Anyways, he puts me in a dress that makes me look like I'm wearing stone. It has the pattern of a stone floor and a crown with gray, sparkling gems. When I reach the chariot, the horses are a matching gray. I look over to find Asher in a matching outfit.
CHARIOTS
"Well you look nice," he complimented me.
I replied with a decent "you too" and we were told to get on the chariots. Asher and I hold on to each other's wrists for support to stay standing, since the chariots get wobbly and shaky.
We are lead out into the line of chariots heading to the circle. I look behind us to find 6 and 12, and they are both dressed duller than us.
"I guess we got lucky with our stylists," I whispered.
"Yeah," my brother laughed.
We had about half of the audience's attention, and they were chanting "2! 2! 2! 2!"
More and more of the audience joined in until the whole crowd was chanting our District, and then our names.
"Varshney!" they all chanted in unison.
We smiled and waved at our "fans" and a few fainted when Asher winked at some girls. Obviously for attention, because he would never go after these creeps.
Right? I hope so.
When we finished going in the circle, President White gave a speech about the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell.
Blah blah blah, old man. Stop making it exciting, we're just going to kill each other soon, I thought.
This dude is weird and annoying. Like, geez. Go die for a change.
I knew that if I said this aloud, I would probably get beheaded. But who cares, right? Dying now is better than later.
We roll back in to our tunnel where we started.
When we're allowed to get off of our chariots and we're where the audience can't see us, Asher and I jump off without hesitating.
"I swear, I was going to fall off near the end," Asher complained and walked away.
After my brother leaves, the District 1 partners come up to us.
"Hey," Jewel greets me.
"You guys looked pretty awesome out there," Dale said.
Yeah right. They're just gonna use us.
"So we were wondering," Jewel started.
"Sorry, my brother and I aren't really looking for alliances at the moment. We'll think about it though," I cut her off.
"Okay, see you soon, cutie," Dale said, and I blushed. They skipped away without having another thought.
Thing is- no one's ever thought I was cute before. Honestly, at school, all the boys bully me and call me ugly. This is what I mean when I say everyone's hates me. I meant it.
I get onto the elevator and push 2, but before the doors shut, the District 1 partners hop on. Freaking stalkers.
"Hi again," Jewel said.
Ugh. These kids are annoying.
"Hiya," I faked with a phony smile. My God, go away, 1!
We stayed silent for the remaining 20 seconds of the ride, and I got off alive, thankfully. I head to my room and get to the sink and rub my face for what seems to be an hour, trying to get my makeup off.
Asher barges into the room, carelessly and shouts, "Iris, guess what?!"
"What?" I sighed, continuing to rub my eyelids with a washcloth.
"Tomorrow's our first day of training!"
"Who cares? I already knew that."
"So? I just wanted to tell you. Get a good nights sleep," he said.
"Can I tell you one thing, first," I said, almost forgetting.
"What?"
"District 1 asked us if we wanted to be allies."
"Hell no," Asher said. "1 is always trouble. 4, too. Usually our District, as well, but we're not gonna be like that."
"How are they trouble?" I asked him.
"They're allies with you for, like, one day, then they betray you like that," he fingersnaps.
I laughed. "Ok," I sighed. "That's the first time you've actually said no when someone's offered us something."
He giggled and left the room.
I wipe off all of my makeup and put on a light pink nightgown. Tomorrow will be a big day. I hopped into bed and pulled the sheets over my head.
IRIS'S DREAM
I was running through the meadow, laughing and playing with my brother. We both looked 10 years younger.
Our mom was there, and she was setting up a picnic a few yards away.
Everything went downhill from there.
My mom turned into a beast with scaly skin and me and Asher grabbed each other'a hands and ran. We coughed and breathed in too much smoke from the fire that the beast was breathing, and we collapsed as the fire passed us and burned us alive.
"Will you protect me?" I heard a faint voice ask. Asher's, of course.
"Always," I replied.
Hi, guys! I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday, so I decided to post both Chapters 2 and 3 today. I'll try to catch up to my promise.
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