Kayso, hey guys, thanks for checking my story out and reviewing! I've decided that I'm going to start posting chapters in pairs, so you guys won't have to wait longer. I've been writing a lot lately and the chapters are getting longer and longer! Training will start soon! So please review, if I could just get, like, 5 reviews I would be happy! My goal is to have 20 review by chapter 12, since the story will be half over. Help me reach my goal please! Thank you!
Chapter 3: Hope Burns Brightly
"Up, up, up, Peeta! It's going to be a big day!" Effie barges into my room as I blink the sleep out of my eyes, looking at the light pouring in my room as she draws back the curtains, then I realize I'm naked. Horrified, I grab at the blankets to cover myself. She goes to my dresser and picks out my clothes. "Haymitch needs to talk to you! He's in the dining car, so get dressed and meet him out there. Katniss!" She yells in a sing song voice as she closes the door tightly behind her. I get up and take a quick shower. Note to self: never sleep naked again, Effie can come in my chamber whenever she wants. I throw on the clothes Effie laid out; a white t shirt and dark jeans, and head to the dining room.
Haymitch is sitting at the table, drinking some coffee. His face is reddened and puffy from falling yesterday. I sit next to him. A waiter brings out a huge plate of food to me, and a cup full of a light brown liquid that smells suspiciously like chocolate.
"It's called hot chocolate." Haymitch tells me when he sees my confused face. Hesitantly, I decide to taste it, and soon I'm chugging it even though it burns my throat. Just then Effie comes in, looking distracted.
"Good morning Peeta." Effie smiles at me, she glances at Haymitch. "Haymitch."
"Good Morning, Effie." I smile as I eat my eggs.
"Morning." Haymitch looks at Effie, who is surprised by his attempt at friendliness.
"You look nice today…clean." She compliments as she gets herself a cup of black coffee.
"Err...thanks." He says, obviously not liking the attention. "Peeta and I took a bath last night." He looks at me. Effie is staring at us and then they both start to laugh.
"Wait, what? No that's not what happened-" I begin to say but Haymitch just laughs louder and Effie shakes her head and walks the other direction. My face begins to burn so I pick of a pastry roll to distract myself. And when I think it can't get any worse, Katniss walks in, looking at my embarrassed face and Haymitch and Effie laughing. Confused, she stands in the doorway until Haymitch waves her over "Sit down sit down!" She sits down and the waiter brings her her plate. She looks at the cup of hot chocolate, confused, so I speak up. "They call it hot chocolate, its good." I reassure her. She takes a sip and shudders, I smile. We sit for a while, eating. Haymitch is hitting the happy juice again, Katniss is stuffing herself, and I'm dipping chunks of pastry bread in my second mug of hot chocolate.
"You're supposed to give me advice." Katniss says suddenly, scowling at Haymitch.
"Here's some advice. Stay alive." He says as he laughs like it was the funniest thing in the world. This makes me extremely angry. He's always drunk and seems to have no idea what he's doing. Plus, like Effie said, he is all we've got once we get into the arena. Katniss and I look at each other, then I turn to Haymitch.
"That's very funny." I say without a hint of humor in my voice. Without thinking, I reach hit his glass out of his hand. "Only not to us."
He looks at me for a moment, and then punches me square in the jaw. Pain courses through my mouth and neck as I fall back into my chair, then to the floor. I see Katniss stab a butter knife towards Haymitch's hand when he reaches for more liquor.
"Well, what's this? Did I actually get a pair of fighters this year?" Haymitch asks.
I get up from the floor and grab a handful of ice from under the fruit tureen that sits in the middle of the table. I'm about to press it onto my jaw when Haymitch stops me. "No, let the bruise show. The audience will think you've mixed it up with another tribute before you've even made it to the arena."
"That's against the rules." I protest, glaring at him.
"Only if they catch you. The bruise will say you fought, you weren't caught, even better." Haymitch looks at Katniss "Can you hit anything with that knife besides a table?"
Katniss dislodges the knife out of the table, hesitates, then throws it at the wall. It lands in the seam of two panels and Haymitch and I look at her in surprise. Shock and surprise flashes across her face, but she redeems herself.
"Stand over here, both of you." Haymitch nods to the middle of the room. We don't protest as he pokes and prods us, checking our muscles and our faces. "Well, you're not entirely hopeless. Seem fit. And once your stylists get ahold of you, you'll be attractive enough."
We aren't offended, because Katniss and I both know the more good looking you are, the more sponsors you get. "Alright, I'll make a deal with you. You don't interfere with my drinking, and I'll stay sober enough to help you. But you have to do exactly as I say." This is much of a deal, but we take it. "Fine." I say.
"So help us." Katniss begs. "When we get to the arena, what's the best strategy at the Cornucopia for someone-"
"One thing at a time. In a few minutes, we'll be pulling into the station. You'll be put in the hands of your stylists. You're not going to like what they do to you. But no matter what, don't resist." Haymitch interrupts.
"But-" She tries again.
"No buts. Don't resist." He takes the bottle of liquor off the table and leaves the car. As the door closes, everything goes dark, except for the dim lights on in the room, we are going through a tunnel. The tunnel goes through the inside of the mountains that guard the Capitol from the eastern Districts. The feeling of claustrophobia makes my chest tighten, I hate being in confined spaces. As Katniss and I stand in silence, the feeling has me breathing ragged, then sunlight floods into the room, I run to the light, relieved and desperate for the sight of the sky, and Katniss soon follows. I'm also curious to see the glamorous Capitol that we've only seen on our television.
There are tall metal buildings everywhere, they reach higher than I could've possibly imagined, touching the sky and disappearing into the clouds. Wide paved streets, made of pink and yellow bricks intertwine through the city. Shiny car zoom by the railroad tracks we glide on, and bizarre looking people in vibrant colors and crazy mixing patterns walk on the street. Out of the corner of my eye I see Katniss back away from the window, but I stay and put. I see a plump woman wearing everything purple, even her skin is tinted purple, point and wave at me. I wave back and smile, soon hundreds of people are running towards the station, waving and cheering and blowing me kisses. I turn around to Katniss staring at me like I had just grown wings. "Who knows?" I say to my defense. "One of them could've been rich."
Her grey eyes stare at me and I stare back. She looks like she's trying to figure something out- me out, I guess. Her eyes widen and she stiffens. I raise an eyebrow at her. She regains her composure and I turn away from her awkward stare, towards the train exit. A huge crowd of people are waiting for me when I step off the train. They scream our names and hand me papers and pens to sign autographs, like I'm some kind of celebrity. Effie and Haymitch lead Katniss and I into another car, where we drive to a huge building with a sign in the front that reads "Remake Center" We are led inside. The place is huge but empty of people. The walls are pink and white striped, the hardwood floors are honey colored, green couches are grouped around coffee tables in various places. The main desk is empty, but then I see them; our stylists and their team.
"Peeta!" A woman comes up and hugs me. "Hello, my name is Portia. I'm your head stylist. And this," She turns me and waves her hand at the three women standing behind her. "Is my team!"
"Hello, nice to meet you all." I smile. They all giggle and squeal to each other.
"Ladies!" Portia gets their attention. "Introduce yourselves."
A small girl, probably the same age as me steps forward and hugs me. "Hiya, I'm Lottie." She smiles at me. Her twin sister, I'm guessing because they look exactly alike, steps forward and shakes my hand. "I'm Ainsley." She giggles and looks to her sister. Then the last girl, who looks about 18 comes forward and shakes my hand as well. "I'm Kestyn." She pulls on my arm, making me stumble into her and she hugs me. "Sorry about them." She breathes in my ear.
"No problem." I whisper back.
"Well, now that we are all acquainted, let's go!" Portia and Kestyn walk forward, and Lottie and Ainsley each grab my hands. I turn around to see Katniss staring at the 18 year old, Kestyn. I smile and look forward. Is she jealous? The only way I can tell the twins apart, is one of them, Lottie, has a freckle just above her lip. Lottie and Ainsley both have long, dirty blonde hair they've tied in a low ponytail. They look normal, really. They have vibrant pink eyes, though, pretty distracting. Kestyn, on the other hand, is tall and has aqua colored tattoos of flowers all over her arms and face. Her green hair is in a high ponytail, and her eyes are the same unnatural shade of green as her hair. Portia is probably in her mid 20's. and is very creative with her make up. Her forehead is completely pink and her lips are black. Her hair is fluffy and blonde but her bangs are straight. They all wear the same shirt, though. White with pink cursive lettering on both the front and back:
TEAM PEETA DISTRICT 12
They lead me down a long, dark plain hallway, through a door, into a huge lit up, yet plain, room. In the middle of this room, there is a long metal table and a paper gown. "Get changed while the team prepares, darling." Portia says as she ushers the girls through a door on the other side of the room. "Everything off." She says before she closes the door. I sigh and change. I don't like this. Nothing but a paper gown with those girls, they were acting weird around me. I sit on the table, my clothes in my lap, folded nicely. They all come in again.
"Take these." Portia takes my clothes and hands them to Kestyn. She again leaves the room as Portia motions me to stand.
"Take off your gown for a minute, hun." She asks. I reluctantly remove it. Great, now I'm naked in front of these weird acting girls. I think. She circles around me looking at my body, making me self-conscious as the other three wait over to the side. "Ainsley, get the wax and strips. Lottie, get the tweezers." Wax and strips. Tweezers. Oh dear God. Portia pats the metal table and smiles. I climb up. "Lie down hun." She orders. I lie down and Portia held out her hand. "Kestyn?" She says. Kestyn steps forward with a clipboard and a blue marker. Portia writes something down, hands the clipboard back to Kestyn, and starts to inspect my legs and feet. She takes the marker and circles any bruises, cuts, scars, or any imperfections on my body.
Lottie comes back with a small black case. "Lottie, start on his eyebrows, please." Portia says as she circles the red mark on my jaw, where Haymitch hit me. Lottie tortures me for an hour, pulling each unneeded hair off my face one by one. I grit my teeth and close my eyes. Kestyn circles around me as they work, writing random things down on the clipboard. After both Lottie and Portia are finished, Ainsley steps forward with hot wax and paper strips. She starts by removing every hair on my legs, arms, chest, and underarms. It seems like forever until she says "Finished!" She looks at my face. "Sorry!" She cringes. All four of them leave then. My body is tingling and burning and stinging. A couple minutes later they come back dragging a huge metal contraption behind them. It's taller than me, and it had all these weird tubes hanging off it. There is one big nozzle that points directly downward, though, and Portia hangs it right over my face. "This will only hurt for a second." She promises.
"What is it?" I ask, a little panicked.
Lottie giggles. "It's a laser, silly."
I gulp loudly and they all laugh. Only I'm not trying to be funny. Portia aims it at the red mark on my jaw which she had circled. She places glasses on me, and everyone else puts a pair on.
"Wait!" I gasp.
Portia jumps and looks at me, panicked. "What? What is it?"
"Leave the bruise on me, please." I ask her.
Confused, she agrees and moves the laser to the next blue circle.
"Lottie." She says.
"Lottie comes forward and giggles as she gets soapy water and removes the blue ink from my face.
She turns the laser on, and there is a strong smell of burning skin, I don't feel anything though. She does this to all the blue circles, some I don't feel and some make me scream. Ainsley and Lottie, of course, hold each of my hands. Once they're finished, they coat my body with a foul smelling blue cream, which is a chemical that disintegrates any hairs they missed. Once finished, I stiffly put on the paper gown again, and they lead me to a huge bathtub where they wash my hair, file my nails, and soak me in another chemical. This one smells good, though. And it softens my skin and makes the irritated redness go away.
They dry me off and lead me back into the big room, where they all inspect my body, and make sure they didn't miss anything. "We're done!" Portia states. I give a sigh of relief. Kestyn and Ainsley leave and come back with a huge mirror. "See for yourself." Lottie says. I look at my body in the mirror. I'm absolutely flawless. My eyebrows are perfect, my skin is soft and evenly toned, and I don't have a single freckle. The red mark has blossomed into a blue and purple bruise, too. Portia gets me dressed in a thin white robe and leads me to a makeup table. I don't want to wear makeup, that's weird. But I hold my end of the bargain with Haymitch, and do not protest. They don't put anything on me, really. They powder my face a little and "highlight" my cheeks with some dark powder. Kestyn, Ainsley, and Lottie leave, but Portia leads me back to the room where we met, and up some stairs. We go into a room with some couches, and huge glass windows looking out at the Capitol, where we eat our lunch.
"So, Peeta," Portia says as we sit down and eat. "My partner Cinna, Katniss's stylist, has come up with the idea, that you two wear complimentary costumes that go with the theme of your District, for the opening ceremony."
"So, a coal miners outfit?" I say. My mouth twists into a small frown when I think of the outfits from the past years.
"Well, no. Cinna agrees with me when I say that whole look is overdone, forgettable. No, we are going to focus on- drum roll please!" Portia taps her hands on the coffee table. "Fire!" She squeals.
"Fire?" I ask skeptically.
"Yeah, we're going to light you on fire!" She says enthusiastically.
A few hours later, she puts me into a black rubber jumpsuit that covers all the way up to my neck, and down to my ankles. I have an orange, red, and yellow cape and a matching hat that they said were going to be lit on fire, these people are crazy. Of course Portia reassured me and told me it was synthetic fire that she and Cinna came up with, but I was still nervous.
My team and I meet up with Katniss and her team of stylists. They're all excited and congratulate Cinna and Portia. We are all led down to the bottom level of the Remake Center, with all the chariots and horses and other tributes. Each pair of tributes is loaded onto a chariot led by four horses. Our horses are jet black, and we don't have to steer them or anything. Katniss and I are loaded into the chariot, and we are arranged into specific positions as they drape our capes on our shoulders. When the stylists leave to talk, Katniss whispers "What do you think? About the fire?"
"I'll rip off your cape, if you rip off mine." I promise through gritted teeth.
"Deal. I know we promised Haymitch we'd do exactly what they said, but I don't think he considered this angle."
"Where is Haymitch, anyway. Isn't he supposed to protect us from this sort of thing?" I ask, irritated because he's not keeping up his end of the bargain.
"With all the alcohol in him, it's probably not advisable to have him around an open flame."
I burst out in a nervous laugh, and Katniss joins in. This causes some heads to turn. The music starts to play in the city, and the chariots are being lined up to enter, we're dead last. As the huge doors open to reveal the city, I crane my neck to see. My eyes widen at the deafening crowd. Millions of people. My throat tightens and I look away in a panic. Each district gets their time to shine as they ride down the long street and circle around the cul-de-sac. Then the anthem plays, I think there's a speech, and we ride into the training center that will be our home until the Games. More like a prison, if you ask me.
District 1 pulls out, their horses are pure white, and their silver painted skin dazzles in the street lights. Their tunics are covered in jewels. The theme is based on shiny, fancy things they make for the Capitol. Soon, chariot after chariot is heading down the street, and we are next. The sky has gotten darker, and the lights on the street have dimmed. District 11 rolls out and Katniss's stylist, Cinna hops in our chariot. Before I can react he says, "Here we go then!" And sets our capes ablaze. I close my eyes shut tight and ball my hands into fists, waiting for the pain, but it doesn't come. He lights our head dresses and I want to scream at him you madman! But I'm still not burning
"It works!" He sighs in relief. Well, those are not comforting words. He was expecting us to burn. But we don't, there is only a little tickling sensation as the artificial flames lick my neck and face. He tucks his hand under Katniss's chin and says something that is drowned out by the roaring of the crowd. Portia appears next to me and pats my arm. "They'll love you, Peeta!" I smile and hold her hand for a moment, then she and Cinna hop off the chariot. I turn and see Cinna yelling at us, something he forgot I guess. I look at him, but the music drowns him out. He makes a gesture, he intertwines his finger, yelling again. Hold hands. He mouths the words.
"What is he saying?" Katniss looks at me. I look down at her, and her expression changes into something different; she looks at me dreamily, lost in my eyes, like she's about to reach up and touch my face, my heart skips a beat. She's never looked at me like this before. I look into her beautiful grey eyes, and I get lost, too. The flames lick her face, and she looks so fresh and beautiful, I just want to freeze this moment in time and live in it forever. "I think he said for us to hold hands." I say, snapping us both back into reality. My heart flutters as I intertwine my left hand into her right. We both turn to Cinna for approval. He nods his head and gives us a thumbs up. At that moment I decided I would love Cinna forever because of this dangerous idea. No one has ever had their tributes present themselves like this. When we ride out onto the street, the crowd deafens me. Everyone is shocked by our appearance. Shock turns into excitement as the crowd screams District 12! District 12! Flowers are thrown at us, piling up in our chariot. Adrenaline and excitement runs through me and I smile at the crowd and wave and they wave back, they all look like their fighting for my attention. I hear my name being screamed Peeta! Peeta we love you! Katniss! Katniss we love you! This is perfect, rich sponsors will defiantly pick us, pick Katniss to sponsor. Katniss is squeezing my hand tight to the point where there is no blood circulation, and I'm loving every minute of it. I love everything about this whole experience. But deep down I know that I shouldn't, because soon these people will be also cheering when they see our blood spilt on the floor of the arena. All their doing is dressing us up like show ponies. But I push this thought aside and enjoy the attention. I look up at a screen and see us smiling and laughing and the screen zooms in on our intertwined hands, the crowd is eating this up. I squeeze Katniss's hand gently as the screen goes to our faces again. She's blowing kisses and holding a rose, and laughing. I laugh too.
Our chariot circles around the town and parks next to the rest of the chariots in front of President Snow's mansion. I feel Katniss's grip on my hand start to lose, and I grip hers tighter. "No, don't let go of me." I look down at her, as she stares up at me. "Please, I might fall out of this thing." I lie. I don't want her to let go of me because I couldn't bear losing the warmth of her hand to the numbness again.
"Okay." She says. I breath a small sigh of relief. The music ends and I look around at the other tributes, They stare angrily back at me giving me and Katniss dirty looks, some of them even sneering at us. I smile, because this only means that we've outshone them all. The President is small and thin with white hair, it looks like he's shrinking of old age, yet pumped with silicon to disguise any wrinkles. He welcomes us officially, but as he does this the cameras cut to the faces of the tributes, but our faces stay on the camera longest. The sky is getting darker as the night goes on and it just makes us stand out more. The anthem plays when he is finished, and the camera flashes all the tributes on the screen before they leave, but it lingers on District 12, even as we exit.
As soon as the door closes behind us, stylists and prep teams attack us, patting us on the back and giving us high fives. Cinna and Portia extinguish us and remove our capes and head dresses. I untangle my hand from Katniss's reluctantly, and rub my fingers, trying to get the blood to circulate. I look over and see Katniss doing the same, making me feel bad.
"Thanks for keeping hold of me." I turn to her. "I was getting a little shaky there."
"It didn't show," She reassures me with one of her rare smiles. "I'm sure no one noticed."
"I'm sure they didn't notice anything but you. You should wear flames more often. They suit you." I can't help but compliment her, trying to show her how much I care about her. I smile wide when she blushes. Then, she suddenly stands on her tip toes and kisses me lightly on my bruise. I blush deeply when she turns around and walks away. The rest of the night I'm upbeat and giddy with hope. Hope that reignites the flame in my numb heart.