The first time I had ever ridden in a car, I was eight years old. My dad allowed me to ride shotgun when he had a job driving the logs from the mill to the train station. It hurts to think of him now. This was nothing like it. The car had a soft purple interior, and pea green tinted glass. The colors did not flatter each other. When they got us to the train, people waved goodbye, insect-like camera men got in our faces, and I remembered to cry as hard as I could.
The train was magnificent, the walls were a silky blue cloth, with rhinestones holding it in a diamond pattern. The floors were old, lightly colored crossing wood planks. Food was piled high on the table. A large bird covered in a flower of apples, surrounded by heaping plates of fresh vegetables, a clear broth with chives and mushrooms floating in it, cookie sandwiches, which Velorum called, like, macarooni, or macaroons, which were every color of the rainbow. A four tiered, sage green cake, with white curls and raspberries all over it. I wanted to dive in to it all. I immediately took my place at the table, wiped away my fake tears, and served myself a small portion of everything. The chive and mushroom broth was divine, the bird, which apparently was duck, was even better. I ate fourteen of the macaroon things. Catax spent the rest of the day in his room. I looked out the window just in time to see Seven disappear as we went over the dam that separated us from the wilds, and then on to the North of District Four, fishing, and then onto the Capitol
"Johanna Mason" Blight Jordan sat in the chair across from me. He was a scruffy, middle aged man, with slanted eyes. He stared at me for a while. "What angle, if you have one," he said to me "would you, uh, say you're playin'?"
"Look, you're a sad drunk, and I don't trust you. I want Pomeline to be my mentor." I stated and crossed my arms. I didn't have to be weak for him. "But, in case you must know, I'm gonna play it weak. Not paint a target on my back. Once everybody kills each other off, I have a good shot,"
"Good idea, but, just so we're clear, Pomeline is on her death bed, and will not be making it to the Capitol. She can advise as far as the train station on the other side, but for now, honey, you're stuck with me," he smirked and slid back in his chair, drink in hand. Stuck was the right word. I got up from the table and started to walk away. "Wanna limp a little, weakling?" I really didn't like him. After I passed three doors, I went into my room. Only it wasn't my room. Catax was sitting on the bed, holding a small picture frame in his hand. Candies, and more macaroons were on his bed.
"Family recipes?" small talk was not my strongest suit. He looked up at me. I felt intrusive, but I wasn't gonna leave. He was the only person I could trust not to kill me, but if he tried I would destroy him. "Yeah, OK, I'll jump right into it. Me and you can't trust anyone but each other, so, lets help each other out. I'm gonna act weak, you should too. We can be the pussies from District Seven, how about that?"
"Um, I think you meant 'you and I', and also, I don't want to ally with anyone I can do this on my own, OK?" he said, he looked frightened by me. "But we could pretend to be weak,"
"Yeah, um when you corrected my grammar, I kind of realized you don't need to pretend, no offense," After, I said that I just left. My room was right next door, it had the same walls as the rest of the train, but the floor was a lush gray carpet. My bed was big, it could fit two or three people. The sheets were a deep plum tone, and matched the lampshades. The lamps cast a happy, romantic amber tone all over the room. I took off the green dress I wore to the reaping, and threw it on the ground. I snuggled under three layers of different shades of purple covers. I was so warm, so happy.
I had no dreams that night. I woke up, and a short black haired girl stood at the end of my bed. She held a tray of soaps, and pointed to the bathroom. I followed her in.
As it turned out, she was an Avox, someone who couldn't speak, due to betraying the Capitol. She washed me down with sixteen different soaps, and I now smelled heavenly. I put on a long sleeved white dress, with squared off shoulders, and a long U-shaped back. It went down to my knees. I put on little makeup, mostly because I didn't know how. I looked presentable, by Capitol standards. The breakfast I had was good, wheat biscuits with pistachio jam on them, some sort of exotic fruit juice, and sunny side up quail eggs. Pomeline sat me down in her room, which was identical to mine except for all my purple was her yellow. It was a very happy room.
"Johanna," she said shakily "for the first time in years, I believe in a tribute. I believe in you," She spoke slowly. "I know you want to act weak, good plan," Her voice intensified. "The most important thing you must do, you must do, make alliances outside the games. Be the sexy side of weakness, be vulnerable, so a man can protect you, love you so you feel safe."
"What, I ... What are you ... How do I do that?" I asked
"That part is easy, wear a short dress and 'accidentally'" she used air quotes around the word "drop something, then bend over to pick it up." She chuckled at this. "Dear, I have faith in you, and already have put aside some sponsor money for you. Now, this is all the time I have, we're almost at the Capitol, and I'm old, and must sleep," I walked out of her room. "Johanna?" she said "Avoid the initial bloodbath, find food, and don't set up camp in only one spot."
I walked out into the main car of the train, where Velorum poured me a glass of wine. I wonder if ages matter in the Capitol, I knew I was to young, but my time to make bad decisions was running out, so I took it. It was sweet, rich, and very good. I sat down, careful not to wrinkle my dress, because I really did like it. Blight looked at me and smiled.
"You'll get used to all the staring after a while," he said and then nodded to the windows. Outside, just five-hundered yards away, was the Capitol. It was amazing, buildings made of glass and concrete towered over the large glass roof, that Velorum said was the train station. I finished my glass of wine. When we pulled up, I turned on the tears, and made sure to get my eye makeup running. We passed people dressed in all sorts of clothing, people with tattoos covering their entire body, people with hair bigger than them, and every different color, a million shades of pink, blue, green, yellow, people throwing themselves at me, to get a look at this years tributes from Seven. I gasped, not because of my fake crying, because I was in awe. The air smelled like perfume and fresh water, the anthem blared from the music stand to my right. Velorum ushered us towards three cars. Blight came up behind me, and grabbed my arm tightly, "Go in the last one, your prep team will be waiting.
As he instructed I got in the last car, which was the same as the one I rode to the train station on. My prep team was a wreck, I mean, I'm sure by the Capitol's fashion sense they were just average. They all introduced themselves, and shook my hand. Lima was a tall, fair skinned lady, with intense purple eye makeup, and blush colored hair. She wore a magenta dress with sleeves that went down to her knees. Parvay was a short, fat man with winter green hair that was shaved on the sides, but long and curly on top. He had icy eyes, that were almost obscured with something red and clumpy on his eyelashes. Howet was a dark skinned, muscular man. Unlike the other two, he did not have the Capitol accent. He wore his hair in a short braid of wine colored hair. His makeup was some copper and gold eye makeup and bright yellow lips. He was almost handsome. He smiled at me, and took both my hands in his perfectly manicured ones.
He smiled. "Let's get started,"