We're arriving. My immediate thought is to hide, to run... To not be here any longer. However, because I can't do that, my heart begins to beat faster and faster. My mentor has a look of calm washing over her while my face flushes with a red color. As we arrive, Sheave, who still has not spoken to me or our mentor, gets up from her glass seat and watches the train pull through a train station that we have never seen before. My immediate thought is that we have arrived at our destination. Next to the trains, a group of odd people have lined up and our cheering for us. By this point, I have also moved next to the window, watching the people cheering.
They all look very similar to our escort with wide assortments of colors and weird clothing that a District Nine would never be caught wearing. We have always been simple because of where we come from and how we are raised. Unlike the people of the Capitol, we have never lived on large amounts of money. Sometimes, people starve to death because they do not have enough food in our district. Just looking at these people, I could tell everyone was, at least to some extent, wealthy. If they could afford the clothes that they wore, they were likely to be able to afford food and water as well. It's strange how we are so closely related, but how we are also so different. How could a war change people this much? I can feel another hint of disgust running through me like I did when I talked to Caligula. Well, no, it was more like a pang. Sharp emotion ran through my mind. I couldn't help, though, but to smile at them as the train slowed down to a halt, watching their every move.
On a creepier note, the way that these people look at me is not a look of evil. It is something that I noticed when I finally walked up to the window, leaving my mentor behind at the table. The looks on their faces are not full of malice like I thought they would be. Instead, of the people of the Capitol seem to love just having me in their presence. Maybe it is the curse of being a Capitol citizen, but I'm not sure why they want to have me here in the first place if I am just destined to die. Are they celebrating the life that I have had? Maybe they're celebrating my upcoming death. The more that I stare at these people, the more that I realize that some of them have their style inspired by my reaping. Some of the people noticed the simplistic designs that me and Sheave wore at the reaping. However, their perception of the reaping is much different from reality. While the clothes Sheave and I wore to the reaping were simple, the clothes they chose are much different and only by a fraction even seem to be inspired by our reaping.
"Cool," Sheave said, raising her hand to the glass and pressing her hand up against it. That was the first word that she spoke since being reaped. From the looks of it, she also smiled for a second or two before it fell flat.
"Cool?"
"Yeah," She said calmly and bluntly, looking at the crowd of people that were in front of the train, shouting out our names in some sort of unison, "It's amazing."
It takes me a moment to realize what she means, but I think I understand the general gist of why she thinks this is cool. We are different, I've thought about that so many times before. However, we are all people. I think that she means that we are all equal even though they are dominating us for the games. I think that she thinks that this is cool because... everything is different from what she is used to. She has never been to the Capitol until now and now that she's here... Maybe she is intent on enjoying something that she has never experienced before. It makes sense considering that we have lived in District Nine our entire lives, wondering what the other districts were like. In this case, we were now technically in the Capitol. The Capitol was always said to be the most beautiful place in Panem and to be honest, I can not deny that from the looks of it, it is. However, I can't help but think of the look of disgust that she gave Caligula before. Was it just at Caligula specifically, or the entire Capitol like I thought? Either way, I quickly go back to my thoughts and back to the appearance of the Capitol which I'm now beginning to see as a beautiful place.
There is definitely a reason that that call it the most beautiful place of Panem. Minus all of the garish and strange clothing that people wear, the buildings are beautifully constructed and very tall. Everything seems out of place, yet it also seems as if it belongs at the same time. The buildings do not match the coloring of the peoples' clothing and skin, either. Instead, the buildings and walkways all look very similar to one another. A grey-white color is what plasters both. It makes the color of the citizens stand out that much more against the white. Suddenly, Caligula comes up to our side with a big grin, "We're here, we're here, we're here!" His annoying Capitol accent shows, but I don't act agitated in the least. Instead, I smile and turn towards him.
"What's next?" I speak bluntly and to the point. There is no reason to talk to him about anything else but the trip itself.
"Well, next, we get you ready!"
"Ready for what, exactly?"
"The chariots, of course!"
Right, the chariots. Sheave looks at him with a large smile on her face, "Does that mean we'll be dressed up like them?" She points her finger at the window and to the people cheering for the both of us.
"Right-io!"
I take a moment to examine Sheave again. Caligula seems excited that Sheave is finally talking to all of us and Sheave seems... different from how I thought she was going to be. I expected her to have a rude, cold personality and now she seems childish because of her actions. She seemed as ignorant as those Capitol citizens out there, cheering for the both of us. Maybe being the mayor's daughter also meant that you were sheltered from the world. She wanted to play this game of dress up and I am simply neutral on the subject, "Yay." The way she speaks is still strange, however. It's as if you are hearing a baby or a child saying its first words. Her comprehension was nonsensical. She reminded me a lot of Cradle back home even though she wasn't really overly enthusiastic about everything. In fact, she had only made herself seem a little enthusiastic because of the way that she reacted to the connotation that we are going to be dressed up. "When do we leave, Caligula?" Even though her voice definitely does not sound excited, I can still tell that she is. Amawrath finally gets up from the table and joins us.
"We leave in a couple of minutes. We have to wait for the peacekeepers to make a space for us to be able to get out and we walk to the building where you will post meet your stylists."
Caligula nods in agreement with Amawrath and Sheave's face lights up with a smile yet again.
"Who's our stylist?" I finally ask a question for the first time in thirty minutes, looking over at the both of them intently.
"You both get separate stylists, actually. Yours is Iunius Atlas!"
"Iunius? He sounds familiar," I exclaim, feeling as if I've heard the name before. Why, though, have I heard this name before? It takes me a second to realize that he was a stylist last year, but not for our district. Last year, he was the stylist for District One. He was probably transferred to District Nine to try and make the District Nine style a little better. Every year before, we were either dressed as crops or as farmers. Hopefully, this new stylist would give us a bit of style. From what I understand about the games, the chariots are a big part of the games. They can determine whether you live or die due to the amount of sponsors that watch them.
"You are both very lucky. You both have two well known stylists!" Sheave doesn't bother asking the name of hers because she's quite convinced that we're both going to end up in ridiculous costumes. Either way, she believes she'll enjoy the feeling of dressing up for an audience and I can tell that by the expression that she gives Caligus and Amawrath. I, however, just keep a modest smile as Caligus begins to walk back towards the cart that we entered when we first saw the train. We are ushered with my mentor out of the train after a peacekeeper clears the way for us, allowing for me to get a better view of the Capitol citizens. As I walk along our predetermined path, I also watch Sheave, who is in front of me, drag her hands across the line of people, as if she were gesturing to them that she is one of them and not a District Nine citizen. I simply stare and nod as we are led to a strange building that seems a little different from the rest of the buildings, at least from what I've seen. The building that we are led into is different because it seems a little more normal. Yes, it's still painted over with white, but the building itself is small and not ten stories tall or more like the rest of them. We are both led to individual areas separated only by what look to be hospital curtains. From what I assume, she will probably undergo similar things to me. First, a group of three comes and examines me as I lay flat on a table that seems to be behind every one of the curtains, likely for each of the tributes. I am dressed in only what a hospital patient would wear, a typical gown with nothing else underneath.
It only takes one look at me for them to begin to strip me of all of the hair that I have on my body from my face to my legs. They also make sure to make my skin look unnaturally moist so that I glisten under the light above and that my face seems symmetrical behind a thick layer of make up that they have applied. It takes a total of three hours before they are complete. After that, they begin to wheel the table off to another room that is private from everyone else. This is where they leave me before a man, only three minutes later, walks in. "Who are you?" I think to ask as quickly as possible before he walks over to me.
"Iunius Atlas," he responds, wheeling his chair over to me and examining me for a brief time, making sure that I was fine tuned. While he was looking at me, I examined him. I seem to examine everyone that I come in contact with, but Iunius had a unique style that I just could not stop staring at, "And you're Auger Brown."
"That's right," I act as tough as I possibly can in front of Iunius, trying to give him the impression that I am fit for this, ready for this, when inside I am nothing but a broken boy that has been betrayed by his district. However, he doesn't buy it. The way that he raises his eyebrows makes this obvious, "Now, what are we doing for the chariots?"
"Slow down a bit, I haven't planned that yet. But, judging from your... appearance," He takes another second to examine me, "We could go with something a little less typical, don't you think?"
"What do you mean?"
"I think I want to use... gold. And maybe I could dye your hair as well... We'll see," The way that he speaks freaks me out, if only a little. He sounds very vague in everything that he says. The more I look at him, the more I notice how he doesn't look like the other Capitol citizens. He is of higher fashion than them, likely. He has a wide variety of colors in his wardrobe, definitely, but he also places them so neatly and so beautifully on his body that he doesn't even really look human at first glance. He looks like a walking, talking texture. His skin looks as if it were inspired by District Eight because of how strange it looks. His skin looks more like clothing than the clothing that he has on.
"Gold because of... grain?"
"Right."
"Did you research District Nine?"
"I traveled there, yes."
He traveled there? A part of me wants to ask why I didn't see him there, but I don't say a thing, "Oh. Did you enjoy it?"
"Sure," He almost seems sarcastic in the way that he speaks, but he really is trying to spare my feelings. Or, that's what I'm getting from him, "I liked the fields the most."
"Why?"
"The color of the grain. That's why I want to use gold. Gold skin dye would be perfect for your chariot ride."
He seems to be quite aware of the fields of our district which causes me to smile without me noticing what so ever for a minute. The smile was completely out of instinct. It's strange. I usually never smile like that, but the feeling that someone knows about the beautiful fields of grain... Well, it makes me feel a little... different. A Capitol citizen actually took the time to examine the fields. Even though he might not have liked my district as a whole, he still loved the one thing that unified all of the District Nine citizens. "That is the most important thing in our district," I muster out, keeping our eyes locked, "Thank you." For a moment, I have a feeling that Iunius has the best intentions for me and that he intends on helping me through this. Or, well, at least through the chariot ride and the interview that I have to do.
"No," He exclaims, looking at me, "Thank you for being an inspiration to my work."
