Chapter 4, First Impressions
When I open my eyes my body goes in panic mode. Where am I? I look around the room. That door doesn't seem familiar! And that chair, ugh, I hate purple! I turn around, still panicking, and then I see Zane. He's still sleeping and I suddenly remember where I am. Unfortunately this isn't a nightmare. This is reality, and it's hard. I am a tribute for the 71st Hunger Games and so is Zane.
I calm myself down by lying down and looking at Zane while he is sleeping. He looks so peaceful when he's asleep.
After half an hour I kind of feel like a stalker and decide it's probably best to take a shower.
The shower is nice and warm. And for the first time in my life the water doesn't have a salty flavour to it. In our district all the water we use comes straight from the sea and my dad thinks it's perfectly fine to use the salt water in our shower. I can't complain, at least we have a working shower with hot water. Zane's family have to wash themselves in the sea.
The shower is so good; I think I spend at least 20 minutes just looking at all the different kind of soap bottles. Then someone, I think it's Zane, starts bouncing on my door. "What is it?" I ask. No reply. "What is it?" Again, no reply. I get out of the shower and wrap a towel around me, a rather small towel, and squeeze the water from my hair.. Why can't I just take a nice and relaxing shower for God's sake? The bouncing continues. "Give me a second! Okay?" Why so impatient! I'm really annoyed now. I open the door and snap: "What Zane?"
But it isn't Zane. It's Finnick. And just when you think things can't get any worse, I mean he just saw me in a really small towel that covered at least the most private parts of my body, I drop the towel… I start screaming and run back to the bathroom. O MY GOD! WHY? Why?
I can hear Finnick laughing and leaving my room. No one can ever know about this! No one! This is so embarrasing! I burry my face in my hands. I'm so ashamed!
When I have my confidence back, or at least a part of it, I get dressed and leave my room to have breakfast. Finnick, Zane and Mags are already having breakfast. I sit myself down next to Zane and try to ignore Finnick. But I can just feel that he's looking at me with a big smile.
"Stop it!" I hiss.
He may be a victor of the Hunger Games, but he is only… what… nineteen? Twenty? And I find his behaving rather childlike. He keeps smiling at me in a way that makes me feel really uncomfortable, like he is stripping me with his eyes… Ew.
Okay, a part of me is enjoying it, I have to be honest. But since my boyfriend is sitting next to me it's kind of my duty to find it annoying and unacceptable.
"Did everyone sleep well?" Caleb Jefferson ask while entering the breakfast compartment.
I constantly forget that he's is also joining us even though he is hard to forget. He is a really, really, big build man, a lot of muscles, dark hair, black eyes and a low voice. He reminds me of a giant. My father used to tell me stories about giants and fairies.
"Oh I slept beautifully," Finnick says, " and Rubie had a lovely surprise for me this morning. I really enjoyed her way of saying good morning to me." He winks at me. Normally, I'd probably start blushing but I feel like hurting him. So I kick him under the table. I think I really hurt him because his smile is gone and he is moaning some curse words.
"Are you okay Finnick?" Caleb asks.
"I've never been better," Finnick says while trying to smile.
"Good. Okay. In an hour or so we will enter the Capitol and you two will be taken to the Remake Center…"
"Excuse me? The what?" Zane interrupts him.
"The Remake Center," Caleb repeats.
"What exactly are they going to remake us in?" Zane asks. He sounds really grumpy.
I don't like this grumpy, quickly annoyed, side of him. He usually has a lot of patience. Especially with his younger brothers and sister who can be a real pain the you know where sometimes. And Caleb is only trying to help us.
"They're just going to make you even more handsome than you already are," I say quickly and take his hand.
"Exactly, not that you need it," Finnick says with a smile.
I want to give him a "just-drop-it" look but he is my mentor and I have to make him like me because he is in charge of my sponsors. And we all know Finnick has a lot of lovers in the Capitol so he could help me out when I'm starving or something like that. So I give him a grateful smile.
"Thank you Finnick," I say thankfully and then finish the rest of my breakfast while listening to Caleb's schedule.
"After you guys are done in the Remake Center, no I don't know how long that will take Zane, you have to prepare yourself for the opening ceremonies, which is tonight."
O god no... I totally forgot about those, the opening ceremonies. I fear the worst. Every year Kent and I watch the opening ceremonies together, it's the only episode of the show he's allowed to watch, and we watch it without fighting. We make fun of every single costume and give every tribute a grade. One if your costume is boring and normal, a ten if you just look ridiculous. I can only imagine how much fun Kent is going to have tonight when he sees me wearing a giant fish head...
After breakfast, Finnick takes me to his compartment to have a talk. If he wasn't my mentor I would have given him the finger (especially after what happened this morning) but unfortunately he is my mentor and he is trying to help me. I gather all my courage, which isn't a lot, and follow him. He sits down on his bed and signs that I have to come and sit next top him.
"Okay, first of all, I want to thank you for your… open way of greeting me this morning. I really feel like we've gotten to know each other better."
Okay I'm going to leave. I get up and want to leave but he points back at the bed and I sit down again. I can't resist him, there is something about him no one can resist.
"Secondly, I talked about it with Mags, about your little problem… and I decided that I am just going to mentor you like I do with any other tribute…"
"They all die Finnick," I snap.
"I try to keep them alive, and I will try to do the exact same thing with you. I will help you! I promise. What you want to do with Zane is up to you. I assume you guys will be teaming up, which is fine by me! It really is because you know you can trust him a hundred per cent right? So you can at least go to sleep without the fear that your partner might kill you in your sleep." He sounds very serious. "The only thing I need from you is your trust. Do you trust me Rubie?" He looks at me with those beautiful sea green eyes and I get lost in them. They remind me of home, of my family, my dad's boat. Oh, I miss home, and I love Finnick's eyes.
"Rubie?"
"Sorry what? O no, yes of course, yes I trust you," I quickly answer. I try not to look in his eyes. The last thing I need some kind of teenage crush on my mentor.
"Good! Did you already come up with a plan to present yourself?"
"What do you mean, presenting myself?" I ask. I don't really care what I look like, I just want to try my hardest to survive.
"Every tribute, almost every tribute, presents itself in a way that they think they will get a lot of sponsors. Some of them try a really brutal, killing attitude. Other use their innocence, or their looks."
"I thought you were responsible for my sponsors?" How on earth am I going to make people like me?
"I am partially responsible for it. But it's mostly up to you," he says, "so what's your plan?"
I have to really think about that question. What do the people from the Capitol like? How am I going to get a lot of sponsors? I don't have to ask Finnick. He just has to sit and look pretty and people will throw money right at him. I could just go as myself…
"You could use your looks? It worked out fine for me…" Is that a compliment from Finnick Odair? "Or you could pretend like you're having the time of your life and that you love the Capitol.
"I think I'm just going to be me. I'm probably no good at acting."
Finnick gives me a worried look, but I made up my mind. I won't pretend to be anyone else. This is me and they will just have to accept it, and hopefully like it.
When we reach the Capitol, which by the way looks amazing, Zane and I are escorted to the Remake Center. They take me to the girls section and Zane to the boys.
"Don't you dare coming back with less hair!" I yell at him. "Same for you!" he yells back. Ha, they should try. No one cuts my hair.
When I enter the room I see 3 people waiting to transform me into a beautiful tribute. I think the two on the right are women and the one on the left is probably a man. But I'm not sure. People from the Capitol are weird, but these people... I don't even know where to start. How can they make me look beautiful? Because I really don't like this crazy Capitol look. They introduce themselves, Camia, Kaiya and Raven. Yes, it's a man.
While I'm being waxed (ouch) and plucked (more ouch), I can't stop staring at the tattoos, hair colours and the amount of make up on their face. Seven words keep pounding in my head: "Please, don't make me look like you. Please! Don't make me look like you!" And why isn't there a mirror in this room! What are they doing to me?
Camia, who is fixing my hair, makes weird high pitching sounds when she takes my hair out of my usual bun. It almost looks like she has never seen normal brown curly hair. She walks away, opens a drawer and gets out some scissors. O dear God, please tell me those are not for me. She turns around and walks straight at me.
"WOW!" I scream and jump up my chair. "I appreciate everything you guys do for me, I really do. But please, don't cut my hair!" I can the tears coming up, I didn't knew my hair meant this much to me.
"But sweety, it's only the dead ends," Camia says.
After a few minutes they have convinced me to get back in the chair even though I'm shaking from head to toe. I can't bear this. I can hear Camia cutting my hair and I start crying.
Then suddenly the door opens and a tall skinny woman with a blonde afro and pink eye shadow enters the room. She is wearing an all leather black suit, it's really tight but she has a good body for it. The only thing I'm missing is the black whip.
Raven, Kaiya and Camia take a few steps back when the woman starts to walk in circles around me. She makes different sounds, some of them remind me of approval and some of them… the sound like she's disgusted.
"Paloma," she suddenly says.
"Sorry?"
"I am Paloma, your stylist," she says.
"I'm Rubie," I say.
"I know."
Sorry, just trying to be polite here.
She starts inspecting me again, which makes me feel very uncomfortable. I feel like I'm naked, even though I'm not.
"Yes, I can work with this," she finally says.
Raven, Kaiya and Camia start to applaud. This probably means they've done their job. Making me into something Paloma can work with. She waves the team off and sits down on a chair.
"Don't worry, I'm not planning on making you look like a real fish," she immediately says.
This makes my day. Kent will be so disappointed when he she's me in a normal costume!"
"I was thinking to turn you into a mermaid. Using shells and giving you a tail," she continues.
O god no, a tail.
"It's almost finished, you will see it tonight."
For a moment I honestly thought I had a normal stylist. But she is just like all the others, a crazy artist. But she is my stylist and I give her my brightest smile and say: "I can't wait to see it." Which is of course the biggest lie ever.
Paloma smiles at me and then leaves the room. I can hear her giving some instructions to the team, who soon after that enter the room again and proceed their work. I can see Raven getting all kinds of colours and glittery stuff in jars from the cupboards. I guess I will just have to wait to see how this will end…