"Aargh! Are you trying to kill me?" I scream as my legs seem to be torn to pieces. She's already de-haired the rest of my body, and left my skin red and raw, and now she is getting rid of my final bit of sanity. The lady responsible giggles, as though my reaction is stupid.
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm simply waxing your legs. They seriously needed doing, dear." She tears another piece of material coated in the sticky wax from my skin, and I wince.
"Why the heck couldn't you leave me alone, this is bloody painful!" I'm serious but she just laughs once again.
"Oh, you were not seriously considering that it was a possible option to send you to your stylist with a forest of hair on your legs, were you? Let me tell you something, dear - it isn't, so let it go." She continues with her torture routine a few more times before saying, "It's all gone, it shouldn't return for a while." She seems horribly pretentious, and I'm finding her far too annoying, but I stay quiet as much as I can. I need to be demure if I want to pull this off, and I've already screamed at her. Hopefully she'll just dismiss it as a reaction to the pain, a natural instinct. It is a natural instinct.
My whole prep team cover me in some horrible lotion before standing me nude before them once again and attacking me with some strange metal contraption they call 'tweezers'. I've never come across them before, but I hate them already. When they pull out seemingly non-existant hairs from my naked body, it stings me.
They finally finish trying to give me a heart-attack from the pain of what they class as beauty, and tug at my hair, trying to get rid of any tangles. Lets just say that they fail miserably to begin with, since my hair is in a pretty poor condition. It's never concerned me to be honest, but it makes this trio of useless idiots nearly faint in the terror of my poor hairdo.
In the end they give up and just cut it short before adding extensions. My new hair looks dreadful but I pretend to be thankful to them, if only to get them to buy my act. After all, if they believe it, then I should have no reason to suspect that the others in the Capitol won't.
One of them mentions that Cassius is coming and they leave, leaving me alone for a moment or two. Though I hated the trio's company, they were slightly more amiable than the clinical looking room now it is empty.
Soon the man named Cassius arrives. He and his blue hair just circle me, his eyes taking in every part of my body. I feel really uncomfortable, but I daren't say. I don't want to know the consequences of complaining during a moment which isn't designed to be painful.
He gets nearer and begins to mess with my hair extensions. Though I grit my teeth, as soon as he lets go of my locks I grab my robe and begin to put it on. "Not yet, dearie, robes are for later." I take off the robe once more, but I stand right beside the counter where I place it.
After circling me a few more times, Cassius begins to mutter in that clipped Capitol accent. "Now, what can I do with you...?" This time, I don't hesitate to pull on the robe and I tie it tight to avoid his gaze. I don't like people looking at me naked.
We eat a lavish lunch - well, my stylist eats, I just attempt to figure out a way to escape from him. After half an hour or so of pushing food around my plate in utter disgust at the way men like him keep looking at me, he talks. "So, about your costume. My partner and I had a very successful pair of outfits last year, so your outfit this year is similar to last year's, with a few minor little tweaks..."
As it turns out, these tweaks are that it is skinnier and more leafy. Regardless, I remain a tree trunk. Gideon has an outfit very alike to my own, and we step on the chariot at the same time. Now Cassius is determined to make me appear even more tree-like, and he is positioning me so I look like I am not a human. It is a pretty stupid way of getting people to recognise me, but it's his call, not my own.
All of the first few districts go down like a storm, with screams of their names as they pass. Even Six have decent outfits compared to my tree. As we pass through the crowds, I consider breaking down in tears, but I establish that it would be a pointless exercise since nobody will notice the girl who is a tree if I don't do anything to make myself stand out, and water pouring from my eyes would class as something that would draw attention to me for sure. Instead, I just stand there looking every bit as scared as I really am.
Not a single person has a banner with my name on, and I'm not sure whether or not this should offend me. I mean; some people backing me would have been nice. Then again, there is no reason for them to. I seem utterly useless.
When we pull up before the president's mansion, we have to wait for the other districts to arrive. It's a painful wait, just standing there, doing nothing at all. I allow a single tear to fall, but I hold back the river so that I don't draw attention to myself. Yes, I want to seem weak if I am noticed, but I would rather be completely inconspicuous if I can be at times.
The speech by Snow is not one that I pay any attention to, but I am still glad when it is over. We are soon back inside of the stable beneath the Remake Centre, and I rush to take off the trunk, showing my black vest and tights underneath. It doesn't bother me though - at least I am clothed. Besides, black is less obvious than green is.
