Hi guys, in this chapter you'll notice a sudden jump from Val being in the middle of nowhere to her being at the Remake Center. That's because the book was kind of vague about what it looked like and how they got there…all we know is that it's underground, so that's why there was no building in the last chapter. Yeah. So I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the jump doesn't bother you!

PLEASE review! Thanks for reading our story!

-ArianaWeasly

Chapter 22 - Vala's POV

The metal bench was cold, especially since the only thing I was wearing was a thin robe that Candy had given me. Candy was the receptionist at the Remake Center. She had flaming red hair, and light yellow skin. Her eyebrows had been replaced with orange sparkles that matched her dress. The dress had a layer, kind of like an umbrella or a tutu that stuck out from her waist. It was strapless, and shiny. Too shiny. I could tell that she had been going for a 'fire' look, because all across her shoulders and arms were tattoos of flames.

She was definitely a Capitol person.

Bored, I looked around the room. It was smaller than I had expected it to be, about the size of a bedroom. On the side opposite from me was a large, silver tub. Next to the tub was a glass, closed off box that looked like one of those showers you stood in. I wondered what it was for. One of the walls was covered in gray cabinets. They were probably filled with soaps, shampoo, makeup, hair supplies, and everything else I needed to have my makeover done.

In the middle of the room was a cluster of various chairs, benches, and stools that I would sit on while getting my makeup and hair done. There was also a table which was probably for waxing; I shuddered as I thought of that.

In one corner of the room was a shower head, with a drain on the floor underneath it. I guessed that it was for rinsing off.

Finally, there was a large mirror, almost taking up a whole wall. I looked at myself in it. I looked really bad, with big bags under my eyes, and messy hair. I decided not to look in it again until my prep team told me to. Speaking of that, where was my prep team? After being around Hermia so much, I had thought that all Capitol people were obsessed with being on time to things. I was getting bored and cold just sitting there on the bench; if only Candy had given me a warmer robe.

I sat there, twirling my hair and thinking about Candy, for at least 10 minutes before my prep team came in. They came in loudly.

BANG.

The door was thrown open, and 3 people stood there. One was a boy, with lime green skin, a bright yellow Mohawk, tattoos all over his arms, and earrings covering his ears. He was wearing a tight, white cotton t-shirt that showed off his muscles and tattoos, and a pair of cargo shorts. There was a girl standing next to him with pink sparkly skin, a sky blue bob cut, purple fishnet stockings, and a skintight sky blue dress. Before I got the chance to look at the last person, they came barging in, eager to see what I looked like.

"Get up!" The boy said.

I obeyed, and stood up quickly. The circled around me, eyeing me like hawks. I finally got a good look at the last person. It was a girl. She had dark brown skin, and green, catlike eyes; an odd combination. Her thick, black hair was pulled up into a tight bun, and she wore a tight silver dress.

"I like your hair," she said in a silky voice. "Sorry we're late by the way, Cassius had to change outfits."

I had no idea who Cassius was, but kept my mouth shut.

"Yeah, but somebody had to change shoes," the boy said, glaring at the girl. That's probablyCassius, I thought. "She's got a great shape," he added.

"LOOK AT HER NAILS!" the girl with the fishnet stockings shrieked.

They all gasped and grabbed my hands, looking at my nails. I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as they examined my short, stubby, dirty nails.

Finally, the boy straightened up. "I'm Cassius," he said, introducing himself.

"I'm Kharmen," said the girl with the fishnet stockings.

"Awuor," said the girl with the dark brown skin.

"Val," I replied.

They all laughed.

"What?" I asked, offended.

"Of course we know who you are,"Cassius said.

"We had your parents," said Kharmen.

How old were these people? Plastic surgery could do amazing things these days…I thought.

"Don't forget her brother," Awuor said dreamily. "He had the nicest muscles and the dreamiest eyes…"

I gagged. "You mean Kenn?"

"Of course silly!" Kharmen said.

"Uh, can we stop talking about my family now?" I said.

"Sorry sugar," Cassius said. "Let's start by getting you down to beauty level zero."

I didn't even bother asking what that was; because I knew they would just laugh at me. From all of their chatter though, I figured out that it meant natural beauty.

The first thing they did was make me take a bath.

"In front of you guys?" I said, as Cassius gestured towards the tub.

"Duh," Kharmen said.

"But I don't want to-"

"Just get in the tub hon," Awuor said.

I sighed, and took off my robe. I got in the tub as quickly as I could before they could look at me for too long. The water was hot, but it cooled down a bit after they poured in a bunch of flowery smelling soap. Then they took out some gigantic sponges and began scrubbing me.

It was really weird being washed by somebody else, but they acted like they did it every day. They probably did too. The whole time they scrubbed me down, they chatted about all the new fads and all the clothes that were in. They kept talking about how jealous they were of Candy's dress, which was apparently called a peplum dress. I thought it looked idiotic, but they were all in love with it. It was the newest trend in the Capitol, one that dated back from at least the 21st Century. At least that's what they claimed. It was hard to tell who was saying what, since their voices all had that same, funny Capitol accent.

Their chattering was only interrupted once, when Cassius was scrubbing down my arms.

"Look at her muscles!" he said, open mouthed.

"They're beautiful!" Awuor said, "Just like her brothers."

I rolled my eyes.

They finished washing me, and let me get out of the tub. I stood in what I thought originally was a glass box, but turned out to be an amazing drier that dried off your body and your hair instantly. I was about to put my robe back on, when Cassius grabbed my arm.

"No so fast," he said. "We need to wax all the hair off of you first."

The next 30 minutes was torturous. They would pour hot wax onto your skin, and press a piece of paper on it. After the wax dried, then RIIIIIIIIP! They would pull it off and all of the hair would come out with it. It felt like your skin itself was being torn off of you.

After they pulled the last bit of hair off of me, they began rubbing some foamy stuff into my red, burning skin. It stung at first, but then it soothed the skin. I couldn't help but sigh as they rubbed it in.

"Much better, huh?" Kharmen said with a smile.

I smiled back. My prep team might've been crazy, but that was just how they were. They were actually very sweet, although they didn't seem to get that the Hunger Games is not something you want to be in. They acted like it was a big honor.

"Yeah, a lot better," I replied. "But it really hurt."

My prep team exchanged looks with each other, making me wonder what it was I didn't know. I ignored it for the time being.

After the foam, they made me get back into the tub, where they scrubbed me again. As Kharmen was looking through a cabinet full of sponges, she came across a bottle of gel.

"That's where it was!" she exclaimed.

"Where what was?" I asked.

"Oh this gel stuff that you rub onto…onto your…" she trailed off after receiving a glare from Cassius.

"Come on Kharmen, tell me what it does," I said, suspicious that they might use it on me.

"It…ittakesallthehairoffyourbody painlessly," she mumbled. Clearing her throat, she repeated in a squeaky voice, "It takes all the hair off of your body, painlessly. It's a gel hair remover. You just rub it on, rinse it off, and voila! All the hair comes off. They invented it years ago,"

"You mean you didn't have to wax me?" I asked angrily.

"Well, we kind of did because, uh…uh…because we couldn't find it," she said in a timid voice.

I felt like I was about to explode. Then I noticed the looks on my prep team's faces. Kharmen looked like she was preparing to be killed, and Awuor and Cassius had crept over to the other side of the room when I wasn't looking, in case I got mad. My prep team's emotions were too delicate for me to get mad at them.

I just took a deep breath, and let it out through my teeth. "It's okay, I understand."

Kharmen and the others breathed sighs of relief. I smiled.

"Back in the tub, hon" said Awuor, coming over to my side of the room.

I looked down at my feet. They were on the cold, gray floor of the room, surrounded by a puddle of water. I hadn't even realized I had gotten out of the tub.

Sighing, I stepped back into the bathtub, and let my prep team finishing scrubbing me down.

A little later, I got out, got dried, and then sat back on the chair. Awuor brushed out my hair, Kharmen cleaned my nails, and Cassius rubbed some lotion onto my arms and legs. When they were done with that, they spun my chair around to face a huge mirror on the wall.

I looked so clean I was shiny, and my usually wild curls were so smooth and clean they reflected the light, and fell down where they should. In other words, I looked better than I ever had before.

"There," Cassius said, satisfied.

"What, are we done?" I asked hopefully.

"Of course not!"Awuor said.

"This is just beauty level zero," Kharmen added.

"Oh," I said, disappointed.

"If you think you look good now, just wait until we've made you beautiful, sweetheart!" Awuor said.

"She already is beautiful," Kharmen said softly.

I blushed, but none of them seemed to notice as they got back to work. I made sure to grab my robe before they began, since it was starting to get cold in the room.

The first thing they "made pretty" as they called it, was my nails. Since they were so short it wasn't possible to clip them, they decided to just file them until they were smooth. Then they added fake nails on top of them, since mine were a 'disgrace'. They put a little bit of glue on the tips of the fingernails, and sprinkled sand on them, like the shore of a beach. The rest of the nail they would paint with different shades of swirling blue. My middle fingers had fish painted on them, and my rings fingers had coral. On each of my thumbs, they glued on a small, fake starfish to complete the ocean theme.

That reminded me of when I was little. I had been playing on the beach with Adrielle, and we were finding starfish. I hadn't told her at the time, but starfish really scared me then, because I thought starfish were stars that had fallen out of the sky, into the water. That was back when I was scared of outer space too. Adrielle had dared me to pick one up, so I did. I named my starfish Pearl (which Adrielle thought was a stupid name, but that's coming from someone who named their starfish Star), and after that day I was never scared of starfish again.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when they started working on my face. The first thing they did was put some foundation on my face, to even out my skin tones. Then they started to load my face with different creams and powder that I couldn't even recognize. After my face felt so heavy, like it was about to fall off, they finally stopped. The held a mirror up to my face, so I could see what I looked like. My skin was perfect. It was shiny, even, and even sparkled slightly when I moved my head around. Looking at my eyebrows, I noticed they had been plucked. How had they done that without me noticing?I wondered.

"I look amazing," I breathed.

"Of course you do!" said Awuor, silkily.

"And we're not even done with you," Cassius said.

"What haven't you done?" I asked, slightly aggravated.

"Well there's the mascara, and the blush, and the eye shadow…"Kharmen began, her blue bob cut wig almost slipping off in excitement.

"But you don't need to know everything," Cassius cut in hastily, before Kharmen could rattle off all the makeup I still needed.

"All that matters is how you look at the end," Awuor said.

Saying nothing, I just raised my perfect eyebrows at them as they began once more.

Makeup was by far the most annoying thing to have put on. I had to pucker my lips for the lip gloss, and open my eyes wide for mascara, both at the same time. Then I had to close my eyes for the eye shadow, and rub my lips together to even out the gloss at the same time. I must've looked really stupid, but Kharmen told me that I didn't. Capitol people were terrible at lying.

Even more powders and various face paints were carefully but quickly applied to my face. It took about half an hour before they were done.

"Ready?" Kharmen asked, finally.

I nodded, nervously wondering what my face looked like.

Awuor held a mirror in front of my face, and I gasped.

"I-I look-I don't know what to say!" I exclaimed.

I didn't either. My face looked beautiful. My lips had a thin layer of pink gloss over them, and they shined and sparkled in the light. My skin tone was an even, tan color (very different compared to Adrielle's pale skin), with just the right amount of light pink blush on my cheeks. Somehow, they had figured out how to make my cheekbones noticeable, making me look pretty but sophisticated.

My eyes were definitely the best part. Mascara had made my eyelashes dark, thick, long, curly, and even sparkly.Whenever I blinked, the eyelashes seemed to float with my eyelids in slow motion, throwing blue, green, and gold sparkles all over my face. My eyelashes were like mini glitter machines. My eyes themselves looked amazing too. They looked bigger somehow; big, green and beautiful, just like the sea. On my eyelids were different shades of the ocean. On the edge of my eyelid was sea foam green. Different shades of blue and green were above that, getting darker and darker until the paint finally ended just below my eyebrows, with a shade of dark purple. What was next to my eyes was my favorite part. Blue, green, and even gold swirls decorated the corner of my eyes, going back almost to my hairline. One thin gold swirl on my right eye went all the way down the side of my face. A thin layer of sparkles covered the swirls too, which wasn't a huge surprise. My prep team really loved their glitter.

"What do you think?" Cassius asked, grinning.

"It's absolutely wondiferous," I said, using one of my favorite words.

My prep team scrunched their eyebrows at the mysterious word.

"Thank you…?" Kharmen said in a confused voice.

I laughed. "Don't worry guys, that was a compliment."

Their faces lit up at that, and they started to gush about how gorgeous I looked. I waved all of their compliments away and just stared at myself in the mirror some more. Woah, hold back on the narcissism Val, I thought, finally tearing my eyes away from the mirror.

"What's next?" I asked eager to be made even more beautiful.

"Your hair," my prep team said in unison.

They sat me down on a metal bar stool and got to work, chattering excitedly again.

I could kind of distinguish their voices now. Cassius had a small, deep grumble in his throat when he spoke. Kharmen kind of chirped when she talked, and Awuor had a small purr in her throat. I decided to place them into animal groups; Cassius was the lion, with his orange Mohawk and grumbly throat. Kharmen was a bird, because of her chirpiness. Awuor was a cat, because of her cat eyes and her purr.

I stopped myself for a moment, and thought about what I had just done. The Games are making me go insane, I thought. Animals groups, what is wrong with me?

I still couldn't help but think of Cassius as "the lion" from then on.

"So, what are you guys doing with my hair?" I asked, conversationally.

They froze. I guess most people didn't ask them what they were doing to them.

Cassius, the lion, was the first to unfreeze. "We were thinking of keeping your hair in its curls, since they're so pretty. Then we thought we might put it up in messy ponytail."

"Don't forget we're leaving some curls out around her face, Lion," Awuor added.

It was my turn to freeze. "You call Cassius lion too?" I asked, scared. How had they known I had nicknamed Cassius "Lion"?

"Oh, yeah. It's the most wonderful nickname ever," Awuor said dreamily.

"That's because Kenn invented it," Cassius said, smirking.

"That is not true!" Awuor snapped.

Lion and Kharmen just stared at her, until she gave in. "Okay, fine, maybe it is, but it still suits you."

I laughed in agreement.

Lion suddenly realized something I said earlier. "You asked why Awuor called me Cassius too, right?" he said.

"Yeah," I said blushing. "I kind of nicknamed you that in my head."

Lion just laughed.

"You are so much like your brother," Kharmen said.

My prep team began to work on my hair again. A few minutes later, I interrupted their chatter again.

"Why did Kenn nickname you Lion? I mean everybody in the Capitol changes there look at least 3 times a year."

"Yeah, everybody except for Cassius," Kharmen said, rolling her eyes.

"He's so behind, he's only changed his look like once in the past 3 years," Awuor added.

Lion just blushed, ignoring Awuor, and continued to work on my hair. So did Kharmen and Awuor. After quickly spraying it with some hair spray, my prep team stepped back.

"There," Kharmen said.

"You're done!" Lion chimed in.

"Absolutely done," Awuor added.

"And you look beautiful!" They growled, chirped, and purred together.

Don't go insane… I reminded myself.

"Can I take a look?" I asked.

"Of course hon," said Awuor.

They were about to spin me around in my bar stool, but I stopped them before it was too late.

"Wait!" I said. "I don't want to look until I have the dress on."

"Okay! But make sure we're here when you look at yourself for the first time!" Chirped Kharmen.

"Of course I will," I said, giving her a smile.

"We'll go get your stylist then," Lion said.

My prep team rushed towards the door, excited to bring my stylist to me. I wonder what my stylist would be like. Would it be a girl or a boy? Would they be crazy? Would they dress me well?

I shivered half because I was cold, half because I was nervous about my stylist. My robe was hanging on a hook by the bathtub. I got up and walked over to it. Grabbing it, I was about to put it on when a voice stopped me.

"I wouldn't put that on if I was you," it said.

I spun around. Behind me was a Capitol woman. She was short, and surprisingly wasn't wearing heels or anything to make her taller. Also surprisingly, she wasn't wearing anything too crazy. It was colorful, yes, but not fancy at all. I liked that.

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked, although hanging my robe back on the hanger.

"Because you'd just have to take it off again," she said with a grin. "That's because I'm your stylist, Fiona."

"I'm Val," I said.

She laughed.

"Why does everybody laugh when I say that?!" I asked.

"That's because we all know you already, with your parents and brother being in the Games." She replied.

"Yeah I know…" I grumbled. "And what are you wearing?" I added on.

Fiona laughed again. "You of all people should recognize it," she said with a laugh.

She was right; what she was wearing was my style. She was wearing sky blue skinny jeans, with a yellow tank top and a pair of black flats. Her skin was not died, although it was so tan she might have gotten it darkened slightly. Her hair was basically the only thing Capitol-like thing about her; it was bright purple, and went down just past her shoulders. Besides all the colors, she was wearing an outfit I wore most days.

"That's partly why I chose you," she said.

"What?" I said, confused.

"My partner and I get to choose who we work with. I chose you partly because I worked with your family members, but mainly because of what you were wearing from the train to the car. I loved it by the way; those tennis shoes came in handy," Fiona said with a wink.

I blushed at her praise, and at her last comment. "Thanks, and yeah, they did," I said laughing.

She laughed with me. "Time to measure you for your dress! I already know what to put you in of course; I just need to tune it up a bit based on your size."

Fiona circled around me a couple times, just like my prep team had, before coming in to measure me.

As she was wrapping the measuring tape around my thigh, I asked "So, what does my dress look like?"

"That's a surprise, although I will say that you and Adrielle are going to match. Your dresses are the same style, but different colors."

Twins, I thought.

"I just wanted to ask you though, is there anything you want the dress to look like?" Fiona asked suddenly.

"Uhm, I don't know. Adrielle's good at that kind of thing, not me," I said blushing.

"Adrielle already told us what she wanted." Fiona replied.

"Let me guess, she wants a cape, doesn't she?" I said with a laugh.

Fiona laughed with me. "How did you know?"

"She's always loved the capes in the Chariot Parade," I said.

"You know her so well," Fiona said. "Well there is going to be a cape."

I couldn't help but feel excited. I wanted to stand out, like all Blaise's parents had. I started daydreaming about my dress…

"Hmm, that's funny," Fiona said suddenly, bringing me back down to Earth. She had just finished measuring me.

"What is?" I asked.

"You and Adrielle have the exact same measurements, although yours are slightly bigger in the shoulders because of your muscles," she said.

"Wow, you really didn't even need to measure me!" I said, laughing.

"Actually I do, because your proportions are slightly different than hers," Fiona replied.

Leave it to a stylist to answer my joke seriously.

"Oh, well that's true," I said, playing dumb. "When will my dress be ready?"

"Sooner than expected, because of this sizing miracle. I'd say it will be ready in the next 10 minutes," she replied.

"Yay!" I squeaked, eager to try it on.

"Wait here," Fiona said, walking towards the door. "Oh yeah, you might want to put your robe back on," she said, winking.

Blushing, again, I quickly put my robe on before Fiona could open the door, and other people could see me.

I sat on the bar stool, waiting for Fiona and my prep team to arrive. Time seemed to tick by slowly in my excitement. Much to my dismay, there was no clock in the room to check the time with. I wonder how long I've been here for, I thought.

Finally there was a knock on the door. "Close your eyes!" squeaked the excited voice of Kharmen."

I shut them.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to ruin the surprise," I heard Lion's voice grumble.

"Remember how Kenn didn't close his eyes and he-"

"YES, WE REMEMBER!" replied Kharmen, Fiona, and Lion together in aggravated voices. I didn't even have to hear the voice to know that it was Awuor who was talking about Kenn.

"Keep them closed!" Fiona said, as I heard the door squeak open.

I squeezed my eyes even tighter.

"No peeking!" Lion reminded me.

I felt somebody slip the robe off of me, and let them guide me into the dress. I felt a soft layer of fabric, probably chiffon, pressing against my body. The dress was light, but heavier than chiffon should be. There must be something fancy on it, I thought.

Warm hands gently turned me toward what I was guessing was the mirror.

"Open your eyes now," said Fiona.