Ok, chapter 4! Hope ya'll enjoy! Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games.
In the morning, I'm woken up by the pounding of Kish's fist on my door and his obnoxious squealing. "Wake up Clove! We'll arrive in the Capitol in three hours!" He yells excitedly. He must be really anxious to get back to his friends. I'll bet he fits right in with his purple tinted skin and neon orange hair. It must be the normal look there.
I groan and roll out of my bed. I groggily drag myself to the bathroom. Once I'm there, I strip off my PJ's and step inside the shower. I pay no attention to what buttons I'm pushing, so I end up getting smothered with various smelling soaps and scrubs.
I step out of the shower, deliberately avoiding the mat. I want to dry myself off and leave my hair damp so that it's curly. I walk over to the sink and push a few buttons until I find the one that gives me a toothbrush.
I push another button and a robot arm reaches out, grabs my toothbrush, applies toothpaste to it, and then hands it back to me. "Hm, convenient." I say to myself.
I brush my teeth, comb out my hair, and walk back into my room. I open my dresser and pull out a pair of jeans, a loose fitting green shirt and a pair of brown leather boots. Once I'm dressed, I head down to the dining car.
When I arrive, breakfast has already been laid out on the table. I walk over and sit next to Enorbia and Cato. I immediately help myself to the different kinds of fruits on a silver platter. I also have an omelet with ham, cheese and tomato.
I notice that Cato eats an insane amount of food. He must be trying to gain more weight so that he can last longer in the arena without food. I guess I should be doing that as well, so I immediately ask for another omelet.
When we're finished with breakfast, Kish hurries to the front of the train to see how much longer we have. My guess would be two hours. When he hurries back excitedly, my guess is confirmed.
"Well, we have some time to kill. Want to watch the reapings and size up the competition?" Cato asks. "Sure" I respond.
We walk over to the couch in front of the TV. I sit down in the middle leaving Cato the option of which side to sit on. He chooses the side to my left and plops down next to me. He casually drapes his arm over the top of the sofa behind my head and leans back. I put my feet up on the table and sink into the couch with my arms crossed across my chest.
He grabs the remote and flips channels until we find the recaps playing. It's just started which is good so we can see everybody.
It starts with District 1. As usual, the tributes are volunteers. The girl has the announcers immediately fawning over her and I can see why, she has long blonde hair, daring green eyes, a perfect white smile, a cute button nose and a great body. She's about my height but a little bit lighter.
"I'll bet she has no trouble getting sponsors" I scoff. "And what makes you think you'll have trouble?" Cato asks. "Well, for one, I don't look like that. And two, I'm not a people person. I don't get people to like me very easily, in case you haven't noticed."
"Well, if it means anything, I think you look much better than her." Cato whispers into my ear. I immediately blush. Does he really think I'm prettier than her? Oh gosh Clove, you're such a girl. I scold myself mentally and immediately push the thought out of my mind.
I turn my attention back to the reaping as a tall boy volunteers. He looks about as tall as Cato, but much thinner."What's with his stupid facial expression?" Cato asks jokingly. "He's probably excited that this moment he's worked for his entire life is finally here." I reply.
The recaps move onto our reaping and as I expected, I'm shown charging towards the stage screaming that I volunteer. It really isn't that bad, it just looks like I really wanted to do this thing.
Cato is shown volunteering and walking towards the stage confidently. The announcers in the background are commenting about how he looks the most vicious and threatening so far. I agree with them.
The recaps continue on, and though a few tributes from District 4 and 7 look like they could make it in the Career pack, no one else stands out. That is, until we get to the boy from District 11.
He's massive. He's almost as tall as Cato and just as muscular. "I want him in our pack." Cato states. "Fine by me" I answer. I figured that Cato would be the leader of the Career pack this year.
He's the only one with the most fear factor, knows how to kill effectively, and has leadership skills, although, the District 11 boy might come close. They said his name was Thresh, quite fitting if you ask me.
District 12's reaping is quite a surprise though. There's a volunteer. A girl who looks to be about 16 lunges forward after a 12 year olds name was called. When she mounts the stage, I can tell that she's fairly tall, maybe 5'7". She's not scrawny which is weird for District 12. She actually has a fair bit of muscle on her.
"Hm, what about her?" I ask Cato. "We'll see. I want to see how she does in training first. Then I'll decide." He states. As I turn my attention back to the screen, the girl has just stated her name, Katniss, when District 12's escort asks for a round of applause for District 12's first volunteer.
Instead of applauding though, the whole district takes three fingers on their left hand, kisses them, then they raise them up toward the girl. "I wonder what that means." I think aloud. "I don't know, we'll have to ask Brutus and Enorbia" Cato replies.
Next, a boy, who looks to be about 16 as well, is reaped. He mounts the stage with fear plastered all over his face. No one volunteers for him. After they're ushered into their Justice Building, the screen goes black. "Well, that's it I guess." Cato says.
"Yep, guess so" I say "I wonder how far away we are?" I ask as I stand up, stretch out my arms and legs from sitting in the same position for so long, and walk towards the window. To my surprise, it's all black. "Must be a tunnel" Cato says as he walks over to join me.
It's only black for a few more seconds before we're blinded by white and shiny steel buildings and roads. "Wow" I whisper in awe. Cato is completely silent.
It's very beautiful. Everywhere I look; it's either shining or complete white. We pull into a train station and our train is flooded by reporters. Cato starts to wave to them and I give him a questioning look. "What? This is how you make friends." He states plainly. I think about it, then finally give in and begin to smile and wave.
Kish comes squealing out of the bar car followed by Enorbia and a very drunk Brutus. Cato leans down and whispers "Wow, I didn't know you could get drunk in less than 2 hours" to me. "Must be a new record" I chuckle.
"Well, let's be on our way!" Kish says excitedly. "We have to get you two to the remake center to get ready for the parade tonight!" he adds. "Joy" I grumble. "Now, one bit of advice, don't resist." Enorbia tells us. "They know what they're doing, so just listen to your stylist and everything will go smoothly." She finishes.
We exit the train to be flooded by camera flashes and reporters shouting questions. A group of Peacekeepers come towards us and escorts us to the car that will take us to the remake center.
Kish gets in first, followed by me, Cato and Enorbia hauling Brutus inside after her. We ride for about 10 minutes until we pull up to a large white building. We exit the car and enter the building. Enorbia takes me one way and Kish takes Cato the other way.
She drops me off in a long hallway lined with blue curtains. I'm in the second room, probably because of my district. I sit down on the table and wait for my prep team to arrive.
While I'm waiting, I see the girl from District 8 being ushered into her own area, and the girl from District 1 into the area next to mine. I hear an awful ripping sound and a scream. It must be hair removal time for somebody.
Suddenly, three people enter into the little room that I'm sitting inside of. Two of them are women, and one is a man. One of the women looks fairly normal, aside from her blue hair and harsh makeup, the only alterations she has are a few tattoos along her arms and on her face. The other woman is a little freakier looking though. She has pink tinted skin, bright green hair, long orange nails and rhinestones all over her body. The man is green, has a shaved head with tattoos all over it to look like hair, bright purple eyeliner and lipstick, and pink eyes.
They look like a bunch of circus freaks to me, but I don't say so. They're probably as sensitive as puppies.
I'm told to strip naked and to lie down on the table. I reluctantly do as they say while I repeat Enorbia's advice in my head. I'm smothered from my neck to my ankles in some kind of disgusting smelling green goop. Then scrubbed to the bone with different brushes by the pink woman while the one with the blue hair is washing my hair and working all the tangles out of it.
The man is busy scrubbing my feet and shaping my toenails before adding a coat of clear polish. The blue haired woman begins to wash my face with various soaps and applies lotions afterwards. She then begins to shape my eyebrows with a tiny pair of scissors and tweezers.
Next comes the part I've been dreading. My legs are coated in a thick paste with strips of cloth on top. The man tells me to get ready and I grip the table tightly. The pink lady grabs a strip of cloth and rips it off of my leg. I hold back a scream as every hair from that spot on my leg is ripped out.
She repeats the process about 25 times until my whole left leg is completely hairless. "One down, one to go!" she says in a high pitched voice. I brace myself as she begins my right leg.
The man starts to rub the same paste on my under and forearms. "Oh no, you're doing my arms too?" I ask him. "We're doing your whole body dear!" he says as he applies the cloths to the paste.
"My whole body?" I ask. "Yep" the lady with blue hair says as she begins to apply paste to my stomach and lower body. "This part is the most painful, you might want to hold on" she tells me as she's about to rip the first cloth off. I grip the table until my knuckles are white. "One, two, three!" she counts as she rips it.
I can't help the scream that I let out as my hair is once again, ripped from by body. I hear the girl from District 1 right next to me, scream horrifically as well. At least I'm not the only one. After a very long hour, I'm completely hair free, Except for the hair on my head and eyebrows of course.
I'm hosed down one more time, then, I'm rubbed with a flowery smelling lotion. My prep team finishes my nails, and then they rush out of the room. I sit on the cold metal table waiting for my stylist to come.
After about 10 minutes of waiting, he pulls back the curtain and walks towards the stool next to the table. He sits down and offers me a handshake. "I'm Nadab" he says with a smile. "Clove" I respond while shaking his hand. "Well Clove, let's have lunch while we discuss your parade costume." He says as he helps me into a blue robe.
We have roasted duck with a cherry glaze and steamed vegetables for lunch. I wash mine down with a glass of milk while Nadab has wine. He begins to give me hints about my costume but won't tell me completely what it is because he wants it to be a surprise.
After lunch, he begins to do my hair. He curls it and pins it into an intricate hairstyle. He does my makeup, and then he tells me to stand on the pedestal in the corner of the room with my eyes closed.
I do as he says while he gets out my costume. I keep my eyes closed as he slips what feel to be a corset over my head. He laces it up tightly, to the point that I can barely breathe.
He puts a silky dress that stops just above my knees over the corset. Then, I feel a very heavy weight on my shoulder as he puts on me what feels to be some kind of armor.
He fastens a heavy belt around my waist and helps me into my shoes. They're actually more like boots. I can feel that they have quite a heel as he slips them on my feet and lace them up.
As a finishing touch, he puts a helmet on my head. It's heavy like the armor. He adjusts a few things here and there, touches up my makeup and then tells me I can open my eyes.
When I do, I see a gorgeous roman goddess staring back at me. I'm completely speechless. I'm shining from head to toe. My boots have what looks to be a 5 inch heel, making me stand at over 6 feet tall.
The corset makes my waist look miniscule while my hips and upper body are curvy and accentuated. The dress is light and frilled at the skirt, while the armor is gold, heavy and deadly looking.
My makeup is strongest at my eyes making them appear much bigger than they are. My skin is bronzed and shining like the armor while my hair is done in an ancient roman style. The helmet is golden and has two wings at the top on either side of my head.
I look gorgeous, deadly, fierce, and intimidating. If I look this good, Cato must look ferocious. "Wow, I look amazing" I mutter in awe of myself. "Thank you so much" I tell Nadab with a hug. "You'll make them drop dead." He tells me.
We exit the room and walk down the hallway towards the stables. I notice that a lot of the peacekeepers are staring at me. I ignore their stares and look straight ahead towards the stable keeping my head high and walking confidently.
"Make them fear you." I tell myself as I see the doors open when we approach, and take a deep breath before walking inside.
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