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I look as gentle as the snow falling outside my house last winter. Not a puffball of white, and not a sliver of ice. Just…the beauty of snow.
A vision of white and light blue is what I see. I could be a bride, if it weren't for the details that made it not a wedding dress. The dress itself is close to the body, flaring at the top of my knees like a mermaid tail. The bottom flares into flurries of tulle, very minimally out at the front and elongating towards the back, like a train. In the tulle is slivers of silver and light blue, shimmering in the light. The tulle fades like an illusion of wisps of snowflake-like swirls onto the top, a very light blue as the base color for the satin dress. From light blue it gradually fades onto the darkest royal blue at the top, where a halter begins. The chest area of my dress where the most prominent fade of color is embroidered with shimmery details, swirls of silver and a pinkish gold, vining its way from the sides of my waist to the top of my my halter, stopping at my neck. The halter itself stops at the beginning of my neck from under my face. No collar, but on my shoulders is silver-blue organza, ruched from the end of my halter mid-clavicle to the beginning of my shoulders.
Slowly, I turned around and looked back. I gasped.
My back was covered from the end of my lover back to my neck in crystalized ice. It glittered in the lighting, and inserted in swirls and shapes of the ice were jewels- not large and prominent, but subtle and made the ice shine even more- hidden in the curves. Swirling and swirling, the ice connected to the satin dress and organza shoulder attachments. From the organza, the same material was criss-crossed into the crystal strategically, dancing in ice to hold the dress together. However, this organza went from different hues of blues to silver to white to pink and repeating again until it disappears into the ice completely. I also see the tulle train more prominently, ending in a very subtle light blue.
I look up at Cinna.
"It's… I can't even…I…wow."
Cinna smiles. "You look beautiful, Lillianne." He says, coming to me. Everyone in my room- Zafrina, Venus, Bienna, and Cashmere- is speechless, staring at every detail of the gown. I myself know I missed some details, because the dress in its entirety is just breathtaking.
Still staring at myself in the mirror, I hadn't noticed Cinna had gone to a table to grab a can that looked like hairspray. He goes behind me and begins to spray the ice. At first, I feel cold, but then again I feel nothing. Cinna explains as Bienna comes to my front, a brush and a bottle of eyepaint in her hand.
"I'm spraying something onto your back for two reasons. One: so the back won't melt. Two: for the ice to sublimate a little. Have you ever breathed out in the cold weather, and you see your breath?"
I nod. He smiles.
"Well that's our effect. However, the latter won't be happening until show-time. "
Already outside, I hear commotion of other tributes and assistants yelling: "Thirty minutes to show-time! Thirty minutes to show-time!"
Bienna is swirling silver paint onto the sides of my eyes, and presses on flakes of silver and white as well. Zafrina spreads a minty gloss in a very light color on my lips.
"To make it look frosty," She says, winking. Venus puts in a few last crystal pins in my hair.
"Lillianne Snow…" Cashmere muses confidently, "You look amazing."
I breathe in, then out, giving Cinna my arms as he slides in two silver cuffs with similar designs from my back to my wrists.
"You can do this," I whisper to myself, not caring if they heard me, "You can do this."
I step out of my tent, and the entire room hushes.
I look forward to my chariot, ignoring them. Everyone is here. Everyone is watching. And everyone most certainly knows who I am. I can hear their murmurs. I'm joined by Demetrius as our prep team disassembles. I look over at him, and see we have some sort of matching theme. He has simple white pants with jewels weaving their way from the bottom to the top in a similar fashion as the embroidery of my dress's upper half. He's wrapped in different colors of chiffon, all different shades of blue and white and silver. Jewels are intertwined in there as well, topaz and emerald gems, pearls, diamonds- they match his crown. Over the wrapped around top, he has crystalized ice over the chiffon ties, starting wide from his broad shoulders and thinning until it ends at his waist. It has the same carvings of swirls and shapes as my back piece, and has jewels incrusted into them as well. His back is like a cape, using the concept of the organza tying into the crystal designs differently. From shoulder to shoulder, white organza is draped in three different levels. On the outer edge of the draping, the organza falls, one piece on one side and the other on the other, and falls to the ground like a train. He smiles at me half-heartedly.
"You look decent, Snow." He whispers. I shoot him a glance, but accept the almost compliment.
We stop at the chariot and are helped onto it by Cinna and Demetrius's head stylist Jaques. We face backwards, and we can see the eleven other chariots. I feel like smacking my forehead at the sight of the other tributes' costumes.
It's ridiculous, really. They're all rip-offs of Cinna's past works. Fire is everywhere, some working and some failing. So are the water-trains, and somehow District Four is both drowning in water and burning in leather. Makes no sense at all.
"Do you realize that you're the most original person in this room?" I question annoyingly, looking down at Cinna. He laughs, as does Jaques.
"Oh, ignore that," Jaques says, her voice rather high pitched, "Cinna's grown used to it."
I shrug, and I turn to see Demetrius staring at something. I look in that direction, looking for his focus point for a few moments. It's when the focal point reaches Cinna that I know why he's frozen.
"It's Katniss Everdeen," Demetrius grumbles, "And Peeta Mellark."
Our mouths drop, because we've never been so close to them. Not even when they came through the victory tour- and I wasn't allowed near them!- did we come to such closeness. Not only that, but they were eyeing us. US!
"Do you ever run out of ideas, Cinna?" Katniss asks, her voice reverberating in my ears. Peeta puts his arm around her.
"Leave the man alone." He tells her. He then looks up at me. "You two look amazing. Job well done, Cinna."
I blush. Demetrius says nothing. We nod in unison.
"So how are you two?" Cinna converses briefly, after pulling in both Katniss and Peeta for a hug. They begin talk, and I'm about to turn around when I stop. My heart skips a beat.
He's here.
He's in a leather suit with accents of red and gold, almost like flames. I can see he's not on fire. He has red leather gloves and black boots, blocks of red and yellow closing them. He has red flame-like things coming out of his shoulders. His grey eyes are prominent from the coal- or black makeup- around his eyes. His hair is messy, with red specks of glitter- although not as shiny as ours- in and around his hair.
I'm staring at him. He's in the last Chariot, the one pitch black with horses as dark as night. He's far away. He's nowhere near me.
Yet our eyes meet. My stomach starts to hurt.
Alexander Romulus.
"Five Minutes!" Someone shouts, and he interrupts my thoughts. Suddenly, the room begins to refocus. Tributes are talking to their mentors. Katniss and Peeta are long gone, and already by their own tributes. Alexander is one of them. He's still looking at me.
And so am I.
He smiles slightly.
I feel a grin pulling at my mouth.
He looks away shyly.
"Hey."
My focus is gone, as is my smile. I compose myself, turning to Demetrius swiftly. He's watching me.
"Uh-what?" I say in a hushed tone. He nudges me to look beside me.
"Cashmere wants to talk to you." He says. I nod and look down my chariot to see Cashmere. She looks at me up and down one more time. Her eyes sparkle.
"Best costume. Hands down." She replies. I chuckle.
"You're our mentor." I respond, "You're supposed to favor us."
She flicks her hand and scoffs. "Oh, details."
We laugh, and she looks at the chariots behind us. She looks back at me.
"Make them remember you. They'll love you." She insists. I nod. She adds one more thing.
"The Games begin now."
"SIXTY SECONDS!" Someone shouts. My stomach does a flip. Cinna is behind me, and is spraying the can like crazy, coating it more than five times. Already, wisps of white are emanating from my dress. He does one more coat and comes to my side.
"Smile," Cinna says with a smile himself, "Your mentor is right. They'll love you. Wave, look at them in the eyes, and always smile." He takes my hand. "Show them what your made of, Miss Snow."
He rubs my arm comfortingly, nodding, and he runs behind Cashmere, Jaques, and Gloss to take their seats. I look back one last time, and this time I'm met with Katniss's eyes. Startled, I look around, then look at her. She gives me a knowing smile. She looks up at her tribute, Alexander, and whispers in his ear. He looks at me, and he blushes, shaking his head at her.
I have no time to wonder what they were doing, because I'm being pulled by Demetrius. He's looking down at me with his brown eyes.
"Ready, Snow?" He asks, giving me his arm, seeing he has similar patterns on his upper arms as I did on the edge of my eyes.
I understand this angle. Friendly, not in love. It's more than that, I'm sure. But the crowd will only see us. I intertwine my arm with his, feeling the cool ice brush against my arm. I nod.
"Ready, Florence."
And without a glance back at the handsome boy from Twelve, I watch the doors open before us, the crowd's cheers deafening.
And the easiest part of the Games begin.
I might just post a pic of my sketch of the dress on my profile. Just might...
But anyway, you know the drill! REVIEW! C: