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The train came to a complete stop and Aelia ushered Ash, John, Allie and I to the nearest doors. She muttered to herself about our choice in clothes and wondered aloud why she hadn't picked out our presentation outfits for us, but she never addressed us directly and nor did we reply to her mutterings.
When the doors opened, sunlight poured into the traincar and I squinted out at the crowd. They parted like a sea over the cobblestone street, held back every few feet by men in blue. A few hundred paces ahead of where I stood, the four tributes from district eleven walked. They were all careful paces away, not looking at each other. Aelia ushered us out of the car and I walked forwards uncertainly, Ash a half pace behind me. Allie walked quickly to remain abreast with me; I guessed that she didn't want it to look like I was the leader of our district.
I walked down the steps outside the station. I stared at the crowds on either side of us with wide eyes and managed to find a smile, waving at them hesitantly. After a little bit I got more into the waving, remembering what Mom always laughed about Dad saying the first day they got to the Capitol; Who knows? Maybe one of them is rich. Mom always said that's the first time she realized Dad was going to be a challenge in the arena. In fact, he was just so challenging that it was easier for her to start a war than to kill him! That's what she told us, anyway.
I was glad things in the Capitol were already going so differently than what Mom and Dad had told us about. It made it easier to put them aside.
"Say hello to the district twelve tributes!" Nero's voice boomed through the street and I glanced upwards to see his face broadcast onto the huge underside of a ship. I noticed with interest that Kit wasn't on screen with him. I looked back down and continued waving.
The tracks behind us started clicking and I looked over my shoulder to see the train pull slowly out of the station and around a building, only to be followed up immediately by an identical train with a gigantic thirteen painted on the side. The doors opened and I saw the four kids from district thirteen standing in the shadows, fear emanating from their postures. I turned back, fighting off a sudden bout of queeziness as it started to sink in... If I wanted to get Ash home, those kids were going to all have to die. So was Allie. So was John. And I was probably going to have to kill some of them.
The walk was long to abide for all the Capitol citizens who wanted to see us walked before them like show dogs, but I was absent minded for most of it. I waved until my arm hurt and then alternated arms, hoping that I was being more interesting than the other tributes and I would stay in the Capitol citizens' minds longer. If I got the funding I could use it to help Ash through the games...
We finally rounded a corner and a huge, slender building rose up before us with delicate arches and windows that were an array of colors, reflecting even the daylight sun in all the colors of sunset. Glass doors with frosted figures rose up twenty feet and were topped with stained glass images showing each of the thirteen districts. Before the doors were smooth white marble steps with gold veins running through it and they led directly between two columns, shadowing the doorstep of the building.
I hesitated for a heartbeat before setting foot on the stairs. I felt as though I was walking to my own cage, a cage with glass doors instead of bars and it would trap me... it would trap me in a cage distinct from the other tributes and then that cage would let us lose in a gladiators ring, only to come out if we should be victorious.
An irrational part of my mind screamed out to run, that this was my last chance and if I went up those steps I would have been sealed in my own fate. The other part of me knew that I was sealed the second I walked up onto that stage, or maybe even the second those Peacekeepers caught Ash and I in the woods. Before the irrational part of my mind was even done screaming I had forced myself up the steps and through the doors.
The entry hall was huge, warm and welcoming, made out of the same polished marble as the front and it was bedecked with red throws to soften the glare of the stone. A warm red wood made up the entirety of the furniture and the scent of wood smoke filled the room, even though I was under no illusion that the Capitol was using a fire for warmth. An elegant stairwell swirled upwards about ten steps, but it was only for looks because it led almost directly to an elevator. A semicircle above the elevator doors was inscribed with fourteen numbers, and right now the number 11 was glowing brightly. A clock hand pointed to it, and then started swinging back through the numbers until the zero glowed, and the doors chimed open... waiting.
We walked up that elegant staircase to the elevator and stepped in, just the four of us. The doors closed behind us and I looked along the wall for a panel of numbers to press but there was none. An automated female voice spoke, "Recognized: District Twelve Tributes" and we began to rise. When the elevator stopped and opened we were faced with another open room filled with the most modern furniture and items we could imagine. We stepped out and the doors shut silently behind us, descending back into the depths to retrieve the District Thirteen tributes.
I brought my attention back to the room and for the first time I noticed eight new faces sitting in furniture on the far side of the room, along with Aelia, Naevius and Hadriana. They looked up at us and we were greeted by a few smiles, a few sad faces, and a few neutral ones.
"Hello hello hello!" Aelia said, clasping her hands together and getting to her feet.
"How..." John hesitated, looking back behind him at the elevator, his pointer finger extended loosely to point at her. "But we left you on the train, how'd you beat us back?"
"The train came around behind the building and dropped us off. There's a second elevator," Naevius answered in a smooth tone.
"Yes," Aelia said impatiently. "Here are your fashion teams, to help you look your very best!"
"But there's only eight," Ash said, looking up. "Do we each only get two? I thought there were four..."
"There were in the Hunger Games," a man with dark skin and a deep voice said, looking up solemnly. "However, they hired more of us for the Graveyard Games and less go to each tribute... there are a lot more tributes now. The eight of us would have been split between two tributes, now we are split between four."
"I realized," Allie chipped in dryly.
"Right, well," a woman with long lavender hair and long eyelashes of the same color stood up and batted her eyes. Gold tattoos ringed her face and she tapped her long nails against a clipboard in her hands. "I am looking forward to working with Ash... Ever... Everyd... Everdeen Mallark." She looked up and skimmed between the boys, quickly settling on Ash's face. "You look just like your dad. Except your eyes, they're your mother's."
She looped her arm through Ash's and skipped to the back of the building. The man with the dark skin and the deep voice rolled his eyes.
"Primrose?" he asked, looking at me. I nodded, and he gestured to the back where Ash and the weird woman had disappeared a few moments before. He walked in front of me quietly, leading me out a door and to a room that was completely clean and covered in steel.
A female voice came from behind me and I started, remembering then that there had been two of them assigned to me. "I'll clean her up if you go get the make up and dresses," the woman said. She was slightly more flamboyant than the man but she had a calm, more subdued voice. Mom had always described the Capitol citizens as so preppy that it was odd for me to come across so many that were so calm.
The man just nodded, then he left.
"Strip," the woman commanded, then she turned and started filling a large steel tub with water. I blinked, not entirely sure that I had heard her right.
"Sorry but I am fully capable of bathing myself if you don't mind..."
"Right, a girl who lived her teenage years in wars knows more about making herself look glorious than the woman who has trained her entire life in this. Silly me," the woman said snidely. Her expression changed for a minute. "I am Tatiana, by the way. No need to be embarrassed, silly duck. I'll look away if it makes you feel more comfortable."
I nodded slowly, and she turned around. I shed the Capitol clothes and slipped into the tub. A small whirring sound came from the metal and suddenly bubbles were everywhere, including up my nose. The whole room smelled of roses.
"Ugh – Oh gods," I said, trying to get it out of my face.
"Sorry," the woman said. "It does that sometimes. Still haven't fixed all the kinks and gone back to how it used to be..."
The water started swirling around me like I was in a giganic washing machine. The woman didn't talk, nor did she look. Instead, she busied herself on the other side of the room with towels and robes and whatnot. After a few minutes the water left the tub with a whoosh and I was left dripping wet in a cold tub, completely exposed. Still without looking, she threw a towel back over her head.
"Cover yourself," she said, but before she had really given me the opportunity to she was turning back around. I scrambled with the towel and blushed slightly. "God, you District people are so sensitive about your bodies. Here, if you're truly so worried, have a robe."
Another few minutes later I was wrapped in a thick robe and had the towel coiled around my hair to keep it from dripping into my eyes. Tatiana then pointed to a metal chair that looked very cold and uncomfortable, but was actually the opposite. It was warm to the touch and the metal pieces rearranged themselves to be more comfortable than they looked.
The man returned with a large metal box on wheels, that seemed to match the sterile steel of the rest of the room. He situated it in front of me and popped up the large metal lid so that way it just showed me my own face staring back at me.
"Waxing?" he asked the woman. I had no idea what he meant, but the woman nodded. "Here, then."
She took long white strips from them and stuck them to my bare legs, then pulled. I yelped slightly as strip after strip of fine hair was yanked from my body, sculpting eyebrows, legs and underarms. The man just watched, frowning slightly.
"Well, Primrose," he said in that deep voice. "It looks to me as though we need to change you as much as possible." I felt the slight stirrings of anger in my chest. "You look too much like your mother. The entire Capitol hates her, and it will not do you any good to remind them of who you are. She was the one who condemned them to exile for the last twenty-five years, you know."
I swallowed my anger as I realized he was just trying to keep me alive, for whatever reason he might have. He picked up a lock of my hair and looked at it. "Yes, we want to make you different from her, but give you an echo for those of us who cherished the victory of the rebellion, even if it was only for a little while."
I looked up in surprise and stared into his face, wondering about him. "I'm sorry, perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Cinna."
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