I grit my teeth and held my breath while Septa, a woman in her twenties with blue-green skin, ripped off the last strip of hair on my leg. I shaved with a sharp piece of metal at home, since razors were a little too expensive, so the wax was taking skin off too. "I'm sorry!" she squealed with her peppy Capitol accent. "That's it for your body hair!"

Why must they squeal every time they say something?I thought to myself. I have been in the Remake Center for about three and a half hours. I'm gonna need some more morphling after this,I decided. I put the vials and the syringe in the clothes I originally wore onto the train.

The prep team decided they wanted to remove all body hair. They didn't wax my eyebrows though, that would be...weird. They just tweezed them. They also rubbed me down with some substance that removed all dirt but pretty much skinned me. I don't think a skeleton would look good in the arena. I sat up, and Septa and two others walked around me. The other women was Autia. She looked about nineteen with goldish skin and silver tattoos. The other man was Ents, a man in his thirties who was surprising normal in skin tone only he had pink hair that stood straight up and piercings on his eyelids. "Let's get Aft!" he squealed brightly. "She's good!"

They all ran out of the room and I looked around. The stainless, white walls of the Remake Center reminded me of this thing we learned in history. Hundreds of years ago, they used to have these rooms to put crazy people in that were all white, except those rooms were padded. Heh, I thought. Maybe a padded room isn't so bad.

I heard the door open and a man walked in. Aft, my stylist, was twenty, give or take, and looked relatively normal. He had a few piercings and tattoos, but nothing too drastic. Aft looked me up and down, examining, but not touching. "Hi?" I said uncertainly.

He looked up in acknowledgement. His eyes were friendly and sympathetic, not cold and uncaring like I thought they would be. Before Aft was satisfied with looking to see if the prep team missed anything, he grabbed my left arm and frowned. As of late, keeping this secret isn't working out so well, I thought frustratingly. I knew on my left arm there was one fresh morphling mark and several faded scars. "You're not the first morphling addict to come through here," he said softly. "Just know, those withdrawals, may just get you killed in the arena."

I sighed. Aft handed me a robe and we walked into another room. This room had three walls painted blue. The fourth wall was entirely glass, giving us a view of the Capitol. I sat down on a couch across from Aft and he pressed a button on the side of the table that was in between us. Cheeseburgers with sides of french fries and steamed broccoli appeared on the table. Casual, not fancy, I'm liking him, I thought. I picked up my burger, noticing it was big, and took a bite. While eating, Aft said, "You are gonna have to put your hair up. You won't burst into flames you know."

I smiled and looked up at him. "How do you know?" I asked with a friendly edge to it.

He chuckled. "Just trust me. Tonight is the Tribute Parade, so we need to find out what you are wearing."

"Am I matching Spencer?"

"Yes."

"Ugh."

"Why do you two hate each other so much?" Aft asked.

"Long story, so what are we wearing?"

"You two will be wearing the suits that the hovercraft pilots wear with a hat that has an animation of a hovercraft flying."

"Awesome?" I said uncertainly because I wasn't sure how that would look.

For the opening ceremonies, tribute wear an outfit that shows their district's industry. District 1 is luxury items, District 10 is livestock, District 12 is coal. A few years ago, District 6's tributes were wearing an outfit made of entirely hovercraft and car parts. Since District 6 is primarily involved with transportation, we'll be in the hovercraft getup that Aft mentioned to me.

After a few hours, I was standing next to the chariot that would bring me and Spencer to the City Circle. The chariots are led by black horses without any reigns or people to guide them. Spencer was wearing the same thing I was, his stylist Forta, pushed the button on his hat to start the animation. Aft pressed the button on mine. He helped me up onto the chariot. "Up you go," he said.

I was standing next to Spencer on the chariot waiting fo r the doors to open. "Push me off and I will kill you," he growled.

"I wasn't, but thanks for the idea," I replied with a smart tone. "Besides, you couldn't kill me, the horses would trample you first."

"Why you little-"

The doors opened before Spencer could finish his sentence. The opening music drowned him out anyway. The ride to the City Circle is about twenty minutes. After we reach there, we will be lead to the Training Center, which will be our prison until the Games start.

District 1's tributes are dressed in gold outfits, fixed with diamonds. District 5 is dressed as two power plant workers. District 10 is dressed as cows. Dear God, I thought. The horses start to pull us after District 5 is five feet ahead of us. "District Six!" Claudius Templesmith announced.

The crowd is screaming and getting more and more excited. Some residents are smiling, yelling, and pointing at my and Spencer's hats. I smiled a bit, and when I gained confidence, I started to wave. This made the crowd more excited and I realized I have to at least pretend to enjoy this to gain sponsors. Someone threw a rose and I waved in the direction it came from. The music was loud and I swore it could have made me deaf. The chariots looped the City Circle and we were headed to the mansion of President Snow. We stopped right in front and the music ended. President Snow came out onto the balcony and said, "Welcome tributes. Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor."

He continued with a speech and after he is finished, we went around the circle one last time before we entered the Training Center. Once we were in there, I dropped my fake smile, slouched, and sighed. Aft helped me down and said, "You were great at pretending. I was almost convinced you changed your attitude towards this."

I smiled. "Was that a compliment, insult, or neutral statement?"

Aft smiled, "Compliment with a hint of neutrality."

I chuckled then looked over at Spencer. He had on his usual "tough guy look" and was glaring around. I sighed and looked at Aft. "I'm tired, where do we go now?"

"Right this way," he replied and he led me towards the elevator.