After that I wander the train for a while, until Sue corners me and brings me into a room with Jesse. She sits us down and the minute Jesse opens his mouth, I dislike him. I won't be forming any alliances with him. My mouth sets into a straight line as he babbles about himself until Sue shuts him up. "Alright Marvellous Marvin, shut your cakehole." She turns to me, "So Sandbags, what's your story?"
I scowl at the nickname, "I don't have a story. I work in the mines, look after my family, do the same every day." Jesse starts talking about his story again and I cut him off, angry. "YOU don't have a story, St. Gaymes, you've never worked a day in your life, and you're a spoilt little rich boy with no brains and no brawn." I practically growl at him, and he visibly shrinks away from me. Sue chuckles. "You're firey, I like that." I smirk at her, and stand. "We done here?" I don't wait for a reply when as I leave. When I reach my room, April's there, waiting, as a red headed girl cleans up my room. I eye them both, and April pats the bed next to her. "Sit down, sweetcheeks."
I perch next to her, watching the girl leave the room. "What's her deal?" I ask.
"She's an avox" She tells me. When I look confused, she continues. "Traitors of the Capitol have one of two fates, they're either killed, or they become and avox, which is a nice way of saying a servant. Only it's worse than that, they cut out their tongues, so they can never talk again."
I frown, "remind me never to piss off the Capitol." April laughs at that, and pats my knee.
"If you need to wash, there's a shower through there." I look confused again. She chuckles at me then tells me to hit some buttons, and leaves. I walk through to the massive bathroom, and remove my clothes. I step into the shower, and hit the buttons April told me, water comes gushing down from the ceiling. I gasp at it, and start laughing.
After my shower, I dress and towel dry my hair, and as I'm finishing, someone taps on my door, telling me it's time for dinner.
The rest of the train journey is like that, until we get close to the Capitol. Then I'm woken up by someone poking at me. I crack open an eye to see 3 people looking down at me, smiling. They introduce themselves as Flavius, Octavia and Venia, and start buzzing around me, chattering away.
I realise that the train has stopped, and I'm being prodded in the direction of a building, which must be the Remake Center. I'm taken upstairs, and into a large white bathroom.
They have the same prep team and stylists every year, and I know my stylist this year will be Will Schuester. The prep team poke and prod and buff and wax until I'm standing in front of them, shining. Then Flavius starts playing with hair and Venia is painting my nails while Octavia does my make-up, brushing very dark looking powder across most of my face, but it's not long until Will comes into the room and ushers them all out.
Will stands and looks at me, head tipped to one side. I smile sheepishly and he grins back. "Perfect" is the only thing he says as he moves past me to the wardrobe. He pulls out a dress bag and removes it, motioning for me to come towards him, he helps me into the dress. By the time I'm inside the dress, I feel like he's stitched me into it, although he probably has.
I don't have time to see what I look like as I'm ushered out of the room and down to the ground floor, into another room that looks like it's basically a giant stable. When I meet Jesse again, he's wearing a red and black tuxedo, and actually looks quite dapper, and I start to smile when I remember he's an ass and turn to face away from him.
We're pushed into a chariot, pulled by four black horses, and when I look around, I notice that all the other tributes are doing the same. I feel nervous for the first time as the doors slide open, showing us the full streets of the Capitol for the first time, but I don't have time to look as Will and his counterpart, and Jesse's stylist, Emma, are positioning us before we begin to move. We'll leave here and head to the City Center in these chariots, to mark the beginning of the games. Then we'll be swept off to the Training Center, where we'll remain until the games start.
We're right at the back, the last district that will be seen, and I can hear the people of the Capitol start to roar as the first chariot, containing the tributes from district one is pulled out of the stables and into the streets.
My feeling of dread only increases the further we get. When we pull out into the streets, it's all I can do to keep a blank face. Then people are gasping, and I catch a glimpse of myself on the monitors above the crowds. I look cool, and calm, my dress starting out a firey red and descending into the deepest coal black. My eyes and cheekbones are brushed with the darkest powder I've ever seen, and it slopes down my face and fades to charcoal grey. This person isn't me. The crowd loves her though, they're going wild, screaming my name and waving. I keep a cool face, with a slight smirk, and wave back, not wanting to break my cool appearance.
The crowd love this, they're throwing flowers and chanting, and I can't quite believe this is happening. It's always good to have support, it means you'll get more sponsors in the arena, but I never imagined this. There hasn't been a support like this for 12 in a long time. Even Sue never got this attention.
Before I know it, we're pulling into the City Center, and my face is aching from smiling. We pull up to President Snow's mansion, and listen as he gives his usual speech about the hunger games, and then we're moving again, a slow lap around the Center again, and then off to the training center.
As we enter the training center, the doors close behind us, and Will and Emma are there, helping us off our chariot. They praise us, telling us how good we look and I feel some of the other tributes eyes on us. None of the tributes from the career districts, obviously, they're so self-involved they probably never even noticed us, but the girl from district 8 is smiling at me shyly, and I smile back. I check around the room to see who else is looking and see Quinn Fabray looking at me with an unreadable facial expression. I quickly feel uncomfortable and look away, but I can still feel her eyes on me. Jesse's obnoxious laugh is starting to grate on me.