Looks Can Be Deceiving

by team-this-isnt-twilight

With the looks of an angel and an innocent smile, Lacey is automatically counted out as the victor of the 33rd Hunger Games. They are judging her by her appearance, but will her past be enough to help her come out of the arena alive? Or will she be in a wooden coffin on the way back to her district when the victor is crowned? Rated T for a reason!

3. Picture Perfect

Here is the next chapter. Hope you like it!

Note: I don't own the Hunger Games…. Just in case you were wondering.

Without Further Ado, I give you… The Chapter! :O

I wake up to the sound of fast tapping on the door and Evanna's high pitched squeal telling me to get up and that we would be arriving in the capitol soon. I groan, turning over, and her screeching only gets louder and louder, until she decides to just open the door. She taps my shoulder and I open my eyes slowly, a smile slowly forming as a sit up and stretch slowly. I yawn and wave, smiling sleepily. "Good morning Evanna!"

"You are a really deep sleeper! I knocked on your door for soo long! Come on, get ready. We are going to arrive in the Capitol very soon, and we don't want to be late!" She says, beaming as she turns and walks out of the room.

When she leaves, I get walk to the bathroom and step into the shower, letting the scalding hot water wash over me as I think about my plans for the day.

Yesterday I acted too sad, and that definitely isn't what I am going for. Yes, I am trying to be sad and fragile, but it is supposed to be balanced with a childish manner and giggly, bubbly happiness. I'll start that today. If they ask why I am not as sad today, or why I am so happy today, I'll say that I was just really sad, but I have gotten over some of it and that I hate being sad. They have seen me around the district; I can pull off that lie easily.

I exit the shower and dry off, glancing at my reflection. Today, I was extra careful to choose a shampoo that wasn't sparkly. It is still slightly glittery from yesterday's shower, but it isn't as obvious. I put my hair into two pigtails and put on the clothes I had selected this morning; a white long sleeved shirt with an animal, I think Evanna had called it a "penguin", on it, and a light blue poofy skirt with little bows on the hem. I pull out my ballet flats and slip them on. I grab the notebook and my note and put them in the pocket of the skirt. I put my necklace on and skip out of my room and down to where they are serving breakfast.

Evanna and Sephoria are already there, but Soul is nowhere to be seen.

"Hello Evanna and Sephie! How are you this morning? I know I am feeling better today than I had last night! I was just so tired! Those beds are so soft; I swear I thought I was sleeping on a cloud! And I just love these clothes! I mean, don't you just love this skirt? And wow the showers are amazing…" I gushed, going on and on about anything happy I could think of, a sweet smile staying on my face the whole time. Oh god, I should stop talking before I throw up. Seriously? Did I really just talk about Unicorns and Rainbows and Sunshine? Wait no, no I did not. I guess I will save those topics for later. Remember: childish, innocent, sweet, bubbly, WEAK.

"That's wonderful sweetie! Imagine when we get to the Capitol! You will love it there, everything is colorful and the rooms are better than the ones they have here! Now come on, eat some breakfast before we leave the train. You will be very busy later!" Evanna says, and her voice is almost enough to make me break out of character.

I glance at Sephoria, and she looks relieved. This is the attitude she is used to seeing. I walk to the table, bouncing slightly with each short, quick steps and sit down in the same spot as yesterday. I take a chocolate chip bagel, a few pieces of bacon, and some fruit. I take a sip of a delicious beverage called strawberry milk. It's pink, so that worries me a little since drinks aren't usually pink. I eat my food quickly and talk about anything I can think about, and Evanna goes on and on about how much I will love my stylist. I am informed that Soul already ate, and that we will be arriving in the Capitol very soon. I excuse myself from the table after I finish eating and go back to my room to wash my face and brush my teeth with fancy toothpaste that whitens your teeth instantly. My teeth were already pretty white, but now they are really white, just like Evanna's. I sit on the bed and draw pictures of the forests back in district 7 until the train comes to a stop. At this time, I walk out of my room to the door that lets us off of the train. Evanna walks up to me and holds one of my hands as the door slides open and I get a glimpse of the Capitol for the first time.

I gasp. It's so bright. The walls are made of some glittering rock that changes colors and the floor is filled with water. There are wooden chairs in the train station with intricate designs carved in them. They must be from are district. All of this, however, is nothing compared to the people. They are all so bright, so colorful, so… scary to some extent, but most of all… so loud. Their screams ring through my ears and make my head hurt. As tempted as I am to cover my ears and shut my eyes, I know that I can't, so instead I widen my eyes with awe and force a bright smile onto my face. I wave to a few people and skip through the crowd toward what must be the remake center. I turn around and smile one more time before backing into the building.

Before the door even closes, I back into a person, a man to be exact, and scream as he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. I see some capitol people staring in horror through the door, but not doing anything about it. I hear a door open and I am thrown to the ground. It is dark, so I can't see anything. I am not afraid, yet I start crying because I somehow know that I should stay in character. The door shuts and the lights turn on, revealing the man who brought me here.

He is average height, somewhere around 5'7 and isn't as muscular as I had expected. He looks somewhere in his forties, around my parent's age, but with Capitol people you can never be sure. He has silver eyes, dark red hair, and tons of tattoos. Oddly, they are all of names. I slowly start reading the names on his right arm and gasp. I know a lot of the people on his arm. They are all dead. They are all written on his arm, in order of which they died. Mabel's siblings, my siblings, and past tributes. Why does he have all these names on his arm?

"W-who are you?" I ask, never taking my eyes off of his arm.

"I am Styarr, your stylist. Now, before someone finds us, I wanted to talk to you. Alone. This is the only room that isn't monitored." He says, his voice deep and menacing, the cold stare he was giving me only adding more of an edge to his voice.

"…Ok. Why do you want to talk to me alone? What do you want to talk about?"

"Well… let's just face the facts. You are pathetic. Weak, fragile, tiny… it's gonna be fun watching you die in the arena. I get another tattoo that way, another name that when I see I can smile and think of someone's terrible demise. Anyway… I would like to say a few… things I would get in trouble for saying anywhere else."

He proceeded to say a few… choice words and described the way that he wanted me to die… and I, while laughing on the inside, cried like a little baby and flinched at every bad or violent thing he said. Then he told me that he would see me soon to get me ready for the chariots and walked out, slamming the door behind him. The moment the door shut, I glanced up to make sure there wasn't a peep hole. There wasn't, so I knew he couldn't be watching me. I chuckled quietly and smiled. After my victory… we might get along, only after I tattoo over all the names on his arms. He can't think of my sibling's deaths and smile. He is not going to get away with that.

I walked out of the room a few minutes later and wandered around until I found Evanna, who sighed in relief and ran over to me.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? YOU HAVE BEEN GONE FOR ALMOST AN HOUR! WE ARE WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE NOW!" She shrieked at me, and I cringed away because her screeching is so high pitched!

"Sorry," I mumble before adding, "I got lost… this place is HUGE!"

Her expression softened and she said, "I suppose that's alright. You don't need as much work done to you as most tributes do. They will finish in time."

I nod and three people burst into the hallway looking worried and frustrated.

"Did you find her yet?" The tallest one squeals.

"Yes. Lacey, this is your prep team. The tallest one is Sinnamon, next is Sugar, and the shortest is Spice. I'm sure you will love them. Now go on, they already have less time then they expected." Evanna explains as she pushes me towards them.

I stumble a few times as they drag me into the room and slam the door shut behind them. Sinnamon guides me to the middle of the room and they circle around me, inspecting me with looks of delight on their faces. I cross my arms over my chest self-consciously and look at my feet.

Sugar pulls my arms down and makes me look up again. They all murmur about every last detail of my appearance.

"Ok sweetie. I think I know what we need to do. It shouldn't take long since you already look decent. We got a good one for once, didn't we Spice?" Sinnamon squeals and I have to fight the urge to punch her. They talk about the past tributes like they are presents.

Spice nods and glances at me with a look that makes me almost think that she knows what I am thinking about, or she agrees with my thoughts. As they all run off to get the things they need for their assigned jobs. When they come back I push all my thoughts aside and watch them curiously. They scrub off layers of skin and put some gooey warm stuff on my skin, they wait a minute before suddenly yanking it off.

I scream and cry out, "OW! What was that for? That hurt!"

Sugar giggles, "Sorry sweetie, we were just removing all the hair from your body."

They continue putting weird things on my skin and I sit there, continuing to watch curiously. When they seem satisfied with my skin's appearance, they split up to work on different tasks. Sinnamon works on my nails while Sugar does makeup and Spice styles my hair. I fight the urge to move around in the chair because I know that would mess up their work and make it take longer. After they work for what feels like hours, they all stand back and smile triumphantly.

"You look wonderful! Lolita will love you! Oh I can't wait to see what she comes up with!" Sugar and Sinnamon squeal in unison.

Lolita? Who is that?

The door is thrown open and I look over to see Styarr. I have to fight the urge to glare at him or to laugh. Instead, I widen my eyes and back up a little.

"Styarr? Aren't you Soul's stylist? Where is Lolita?" Spice asks, eyeing Styarr suspiciously.

"We switched tributes. Speaking of tributes, I need to work on an outfit for mine, so get out of here," Styarr growls, gesturing to the door.

They nod and scramble out of the room, obviously afraid of Sytarr.

"So princess, nice to see you again," He says, snarling on the word princess, smirking before adding, "Unlike every other year, I'm not going to dress you as a tree. You aren't tall enough to pull that off. Before the dark days, stories called fairy tales were told to children in the Capitol. A very famous one was Little Red Riding Hood. It is still told, but after the Hunger Games began, the ending was changed. Instead of the little girl being saved from the big bad wolf by a lumberjack, the lumberjack kills the wolf then cuts off the little girl's head. Everyone in the Capitol, and even some district people, know the tale. So this year, instead of trees, Soul will be the lumberjack and you are going to be Little Red Riding Hood. You fit her role perfectly. She was sweet, innocent, and weak, just like you. And just like her, you are going to die."

Before I can respond, he quickly takes my measurements and walks over to the sewing machine, getting to work right away.

I stare out the window as he works. Soon he tells me to close my eyes and he pulls a dress over my head. Its light and I can tell it stops above my knees without even looking at it. I feel him tie something around my waist and pin something under my chin. I stand still as he puts the finishing touches on the outfit. When I finally am allowed to open my eyes, I walk over to the mirror to see how I look as Little Red Riding Hood.

I gasp, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately. I look like I fell out of the land of fairy tales. The dress is ivory with three-quarter sleeves and is tight until the waist, where it flairs out. Underneath of the ivory part of the skirt there are many layers of red fabric. The red skirt is a few inches longer than the ivory one and stops a few inches above my knees. Between the upper and lower parts of the dress is a wide red and white checkered strip of fabric which is being used as a belt. The hood, of course, is red and reaches the floor. It is held in place by two ribbons that are tied in a bow beneath my chin. I am wearing white stockings and red mary-janes, which are more comfortable than I would have expected. My nails are painted dark pink, but if you don't look closely they appear to be red. My hair is wavy instead of curly (how they managed that, I don't know) and is parted to the side. They put white shimmery eye shadow and eyeliner on me as well as pink lip-gloss. They probably did some other things, but nothing that is too noticeable.

"I look amazing! Thank you Styarr," I murmur, genuinely smiling for the first time today.

"Whatever. Just don't start crying, it will ruin your makeup," He says as he pushes me out of the room and leads me to the elevator. "Now, the chariots are on level 1. Don't get lost. Good luck."

I nod and press the button with a 1 on it, watching Styarr walk away as the elevator doors shut slowly.

When I reach floor one, I am instantly surrounded by Sephoria, Soul, and Evanna. Soul looks kind of menacing in his lumberjack costume, but his stylist added too much country style to it. That and his axe is covered in glitter.

I giggle before saying, "I don't think that axe could cut through anything, but I love it! It's so sparkly!"

Soul glares at me for a second before laughing. "Yeah, I mean, I look terrifying with it right?"

"Oh guys! Come on, the Capitol will love the sparkly axe. You guys look wonderful. Now you have to get on the chariot soon or it will be paraded through the city without you in it and you would have put those costumes on for nothing!" Sephoria says, chuckling slightly and fighting to keep a smile off of her face.

"Ok Sephie! We wouldn't want that!" I reply, grinning happily and skipping off to the district 7 chariot.

I hear some laughter and look around to see all the other tributes staring at me. A few are smiling and laughing, others have looks of sadness and pity in their eyes, and the others have a predatory gleam in their eyes. I look around again and shrug before skipping the rest of the way to the chariot and climbing into it.

Soul and Sephoria show up a few moments later and Soul climbs up next to me.

"Ok. So remember to smile, pretend that you want to be here. Well, Soul I guess you could glare at everyone, but then you would have to act menacing and I don't think that is an angle you would want to use. So yeah, smile, maybe wave a few times. From what I've heard, you guys have gotten some attention. Lacey, you are the obvious underdog. That and everyone thinks you are adorable. Soul, you are one of the biggest guys here, you look the strongest too. Some people expect you to join the careers and possibly even be their leader, and others believe you are going to be the dangerous loner. You guys have their attention, you just have to keep it," Sephoria says, a serious look on her face.

"Ok Sephie. We won't let you down!" I reply with a bright smile on my face.

Sephoria laughs and says, "Yeah, use that smile."

Soul opens his mouth to say something, but a voice announces that the chariots are about to go out.

"Good luck!" Sephoria yells as we slowly start to move away from her and out into the streets of the Capitol, where millions of bright rich and loud Capitol people are waiting to get a look at this years tributes.

Well… I know it is kind of short compared to chapter two, but I hope you like it anyway. If not… well then sorry.

Thanks to those of you who reviewed, it made me smile (NO DEATH THREATS! YAY)

Thanks for reading! :D