This is quite a fashion-y chapter, I'm afraid! Sorry to all who don't like that :/ hope most of you do enjoy it though! I've changed a few outfits and swapped some around, hope you don't mind!

Chariots

The bar was decorated in loud colours and crazy shapes, but the people gathered around were even more so. Their clothes were garish, and most had decorated their bodies as well. They were the twenty-four stylists of the Hunger Games, and they were all enjoying cocktails before they went to meet their tributes.

Accalia and Constantine, the stylists for District One, sat in the prime position, right in front of the bartender. The stylists for Districts Two and Four sat on either side, and the others spread out in order of importance, with the ones for Eleven and Twelve right on the edge.

'So,' the bartender smiled at Accalia from under his bleached bangs. 'Do you have a good batch this year?' Accalia shook back her shocking pink hair and shrugged.

'District One are usually good. But I've seen this year's two, and we can do a lot with them,' she said.

'Can you tell me what?' he leant over the bar, holding a bottle of alcohol.

'Perhaps with a top up?' she arched a carefully plucked eyebrow.

'I'll want a kiss for that!' The stylists around her giggled, but Accalia just leant forward and pecked him on his perfect, smooth cheek. She didn't really like him, but she wanted free drinks. He smiled and refilled her glass. 'Now will you tell me?'

Accalia shook her head. 'Sworn to secrecy. You'll see tonight.'

'We should get to our tributes,' said Panthia, a District Four stylist. The other stylists agreed and together they finished off their drinks, threw some money at the bartender and left.

The tributes themselves were waiting for their stylists. They had all been plucked, waxed, brushed and combed. And now they were waiting to get dressed. Some, like the Career Districts, were waiting in anticipation, for they always had nice costumes. But some, mostly tributes from lower Districts, knew that they would get embarrassing or weird clothes, and only wanted the whole experience to be over.

O

It was a couple of hours later, and all of the Panem were waiting with baited breath to see the tributes. Those in the stadium were cheering and yelling with excitement. As the music swelled, the huge double doors slowly opened, and the chariot of District One appeared.

It looked to be made of glowing pearl, with flowery designs of diamond. The horses were pure white, and their harnesses were covered in diamonds as well. But the tributes outstripped them. Sparkle wore a long, flowing silk dress that, like the chariot, was decorated in diamonds. Her hair was in a half-up, half-down style, with a rope of diamonds and pearls interwoven. To finish off the look she wore her diamond necklace. Niall wore a white tunic of the same silky material, except his was just trimmed in diamonds. On his head he wore a circlet of pearl and diamond. The diamonds everywhere caught the light perfectly.

The crowd went wild, screaming madly and throwing flowers and other gifts. Sparkle and Niall smiled up at them, acknowledging their support.

As the chariot rode on, the audience turned to look at District Two. They were just emerging, in a chariot of grey stone with matching horses. Unlike the tributes of District One, they had been made to look powerful and strong instead of beautiful and rich.

Cleo wore a heavy dress of an indescribable material, which had been woven so that when she moved it shifted and looked as if it was made of liquid marble or granite or occasionally a riverbed of pebbles. Jayson had been painted to look like a statue of a young god, wearing a the skirt part of a tunic in grey, with a strip of material across his chest and back. His stylist had obviously wanted to show off Jayson's muscles as much as possible.

Unlike Sparkle and Niall, they barely seemed to notice the crowd's support, just staring straight ahead with determined expressions on their faces. They looked ready and waiting to kill.

District Three's reception was not nearly as loud, mostly because their costumes weren't as interesting or beautiful. Dawn wore a sleeveless black dress down to her knees that was intricately embroidered with wire and the occasional small bulb or chip, so that it looked like the interior of an electronic gadget. Her forearms were encased in silver wire and she had silver eye shadow on. Hareld wore a black shirt and trousers embroidered in the same way, but he did not have the wire on his arms or the makeup on his face.

They were clapped politely, but both tributes seemed to be embarrassed and hardly looked at the crowd. Unlike District Two, this just made them look scared and slightly weak.

District Four appeared a moment later. After District Three, the crowd roared with delight at their appearance. And with just cause – they easily matched Districts One and Two. They wore clothes made from strips of a light, flowing material in different shades of blue that streamed out behind them and looked almost like the liquid itself. The chariot was painted a sea blue/green that glittered and shifted and looked like a gentle sea. The horses were a dappled white, and had strips of blue fabric woven into their manes and tails. The whole effect made them look as if they were rising from the ocean.

Skye and Jessalyn stood close together in the chariot, both for support and to stop each other falling out. They managed to look regal and strong while the crowd went wild around them, but inside they were a turmoil of emotions.

The District Five chariot was silver, with glowing green energy bars attached. The horses were silver and their harnesses had the green bars on them. Amore and Odio were dressed silver jumpsuits with those energy bars. They glittered in the spotlights, and when they were out of the light, the bars made them glow and gave them shadowy, mysterious appearances.

It was not as impressive as the Career districts, but peopled oohed and aahed appreciatively. Odio meanwhile was giving Amore his full support, one arm wrapped around her back to quietly comfort her and keep her strong.

District Six seemed at first glance to only be wearing the lights from different transportation vehicles. They flashed different colours and lit up the area around them. If you looked closer you saw that there was black fabric between the lights, but that was just to hold them together. The chariot itself was shaped vaguely like the front of a train, with two orange headlights. The horses were shimmering black with headlights on their chests.

Patrick was trying to stand as far as possible from Lottie Blacilla without falling out of the chariot. He had a couple of times tried to make a stab at conversation, but she had just snarled at him and gnashed her teeth. And now she was growling up at the crowds furiously. Patrick shifted uncomfortably. The costume was sweaty and sticking to him. He sighed, wishing for cool shower and comfy bed.

District Seven caused a slight stir when they appeared. Usually they wore stupid, unwieldy outfits that were meant to be trees, but looked more like something out of a primary school play. But this year was different. Diesel Cain wore only a pair of skin tight green shorts. His torso was elaborately painted to represent the leaves and branches of a tree. Violet Queens' costume was the same, but she had a strip of material to cover her breasts. The chariot looked the trunk of a tree, and the horses were woodland brown.

Violet shifted slightly, slightly embarrassed by how skimpy her clothing was. Diesel glanced sideways at her and smirked annoyingly. 'Shut up,' she hissed. He just raised an eyebrow and looked straight forwards.

The next chariot was a rainbow of colour. It was District Eight, and the tributes were dressed in an immense patchwork of different fabrics and colours. It flowed around them like a living rainbow, shifting and undulating about their bodies. The strips of colour were woven into their hair as well. The chariot changed colour constantly as it moved. The horses were white, and their harnesses were multicoloured as well.

Overall it was hard to look at them for too long without hurting your eyes, but they didn't fade from your memory easily either. They kept catching your eye, making you want to turn and look at them.

The tributes from District Nine wore outfits of what looked like different types of grain, tightly interwoven to create a kind of material. It had been modified so that it was the bright gold of stereotypical grain, instead of what you would expect grain to look like when it had been dead for a few days. The chariot was also covered in this grain-material, so it looked like either a field of grain or a straw basket, depending on who you asked. The horses were palominos, matching the gold of the outfits and chariot.

Ginevra and Kai thought that they looked like idiots, but there wasn't much they could do about it. At least they had a costume to do with their District, instead of some random outfit. But they did still look stupid.

The District Ten tributes, Jenna and Pau, were draped in furs of all different kinds. Most were farm animals – cow and horse, as sheep and pig fur doesn't really exist. But also they wore what looked like bear and ermine and other furs. All of it had that manufactured Capitol look – it was too perfect, too bright, too soft. The tributes were bulked up quite a lot because they wore so many furs, so they looked much bigger and stronger than they really were. It was cool, especially when paired with the styled leather chariot.

Jenna was boiling inside her furs. No one seemed to have realised that she was toasting in her outfit. Well, apart from Pau, as he was in the same position. She glanced at him and saw beads of sweat on his forehead. He saw her looking and gave a half-hearted smile, which looked more like a grimace.

Tabytha and Nate were dressed like traditional farmers. Nate wore a bright red check shirt with dark blue denim dungarees that somehow looked stylish and fashionable, with black boots. The denim had the produce of District Eleven embroidered on it in decorative gold thread. In his hand he held a golden sickle and his hair was slicked back. Tabytha wore a dress of the same denim that came down to her knees. Her hair was braided with red ribbons, just like how girls often wear their hair when they're working in the fields. Their costumes weren't as interesting as other Districts, but they looked nice and sweet and a few people liked them.

Tabytha looked enviously at the other tributes costumes. Why the hell did they get such cool costumes, and they had to wear stupid boring denim? District One made her especially jealous, with all those diamonds. She wasn't one for dressing up, but denim wasn't exactly going to get sponsors rushing to support her, was it?

Last of all came District Twelve. Since the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, stylists had always tried to replicate the costumes with black jumpsuits and fake fire. But this meant that the novelty had worn off, and people had quickly got bored of the suits. But this year was different. Ember was dressed in a smart black suit with a white shirt and thin black tie and Aviator sunglasses. Trix wore black skinny trousers, a black blouse and a little black jacket – obviously she had made it known to the stylist that dresses were not for her. All of the material had been treated so that it glittered and shifted shade slightly as they, just like real coal. The chariot was jet black, as were the horses.

People were surprised by the new costumes, and showed it by cheering hugely. The costumes were slick and stylish and, while the actual clothes weren't hugely imaginative, material was.

The chariots made a circuit around the arena before stopping in a semi-circle in front of the stage, on which sat Gamemakers, some head politicians and President Lucien, the successor of President Snow. She was a tall, thin woman with ash blonde hair and eyes like chips of ice. But she could be hugely charismatic when she wanted to be, and was greatly popular in the Capitol.

Silence fell as President Lucien stood up to make her speech. She spoke of what an honour it was to be picked for the Hunger Games, what heroes they all were, that it was honourable, etc, etc. Some of the tributes lapped it up – mostly those from One and Two – but the others listened with quiet hate and anger.

Finally they were allowed to leave, and the chariots filed back through those double doors. By the time they closed behind the District Twelve chariot, those from Districts One and Two had already climbed off and were chatting together. The others could see that they were obviously going to make a Career gang. The question was whether anyone would join them.

People started to drift towards the elevators that would take them up to their floor of the Tribute Building. Attendants were waiting to stop too many going in one lift, and they were chivvied into different ones. To their dismay, Hareld, Diesel and Violet ended up in a lift with Cleo, Sparkle and Jayson. The lift was easily spacious enough to fit them all in, but as he stepped through the doors, Jayson purposefully stepped on Hareld's foot.

The boy couldn't help letting out a yelp as the huge weight landed on his foot, and Jayson stared down at him menacingly. 'What did you say, runt?' he growled, cracking his muscles. Diesel and Violet glanced at each other, but did not want to get involved against someone like Jayson. Sparkle and Cleo just watched with interest. Hareld shook his head, frightened. Jayson shoved him and he stumbled against the wall. 'You know what? I don't like you. I think that runts like you should have been drowned at birth.' The door opened for Sparkle, and he stood back in a gentlemanly fashion, allowing her to walk past. As the doors closed again he turned on Hareld.

'Did you hear me? You should have been drowned at birth. When we get into the arena I'm gonna crush you like a bug, got that?' Jayson cuffed him over the head, hard enough to make him dizzy, and his glasses fell off and cracked.

'Leave him alone,' Violet cried, unable to help it. She hated bullies. Jayson spun around to face her, fists clenched, but Cleo stopped him.

'Don't, Jayson,' she stepped closer to murmur in his ear. 'We'll have plenty of time in the arena, won't we?' Before Jayson could answer the doors opened and him and Cleo had to get out. As they left Violet knelt down to help Hareld up.

'You ok? They can get you new glasses, don't worry about that,' said Violet. Hareld nodded quietly, staring at the floor. As he left the lift, everyone was thinking the same thing. He would not last out the first day in the arena.

I know that this chapter is shorter than the ones before, but I thought it would be better to have a short, snappy Chariots chapter, instead of a longer, more boring one. Promise the next chapter, and the ones that come after, will be longer.

As always, here is the sponsor list and order form.

Remember, if you want points just review (properly, please!) and I will award them to you. I try as hard as I can not to, but if I do forget to add points for you, just message me and I will check up on it.

So here it is!

Elena:20

White Horse: 20

Elven Thief: 60

EY Ink: 20

Time. To. Vaporise. A. Maths. Teacher: 40

SoySauce17: 40

Pisces. TJ: 30

Miss-J'x: 20

Pass the peas and pies please: 20

Callmetribute104: 20

Loveisintheair22: 20

SeekerDraconis: 50

Fuzzman88: 50

LuvsDumbledee97: 20

Loveisintheair22: 20

SakuraDrops141: 50

DaAnimeChick: 20

MissDizzyD: 30

I hope I didn't miss anyone off! With these points you can buy things:

Water Purification Tablets: 10P

Matches: 10P

Food (small amount): 10P

Food (Medium): 15P

Food (Big): 20P

Weapon (average): 20P

Weapon (good): 30P

Medicine (normal): 20P

Medicine (Capitol): 30P

Refill of Ammunition (Arrows, darts, etc): 15P

Clothing: 20P

Anything else, please message me and I will tell you how much. This will be trickier if you do not have an account. If you do not have enough points and no account, I will simply not give the tribute the object, but I will post it up here.

This list will be updated, and things will get more expensive. The points list will be updated every chapter as well.