It was surprisingly easy to sit through my first-ever makeover. They try to make us look nice for the chariot rides, clean up our hair and nails and stuff. There a part of me that has to admit that there was a part of me that liked the feeling of having someone else wash my hair for me.
Plus I've got a pretty large cloud of cologne surrounding me and I can't help but feel like a bit of a ladies' man.
As I'm lead into the hall where the chariots are being set up, I'm glad to see a lot more manicured, suit-bearing young men staggered around the room. All of the girls must still be in their make-over suites, so it's only the male tributes waiting around right now.
Handsome Jason from District Four is even taller than I had perceived, he was the only blonde boy from what I gathered yesterday, so I can instantly pick him out of those who are here. I'd never admit it out loud but, man he's good looking – even I'm a bit intimidated to talk to him. Maybe he can wait until later.
I try to scan the room a bit, looking for Ayler, but he's not here. I don't want to lose such a good opportunity to talk to anyone though, so I muster up some courage and, puffing my chest out a little, walk over to the boy from District One.
Shoot, what was his name again?
Panicked, I hold out my hand to him and he shakes it politely. "Hey, I'm Everett."
"Preston." Right, Preston. Got it.
Without trying to be too obvious about it, I do a quick scan of his physique. He's about my height, I'd pin him at around five foot ten, and skinny. He's not that bad looking, but if he stood up a bit straighter I'm sure he'd catch more attention.
He doesn't offer anything to the conversation, but he also doesn't give off any hostility regarding my being here.
"The Capitol's pretty showy, huh?" I ask, fumbling for something basic to say.
He nods in agreement, hands in his pockets, and leans back against the wall.
Well isn't somebody a chatter box. It takes me a second before I can think of another thing to try to get him talking. "I wonder why the girls' makeovers are taking so long."
He looks at me funny, then smirks and looks back down at his feet.
"What?" I muse, trying not to sound as insulted as I feel.
He smiles again. "I guess you don't have any sisters, huh?"
"Nope, can't say I do."
"Well, from what I can guess, we're probably going to be waiting for quite a while."
Now it's my turn to be stumped by the conversation. All I can think of to do is nod. Why does this have to be so awkward? I can't mess this up, no no no.
My luck turns around, a door opens a few yards away from us and of all people, Ayler emerges.
And walks towards us.
I'm as giddy as a Capitol fangirl getting the autograph of Darian Smithyes, last year's winner.
"Glad that's over," Ayler bounces while he walks towards us. "Can't say I mind my shoes though, make me feel like a rich kid," he holds out his hand to both of us in turn. "Ayler."
We both introduce ourselves as we shake his hand; I can tell that Preston feels uncomfortable with Ayler's sudden arrival.
Ayler, completely unfazed, looks around. "Are none of the girls out yet?"
"Nope, they take longer than us," I manage to come up with.
"That's a shame, I was hoping I'd get some time to chat with the girl from Nine, if you know what I'm saying," he says with a laugh, still scanning the room.
I honestly just said none of them were here; you can stop looking around now, numbskull.
When he finally turns back to Preston and I, I catch him sizing us up. I can't help but feel a bit violated. Don't let it faze you. I have to be confident; this guy was my number one target.
"So you volunteered too?" I ask.
He nods and smiles at me. He's better looking than Preston, but Jason still takes the cake for looks. "District Two's Victor's Village is filling up pretty quickly, didn't want to miss a chance at one of the houses there."
I'm about to tell him about why I volunteered when, low and behold, from across the room, the girl from District Nine strides into the warehouse, blonde hair loose and high heels on.
Ayler looks like he's being presented with a briefcase of diamonds. "Woah. That is... nice. Definitely much better in person, eh?"
Transfixed, he whistles to get her attention, then waves and shouts boisterously before running across the room and leaning against the carriage in front of her.
So much for finding a partner.
All I can do is stand and watch in awe with Preston beside me, growing more and more uncomfortable. I feel a bit defeated having failed so miserably at my first encounter with my premier pick at a co-leader. Alyer certainly wasn't anything like I expected him to be. I wouldn't mind him being in my alliance, but as for being a right-hand-man, I don't think he exactly fits the part. If I couldn't even hold a conversation with him, there's no way I'm going to be able to get him to agree with me on everything inside the arena. Plus, I can't exactly say that I like him very much, we're here to fight to the death, not pick up girls.
Don't let it discourage you; he's not the only guy on your list.
Preston snaps me out of my thinking. "I guess I uh, better go get ready."
"Right, see you at training," I stammer, hoping I didn't scare him off too much. Right now I think he's probably the best friend I've got, unless Dredd counts, but he and I aren't exactly friendly either.
I stand around stroking the horse on my chariot for the rest of the time. Most of the other guys do the same thing, a few sneak glances at Ayler as he continues to strike out with the girl from District Nine who doesn't seem to be showing much interest in him. Eventually Kristen and the rest of the girls merge with the original tributes that were standing in the hall and we're instructed to get on our chariots, boys to the left of the girls.
When we start rolling I try to stay calm and work through what I've got planned. As my chariot rolls out I try not to look scared or cower to the crowd, instead I hold my head high and smile at the people around me. Not many tributes have ever executed this successfully so it should help me to look unique.
From reviewing footage of past ceremonies, I know that there's cameramen posted at the top of the stands and through special sections of the bleachers that are secluded for high-roller sponsors. I try to focus all of my attention at these places, if a camera ever looks my way I want to be looking straight into it. As we drive by I can see a few people in the high-rollers boxes looking at me, so I steal Ayler's yell-and-wave technique of catching girls' attention to reel the rest in. After a couple of shouts I can see a few people nudging each other's focus my way and some of them even return my waves.
Success.
I continue with this for the rest of the procession, only stopping to put a serious-yet-mysterious expression on during the President's speech, which I already have memorized. Hopefully a few of the cameras are turned to me by now, so the people watching at home can get a proper look at my face to remember what I look like.
The speech ends and we roll back into a warehouse that's very similar to the one we were waiting in before. Dredd, Guaret, and the people who did our makeovers are waiting to meet us. I had no idea that they'd still hang around with us now that we were in the Capitol.
"Back up into the elevators," Dredd says, helping Kristen down. "We've got the rest of the day to go over strategy."
I don't think elevators can break, can they? On the way down to the training center I'm full of adrenaline, I can't help but bounce up and down at the knees. I smile at Kristen who just looks at me in horror and stop fidgeting when I realize that I actually was shaking the elevator.
Instead I focus on trying to take some deep breaths, but that doesn't really work out very well either and I burst from the elevator like floodwater as soon as the doors open.
With a quick scan of the room, I see we're the sixteenth and seventeenth ones here. I can pick out a few of the guys on my list; Trawl, Ayler, Jarratt, William, Jason. I want to approach all of them, but I everybody looks pretty nervous and I don't want to scare anyone away, so I just stand around and take in my surroundings for a bit.
Everyone else arrives and they give us a speech, then set us free to explore. A few people walk confidently towards stations, but most just linger around to see where everyone else goes.
I see Ayler at a station with several females and decide that I better not try to steal his attention away from them again. It would be best not to look too eager.
Jason's working with knives. Trawl and Preston have each taken a different survival skill station, so I could choose to talk to one of them if I wanted.
Maybe I should just go to a station and learn a few skills…
Someone clears their throat behind me, my heart rate picks up.
Holding his hand out to shake mine is William, the boy from District Ten. "You're Everett right?"
Surprised by the fact that someone approached me, I shake his hand. "Yeah, and uh… William?"
I don't want to freak him out by making it look like I have his name memorized.
"Yeah, District Six, right? Well, I guess it says so on your jersey, so you don't have to really bother answering that. Aha. Sorry, I uh… I just thought I should get to know some of the people I was going to be up against."
"Man, well uh… I was, I was just about to do the same thing. I think we probably have a better chance in the arena if we've got some people to work with, so long as they don't drain our blood in our sleep or anything."
He looks taken aback by what I said and I'm suddenly reminded that he didn't volunteer, he might not be so up for the jokes regarding murder.
Struggling to pull him back, I go on. "I was hoping to find some guys who wanted to form an alliance."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, so long as they'd be up for it. I know the games pretty well; wanna help give the worthy players a better shot of making it far."
His posture relaxes a little; I can tell that's what he had wanted to hear when he decided to come over here. I smile, realizing that I must have come across to him as someone he could come to in order to form an alliance, maybe his mentor even suggested me. If I'm the best suggestion to form an alliance with, I must be boding well in the Capitol.
He nods, interested. "That sounds really promising, I guess uh, if you're looking for people to add to your group and you wanted me to join, I'd… you know… join."
I take a look around the center; Jason's making a mess of the practice dummies, Ayler's ignoring everything with a Y chromosome, William might actually be the best shot I've got for a co-leader.
"Well, yeah, I think you're definitely someone I'd want to have around." I tell him, somewhat surprised by what I'm saying. "Why don't we go to one of the stations and talk a bit more?"
I can tell he tries to hide his relief. He really is quite strong, I can see the muscles in his arms and torso release their built up tension. Thankfully I don't think his bulk is excessive enough to make me look bad. However, muscles don't necessarily mean he's going to be a good fighter. He's about my height, if not a centimeter or two shorter than me, and is good-looking enough to get that kind of attraction from sponsors. If I can get him far enough on my side to be willing to have my back at all costs, this could work out very nicely indeed.
By lunch, I've visited four stations with William. We got a basic instruction on how to make fire from scratch, some plants that you can eat without getting sick, a few moves to stun opponents in fights, and how to use knives when being attacked by large animals. William does well at each of these, he had some trouble making fires in the beginning, but figured it out eventually. Even the instructor was impressed with how William handled himself regarding large animals. He told me he had worked as a farmhand since he was fifteen and that he was eighteen now. He wasn't surprised when I said I was seventeen or that I had been laying train tracks for the past few summers. According to him I've 'got a worker's build.'
He looks a bit reluctant, but ends up sitting with me while we eat.
I decide that now's a good time to propose my strategy to him, before we spend too much more time together. "So, uh, I already told you I was kind of planning on putting together a group of guys to lead during the games."
He nods with interest.
I continue. "I've been watching the Games ever since they started and I think I've got a pretty good knowledge of what goes on in there and how to get yourself pretty far. I want to make sure, if I win, I win against someone good, so I want to keep some strong guys with me until the last few tributes are around."
"Sounds like a pretty good plan," he says, somewhat hesitant. Has he seen a flaw I haven't noticed? I doubt it because there really aren't any. Why does he look so nervous all of a sudden?
Okay, he just missed his mouth with his spoon, something's up.
"What's wrong?" I ask while he uses an excessive amount of napkins to try to clean up the pile of mashed potatoes on his pants.
"Oh uh, I was just thinking and … well I don't know if everyone's going to go for somebody telling them what to do." He stands up when a servant comes over to clear up the mess for him. He blushes heavily as she takes the napkins from him and dabs at his pants. I'm going to have to word my answer carefully.
"Well, I was hoping to find someone I could lead with, you know, I watch their back, they watch mine – in case anyone in the group gets fed up with my leadership."
The servants have stopped pestering him now and he sets back down to his tray, taking in what I've said to him.
Still looking down, he laughs, a pure, honest smile remaining after he's finished laughing.
I smile back at him. "What?"
He tips his head up and raises his eyebrows, still smiling. "I take that as an invitation to be your partner?"
"You're more observant than I thought." I laugh with relief, looking back down at my tray.
A deep, relaxed exhale from William."Yeah, sounds good to me."
I'm trying to stay away from the typical Capitol scenes that you see in HG fanfiction, because I'll admit that even I tend to scan over them. I know you guys know what goes on in the Capitol, so I'm just trying to show the interesting bits :)
Watch for the eagle!