Alana
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
The Capitol was amazing.
Everywhere, there were bright colors, chattering people, glitter and glamour. Every surface was ornate and polished in some way. Even the food looked like art!
Sure, District Four has its beautiful spots, and the ocean was always a plus...But the Capitol! Being here is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me! To anyone from my family!
The upcoming death match did cast a bit of a shadow over that, but Alana was optimistic. Her family had never been among those who were starving. She might be small, but she was healthy and strong. She was smart, good at conversation, and loved meeting new people. She was also pretty, which she knew the Capitol people liked in their tributes. She had a chance, maybe even a good one.
And if it does end badly...I can enjoy the Capitol while I'm here, right? I will enjoy it!
The first thing she asked in the Remake Center was, "Can you dye my hair blonde? I've been wanting to for ages! I'm tired of brown...Mom said I had to wait until I was eighteen…" She gave the prep team her best wide-eyed, hopeful look.
They buckled immediately. "Of course!" Violet-skinned Elia trilled. "You're gorgeous already, but blonde would suit you so well...I'm sure your stylist won't mind..."
Elias, who turned out to be Elia's brother and who was covered in intricate metallic tattoos, agreed. "Your natural hair is too dull for the rest of you. A face like yours was made to be framed by golden waves!"
Weird way to put it, but okay. Her hair did turn out stunning, regardless of how strange the siblings were. My mom is going to freak out when she sees me on television!
She forgot about that during the parade, because that was absolutely incredible.
District Four's stylists had gone for a bit of a fishy theme in costumes, which was pretty standard. But a sometimes those costumes were a big miss.
These were a hit.
Alana and her district partner…cute but miserable little Nate...had their arms, backs, and necks spray-painted aquamarine and covered in patterns of temporary glue-on silver scales. Nate's loose, shimmery, blue-green scale-patterned trousers embroidered with pearls matched Alana's long, rippling skirt and bikini top. The headdresses were her favorite part, though; Nate merely had a large, elegant crown placed atop his spiky black hair, but the prep team braided Alana's newly-golden hair into a complex up-do that supported a massive silver tiara encrusted with delicate seashells and pearls.
My friends are all going to scream when they see me in this!
While waiting for the parade to start, Alana looked around at the rest of the tributes and decided that the only ones with outfits even close to Four's were the Ones; they had bodysuits made of material that looked like liquid gold.
Shame they have such a crazy height difference...He's at least a foot taller than her! Nate, despite being twelve years old to Alana's sixteen, was a couple inches taller, so they at least matched in that respect. The Sevens have a wild height difference, too…
Then the parade began, and Alana's attention was completely taken up by the roaring Capitol crowd. She waved and smiled until her arms and cheeks hurt, laughing with delight every so often once she realized how many Capitolites were yelling her district number if not her actual name.
They love me!
After the President's boring speech, after they had entered the Training Center and dismounted from the chariots, she noticed Nate was crying. "Hey, don't do that!" She gave him a hug, which seemed to surprise him, but he accepted it. "I know you don't want to be here...like, at all, and that kinda sucks...but just take it one moment at a time and you'll feel better. That's what I do."
The tears didn't stop entirely, but as they separated and moved to the elevator, he wiped his eyes and mumbled, "Thanks."
Nate was sweet, but in training he immediately threw in his lot with the other two twelve-year-old tributes, the girl from Nine and the boy from Six, and the Six boy's thirteen-year-old district partner.
Freed from the slight possibility of that obligation, at lunch time, Alana loaded up her tray and marched right over to the table already occupied by the boy from One and the siblings from Two. "May I join you?"
Sasha, the girl, snorted, but the boys looked her up and down and shrugged. "I don't mind," the boy from Two said. "Sasha?"
"Fine, whatever." The redhead went back to her lunch, and the hot One boy pushed out an empty seat with his foot, which Alana took.
Careers have it the easiest during the Games.
That afternoon went great; Marius even showed her how to use a bunch of weapons. He flirted a bit, too, and when it came to flirting, Alana sure knew how to give as good as she got.
The rest of training went well. The second day was a bit rough, but only because she didn't get much sleep due to spending half the night before trying out all of the shower settings. At the end of the third day, she got respectable eight in her scoring session. The other Careers all got tens, but then again, they'd been trained for this.
The weird part is that the boy from Twelve got a ten. Does that ever happen?
"I'm pretty excited for the interviews," she told the chatty stylists over dinner, after Nate left crying yet again. "I can't wait to see my outfit! Knowing you guys, I'm sure it's awesome."
Mags, her mentor, gave her a sharp look. Nate's mentor, Damien, merely rolled his eyes and reached for the nearest bottle of wine.
Looking at herself in a floor-length mirror before interviews, Alana reflected on that dinner and grinned. I was right.
The dress was the most gorgeous thing she'd ever seen...strapless, all fluttery ocean-blue silk embroidered with silver threads and tiny pearls, diamonds, and sapphires in jagged branching patterns that reminded her of lightning striking the sea during a storm. Her hair was braided with silver and blue ribbons and wrapped around her head like a crown, her eyelids, cheeks, shoulders, and arms were dusted with shimmery silver powder.
"I love it!" she said as she hugged her stylist. "I'm going to be the most beautiful girl on that stage tonight!"
She didn't think she was wrong, even though Sasha and the girls from Seven and Ten were very beautiful, too. Besides the Two siblings and Marius, she got the loudest cheers.
They do love me! I told Mom and Dad I'd be okay. Their only child is going to be a Victor!
Her first impression of the Arena, as she was lifted into it, was the cold.
It's a winter landscape! I get why our uniforms are so warm now. Ugh. I was hoping for a beach.
At least she'd get to experience snow. It didn't really snow at all in Four.
Ten seconds left…
Ten seconds after reaching the Cornucopia, she was fending off the District Five boy with a spear until Marius showed up to finish him off.
Ten minutes later, she was throwing up next to the gleaming gold Cornucopia, having just seen Sasha split the Five girl's head in half with an ax.
"The Bloodbath doesn't usually end this fast!" she heard Sasha shout.
Markus called back, "Well, this year it is, 'cause they're all gone!"
"Which of you two got the Twelve boy?" Morris's voice rang across the rocky hilltop. "I wanted to, but I had to...Never mind."
"Markus did...that tiny blonde girl was just standing there…"
Alana didn't hear their voices anymore as she lifted her head, couldn't through the ringing in her ears.
There's blood everywhere. It looks different than on TV.
"Hey, Four!" Sasha again. "Pull yourself together and help us sort the supplies!"
Morris gave her a gentle shove as passed her on his way into the Cornucopia. "They train us for this in the Academy. The cannon fodder are expendable."
Like your District partner, dead on the ground ten feet away? Like my district partner, also dead so quickly ? Like twenty-three of us before the trumpets sound?
Alana couldn't speak, couldn't even breath. Because she finally realized why her parents had cried when she left for the Capitol.
All tributes are expendable.
Her beauty, her charisma, her pride...it wasn't special in this ice-cold Arena. Maybe it never had been.
I'm expendable, too.