Chapter 4.
Less than a minute later, the peacekeeper opens the door again.
"It's time to go." He says.
I get up and follow him out. In the hallway I see Zircon, who is being led through the hallway by a peacekeeper as well. The four of us take the side exit of the City Hall. In just a few minutes, we arrive at the train station, where the train is waiting for us already. When we walk up the platform I hear an applause coming from the right. I turn my head to see the audience standing there. In the front, I spot the familiar faces of Blaze, Amelia and Salem. I smile at them and blow them a kiss. Zircon waves at the crowd as well. Then we notice Brynn, who is waiting for us a few feet ahead, next to the train door. She gestures for us to board the train. I get on the train first, followed by Zircon and Brynn. Once inside, Brynn leads us past several different rooms before we arrive in what seems to be the main dining room.
"Since we'll arrive at the Capitol in an hour, you'll stay in this room only. The trains in all the districts are all the same, there are bedrooms and wardrobes in this train as well for the tributes that have to travel for a longer time. Your trip doesn't take as long, so you won't be needing them." Brynn tells us. Then the door on the other side of the room opens and two people walk in.
"Let me introduce you to your mentors, whom you've probably seen or heard of before: Auria Lambent and Parcival Ampleston."
I recognize both of them. Auria won the Games only two years ago. She has green eyes and blonde hair in which she had gold streaks implanted after her victory. I remember how skinny and tiny she used to look during her time in the arena. But she has changed a lot since that time: she is no longer that skinny, little girl from the outskirts of District 1. She's turned into a real lady. Parcival looks roughly the same as he did when he won the 51st Games, with his green eyes and dark blonde hair. The only thing that's different is the stubble on his chin and the hints of lines around his eyes. The year in which he won was a strange one, since it was the year after the second quarter quell. Maybe that's why he hasn't changed so much. Or maybe he has, but he just doesn't show it.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you." Auria says, and Parcival nods in agreement.
Brynn gestures to the four of us to sit down at the large dinner table. Zircon sits down on one of the wooden chairs and I follow his example. Auria, Parcival and Brynn join us.
"So what's going to be your angle?" Zircon asks them right away.
"Well, look at you," Auria replies surprised, "Asking the questions for us."
"Yes. Because I'm the one going into the arena, not you."
"Take it down a notch, fellow." Parcival adds. "We're here to help you win this thing, remember?"
Zircon nods, but doesn't say anything this time.
"So about that angle," Auria says, "You're a handsome and strong young man. Your parents have made quite a name for themselves in the Capitol. We should use this to your advantage."
"I bet someone like you is likely to get a lot of sponsors." Parcival adds.
"However," Auria turns to me, "I'm not sure what to do with you. Your parents are jewelers, right?"
"Yes. Some of the Capitol citizens buy their work, too."
"Oh, really?" Parcival asks.
"There's this woman called Madeline. She's told me she works with the tributes' stylists."
"Interesting." Auria speaks again. "I guess I could see you as a little princess. I think that would work."
My eyes widen. "That's what my friend Blaze always calls me."
"Really?"
"Yes. He calls me the princess of District 1. I don't feel like I-"
"So I'm not the only one who seems to think that." Auria interrupts me. "Fantastic. So it's Satin Charbrooke, the princess of District 1. What do you think, Parcival?"
Parcival nods in response. "And Zircon Lovett, her prince charming, then?"
"Not her prince." Zircon replies quickly, emphasizing the word 'her'.
"I see." Parcival nods. He looks at Zircon and I think I see some kind of mutual understanding form between them.
"Okay. Before we continue, I was wondering if you two have been training before."
I nod, and in the corner of my eye I see Zircon nod too.
"Okay, that's fortunate. What kind of weapons are you good with?"
"Swords." Zircon answers. "I mostly practiced one-on-one combat."
"Knives. Mostly throwing knives." I say.
"So we have two fighters again. That's brilliant." Parcival says with a smirk on his face.
Auria has the same smirk on his face as she looks at Parcival. "Brilliant indeed."
"Oh, oh! The District 2 reaping is airing!" Brynn suddenly says, as she rushes towards the television. The four of us follow her. On the television screen we see the crowded square of District 2. I watch as the District 2 escort walks up to the right side of the stage to pick a female tribute. She walks back to the microphone and calls out the name on the paper slip:
"Lux Montgomerson."
Oh no, I think. I watch as the tiny blonde girl makes her way to the stage. All eyes are on her, and I can tell by the way she's trembling that it's making her nervous. I scan the boys' crowd to see if I can gauge Noah's reaction, but I don't see him anywhere.
"What a frail little thing." Brynn comments.
Then the escort walks up to the left side of the stage, picks a paper slip from the bowl and walks back to call out a boys' name.
"Magnus Fairbain"
A dark-haired boy, just as tall and broad as Zircon, walks up to the stage. When he turns around I can see he has dark eyes and a determined, yet somewhat angry look on his face.
I see that District 2 has the same reaping protocol as we do: The escort asks both tributes if they want to participate in the hunger games. Lux's answer is an obvious no, with tears included. Magnus's answer is just a shrug. Then we see at least half of the girls of the girls rush towards the counter to sign in for the second round of reaping.
In the meanwhile, the channel switches to a commercial break. Most of the commercials are about the Games: The tribute parade will be broadcasted live tonight and betting will start tomorrow. After five minutes, the screen is back to the square of District 2, where the escort already holds a paper slip with the name of a female tribute on it.
"Elza Ballantynn."
A girl with long, brown hair walks up to the stage. She has bright blue eyes with which she first looks at Magnus, then at the escort, and then at the crowd. Where Magnus's facial expression is grumpy, hers is determined. She stands next to the escort, waving at the crowd with a small smile on her face.
"That girl is gorgeous." Parcival says. "Could get far in the Games. She's likely to get a lot of sponsors because of her looks."
I take another look at her, and I see that Parcival's right. Elza is indeed gorgeous with her ocean eyes, straight nose and full lips. And it's not just her face: her whole body seems to be in proportion. She's skinny, like me. But she's definitely curvier.
"That's going to be one tough competition for you, little princess." Auria says.
"But I think this guy here," Parcival points at Zircon with his thumb, "Will also get a lot of sponsors because of his family's name."
"Yes, yes. I think so too." Auria agrees. "With that, and his strength and skills, he might have a chance of winning this."
There's a smile on both their faces. "So we have our work cut out for us." Parcival says.
I don't like where this is going because this conversation makes me feel like they're mainly going to focus on Zircon.
"By the way, that new fragrance of yours, "Passion", is really nice. I bought it the other day. Are the sales going well?" Auria asks Zircon.
"They're doing better than expected, so that's fantastic." Zircon answers with a smile.
"So what's your work going to be exactly?" I ask them carefully.
"We are going to do everything we can to make sure District 1 has a victor again this year." Auria tells me with a smile on her face.
I don't get the chance to ask any more questions because we are interrupted by Brynn, who can't take her eyes off of the view outside.
"Ah, there it is! The Capitol."
Zircon and I both get up and look out the window. The giant buildings of the Capitol loom up before us on both sides of the train station. I've always admired the Capitol's grandeur and beauty on the television, but it's much more impressive to see it in reality. The train makes its way to the station, through the outskirts of the Capitol. Citizens have already gathered near the train station. When they see the train pass by, they clap and cheer. Zircon and I wave at them from behind the window. Slowly, the train comes to a halt. Brynn leads us towards the exit of the train. Zircon gets off the train first and I follow him. Behind me are Auria and Parcival, followed by Brynn. Once I'm outside I notice that it's not as warm here as it was back in District 1. I'm still wearing the same short summer dress, in which I feel underdressed and cold immediately. When I walk on and see the citizens up close, I notice how strange they all look. I remember seeing images of Capitol citizens on our television, and they don't look any different in reality. Some just have strange hair colors, like Brynn. Some of them have strange faces. But most of them wear the weirdest kinds of clothes. I see a woman who's wearing a yellow skirt so tight I wonder how she even manages to walk around in it, and on top of that she wears a loose, purple shirt with blue paillets on it and huge shoulder pads. Underneath it she wears tiger paw shoes with heels. I find myself wondering how people can dress like this.
Apparently the look on my face is obvious, because Brynn whispers in my ear: "It's just Capitol fashion, darling. Now put up your best smile and go for it."
I do as she says. I put up a smile and wave at the audience as we make our way to the car that will bring us to the training center. The car is not an ordinary car, like Madeline's. It's a long car with lots of room in the back for us to sit. I'm amazed by how big it is on the inside: the five of us are sitting there and there still is room left.
"So this is your limousine." Brynn tells us. "Enjoy the ride, because it won't be long. The training center is close by."
Brynn was right: the ride isn't long. Within ten minutes, the car stops in front of a large penthouse. As we get out of the car one by one, Zircon and I stare up to the enormous building in awe, but then we realize that Brynn, Auria and Parcival are already on their way to the entrance. We follow them quickly. After going through several doors and hallways, we end up in a large room. I see a stand with swords and daggers in the corner, but when I look around I see that there are much more weapons.
"So this is where your training starts tomorrow." Brynn tells us. She points at the many different tables and small training areas in the room. "There are a lot of different training stations."
"I'd advise you to take a look at all of them at least once." Parcival tells us.
I take another look around, and I see Zircon does the same. There's not only stations with different kinds of weapons, but there are also stations with rope structures to climb in that hang from the ceiling and stations with different kinds of trees and plants.
I shiver. It's definitely colder in here. I'm hoping we're going upstairs soon, so that I can change into something more appropriate for this temperature. This summer dress was perfect for the tropic temperatures of District 1, but not for the chillier weather here in the Capitol.
"I'm definitely going to try that tomorrow." Zircon suddenly says. I follow his gaze to see what he's talking about. There's an obstacle course in the middle of the room, which consist of multiple platforms at different heights.
"That looks-"
"Well, we're not supposed to stay here now." Brynn interrupts us. "Chop chop, let's keep moving." I gladly follow her.
We make our way to the other side of the room that leads into a small hallway, which brings us to an elevator. We get inside as Brynn pushes on the glass panel in the elevator. For a second I wonder what she's doing, but then I see that there's some kind of buttons on the glass panel.
"Each district has their own floor, with living quarters for the tributes, the mentors and the escort. Since we are from District 1, we get the first floor." Brynn tells us as the elevator starts moving upwards. After only a few seconds, the elevator stops again. Brynn gets out first, and we follow her. We walk across another hallway that ends with a door. Brynn opens the door and holds it open for us. On the other side of the door is a large living room. There's a dining table with eight chairs, lounge corner with a television and couches, and many more things. This room is about the size of our entire ground floor at home. I thought I had quite a luxurious life, but I've never been in a place like this before.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Brynn asks.
I nod. "It is."
Brynn walks towards a long wall at the end of the room that has four doors.
"These are your bedrooms. You each have a room of your own. I suggest you all take some time to refresh and relax, and then I will see you in a couple of hours for dinner."
Auria walks up to the door on the right, opens it and walks into the room. Parcival takes the room next to her and Zircon takes the one next to him. So that leaves the room on the left for me. I open the door and walk into a room that's more than twice the size of my bedroom at home. The blue carpet feels soft under my feet. The curtains on the windows are the same shade of blue, decorated with golden figures. In the corner of the room is a large bed, covered with a golden bedspread. I run my fingers across the silky fabric of the bedspread, and then I notice the small bathroom on the other side of the room. There's a toilet there, and a shower that has no faucets but a glass pane with buttons on the wall instead. Next to the bathroom is a huge wooden wardrobe, filled with all kinds of clothes: jeans, shirts, dresses. I walk into the bathroom, take of my clothes and jump into the shower. I take a look at the glass panel, but there are so many buttons and options that I'm not sure which one to choose. Eventually I get the warm water running and soap spraying in my face. I wash myself and then I manage to turn the soap spray and the water off. I dry myself off with one of the super soft towels and then I find something to wear. Eventually I go for black leggings, combined with a pink dress and a grey vest.
On my bare feet I walk back into the living room, where Zircon is sitting on the couch in the lounge corner, staring at the television. I sit down on the other side of the couch and look at the television too. The screen shows us the town square of District 3, where the reaping has just taken place. On the left of the stage is a tall but lean boy, with dark eyes and dark hair. He doesn't look older than sixteen. Next to him is a girl that's about as tall as I am, with long blonde hair and glasses.
"I see you have a twin sister you haven't told us about?" Parcival jokes behind me. I look at him, then I look back at the screen.
"Yes, I mean the girl from 3. She could be your twin."
Zircon looks at me, then looks back at the screen.
"She does look like you. That's creepy." He comments.
I glance at the girl on the screen again. We both have long, blonde hair. We are both skinny and we both have the wide-eyed gaze. But that's where the resemblances end for me. Her lips form a thin line as she squints, probably because of the sun.
Zircon, Parcival and I spent the next two hours watching the reapings of all the districts. Halfway through the broadcasts, Auria joins us.
"So this is your competition. But you should also be on the look-out for allies." Auria tells us.
"Allies?" Zircon scoffs. "Everyone's going to kill one another anyway."
"Eventually, yes." Parcival replies. "But in the beginning of the games, you'll be less outnumbered by the other tributes if you have allies. Plus, you know what they say: Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."
Zircon pouts his lips, giving this a thought.
"Do you two remember how I won my Games?" Auria asks us.
"You had allies, right? The two boys." I answer.
"Yes, the boys from 5 and 9. They had very high training score, so it seemed wise to team up with them. I stayed with them until there were five of us left. Then I ran off. Eventually there were three of us left: The boy from 5, who was killed by the girl from 2. Then I strangled her, and I won."
After that conversation, I look at the other tributes more critically. The ones that I feel like I have to watch out for are both tributes from 6, the boy from 9 with his vicious expression, and both tributes from 10. The ones I'm not scared of are the girl from 7, who is the youngest tribute this year, the boy from 8 and both tributes from 12, who don't seem to really get what they are doing there.
Half an hour later we're eating our dinner in silence, until Brynn joins us and starts talking about tomorrow. In the meanwhile, we hear the elevator on the other side of the hallway zoom by.
"Another pair of tributes has arrived." Brynn notices. "Probably from District 2."
No one really responds to her: everyone is busy eating.
"So tomorrow, when all the tributes have arrived, you will meet your prep team. They're here to make sure you two look nothing less than fabulous for the tributes' parade tomorrow."
When we've finished dinner, I walk towards my room again.
"The next few days are going be very intense, so make sure you sleep well." Brynn advises us.
In my room I open the curtains, just to see that the sky has turned dark already, so I close them again. I suppress a yawn, and look at my bed. It's been a busy day. I put on one of the nightgowns from the wardrobe and crawl into the bed. This bed is so comfortable that I fall asleep within seconds.