Everyone in the room kept telling me how cute or beautiful I was. It was something I would sometimes get back home, but not often. Still it was something that annoyed my my brother Aiden, as out of the two of us, he was the attention seeker, where I was more the shadow. But I guess twins lose their collective charm after a while then it seems to transfer to just one of them even if they didn't want it. Though back home we had more practical concerns, like food and shelter, and jobs that needed doing, back home I'd never have gotten attention like this before, not to this extreme anyway. It was sort of nice though, I had to admit, in a strange way that didn't seem to fit someone my age, but still, I felt myself falling into the role of someone younger, yearning for the simplicity and safety of a time before aging into Reaping.
It began with Atlanta the escort, she had jewels studded directly into her pink stained skin, commenting that a pair of properly placed amethysts would make my dimples 'pop.'
She held me on her lap for most of the ride, like a was much younger than I am, I wondered what part of that could be attributed to my looks and what part of it was due to her clearly eccentric nature. I was happy enough to oblige as it got me away from Ash, my District counterpart who would mutter to himself and look it me in ways that were frightening and dangerous. Then after a while I began to relax, and find it oddly comforting, the way she held me and stroked my hair. Closing my eyes I'd been able to conjure images of my mother I'm Atlanta's place.
Then Trest, as I learned our Mentor liked to be called, came and talked to me. She advised that because of my 'slight frame' and 'clear ineptitude at brute force' that my best chances of survival would come in the forms of hiding, and if necessary trap making. If I lived long enough she explained, waiting out my competitors was my best bet at winning, when it came down to it. She then advised me to stay as far away from Ash as possible, even before the Games began, that there was something wrong with him. I didn't understand entirely what she meant, but her sincerity and promise to help the both of us as much as she could saw me quickly agreeing. She looked me over quizzically for a minute when she had finished, before leaving again.
After she left however, things with Atlanta began to get out of hand. She went from babying me and holding me on her lap to feeding me from her plate and calling me her 'little one.' It went from being nice and flattering, even making me feel safer and more secure with my current situation, all of which I was gladly enjoying, allowing myself to pretend that this was what my world was now to be rather than the slaughter that awaited, to being strange and uncomfortable. I felt more closely related to a pet then a girl after a while, but still, in denial and looking for escape even if just for a moment I played along. Unfortunately the feeling of being a pet would be a lasting one as the prep team went on to gush over me, not that I was entirely opposed to it anymore.
One of them, a woman by the name of Cassia currently had me in her lap, her naturally colored but drastically angled hair cutting a path that obscured half her face as she beamed brightly.
"See," she said simply, spinning in the chair so that we were facing our reflections in the mirror. "This is what I want to have!" she explained, distractedly comparing out hair as she spoke. Mine was a deeper auburn with much more red in the highlights.
"You have a baby?" the man she was speaking to scoffed in disbelief as he packed his supplies. He had just finished polishing and shaping my nails before painting little white crescent moons on the end of each one, tips he called it.
"Well, no, not me exactly, it'd look just terrible on my figure, besides pregnant women are so disgusting. But someone would, someone looking for the pay, and then I'd have my own little girl to play with!" Cassia explained smiling as she wrinkled her nose at me through the mirror. Then she took notice of how some of the lines lingered and began preening and fretting in a manner that reminded me of a cat
I was deeply surprised, not that I should have been, all Capitolists were monsters. Yet I still couldn't quite believe my ears. There were dozens of orphans starving and some even abused in Thirteen let alone all the other Districts, who needed homes, families, and above all someone to care about them. Not that people having their own children was a bad thing, I wouldn't have been born after all if not for my parents, but I had a direct connection in the matter. My parents had been trying for six years to adopt my cousin who's mother I'd never met had died. Their former positions under Coin even if rather lowly ranked, kept them from getting the proper clearance, and we were forced to watch Amelia who is five years younger than me grow from afar. So the thought of paying someone to bring another child into this world while there were so many without, so many in need struck a hard painful cord, like sugar or ice on a cavity.
Ovidius the stylist walked in then making a low nasal hum as he saw Cassia toying with me like a doll. He was an incredibly tall, thin man with copper skin, curly pink hair piled in a mountain atop his head making him seem even more formidable, and an uncanny sense of balance that didn't seem to fit his gangly limbs at all.
"I thought I told you Cassia, wash it, iron it, and cut it in a bob!" he observed. The woman groaned but got up to obey him regardless, sliding me from her lap and into the seat as she did.
Grumbling lightly to herself the woman began to part my hair with long tweezer like nails, before combing the intricately painted talons through my locks before getting a brush and running it through. Humming as she worked Cassia seemed content enough as she continued to explain how my new hair cut would positively frame my face. My mind however was still centered on home.
If I died in the Games my parents would be left utterly alone. An oppressive sorrow wove its way into my heart making it feel heavy and made of lead. My older sister Winnipeg died when we were all still very young, making it hard for me to remember to much about her, other than her honey blonde hair and gentle smile. Her loss made Aiden and I grow closer together than ever. It made voting a nightmare, he collapsed in a heaving fit. I'd never seen him like that before, Aiden voted for himself immediately and threatened to kill himself if he lost me and he wasn't elected to die, that life wasn't worth living without me. It felt almost like the deepest betrayal when these words filtered out of his mouth but it left me no resolve left, I voted for him as well, while our parents unable to condemn their son elected themselves. I hoped in some way if they did lose us, that they'd finally get Amelia.
A shriek if terror jarred me from my thoughts and brought me back to present. Cassia was staring wide eyed at the back of my head, one hand over her mouth while the other flailed about as she jumped and stomped in apparent disgust. I noticed that I'd been crying and hastily pawed away the tears. The stronger I looked, I reasoned, the stronger I would feel.
"Bugs! Ovidius, there are bugs in her hair!" the woman whimpered whe the stylist entered.
The tall man walked in with an air and sense of duty. Bending low he took a comb, and peering at my scalp began separating into various sections before giving a forlorn sigh. "They're called lice." he said evenly. "Parasitic little insects that live in the hair and drink blood."
I had heard of lice before, knew they were there. After all almost everyone I knew had them, or had, had them. It was always inevitable to re-get them after your hair was nit free though if for no other reason than that everyone had them. They could be bothersome, and even itchy and maddening at times, but overall I hardly realized that they were there at all. The look on the Capitol woman's face however seemed to be the look of someone about to die. She'd gone pale, and held a hand to her stomach.
"I," she started in a high pinched tone. "I had her on my lap. I was touching our hair together!"
"Then," said Ovidius just as plainly and evenly as before. "That means you have lice."
When Cassia crouched on the ground in a fit of tears a boiling anger began to fill me, my brows knit tightly together as it began to crawl up my throat like heartburn or vomit. Then I opened my mouth and it all came out in a torrent of rage that I wasn't even aware I was capable of.
"Shut up!" I roared. "Shut up, get up, and stop crying they're bugs! Besides you aren't the one going to die, I am!"
And as quickly as the anger was there it was gone, and all I was left with was a terrible hollow sadness. Now it was my turn to cry. I choked out big heart wrenching sobs as the world carried on around me. Cassia had been dismissed and now Ovidius worked alone. He was quiet and determined as he worked never asking me to stop, or bothering to comfort me. At one point the harsh acrid scent of chemicals invaded my nostrils making my eyes sting but reminding me in a vague way of home and the way a waste spill smelled when it was being cleaned up.
When he finished I was allowed to sit in the chair while he put everything back where it belonged. After all the pampering, babying, plucking, washing, and crying, a little time to just myself actually felt really nice. Soon however the man return with a dress that had several layers of lace making it stick out tremendously, like an over turned tea cup. It was black with a bright yellow radioactive symbol on the chest. This wasn't what caught my attention however, what did though was Ovidius' sudden transformation. I couldn't tell what was more alien, his appearance now, or prior, but his massive head of hair was gone.
He seemed to notice my gaping mouth and winked. "I'm an old pro, lice don't frighten me!" he beamed.
Soon I was standing next to Ash on a chariot teamed by a row of black horses in my equally dark dress that felt like it had been made of rubber. My only guess was that it was meant to represent a radiation suit. Soon however the horses lurched forward and we were speeding into the deafening throngs of Capitol citizens, who cheered life for their favorites, and death for all others.