The Arsonist (Finnick Odair/OC)

3

(Age 16, 67th Annual Hunger Games)  

When we arrived in the Capitol it was nothing short of incredible. Buildings taller than any trees I'd ever seen. The tower in which housed all the tributes had twelve floors. The higher your district, the higher your floor. Which is probably the only time District Twelve gets more luxury than District One. That thought alone had me smirking from the second we entered the building.

We didn't have time to explore our floor. Our train was apparently late, so we were rushed to our stylists. 

Look, I don't have too much riding on this parade. I'm either going to be a cow, sheep or a cowgirl. Our district is livestock, so we were more so on the uglier side when it comes to costumes for parades.

I was shoved into a room that held five capitol freaks that could rival Blu in the looks department, so much for stylists.

Freak number one took one look at me and beamed. "Oh, thank goodness we have a pretty one. We can work with this. Oh, but a bath first! yes, we must wash".

They sort of hovered around the bathroom door behind me and I suddenly felt a pit grow in my stomach. They weren't leaving and I'd been told by Blu that if I refused anything then I'm basically dead. Well fuck.

The only male of the group with Orange hair gave an over dramatic sigh. "Child, please. You are already late, we have zero time for this bashfulness".

The dick pulled off my towel and basically pushed me into the shower. Okay it's official, he's my least favourite. After they scrubbed me with ten types of lotion to get out the quote 'smell of cows' I was finally deemed clean. However, my little District Ten self thought, that'd be it. Surely a half hour shower was enough. But no! they plucked me raw. I did scream even though I was told not to. But it was so motherfucking painful that I'm surprised I didn't punch someone.

Only when they believed I was ready for Leti did they finally leave me alone. Leti is apparently the head stylist for District Ten tributes and had designed the outfits that we are going to wear tonight. Again, I'm just praying he doesn't dress me as a cow.

The door to my dressing room opened and in walked a man with what looked like a spaceship on his head. Oh my god. This guy can't be for real...even for Capitol standards.

He jumped and clasped his hands together in excitement. "I'm going to be your stylist, you can call me Le. And you are the beautiful Lyra Powell"

Yep. He's definitely from the Capitol.

"Aren't the games just so thrilling? You must be so excited!". He finished his sentence with a little squeal, I'm so dead.

He exhaled while pushing down imaginary air. "Now. This is a new year and I want to go big! Bigger than anything that District Ten has dared to do!.I present...". He held up a picture of his design and it took literally everything in me not to cry. Only because I'd promised my dad that I wouldn't.

Let me repeat. That the purpose of this parade is to make us desirable, to show off the tributes to the sponsors. And yet Leti is literally showing me a sketch of a model in a meat dress. A fucking meat dress! oh and I can't say no. Well fuck me, I'm already dead and this bumbling idiot isn't helping.

"What do you think?"

Oh, you know what fuck it, it's my life, I've only got two weeks to live it.  I'm not going out in a meat dress!

I clicked my tongue in dissatisfaction. "Just how is wearing rotting meat going to make me look desirable?".

He gasped. I guess he wasn't used to tributes voicing their concerns."It's supposed to make you fierce and show off your butcher skills. Besides, it's really not up for discussion".

I tipped my head in confusion. "Well, how are you planning on keeping the shelf life of the meat if it's exposed for over four hours?".

He scoffed and waved off my comment."The shelf life of the meat? Honestly, I doubt that'll be problem sweetie."

Turns out it was a problem. The meat that made up my dress had already gotten white spots on it and had a smell that left little to be desired. We smelt and looked like rotting corpses.

I stood anxiously next to Bill as the other tributes arrived. Our smell was actually upsetting our horses and Leti insisted that we stayed near them so they could get used to us. But we knew better. We should be at least five meters away. Which is why we kept creeping more so towards the chariot than the horses.

The only time all eyes weren't on us was when district twelve entered. They were naked and covered from head to toe in soot. I'd rather be naked than wearing rotting meat. Slendor who'd been talking to the mentor of district twelve for the past hour decided to finally grace us with his presence. Blu was here too and held her nose up in disgust.

Slendor rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly "Uh-I, look kids the faster you get out there, the faster you can get it off you okay. There's a bit of wind when riding your chariots so Eleven and Twelve are going to smell you guys the whole time. Hopefully they won't want to kill you after that". He started laughing and I almost joined him. After we stank up that elevator, I doubt there'd be anyone left who didn't want to kill us right now.

Leti hadn't said anything. I think he's now realized just how much he's fucked up. He was supposed to make us desirable and he's done the exact opposite. I heard a member of our team tell him that Snow wants to see him after the parade. Guess he's more fucked then we are now.

We finally got on the chariots and they started rolling them out. I saw pictures of my face here and there and I looked like I was about to puke. Damn, this smells bad. Bill looks worse for wear,  his face is deathly pale. I started leaning away from him just in case. We did a full circle and stopped in a semi-circle formation to listen to Snow's speech. It was a boring speech, basically thanking us for our sacrifice and finished with may the odds be ever in your favor.

As soon as our chariot stopped, I got off and marched straight to the elevator. I didn't even care, at this point I'm two seconds away from blowing chunks. I got in and pressed the tenth floor when somebody held open the door.

"Hold it".

Standing there in front of me was Johanna Mason and Finnick Odair in all their glory. You've got to be shitting me! It's like they crept straight out of the nightmares I had last night. The only people scarier than the tributes currently surrounding me would be their mentors.

Johanna laughed while Finnick's handsome face twisted into disgust. Her manic laughter finally stopped. "On second thoughts, this one is all yours Ten".

Well this is just great. I quickly pressed the button that closed the doors and hung my head in mortification. Just when I thought I'd been ridiculed enough, hopefully training tomorrow will go better.