Culling

Part I • Chapter V

Make it impossible for everyone to ignore the fact that you are not a normal tribute. You have less than a month of training and assessments before the start of the games. You will need to look and act your best to gain an edge somehow. If you play it right, you'll have a chance at winning."

Were people here supposed to talk like this? It almost seemed...rebellious. Why was he so keen on helping me anyway?

I glanced at the three others in the room and noticed that they too were watching Adam and myself with serious eyes and nodding in agreement. There was a heavy atmosphere in the room now and I'm pretty certain that I was missing something big.

Adam clapped his hands and broke the mood. "Anyway. I am the best in the Capital at what I do, and my team is the best at what they do as well. You are going to be fabulous."

He walked around the table and picked up a lock of my hair. "This is remarkable. This is not dyed is it?"

"Um. No..."

He was examining the locks of hair he was holding.

"If I can make a request... Please don't cut my hair?" I knew it was kind of vain, and stupid considering everything else going on, but my hair was one of the last things I had left that defined my previous identity.

"Of course not, sweetness. We can use its' length to our advantage, I'll just give it a short trim and style. That's all." Adam dropped my hair and spun on his heel to the rest of the room.

He clapped his hands twice and snapped out a sharp, "Chop, chop. People. We've got a lot to do and a short amount of time in which to do it."

The room came back to life again, and I was being poked, washed and prodded in so many places that I couldn't keep up in what was happening. So I just trusted that Adam knew what he was doing.

☜♡☞

I tilted my head as I studied my reflection in the mirror, hardly able to recognize myself.

Every inch of me had been scrubbed, covered in mud, washed and plucked. I don't think I had ever been this clean before in my life.

The dress Adam had me wearing was a baby pink color with a flowing calf-length asymmetrical skirt. Since I was not used to high heels, Adam had me given me a pair of light tan flats that strapped around my ankle. The top of the dress was form fitting and sleeveless, and had lace and diamond detailing. One of the most unique factors of the dress, one that Adam was raving about to Green and Purple, was that the back of the dress became backless and formed a large heart.

He had said it was darling.

While Adam didn't do much to my hair outside of what he promised, he did spend some time styling it. In the end, my hair ended up pulled into a messy side braid and the back of hair was bunched together in elaborate curls.

He also went light on the makeup, saying that he wanted to focus on emphasizing my innocence, so I was wearing some light eye makeup and lipgloss.

"I love it." Despite everything that had happened, I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I turned away from the mirror and touched Adam's arm.

I had never felt more beautiful, and despite everything I was happy that I had the opportunity to dress up like this once in my life.

Adam was looking over me with a critical eye and circled around me. "The opening parade used to be a much more grand affair back in the old days of only having a few tributes from each district. Designers would be more focused on the tributes' hometown symbolism than actual fashion statements.