The 73rd Hunger Games

Tribute Parade

"Why?"

"Because, there's only one thing I want right now, and talking to that clown isn't going to help me out at all."

"Massie's okay," Cordo reasons. "Once you look past the blinding yellow and the wig."

"I'm still struggling on that front." Cordo bursts out laughing heartily and I stifle a giggle.

When the laughter fades, I ask: "How can you even be happy?"

"How can you not?" then he grins. "I figured, there's nothing I can do to help this, except fight my butt off in the arena. For now I might enjoy these pleasures of the finer life."

Before I can reply, a lanky mocha skinned man who wore a suit and purple lipstick took a long stride into the room. He was followed by Massie and 3 rat looking women. Chaff was nowhere to be seen.

He studies us up and down before speaking.

"I'm Crowell, district 11's stylist." He looked at us as if we were mere objects sitting on chairs and turned to the women. "Lavodica, you take the girl and wash her, Mocie you the boy. Frica; fetch the body paint. The parade is in 3 hours! Time is of the essence!"

After being scalded, prodded and waxed until my body felt raw; I stand naked in front of Lavodica. I am beyond caring about her seeing me like this. I don't care who sees me like this at this point, absolutely nothing will change my inevitable fate which coincidently is the only thing I have left to care about.

"Crowell will be here in a moment." She speaks with such a forced accent, making her 'w' sound like a 'v'.

I nod, absently and play the name 'Crovell' over in my head. I tapped my thumbs against my sides and wait. Crowell flaunts in, not holding my outfit. I don't talk, but he sees me eyeing his hands and the absence of my costume for the tribute parade.

"Spray the girl Lavodica. Add the leaves on her.." he looked at her raising her eyebrows and she nodded as if she understood. "And set her on the chariot. The boy is already there." he turned back to me. "You see, the bare beauty of district 11 is the bare-ness the tributes possess and will be demonstrated between you two tonight. And what is more bare than being bare, in it's truest form?"

At that moment I understood that he wanted me to go nude. I should be thinking what my family will think, to see me degraded further on the broadcast, or even Cordo being so close to my naked body, but all I could think of is how cold I'd be. I'd watched the tribute parade before, it looked daunting. I stand carefully as Lavodica sprayed the boy spray over my body and glued the leaves on to make me look slightly more tasteful. Then I join Cordo on the chariot, who scowls as he sees my naked body.

"Isn't this ludicrous?" He looks generally angry and I have to stifle a laugh. It's not bothering me as much as it probably should be. District 10's tributes make their way out and I take a deep breath as the horse rides our chariot out into the crowded city.

In that first moment, I am vastly aware of my nakedness, and then the coldness of the city, despite the thousands crammed in here just to get a look. Then I look to Cordo, who looks as fierce as I've ever seen him, and mirror his expression.

And the crowd goes wild! I have to gasp and take in the splendour of it all; upon thousands of Capitol citizens are screaming and yelling as the tributes are carried out on their chariots. The horse stop by President Snow's podium, where he makes a brief speech about the tributes 'sacrifice'. In the silence that follows his words I snort.

'Yeah right,' I think bitterly. 'Like we want to be here.'

The national anthem plays and on a huge screen above us, I see each tribute in turn get some airtime. When my face shows, I look as fierce and mean as I can, despite how ridiculous I look. The crowd cheers when they see my face. And then the horse is on it's way again and we are backstage with Massie, Chaff and Crowell.

Massie grins "you look great!" And turns to congratulate Crowell on his fashion prowess. Chaff looks drunk and struggles to keep his eyes from trailing down my bare body and I blush and cower slightly behind Cordo. His fists clenched and Chaff looks away.

"Let's go to our suite. Floor 11."

Massie shakes her head, quite embarrassed. "I do not know why he desides to drown himself in alcohol."

Silently we ride up the elevator which only takes a couple of seconds. And then we are on our floor, which is huger than my entire home, if it was all laid out on one floor. My bedroom has a huge bed (softer than anything I'd ever laid on) and a wide screen television. It only plays the commentators of the Hunger Games, Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesworth talking about their 'ones to watch this year'. Cordo and I are mentioned as some sort of joke, the 'naked tributes' and the commentators focus more on Crowell's wild fashion choice. I turn off the television and silently join the others for dinner.

Chaff doesn't look any more sober than he did earlier, but not any more drunk either. He seems fit to look at me now that I'd showered and changed into the clothes laid out for me. My nightmare dress has not made a reappearance since stripping it off last night. The servants must've cleared it away.

"Tomorrow your training begins," he says to us as the servants {who I later find out are called avoxes} serve chicken fillets, which are sort of like groosling, and small squares of bread called croutons. A zangy orange sauce is poured over the meal and I focus more on the floating orange zest in the sauce rather than Chaff.

"...So you're gonna have to talk at some point darling."

Cordo nudges me and I looked up from my plate alert.

"What's your deal anyway?" Chaff continues, his fork suspended in the air. "You can't speak?"

Cordo, as if reading my mind exactly says: "She can speak. And she will, when she's ready."

Chaff ignored him and turned to Massie, with a sly smirk on his face. "Did you pick an avox at the reaping Massie? I ain't seen this one open her mouth once."

I rise from the table and head straight to my room. I sit there, not really looking at anything in particular until Cordo comes in after a while. I'm surprised he is comfortable enough with me to just walk in, as if we won't be battling to the death in two days.

"You really should knock," I advise him as he takes a seat next to me on my bed. "I could've been getting changed."

He smirks: "well, I have seen you naked."

I blush, and repeat his word from earlier. "Ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous."

We rejoin Crowell and Massie on the couch later that night. Chaff, had been taken to his room after he apparently vomited on his plate as the night went on, and his drinks increased. What a liability, I think bitterly.

The T.V plays reruns of the reapings. It seems like a lifetime ago, when really it was just yesterday. It begins with District 1, two very bulky tributes volunteer themselves and recieves roars of admiration from their district. The same pretty much occurs for districts 1 through 3, until for 4, two scrwany children are picked. Nothing very special. I wonder if my reaping would be as forgettable as theirs. On District 6, however, things got interesting. A small girl, about Herra's age was reaped. She was bawling as she stumbled up the stairs to the districts escort. A mothers strangled cry sounded from the audience and a tall, big male (who appeared to be the lttle girls older brother) volunteered. He rushed to the stage and hugged her tightly. The small girl's name is Stephanie and her brother Marc. I took a metal note of their names as their reaping was particularly moving. Our reaping wasn't very special, and didn't get as much camera time as distruct 6 and the volunteer tributes. Nothing else very spectacular happened. When the screen faded to black, Massie rubbed her hands together and turned to Cordo and I.

"Well, you'd better get some rest. Training for the games begins at 9. An avox will be around to wake you up."

Cordo and I head to our rooms in silence and murmer goodnight. I peel off my clothes and crawl into bed. Once again the tears silently pour out of my eyes. I wipe them away fiercely with my fist and force myself to sleep.

Okay! Chapter 4! Hope you all like it guys. Comment below what you think and don't forget to vote! Thank you all so much for the positive feedback I've been recieving and I will definately post more frequently so I can finish the story! Follow me on instagram @cityoftributes_ and add this to your reading list to know when I update!