My eyes dart open to the sound of Sylvia's high heels running frantically through my carriage, after Finnick's drunken scene last night I had apparently slept through my alarm. Sylvia seemed to be making up time by running around like a headless chicken and doing nothing useful whatsoever. "We're going to be late!" She screeches, flapping her arms into the air as she enters my sleeping quarters, the blue-haired woman begins to rummage through my wardrobe to find something 'presentable' to wear when we get off the train.
"Sylvia, calm down, we're still on the train," Mags soothes the woman, becoming the voice of reason amongst the three of us, "Come, Rory, let's get some food into you," She leads me by the hand through the train. Inside the dining carriage, Thorn sits alone, the table is stacked sky-high with different breakfast foods. I take my seat beside the boy and pile some bacon and eggs onto my plate, Finnick trudges into the room half asleep and squinting at the amount of sunlight the windows provide.
"What's going on?" He grumbled huskily, blocking the sunlight away from his eyes with his hand. Mags greets the boy with some aspirin and a glass of water, kissing him on the cheek. He smiles gratefully at her before popping the pills into his mouth and chugging the entire glass of water.
"Sylvia's over-reacting, what's new?" Thorn chuckled, the rest of us let out laughs as Finnick takes a seat across from me.
"Morning sunshine," I greet him, reaching across the table and flattening out his bed hair, secretly I thought that the way it flew in several directions was a good look on him. I knew he would probably agree with me, but Sylvia would definitely disagree, it was better to give the woman at least one reason to have her head still screwed on.
"Hey Rory," He smiled at me, putting a piece of toast on his plate and nibbling on the edge of it, Mags hands each of us a steaming mug of coffee which we all take graciously.
Sylvia appears from down the corridor breathing heavily with an excited look on her face, "I found the perfect outfit!" She exclaimed happily, sitting at the head of the table. A smile forms on my face, as much as Sylvia could be annoying or overbearing, she was probably the only reason I would look presentable in the eyes of the Capitol. I was relying on her to get me through the publicity of the Hunger Games.
The television screen flashes on as Caesar Flickerman chatters excitedly about the first impression each of the tributes has bought to the Capitol. Unsurprisingly, the boy from One and the girl from Two have been voted as fan favourites, but the next tribute comes as a surprise. "Coming in third for first impressions is the astonishingly beautiful Aurora Hartley from District Four, it seems she's not only caught the eye of Finnick Odair, but the eyes of many of our lovely viewers- aren't we all excited for her interview?" He asks the audience; a loud cheer is heard through the crowd.
I blush and look down at my breakfast plate as all eyes turn to me, Sylvia is gushing as Thorn provides an amused look, Finnick is as red as me when Mags throws him a knowing look. "This makes your entrance to the Capitol all the more important, big smiles ladies and gentlemen, it's showtime!" She exclaims, pulling me from my chair and down the train.
Sylvia tells me not to bother bathing, telling me that the prep team will take care of that when we arrive. Instead, she dresses me in a flowy green dress that touches just above my ankles, the dress is in a wrap style and has thousands of tiny white daisies on the pattern. Mags weaves a braided crown into my hair, leaving tiny curled fly-aways out of updo. Sylvia adds the perfect touch of real white daisies into my hair, strapping chunky white sandals to my feet. She lets me leave Finnick's pearl necklace around my neck, smacking a layer of clear lip-gloss onto my lips.
It's obvious the play she's going for, the entire Capitol has already labelled me as astonishingly beautiful, she's clearly attempted to highlight some of my best features. Mags compliments my appearance as I stand gaping like a fish in the mirror, Sylvia also compliments her handiwork claiming that I'm 'Capitol's next Finnick Odair' I don't really know what that means, but it makes me uncomfortable. I exit the carriage in search of my best friend that I find in the lounge.
"Finnick doesn't she look nice?" Mags prompted him as he meets my eyes.
He doesn't say anything for a while, standing up when he notices my presence, he wears a plain white shirt with four of the buttons undone, a pair of black pants on his legs. He takes me by the hand, "You look ethereal Aurora," He compliments breathlessly.
I ignore the heat rising to my cheeks by letting sarcasm slip through my lips, "Do you even know what that means?" I joke, Thorn lets out a laugh from the other side of the room.
Finnick glares at the boy before turning back to me, Mags and Sylvia both silently chuckling in the background, "Of course I know what it means Rory, I did use the word right, didn't I?"
I shake my head and straighten his shirt, "This is why you shouldn't have dropped out of school at fourteen," I laugh, the rest of the team laughs at my comment as Finnick pouts. I smile and pull him into a hug, "How's your head?" I ask him, placing a hand on his forehead.
"It's fine, just a little hungover, sorry for spooking you last night," He mumbles.
"It's ok, you're cute when you drunk," I point out bluntly before realising what I had said, "I mean- I didn't mean it like that- you named my clock," I stammered out trying to make and excusing for letting the mushy side of my brain take over. I scold myself as everyone on the train chuckles, Finnick is just as red as I am.
"I named your clock?" he asked as the laughter dies down.
I shake my head, "It's a long story,"
Soon after the train turns around a bend and the Capitol rushes into view, compared to all of the places I've been in Panem, the Capitol looks so- expensive. I've seen more beautiful places, without the sun reflecting off the city's windows it would simply look like a cluster of building. Something about the sunlight makes such a corrupt place look so angelic, how could hell look so heavenly?
The train soon moves into the heart of the Capitol, thousands of brightly dressed people stand waving at the train, Thorn and I move to one of the windows, smiling and waving at the people. Seeing our faces, they wave back even more enthusiastically, pointing inside the carriage. Even inside the train, I can hear the excited shouting of the people.
"You sure you don't want to say goodbye to Sir Cogsworth before we leave?" I tease Finnick, nudging his shoulder.
"If the doors weren't about to open I would so crash tackle you," He threatens.
The wheels barely screech as the train comes to a halt, when the doors open, Sylvia escorts us off the platform followed by Finnick, Mags and several peacekeepers. We reached another carriage, waving and smiling at more people, the muscles in my cheeks feel sore as we become secluded from the citizens of the Capitol. I rest my head on Thorn's shoulder in exhaustion, he rests his head on top of mine, "Just you wait children," Sylvia exclaims, "The real excitement is yet to come!"
I don't even try to stop myself as I let out an annoyed groan.
***
After being escorted into the Training centre I am separated from the rest of the District Four team and thrown into a small room with three people who smiled at me for a second, quickly introducing themselves to me and then proceed to order me to take off my clothes. "Excuse me?" I ask uncomfortably.
"You mustn't feel uncomfortable darling, this will only take a bit," One of the people, Titan comforts me, Titan wears extravagant eye makeup and sparkly blue clothing, a matching colour painted on his nails. After stripping out of my clothes a woman named Venus hoses me down in the same way someone would wash a dog, the woman has bubble-gum pink hair in braids that almost touch the floor and rapidly speaks to me about my reaping.
"Blaze quit standing in the corner and help us," Titan scolds the final one who stands awkwardly in the corner. Blaze wears a silky red shirt and a pair of black jeans, with gold tattoos on his temples, he looks much younger than the other two, about my age.
"I don't want her to feel uncomfortable," He explains, twisting his hands together.
"It's ok," I surprise myself about how confident I say the words, "Just get it over and done with,"
He nervously moves over to the other two with my consent and assists them in waxing my legs, arms, and anything on my body with hair. "Hold still," Venus said as she begins to pluck my eyebrows, "You can curse, I know you want to," she laughs as Titan pulls another strip of wax from my legs.
I let out a loud string of profanities right as Sylvia walks into the room, "Watch your mouth, Miss Hartley!" She scolds, Blaze rips a strip of wax from my arm, I bite my tongue as Sylvia continues talking about the parade, "Just wait until you see what your outfit looks like!" She exclaimed, "Gaia really went out of her way for this one!"
"It was all Finnick's idea," Venus gossiped along with her, "She wouldn't have known about the pearls if it weren't for him,"
"Finnick's idea?" I ask, gritting my teeth through the pain.
"Of course, Finnick's idea darling, he's rooting for his girlfriend to win!" Titan winks, pulling the daisies out of my hair, he scrubs some shampoo into my hair as Blaze hoses me down again. After double and triple-checking me for any remnants of imperfection, Blaze hands me a bathrobe and leads me to another room where I'm expected to meet with my stylist.
Gaia wasn't what I was expecting at all in my first evaluation when I enter the room, her hair is pitch black and curled in a natural afro style. She sits across from me on a cream coloured couch, a table of food sitting in front of us. When I sit across from her she orders me to move over to some clear floor space, she circles me, taking in every detail of my body before nodding her head and giving a satisfied smile, "This," She circles her finger, gesturing to my entire body, "This I can work with," I stare at her in confusion as she walks back to the couch, "Don't be shy kiddo, have something to eat," She exclaims.
I like her already, she seemed outwardly friendly, everyone in my prep team has certain parts of their personality that are so likeable, I pick up a plate of lamb stew and begin to eat, noticing as Gaia does move to touch any of the food after encouraging me to do so, "Aren't you going to eat too?" I ask her as I bite into my food.
Gaia purses her lips before answer my question, "President Snow believes I would be more desirable if I slimmed my figure down," She sighs, she goes to continue speaking but I cut off by passing her a bread roll.
"Screw him," I say with my mouth full of food, "Your weight doesn't define how desirable you are,"
Gaia smirks, biting into the bread roll, "You know what kid, I like you, I can tell we're going to be good friends." I didn't respond, but I silently agreed with her, "To know how to present you, I need to know more about you, I have what Finnick told me, but I'd rather hear it from you. Tell me about yourself Aurora."
"Where do I start?" I ask, twirling some hair around my finger.
"How about your family, start there." She encourages me.
"Ok," I shuffle forward on my seat and begin to talk, "I'm the oldest of all my siblings, My Dad and Mum both work at the Pearl Farm my family owns, I help out where I can. Addison's after me, she's the kindest of all of us, after Addy is Asher, she's the songbird of the family and Andante-"
"The one who got reaped?"
"Him," I confirm, "He likes to think he's this big strong Career kid, I know he's got a lot more dimension than that- he's secretly very protective over all of us, especially Addison, Addy's very sensitive, she takes things pretty hard," I explain, it feels nice to be able to talk to someone about everything, other than Finnick I don't really have anyone to confide in, Gaia seems so trustworthy.
"How about Finnick, tell me about him," She says kindly.
"Finnick's been my best friend since we were seven, we've trained together for so long, I know everything about him, he knows everything about me. I'd be completely lost without him, he means so much to me," I say, a smile forming at my lips at the mere thought of him.
The woman catches the look and gives me an amused smile, "You love the boy," She realises.
I choke on my food, "Excuse me?" I ask in shock.
"Don't look at me like that, I can see it in your eyes, you love him!" She exclaims.
"I wouldn't go as far to say, love," I shake my head, trying to hide the blush creeping at my cheeks.
"Don't try to deny it, you'll only break your heart," She shakes her head, standing up and holding out her hand for me to take, "Come with me, we've got work to do,"
bonjour
I've been drinking tequila sunrises all but HERES SOME QUALITY CONTENT FOR YA
love you
M
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