I was shoved out into the flashing lights and steady spotlight beams of a hundred cameras, Chet at my left and Flint behind us. I had to walk about 30 feet to get into the train station, and then another 20 feet to get into the train, which was, surprisingly, not underground like the rest of the trains in Kanto. The whole way was lined with people angling camera lenses, microphones, and those flashbulb-umbrella-thingers, trying to get the perfect shots of us. I began walking at a normal pace, making sure that I stayed next to Chet. The poor kid still looked kinda deer-caught-in-headlights-ish. With that expression, he reminded me of Kyle.
Then, remembering what Flint has said, I attempted to curve the corners of my mouth up, in what I was hoping was a confident little smirk. Not happy, just confident. Trying not to blink too much from the lights, I looked straight into as many of the camera lenses as I could, hoping that I was giving them good shots. I had to make sure that the people in the capitol liked me; that way, I'd make sure to get sponsors, who could then send gifts to me in the arena. I also needed to make sure that the other tributes, who haven't been reaped yet, knew that I was a fighter, and I was going to give these Games my all and never give up.
The next thing I knew, I was being guided by a police officer into the train to go to the capitol. Chet followed close behind, but Flint had taken his sweet time getting to the train, letting us walk ahead. I couldn't decide whether it was to avoid being in our shots, or so that he got his own.
As soon as the professor stepped into the train, the door slid shut, just barely missing the tail of his white coat. We suddenly slid into forward motion. I grabbed the wall so that I wouldn't lose my balance as the high-speed transport accelerated.
I was immediately guided off to my own section of the train, with a giant television, a leather sofa, a huge bed overflowing with pillows, a bathroom with a shower, and drawers absolutely busting with things: Shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, tights, shoes, soaps, lotions, creams, shampoos, conditioners, perfumes, all sorts of fancy things that we never had at home. I wished that I could live on this train car. Since it was all here, just for me, I decided to take advantage of it all.
The first thing that I did was take a super-long shower. At home, we had to share the bathwater, which meant short, in-and-out dips, no soaking in the water for ten whole minutes. And the water in the shower stayed warm the whole time. I felt so invigorated, and yet somehow relaxed standing there, the warm stream of water sending tingles down my back and the hot steam rising around me. The coolest part was probably the soaps. There were so many different kinds, and they all smelled amazing: pretty and flowery, or musky and spicy, or fruity and mouth-wateringly delicious.
After my amazing shower, I dried off in this big, fluffier-than-a-cloud towel, and went to the closet to find some clothes to wear. I wanted to wear something that would be to dressy for home, but not capitol-y, and definitely not a dress. After digging around through all the clothes, I found it: A high-waisted short semi-flowy skirt, not too short, though, with a tank top tucked in, and a black leather cropped jacket over top. A wide, black leather belt right at my waist finished the look.
I then flopped onto the bed, and once I had sunk into the mountain of pillows, I grabbed the TV remote off the bedside table. After much confusion over all the buttons, I finally flipped on the television. Of course, all eyes were trained on the Reaping. I crashed down from my pampered high, remembering why I was here. I focused on the screen, which was displaying shots of an island square. The Sevii Islands were the next region to be Reaped. There was a girl and a boy already standing on the stage while the anthem played. The girl, who looked like she was trying to hide her shock, had frizzy brown hair and was tall. She had to be older than me. The boy was scrawny and short. The poor guy looked like he was on the brink of starvation, and was looking down with absolutely no expression on his face. They shook hands, and then were guided back to the large building behind them to say their goodbyes.
I hear a knock on the door to my compartment, and I turned the TV off to go answer it. The Capitol Lady called in that it was just her, Dessi Diamond (talk about snooty names), and announced that a lunch was being served in the dining car, and that I must come along. I did as I was told, following her through the train into a compartment with a single long table in the middle of it. It had lots of fancy glass and china and silver sitting atop the pure white tablecloth. I sat hesitantly at one of the longer sides, and Dessi Diamond took one of the ends. Within the minute, Flint appeared with Chet, who looked a lot more relaxed than he did during the Reaping. The blonde boy took the seat across from me, leaving Flint to sit on the end.
"Did you see the Sevii tributes get reaped, Bethany?" The professor asked me eagerly.
"It's Beth," I corrected him, "and I saw them on the stage. By the time I figured it how to turn the TV on, I had sorta missed the actual name-drawing." I admitted.
"Oh, that's fine," he assured me, "I just want you two to know who you're gonna be up against. The boy will be no problem, he barely had it in him to walk up the steps to get on the stage. The girl, however, is 18, and she seems smart."
"How do you know that?" Chet asked. "You only heard her name and saw her walk onto a stage."
"True, true, but you can tell a lot of things about a tribute when they first get Reaped. Are they sad, angry, shocked? Do they hide their emotions? Do they hesitate to come forward? How reluctantly do they walk up to the stage? It takes a lot of intelligence and self-control to act with grace when under that sort of pressure."
The chef, followed by at least ten servants, then came out with the first round of food. I found feel my mouth watering as my nose detected the rich smells of soup and fresh-baked bread. As soon as all the platters had been set before us, I hungrily started scooping the soup into my mouth, even though it burned my tongue a little bit. And then they came back out with another round. And then another. And then another. There was so much food, more than I had eaten in a year. We had all my favorites from back home, and so much more that I didn't even recognize.
I had never eaten food so rich and exotic and fancy and delicious before in my entire life. At home, we ate whatever we could afford, which was not much. Rice and tofu were staples. This meal consisted of so much more, so many ingredients that we could never even dream of buying at home. I ate so much that I felt like my stomach was going to explode.
After dessert, an amazing food called chocolate lava cake, which was now my favorite thing in the world, Flint invited Chet and I into another car to watch the next region's reaping. One entire wall of this compartment was a TV screen, and the other wall was a row of big, cushy chairs. I plopped down into one, hoping that my overly-full stomach would digest all that food quickly before I started feeling sick.
The Johto Reaping was just about to start when we tuned in. The girl whose name was called looked about my age, but she looked really skinny and weak. Another girl, this one older and stronger-looking, volunteered for her, with a note of despiration in her voice.
Aaron Castella, the girl who volunteered, must have known the girl who was Reaped, Flint explained, and she didn't plan to volunteer until the younger girl's name was called, which was why she sounded desperate.
The boy who was Reaped was named Anton Wright, and was tall and built, like he did hard physical work for a living. He also had distinctive white hair. Standing together, the two tributes looked like the most intimidating pair so far. They were both 18, and very athletic looking. I definitely didn't want to find myself in a conflict with either of them.
Just after the Johto tributes were led inside the building behind them to say their goodbyes, Dessi came into the TV car and announced that we would be arriving at the capitol soon. Flint led us into another car, which had windows lining the walls. I looked out at the rolling green hills around us. We passed in between two hills that looked tall enough to be mountains, and the city burst into view on the other side.
I heard Chet gasp, and Flint chuckled. The buildings were even bigger than the ones in Saffron, and packed closely together. The sunlight glinted off the steel skyscrapers unlike anything I had ever seen before. The capitol city was basically in the middle of the UR, the center of our government, and the Indigo plateau, a giant arena where trainers used to go too battle the Elite 4, was the south-east tip of the giant city. That was where we were going to train for the Games, Flint soon informed us.
The train slowed as we approached the city. After we were engulfed by the first humongous structures, I saw the people lined on the streets, trying to get a view of the train that was bringing the Kanto tributes into the city.
"Open the windows!" Flint cried. "You want them to get a good look at you! These are your potential sponsors, you know!" He grabbed a window and tried to pry it open. I glanced down at the small windowsill, if you could call it that on a train, and spied a tiny button/switch thing. I walked to the professor and lightly shoved him aside. I pushed the small button down, and the window began rolling down into the wall.
"Oh, the button, right," Flint blushed, "Chet, open one on the other side! Well, go on, Beth! Lean out and wave to them! If you smile at them, they'll like you!"
I timidly peered out of the open window, craning my head out of the train. We were moving much slower now that we were in the city, but the wind still whipped my hair back and made me squint. The people yelled when they saw me, and soon all eyes were on me. The people began cheering and waving, and I smiled at my new fans. Leaning a little further out the window, I twisted and shoved my left arm and shoulder out the window to wave. The people cheered some more, waving back at me. I didn't really understand why they were so excited to see some girl in a train waving at them, but I decided that I didn't have to. I just had to make them like me.
The train entered the station and began slowing to a stop. I saw more cameras gathered around in the train station, all trying to get shots of the tributes arriving at the capitol. I shot them a huge smile, and, on some crazy impulse, blew them a kiss. The crowd behind the row of cameras went crazy. I laughed, waved one last time, and ducked back into the train.
"Where did THAT come from?!" Chet glared at me.
"I dunno," I replied, "I saw her do it once, and decided to give it a try." I pointed to Dessi Diamond, who flushed underneath her makeup, and hobbled over to me to put her hands on my shoulders.
"Flint, I think I like this one!" She beamed.
"Good move, Beth," Flint agreed, "you really want to kiss up to these people. They can be the difference between whether you live or die in there."
"Pun intended?" I rolled my eyes.
"What do you think?" He sassed back, and began leading me and Chet back to the front of the train. "Now come on, we have to take you into the apartments. And the three feet from the train to the door is packed with as many cameras as the TV station and paparazzi could possibly fit. So smile!" He once again shoved us out the door, and I had to force my lips into a smile and glanced at a few of the cameras before I stepped through the door of the giant building. Flint was right-there were a ton of cameras in that small space.
I walked into the huge, lavish lobby of the apartments, vision spotting green and pink from the camera crews' bright lights. I stopped to rub my eyes, and felt a hand on my back guiding me into an elevator.
"Come, come," Flint commanded, pushing Chet and I toward an elevator, "we need to get to a TV in time to see the Howenn reaping!"
The four of us piled into the small box, Dessi pushed a button, the door slid closed, and we began to rise. There was a ding, and the door slid open to reveal a large, high-ceilinged room. There was a giant flat-screen mounted on one wall, and leather couches and chairs set at perfect viewing angles around a coffee table. There were three hallways leading off the main room. One lead to a dining room, the others each had three doors.
The professor ran to the coffee table, grabbed a remote, and turned on the TV. Hoenn immediately appeared on the giant screen.
The rest of the day was spent watching the rest of the Reapings, and discussing the other tributes. There were a few that stuck out in my mind.
The girl from Hoenn was intimidating, for lack of a better word. Alice was her name. She was slender, pale, and had icy blue eyes that cut right through the screen and into mine. She didn't panic, or cry, or fight the authorities in any way. She just held her head up, walked coolly onto the stage, and stared at the cameras with a straight face.
The guy from Sinnoh was formidable. Taller, but more lean than the huge tribute from Johto, he seemed like he could be a huge threat if you got on his bad side. The professor advised us not to.
The tributes from Unova were most shocking, though. The girl was tiny - almost as small as Lily. She had curly blonde hair and wide green eyes. A tear trickled down her cheek as she stepped onto the stage. No one volunteered for her. The boy was small, too. He had golden-brown hair, swept back from his face like some of the capitol men I had seen, and he had dark brown eyes. He looked well-fed, and had new clothes on. He was obviously rich, and it showed in his looks and his swagger. He was either a very good actor, or very stupid, as he was smirking as he climbed the steps to stand on the stage. It was almost like he was enjoying the fame of being Reaped. According to the professor, we wouldn't have to worry about them being a threat in the arena.
After the Unova reaping, the TV began playing recaps of all the Reapings, starting with us, a narrator analyzing our every move. Apparantly, I was "emotionally stable," yet I would pose "no physical threat" to any of the other tributes. Chet was immediately pegged as a "weakling." After that, Flint turned the TV off, announcing that we should probably eat soon.
Dessi Diamond pulled Chet and I from the couches, gushing about the chef's amazing beef bourguignon.
We ate in silence, thinking about the other tributes. Just like lunch, I gorged myself on all the amazing food. I couldn't believe that the capitol citizens got to eat like this all the time, when in Kanto all we had was tesserae rice and berries.
After dessert, I excused myself from the table and entered the room with my name taped to the door. I immediately stripped down to my tank top, and pulled on a pair of shorts that I found in a drawer. I then collapsed onto the huge mattress, slipping between the silk sheets and burying my face in the fluffy pillows.
I don't think the whole thing really hit me until just then. I kept seeing myself on that screen, face totally expressionless, gazing at the crowd as if... Well, as if I wasn't on a stage because I had just been chosen to go fight to the death. But I had been. And now I was here. And I was going to go to the arena, and try to survive when I was surrounded by people trying to kill me with Pokemon.
My mind flashed with images of my mom, and Kyle, and Paul, and Lily, and Hayley. I wondered if Hayley knew yet. I wonder if they had a TV in jail, or if Aunt Renee and Uncle Tim had gone to visit her to tell her the bad news. I wonder if she cried, like my mom and Lily did. I wondered what would happen to my family of I never came back. Could they survive? Or would they starve? I couldn't even bear to think of it.
I felt hot wetness build up under my eyelid, and then a tear began to crawl down my cheek. Followed by another, and another, until my throat tightened up and my breathing came in short gasps. My pillow was damp with warm tears by the time I finally feel asleep.
(Author's note)
Hey guys! Sorry for not updating last Saturday, I was busy getting ready for school... ugh. School. Anyway I made this chapter extra long for you guys to apologize.THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO MADE TRIBUTES/TRAINERS FOR ME. They didn't exactly know that they were creating Tributes at the time, heh heh heh... That was my evil little plot twist. I think I introduced almost all of the characters that were created by you beautiful people... there were one or two I left out for good reason though ;)
BUT I promised the dedication to whoever came up with a name for Capitol Lady... so thanks @JimenezPokemonLove for naming Miss Dessi Diamond. She appreciates it ;)
OH and when I was watching classic Pokemon last week, I SAW FLINT. LIKE EXACTLY HIM. Only his name is Seymour and he studies Clefairies =D check it out! http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Seymour I shall also try to upload a pic of him on my cruddy TV taken by an iPod camera, but I think the Bulbapedia pic is a lot better quality haha...
AND I'M ALSO REALLY SUPER HAPPY CUZ GETTING OUT OF FUCHSIA IS GONNA HAVE A SEQUEL!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who don't know, (and I'm very disappointed in you if you don't) Getting Out Of Fuchsia is my awesome sister @d_s_t_e 's Pokemon FanFic. AND IT IS TOTALLY AMAZING BTW. I mean, not to insult other Pokemon fanfics, but it is like seriously the best, funniest, most mysterious and suspenseful Pokemon fanfic I have ever read. It is seriously awesome. I have no clue why it's not at #1 in fanfic/other. BECAUSE IT WOULD BE IF YOU LOVELY PEOPLE WOULD GO READ IT!!! Here is a link, so you have absolutely no excuse not to go read it. CLICK---> http://www.wattpad.com/story/3454819-getting-out-of-fuchsia
OK, I'm tired, so see you all next weekend (promise!) With the next chapter, where we shall meet some awesome tributes!