“That was the most gruellingly painful hour I have ever experienced” I hissed at Avery. We were on our way to meet district 10’s stylist.
“What are you talking about? You were in there for three hours”
I groaned. I must have blacked out from the pain of waxing, plucking, shaving and whatever the hell else they did to ‘beautify’ me. My hair took the longest to fix. It was incredibly long and thick. Septus, a member of my prep team, couldn’t believe I didn’t own a hair brush and that I simply used my fingers to brush my hair because I found it easier that way.
Luckily Arrow was meeting with the stylist at a different time. I’m not sure who said so, but they decided it was a good idea to keep me and Arrow away from each other. It was peaceful without him and I felt less inclined to lash out at people when he wasn’t around.
“Ah, you are gorgeous” an old man said walking slowly towards me. He took my hand and kissed it. He hesitated for a second.
“Has she been to the prep team yet?”
“Yes, Phoenix, she has” Avery laughed easily.
“Darling” he said as he leant in close to me “you may need to take another bath”.
“I’m a farmer” I said simply. I didn’t have to explain myself to some old man who had a rainbow beard and pink eye lashes.
“Aha, yes you are a farmer” he agreed, pulling onto my hand so that I would follow him to the next room.
I guess I was about to see my outfit for the opening ceremony tonight. As per ceremonious tradition, each district was dressed accordingly to their trade. Since district ten specialised in livestock, we were always dressed terrible. Last year our stylist dressed the tributes in chicken suits. The year before that the tributes were forced to wear nothing but leaves covering their private parts and a huge cow hide cape that flew in the wind behind the chariot.
I looked at the working table and saw a nice pair of jeans and a shining pair of brown boots.
“Similar to your clothing attire now, I have chosen something different this year” Phoenix beckoned to the table.
“Yes” he mused, picking up the jeans and pressing it against me. “Your presence at the reaping, your appearance at the station… You are all about making an entrance”.
“Oh” I said awkwardly, not knowing what to say to the man who had the most preposterous name I have ever heard of.
“These will fit you perfectly”
I couldn’t help look at the clothes and be disappointed. He didn’t really put any effort in at all. I could have just worn what I was wearing now.
I wanted to make an impression on the people, but sometimes making an impression wasn’t exactly the best thing to do. Years ago for the 79th games there was a catastrophe with district 4 with water and ended up flooding the ceremony and two years ago a tribute actually fell off the chariot and broke his leg. But this was nothing compared to the famous 74th games with Katniss and Peeta. They had an outfit with real fire. No one has been able to top it since, especially because they fell in love and became the star-crossed lovers from district 12. Katniss and Peeta got married after the games and soon had a baby on the way. I heard they sometimes tour the really poor districts with their kid handing out food and aid to the struggling families but I’ve never seen them in my town.
“Thanks” I yanked the clothes from his hands, my mood was utterly deflated.
“Don’t worry Scarlett, you’ll need something comfortable to wear out there” he hinted to me while sharing a look with Avery. I couldn’t help but notice the slight smile playing on her lips and the glint in her eyes.
Despite my curiosity, I huffed into a room to get changed. As I walked past the door I noticed that the nearby trash can had a feathery suit crumpled down in it. He must have been planning to re-use the chicken suits on us. I wonder what changed.
I managed to eat a rich chocolate cake and a tomato before my prep team entered the room to beautify me some more. They plucked and prodded at my long fiery hair and attempted to cover some of the freckles on my face. They parted and then plaited my hair into piggy tails. I felt dumb. They covered my arms and face with small glimmering sparkles which would apparently ‘enhance’ my body.
I was pushed out into a waiting room which had some of the other tributes standing there. We were all scared to talk to each other aside from the careers. They always seemed to band together, it was almost an unwritten rule of the games. I tried to look for Arrow but he wasn’t in the room yet. They were taking this whole ‘separate Arrow and Scar’ thing seriously.
Officials came in the room and then pushed us into another room which had everyone else including our coaches waiting for us to join them. I could hear the capitol crowd cheering and chanting for us tributes ride through on the usual chariots. How could anyone be so eager to watch someone prepare to die a death they didn’t deserve?
I noticed Arrow standing on the tenth chariot and was nearly shaking in laughter. He was wearing a big cow boy hat in an attempt to conceal the bruise from the audience.
I walked up to him, taking time to pat the two horses that were going pull our chariot.
“Nice eye”
“Shut up” he snapped.
We didn’t say anything else to each other as I climbed up beside him. The crowd was cheering louder than ever before which meant we were all about to go on stage. My stomach felt like it was going to explode and all I felt was my heart beating through my chest.
“Oh you guys look like adorable farmers” Avery chimed to us. “Can you both come here for a second?” She signalled for us to jump off the chariot and come to her.
The first chariot had already entered the ceremony. Now the second was on its way. I looked at the big doors and then back to Avery. She was our coach; she probably had some secret last advice for us. I yanked Arrows arm despite his protests and pulled him down with me.
“You’re not getting on that chariot” she said simply.
“What? Avery, President Snow will kill us if we don’t!” I glanced down at the doors to see the sixth chariot had left.
“Calm your farm” she said quickly, giggling at her farm joke.
“I said you’re not getting on the chariot” she walked over and disconnected the chariot from the horses. She handed me the rains. The eighth chariot would have left by now.
“You’re going to ride the horses in”
“Avery, I don’t think we’re allowed to d-”
“We need to go!” Arrow warned us. “Now!”
I cursed and jumped onto my horse and Arrow followed suit. I hated riding a horse bare back, it was always so bumpy. I wish Avery had told us sooner because then I could have at least had the time to organise a saddle. A sudden thought struck my mind. Maybe if we did this, district ten wasn’t going to be classified as a laughing stock.
“Yah!” I yelled, kick starting my horse awake. Avery smacked my horses bum for good measure.
We galloped beside each other and entered through the doors to the ceremony. The capitol absolutely roared at us. I had never heard anything so loud. There were shrieks, screams, cries, laughter, and most of all gasps of horror. No one had ever done this before. Arrow and I rode side by side, our horses eagerly trotting in a straight line. I looked at him and laughed in amazement.
The last two chariots and their tributes were now moving behind which meant there was no turning back. We rode out along the hall, passing thousands of capitol people and into our designated spot slowing our horses to stand right in front of President Snow.
I distinctly heard Caesar Flickerman introduce each district to the Snow each followed by a loud applause from the audience. The president of the Capitol just sat there in his chair barely moving his muscles. He eyed me and Arrow. I prayed I wasn’t going to die suspiciously in my sleep tonight.
“And please welcome district eight!” the crowd cheered as the tributes waved and blew kisses out to the audience.
Sell outs.
I looked at Arrow in worry as he noticed it too. My horse was absolutely riled up and wouldn’t stand still. I knew Avery shouldn’t have smacked its bum. I tried but failed to calm him down.
“Now, for district nine!” again the audience cheered and applauded the tributes.
My horse began to prance on the spot, unable to stand still. I could tell the loud noise was annoying him. I had no idea what was going to happen.
“And here we have…” The audience screamed in anticipation, “District ten!” Caesar boomed.
The crowd went wild. Without thinking I grabbed Arrows cow-boy hat and plonked it on my head instead. I looked at the president as I flicked the reins and my horse reared up onto his hind legs and neighing loudly. The crowd rumbled and roared about the insignificant farming district before them. They applauded longer than ever before.
“And now, district eleven!” Caesar tried to continue but the audience were still roaring at us. I realised that since I took Arrows cow-boy hat his black eye was more visible than ever. This only earned more gasps and shrieks from the audience.
We didn’t pretend to smile and wave to the audience, we were ourselves. And still, all the people were pointing and yelling about the farmers from district ten. I couldn’t believe it. For once in a very long time I wasn’t ashamed to be from my district. I was proud!
Adrenaline was rushing through my veins and quickly stroked the horse in appreciation. The whole moment was exhilarating. Even Arrow was laughing easily at the crowd as they threw all kinds of flowers at our horses’ feet. I was smiling from ear to ear until a terrible thought struck me. It wasn’t going to be this easy to win the crowd over during the interviews.
When we finally escaped the crowd and the menacing eyes of the president we ate a huge buffet that had all kinds of food. Some of it looked questionable so I stuck to eating a few tomatoes and some pastry with meat in it. I wish my stomach was bigger so that I could have tasted every single piece of food in the room, but I couldn’t.
“They loved you!” Avery sung to us across the dining table.
I looked at Arrow and sunk in my seat. It was enough to just ride out on the horses instead of the chariots. I shouldn’t have done the horse stunt.
“No seriously, cross my heart! They loved you! I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth!”
I groaned. I was getting sick of Avery’s jokes.