Chapter 23: Xain
It’s a little before ten in the morning when the hovercraft from the capitol arrives with our essential stylists. They want us to look...“decent” for the cameras. The stylists are only going to be here for a short while to meet with us and measure us. There will also be a camera crew to take videos and snapshots of us in our “natural habitat” before we board and depart.
The first to step off of the hovercraft is a young girl with snow white make-up and red eye shadow. Her lips are deep red with a black streak down the middle. Her hair is deep red with white bangs and streaks and is held in a bun by two black pins. She is in a stripped, red and white strapless dress that comes down to her knees, red and white knee stockings, and red heels that click as she rushes over to me. Next thing I know, her arms are around me and my nose is filled with the smell of some sort of sweet peppermint.
“The amazing Xain Austin,” she says in a near high pitch squeal, “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person.” She’s very hyper and is jumping up and down, and then looks at Jada.
“And the lovely Jada Anderson,” she hugs Jada close, “you’re even more adorable in person.”
“Um, and who might you be?” Melissa asks. Not everyone came out, just me, Jada, and Melissa. The others wanted to eat breakfast at their own pace.
“Oh, forgive me,” the girl says in a slight capitol accent, “My name’s Kandilyn Kanera, but you can call me Kandi Kane, because I’m sweet and full of fun.”
She’s spinning around and her dress begins to swirl. And fly up.
“I think she’s drunk,” Jada whispers in my ear.
“I’m super excited to meet you and be your stylist,” Kandi seems more hyper than ever. She looks around with a questioning look. “I thought there would be more of you.”
“They’re eating breakfast right now,” I answer, “They’ll meet us later.”
Kandi’s eyes sparkle as the sun hits them and she smiles. It’s now that I recognize the red and white swirls in her eyes. This girl must really like me, because she barely takes her eyes off of me. Jada’s her second favorite, when she’s not staring at me, she’s looking at her.
“Well we should get moving,” Kandi says in a cheery voice, “we have big, big things planned.”
As if on cue, the rest of the crew begins to exit the ship. One of the crew members comes towards us. It’s a woman who’s about six feet and has an orange beehive shaped hair. It’s not ironic that her dress has a bee pattern. She has yellow, orange, and black eye shadow and her lips are golden.
“You’ll have to excuse my sister, Kandi, she’s a huge fan of yours, Xain,” the woman says. I don’t know if I’m shocked because she said that Kandi was a huge fan of mine, or because they’re sisters. “My name is Honecum Kanera, but most people call me Honey or Honey-comb.”
“Those are interesting names,” Jada smiles, “Do all capitol citizens have names like that?”
“We are pretty unique in style and titles,” Honey answers in a gleeful and airy manner, “The Capitol is the best place to be in.”
“It’s definitely better than any district,” Kandi adds with a smile. Both of them sound stuck up and snobbish, but probably because they don’t know anything else or were brought up believing that the districts were literally lower quality.
“Well, firstly, that’s Melissa, we forgot to introduce her,” I say. The girls immediately apologize for being rude and not asking. “Secondly, would you like to go inside?”
“First, some pictures,” Kandi says and signals some photographers near.
We spend ten minutes posing for pictures for the capitol before finally heading inside. The training area to meet the others. Clay is immediately facinated by the styles and accents of Kandi and Honey, but Katya seems to be putting on a persona and acts as if she is nonchalant about the capitol. She just continues throwing knives, which makes the capitol guests feel unpleasant. When Abi and Izzy come out, the stylists seem to turn pale and nervous.
“The Garder sisters,” Kandi squeaks with a nervous smile.
“Hello,” Abi politely says, “how are you?”
“We’re fine,” Honey says and reaches out a hand, that I now see is gloved, “I’m Honicum Kanera, but you can call me Honey or Honey-comb.”
“And I’m Kandilyn Kanera, but you can call me Kandi Kane,” Kandi spins around again and is back to being hyper.
“Well you seem sweet and full of fun,” Abi smiles.
Kandi gasps excitedly. “Thank you,” she squeals as she hugs Abi. She catches sight of Izzy, who is giving her a hard look.
“Um, hi,” Kandi says in a nervous tone. “How’s it going?”
When Izzy doesn’t answer, Kandi is even more nervous.
“Oh I forgot you can’t talk anymore because of...well, you know,” Kandi looks extremely nervous now.
Izzy pulls out a notepad and pen from her pocket and begins writing she shows the pad to Kandi, who reads it silently and smiles.
“Aww, thank you,” Kandi stretches out for a hug, but Izzy puts her hand out. “No hug? Okay.”
“Can we get some shots of you acting completely casual?” One of the camera crew members asks. “It’d really be nice.”
“That would be lovely,” Honey is beaming a huge smile.
Without words, everyone just trains. I pick up a bow and arrow and begin firing arrows into practice dummies until they look like pin cushions. I catch a glimps of Kandi who looks as if she’s imagining that the target is an actual person, so I set down the bow.
“No, don’t stop,” Kandi says as she steps a little closer, “you’re amazing.”
“Um, thanks,” I say in an unsure tone, and then I think of something. “Wanna give it a shot?”
“I don’t know,” Kandi shakes her head.
“Come on,” I say reasurringly, “it’s simple.”
I hold the bow out to her and she approaches and grabs it feebly with her hands. Her fingernails are painted red and white swirls. “I suppose I could give it a try.”
I give Kandi an arrow and show her a balanced stance, which seems hard to do since she has on heels. I guide and position her for about a minute before I finally let her go and she fires. It hits at the edge of a dummie and only hangs by skin. She takes another arrow and fires it, but this one hits the abdomen.
“Kandi!” Honey says in a shocked—almost insulting—tone, “You shouldn’t be touching such a dangerous tool.”
“Oh relax, Honey,” Kandi laughs, “Live out a little and be adventurous for once.”
Honey walks away as if disgusted, but Kandi just turns to me with her swirling red and white eyes and laughs. “Don’t mind her, she’s never known what it’s like to do something out of the box.”
“It’s okay,” I half smile.
“So where’s Jada?” Kandi asks, but before I even answer, an arrow whizzes past her and nails the target in the heart, causing Kandi to squeal and jump in my arms.
We look over to a fake tree and see Jada hanging upside down with a bow, laughing. I can’t help but be amused by that.
“What are you doing?” I ask while trying to politely get Kandi off of me.
“Just hanging out,” Jada smiles and then hops out of the tree and approaches us. She’s taken of her training jacket, so now she’s just in a small, black, tank top. She walks past us and lays her bow down. Kandi gasps and lets go of me and focuses on Jada’s shoulder.
“Is that where ‘it’ happened?” Kandi points as if trying not to touch the wound for fear it would bleed out.
“Yes it is,” Jada sounds a bit annoyed, “it’s where I was shot by an arrow.”
Kandi just grabs Jada’s head and presses her close. She looks almost close to tears. Jada on the other hand looks as if she’s trying to creep away.
“You poor thing,” Kandi says after a few seconds pass by, “A girl as tiny, young, and sweet as you should never be in a dangerous place like the arena.”
Jada still looks uncomfortable, but she still smiles. I don’t know why, but I’m starting to like this girl. It’s quiet until Clay comes over to say hi. He refers to Jada as his future wife and puts his arm around her, causing her to twist his shoulder around. He’s on the ground apologizing and screaming in pain, which actually makes me as scared as Kandi is. At that, Kandi smiles nervously and asks for a tour before we have to board the hovercraft to go to the capitol.
The district camp of C-5 is only about five square miles, but we just decide to show the crew our rooms, the training center, the infirmary, the coleseum arena, and dining hall. It doesn’t take long, just under an hour. Kandi seems to be enjoying every bit of walking around the camp, Honey on the other hand puts on a pleasant persona, but I can see that she’s really refraining from touching anything. She seems as though she’s afraid she might get some deadly disease from being around the camps to long. She breathes a breath of relief when we start heading back to the hovercraft, that is until we get into the elevator and decide to use the EIT.
“This is the Emergency Infirmary Transport, or EIT for short,” Melissa explains to the capitol crew, “It’s used by medics to transport people to and from the infirmary, and occasionally by medics to get to a spot more quickly.”
“So these cars actually have sick people on them?” Honey asks in a disgusted tone, even though she’s still smiling.
“Not always,” Melissa answers, “they may have people who have immobilizing injuries or who have injuries too fatal and have to be rushed to the infirmary. Don’t worry, they’re perfectly safe and clean.”
Since the crew is so large, we have to split into two cars. The first car is me, Jada, Honey, Kandi, and four of the camera crew members. Kandi sits right next to me and smiles. Jada’s on my other side and is looking at Honey and three of the crew members on the opposite of us. She asks Honey if she’s claustrophobic because she’s sitting so stiffly and looks as if she’s about to burst. Kandi just pokes fun at her and tells her to lighten up.
Once on the hovercraft, we sit tight for a few minutes while the engines warm up. I just take that time to admire the inside. It has the black, silver, and gold capitol banner along the wall and on the television, but still looks more luxurious than anything I’ve ever seen. Clay, Katya, Melissa, and Jada are deeply amazed by the vehicle, this being their first time. The rest of us have had visits to the capitol at least once before. Kandi smiles widely at us as the hovercraft lifts, Honey still holds up her persona.
“You’re going to love what we have planned for your day at the capitol,” Kandi says to all of us, “I promise you that.”
“But first,” Honey cuts in with a smile so wide I know it must be hurting her, “Examinations. The sooner we get them done, the more time you have to relax and enjoy yourselves.”