Chapter-9

Chapter 9

"Katniss, Peeta, we arrive in an hour. I have clothes laid out on your beds for you, go change," Effie says. She's still mad at me for my outburst. She tries to speak to me as little as possible. I don't mind, I like it this way.

I head to my compartment, and find the clothes I'll be wearing. It's a simple dress, unlike any of the dresses in the Capitol. It's as yellow as a sunflower, coming down to just above my knees. It's beautiful. I exit my room, and head back to the living room car. Peeta stands there in grey dress pants, black dress shoes, a yellow shirt, and a grey vest. He looks handsome dressed up, with his blond hair matching his undershirt. We're matching, meaning Haymitch told Effie what we should wear. We look like a perfect couple.

I feel the train slow down. I look at Haymitch, and he looks sober. I guess for the cameras? I'm stressing about this. If I walk out there and they don't like me, we risk losing sponsors. Peeta sees the stress on my face, reaches down and grabs my hand. He rubs small circles on my knuckles with his thumb, and I can feel myself relax a little. It's nice knowing someone is experiencing the same thing you are.

"Just smile and wave, we don't have to talk or anything. Look happy," he whispers in my ear.

I'm not good at looking happy when I am happy, so pretending to be happy will be a challenge.

The train comes to a stop, and the door opens. The crowd is screaming and cheering for us, and I try to do what Peeta tells me to. I plaster on a fake smile, and wave occasionally. They look ridiculous in their giant dresses decorated with wings and flowers and jewels. Their skin dyed all different shades of the rainbow. Some have whiskers, some have tails. They look odd, but at the same time, the only people without all the modifications are Haymitch, Peeta and I. So maybe we're the ones that look odd.

They scream as we get closer to them, walking towards the Training Center. It's obnoxious and annoying, but I pretend to be happy. I smile at one group of people, wave at another. Peeta never lets go of my hand.

We get inside the Training Center. There's 15 floors. A floor for each district, a cafeteria, a training floor, and a prep floor. The building is amazing.

We get ushered over to our prep teams by Effie. Peeta and I are split up, and we each meet our prep teams in different rooms of the Prep Floor. I meet Flavius first. He has orange hair, and doesn't seem to stop rambling on about how excited he is to prep me for the Games. Are all the people in the Capitol this insensitive to children murdering each other?

He cuts my hair to be even, and braids it. The braid isn't the intricate braid my mother does, but it's a braid nonetheless.

I meet Venia next. She has tealish hair chopped at her shoulders. She waxes my body and eyebrows. It seems like she's ripping off my skin along with the hair. The pain is horrible, but I deal with it. Haymitch said it takes longer the more I struggle. My skin is searing, and when she finally decides my skin has had enough, she rubs a cold gel on my body. It instantly soothes the pores.

It's weird, being naked in front of my prep team, but they don't seem to even notice. They're like little pets to be honest, they just ramble on about how excited they are to be here and how they plan to help me look as beautiful as possible. Help. It'd help me if there were no games. Ripping my hair off and braiding my hair isn't helping me.

Octavia comes in for my nails. She inspects them, along with my fingers and hands, and scolds me about biting my nails. I shrug. She complains for a little bit about how much harder I made her job, which makes me glad.

They finally determine I'm "prepped" and send me to meet Cinna. He's my stylist, and I hope he isn't like the stylist a few years ago. The tributes were naked, covered in only coal dust and paraded around the Capitol. Hopefully, my stylist doesn't think beauty means nudity.

I pull a silk robe on in the room, hoping to cover myself up a little bit. I don't like the feeling of this, being exposed for anyone to see.

Cinna walks in, and greets me. "Hi, my name is Cinna."

"Katniss," I reply. I'm not cold towards him, just confused. He's different from the rest of the prep team.

"I'm sorry that this happened to you. I'm here to help you in any way that I can." Sorry. I decide I like Cinna.

"Most people just congratulate me," I say sadly.

"I don't see the point in that. So tonight, you have the tribute parade. We'll take you out and show you off to the world."

"So you're here to make me look pretty."

"I'm here to help you make an impression. Usually, they dress people in the clothes from their district," he says. Coal miners. Our costumes will be ridiculous.

"Yeah, we're coal miners."

"I don't want to do that. I want to do something they're going to remember. Haymitch told you about sponsors?"

"Yeah but I'm not very good at making friends."

"We'll see. I just think somebody that brave shouldn't be dressed up in some stupid constume now should they?" He asks.

I smile. He wants to help me. He's got my back like Peeta does. "I hope not."

He tells me to take my robe off. I do so, hoping to get out of here as quickly as possible. He spins me a few times, inspecting my body. He isn't like the other Capitol citizens though. He has no modifications, no flashy clothing. He wears all black clothes, and only has gold eyeliner.

He tells me I can put my robe back on, and I do so quickly. He leaves for a second and brings back food for us.

"You must think the Capitol people are despicable, with all our lavishness, huh?" He says.

"Yes," I say with a laugh.

He tells me that he volunteered to be the stylist for 12. It doesn't make sense why, 12 is the worst district to have. He tells me the tribute parade is soon. He leaves and grabs my costume.

It looks different. It's all black, and covers most of our bodies. I'm happy with this, although I don't see how this relates to our district. We'll look like pieces of coal, I guess

"Follow me, we'll go meet up with Haymitch, Peeta, and Portia," he says.

Portia is Peeta's stylist. We walk to the City Circle, where we'll be paraded around in chariots, pulled by two horses. We greet Peeta and Haymitch, while Portia talks to Cinna. Eventually, it's showtime. They help us into our chariot, and tell us to press this button when we start. I don't question what his button does, but I have a nervous feeling.

The music starts. I see the chariot of district 1 and 2 leave, followed by 3 and 4. We're ready in our chariot, waiting for the signal to alert our horses to go.

"Sweetheart, hold the kid's hand. You're in love, remember?" Haymitch asks me.

I grab Peeta's hand, and intertwine our fingers. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in. He's steady and strong, keeping me grounded. He sees how stressed I am when the chariot starts to move, and gives my hand a squeeze.

"Remember Katniss, smile and wave. We need them to like us," he whispers in my ear.

We start moving towards the center of the City Circle. I can see and hear the people in the stands now, cheering all of us on. Peeta squeezes my hand lightly as a signal to click our buttons. I see Peeta's costume turn red, and look down at mine. I gasp. We're on fire.

I don't feel anything though. I look at Peeta again, and he looks fine too. He meets my eyes, and we nod. It's safe, they're fake flames.

We wave and smile at the crowd, all of them are cheering Peeta and my name, screaming. I blow a few kisses to the crowd, and that gets them riled up. The crowd roars so loud my ears start to ring. Roses are being thrown to our chariot, and I catch one in my mouth. The crowd goes wild at this.

I have an idea of how I can play up the Star-Crossed Lovers act. I turn to Peeta, and hand him the rose. The crowd sighs and awws this act. I can tell this will play out perfectly for us, until we split up in the arena. We make it to the other tributes, all facing a large pedestal overlooking us. President Snow appears behind it, and begins speaking.

"Welcome! Welcome!" His voice booms into the microphone, echoing throughout the Circle. "Tributes, we welcome you. We salute your courage, and your sacrifice. And we wish you… A happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor." President Snow says. He makes my skin crawl.

The chariots begin pulling away, and I never let go of Peeta's hand. He gives mine a squeeze and smiles at me, letting me know I did a good job.

We get off the chariots once the horses are in their stables, and walk over to Haymitch and Effie.

"That was amazing! We're all anyone's going to be talking about!" Effie exclaims.

"So brave," Haymitch says sarcastically.

"Are you sure you should be near an open flame?" I ask. Peeta laughs at this, and I laugh a little too. I realize I still haven't let go of his hand. I don't let go though. It's comforting having him next to me.

He is staring behind us, and I turn to see district 2's male tribute staring at us. He looks angry, but I think that's because we stole the spotlight from the careers for now.

"Come on, let's go to our floor," Haymitch says.

A/N: So I know that wasn't how the meeting with Cinna went in the book, it was more played off the movie. Don't worry, it'll get more interesting when we get to the arena. I don't want to change the whole Games, but some events I'll change. Hope you enjoyed! Please Reviewy, Follow and Favorite! :)