Hunger Games (DNF)

Part 1, Chapter 5: the parade

Clay POV.

Despite the hatred I was feeling towards my stylist, I have to admit that she and Nick’s stylists made a decent outfit. Coming from the Fishing District always gave us a wide variety of outfits for the parade. Over the past years of the Hunger Games I’d seen fish, seaweed and water themed outfits, but this time was something less flamboyant than I’d seen in the past.

Nick and I were both bare chested but wearing some pants made of thick fabric and covered in plastic scales in the colours green, blue and grey. The same scales covered our shoulders and neck and some black mesh covered our backs.
Overall, both my best friend and I thought that this looked good, but we both felt naked.

The two of us were standing on the chariots watching peacekeepers, stylists and other tributes organising themselves for the parade that was due to start in 5 minutes. I had my arm resting on the railing cupping my cheek as I looked around boredly, but my mood lightened when I saw the same boy from earlier, George, walking with his stylist towards the chariot in front of mine.

He smiled at his district partner who climbed off the chariot and they both turned to their stylist who were in deep conversation.
As the two boys talked to the stylists I looked over their outfits. They wore black clothes that covered their entire body, with faint details in either blue or red along with a headpiece of the same colours.

George glanced over in my direction and I saw that he had some face paint, or make-up on his face in the shape of thin lightning bolts under his eyes. Our eyes met momentarily and he looked up and down at my outfit and seemingly tried to stifle a laugh at how I looked, which was kind of stupid comparied to his one. I responded with an eye roll which caused him to let out a quick laugh which honestly sounded adorable.

However, that only lasted for a moment before he turned back to his stylist and climbed onto the chariot. It hit 9pm a few minutes later which was drilled into our skulls from the 9 loud noises echoing from the clocktower and then drumbeats started playing from out on Tribute’s Avenue, where the parade was taking place. Up ahead the chariot carrying the pair from District 1 began moving, the horses trotted out of the underground level we were in and up a ramp before immediately being met by a chorus of cheers from The Capitol citizens.

I watched as George tensed up slightly, and his tribute partner grabbed his hand worriedly, then after a minute of silence his chariot began rolling forward. The pair in front of us lurched forward for a moment before steading themselves and standing up straighter, their eyes darting around nervously. As the horses pulled the chariot up onto a ramp, I saw a flick of quick movement from George’s hand, he pressed a button and his entire outfit began glowing a neon blue, beside him his District partner did the same but his outfit glowed a blood red.

Soon the pair were out of sight as another cheer erupted, and that was the cue for our chariot to start rolling up towards the ramp.

George POV.

A cheer flew through the air as Darryl and I emerged from the tunnel behind the District 2 tributes, and a lot of people pointed at our glowing outfits and lighting bolt make-up. I listened to the voice of the Hunger Games host Caesar Flickerman finish commenting on the District 2 outfits before turning to look at us.

“And here we have District 3’s two tributes, both of whom are 16 years old and wearing outfits designed by Eret and Portia, who used to be a stylist for District 12. They are wearing outfits meant to represent electricity, for the Technology District,” he commentated, before continuing.
He spent a while talking about our outfits before going on to start talking about the outfits of the pair from District 4.

All of the tributes had been told to face forward or look at the audience while on their chariots but I sent a momentary glance backwards and met the blond boy's eyes which were focused on my outfit. He gave me a smirk which caused me to blush and spin back around. Thankfully, the glowing blue from my outfit caused my blush to be invisible to everyone but I knew it was there as my cheeks heated up.

To distract myself from my warm face I turned to look at the audience who were all letting out shouts of excitement at all of the other tributes. We reached the end of the Avenue and stopped outside of the largest building in the Capitol, where President Schlatt and other government officials were standing on an elevated pedestal.

A row of the chariots were forming, with District 1 and 2 on the left and we came jittering to a stop, a minute after we arrived the District 4 chariot pulled alongside us. The blond immediately smiled at me and our eyes stayed focused on each other as the other 7 chariots formed a row behind us.

We finally turned to look towards the podium when President Schlatt stepped up to address The Capitol and the districts watching.
He took a deep breath before smiling a large devilish grin.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today throughout Panem we are meeting the 22 male tributes, which will fight for their lives and their districts to win the 80th annual Hunger Games. I’m happy to be here this evening and each of you should be too.

Some time ago, our nation had to withstand earthquakes, floods and storms, but we were strong and our country originated from the ashes. But then, the Capitol and its 13 districts, which are surrounding it, grew and the districts rebelled. So The Capitol had to defeat this rebellion and district 13 was destroyed. So that anything like that will never happen again, we invented the Hunger Games to keep the peace, but that didn’t work and we lost another District, the coal mining district of 12 during a second rebellion.

It appears that the previous president, Corilanious Snow had made the games too easy to outsmart, so we changed it. Now, each of the 11 remaining districts has to offer 2 boys or 2 girls between the ages of 12 and 18 once every 6 months.

I hope that one day our children can live together in peace and without violence.
Now I wish good luck to the districts and its tributes!”

Around them the audience started clapping at the speech which just disgusted me and the other tributes around us. We stayed in the chariots until the majority of The Capitol citizens left, which none of them were in a hurry to do. We watched silently as they pointed at us and talked excitedly to each other about us as though we were animals at a zoo, and all of us shifted awkwardly under their gazes.

Eventually the crowd dispersed and Schlatt, who had been standing there watching us, went back inside the building behind him and the horses began trotting back along Tribute avenue and into the Tribute Centre.

The peacekeepers got to the horses when they stopped and began leading them to some stables with cubes of sugar. Darryl and I climbed off of the chariot and I pressed the remotes button which extinguished the lights.

Eret, Darryl’s stylist Portia, Philza and Beetee were all waiting and congratulated them and Philza congratulated us both saying we looked good. Beetee just nodded in approval and listened as Eret and Portia eagerly started talking about what to get Darryl and I to wear for our interviews.

My eyes drifted over to see the blond from four and his district partner, a boy about the same height with almost black hair, dark skin and a fiery look in his eyes, climb off of their chariot. The blond smiled at me for a moment before turning to talk to his mentor who only seemed a few years older than him.

I turned to follow after Philza and Beetee who were heading towards the elevator. Darryl and I reached the elevator just before the doors closed and Philza gave us another smile, “you two looked great tonight,” he repeated the same thing he said earlier, “the avoxes should be upstairs right now making us some hot drinks but then you two will need sleep before your first day of training tomorrow.”

Darryl and I cringed at the mention of the avoxes, who still freaked us out slightly but nodded, feeling exhausted after a full day of having to model these uncomfortable outfits for The Capitol.
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1485 words.