Panem High School

Capitol Style

Cato's POV
I've always had an issue with sleeping while in a moving object. Some people, like Clove and Marvel, easily fall asleep while in cars or trains, but not me. I share a room with two other guys in my age group, but I don't really know their names. The two of them have been out for hours, so instead of sitting in the dark, I made my way to the viewing car to watch the other ceremonies again. When I reached it I saw someone was already in there. Clove. I watched her analyze each person from the 3rd area, her eyes squinting as she sized them all up.
"Well don't just stand there, come in." She said, not bothering to be quiet.
"How did you know I was here?" I asked.
"You don't sleep in moving things and I knew at one point you'd stop trying and come here so you could get a leg up on the competition. It's just something you'd do."
"So you purposely have been sitting here all night just to see me?"
"No, I was planning on watching the ceremonies again despite the possibility that you'd show up." I slid the door shut behind me and sat on a chair, Clove perched on the couch.
"Don't you have to get past the mentors' and escort's rooms to get here? How did security not catch you?"
"I appealed to Ajax, I think he's taken a liking towards me. Any security person who gets in my way will have to answer to him." I snorted at the idea of our flamboyant escort ever being able to handle security guards.
"I thought you didn't like it when people protected you."
"It's okay in moderation, and when it benefits me in the long run." I glared at her. It's ridiculous how many double standards she has. When it benefits her in the long run?
"That guy Glimmer sits next to in Coin's class is really good at science, he'll probably create some sort of contraption with his allies. We'll have to be aware of trip wires or anything electrical." Clove continued to spit out more information, completely oblivious to my glare. I eventually gave up on glaring at her, knowing she was probably just ignoring me, and simply stared at her. Somehow she doesn't look the least bit tired, despite it being at least 3 in the morning. I don't know how she does it. I suddenly remembered something from a couple years ago, the reason why Ajax helping Clove unsettled me so much.
"Clove, do you remember a couple years ago when Sirena was in the games?" I asked, cutting off whatever she was saying.
"Yeah, why?"
"Don't you remember who her escort was?"
"Yeah, it was that creep Octavian. He tried to sexually assault some of the other female tributes."
"What happened to him?"
"He was tried in the Capitol, found guilty, and they immediately removed him from being an escort. He's still in prison. Why?"
"You know how my dad was Octavian's lawyer during that case?"
"Yes."
"Well, I remember my dad saying that one of their witnesses was Octavian's best friend. The guy had sworn, while under oath, that Octavian would never do something like that, even though it was obvious he had."
"So?"
"So, the witness was Ajax."
"And?"
"And, if he's helping you, do you think he may be looking for something more out of it than what you'll give him?" Clove rolled her eyes and sighed, as though I had just said something incredibly stupid.
"Ajax isn't Octavian, Cato. You have nothing to worry about."
"I might not, but you should be careful." She slammed the remote on the table and turned to face me.
"Stop trying to protect me."
"I'm not trying to protect you, I'm just... informing you about a possibly harmful person. That's all."
"Whatever." Clove turned away from me and curled up on the couch. We fell silent and studied each tribute. Almost an hour later, Clove was nodding off and jolting her head up every five minutes. I chuckled at her determination to stay up. I eventually stood up, stretched, and sat beside her. She continued to sleep. I lightly wrapped my arm around her waist, nudging her awake.
"Time for bed, Sevina." I whispered and she groaned in response, turning to rest her head on my chest.
"Carry me Hadley..." She replied, causing me to chuckle and stand up. I picked her up, bridal style, with ease and let her rest her head against my chest as I took her back to her room, which was thankfully labeled so I knew where to go. I entered her room and carefully placed her on the empty bed. I took off her shoes and pulled out her ponytail so she could be more comfortable. I pulled the sheet and blankets up and tucked her in, like I had done with Willow many times before when I was helping Clove babysit. Maybe I am a little too overprotective of her, I'll admit to that, but it's not something I'll ever apologize for. Whether she thinks she needs it or not, it wouldn't kill Clove to have another pair of eyes looking out for her. She's my best friend, I'd never be able to live with myself if something happened to her that I could've prevented. She already has too much going on, she shouldn't have to worry about anything else. I'm still mad at her, but I did promise Willow I'd try to get past it, and I miss my best friend. Glimmer is driving me crazy. She's always talking about clothes or hair or gossip and it's driving me insane. I normally just tune her out most of the time and think about anything else. I quietly left Clove's room, after realizing I'd been staring at her for at least 10 minutes and if anyone had woken up, they'd probably think I was a creepy stalker. Once I was back in my own bed, I began to think about other things, like my parents and their inability to agree on something. Anything. Hopefully I'll fall asleep at one point.
Marvel's POV
Sun shone through the window in my room on the train. I groggily opened my eyes and sat up. I screamed and jumped after seeing what, well I guess I should say who, was perched at the foot of my bed.
"Do you think Cato really likes me? Or am I just another girlfriend to him?" Glimmer asked as I caught my breath.
"Glimmer!!" I exclaimed, remembering that I sleep only in my underwear and pulling the blankets closer around me as I blushed.
"What? It's a legitimate question, considering his past relationships."
"Not that, what are you doing on my bed?"
"Oh, that. Well, I was thinking about Cato after we watched his and Clove's ceremony last night and I started to wonder if I was just another girl that he'd dump whenever I conflicted with his and Clove's plans. Then I fell asleep, but when I was eating breakfast this morning I remembered my thoughts and I wanted to talk to you about it, since you're his best guy friend. I asked one of your roommates if you were up yet and they said no, so I came in here and have been waiting for you to wake up ever since."
"That's creepy, Glimmer. You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Sorry. What do you think?"
"About what?"
"About me and Cato!!"
"I think you're his friend before anything, so you'll never just be tossed aside. Knowing Cato, he would've put a lot of thought into asking out a friend, so you must mean something to him."
"What about Clove? What about all of our bets with Sagara over when they'd get together? I had June, you had December, and Sagara had February, remember? We never even considered the possibility that they wouldn't end up together at all."
"Well obviously you did if you said yes to him asking you out."
"To be honest, in the beginning I didn't really see it going anywhere. Now though, I kinda see a possibility."
"Then stop worrying. I'm getting breakfast." I patiently waited for Glimmer to realize she had to leave, and once she did, I got out of bed, changed, and went into the dining car where the Avoxes were setting out a new set of freshly made gourmet Capitol food. I quickly sat down and started eating like a maniac. Veridie tried to hurry me along, our train had reached the Capitol early this morning and she wanted us to get settled in our temporary homes on top of the Training Center before going to the Remake Center. Of course, she stopped rushing me when she got disgusted at the sight of me shoving everything in my mouth and almost choking to death. I finally finished my breakfast and was told to change into decent clothing because possible sponsors will be crowding the train platform when we exit. I had just finished throwing on a green shirt when Glimmer burst in again.
"Okay, remind me that I need to teach you the art of personal space." I stated and Glimmer stuck her tongue out at me.
"I came in here to tell you to hurry up and that the Capitol is amazing. The colors are so vibrant and their buildings vary in design and height... it's lovely." Glimmer exclaimed as she took my wrist and dragged me to the front doors of the train, Veridie ushering us out to greet the flashing cameras and our adoring fans. Glimmer and I shared matching smiles that captured the hearts of many, as they always do, if I do say so myself. The two of us weaved our way through the crowd and into the Training Center, where Cashmere was holding the elevator for me, Glimmer, and Veridie. The four of us rose up the side of the building in silence and very quickly arrived on floor 1, where everyone from our area would reside until the games themselves. Glimmer and I split up again as she found her room and I found mine. We were eventually corralled into the big lounge and Veridie began sending people off with stylists' prep teams, pairing us up by relationship and age similarities. That resulted, like it will for Cato and Clove and the others, in me and Glimmer becoming partners. I met my prep team, Clio for nails, Maximus for removal of hair, and Sabrina for styling of hair. The three of them rushed me to the Remake Center and began to work. They started by cleansing me in a rose scented bath. It didn't take very long. The baths are more for the benefit of the poorer areas like 12 and 11. They gave me a robe and brought me into the main room where the 3 of them would all work at once.
"Do you bite your nails?" Clio asked as she examined my hands.
"Only when I'm nervous." I replied, causing Clio to shiver in disgust.
"At least it's something to work on, Clio. You're always complaining about the people in 1 being too well groomed." Sabrina said and Clio took that into account as she began to work. Maximus began laying strips of fabric on my body after dipping them in a substance that I know to be wax. This is gonna be painful.
"Leg hair or no leg hair?" Maximus asked Clio and Sabrina.
"Leg hair, his outfit won't really reveal any hair. Plus, once he's in the arena, the more hairy he is, the better. It can provide extra warmth." Sabrina replied. I'm almost 100% sure Sabrina's logic is off, but I decided not to say anything about it. At least that means less pain for me. I'm not sure how I got through all of them working at once. I was sure that Sabrina would be cutting my hair when Maximus ripped some off and I'd move too much from the pain, resulting in her cutting off too much or something much worse. I survived, and despite my body being red and raw, I didn't look half bad. They left me in the room to wait for my stylist. He finally showed up and said his name is Pan. He has blue tinted skin with phrases written up and down his limbs. His face is practically all plastic, he looks as though he's wearing a mask. He's wearing an odd outfit, like most Capitol people do, consisting of a blue leopard dress shirt, a furry blue vest, and black skinny jeans shoved into what appear to be black cowboy boots. He observed me, robe off, and nodded at his prep team's handy work. He exited and I pulled on my robe as he came in with a bag. He ordered me to close my eyes as I was dressed like I was a paper doll. I was painted and dried and felt like a statue.
"Voila!!" He exclaimed and I opened my eyes to see that my skin was now a metallic silver color. I was dressed up in a shiny pink tunic with a pink feather cape and sparkly silver shoes. As a final touch he decided to drench me in body glitter. When he was done I couldn't stand in direct light without burning the eyebrows off of the nearest person. Sometimes I really hate being a guy who lives in the 1st area, the costumes are always so emasculating.
"You look perfect. Now, I'm going to lead you out to the hallway where you'll meet your partner and her stylist, Cassandra. Together the four of us will go down the elevator and into the stable area where your team of horses and each area's float will be waiting. You'll meet up with your escort and your mentors to discuss placement on the float around 5 minutes before you leave. Until then, use this time to size up competition, make allies, and don't forget to have fun and smile. When you're waving to the Capitol, be friendly and flamboyant. Make the female population swoon for you. All eyes should be on you, that's the only way you'll win." Pan explained. He led me out the door and we met up with Glimmer and Cassandra at the end of the hallway. Glimmer was wearing a different variation of what I was wearing. Her skin was silver and her body doused in glitter, she shared the same cape, but instead of a tunic, she was wearing a bright pink sparkly evening gown with a feather headdress bigger than her head. Of course, being Glimmer, she loved her outfit. The two stylists walked ahead of us and Glimmer used this time to talk to me about our partnership.
"Our allies are still Cato, Clove, and Sagara, right?" She asked.
"Yes, hopefully Clove has decided to not hate everyone, so we can all work together." I replied.
"I doubt it, she's really mad."
"Yeah, but she's also Clove. She cares about Cato, and you, too much to stay mad at you both forever. Even if it's buried deep, deep down." We reached the stables and decided to find Cato and Clove first, then Sagara. The 2nd area is apparently going for the gladiator look, each person is wearing a golden helmet with wings on each side. The breastplate was also gold and the sandals are brown strapped. The only thing remotely funny about their costumes are the fact the guys are wearing skirts which, of course, Cato is glaring about as he and Clove joined me and Glimmer, Sagara appearing shortly afterwards in a deep blue gown with starfish pins on her shoulders and pearls woven into her hair. Glimmer squealed and ran up to her.
"You look amazing!! Simply fantastic!!" She exclaimed and Sagara laughed.
"Thanks, you... look like a flamingo crossed with a unicorn threw up on you." She replied. I'm not sure what a flamingo or a unicorn is, but it seemed to make sense to Clove who started laughing. Glimmer, Cato, and I shared a look. Sagara and Clove like to read, weird I know, and they like the American Fantasy books. They always read the same ones as each other so they'll just say random things to one another and get it and the rest of us will just be standing there trying to figure out what was going on. Cato, Clove, and Sagara began to talk strategy as Glimmer and I listened. Believe it or not, I'm actually an excellent asset to the Careers. I'm amazing with spears and I'm not stupid. It's just always been me and Glimmer on the outside when they're discussing strategy. We've decided it must be because we're from the 1st area. They've stereotyped us, which is kinda true for Glimmer, but I'm not one of those Capitol wannabes. I guess it's hard to prove that while wearing pink and glitter right before I go and parade myself in front of the entirety of Panem for sponsors so I can win a game. The five of us were split up again as the parade started and Glimmer and I took our positions on the right side of the float. Ours was the first one out, so the crowd was very excited and got louder and louder as we all began to wave and blow kisses. Glimmer and I smiled and waved, just like we were taught, and before we knew it we were done moving as the rest of the floats came in. Clove and Cato were drawing a lot of the attention, but even they paled in comparison to the 12th area's float. It was on fire. Except it wasn't. I'm not sure how it's burning without actually burning, but it's stunning. I can see Everdeen and Hawthorne placed in the front of the float with Mellark and Undersee standing not too far behind them. All of them were mesmerizing the Capitol and I could see from here that Cato was pissed off because of it. Then Headmaster Snow, followed by our leaders, called attention to where they stood on the balcony above us. Snow began his long speech about the Hunger Games, or what me and Glimmer have liked to call it since 3rd grade, The Excuse. Every year Snow tells the whole of Panem how vital the Hunger Games are and basically draws attention away from the fact that people have died. I may support Snow and the government and all of that, but it's still obvious that's what he's doing. Anyway, once his speech was over, we were brought into the Training Center and let off our floats. Glimmer, Sagara, Cato, Clove, and I began to inspect the Training Center, looking for where our desired weapons would be. Spears were easy to find, the more popular the weapon the easier it is to find. Basically, that means everyone found their weapon except for Sagara, maces aren't very popular. To say she's pissed off is not even the half of it. Oh Sagara...