When The Canary Sings

A Crown of Stars, and a Song of the Moon

First Person~Becca Blue

I woke up to a burning sensation on my leg. I shot up, and looked down at my red-raw legs.

"Don't worry, sweetie, that was the last one." One of the women next to said. She had dark skin, and black curly hair that was in the shape of a bow. She had rose gold glasses and pearly white teeth. "You already had your bath, and we just did a full wax."

"Wax?" I asked, rubbing my legs, now smooth as a newborn. "Like from a bee?" The strange people in the room only laughed, and I wanted to shrink into a ball and die.

"It makes you," a man joined in, "it makes you prettier."

"Well excuse me, I thought I was pretty!" I said, meaning it serious, but the stylists around me took it as a joke and almost fell to their knees from laughter.

"You are pretty darling, don't listen to Spartus here, he doesn't know a thing." The woman said again, "My name is Ophelia, and that's Eurydice, Spartus, and Camelia." Ophelia introduced, "but I am your stylist, these are just my assistants!"

I decided this could be a good time to make people like me, so I put on a pretty smile and looked over at them. "Nice to meet y'all," I smiled.

Suddenly, a man came running into the room, his arms full of sketchbooks and pencils.

"Ah, and this is my apprentice, Cinna." Ophelia said, helping him unload the sketchbooks.

"Now, I'm sure you know tonight is the tribute parade. It's our job to dress you and make you look perfect!" Ophelia squealed, "then after tonight you have training, then scoring, then you'll be interviewed by Mr. Flickerman, and then the games start!" I just hummed in response.

Ophelia looked around the room, and saw her assistants still standing in the room. "Shoo! Shoo! All of you! Out! Out!" She shooed, swiping her hands in the air. All the assistants scrambled out of the room except for Cinna.

"Now, here is the design," she said, holding up a blue sketchbook. The outfit is basic, but good enough to catch people's eyes. It was a black bodysuit with what looked like an armored chest piece. It has a gray piece of loose fabric around the waist. On the shoulders there were gemstones poking out. Crystals, maybe diamonds. Under the suit there were tights that went from nude to black with pieces of coal glued onto them.

"Do you like it? The diamonds are meant to symbolize that you guys are diamonds in the rough. If you compress coal enough, it'll turn into a diamond." Cinna said. "We are also adding a crown of lights to symbolize the sparks."

"Smart," I said, "I'm glad I'm not goin' out there naked and covered in coal dust." I laughed, they laughed with me.

Cinna and Ophelia helped me change into the tights and the bodysuit. They curled my hair and tied it into a loose ponytail, there were two small braids from the front that hooked into it. They then placed the crown of warm yellow lights on my head.

"They look like stars," I said, staring at myself in the mirror. "Or fireflies."

"One more touch," Ophelia said, scrambling out of the room. She then came back in with my guitar, it had a new black leather strap on it, but then she turned it around...

My guitar was clean and shiny. All the scuff marks that once plagued it were washed away. The best part was the golden flowers that were perfectly painted on it.

"Oh my!" I exclaimed, rushing towards it, "is that really mine? My own?" I asked giddily, inspecting every inch.

"You district 12 kids talk funny," Ophelia said, and I wondered what that meant because it was the Capitol people who sounded funny, not me.