The next day, I wake up to Lara-Rose pounding on my door and telling me to get ready, as we will be arriving at the Capitol soon. At first I don't respond, but after her persistent pounding for five minutes, I finally shout back to her,
"Alright, I am awake!"
After that she stops, and hopefully walks away. I sigh as I roll over and see that the clock states that it is only six am. Are we really going to arrive in the Capitol this early in the morning? But nonetheless, I get changed and make my way to the food carriage. There, only Katniss sits at the table, drinking a cup full of a brown substance.
"Morning, Almond," she greets me.
"Morning. Where's everyone else?" I ask her.
"Well, Haymitch is likely to be completely out of it, Dean is probably just waking up and Lara-Rose is trying to wake up one of the three boys."
I sigh and sit down across from her, and stare at all the food laid out on the table.
"I get to eat?" I ask Katniss. She stares at me.
"Yeah. In the Capitol, you get this much food five times a day. Guessing you weren't that well off back in 12?" I nod. "Thought so. You and Alek... well, you guys definitely don't look like you eat a lot. Especially you." Then, Lara-Rose walks in and plops herself down on the chair furthest away from me. Clearly she is still scared from yesterday.
"I swear, Haymitch is such a pain to wake up! He threw a shoe at me when I pounded on his door, seriously I am just doing my job..." i tune her out while I eat the rest of my bread, and Haymitch, Dean and Alek enter. I don't really listen to their conversations at all, except when Katniss suddenly says,
"We're here." It takes me a moment to process where exactly is 'here', before I realise she means the Capitol. Instantly, my mind goes to all of the stories from my classmates, about how the Capitol is beautiful and has literally every luxury we could think of and more. I get up and exitedly look out the window, and Alek does the same. I gasp as the Capitol starts to come into view.
The buildings are covered in bright signs and are about a hundred times bigger than my 'home' in 12. Not to mention I see fancily dressed Capitol citizens walking around with giant wigs on their heads and make up caked on their face. As we whizz pass, I even spot through a window of a shop that has a couple with more food on their table than what Julien, my mother and I get to eat in a week. I gape out the window at the Capitol. Why could the Capitol receive all these luxuries while the districts have to suffer?
"Almond, Alek, when we get off this train, we'll all be put into cars and then you two will be shipped off to the Remake Centre. Do not, under any circumstances, argue with your stylist, or your prep team, no matter how annoying they are," Dean tells us. I nod, and see Alek doing the same, even though I don't really know what the Remake Centre is.
The train starts slow to a stop in the train station. Hundreds of Capitol people stand and their is a noticeable buzz around them of the excitement of getting to see two tributes live, in person. Realising as a twelve year old I can't exactly act like I don't care, I force a smile onto my face and wave at them. Lara-Rose ushers us out onto the platform, and I am met with bright lights blinding me. I shield my eyes, but a hiss in my ear makes me stop.
"Those are cameras. Don't do that, the people won't like it."
I stop, and look around, a smile still plastered onto my face. As we quickly walk through the crowd, I spot another girl my age, wearing a bright pink hoodie and jeans. We stare at eachother for a moment, and I wonder how we are the same age but have completely different lives. I mean, she isn't getting sent to death, and she probably grew up with a whole bunch of luxuries. And that doesn't even scarpe the surface of how different our lives are. She looks back at me and grins, pointing me out to her father, as if excited to see me. Though she probably is. I realise I have stopped and Haymitch pushes me forward, and I lose sight of the girl. Finally, Alek and I get practically shoved into a car, and he grimaces at me.
"Quite an enthusiastic lot, aren't they?" He says.
"You'll get used to it," says Katniss dismissively. Alek looks at me with disbelief and I stifle a giggle. Only a few minutes later, we arrive at a large building and are ordered to get out.
~~~~~
I wince as my prep team pulls a large amount of hair on my leg.
"You're lucky you're still young, otherwise it would of been worse," chirps Dahlia. I don't respond. They are an interesting lot, to say the least. Dahlia has rainbow coloured hair, lots of jewellery and a tattoo of an eagle on her arm. Junop's face is completely purple, and he has a few piercings and his haircut looks really bad. He looks pretty scary, in my opinion. Thankfully, Lena is at least normal looking, the only Capitol thing about her being a tattoo of a mockingjay, small and slightly concealed by the sleeve of her shirt. She catches me looking at it a few times, but doesn't comment on it.
"I think you are ready to see Adele now," comments Junop in his deep and heavily accented voice. He and Dahlia leave to go get Adele, who I assume is my stylist, while Lena stays behind.
"You liked the tattoo?" She asks me softly. I jump a little. She hadn't spoken the whole time.
"Yeah. Is it a mockingjay? Wouldn't it be banned?"
"It is, but who cares? My brother matters more than the law." I look at her quizically.
"My brother is Cinna. The stylist who created the Girl on Fire, Katniss Everdeen. Spark of rebellion. That mockingjay on my shoulder is just a little show of defiance, for my brother. He was murded, you know," she says in a soft voice. I am about to ask more, but Dahlia and Junop return, this time with a tall lady who has a giant wig. I assume that she is Adele.
"Hello, Almond. I'm your stylist, Adele," she says in a dreamy voice.
"Hi." Adele unzips a black bag, and pulls out a typical miners outfit. 12's tributes have been wearing the same thing for years now, and I kind of expected it. Lena sighs in annoyance. She could probably have a much better design, but she is not the stylist.
"Let's get you dressed, shall we?"
YOU ARE READING
Innocent Girl - A Hunger Games Fanfiction
FanfictionIt's been twenty years since the infamous Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won their game together, twenty years since the flame of rebellion was stomped on. But the 94th games might bring change, when a young girl's name is called across the squ...
