Highway to hell

07. Tribute Parade

Mara's POV:

I wake up at the sound of Cyra's voice saying. "Wake up kids, today is a big, big day. You're meeting your stylist and it's the tribute parade this evening." She then lets out a series of excited shrieks and giggles.

What she didn't mention was the torture that followed after I got out of bed and changed clothes. One of the members of my prep team is focused on taking every bit of hair of my legs and arms, while another is in charge of plucking my eyebrows. When she's done, she starts doing my nails, while the other does my makeup.

"Okay now you're ready." Says one of the members of my prep team.

"Beautiful." Says another.

"Now we can take you to Andy."

"Who?" I ask at the mention of a name I've never heard before.

"Andromeda," he answers with a stern look, seeing I still don't know who he's referring to he continues. "Your stylist, dear."

They abandon the room, leaving me alone. I use this moment to look at my newly carved body. I quite look the same, but I'll give them that, I do look better. The makeup isn't too extravagant, only used on my eyes and lips. A lovely shade of gold covering them and my nails, a long black eyeliner marking my eyelids. I also notice they managed to cover up the scar on my cheek and the dark circles under my eyes.

"Well don't you look nice?" I hear an unknown but angelic voice behind me. "Your prep team sure did a great work." She continued. Noticing my confusion, she declares. "I'm Andromeda, your stylist. You can call me Andy."

"Mara, Mara Black." I present myself as I stretch out my hand for her to shake it. Instead she engulfs me in a tight hug.

"Do you want to see your costume?" She asks. I frantically nod and she pulls out a Roman-like costume. I now understand the gold eyeshadow, lipstick and polish.

"It's beautiful." I take a moment to admire the gold beauty.

"Go on, try it!" She exclaims softly. I do as told and try on the costume. It fits me perfectly, adjusting to my skin as if it were part of it. "Well? Do you like it dear?"

"I love it." I respond genuinely. The golden armor is one of the best costumes I've ever seen in a while for District Two and suddenly I can't stop myself from wondering what Cato would wear. But I restrain myself and ask another question. "What about my hair?"

"Oh, the prep team will take care of that." She answers with a smile.

As Andy predicted, the prep team enters the door where my stylist left a moment ago. They do my hair into a bunch of braids that surprisingly look quite good. I make sure that the prep team knows my opinion, even though I'm not quite fond of them.

"Oh dear, come on, darling we're running late." They rush me out of the room to find me face to face with Cyra.

"Well don't you look absolutely lovely! They even managed to cover up your scar!" She says excitedly. She takes me by the arm and leads me to a large corridor. There I see for the first time all of the other tributes in person. Including the twelve year old girls from eleven and twelve. I believe that their names are Rue and Primrose or something like that. I saw Primrose's reaping, it was heartbreaking, her older sister screaming her name who had to be taken away by peacekeepers and another older boy driving away her sister. As I said, heartbreaking, but that's another easy kill for me.

Cyra takes me to my chariot, lead by two black stallions, the chariot is also golden as my costume. There, standing next to the District One tributes I see Cato. I make my way next to him and check out our future allies. "I'm Mara, pleasure." I stretch out my hand for them to shake, the first one to do so is the girl, dressed in a hot pink dress with sparkles all over it.

"Glimmer, I saw your reaping, not bad." She compliments.

"Thanks, I like to make an impression." I respond

"We could tell." The District one boy joins in. "I'm Marvel, pleasure to meet." I stretch out my hand to shake his and nod at him. I hear Claudius Templesmith's voice over the speakers, meaning that it must almost be time for the parade. I approach my chariot, where Cato is already waiting. I go towards the Black horses and start caressing them, a Capitol man approaches me and hands a handful of sugar cubes.

"For the horses." He says handing me the sugar. I thank him politely and sneak the sugar in my pockets.

"You know it's illegal to steal here." Catos voice resonates in my eardrums. "Plus it's time to get in the chariots." As he finishes saying those words, Claudius voice enters my ears for the second time.

"Five minutes." He says. All the other tributes get in their chariots and we're not an exception.

The first chariot pulls out the large door and soon enough we're next. Andromeda yells something at us that I can't really tell what it is. "What'd she say?" I ask Cato.

"I think she said to hold hands." He responds. The idea of holding Cato's hand repulses me, but I figured that the audience would love it and therefore get sponsors, so with my killer face still on I hold his hand and lift it in the air. The audience goes wild, I can see my face everywhere and people yelling our names. These people are weird. I think to myself.

The last chariot, District Twelve, they look quite good in their black suits but they can't surpass our costumes. Suddenly, their chariot goes in flames. The crowd goes absolutely insane I turn around to find that it's not their chariot but their suits that go up in flames. Anger and jealousy fill my mind but I keep my face on, not wanting to show the crowd my emotions.

Finally we stop at the center of a square and President Snow makes an appearance ready to do his speech. "Welcome, tributes, we welcome you. We salute your courage and sacrifice." He starts. "And we wish you, happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor." He concludes. God how I despise that sentence. I think.

The chariots take us back to the wide space where we were before. I get down the chariot, letting go of Cato's hand. Our crew comes up to us and congratulate us on how good we did, they then leave and let us to our own devices. I head for the horses and hand one of them a sugar cube, the stallion takes it gladly and leaves my hand full of goo. Great. The District Twelve male appears from apparently out of nowhere.

"Hey gorgeous, you did a nice work out there." He says as he gets closer to me.

"Oh yea, thanks I guess." I respond. He starts getting closer and closer to me and I start getting uncomfortable. "Look, Twelve, you would want to step away before I kill you earlier than the actual Games." I warn him. I look at my hand, covered in horse goo and spread it all over the chest part of his suit.

Cato's POV:

I'm checking out the costumes of the other tributes when my face lands on Mara and the District Twelve male. They seem to be quite close together and Twelve keeps getting more and more close to her, she, on the other hand, seems uncomfortable. A weird feeling invades my chest, I can't really tell what it is, but I can tell that I don't like it. Then, Mara's hand goes to Twelve's chest, apparently caressing it.

The feeling in my chest gets stronger and stronger, and I can't control myself when my legs drive me to their side, consumed by rage, I punch the guy in the jaw, sending him to the ground. Mara lets out a loud laugh and pats my back as in thanks, I don't notice the guy get on his feet and suddenly I feel a fist on my nose, it didn't really hurt but, my eyes start watering. To be honest, Mara's punch hurt much more than that.

Mara's sarcastic voice enters my ears. "You call that a punch? Pathetic." She then lets out a laugh. The boy leaves and Mara kneels beside me. "You okay?" She asks. I nod and she opens her hand, my eyes are too watery to precisely tell what she's showing me, but I can tell it's something white and square. "Want a sugar cube?" She says playfully with a large grin on her face.

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