Little Puppets with Broken Strings

"You Can't Make Me Shed A Tear"

I woke up in the morning with my head on someone's chest. It wasn't like normal though, he was wearing clothes and so was I.

"Good morning, beautiful." I knew that the voice I heard was Jules, but the words and waking up in someone else's bed were too familiar.

"I have to go get dressed for today." I muttered and quickly ran out of the room before he could say anything.

I ignored everyone in the common room and went into my room, shutting the door behind me as soon as I was inside.

"Oh, I was just looking for you!" I jumped, turning around to see a girl that was definitely from the Capitol with her crazy blue hair that matched her eyelashes, which stuck out at last 3 inches from her eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked, trying not to sound out of breath. I honestly just wanted to be alone.

"I'm Magnolia, your stylist." She chirped; she was definitely not going to be fun to work with.

"Right." I knew that we each had our own stylist, but I was not looking forward to it. I didn't want to be made into a Capitol clone.

"You are going to greet people out front shortly, so we should start getting you ready." I nodded and followed her into the ridiculously large bathroom connected to my room. "I know what the people here think of you, but we're going to change that." I was not expecting to hear her say that.

"What do you mean?"

"You're not the girl that the Captiol has made you out to be and if they want to force you into these games, then we are going to show them who you really are." She gave me a wink and a smile.

I smiled back, "thank you, that really means a lot."

"Let's get started."

She painted my nails a soft silver color to match the soft makeup she applied to my eyes and lips. She didn't want to add anything else, because she didn't want to take away from my freckles, or so she told me. The whole time she was doing all this, I was asking her lots of questions about her life and her answers made me like her more and more. She was here so that she could make a difference, to change people's minds about what really mattered.

She helped me change into my dress, it was simple and flattering, but not revealing. It was a beautiful sea green color to match the seaglass earrings she gave me. I wore a couple pearl bracelets and the necklace my brother gave me. My hair was braided over one shoulder

"That way everyone will know who your ally is." She was amazing and not at all what I expected. She really knew me, she even knew that I wanted Katniss as my ally. "You're young and beautiful, we are going to make sure that these people won't hurt a sweet girl like you."

"Thank you." Once she was finished I stood up and gave her a hug.

"Now go out there and show them the real Madeline Odair." She gave me a little push out the door into the common room where Mags and Finnick were talking to Coco and Julian.

I avoided looking at Julian and sat down next to Finnick.

"So, we are going to go downstairs and into the lobby where you will greet your fans. I want you two to stay close together, you have to show people what they are doing, exactly the people they are sending off to be killed and kill each other. Mags, you can stick with your friends" I closed my eyes briefly at the last words Coco said, I wasn't ready to kill anyone. I wasn't sure I could do it. "Okay, we should head down there." Finnick and Mags got up and followed next to Coco, I went to follow, but Julian caught my arm.

"Did I do something?" He asked. I finally had to look him in the eye and I saw genuine concern and guilt.

"Jules, I just can't. I'm sorry, but that's not me, that's not who I am. I'm not the girl that gets the happily ever after. Do you really want to be with someone who has been in that exact situation, but naked with countless other guys?" I tried to keep my voice down so no one else could overhear, but we were kind of holding everyone up, so they knew anyways.

"Do you love me?" He asked.

"That's not fair, it's not that simple."

"It is, if we love each other nothing else matters-"

"What about the fact that tomorrow, I will be walking to my death? Does that matter? You promised me that you were getting him out and that can't change."

"If that's really true, then aren't you entitled to a day of happiness?" He ran his thumb along my cheek, soft and gentle as if I was made of glass.

I simply nodded and kissed him. I knew that he was right. I just felt like I was hurting him.

"Okay, we really need to go, because we're going to be late." Finnick interrupted.

Jules took my hand and led me to the elevated where Mags and Coco were smiling and Finnick was obnoxiously tapping his foot. Once we made it down the the lobby we had to separate, Mags, Coco and Jules went to go talk with friends from the other districts, while Finnick and I greeted people from the Capitol. It all went by in a blur and soon, we were thankfully being escorted to the rooms where we would get ready for the parade.

Magnolia was already waiting for me when I entered. She quickly changed my eye makeup from pale to a dark blue, everything else stayed the same, except for the dress. Mags and Finnick were going to be dressed as fisherman, but I was going to be dressed as a mermaid. The dress was absolutely stunning. It was white and went all the way to the floor, with blue sequins shaped like fish scales from my knees down and a little around the top of the dress.

"Beautiful." She stated, tucking a few small flowers into the braids.

"You're so talented, this is perfect." I gave her a quick hug, before making my way out to where the other tributes were waiting.

I saw Finnick talking to Katniss and was walking over to them, but was stopped by Gloss. "Wow, you look so much younger in that. Personally it covers up a bit too much for my liking."

"Piss off." I tried to step around him, but he got in my way.

"You have a big decision to make about who you want to team up with, I suggest, you chose wisely." He moved aside so I could get past him. I turned back and glared at him.

"What did he want?" Finnick asked as soon as I reached where he was standing.

"Nothing, what happened to Katniss?"

"I guess she's not my biggest fan." I rolled my eyes. "You look amazing by the way."

"Thanks, you're really working that fishing net." I replied sarcastically.

"Okay, it's time for you to-" Julian started to say, but stopped as soon as we turned around.

"Time for us to, what?" I asked, noticing that he was staring at me with his mouth open.

"He's speechless because of how beautiful you look. How romantic, excuse me while I go vomit." Finnick walked off toward the chariot with Mags and Coco and I glared after them.

"Jules, you're kind of starting to get weird." I turned back to him.

"Sorry, you just look, wow." He stuttered. "I really want to kiss you right now."

"Well, you will have to wait a while, I have a parade to attend and a President to show that I am not his little puppet anymore." I went and joined Mags and Finnick on the chariot, just as the parade was starting.

"Good luck." Coco said, standing next to Jules, both of them smiling.

"You ready?" Finnick asked me, grabbing my hand.

I nodded. We started moving and while Mags and Finnick waved and smiled at people, I faced straight forward, locking eyes with Snow. Once we came to a stop beneath where he was sitting I turned to face the crowd. He gave a speech and we all paraded back to where we started, this time I did smile and wave. I had to be smart, defiant, but not reckless. He could still hurt my mom and Annie.