The Tribute and the Victor

Chapter 10

The next morning I woke up in my bed, Caleb must had carried me to my room as I don't remember walking myself there. As I was about to pull myself out of my bed I felt my stomach wrap round into a tight knot as I remembered that today was my last full day in the Capitol. Tomorrow was the day that the Hunger games began and I still didn't feel prepared. Tonight was the interviews with Caesar Flickerman, which meant that I would spend half the day with Pheonix teaching me how to talk and walk and the other half with Caleb helping me choose the ideal way to come across so that I would gain popularity within the capitol and hopefully earn sponsors. For the first part of my session with Pheonix, I was in complete agony as she attempted to whip me into shape. Capitol style. I was forced to sit up straight, walk up and down the room in killer heals while balancing books on my head, and i was hit with her precious fashion magazine every time I didn't talk properly. But after a while I soon got my head round it and was walking and talking like a duchess. After lunch it was Caleb's turn to make sure I was ready for the interview. "So you need to come across as a kind of person that the capitol will like" he said to me. I sat down in my chair making sure my back was straight just incase Pheonix decided to walk in. "Well what kind of personality do you think will suit me best?" I asked him. "I'm not sure to be quite honest" he said with a sigh. "I just can't quite seem to work you out Darcy" he said cocking his head to one side. "Maybe I could come across as powerful and fierce!" I joked while making an exaggerated impression of Axe. "Haha, some how I don't think that will quite work" he laughed. "Well what then?" I asked, being totally serious this time. He paused for a moment and looked at me. "How about clever and cunning?" He suggested. "But make sure you add just a dash of cuteness to your personality...the capitol people are suckers for the cute ones" he winked. "I guess I am cunning, I can easily outsmart a bear into a trap back at home. And I'm quite small so I could be considered as cute." I said with a grin. "Then it's sorted!" He said as he jumped up out of his seat. "Come on." He said as he reached his hand out for mine."Where are we going?" I asked him as he lead me to a room I had never been in before. "We're going to get your outfit sorted for tonight" he said as he softly pushed me through the door. As I entered the room I saw my prep team standing there, all grinning with a range of beauty products in their hands. This was going to be a painful couple of hours. I gritted my teeth as I was waxed and plucked like a chicken. My eyes watered as they ragged their combs through my long wavy hair in an attempt to straighten it out. It was kind of a relief when they moved on to filing and painting my nails, they painted them 3 different shades of green and let the wet nail varnish set into each other to creat a spectacular green marble effect. Then the time came to put on my dress. It was probably the most stunning thing I had ever seen in my life. It was an emerald green gown that was a tight corset round the top half of my body and a loose flowing skirt around the bottom half. The top half of the corset was increasted with tiny white crystals that got tinier the further they travelled down my body. And my hair...my hair was beautiful, it was straightened out so it reached the bottom of my back and had an emerald green headband with the same crystals increasted on it, That sat on top of my head. My shoes were also emerald green with a 6 inch heel that i was a little nervous about. When I looked in the mirror I was shocked to see such a beautiful creature staring back at me. But I couldn't help but think In the back of my mind "they're only dressing me up for my slaughter" Caleb walked in and stared at me for a while as if he didn't quite believe that it was me. I smiled and took his hand for him to lead me to the stage.