Next thing I know, Effie's banging on the door of my bedroom (I didn't even know there were rooms on here- or how I got into my room), and telling me to get up, because it's going to be a "big, big, big day!"
My prep team come parading into my room, brandishing brushes. As they prepare me for the crowds, my stomach growls loudly. The one with the ginger hair says "oh sorry dear! You must be starving!" and gives me a bread roll and a mug of hot chocolate. They remake me to Beauty Base Zero, and then add on a hint of purple eyeliner, and a peach-coloured lipstick. Finally I get to meet my stylist.
She's tall, with chest length brown hair with ginger highlights that constantly shines. She has a slim figure, with bright blue eyes, and long dark eyelashes. She's got pale skin, but blushed cheeks- and perfectly straight white teeth. The white shirt and denim jeans that she's wearing look amazing on her- I wouldn't be surprised if she could make a towel look fashionable! As she gracefully walks towards me, her hair flows out perfectly behind her, and it makes me notice the gold locket that she is wearing. It has a Mockingjay engraved on it. As she glides around me, I feel her gaze on me, and suddenly feel ugly, and everything you wouldn't want to be. I am compared to her. Anybody is compared to her.
When she finishes her circuit, she introduces me to her.
"Hello Rose, I am Jasmine and I am your stylist"
The name suits her- after all, Jasmine, a small delicate flower describes her perfectly. She runs her fingers along a clothes rack, and pulls out a sparkling white dress. She pulls it over my head and gives me a pair of sparkling green high-heeled shoes. Then she tells me to look in the mirror.
The creature I see looking back at me looks unreal. She is beautiful- flawless. Her dress makes her looks like a flower- a shining white flower, and the shoes match the bright green of her eyes so much that they could be seen in the dark. I take a step back, and the creature mimics my movements. Is it really me in that mirror?
Jasmine tells me to spin around for her, and that's when I realise the dress' true beauty. As I spin, the knee-length skirt flows outwards, and the dress shines- it glows like a white Rose in the moonlight. Then I realise. Rose. That's me.
For the rest of the day, I have my lesson with Effie on how to present myself, and I finally get to actually speak to Peeta on how to act in front of the audience. In the two hours I spend with Effie, my back aches from sitting up so straight, and my heels hurt from the absurdly high shoes that she made me wear. As I walk into the compartment that my mentor Peeta is in, my cheeks are twitching from the many smiles she made me practice.
Peeta greets me with a kiss on the cheek- I can feel my cheeks turning red. Then he asks me "so what kind of image are you going for? I can see: provocative, girly, modest, mean, mysterious, vain..." the list goes on and on. It's a miracle how quickly someone can change their attitude towards you. Last time i was with Peeta, he hated me, he looked at me with a glare colder than ice. Now though, he seems happy, but still sad that I'm going to die. I realise some of the things he says could be found offensive, but he laughs and ignores the angry blush i give him when he tells me he can see me as "selfish".
We seem to be getting on quite well, really. He tells me all the things I ought to do to impress the audience, and as i think about it i can feel the nerves rising like a flood in my stomach.
"Rose," he says, sensing my nerves. "All you really need to do is be yourself. That's most important. It means people see who you really are- you're not like your grandfather - well, you're not how we in the Districts saw your grandfather anyway. Just be you, ignore the crowd, and try to focus on answering all of the questions asked."
I take a deep breath, and calm down a bit; I had started hyperventilating
"Thanks Peeta. I'll try." I tell him with a sigh. As I turn to leave, blinking away the tears gathering in my eyes, he puts his hand on my shoulder and turns me around.
"Rose- before you go, please, please listen to me." He raises his other hand to my free shoulder and looks me in the eyes. "I never wanted this- any of this. Alright I wanted things to change, but I never wanted these Games. Believe me this was the last thing I wanted to happen! Now, you can't change things. This will be the last Hunger Games- I'd rather go into the arena again than have another Hunger Games."
This is too much. The tears flow down my face, I feel as though they will never stop. Peeta moves his arms, and brings me close to him in a tight embrace.
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*sorry chapter 6 is taking so long, I've got writers block :S *
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The Capitol Games
FanfictionAfter the rebellion, after the death of my grandfather, the rebels decided to have a final "symbolic" Hunger Games. What I didn't realise then was that I, Rose Snow, would be forced to compete.
