The 45th Hunger Games: The Tribute of District 4 (Watty Awards 2012 completed)

Chapter 14

The people who woke me up were the prep team. They bounced around on my bed and were excited about making me beautiful again. I was still in a good mood from yesterday, so I allowed them to squeal all about the tributes and gossip about the Capitol citizens who have made terrible errors with their fashion choices.

Since the Remake Center, I hadn’t grown any hair and I had moisturized every night since. My prep team exfoliated me and dried me up in an hour.

Scarlett worked on my hair, which apparently needed more bounce than usual. She styled it in my signature long, flowing curled locks and added the bits of gold and blue in it.

Paisley added shimmering body powder from head to toe, which made me glisten, and made me look like I was a mermaid, which were probably Alta’s instructions. After he was done with that, he worked on my nails, which were to be painted light blue, with silver flecks of glitter on top.

Circa worked on my face makeup. He made my eyes look bigger and more attractive, drawing all the attention there with the eyeliner and eye shadow. They kept my lips near the original color, and painted it coral pink. They highlighted the same parts of my face and made me look like that ethereal beauty who was present in the parade. She added eyelashes about an inch thick, with tiny diamonds at the end of a few strands.

This was the girl that Slate had been attracted to initially. This was the girl that enticed the Capitol citizens.

On the inside, I was just that plain girl who swam during the afternoons after training with her father and brother and waved nets with her mother by the evening.

After they were done, they gave praises to me and patted themselves on the back. I thanked them for making me look so beautiful, once again.

Alta came in, with the dress in tow.

It was the subdued version of my parade dress, but not really. It was still beautiful in a simple way that the parade dress could never have achieved.

The dress made me look naked, but the trail was still very long. The flesh-colored gossamer material had silver linings and embroidered metal scales from my knees and increased near the hem. It looked like I was rising from the sea and was the siren that was ready to woo the crowd.

“Here,” Alta slipped in the shell bracelet from my father and tied it around my wrist. “You look wonderful, Serena. You’re beautiful all on your own. I just tried my best to make it show even more.”

I looked at the mirror, watching this person watching me. It didn’t look like the Serena that I knew. “Thank you for this. I don’t think anyone else could have made me look any better than I do now.”

She gave me a quick hug and I gave her one back. Somewhere along the way, she must have started caring for me. Her talent made me shine. Before my score, no one knew me except as the beautiful tribute.

“Let’s go.” Alta lifted the train from behind and I went out the door.

Xavier and his stylist and prep team was there, along with mine. Together, we all descended the elevator.

Once we reached the lobby, we saw that the other tributes were being assembled in one line according to district number. Aldo and Mari didn’t need to tell us what to do anymore. They had done what they could. Our District 4 team just looked on at the two of us with what I thought was pride.

Xavier and I took our places near the start.

Since everyone didn’t need to dress according to their district industries anymore, the stylists had more freedom to make them look the best as they could manage. Alta was the only one who stuck with my mermaid image, but then it was the smartest move that she made. It was memorable. Even Xavier seemed connected with District 4, with his dark green suit and a silver bow tie that matched the exact color of silver that was on my dress.