Quell

Chapter 2

When we finally found our mentor, Dayli, in the kitchen car. She was laying on the counter, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling. I know what you're thinking, Dayli sounds like a nice name, I bet she's really nice. NO. When we came up to her and asked her for tips, she simply replied with, "why bother. You're going to die anyways." Well, she was kind of useless, so Maysilee and I decided to explore the train a little. Little did we know, we actually had our own rooms. Why did we need rooms? We weren't going to sleep in the train. Well, I guess the Capitol had enough money and materials to add useless rooms to their high tech trains. I found the door labeled with a little plaque with my name on it. I walked in and was almost blinded by the lighting.

For whatever reason, the Capitol thought it would be necessary to put blinding white lights on the walls. There must've been an off switch somewhere. I closed my eyes and started feeling around the closest wall. Then I heard the scream. I rushed into Maysilee's room and saw her standing there in shock with her hands over her eyes. Ah, the lights were in her room too. "Ya, I probably should've warned you about that." I said. She pried open her eyes and squinted so she could see me. "Whatever," she stammered. I found the light switch in the far corner of her room and turned off the blinding lights. She thanked me and I left the room. I turned my lights off as well. It was still plenty bright in there with all the sunlight streaming through the windows anyways.

It wasn't long before we were called for dinner. It was beautiful. There was corn on the cob smothered with melted butter and steaks, big, juicy steaks. And those were only the things i recognized. There were also many other brilliantly prepared platters that I had never seen before. It looked so delicious that as i bag an stuffing my face, I almost forgot about the games. All I could think about was the taste of that golden corn. There was never a limit as to how much I was allowed to eat. It seemed like no matter how many times i cleared a plate, an avox always had more to bring from the kitchen. After I was finished stuffing myself to the point that I couldn't even stand, I waddled back to my room and found a purpose for those beds. I slept until we arrived at the Capitol. As much as I'd hate to admit it, the Capitol was pretty cool, it seemed like, even though it was night, there was light everywhere. All the building were made of shiny, pristine metal that glowed in the city lights. Everything was at least 10 stories tall. Honestly, it was a little menacing, but it was still extremely impressive. The train stopped in front of one of the wider buildings. We were brought inside and sent to our stylists. Mine was a lady named Cathy,the most ordinary name i had heard in the Capitol. She wore a tight pink dress and enormous hoop earrings. All her hair was shaved off. They usually dress us in clothes from our districts for the tributes parade. We were dressed in traditional coal mining uniforms, except they were gold. We were put into our gold chariots and sent down the runway. All the other outfits were bright and extravagant. We were hardly noticed among the other tributes.

After the parade, we were driven in a big bus to another building. We were brought inside and immediately sent to our rooms. Luckily, the lights weren't as bad in this room. It was just bright enough to see, but still perfectly suitable to sleep. Even after my nap I was still exhausted, so I flopped over into the soft comforter and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. I was woken personally by my mentor. I was honestly hoping that she had snapped out of that funk she was in the other day, but she was still seemingly useless as a mentor. Breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and sausage. I wasn't too hungry because of last night's feast. I ate sparingly and went back to my room to change.

All the clothes in the humungous closet were totally crazy. All I wanted was a pair of jeans and a jacket, but in the Capitol, there was no such thing as casual. The least crazy thing in there was a baby blue suit with ruffles all over. I put it on and headed into the hall to explore. When I got out there, Dayli looked at me in shock. "Why aren't you wearing your interview outfit?!" "What?" I stammered. "Ugh, you were SUPPOSED to put on the outfit your stylist gave you for the interviews this morning!" "Um, oh, ok." I said. Nobody ever told me to wear some special outfit. I didn't even know what outfit it was. Dayli noticed my confusion and handed me the hanger on my doorknob. I guess I should've noticed it, but I didn't. Oh well. I put it on and headed back out. Time for the interviews.