Hunger Games - Primrose

ʗɧɑǷƮɛƦ 5 - Ʈɧɛ ʗɑǷɪƮօƖ

We arrived at the place we were staying in a short space of time. We piled out the car to be greeted by another huge mob of photographers and cameramen, but they were only with us for a few seconds, as another Districts car pulled in and all of them practically ran over towards them. I saw a big bush of long platinum blonde hair get out of the left side of the car and recognised that it was the District 1 girl. I heard the cameramen and photographers call "Glimmer! Over here! Wave!" and I presumed that Glimmer must be her name. It was a pretty name to match a pretty girl.

We all clambered through the reception to the lift, not even checking into our floor with the receptionist but I'm pretty sure she knew we were coming. It still would have been nice of Effie to greet her, or tell her we were 12 so she knew who she was expecting. Psht, I thought I'm here, about to be sent to my death in a matter of days and I'm still thinking of everybody else around me.

Effie pushed one of the brightly lit buttons on the panel of the lift that said "12". When she pressed it, it began changing colours every second. First green, then red, then orange, then pink and purple and so many colours that I didn't even know the name of. "You get the number of your district for your floor, and since you're in 12, you get the penthouse!" Effie explained. She seems much too excited for a woman who had been coming here for years on end.

We reached the penthouse very swiftly, the lift seemed to move almost as fast as the train to the Capitol did. Everything in the Capitol was fast and new and so strange to me. The penthouse was breath-taking, and Effie could tell that Peeta and I were thinking this by the fact our jaws had practically dropped down to our feet. "I know, I know!" she exclaimed and began to walk off again. The three of us (Peeta, Haymich and I) followed her as if it was second nature. I was taking in all of my surroundings as I followed slowly. The dining room was on an above level to the living room. It had a plain, plastic ivory table with decorative pea green chairs surround it and flowers in oddly shaped red vases placed dotingly around the platform that was the dining room. The living room had again, plush ivory carpet that looked every so soft, as if the whole thing was made from cotton. It had a large leather black sofa in the middle with two smaller sofa's next to it and a black chic coffee table. All the sofa's pointed in the direction of a large television screen. The whole place was fancier than the train and the Justice Building put together. I never knew such fanciness could exist.

"These are your compartments. They're next to each other, so you'll just be a short walk down the hall from each other. You have an hour until dinner. I suggest you get yourselves ready," Effie ordered us. Peeta exchanged a glance with me and gave a small, obviously forced, smile. He wasn't enjoying this luxury. I guessed that he didn't really care at all for it. It wasn't needed, I guess, this amount of luxury. The money spent making this one room could last both our families enough food and water to last at least a year. Maybe even a year and a half if properly rationed. I walked into my compartment and was not at all surprised to see it was just as lovely as the rooms outside. The bed was right in the middle of the room and was absolutely huge. Literally twenty of me could of in this bed. It was covered in a deep red duvet and ivory pillows. The carpet was ivory also. I'm guessing the Capitol liked the colour ivory, as it seemed to be everywhere I went. I walked past the fancy shaped mirrors in the bedroom, glancing at my reflection, seeing how messy my hair had become over the day and that my dress was slightly creased now. That wouldn't look good for the cameras. I opened a black, heavy door that was patterned with flowers to my bathroom. It was a million different shades of blue inside and no other colour. It looked ever so beautiful. I looked in the shower and saw the same panel of buttons that was on my shower on the train. I stripped off my clothes and climbed into the shower straight away, wanting to try out all the different buttons. I realised I would never get to see what they all did before I died, but at least I'd get to see a few.

I pressed a button that was fourth on the second row. The smell of jasmines trickled from the water that came from the showerhead and the smell surrounded me. It was beautiful, it reminded me of one summer in the forest. I was fourteen and it was Katniss' 16th birthday and she took me into the forest. Normally, I didn't like going with Katniss to the forest. I hated seeing her kill the animals. I know I ate them afterwards, but I hated seeing it. I just wanted to run over and see if I could save their life. I'm such a sap like that, I hate that sometimes. Especially now. But anyway, Katniss took me into the forest and we climbed a tree together. It was very far out into the forest and I remember how scared I felt that someone would see us somehow. "Prim, the leaves of the tree will disguise us. It's okay, you're safe. I'd never let anything bad happen to you." She had reassured me. And I believed her, and nobody did find us. She and I stayed in the tree for hours talking and talking and Gale even joined us for an hour. He brought us a fresh loaf of bread which must have been worth at least 5 squirrels trade worth, but it was Katniss' birthday and it was all worth it. It was a wonderful day, and on our walk back home, I spotted a jasmine flower. It was the first jasmine flower of summer and I picked it. I threaded it into Katniss' classic braid she always wore and kissed her cheek. The scent of the jasmine flower followed us home and stayed with us for days. It was such a beautiful memory. I would never get anything like that again with her now.

I hadn't realised, but I had started crying. I missed Katniss so much. I didn't even know how she was right now. Or what she was doing. It made my heart ache so much. I ached for her hugs and her reassurance. I would do anything to be with her right now.

I stopped the showers water and climbed out and let the same swoop of hot air that had hit me on the train when I'd had my first Capitol shower. I was bone dry within a matter of minutes and I couldn't wait to see what clothes were waiting for me in my new cupboard. I found the cupboard that concealed the clothes and there was such a variety it shocked me. This was more clothes that I had ever seen ever, it was fifteen times more than my whole family owned put together. I didn't really think I had time to look through all the fancy dresses and shirts, so I chose a simple pair of black skin tight trousers and a loose heather coloured shirt. I Dutch braided my hair the same way Katniss would of if this was her. I missed her terribly still but the braid made me feel a little closer to her in some strange way.

I walked out of my room once I had finished getting ready for dinner and made my way back down the corridors of the penthouse to the dining room. Everybody was already gathered there, waiting for me to join so they could start eating. Nobody gave me a second glance as I joined them, but Peeta kept staring. He looked at my braid for a minute then continued to eat for another minute and then to my braid and so on.

Idle chatter went around the table, mainly from Effie talking about what the Capitol people have thought so far of us and asking us questions about what we like about the Capitol and things like that. Haymich interrupted her chitter chatter halfway through the main course. "Effie, nobody cares." She looked flabbergasted in a way, but in a similar way that gave me the impression he told her this a lot, or her offended her a lot. So much that must be used to it by now. "Look, kids. Training starts tomorrow morning so you're going to need a good night's sleep. It goes from 9am til 4pm and lasts for three days. My advice is not to show off your talents, so Peeta don't show your strength until the private scoring sessions with the Gamemakers. Prim, if you're good with plants, leave that station. Just, work on weapon skills a lot and learn some new survival techniques. Ok?"

I nodded firmly, praying that somehow I would find a magic talent over the next three days and it would be some sort of help at least. A knot of doubt and nerves tied tightly in my stomach putting me off my food. I pushed my meal away from me but Haymich glared at me. "You ought to eat all you can. You're going to need all the extra food and fat for the arena. It's not as easy to live off berries as you might think sweetheart," he told me, even though that is not what I was thinking at all.

"Why have we got to stay away from our skills?" Peeta asked.

Haymich sighed, obviously getting tired with the amount of chatter he had to be going through and the little amount of alcohol through his bloodstream at the moment. "Because you don't want the other tributes seeing what you can do. They'll think of a way to use it against you in the arena. Just, learn something new. Throw a knife, shoot a bow. Whatever." The words 'shoot a bow' practically shot a bow in my heart. Katniss.

I looked over at Peeta because I thought he would realise that this would have an effect on me and to see a comforting smile, but I received none of the like. His face was set in stone just like I'm sure mine was too. His eyes were practically brimming with tears and I could see he was trying to hold them back. He exhaled, long and hard before sniffing up any tears that were trying to get their way out of him. He looked back at me and his eyes kept switching from eyes to my braid. He looked away after a few seconds and resumed to eat. Haymich was looking at us both with a very perplexed look on his face, he was trying to work out what he said that had affected us so much. Effie was utterly oblivious. In a normal situation, I would of thought of something to say to break the silence and the mania of thoughts that were twirling around the table, but my mind was too stuck on Katniss and why on Earth Peeta was so affected by Haymich's comment.

When I couldn't think anymore, I dismissed myself, ignoring looks from Effie and Haymich. Peeta quickly dismissed himself too and we walked together through the corridors back to our rooms. We both ushered ourselves into our rooms in silence. We didn't exchange a smile or a goodnight or even a look. I so wanted to go out my room and to Peeta's and question him on his reactions to the Katniss related remark but I told myself it probably wasn't best to as he seemed so upset. But that didn't mean I was just going to drop it. I wanted to know. I need to know. Was there something my sister was hiding from me? Or something the baker's son was hiding from me about my sister?

 

ʗɧɑǷƮɛƦ 6 - Ʈɧɛ ՏƮყƖɪʂƮʂ

I was woken up by the shrill sounds of Effie saying "It's a big, big, big day!". I rubbed my eyes and felt immediately tired as soon as I stood up as I didn't sleep very well that night. I didn't eat very well that morning either – I was much too frightened of what this day would hold to even hold down anything. I drank a cup of hot chocolate and had half a bread roll. Peeta had just about the same amount of food as me. We were both riddled with fear of training and the tributes parade tonight. Effie was right that it was going to be a big, big, big day. I was not in the mood for a big, big, big day.

As soon as Peeta and I finished our miniscule breakfast, we were sent away to the training centre. We were the last pair to get there as everybody else seemed to had arrived very early. This was the first moment I had got to actually see the faces of the people who were going to kill me. My first look at the them and I was shocked by how much bigger the District 1 and 2 tributes actually were compared to on a television screen. My eyes passed the next two districts until I set my eyes on the girl I'd nicknamed Foxface. She was even Foxface-er than on I'd seen on screen as well. She looked ever so cunning and the tributes from 1 and 2 seemed to of noticed this as well as they were exchanging glances at her and back at their other tributes. They seemed to of formed an alliance with each other already in the first ten minutes of meeting one another. I wasn't surprised, from since I'd been old enough to watch the Games, the tributes from 1 and 2 had always been in alliances. They were always fitter and looked much more well fed than the other tributes. I had never understood why.

I scanned over the next group of tributes, who looked just like they could be from 12. They were all so slim and had the same terrified expression on their faces. I then turned to the tributes from 11, the ones who had really caught my attention the night Effie, Haymich, Peeta and I watched the re-cap of the reapings. The boy wasn't as large as I thought he had been. He was large, still, but not as large as the boys from 1 and 2. Especially the boy from 2, who I remembered the name to be Cato. He looked a little worried, but still had a firm facial expression. He was of average height and his hair was short and pitch black. He and the little girl were standing very close. It struck to me that he might be protecting her while he can, considering she was only 12 and so little. I then studied the little girl. Her expression was just like the boy with her. Firm, but slightly worried. A little more worried than the boy looked. She was ever so short. Shorter than me, and I was one of the shortest girls back at 12. Her hair was frizzy and black, also and just past her shoulders. I felt ever so fond of her. I think it was sympathy. I wondered if she would like to become allies with me, but I had no idea how to suggest that sort of thing to a person. I didn't know if I saw the point in it because she was probably just going to die. But then again, so was I. Maybe there was no harm making a friend as I died, especially one so young.

A woman swiftly entered the training centre. "I'm going to observe you all and monitor you all these next three days." She introduced. "It is important you pay attention in the next three days. It could mean the matter between life and death. There are four mandatory classes but after that you can go to what you want. My advice is, don't ignore the survival classes. Everybody wants to grab a sword but most of you will die of natural causes." And with that, she walked away from us, leaving us all to get to what we wanted and needed to do.

My first day at the training centre was simple. I did all the mandatory classes and then worked in survival skills until lunch. At lunch, the tributes from 1 and 2 all sat together, while most other tributes sat with their district partner. I sat on the other end of the table with District 11. I kept my distance, but they didn't seem to really notice or pay much attention to me. They didn't talk much, just of what they had done this morning. Peeta sat by himself on a table. I felt rather guilty leaving him by himself, but I didn't even think he'd want to sit near me knowing that he could be killing me soon.

After lunch, I did work in weapons. I didn't do very well at all. I tried throwing knifes, but I didn't even hit the target. I used the using the sword but I couldn't even get the sword all the way through the target. I tried picking up and throwing weights but I couldn't even get the first weight across the hall. I looked at the bow and arrow, but I couldn't face using it. I couldn't even face looking at it. I noticed Peeta looking at it from time to time, his facing falling every time he saw it. I couldn't understand why at all still, but right now wasn't the time to think of these things.

I was relieved by the time that it was 4pm and training was over. I must of looked so weak today in front of everybody today. I hated myself so much for being such a weakling. I wish I was more like Katniss. She was so much stronger than me. Everybody here was, including the little girl from 11. I'd kept an eye on her throughout the day. She had the same plan as me, to try and do everything and anything before the Games began, but she was much better than me. How embarrassing, a 12 year old better than me and I was three years older than her. I knew for sure now that I was going to die in at least the first twelve hours of the games.

Peeta and I met at the end of training and were greeted by Haymich and Effie. They escorted us to the car that would take us to the stylists centre where they give all the tributes makeovers for the Tributes Parade tonight. "Tonight, you two have to let the stylists do whatever they want to you. Don't object to whatever they think is best for you." Haymich told us through the car ride. He also explained how important tonight was for us. It would be the first time the sponsors got to meet us properly and see how well we scrubbed up. "The nicer you appear, the more sponsors you'll get." He told us. This made me worry, because I never thought of myself of a pretty girl. My family, Greasy Sae and the Hawthornes often told me I was a doll, but I never believed them. They have to say these things because they are all practically my family. I just hoped the stylists could work some sort of amazing magic trick tonight.

When we got to the stylists centre every tribute was taken into separate rooms down a long corridor. Because Peeta and I were in 12, we had to walk down to very end of the long corridor. My legs were aching by the end of the walk. Training all day and now walking almost what seemed like 5 miles long of corridor had made me ever so tired. I just wanted to be able to crawl into my bed at home cuddling Buttercup. Oh Buttercup. I missed Buttercup too. I made a mental note to add Buttercup to the list of people (or cats) I would miss when I was dead.

Effie shoved me and Peeta in our separate rooms and left. I was surrounded by a group three stylists. Two were women, one was a man. One woman had a pink afro wig like Effie did, and the other had very short bright blue hair. They both wore fake eyelashes that were just about as long as my foot, and their nails were decorated with different fanciful patterns on each nail. The man was just as strange looking as the two women to me. He had mid-length hair that had been coloured with black and white stripes. His skin was a light green which made it look like he was going to throw up any minute. I began to pray that they wouldn't dye my skin awful colours like they have. They didn't introduce themselves to me before telling me to strip down to my undergarments so they could get to work. They must have been on a very tight schedule, because they wasted no time. As soon as I had stripped down, they told me to lay on a very cold metal table and lie still. "We're going to remove all the hair off your body. It's going to hurt a little bit." The woman with the pink afro wig warned me. She picked up a small bowl that was filled with a thick brown liquid. The other woman with the short bright blue hair told me it was called 'wax'. She began to paint it onto my legs over the hair. The green skinned man then handed her little cotton strips of paper. She placed it onto the wax stuff and firmly placed it down before ripping it off my leg. Before I could help it, a yelp of pain escaped from my lips. The three stylists looked at me with a bored expression before continuing. They obviously got a lot of these pain yelps. For the rest of the hair removal time, I bit my tongue hard to stop myself from crying out in pain again. This seemed to please my stylists. "We don't like complainers. They get very annoying." The woman with the pink afro wig told me again.

No conversation went on after that throughout the rest of the beautifying. I had a shower after they removed all other hair on my arms and under my arms to try and cool down the follicles that just got hair ripped out of them nastily. They dressed me in a thin robe to cover my nakedness and afterwards, they shaped and put a clear liquid over my nails. The liquid dried on my nails after a few minutes of leaving them be and then they did my toe nails. After what felt like a very long, excruciating task they finally told me I could see the main stylist who's name they told me was Cinna. They left me on the cold metal table in the thin robe waiting for Cinna. It wasn't long before he entered the room and I was shocked by his appearance, not because it was crazy like the other stylists, but because he was so normal looking. He was wearing a black button up shirt and black trousers. His hair was cut short and was also black. The only way you could tell he was from the Capitol was how clean and posh he looked, as well as the gold eyeliner he was wearing.

"I'm Cinna." He introduced himself. "I'm your stylist. It's my first year working in the Games. I'm terribly sorry this happened to you."

"I'm Prim." I introduced back, but he nodded. He must of already knew that. "And of course they gave you 12 if it's your first year."

"I asked for 12." He corrected me. Before my face could register the shock going through my system and ask him why he would do that. 12 tributes never won, nobody wanted 12, they wanted a district that had at least some chance of winning. "Now, tonight's the Tributes Parade and they're going to be showing you off to the world. They normally dress you up in clothes that are related to your district."

"Yeah, and we're always coal miners." I said as I thought back to the other years of the Games. Our districts outfits were always so boring and forgettable. You could tell that over the past three or four years, the stylists had been trying harder and harder to make it less awful but nothing worked. Two years ago, the two tributes from 12 came out their chariot in the parade stark naked wearing nothing but coal miners boots while their bodies were covered in coal dust. It was ever so tacky and disgusted me.

"Yeah but you see, Prim, I don't want to do that. The whole coal miners bit is so overplayed." He sighed heavily. "Are you afraid of fire?"

 

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