The 71st Hunger Games: Purity

Chapter Five - Johanna

Good god, these capital people live such lavish lives compared to the shit we live in back home.

When we arrived in the capital, it was like they were swapping us in our faces with their wealth. Big, fancy buildings, bright, colorful clothes, plentiful, rich food—they had it all. The second that we got off the train, we were escorted into a big building, which Blight referred to as the tribute center. Keeping my innocent, nervous look on my face, I asked our two mentors:  "so like, the other tributes are here? They can't kill us now, right?" I raise my eyebrow nervously.

"No no, don't worry about that. They have very strict rules and punishments for a tribute harming themselves or another tribute. I guess they really want exactly twenty-four tributes to go in," Cypress, the other victor from district seven, explains.

I nod, getting lost in thought as we walk to the tribute rooms. I knew about Blight, he won anywhere from ten to fifteen years ago, because he wasn't that old, but he definitely wasn't young either. I'm pretty sure he won because he strangled the last guy. But I was drawing blanks at Cypress. I knew his name, I knew what he looked like because he stood up on that stage every year, I knew he was probably becoming an alcoholic because he had a bit of a beer belly forming, I knew he was a bit older than Blight so he most likely won one of the games in the 50s, but I don't know anything else.

When we enter our common room, I allow a small gasp to escape from my mouth before quickly pressing my hands over my mouth. Not only was the room bigger than my entire house, it was also filled with sleek, white, blue and grey decorum that pulled it all together. Everything in the room looked so polished and modern, and I can promise the capital spent more money on this room alone than I've seen in my entire life. Rich bitches.

We're allowed in the rooms for just a second before Joven rounds us up. "You guys have the tribute parade tonight," he explains, his voice shaky, most likely from the quick ride up the elevator. "Whatever your dressers do, just go with it, okay? We've had a history of tributes not listening to them and getting in trouble."

I want to roll my eyes at him, but I know even in his old age, Joven would catch it and ruin my purity act by yelling at me.

Soon enough, Aspen and I were herded like sheep to our dressers. But before then, they put us through literal hell, these two girls with dyed hair and red eyes that I have to assume came from contacts came through and robbed my body of literally any dirt, grime, hair, or capital imperfections. After that, they passed me forward to the person who would be dressing me for the tribute parade, the interviews, and the games. A decent amount of my credibility came from my outfit, considering how much the people of the capital love clothes. And you'll never guess what she dressed me as.

A tree.

A motherfucking tree. Just like the 70th Hunger Games, and the 69th, and the 68th, and most likely every game dating back to whenever they hired this chick. She told me her name, I know she did, but I don't even remember it. All I could see was the outfit in her hand. The same as last year, as every year, with the slightest addition of detail to appear "different". A green body tight top, with the slightest amount of detail tracing across my chest and arms, and a brown skirt that flowed down to the ground and covered my feet.

After she dressed me, I was escorted to the tribute parade, where not very many people were yet. I look at her questioningly as if to ask where all the other tributes are, and she answers me:

"You were a relatively quick tribute. No arguments. No conversation. Just out and in, which means we got here towards the beginning," I nod, separating from her a bit and looking around the area of tributes. I saw the chariots for districts six and eight, but I didn't see either of the tributes there yet. If I looked around, I saw a few groups of people. A couple of kids in the back dressed in all black, who I assumed were from district twelve. A kid towards the middle of me and the beginning districts who was dressed in a silver gown with some kind of alien hat on her head. District three, most likely.