Liberosis - The Hunger Games

06

Gaia leads me into a third room where Titan, Venus and Blaze sit waiting for me, I can't see what's inside the crate next to them but my mind is swimming with possibilities. She directs me to a chair in the centre of the room and Blaze moves straight on to doing my hair. I couldn't see what he's doing but by the harsh tugging of my hair, I could only assume it included some intricate braids. Venus moves on to attending to my nails. She cuts and files them until they've achieved a perfect shape then goes on to paint them a glossy white coloured that is pigmented to be a sort of pearl colour in certain lights. She then moves on painting my toenails the same colour, trimming them back as well. Titan begins to work on my makeup, applying a shimmery white/silver colour to my eyelids and winged white eyeliner. Just underneath my eyes, he sticks two real pearls to either one of my cheeks.

"The pearls feel weird," I point out as he moved to paint my lips.

"Just you wait, darling, you're going to have to get used to it," He winks.

Blaze finishes braiding up two sides of my hair pulling them tightly around the messy bun he created on the bottom of my head. After loosening teasing the hair out to make it look more natural, he pulls out some of the front sections and curls them around my face. He attaches hairpins with pearls on the end to certain sections of the braid and I find myself in disbelief at how many of the precious stones were going into this outfit.

If I had only known.

At this point Gaia scans over their progress, nodding in satisfaction at how I look, "It's time," She nods at the rest of my prep team, they all grin at each other before moving to the crate beside us. Opening the box, I outwardly gasp as I find it full to the brim with- you guessed it- pearls. I don't know if I should feel offended or honoured that this is where all my father's hard word is going, but I don't have time to object as the team begins to glue them to my body. Soon enough, my collarbone area and my arms have pearls attached to them in a scattered pattern.

Gaia fastens Finnick's pearl necklace around my neck and nods in approval at how I look so far. On my fingers, several rings are placed and I have pearl studs in my ears. I didn't have my ears pierced until about twenty minutes ago, the sting still thumping in my earlobes. I push it down as Titan applies another coat of nude lipstick to my lips.

Blaze helps me step into my heels after my nails are dry white is white in colour with a strap around the toe and a strap around the ankle, each lined with pearls. "Should we put on the dress?" Venus asks, an excited smile creeping on her face.

"We're running out of time to wait any longer!" Gaia responds gleefully.

"You're going to have to close your eyes," Titan reminded her, "We would blindfold you, but I don't have the time to redo your makeup,"

I clench my eyes closed as Blaze and Venus assist me in moving over to the closet, I hear the entire team gasp as Gaia reveals the dress to them, "Arms up," She stylist directs me, "But not too far up, I don't want any pearls to fall off,"

I do as she says and I feel a smooth fabric cloak over my body, someone ties a bow in the back of the dress and Gaia takes me by the arms and moves me over to the mirror. "Nervous?" Blaze asks me as I clench my fists together.

"She shouldn't be," Gaia sasses, "Have some faith in us, kid,"

"I have faith in you, I just don't have faith in my face," I say bluntly.

"I would smack the tentacles out of you for that comment but I don't want to ruin your outfit," She shoots back playfully, "Open your eyes in 3...2...1,"

My eyes flutter open and I stare at myself in shock, in some ways I see the similarities but I'm different. I'm so different from the village girl in the green dress from this morning, I'm so different from the girl that was reaped. I look like something that stepped out of the pages of a fairy-tale, I believe Finnick now when he told me I look ethereal.