Underwater ( Annie Cresta's story)

Chapter 6- The parade

My prep team finishes up my nails which are plain bright blue,

“ There!” Ember says

“ Thank you!” I say with a smile

“ Gifty will be with you in a minute!” Sahnar says as my prep teams is walking out.

I wait for about 5 minutes, then a man with soft green eyes and bleach blond hairs enters with a smile.

“ Hello Annie! I’m Gifty you stylist!” He says

“ Oh hello.” is all I can reply

“ I’m so excited for your outfit today! I’m soo excited!” He continues

Gifty pulls a garment bag out from a closet and tells me to close my eyes

I do and he slips the dress over me.

I can tell the dress stops at knees, the fabric is soft and as I run my hands over it I can tell it is ruffled.

“ Open your eyes” Gifty says

I obey and as I look into the mirror I see the dress, wait is it a dress?

It appears I am wearing water. How it moves it give the effect if waves, but as I touch the fabric it confirms that it is a dress.

“ Thank you it’s lovely!” I say

“ I’m glad you like it!” Gifty replies “ But I’m not done yes lets do your hair!”

He puts my hair in an intricate updo and fits a crown made of what appears of be seaweed, shells, and starfish on my head.

Next he helps me into blue high heels, and places a necklace that looks like a fish on me.

“ Oops I almost forgot! Gifty says handing me shark tooth earrings to put on

Finally I’m ready for the tribute parade.

Gifty and I go down to the basement of the remake center.

It is more or less a stable with 12 horse drawn chariots. I walk over to the district 4 chariot and just stand there awkwardly until the boy from district 2 comes up to me,

“ Hello Annie.” He says I can tell he is trying to flirt

“ Um Hello.” I reply

“ This is so tragic for a pretty girl like you, to be forced to kill.” the boy starts to play with the curls that frame my face.

“ I sorry I didn’t catch your name.” I mention

“ Adar.” He whispers

Thank God! Finnick comes and places his protective hand around my waist and snarls to Adar

“ District Two get back you your horse!”

Adar gives me a wink which I reply with a raised eyebrow, then he struts back to his chariot.

“ Was he really bothering you? Cause I can still beat him up.” Finnick smiles

I laugh

“ No Finnick I’m fine.”

“ Just make sure he is the first you kill!” He says

We both laugh as Ethan comes to join us.  He is wearing a fishtail and carrying a triant , of course he is King Triton.

“ Hello your Majesty” I say with a bow

“ Shut up! I would much rather be wearing what you are!” He snaps

“ You two need to get ready! Finnick!” Mags who appeared out of nowhere barks at us

Ethan and I step on the the chariot , the nerves start coming as the horse starts to move.

I look to Finnick, he can see the fear on my face. He motions for me to put my head up and to smile. I do as he tells me.

Next thing I know there are thousands of people screaming as yelling.  Look at Ethan and he is smiling at me.

“ What?” I ask

“ Don’t you hear them shouting district 4?”

I don’t really hear anything, it’s all just one big mass of noise.

Then I can hear the shouts of district 4 coming out of the mass of people. I start to wave and a real smile comes on to my face. Everyone wants to see us, everyone loves us!

We do a loop around the center circle in the center of the city and stop in front President Snow’s house.

The anthem starts of play and I look around at all the other tributes.

Naturally the ones from one and two are big they have been trained for these games since they could walk.

The ones from the outlying districts are small, the tributes from 12 catch my eye.

They are naked covered in coal dust from head to foot.

The anthem finishes and we are taken in to the training center where we will be trained for the games for the next week.