𝑯𝑶𝑷𝑬 | 𝑃𝐸𝐸𝑇𝐴 𝑀𝐸𝐿𝐿𝐴𝑅𝐾

𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝕺𝖓𝖊 • 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔣𝔦𝔳𝔢

⚔⚜⚔▏𝑯𝑶𝑷𝑬
➶⌢➴ preparation and presentation

𝐑-𝐈-𝐈-𝐈-𝐈-𝐏! 𝐈 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐓 𝐌𝐘 teeth as Venia, a woman with aqua hair and gold tattoos above her eyebrows, yanks a strip of Fabric from my leg tearing out the hair
beneath it. "Sorry!" she pipes in her silly Capitol accent.

Why do these people speak in such a high pitch?
Why do their jaws barely open when they talk?
Why do the ends of their sentences go up as if they're asking a question?

Odd vowels, clipped words, and always a hiss on the letter S . . . no wonder it's impossible not to mimic them.

Venia makes what's supposed to be a sympathetic face."Good news, though. This is the last one. Ready?"I get a grip on the edges of the table I'm seated
on and nod. The final swathe of my leg hair is uprooted in a painful jerk.

I've been in the Remake Center for more than three hours and I still haven't met my stylist.

Apparently he has no interest in seeing me until Venia and the other members of my prep team have addressed some
obvious problems.

This has included scrubbing down my body with a gritty loam that has removed not only dirt but at least three layers of skin, turning my nails into uniform shapes, and primarily, ridding my body
of hair.

My legs, arms, torso, underarms, and parts of my eyebrows.

I don't like it.
My skin feels sore and tingling and intensely vulnerable. But I have kept my side of the bargain with Haymitch, and no objection has crossed my lips.

"You're doing very well," says some guy named Flavius.
He gives his orange corkscrew locks a shake and applies a fresh coat of purple lipstick to his mouth.

"If there's one thing we can't stand, it's a whiner. Grease her down!"

Venia and Octavia, a plump woman whose entire body has been dyed a pale shade of pea green, rub me down with a lotion that first stings but then soothes
my raw skin.