In Life | Finnick Odair

( 03 )

*visuals at the end of chapter*

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They arrived at the Capitol much too soon for Bentley's comfort. The sight of it on the horizon was causing his stomach to clench painfully. Kalina had come back not long after Juniper went to go get her and had given the two new tributes proper greeting. She did not, however, apologize for storming out like the teal woman had tried to get her to do.

They (Mitchell and Kalina) had talked more to them (Bentley and Lillith) about what to expect when they got to the Capital. Wave at the people watching them arrive. Those are going to be who may sponsor them, so they need to make a good impression. "Smile at them, look like you're greeting old friends, but don't be too friendly because then they'll think you're weird for coming into this all happy-happy." Kalina had said.

The closer they got, the more Bentley wanted to throw up. It was a pretty sight to look at physically, but knowing what all happens within it has the teen's hands shaking like crazy. It wasn't much longer before they were going through the tunnel. "Go to the windows, greet them." Mitchell instructed, sitting down on one of the couches with Kalina by his side.

The two teenagers complied and waited till the train exited the tunnel to start their waving and smiling. The light blinded them both for a few seconds, but when their eyes refocused, they were shocked at the sheer amount of people gathered around, waiting for the tribute train to arrive. They were all screaming in excitement, waving their hands around, and some already had signs cheering for certain tributes.

After the initial shock, Lillith tapped his arm to signal him to start waving as she did. They waved and they smiled — the Capital people seemed to eat it up too. Pointing at them with shouts and grins. It was scary if Bentley was honest. It was kind of like he and Lillith were zoo animals and the people were watching them through the bars of their exhibit.

In just a mere few minutes they arrived at the train station and were guided out by Juniper. She took the lead, the two teenagers walked behind her, then the mentors brought up the back of the small group. It was claustrophobic. The Capital people were reaching out to try and touch them, and were only detoured by the velvet rope making a path for everyone getting off of the train.

They were then led to a car — which honestly was cooler than the train to Bentley. The ride to the tribute center probably didn't even take ten minutes as the roads were blocked off for faster access too. It was a large, thirteen story building with total glass walls in the front. Bentley was a bit terrified looking up to the top. It was tall and not what he had really expected at all.

When they got out of the car a group of six people met them at the front. "Lillith, Bentley, these are your prep teams. I'll let them introduce themselves to you." Juniper told them, then turned her head to look at the teens. "Now, you're going to go with them to start your fabulous transformations to get ready for the coming weeks!" She sounded way too excited to be throwing them at people they didn't know.

With those words, she, Kalina, and Mitchell all walked into the building ahead of them. The group of six broke up three and three, one group walking to Lillith and the other to him. From there, they were taken into separate rooms and Bentley was immediately instructed to strip. "Nude?" He asked with his arms wrapped around his waist. "Yes," A woman with green hair said, "We need to see what we're working with." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Like Bentley was supposed to know that he had to get naked in front of three strangers and let them prod and poke at his body. With much hesitance, but scared of what would happen if he didn't comply, he took off his clothes. The man with red hair huffed when he stopped, "That includes your underwear too." Fuck, Bentley thought, but, with much more resistance in himself, pulled off his underwear as well.