"Are you ready then, Miss. Sanders?"
Evelina looked at herself in the mirror. She hardly recognized the woman staring back at her. Who was this girl with perfectly plucked eyebrows, bronzed cheeks, and dark eyes? She was not Evelina, but the Capitol Officials assured her that she looked perfect. Perfect enough, anyway. Her slim figure bore a sleek, black dress that cut well above her knees. Tights covered her now hairless legs to provide little warmth against the morning chill. The people who styled her insisted on making her smooth, like a baby almost. Hair belongs on your head, they said. Evelina only grunted, letting them do whatever they wanted in the two hours it took to prepare her. To add the final touch, a chic jacket was thrown over her shoulders.
"Yes," she nodded. She followed two women in classy petticoats and fancy hats who had gotten her ready. She couldn't help but notice their obvious differences. One was extremely short, almost below five feet, and the other easily reached six foot in heels. They walked through wondrous hallways with grand architecture that you couldn't really find all over the Capitol. Evelina admired the women before her, who strut down the hallway in three inch heels like they were born to do so. The Victor, however, struggled in heels, and had to be held up at her arms when she first stepped into them. She was still wobbling now, her feet slapping loudly against the marble floors.
The three did not say anything until Evelina asked, "what are your jobs here?"
"Mr. Snow had an idea to incorporate stylists into the games when he was still a student here," the short one with a brown bob says. Mr. Snow. It was odd to hear it from someone other than Highbottom, but Evelina tried to disregard it.
"He's very smart, that one," the tall one with layered hair adds.
Evelina did not know Coryo had already given ideas for the Games. She assumed he just had ways to alter them, maybe even end them forever. "When did he do that?"
"Like I said," the short one starts, "when he was a student. He wrote an entire proposal on ways to increase viewings in both the Districts and the Capitol. Dr. Gaul approved most of them, one of them being us! You're our very first test subject, you know." It would not be the first time she's been used for entertainment.
"And, might I say," the tall one grins, "he certainly has a lot of ideas!" The women giggled to one another, like there was some sort of inside joke Evelina was not allowed to know about.
"Oh," Evelina scrunches her face, suddenly feeling sick. A lot of ideas? What could that mean? Good ideas? Bad ideas? What was good or bad in the eyes of the privileged? Her dinner was threatening to crawl out of her throat and onto the floor when they reached their destination. All around her Capitol people stood dressed in gorgeous, clean outfits, chattering away. They cheered when Evelina approached, but continued to talk as she passed through. Evelina knew where they were; the Capitol Zoo. It was the place she and the other tributes had been thrown into all those months ago. Evelina shuddered when she remembered she was the only living person from that group.
"Finally, the Victor!" A voice exclaims.
Lucretius 'Lucky' Flickerman, the host of the Games and weatherman for the news, was standing a few feet from Evelina, his eyes wide with excitement. A microphone was sitting comfortably in his hands, and his perfectly trimmed mustache twitched as he boomed, "come over here!"
Evelina strode over to the man, being very weary of the several cameras shoved in her face. Lucky began his famous introduction, which for some reason always included an amateur magic trick, and then turned his attention toward the girl. "Here I am standing with our very own victor from last years Games, Evelina Sanders!"
Evelina gave a meek wave to Lucretius before shaking his hand. "It's a pleasure to be here." It was painful, to say the least, for her to stand up there at the last place she'd like to be. With cameras and microphones suffocating her, the smile she forced was harder and harder to keep up with. Her responses, too, were far more chipper than anything she had ever had to deal with. But she knew this was the way. It was all an act. Coryo had warned her about the Capitol's need to hide the fact that they were murdering children. If people gave in to that, no one would watch the Games. Evelina had considered ignoring him and having an absolute fit, but she refrained from doing so. Though they promised not to harm her parents, how would that deal play through if she went behind their backs and ruined the interviews? Not well, she concluded. So she kept up the facade. For her parents, of course, not for anyone or anything else.
YOU ARE READING
Panem Forever
Fanfiction"hope. it is the only thing stronger than fear." Anyone would tell you that Evelina Sanders was not a "go getter". She was a gatherer, not a hunter. She wasn't particularly good at anything, though she could fancy herself a painter if she were aske...
