73rd Hunger Games

Chapter 8

This necklace is my own little piece of Henry that no-one will ever strip away from my neck. Unless I am dead, which I'm not prepared to let happen.

Then all of a sudden a short stumpy man burst into the room. I sat up dead straight and caught a glimpse of the weirdest looking suit I have ever seen.

"Arh, Hazel. I'm Treason and I'm going to be your designer." Oh boy, here we go. "Congratulations on being selected of the honour of becoming a tribute and so on, and so forth." Ok, I'll admit it, he was drunk. Great. I'm now even more looking forward to the tribute parade. "I'm going to give you a costume to wear in this parade thingy you're doing tonight and make you look really... Pretty!" He stumbled along the last line. Yay... I wonder what I am going to look like.

He stripped me. It felt weird, he was drunk and I was a vulnerable young girl... Not a good mix. Surprisingly, he knows what he is doing. He gave me some underwear to put on that matched the dress and unzipped a black bag. I didn't realise that it was even hanging on the rack in the corner of the room.

It was beautiful. It was meant to be in the shape of a seashell but it was much prettier than that. Dark browns, golds and light browns were all mixed together to make any exact replica of the shells back home. It even had the frills and the tiny dint colours in the dress. 

I was starting to get home sick now. I wanted to go to back to my little shack, I wanted to feel the sand between my toes and I wanted to see Henry's smile again. I'm thinking the tribute parade it more like mental torture to the tributes that 'you can't go home to your district unless you win. But we're going to rub it in your face anyway'. This is totally not far.

He slid on a few beads and net shaped accessories over my arms. He curled and waved my hair to perfection, adding a few beads in with it too. And even put these cute little pink octopus heels on my feet. He gave me 'over-shaped natural' look, which basically means in drunk guy language, 'I put too much of this makeup on, so lets give it a name and make it look overly pretty and match this dress perfectly'. He then reached to take the necklace off me but I snapped and retaliated. He will never take this off of me.

"Honey, darling. You need to take it off. It doesn't match what you're wearing, it will mess up my masterpiece".

"Umm... If I do, where would I put it?". I added not completely convinced by Treason.

"You can give it to me". Ok, I am many things, but an idiot isn't one of them.

"No thank you. Do I have a pocket?". I asked, well more like pleading.

"Well, no... But." He began, though I interrupted him.

"Well, I'll just put it in here than". I said taking it off and stuffing it into my bra. Hey it's a fixed place, it's always with me and I can't forget it. "See, problem resolved".

He closed his mouth after almost dropping it to the floor. "Let's go meet up with that other tribute from your district. What's his name? Drillham? Walter?".

"William West-Board." I saved him from his stuttering.

We met back up with Will and his designer at the location of the ceremony. He was also dressed like a handsome shellfish as well. But with some modified changes to it.

He was wearing the same beaded necklace I was in my hair around us neck. Knee-high pink octopus boots and frilled modified pants to make it look like they were just draped over him. The colours on his pants matched mine exactly but he was wearing my bracelets as a sort of drape feature across them. This left his chest bare. I could tell that all his time working at his parents restaurant had paid off. He was ripped, by that I mean.... An ab filled greek god. Not to drool or anything. 

"Well you look nice Will" I said applauding him on his Greek god-ness.

"You look good too Hazel" he replied back.

"Why don't you start calling me Haze since I get to call you Will." I said to him. I guess it seemed fair. Henry calls me that too from time to time when he feels too lazy to say my name properly.

"Yea okay. Haze".

Soon Sarah, Jacob and Flora had joined us and ran us through what will happen. Stating that we need to wave a lot and smile. The Capitol appreciates it when we do that. We needed to be remembered. Our outfits alone looks amazing among the sea of the other dressed up tributes. We had to reflect on what our district does so there were plenty of farmers, power plant workers and trees to go around.

We then were placed onto our chariots that were in order of districts and waited to start. They were all black chariots with black horses. I rarely see horses in 4, but when I do I stop to look at them. No-one was steering it so I hope the horses know what they're doing.

The first chariot, District 1, moved an then disappeared into the light a head. Shortly after that, so did 2. I started to slightly panic, I'm 110% sure I know what I'm doing. Just smile and wave and I'll be good.

3 then disappeared. It's ok, it's only a few people.

Then Will and I elapsed into the lights and cameras among hundreds of thousands of people. I automatically started to wave to all of them. I saw the closer delighted faces of our fashion and the delight of seeing us. It's sickening how many people turned out to see us and to welcome us to the Capitol. I never knew how much the games were celebrated by the citizens of the Capitol.