The Hunger Games: Johanna Mason

Chapter 3

It had been increasingly difficult for Johanna not to punch the members of her prep team, as they plucked the hairs on her eyebrows, armpits, legs, and arms. It was as if they hadn't done that a few days ago already. It was ridiculous. It had hurt even more, considering the hair on her body had been minimal, but they had insisted that the waxing and plucking was needed. 

She had flung the injection that they had pointed toward her, screaming what the hell they needed it for.

"It's for when your inside the arena," said the green-haired one irritably. He bent over to retrieve the syringe. "We can't have you getting all hairy inside that place, do we?"

Johanna had to press her lips together so that she didn't wriggle too much when the needle hit her skin. The formula that was in the syringe stung, as if by a bee. It was over quick enough, but they resumed with powdering her skin and putting on a ton of makeup. 

By the end of it, she couldn't even recognize herself. She didn't think that she looked any prettier, just more Capitol-like. The makeup that they had put on her had her face and neck a shade lighter than her usual skin color. Her lids were painted in a golden hue, with black lines shaping the lids. Her eyebrows were what she couldn't stop looking at. 

The pair were so obviously drawn, because no set of eyebrows could look that angular or well-shaped. It seemed to have a life of its own. When she tried rubbing it, one of the people from her prep team slapped her hand away from her face and warned her that if she tried it again, they would tattoo the eyebrows instead. 

She kept her hands away from her face after that. As much as she didn't like her prep team, she didn't think that they had any empty threats when it came to things of beauty.

Her stylist was a woman named Bay, who was more self-involved with her vision than in anything else. Johanna just stared at her when they were together, since she basically did not have proper delivery, even if she did hypothetically have an oustanding vision for her clothes.

Her interview gown was a lot better than the parade costume of trees though. It was a simple black dress with an exposed back in the subtle shape of leaves. Bay really was crazy if she thought his vision would change the course of history...or whatever she had said. Johanna couldn't be sure, since she tended to just look out the window when Bay was talking.

Once she was ready, someone had called for her to come down with the other tributes. The show was starting in a bit and they needed to line up.

She was placed with Aaron in line. He looked a lot better than usual, but comparably not as good as some of the other tributes. He was tall and skinny. He had an awkward expression always on his face. The one redeeming factor about his face were his eyes, and that was pretty much it.

Johanna looked around at the other tributes. The District 1 pair looked incredibly glamorous, the male tribute especially. A lot of the tributes here looked better than they usually did. Johanna had seen them during training. District 1 male really was an attractive man. The few tributes that had stood out as a crowd favorite had been the District 5 female, and the pair from District 2. That was all she could tell, since those were the people that Lynx couldn't stop talking about, since he had wished that he had those tributes instead. 

It wasn't difficult acting scared as they all went on stage. The lights were too bright on her face, and she had become acutely aware of the thousands of faces in the audience, with their painted faces and shrill voices. 

By the time it was her turn, she had tripped on her way to Caesar. He was nice enough to help her up and lead her to her seat.

"That wasn't too bad, was it?" he said engagingly, smiling in that animated way of his.

"No, not at all," she said, and thankfully, in a very small voice. 

"Aren't you a shy thing! All of us have our embarrassing moments! I'm sure that you've experienced worse than that!"

"But never on live television..." Johanna muttered, forgetting momentarily that she could be heard by everyone that was watching. 

Caesar laughed though, becuse obviously, everyone had heard it. "Well, I've personally had a lot of embarrassing moments on television. So tell me about yourself. What have you been doing here in the Capitol that you don't normally do in District 7?"

Johanna blinked, her heart beating very fast. It was completely different talking and practicing with Piper in that room, compared to being out here, with the camera on her face and Caesar's face so close to hers. "Uhm... I guess I've never trained or anything back home. It's the first time that I'm really training for anything here."

That was good, if she really did want to go according to Piper's plan. She wanted to be underestimated, and she didn't sound like she was a contender for the Games. 

"So you don't have any experience in anything at all?" Caesar asked. Instead of dismissing her, he looked concerned even. He seemed to be extremely curious at her state of helplessness. "How are you feeling going into that arena without any prior experience?"

"I don't know," she said. "I honestly don't. I mean... I've been trying to get as much practice as possible. I think I've done better now than during the first day of training." She didn't know how to expound on her sentences even more. Johanna didn't want to say anything that linked them to her life back home. She wanted to stay with answers that were connected to the Capitol, and nothing else.

She glanced at the first row of the audience and saw Piper. He looked pretty happy with the way things were going. When he saw that she had glanced at him, he gave a thumb's up. 

"Are you feeling scared at all?" Caesar continued.

"Yes. I feel really scared. I don't know what to do. There are these big and really good tributes. I really don't have a lot of hope for me coming out. I just..." her eyes scanned for where the cameras were, genuinely saying, "...want to say that whatever happens in there, I'm going to keep fighting for whoever's left for me to fight for."

She was referring to her father, and the friends that she had back home. She didn't want to disappoint them by saying that she didn't have the fight in her. There wasn't a lot of hope, but there was a lot of fight. Sure, she was intimidated. It was hard not to be, but she knew something that they didn't know. She was better than what she was letting on.

"I see. Well, good luck to you Johanna, and may the odds be ever in your favor," Caesar said as the buzzer rang, and went on to introducing Aaron next.

~

There were no goodbyes for Johanna that night, not to Kim, or Aaron, or even Piper. Frankly, she just didn't care about any of them enough to say goodbye to. The people that she had wanted to say those goodbyes to had already been said at the Justice Building at District 7. She had known what Piper would have wanted her to do. Every strategy that he could think of, he had already told her. 

It would be up to her to do whatever she felt was the proper thing to do. 

She would get her hands on an ax, whatever happened. Piper had said that the Cornucopia was a risky thing to target on the first day. District 1, 2, and 4 would surely want the best things inside of it. The bad part was that she didn't know if there would be an axe in there.

Her mind was restless as she rolled around in bed that night. Her heart was nervous, and she kept breaking in a cold sweat.

Johanna didn't want to go in there. Caesar had asked her earlier what she was feeling, with no surface strengths helping her up. Up to this point, she didn't think much about sponsors and appearances and how important they were. It was too late now. No one had invested in her. There was no one to help her as she began. There were no allies or sponsors. She had to go into this alone.

To answer to Caesar's question, yes. Yes, she was undoubtedly scared.

~

Sorry this took so long! My hard drive from my laptop crashed, meaning all my files are gone. I'm still trying to retrieve them, but since I have a new hard drive, I've started my writing from scratch. Hope you liked this. More to come soon!