The 45th Hunger Games: The Tribute of District 4 (Watty Awards 2012 completed)

Chapter 5

“We don’t need to work on much, do we?” Circa said, happily fixing my nails. I didn’t know exactly what they were doing, but he said it was called buffing.

“Except for the hair!” Scarlett said, pulling on the strands of the hairs on my leg with a strip of paper. It was bearable after the first initial pull. Then my skin just kind of got used to it. “She has beautiful color though. It really glows in the right light!”

Paisley was in no way silent as he worked on my face. He was fixing my eyebrows, because apparently, they weren’t supposed to be just left alone. It had to have a shape and cleaned off with stray hairs. These Capitol people and their fuss…

I hadn’t counted the amount of hours that I was in the Remake Center, but it had been a grueling few hours. I was open to it because Aldo had warned me about it even before I was chosen to be a tribute. He just wasn’t specific with what they did. He wouldn’t know what they did to the girls either.

During his time, they had to remove the body hair on his armpits and chest, if any. Aldo had very little hair on his chest, and he was clean to look at even from the start. He said that they injected something into his face, which he didn’t know what the use was for. Aldo said that he only noticed that after they injected it, there was no facial hair that grew. It only started growing months after the Games had ended. Even then, they had to inject more of the stuff into his face again, since he had his Victory Tour and needed to look just as good then.

During these hours of only speaking tiny words of assurances that I was fine, I was able to observe my prep team.

I couldn’t tell what age they were honestly. They could have varied between 20-50 years old and I wouldn’t have known under all that makeup and paint. Circa was the most outrageous of the three, what with his neon-green hair that stood in different directions. His dark skin had silver tattoos of intricate shapes, on his face and arms. His outfit had too many colors to count, and I really didn’t know the names for each color, so I had moved on to Paisley.

Paisley contrasted Circa in a way that he chose pastel colors. While Circa had big, bold colors to attract attention, Paisley looked slightly washed-up. His skin color was a little bit lighter than mine, but he had different shades of blue covered on his eyes, cheeks and lips. He was more conservative in the way he dressed, with his lavender-colored three-piece suit, and his mint green pants. His hair was dyed an almost white shade of blonde, and he had streaks of blue mingled in, just as Aldo had streaks of blonde from the sun.

Scarlett, true to her name was dressed entirely of red. Her stark white face had colors of red on the lips and cheeks. Her eyelids were lined with black kohl, I presumed. I only knew what it was called because they sold the stuff at the apothecary. Even her fingernails were painted the color of blood.

It only reminded me too well of the blood that I had to shed in a week’s time.

“When will I be meeting my stylist?” I asked, feeling the last bits of hair being plucked individually.

“Alta is still finishing her last adjustments of the outfit for the parade!” Scarlett said, and that started them tittering about their excitement for everything Games-related. The parade would definitely be one to watch, what with the new talent of stylists that have been chosen. They said that Alta had been there for a few years now though, since she had been Mari’s stylist back when she was a tribute.

“Gorgeous!” Paisley grinned at me when they were done. They were all grinning at their work of art, I guess. It wasn’t very difficult to please these three, really.

“Thank you. I feel confident enough to go out in the parade as I am!” I wanted to say that I felt like they rubbed me raw, but what I saw was different. My limbs glistened softly, and my skin felt flawless. All that scrubbing before the waxing must have done its job.