The New Games: A Hunger Games Story

Chapter 28: The Games

Chapter 28:

Ariel wakes me up.

"It's a very big day, Kamela!" she exclaims, opening the curtains and taking my covers off the bed.

"What time is it?" I mumble, looking over to the clock that reads 5:02. "Why am I up at five in the morning?"

"We have a lot of preparing to do." she steps out of the room for a second, then comes back in with a prep team and equipment.

"What is all this?" I ask, still half asleep.

"This is your prep team that will help you get ready for today!" Ariel says excitedly.

"Come on darling," a man with bright blue hair says. "Let's get you all cleaned up."

I take his hand and he and another woman with streaks of pink, blue, and purple hair help me out of bed and into the bath.

They allow me to have a half hour of privacy and relaxation before I am whisked away to be made over.

I don't really pay much attention to what they are saying, they don't talk with me much, just with each other. I'll pick up little things like, "Oh yes, her dress was marvelous!" or "I haven't seen him in almost a year! How is he?"

They blab on and on while they do my hair, makeup, and outfit. I don't understand why they are doing all of these things right before I go into a death cage, but I don't question it and they continue to do their work.

What seems like hours later, the man in the blue hair finally speaks to me.

"There!" he says stepping back to look at me, "You are absolutely gorgeous!"

He brings over a full length mirror and I see my reflection. Obviously this is not for when I'm going into the arena because I am wearing a long, flowing, high-low dress with shiny jeweled shoes, which are surprisingly very comfortable. My hair is curled, with jewels holding parts of my hair out of my face. My makeup is not to overdone like I expected, but subtle, with a winged eyeliner, and light, pastel eyeshadow to match my pastel pink, with hints of orange, dress.

I'm so focused on my reflection that I forget that there are people here waiting for my opinion on it.

"I.." I'm honestly speechless, I do truly love it. "I've never felt this pretty before in my entire life."

"Twirl." The blue-haired man tells me.

I look at him confused and he makes a spinning motion with his finger. I spin around twice in the dress and it flows beautifully.

"Thank you, honestly." I say. "But, what is all this for?"

"Well, I thought that you might like this experience of a small makeover before you," she pauses. "Well, you know." Ariel says.

I walk over to Ariel and hug her. "Thank you." I whisper while I hug her. "For everything."

As I back away from the hug, I see her tearing up a little. "Ariel?" I ask

"Oh," she say wiping her eyes. "I'm perfectly fine, I just get emotional easily." she smiles.

I smile back.

A few hours later, after I eat and get dressed into a different outfit which consists of a loose, comfy top, and some leggings, I am called to meet with the prep team again to get ready for the arena. My palms are sweating as I am escorted down to the room where I will get prepared.

As I enter the room, the first thing I see is my prep team. They immediately get to work by prepping my hair, fixing my nails, waxing my legs, face, and armpits, then putting some sort of cooling cream on the places they waxed.

"It's a special treatment," one of them explain. "It reduces hair growth, you'll have no problem at all with hair when you are in the arena."

They continue fixing me up and then lead me into a different room where I walk up a long flight of stairs and out a door which leads outside to a hovercraft. As I enter the hovercraft I notice that Cronin and Ariel are there. I say goodbye to my prep team and sit down in the hovercraft.

"This is it kid." Cronin says. "You ready?"

"We both know that you can do this, Kamela." Ariel says. "You have being doing exceptionally well in training."

"You both think I have a chance?" I ask.

"Unless you do something completely stupid, I think you have a pretty good chance." he smiles. "Just remember what you've learned in these past few weeks. Okay?"

I nod.

"Look I know you're nervous, I can see it. But you can't let that show." he leans back in his seat. "The other tributes cannot see any weakness."

I don't say anything.

"Do you understand?" he says seriously.

"I do." I say. "No weakness, got it."

"That's another thing, everyone has at least one weakness." he says. "Look for it in the other tributes, find it, and use that as an advantage."

He goes on explaining as many tips, tricks, and reminders as he can before we land. I'm escorted out of the hovercraft, down a set of stairs and inside a room that has a small closet, a table, with some food, and chairs, and a large tube with a round platform in it.

Cronin is with me and he explains what I need to do when they start counting down. I am to enter the tube and stand as still as possible as I am raised up into the arena, I should look to see my competition, spotting any weaknesses.

He explains some more, and then goes over to the closet and grabs out my outfit. It's fairly simple, a grey t-shirt, black pants and boots, dark grey sweatshirt and then a black jacket thats dark blue on the inside. I change into them and then Cronin comes back into the room. The outfit is very comfortable and easy to move in.

After a few minutes a voice comes on over the speaker. "Tributes please prepare for the arena, countdown in thirty seconds."

"Ready?" Cronin asks.

I nod and stand up. I'm nearly shaking, I'm so nervous.

"You'll be fine, just remember what you've learned." he leads me to the tube.

"Tributes please be ready to enter the arena, countdown to the Games starts now." the voice echoes.

I take a step forward towards the tube, pause, and then step back and hug Cronin. He jumps a little, but hugs me back. "You'll do great kid." he says.

We let go of each other and I step into the tube. It closes and I turn around, Cronin steps back and mouths, 'Good luck.'

"Thank you." I say, then realizing these tubes are sound proof.

He smiles, knowing what I said.

"Thirty seconds." The voice says, and the platforms start to rise.

I stay as still as possible and try to hide all weaknesses. As the platform rises the light comes in. The first thing I see when my eyes adjust is the giant, golden cornucopia. The next thing I look at are the tributes. They don't look to much older than me, some are taller, not by too much, a lot are actually shorter. I see the girl with the long black hair two platforms away from me. Most of the tributes look nervous, some show no fear, hopefully I don't either. I don't recognize anyone until I look to my right, almost across from me. He looks so familiar I just can't place it. Then I remember where I've seen that face, he's the other tribute from my district. Once I figure out who he is, I regret it. It takes all of my power not to burst into tears. I silently say his name so only I can hear it, my voice cracks as I utter his name.

"Talon."