Survivors

Chapter 23: Xain

Chapter 23: Xain

          It’s a little before ten in the morning when the hovercraft from the capitol arrives with our essential stylists. They want us to look...“decent” for the cameras. The stylists are only going to be here for a short while to meet with us and measure us. There will also be a camera crew to take videos and snapshots of us in our “natural habitat” before we board and depart.

          The first to step off of the hovercraft is a young girl with snow white make-up and red eye shadow. Her lips are deep red with a black streak down the middle. Her hair is deep red with white bangs and streaks and is held in a bun by two black pins. She is in a stripped, red and white strapless dress that comes down to her knees, red and white knee stockings, and red heels that click as she rushes over to me. Next thing I know, her arms are around me and my nose is filled with the smell of some sort of sweet peppermint.

          “The amazing Xain Austin,” she says in a near high pitch squeal, “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person.” She’s very hyper and is jumping up and down, and then looks at Jada.

          “And the lovely Jada Anderson,” she hugs Jada close, “you’re even more adorable in person.”

          “Um, and who might you be?” Melissa asks. Not everyone came out, just me, Jada, and Melissa. The others wanted to eat breakfast at their own pace.

          “Oh, forgive me,” the girl says in a slight capitol accent, “My name’s Kandilyn Kanera, but you can call me Kandi Kane, because I’m sweet and full of fun.”

           She’s spinning around and her dress begins to swirl. And fly up.

          “I think she’s drunk,” Jada whispers in my ear.

          “I’m super excited to meet you and be your stylist,” Kandi seems more hyper than ever. She looks around with a questioning look. “I thought there would be more of you.”

          “They’re eating breakfast right now,” I answer, “They’ll meet us later.”

          Kandi’s eyes sparkle as the sun hits them and she smiles. It’s now that I recognize the red and white swirls in her eyes. This girl must really like me, because she barely takes her eyes off of me. Jada’s her second favorite, when she’s not staring at me, she’s looking at her.

          “Well we should get moving,” Kandi says in a cheery voice, “we have big, big things planned.”

          As if on cue, the rest of the crew begins to exit the ship. One of the crew members comes towards us. It’s a woman who’s about six feet and has an orange beehive shaped hair. It’s not ironic that her dress has a bee pattern. She has yellow, orange, and black eye shadow and her lips are golden.

          “You’ll have to excuse my sister, Kandi, she’s a huge fan of yours, Xain,” the woman says. I don’t know if I’m shocked because she said that Kandi was a huge fan of mine, or because they’re sisters. “My name is Honecum Kanera, but most people call me Honey or Honey-comb.”

          “Those are interesting names,” Jada smiles, “Do all capitol citizens have names like that?”

          “We are pretty unique in style and titles,” Honey answers in a gleeful and airy manner, “The Capitol is the best place to be in.”

          “It’s definitely better than any district,” Kandi adds with a smile. Both of them sound stuck up and snobbish, but probably because they don’t know anything else or were brought up believing that the districts were literally lower quality.