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R-i-i-i-p! I grit old tattoos above her eyebrows, yanks a strip of Fabric fro out the hair beneath it "Sorry!" she pipes in her silly Capitol accent "You&039;re just so hairy!"

Why do these people speak in such a high pitch? Why do their jaws barely open when they talk? Why do the ends of their sentences go up as if they&039;re asking a question? Odd vowels, clipped words, and always a hiss on the letter s no wonder it&039;s impossible not to mimic them

Venia makes what&039;s supposed to be a syh This is the last one Ready?" I get a grip on the edges of the table I&039; hair is uprooted in a painful jerk

I&039;ve been in the Remake Center for more than three hours and I still haven&039;tme until Venia and the other members of my prep team have addressed so down ritty loam that has res, arms, torso, underarms, and parts ofI don&039;t like it My skin feels sore and tingling and intensely vulnerable But I have kept ain with Haymitch, and no objection has crossedvery well," says soe corkscrew locks a shake and applies a fresh coat of purple lipstick to hiswe can&039;t stand, it&039;s a whiner Grease her down!"

Venia and Octavia, a plureen, rub s but then soothesthe thin robe I&039;ve been allowed to wear off and on I stand there, co tweezers to remove any last bits of hair I know I should be embarrassed, but they&039;re so unlike people that I&039;m no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet

The three step back and admire their work "Excellent! You al now!" says Flavius, and they all laugh

I force rateful I am "Thank you," I say sweetly "We don&039;t have much cause to look nice in District Twelve"

This wins them over co!" says Octavia clasping her hands together in distress for me

"But don&039;t worry," says Venia "By the ti to be absolutely gorgeous!"

"We prootten rid of all the hair and filth, you&039;re not horrible at all!" says Flavius encouragingly "Let&039;s call Cinna!"

They dart out of the room It&039;s hard to hate my prep team They&039;re such total idiots And yet, in an odd way, I know they&039;re sincerely trying to help me

I look at the cold white walls and floor and resist the impulse to retrieve my robe But this Cinna, my stylist, will surely o to my hairdo, the one area of ers stroke the silky braids ed My mother I left her blue dress and shoes on the floor ofto hold on to a piece of her, of ho man who must be Cinna enters I&039;m taken aback by how normal he looks Most of the stylists they interview on television are so dyed, stenciled, and surgically altered they&039;re grotesque But Cinna&039;s close-cropped hair appears to be its natural shade of brown He&039;s in a simple black shirt and pants The only concession to self-alteration seeold eyeliner that has been applied with a light hand It brings out the flecks of gold in his green eyes And, despite ust with the Capitol and their hideous fashions, I can&039;t help thinking how attractive it looks

"Hello, Katniss I&039;m Cinna, your stylist," he says in a quiet voice so in the Capitol&039;s affectations

"Hello," I venture cautiously

"Just give ht?" he asks He walks aroundin every inch of it with his eyes I resist the impulse to cross my arms over my chest "Who did your hair?"

"My mother," I say

"It&039;s beautiful Classic really And in almost perfect balance with your profile She has very clever fingers," he says

I had expected so desperately to look young, someone who viewed me as a piece of meat to be prepared for a platter Cinna has met none of these expectations

"You&039;re new, aren&039;t you? I don&039;t think I&039;ve seen you before," I say Most of the stylists are fa pool of tributes Some have been around my whole life

"Yes, this is my first year in the Gaave you District Twelve," I say Newcoenerally end up with us, the least desirable district

"I asked for District Twelve," he says without further explanation "Why don&039;t you put on your robe and we&039;ll have a chat"

Pulling onroom Two red couches face off over a low table Three walls are blank, the fourth is entirely glass, providing ato the city I can see by the light that it h the sunny sky has turned overcast Cinna invites me to sit on one of the couches and takes his place across from me He presses a button on the side of the table The top splits and from below rises a second tabletop that holds our lunch Chicken and chunks of oranges cooked in a creareen peas and onions, rolls shaped like flowers, and for dessert, a pudding the color of honey

I try to i this meal myself back home Chickens are too expensive, but I could make do with a wild turkey I&039;d need to shoot a second turkey to trade for an orange Goat&039;s row peas in the garden I&039;d have to get wild onions frorain, our own tessera ration cooks down to an unattractive brown mush Fancy rolls would mean another trade with the baker, perhaps for two or three squirrels As for the pudding, I can&039;t even guess what&039;s in it Days of hunting and gathering for this one meal and even then it would be a poor substitution for the Capitol version

What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? Hoould I spend the hours I now co the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die for their entertainment?

I look up and find Cinna&039;s eyes trained on mine "How despicable we must seem to you," he says

Has he seen this in h The whole rotten lot of them is despicable

"No matter," says Cinna "So, Katniss, about your costu ceremonies My partner, Portia, is the stylist for your fellow tribute, Peeta And our current thought is to dress you in complementary costumes," says Cinna "As you know, it&039;s customary to reflect the flavor of the district"

For the opening cereests your district&039;s principal industry District 11, agriculture District 4, fishing District 3, factories Thisfrom District 12, Peeta and I will be in soy , our tributes usually end up in skimpy outfits and hats with headlamps One year, our tributes were stark naked and covered in black powder to represent coal dust It&039;s always dreadful and does nothing to win favor with the crowd I prepare myself for the worst

"So, I&039;ll be in a coalit won&039;t be indecent

"Not exactly You see, Portia and I think that coal &039;s very overdone No one will remember you in that And we both see it as our job to ettable," says Cinna

I&039;ll be naked for sure, I think