The Hunger Games Tribute Guide (5 page)

T
he next step in the journey of the tributes is to board the luxury train that whisks them from their home districts to the Capitol. Many tributes have never left their home districts, so this sudden adventure is always exciting. The Capitol trains are very different from the coal trains a district citizen might be used to. These trains can average 250 miles per hour.

The interior of the train is just as impressive. Tributes get their own chambers, which include a bedroom, dressing room, and private bathroom. They get to enjoy the best of the Capitol as they speed across the country: gorgeous floral arrangements, delectable foods, and lush surroundings. Beverages of every flavor and every color. Crystal chandeliers, china teacups, and silver candelabra. It’s all very new to the tributes from the outer districts. They’re not accustomed to the bounty of the Capitol. Tributes have been known to stuff themselves with the rich Capitol food and arrive at the Training Center with a stomachache.

As they travel, the tributes can peer out the windows at the countryside flying by. They might get a brief glimpse of another district — or of the ruins of a fallen city from long-ago North America. Tributes often say that this high-speed tour of the country is one of the highlights of the time leading up to the Hunger Games.

On the train, the tributes have a chance to sit down for a long chat with their new mentors. All mentors are winners of previous Hunger Games. Haymitch Abernathy is the District 12 mentor, and currently the only living victor from that district. At the age of sixteen, Haymitch became victor of the Fiftieth Hunger Games — a Quarter Quell — which had four tributes from each district, rather than two. It was an unusually challenging year, making Haymitch’s victory all the more impressive.

A seasoned veteran of the game and an experienced mentor, Haymitch is also known for liking liquor a bit too much. He’s often a source of entertainment when he arrives in the Capitol each year. However, he’s not known for getting sponsors for his protégés. Let’s hope he gets his act together and gives Katniss and Peeta some good advice this year!

Effie is also on the train — and has brought plenty of wild outfits with her. Effie instructs the tributes on how they can best ingratiate themselves in the Capitol environment. Believe it or not, some tributes have to be told not to eat with their fingers! Not these two, though. It’s clear Katniss and Peeta have both been raised well. This will help them as they head to the Remake Center.

W
hen the tributes arrive in the Capitol, they’re immediately taken to the Remake Center. Standards of care are not as high in the districts, where people bathe less frequently and barely give a thought to how they present themselves.

In the Remake Center, the prep teams scrub the dirt and grime of the outer districts away. The tributes enjoy letting the stress of their travels fall away under the soothing hands of the prep teams. The prep teams burnish the tributes’ skin with exfoliating foam, untangle and brush out their hair, give them manicures and pedicures, and remove body hair with warm wax when necessary. In the end, the tributes emerge sparkling clean, with smooth, glowing skin, ready for the stylists to work their magic!

All the prep teams have been training their whole lives. Working on the look of the tributes is a great honor. Katniss’s prep team consists of Venia, Flavius, and Octavia. They’re completely fashionable, and can do wonders with a little makeup.

Next, tributes meet with their stylists. Cinna is the stylist for the District 12 female, Katniss, and is known in the Capitol as a bit of a renegade — a real artist. A handsome man in his late thirties, Cinna doesn’t follow the fickle fashions of the Capitol or try to impress with elaborate wigs. He’s always simply dressed in plain black clothes, perhaps with an elegant necklace and just a touch of sparkling eye makeup.

Portia is the stylist for the District 12 male, Peeta. Together, she and Cinna make the perfect team.