Promise Me | Saylor Odair

~4~

It's the next day and the train is only an hour away from the capitol. River and Saylor are both sitting at the table eating breakfast while Finnick is explaining to them how to survive in the arena.

"Choose your allies carefully, you guys will have four days of training. use this time to observe the other tributes.
Watch out for the careers. They might act like they like you, but they will easily stab you in the back when it comes down to it." Finnick warns the two.
"Most tributes die from natural causes. The first thing you need to do is find fresh water.
Being dehydrated can slow you down and eventually kill you." he explains. The train goes dim as they go through a tunnel and on the other of it, is the capitol.
Both River and Saylor look out the window, seeing the tall buildings, and fancy technology. " Wow, this is nothing like the districts," Saylor spoke out. River nods still stunned by the looks of the capitol. They pass through another tunnel. the blank concrete wall is replaced with a whole bunch of people screaming and cheering.
River walks over to the window.
"Let the Games begin," he says while waving to the capitol people.
Saylor follows his actions and starts smiling and waving. She sees Finnick in the corner of her eye waving and blowing kisses to the people. It's almost like he was a different person. His grin and his smirk, the body language was so different from the Finnick that she knew.
Finnick looked at his sister and gave her a reassuring smile. That was the Finnick she knew.

Saylor was lying on a table after she got washed and sprayed down. By her prep team who she just met. And then they waxed her. After she was waxed they plucked her eyebrows.
" Ow..." The prep team was getting annoyed with Saylor and how much she flinched. "Beauty is pain Darling. Now stop moving." one of them spoke with annoyance.
"I wouldn't be moving so much so much if weren't pulling all the hair out of my body. " Saylor snaps back. tired of them pulling out hairs that no one will see. They roll their eyes at the girl and keep plucking her eyebrows. "Don't be dramatic. You will be thanking us when we are done, we are making you beautiful." finally after a long while, the prep team is done and they brought you to another room. Then leaving you with no explanation.
Saylor sits there not knowing what to do.
Then the door opens and an unfamiliar lady walks in.
"Saylor Odair, right?" the girl nods
"I am your stylist Baylee Perch"

==Baylee Perch==

"Now since you are from District 4 your theme is fishing. but I don't want to stick a fish on you and call it a day. I want you..." She pulls out her sketchbook and shows Saylor her designs.
"To look like a beautiful mermaid" Saylor's jaw drops. "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed "but I don't know if I can pull it off."
"Girl with a face and body like yours. You can rock anything. I will have you looking like the queen of the ocean when I am done with you."
Baylee takes Saylor's measurements and brings in another dress." So I'm thinking we save the dress I showed you for your interview. Since It's not quite finished yet, I have this dress that is equally as stunning."

(Just imagine that the dress is longer and to the floor)

Saylot puts on the dress and Baylee does some light makeup. And then does her hair. (you can imagine how she does her hair )
"Wow, I don't even recognize myself, I look..." Saylor stops herself from saying anything bad as she doesn't want to come off as ungrateful.
She feels out of her comfort zone and isn't sure if she can pull off these types of outfits
"Thank you," Saylor says as she is standing in front of the full-length mirror.
"Don't thank me, You look beautiful without the dress. The dress just adds to it." Baylee reassures her seeing that she isn't too confident.

There was a knock on the door so Baylee went and opened the door. Cecilia walks in. "Are we done yet, ladies? We need to get moving... River and Finnick are waiti-"She stops mid-sentence and stares at the young girl.
"Oh my... you look absolutely gorgeous." Saylor gives a shy smile.

Saylor was walking towards River and Finick as they were both waiting by the Chariot. Finnick was eating sugar cubes and River was looking at him with concern. River sees the girl walking towards them and he tells Finnick and points in Saylor's direction. Once Finnick sees his sister he is shocked.
Saylor makes her way over to the boys. "What do you think?" She asks while looking at Finnick.
"You look... different," he says.
Saylor's face falls a little. Cecilia loudly clears her throat, Giving a look to Finnick.
"In a good way of course... you look grown-up"
Cecilia rolls her eyes at Finnick.
"You look beautiful darling... you two need to start getting on the chariot. It's about to start." she says while pushing them towards the chariot.
River gets on first, Then helps Saylor up.
As they were waiting for the event to start. River looks at Saylor and compliments her.
"You look very pretty," Saylor looks over to the boy surprised by his words. "Thank you... you don't look too bad yourself." River smiles at her compliment.

The Chariot starts moving taking them out to the track. they are District 4 so they are close to the front.
River, and Saylor wave to all the capitol people as they are passing by. Saylor winks and blows a few kisses to random people as they freak out. And River just sticks to waving and a smile. As they pull up to the end Saylor looks up and sees President Snow. The president makes eye contact with the girl and gives her a nod.
Once all the districts made it to the end of the track President Snow started his speech.

"Welcome. Welcome. Tributes. We welcome you. We salute your courage and your sacrifice.
And we wish you a happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor." After they got off the chariot. Finnick and Ceclila were waiting for them.
"That was wonderful!! You both did great. Now let's go to the penthouse shall we?" as they were walking Saylor noticed a few of the careers staring at her but she ignored them.

" each district gets their own floor. So come on, I will show you around" Ceclila said as they all stepped out of the elevator. "So this is the living room... and over here is the kitchen. Your rooms are down that hall. River, yours is on the left and Saylor, yours is on the right." Saylor and River walk in the direction of their rooms. "Why don't you guys get cleaned up before dinner?"

After dinner, they discussed more strategies and pointers for the games. As it was getting late they all decided to go to bed.
Saylor was laying in her bed trying to fall asleep but her mind was to busy to sleep.
she heard a soft knock on her door. She opened the door to find River, who was in his PJs.
"Is everything ok? She asks
"Yeah... I was wondering if you wanted to go up to the rooftop? I can't sleep and I figured you wouldn't be able to either." She would have said no but she was tired of just laying there letting her thoughts consume her.

Saylor and River sat on the rooftop in silence enjoying the view. No one said anything the whole time.

"Well, we should try and get some sleep... " River says and Saylor nods in agreement. They both make their way back to their rooms. "Goodnight Saylor..."
"Goodnight River."

———————————————————————————

I hope you are enjoying this book so far!! I am very new to writing so please give me feedback if you have any. Also!! I know you are probably reading this for young Coriolanus Snow. Don't worry!! He will be in this book soon. I am torn between 2 ways I Could introduce him.