I sit in my sleeping quarters, laying on my bed. A knock on the door interrupts my train of thoughts. I groan and open the door. Maysilee Donner stood outside my doorway.

"What do you want?" I ask.

Maysilee rolls her eyes. She hands me a small item. It was her mockingjay pin. I give her a look of puzzlement.

"Why are you giving this to me?" I ask.

"For luck during the games," she says. "We could be allies, if you want."

"I'll think about," I say, smirking. She rolls her eyes again and walks off down the hall to her own rooms. I shut the door once again and stand there in the middle of the room. Why would she give me this? It's her lucky pin. I look down at it, rolling it around in my palm. I grab a scrap of paper from my drawer and scrawl down a note for Maysilee. Meet me on the stairway on the top floor at 3:00 AM. I fold it into a neat square and set off in pursuit of Maysilee. She wasn't in her rooms, so I check the dining cart. Sure enough, there she sits at the table, picking at her food. I sat down across from her and hand her the square.

"What's this?" she asks.

"Read it." I stand and was about to go back to my rooms when Maysilee stops me with her next words.

"What do you think when you see me?" she asks.

I shake my head. "I see a rich brat," I say. "But something more that I can't quite place."

A flicker of disappointment crosses her eyes. "What is it you see?" she asks.

"I'm not sure yet," I answer.

"Well, you let me know soon," she says. "Only a few more days until we go into the arena."

Her whole expression suddenly droops into sadness. I grab her hand and yank her inside my quarters. She turns on me.

"What are you doing?" she yells. I cover her mouth with my hands and force her to sit down on my bed.

"What are you doing?" she repeats, anger flashing in her eyes.

"I want to be allies," I say. "It doesn't do us any good to be enemies on the same team in the same district. There's a possibility one of us will come home. We have to stick together in the arena if we're going to survive."

She stares at me as she processes these words. She nods. "When does training start?" she asks.

As if on cue, Effie Trinket walks in. "Training is tomorrow!" Effie shrills. She quickly glances at her watch. "Training is in 3 hours!" she corrects. I glance at the alarm clock. It reads 7:00 AM. All that time has passed? I usher Effie out of the door and shut it behind her. Maysilee looks at me.

"We should train together," I say. "Some stations we may need to split up, just in case there are allies we can make. If not, it'll just be you and me." I give her a sly smile and usher her out the door.

She turns around to look at me. "Good luck," she says. "I'll miss you. Even if you are an arrogant jerk."

Before I can point out that we don't enter the arena for another two days, she presses her lips against mine. I widen my eyes and push her away from me. Her eyes are wild when she looks back up at me.

"What did you do that for?" I sputter, still in shock. She walks out of my quarters. I here her door slam as she races into her rooms.

I shut my door and run my tongue across my lips, still tingling from the kiss. I sprawl on my back across my bed, deep in thought. Why would Maysilee kiss me? We've hardly known each other, surely didn't communicate in District 12. I stand from my bed and walking into the dining cart. I grab heaps of food and sit down at the table. I scarf down the food, making sure I have enough energy for the training sessions later on that day.

Effie walks in, straightening her pumpkin orange wig atop her head. "Time to head down to training!" she shrills. She gives me an odd look. "Why aren't you dressed yet?" she demands. "We leave in 30 minutes!" She grabs my plate and throws the contents into the trash. I give her a menacing glare. She mirrors the look and says, "Go get dressed. Your outfit should be laid out for you."

I throw her a dirty look over my shoulder as I exit the dining cart. I throw on the outfit that was laid out on my bed and come face-to-face with Maysilee. She gives me a sheepish look.

"Can we talk?" she asks. I look her outfit up and down. She turns bright red and I smirk.

"We'll talk later." I walk out of the big Capitol hotel and make my way to a small car that waits for us. The other two tributes already sit inside. I grab at my memory to remember their names, but nothing comes. I shrug my shoulders and dive inside the shotgun seat and scoot over to make room for Maysilee. She gives me an odd look, then smiles. She scoots in beside me and shuts the door.

"What's going on with you two?" one of the other tributes asks, Malcolm, I think. He grins evilly. Maysilee rolls her eyes.

"Nothing," she says. "Can't two friends share a seat without being interrogated?"

"Sure." He wiggles his eyebrows at Maysilee and leans back in his seat. The driver starts the engine and cruises onto the highway. We reach the Training Center in 5 minutes. Maysilee swings open the door and we both jump out of the car. The other two tributes exit the backseat and enter the Training Center. I sit in a chair near the private training sessions room. I watch Maysilee as she socializes with the tributes, manuvering expertly through them. I smile to myself. Maysilee flashes me a brilliant smile and sits on my lap. I nudge her off. She glares at me.

"What's wrong?" she hisses. She then lowers her voice, "Did the kiss mean nothing to you?"

I give her a strange look. "Why did you kiss me?" I ask.

"I don't know," she says.

"You shoudn't have," I say. "We're going into the arena in two days and now, I'll be sitting in the arena, thinking about you, knowing one or both of us will die."

She looks down on the floor, ashamed. "I'm sorry, Haymit-"

Before she could finish her sentence, I kiss her. She kisses me back. I break the kiss and step away from her.

"Good luck in training," I tell her. She opens her mouth to say something, but shuts it again.

"You too," she tells me. She walks over to the stations and begins training.

I walk over to the knife-throwing station. A beefy guy rumbles over and picks up a huge knife. He launches it at the target. Bulls-eye. He looks down at me, gesturing for me to throw. I thrust it at the target. It hits right beside his. He walks over and takes both of the knifes out of the target. He hands me back the knife and we continue throwing knives at the target.

"How long are you going to be here?" Maysilee asks me. I grunt and continue throwing knives.

"Hello?" Maysilee yells. "Answer me."

I turn on her. She leaps backwards, dodging the huge knife I was holding.

"I'm going to stay here until I feel like moving on," I growl. She rolls her eyes and stalks over to the edible-plants station.

"That your girlfriend?" the beefy guy asks.

"Hardly," I mutter.

"I'm Chaff," he says. He holds out a calloused hand. I shake it and say, "Haymitch."

"You nervous about going into the arena?" Chaff asks.

"No, not really," I reply. Which was a total lie. I was terrified, but I wasn't about to let this big guy know that. I'll be his first target for sure.

"Attention tributes!" a guy says. I didn't recognize him. "Please make your way to the table to begin the private training sessions."

We all sit down at the table. The Head Gamemaker calls in the male tribute from District 1. One by one, the tributes are called until it's just me and Maysilee.

"What are you doing for your private training?" Maysilee asks me.

"Chuck a few knives at a target, maybe," I say. "How about you?"

"Edible plants," she says. "Maybe some camouflage."

I nod. They call me inside the training room. I pick up a few knives and throw them at the same time. They all hit bulls-eye. The Head Gamemaker looked impressed. I continued throwing knives until he says, "Thank you. You may leave." I walk out of room and whisper to Maysilee, "Good luck." She gives me a small smile and enters the room. I sit back down and wait for her to return. She reenters the room.

"How did it go?" I ask.

"Okay," she says. "Better then I suspected."

"That's good," I say.

The rest of the evening goes by fairly quickly. Maysilee and I both score a fair 9 in training. The day of the interviews go by in a blur. Before I know it, I'm seated in front of Casaer Flickerman.

"So, Haymitch," Casaer says. "I heard you scored a 9 in training."

"Yeah," I say. "Thought I'd have gotten a better score, but what happens, happens."

He nods. "So what's going on with you and Maysilee Donner?"

I see Maysilee turn bright red on the screens. "Nothing," I say quickly.

"We saw what you two did in your rooms the other night." Casaer wiggles his eyebrows and gives me a sly grin.

"Nothing happened between Maysilee and I." I look over at her. She's staring at me, tears forming in her eyes. I inwardly groan and regret what I say next, "We kissed once, but that's all that happened."

The Capitol crowd gasps and break out into a mutter. I look over at Maysilee. She gives me a small smile. She mouths the words, we'll talk later, in my direction. I nod and turn back to Casaer. Before he can say anything else, the buzzer goes off, signaling the end of my three minute interview.

Back in the Capitol building where we were staying, Maysilee knocks on my door. I open it and let her come inside.

"What do you want to talk about?" I ask her.

"We kissed twice," she says. "Not once."

"I wish we hadn't," I say.

"Do you regret it?" she asks.

I shake my head. "No," I say. "I just wish we hadn't. We're going into the arena tomorrow. The Capitol will be sending us items in those parachutes now that I said what I said." I take her face in my hands. "If we hadn't, I wouldn't be so worried."

"Don't worry about me," she says. "One of us has a possibility to win. We'll still be together, even if one of us is dead."

I give a small smile. "I don't want you to die," I say. "I'll do whatever it takes to get you back home."

"Haymitch," she says. "This is the Hunger Games we're talking about. No matter what happens, we'll be with each other." A tear drops from her eyes onto my finger. I wipe them away.

"We better get some sleep," I say. "Tomorrow we go into the arena."

Epilouge

Haymitch and Maysilee enter the arena. It was a Poison Paradise. The bloodbath at the Cornucopia takes out most of the tributes. While Haymitch is trudging through the greenery, he sees Maysilee. They work together until they reach a cliff that has a force field. Haymitch learns to use this as a weapon aganist opponents. When Maysilee leaves, he hears her scream. He races through the forest, only to witness her be skewered in the neck by large, candy-pink birds. Haymitch holds her hand as she dies. Haymitch and the female tribute from District 1 are the remaining two tributes. She throws an axe, which Haymitch dodges. It hits the force field and shoots back at the girl, embedding itself into her head, crowning Haymitch the victor.