So here's the next chapter, thanks for the reviews but I would love some more.

Chapter 2

During the allotted time allowed for family and friends to visit my mother spent most of her time crying while giving me advice, and telling my how proud of me she is. I tried to hold back tears, I had managed to thus far, but this was too much and I started bawling. "Oh Mom, I'm so sorry," I moaned

"No sweetheart, it's not your fault, and anyways it's going to be alright, your going to come home," for once she was the one reassuring me and not the other way around. "You can do this," she continued "I trained you well, no not well great, you are strong and smart, and you can and will do great. I only wish my sister had known all that you do when she was chosen." I was slightly shocked when she said this, in my lifetime I can probably count on one hand how many times my mother had mentioned her sister's name to me.

"Oh mom," I said while starting to cry harder. Of course at that moment the peacekeepers arrived, and started ushering my mom out of the room. "Mom," I shouted after her "I love you, thank you for everything,"

"I love you to Kara, but I'll see you soon," she replied as if she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince me. When the door shut behind her the realization hit that that was probably the last time I would ever see my mom, and a new wave of tears hit me. Next Epi entered the room sobbing, "Oh Kara, I'm so sorry, this never should have happened,"

"I know Epi, I know" I replied "but listen, thank you so much for being such a great friend,"

"Kara, I'm going to miss you so much if you don't return, but your mom's been training you right? You still have a chance, you could win this."

"I'll do my best Epi, and I'll bring you back a present" I said brushing away my tears and putting on a fake air of bravado.

"I'll be expecting a great one from the next hunger games winner" she said with a faint smile playing on her lips.

"Kay" I replied while the Peacekeepers started to pull her out of the room.

"Good luck," she shouted back to me.

"Thanks," I said, but I doubted that she could hear me.

No one else came to see me, so the Peacekeepers lead me to a lush room for the night. The room was a gold similar to my dress, but by now the dress was ruined, not that I cared anymore about it; the dress was stained with my mother's, Epi's and my tears.

Curious about the other unlucky souls chosen as tributes I watched the TV playing in my room showing the other districts reapings. As usual the tributes from districts one, two and four were monsters. Each one was enormous and vicious looking, while I watched their reapings I tried to figure out why they would possibly want to volunteer for this. In the end I decided they must be crazy, why anyone would want to choose to be a hunger games tribute for a career is beyond me.

Everyone else chosen looked like normal, petrified kids. The only ones who seemed like they might stand a chance were both tributes from district six; they were both tall and tough looking. I'm not completely sure why, but the girl from district eight stood out to me, she seemed smart enough to stay alive. The boy from district ten was really tall, which is always an advantage in the games, so he probably stands a chance too. Thankfully this year there were no twelve year olds chosen, although there were a few thirteen year old kids.

I slept horribly that with nightmares of Zebulon and the career tributes killing me sadistically. When I finally decided to give up on sleeping, I was allowed to get on the train. The train was huge and luxurious, with golden chandeliers on the ceiling and plush red chairs. My jaw dropped as I entered the dining room, there piles of food lay on the table calling out my name, each dish would have cost a fortune in district 12. I decided then that I would never be able to live with myself if I didn't try a bit of all of them so I began eating. While I devoured the food Effie, Katniss, and Peeta walked in, all with a hint of a smile on their face while they watched me eat. Zebulon walked in next, he smirked when he saw me, and the smirk remained pasted on his face for the rest of breakfast.

After Zebulon and I had scarfed down a good portion of the food on the table, Peeta and Katniss looked both of us over. Peeta smiled slightly at Zebulon, he must have thought that Zebulon stood a chance, while Katniss on the other hand looked a little sad as she looked at me. I considered glaring at her but decided that that probably wasn't the best idea. But it was kind of hypocritical of her to look at me with pity, considering that before the scoring when she was in the games no one thought she stood a chance either.

"Well," Katniss said still looking a little sad, "shall we train you separately or together."'

"Separately," both Zebulon and I said at the same time, Zebulon then turned to glare at me, as if it was my fault that she had even suggested it.

"Hmm, ok," Peeta said "can you tell us anything about any of your talents, or advantages you have for the games?"

"Not with her here" Zebulon replied still glaring at me. "It wouldn't be fair for me for her to learn all my secret talents, while she has none for me to learn." He continued arrogantly.

"Excuse me," I growled, looking as venomous as I could.

"Alright," Katniss said stopping us there, "we can see the two of you hate each other, so will adjust are plans accordingly. Now Kara I would love to talk to you in the sitting room."

"So," she said when we reached the sitting room, "you want to explain why the two of you hate each other." Quickly I rushed through the story about our hatred for each other, and why I assumed he had been waiting to kill me. "Hmm, that's interesting," she replied. "I've never trained tributes who detest each other before." I nodded in agreement; last year the kids chosen for district 12 were brother and sister.

"Look, I have some skills," I said, changing the subject. She looked at me doubtingly, so then I had to explain to her how and why my mom had been training me for the hunger games.

"Huh, well that's useful," she replied to my story. "What can you do?"

"Well I'm good with swords and knifes, and not to bad with spears. And, I know basic survival skills." She thought about it for a few seconds and then said "show me."

"What?" I said surprised, while out no where she brought out a few weapons: one bow and arrows, three knives, one sword, and one spear. "Show me," Katniss repeated.

I felt like I was back at one of my mom's training sessions. Between me demonstrating my skills at throwing knifes and spears, and having sword fights with her she asked me about toxic berries, getting food, and other basic survival questions. She seemed impressed with just about everything, but she pursed her lips while watching my abysmal attempts with the bow and arrow. She was kind enough not to mention how awful I was, and moved on to a new weapon. After about two hours of this she told me to sit down while she went and got us something to drink. She brought me back a drink full of different types of fruits mashed together, "it's a smoothie" she said while placing it in front of me. It tasted delicious; inside the drink were flavors of fruits that I hadn't tasted since my father died.

After about fifteen minutes of her gazing out in the distance while thinking, and me just sitting there awkwardly she exclaimed "oh I know!"

"You" she continued, "are going to pretend to everyone, including the gamemakers, other tributes, Zebulon, and Peeta that you can't do anything. Which means that you can't score over a four in the private sessions." She stared at me proudly and then continued "this wouldn't work for must people but you look so small, harmless so it should work." She continued smileing at me, looking pleased with herself, and as if I should pleased that she came up with that idea. Well I wasn't.

When she saw the expression on my face, of disbelief and horror, she said sternly "don't look at me like that, it's the perfect idea for you and might keep you alive. Do not let your pride over wanting to have a higher score than Zebulon, make you do something stupid." She had caught me, that was exactly why I didn't like the idea. I'm not sure if I can take anymore of Zebulon's snide comments about me being weak, and I wanted to see that smirk wiped off his face when he saw how much higher my score was than his. Also, if I followed Katniss's plan he would brag about how much higher his score was than mine every second he could. But it seemed that Katniss didn't care what I wanted, and yeah it seemed like a good plan and all, but I don't know how much more I can take of people looking at me like I'm weak.

"Fine" I replied "but I'm not going to like it" I said in a childish tone.

"You're not going to like any part of the hunger games," she replied in a teacher like voice. "I'm just trying to keep you alive Kara," and with that she walked out of the room reminding me not to tell anyone.