That was my first mistake.
I dream that I'm at the cornucopia. It's the final two. Just me and Cato. He says he'll kill me, then he'll kill everyone I love, Katniss, Gale and Prim. Then he skewers me with his spear. He pulls out a knife and starts stabbing me repeatedly.
Then I wake up.
I'm screaming and crying so hard that my throat is raw. After sitting there for an hour, I decide I can't get any more sleep. I go to the television cart. I turn on the television. That was my second mistake. All thats on is replays of the past games. I find out that I'm on Haymitch's games. I order some hot chocolate, and it's really good! Haymitch walks in and sits next to me.
He looks at me. He sees my red, puffy eyes. He knows that I've been crying."You should go back to sleep." He says. "I can't." I say weakly. He stares at me. After a while, I get annoyed, so I lay on the couch, and go to sleep.
I wake up to Effie saying," Wake up! We're in the Capitol! It's going to be a big, big, big day!"
I go to the window, and look out. What I see amazes me. We'd seen pictures of it in school, but it was nothing compared to seeing it in person. All around me were golden statues, scyscrapers in neon colors. It was amazing!
Big screens show replays of the reapings and old games. People are cheering and screaming. All I can do is give a shaky, nervous wave. We step out, and are escorted to the training center. We go to floor twelve, the top, where our stylists are waiting. A guy tells me, "Hi, I'm Cinna, I'll be your stylist." Seth is practically dragged out of the room.
Cinna lead me to a room and introduced me to my prep team. " Hi, I'm Venia and this is Flavius and Octavia." They all wave.
They wax, pluck, and poke me till I'm perfect. Then Cinna comes in with a clothes bag.
" What is He pulls out a grey dress that goes just above my knees. It is just grey. That's it. I like it, but sponsers won't. This could make me lose the games. Cinna must have seen the look on my face, because he says, "It's not on." He flicks on a switch, and an image appears. It looks like a tornado. Coal dust is spinning in an eerily dark way. It all comes together to make a huge fire, roaring and swirling in such a scary way. This is perfect!
He laughs. " Let's get you into it."
An hour later we are waiting in front of the chariots. Waiting to get in. Cinna turns our costumes on. We get into the chariot. Seth starts crying. The crowd is screaming my name. Then they start laughing when they see him. I can't let this happen! We'll never get sponsers. I can almost hear Haymitch cursing at Seth. I have to do something.
I turn to him. " Do you want to live?" I aske him softly, kindly even.
"Yes."
"Then this is very important. You need sponsers. They are laughing at you. The careers are staring at you like you're a meal. Show them that your not."
He wiped his eyes and held his head higher. We hug, which makes the crowd go wild and we start waving and blowing kisses. The crowd is screaming our names. Throwing flowers even. I see a beautiful yellow rose, catch it, and put it in my hair. When the parade is over, everyone is staring at us, mainly me. I give a smirk, and walk to Haymotch.
He pulls me off to the side and talks to me.
"Whatever you said to him, it worked. He had me worried for a moment there. What did you say to him?"
I told Haymitch what I said to him and we go to the elevator, and when we get to our floor, everyone is already there.
"You were wonderful!" Effie exclaims.
"Great job!" Cinna says.
I decide that I want to eat. So we do. We have some chicken with a purple sauce and rice with corn. We also have fish with a baked potatoes.
After that I decide to go to sleep. I put on some soft pajamas and go to sleep. Tonight, it wasn't a mistake.
The next day, we start training.
I wake up in the morning, get dressed, and walk to the dining room. Haymitch is already waiting. "Hey sweetheart." That's gonna get annoying. Ignoring the comment, I ask,"So, any advice?"
"Yes, don't show them your best skills until your private sessions. If I were you, I'd leave now. Effie's waking up Seth, and when she's done, she'll walk you down. Don't think you want that." He says. I finish eating quickly, and go down.
When I get down there, only the careers are my , the training coordinator, gestures for me to sit by them. I do as she says. Rather unhappily, I might add. I don't let them see that I'm weak, so I act as bored as I can, which isn't completely acting, and soon, the other tributes come in, until we are all here. We get some long, lame speech about death, and we can train.
But the careers call me. I turn to look at them. The boy from two, Cato asks tauntingly, "Hey twelve, what's the rush? Why don't you come with us?" Gleam, the guy from one, says,"Unless your too scared." The girls from their districts, May from two, and Sparkle from one, make rude faces, mocking me. I can't take it, so I give in, and say,"Fine."
Gleam hands me a knife, I'm good with knives, so I throw it. I hit the bull's eye. The thing is, the target was at least one hundred feet away. All their mouths drop. Cato quickly composes himself. He hands me a spear. I throw it. It hits the bull's eye of a target about 20meters away.
I realize that I disobey the only order Haymitch gave me, so I walk away, leaving them all with a stupid look on their faces. It's a good thing that I didn't shoot a bow in front of them. After that, I mainly stick to simple stations, like edible plants, or knot tying.
After lunch, I just build fires, or tie knots. I got kind of addicted to the knot tying station. So I did it a lot.
When training is over, I go back up to floor twelve. When I get there, Haymitch looks mad. Really mad. "What did you do?"
"Why?" I ask.
"Well, the careers instructed their mentors to send you a formal alliance invitation."
My eyes widen. That's huge. "Tell them that I respectfully decline." I say.
"It doesn't work like that!" He yells. "They'll make you their first target!"
"Oh." Is all I can think to say." I'll tell them that you said yes." He says. Then he rubs his eyes like he has a terrible headache. "You're giving me grey hairs kid." he says, then walks out to talk to the other mentors.
Wow. Seth walks in, crying. Ugh. Still, I decide to be nice.
"What's wrong?" I ask sweetly.
"The careers said I'll be their first target." he whimpers. There's not much I can say about that, so I just say,"You'll just have to practice those survival skills. Train a lot."
Then I walk out.
A/N: Long chapter! To me anyways. I uploaded this from my account on another website. I may have this whole story up by tonight! (I doubt it though.)