Monday:

General exploration of the arena 9:00am – 5:30pm

Breakfast had been an interesting affair. We had all traipsed down to the dining hall at around 8:00am in an assortment of groups. Glow and I were second to last to arrive, followed by an unfashionable family with almost no alterations at all! Only the oldest male had a thin gold tattoo winding from his wrist to his shoulder, it was a cool design; I might get one when we get back.

Anyway, back to breakfast. There were twelve counters to choose from, it wasn't hard to guess why and the big numbers, 1-12, above each of them made it just a bit more obvious.

Everyone appeared to be going to the District 1 counter, how stupid, we were here for adventure and excitement, so why were people eating the finest bread? I headed towards the District 11 counter and Glow went for the District 12 one. We met up at the table closest to the door and sat down to eat our breakfast.

"What did you get?" I ask cautiously, there appeared to be a slightly blackened brick type loaf of bread on his plate,

"It's the District 12 bread; the server at the counter told me how they make it. It's really interesting!" Glow took a bite, his mouth turned down in disgust but he continued chewing anyway. I looked down at my District 11 bread, it was moon shaped and covered in some sort of seed. I carefully pulled off a corner; the inside was a dark brown, like mud compared to our fluffy, white Capitol bread.

"Go on then, how do they make it?" I ask curiously, Glow swallowed his mouthful of bread, with some difficulty I notice, before opening his mouth to speak to me,

"You know how District 12 mines coal, yeah?" I nod before taking a bite of my bread. It's not awful, but it is very chewy, it has a kind of woody flavour but if I concentrate hard enough I can just make out a slight tang of fruit, from the orchards, I expect.

"Well, once they've made the dough for the bread they throw it in the embers of a coal fire, that's why all the loaves are different shapes; it's completely random how it will turn out!"

"That's really cool, Glow!" I stand up and pull him up beside me, "Come on, we can eat while we walk, it's time to go into the arena!"

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Wow. I'm actually standing on an actual plate where an actual tribute stood! I squealed with excitement. This was going to be so much fun! Glow was in another room along the way, we were going to meet each other at the mouth of the Cornucopia. I shuffled a bit on the podium, my rucksack rattling against my back. We had all been given a rucksack filled with, a 2 litre bottle of water, a map of the arena and a flare in case we got lost. A metallic voice sounded over the intercom,

Launch in 60 seconds

I grinned; I was almost in the arena! It was going to be amazing! We could explore the woods and the corn field that Thresh ruled over and the river and the Career tributes camp and the...My thoughts were cut off as the launch pad clicked and rose up through the ceiling, my smile was almost reaching my ears now, only a few more seconds and I'd be in the arena!

My pod left the tunnel with a pop. The golden cornucopia reflected the sun's rays into my eyes, this was amazing! The anthem started to play so I placed my hand on my heart and sang along too, as did everyone else. The tributes may not show any respect for the Capitol, but we certainly did. My eyes found Glow's, he was across the circle to me, my happiness reflected in his smile. The anthem ended and our plates clicked, several holographic images flicked up by the cornucopia, safety protocols, how dull. I headed towards the opening of the Cornucopia to meet with Glow.

"Map ready?" I asked,

"Yeah! Where do you want to go first?" Glow was practically bouncing with excitement, I laughed; this holiday was going to be amazing!

"Why don't we head towards the cave?"

"But that will take ages, Glee!" Glow wanted to explore something, I didn't think he would be able to walk all morning; he would miss out on seeing everything else.

"Don't worry! We can rent a hover bike!" The Capitol had left a long line of hover bikes for us to borrow; it meant we could get around more easily.

"Come on then, let's go!" We headed towards the bikes and grabbed two before setting off through the woods. We had been cruising happily for 5 minutes when a flash of red caught my eye,

"Stop! I just saw someone up that tree!" Glow's bike came to a silent stop; he hopped off and walked back to where I was pointing,

"Hello?" he called, there was no reply,

"Maybe they're hurt? Should we take a closer look?" I questioned, without waiting for a reply I grabbed onto Glow's arm and dragged him through the trees. When we got to the base of the tree I gasped, it wasn't a person; it was a model! The red I had seen was her vibrant hair, now we were closer I could see the sly face and wide set eyes, it was Foxface from District 5! It must have been made of some sort of plastic because it looked very like her, but it's unnatural stillness told me that it was just pretend,

"Wow" I breathed,

"Hey Glee, there must be more models like this around the arena! Can we go and look for them? Please?" Glow begged

"Of course we can! Come on!" I ran back to where we had left the bikes, I hopped onto one before whizzing of through the dense forest. This was so much fun!