Chapter 2

The woman was absolutely crazy.

I am not dressing up as a tree.

A freaking tree.

My stylist holds out the costume, a bodysuit made of flesh coloured mesh covered with leaves and branches.

"I am not wearing that," I say, "I will look ridiculous."

"I'm afraid you have no choice in the matter," my stylist trills and begins to dress me.

I let her but I grumble under my breath, making sure I'm loud enough for her to hear my utter dislike. All she does is laugh at me and then make sure my hair and makeup is all done. She puts a crown atop my short hair and pats my cheek.

"You look beautiful darling," she chirps in her stupid Capitol accent.

I'm so tempted to slap her. Maybe it would dislodge the stupid accent.

Then she takes me out to where all of the chariots are gathering. All of the tributes eye me in the costume. Many of them smirk at me. I see the promise of my death in them. Joke's on them.

I arrange my face into a fearful expression, exaggerating my present terror. It was there, buried under the determination and ferocity. I meet Jared at our chariot and we get on. Soon enough, the tribute parade starts.

Everything blurs together. The citizens' faces, their fancy clothes, bright colours, the TV screens with us on them. Next thing I knew, we were pulling into the Training Center.

I run in the familiar forest of home, the scent of it filling my lungs. Sam's there with me, grinning. Then the scene changes. I'm still in the forest but not the one at home. It's different, just the feel of it. Fear, blood and danger are in the air. Tributes jump from between the trees, wearing different costumes from past Games. The costumes are blood splattered. They hold weapons, shining and deadly. It's an army of dead tributes coming after me. And at the head of the army is Hugh.

Hugh is in a simple jacket and pants, an axe in his hand. Blood drips from the blade. Dried blood is all over him. His death blow, a cut to the neck, freshly bleeds.

I jolt out of bed just in time for breakfast. The nightmare terrified me so badly that I fall out of my bed. I groan and then get up, following the scent of food. Blight and Jared are already there, eating. I stuff my face and then when I'm done, Jared leaves to get ready.

Blight turns to me. "Tell me your plan quick, Johanna. And I have a feeling what it is," he says.

"I'm acting as a weakling so they'll leave me alone," I say. "They won't pay attention if they think I'm weak. I can be easily disposed of."

Blight rubs his chin in thought. "Well, it is working so far. It may not guarantee you life on the first day but it's worth a shot. Keep it going. Even during the private sessions. You have to get a low score. The highest would be a five."

I nod to let him know I'm listening.

"And you don't want Jared to know this either, do you?"

I shake my head. "If he knew, then I don't know what he'd do."

"Well, you better get going, training is going to start," Blight says and pats my shoulder.

I sigh and then follow Jared out to the elevator.

Training doesn't exactly go well.

The Careers made a point by shoving me around at different stations.

"Dead meat," one of the boys whispers to me. I think he's from 2. He's huge and pretty scary.

I manage to restrain myself, from shoving him and grabbing the nearest weapon.

To cover up my rage, I just shakily sigh.

It's near the end of training now. I've learned a couple of things like some new snares, and edible plants. I know a lot of this stuff about surviving in the woods; I'm in them every day. It's always a precaution. If a wild predator attacks, or we somehow get separated from our chopping team, we knew how to survive off the land.

I'm at the last station of the day, the axe station. I've decided to risk it. Obviously that was not smart of me.

I'm not good with controlling my temper.

It's the same Career boy, the one from 2. As soon as I grab an axe, he takes it from me and throws it. It hits the dummy in the chest.

I grab another before he can take it from me. I shove him away and then throw the axe. It cleaves the dummy's head in half. The Career looks down at me, surprised.

"Lucky throw," I say, shrugging.

I felt the Gamemakers' eyes on me as I shove past the Career and mutter swear words under my breath.