(A/N): Okay, sorry for the late update, and thank you to those who reviewed, story alerted, and placed this story on their favorite stories. I really appreciated it and that's why I still tried my best to make this a great chapter. Thanks :)

Katniss POV

I woke up through the cracks of dawn and struggle to gain composure. Where am I? Then I realized, I was in a train headed for the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games. I also remember that I'm in it with Peeta. Why can't my life ever be simple?

"Up up up, we're nearing the Capitol," said a high-pitched voice coming from the door, which can only be owned by the over-ecstatic Effie Trinket. I heard her heels clacking in the hallway, and I got up, took a shower, and went to the dining area to get some food into my system. I walk to the dining cart to see Peeta and Haymitch deep in conversation, while Effie is in the sofa, doing her make-up on her nearly silver-coloured face.

"Hey sweetheart, how're you doing," says Haymitch who wasn't as drunk as he was yesterday, before dinner.

"Fine, what're you guys doing?" I ask, taking a glance at the blue-eyes of Peeta.

"He was just telling me some survival skills. You know, on how to find shelter and stuff," Peeta said.

"Which will only be useful, if you are still alive, so listen to everything I tell you to," he pauses, putting some honey on his bread. "We'll be in the capitol in a few minutes. You will then be handed over to your stylist. One tip. Don't complain, no matter what they do, trust them," Haymitch finishes. We talked about some survival tips in the few minutes before we reached the Capitol. Haymitch was really smart. Crazy and annoying, but smart. He told us how to keep warm, how to get sponsors, apparently, after mentoring and watching forty-six kids die, he knew what he was talking about.

"There it is," Peeta says, walking up to the window, waving and smiling. What's he doing? I give him a sceptical look and he spoke up. "Who knows? Maybe one of them's rich," and with that, he continued waving.

"You better watch out, he knows what he's doing," Haymitch whispers, finishing his bread. I can't believe it. I know that he doesn't feel the same way but, I can't believe that he's going to want to kill me.

"C'mon this is fun," he says, swinging his left arm for me to come and say hi. I wave and fake a smile until we pulled down in a car, and escorted to a tower. We were immediately pulled from Effie and Haymitch when were brought to a room titled, stylist room.

R-R-R-IP. The third time I've heard that noise, and yet I can't help but not yelp, even just a little.

"Phew! Good thing you aren't a whiner. The one we got last year kept on crying because it hurts," says a plump woman. "Well, you can't be beautiful if you don't get hurt once in a while,"

There's something wrong with that statement. Just that, they think they're really beautiful, when they're being laughed at, back at the district. They were ridding the hair of my body, talking about stuff like the latest trends, and those kinds of things. I tune them out. I've never really been one for girl talks.

"There, she looks almost human now," I want to scowl at the comment, but Haymitch said to not complain, so I keep my mouth shut. Like I have a choice though. It's so numb that I barely feel a thing.

"Let's call Cinna," said a man with purple streaking. They all left the room, for what seems like fifteen minutes when a man walked into the room, wearing simple, normal human outfits with the only hint of slight alteration is at the lightly-applied eyeliner. He wasn't who I was expecting to be from the Capitol, but at least he's normal. He pressed a button, and a plate with a lot of food emerged from the table near me.

"That was the bravest thing I've ever seen," he says, turning around to face me. "Hi, I'm Cinna. I'm your stylist," he says as I remain quiet.

"Thank you, most people just congratulated me," I say grimly.

"Well, that doesn't seem right, does it?" he says rhetorically. I look at him.

He doesn't seem familiar though. I usually see the stylists for the games, when they show them. But I don't think, I've ever seen this man before.

"You're new?" I ask.

"Yes," he chuckles, "It's my first year,"

"So they gave you district twelve," I mumble, indiscreetly.

"I heard that," he smiles, "but no, they didn't give it to me. I asked for it," he didn't give me enough time to ask what he meant when he talked.

"Now, for the opening ceremonies, it's customary for you to wear something that represents your district," This made me shudder. I remember a year when the tributes, were naked. They died in the bloodbath, and didn't get any sponsors.

"Now, me and my partner, Portia, found a way to make you stand out," definitely naked and powdered with coal dust. "Let me ask you, what do we do with coal?" he asks.

"We burn it," I say obviously.

"Smart, Katniss, are you scared of fire?" He asks with a crazy grin.

"It's not real fire," Cinna assures us for the fiftieth time in only an hour. He walks away, to talk to Portia and Haymitch when I remember Peeta beside me. He's wearing the same black costume I'm wearing and he looks striking with his blue eyes, out of the black suit.

"So what do you think of the fire?" he nudges, and asks me.

"I'll pull your cape, if you pull mine," I say, smiling.

"Deal," he says and chuckles. Just then, the anthem played, and the district one was up. They were striking with their silver painted bodies, with different types of stones on their bodies. The other chariots move, and when it's time for district twelve, Cinna came over and went over to us, holding a torch.

"Ready?" Peeta asks me, a second after Cinna left, with our now flaming capes. Surprisingly, it doesn't feel bad. A bit warm for my liking, but it just gives a strange ticklish sensation. Before our chariots move, we saw Cinna shouting something at us. I can't understand out of all the noise, but then Peeta started taking my hand. I like it but I wonder, and give him a sceptical look.

"It's what he said. Plus, the people will love it," he says, holding tightly, when we got out. The entire chariot ride took us about twenty minutes. From the opening chariots, to the president's mansion, I wave and smile at the adoring 'fans', so to speak, of the hunger games. A quarter of the way there, I hear the capitol citizens yelling 'District twelve' repeatedly, like a mantra, engraved in their resounding voices. When we got to the city circle, facing the president's mansion, I feel our flames fade, and the anthem fills the entire city. After the anthem, the president makes a speech that we've all heard before, and the chariots moved, leading us back to where we came from.

"That was amazing!" Cinna exclaimed, walking up to me and Peeta.

"Thanks, it was Katniss they loved," Peeta said and I feel a blush coming along.

"Yeah but did you see the girls in the audience? I thought they were going to faint," I joke around with Peeta and Cinna like we've known each other forever, when Haymitch and Effie walked up and brought us to the training center.

The training centre will be our 'prison' for the next four days, where we will discuss tactics, eat food, and the occasional joke around. When we got to the training centre, we went into a glass elevator, and Effie pressed the number twelve. The way there was fast, I was about to ask Effie if we could ride again, but that seems really stupid and childish. But who could blame me?

"Can I ride again?" I said to Effie, smiling.

"Oh Katniss, that's ch—"Effie was cut off by Peeta.

"Yeah me too Effie, we've never ridden on before," he says.

"All right," Effie sighs in defeat, and rides us again. Yay! When we got to the training center, I realized my shock was far from over. When we entered, I saw a huge room, big enough to house a lot seam households. It was draped with velvet curtains, hanging on the drapes of the huge glass windows that are on the edge. There's a huge dining table resting in the middle with huge, brown, chairs which are soft to the touch, and comforting to sit at.

"Ridiculous, huh?" Haymitch says walking up to me and Peeta, who just nodded in shock.

"This place can house about fifty people," I exaggerate to Haymitch who let out a feeble laugh.

"Yet they use it preparing kids for slaughter, ironic, huh?" he asks as we walk towards the sofa to watch the recaps. When the TV opened, which is a huge white wall with a projector, I saw that all eyes were on us. We were amazing. Blue, orange, red, yellow, all combined to make a beautiful fire from the black suit which was supposed to be the coals. We looked good.

"I told you, you should wear flames more often," Peeta says as he nudged me; and I can't help but blush.

"So... tomorrow, you'll start your training. Now, I forgot to ask you something at the train..." Haymitch fades off, taking a bite of his food. "Do you want to train together or separately?"

Me and Peeta exchange looks. "Why?" I blurt out.

"Let's say, you have a special ability that you wouldn't want the other to know about," Haymitch says.

"I have none, so together," says Peeta, almost immediately. I weigh my options. The good side of this is that I'd be able to talk and hang out with Peeta before the games. The bad side is... Well there is no bad side. I must have paused too long because I saw Haymitch and Peeta looking at me.

"We'll train together," I say, firmly.

"Okay, good. Now, what can you do? I already know that you can throw a knife, but what can you do well, but a little birdie told me that you can shoot, you any good?" he says. I haven't really thought about that, maybe I'm alright?

"I'm alright" I say.

"She's amazing with it. My dad always says how she shoots the squirrels she trades at the eye," Peeta says. I'm flattered that he noticed, but what's his angle?

"Well, Peeta can lift almost anything. You know the bags of flour at the bakery?" I ask Haymitch. "He can carry it. Plus, he can wrestle. He nearly won the competition last year. He only lost to his brother," I say.

"What are you doing?" Peeta whispers to me.

"What are you doing?" I retort.

"Well, shouldn't we tell them what we can do? If he's going to help us, you'll have to know your strengths. I already told him mine. That's why I didn't have to tell him twice," he says angrily. Maybe he is trying to kill me, but, he has to win so...

"Whatever," I roll me eyes.

"Now don't give me that, sweetheart," Haymitch says. Where did he even get the idea for the nickname? "Now, strength... is important, especially in the arena, all you have to do is come up with a knife,"

"See! At least, you can fight hand-to-hand. There always is. All you need is knife. If I get jumped on I'm done," I say, feeling like giving up. But I can't, one of us has to win. District twelve has to win.

"But you won't!" He retorts angrily. "You'll be on some tree picking all of us off, eating squirrels," He stands up and turns his attention to Haymitch. "She has no idea of the effect she can have!" He says angrily as he walks away, stomping off to his room.

"Well, you also have no idea on the effect you can have on people, too you know!" I say angrily as I sit down and bury my face in my hands.

"Anything wrong sweetheart?" I glare at him, "Hey hey hey, I'm just trying to help. If I didn't know any better, you might have a crush on that boy" I look up at him.

"Is it that obvious?" I say. Hell, if I'm going to die in that arena, at least I can tell him, who can tell Peeta when he wins.

"Really?" Haymitch asks seriously and I nod. "Well... this just got interesting," Haymitch says as he walks to his room, leaving me alone.

I walk up to my room and decided to sleep. Tomorrow's the training, and I just told technically told Haymitch that I love Peeta. He even said. This just got interesting and chuckled off before he left. What's that supposed to mean? And what did Peeta mean when he said that I had no idea of the effect I can have. What's that supposed to mean? As far as I'm concerned, I'm as interesting as a small cracker. But did he also not know of the effect he can have? Especially on me? I'm so confused right now.

(A/N): That ends chapter three. I honestly, find this story in it's entirety hard to write, but you guys make it easier. Again, thanks to those who reviewed and thanks to those who story alerted and put this story on their favorite stories.

Was the chapter nice? was it good? Anything you'd like to say? suggest? Don't be shy, and press the small review button down there. Thanks :)

-Lee