The bitchy persona was dropped at almost the second that Alex walked inside the train and the door closed behind her. In fact, she nearly started laughing at Virginia's disapproving expression.

"I hardly think that you're going to make any friends or sponsors with that sort of attitude," Virginia said to Alex, more than a little snappily, her eyebrows raised in a similar way to how a teacher telling off a student might do so.

Alex didn't look at Virginia as she walked past her towards the dining room that she could see through the open door – she now realised how hungry she was. "That's a good thing though, right?" she snorted. "It's going to be hard to kill the other kids if we make friends with them."

Harry was sat at the table, looking at the food miserably. As the son of the mayor, Harry had never learnt what it was to go without food. In all fairness to him, Alex's family had often had enough food, so she certainly wasn't anywhere near as malnourished as the poor children in the Seam were. But, whenever there had been food shortages, Alex had been the one to go without. It was easier that way, it avoided any arguments with her family.

Alex sat down beside him, linked a hand in his, and gave it a little squeeze. She didn't want to talk to him properly while Virginia was here, it would feel like there was someone eavesdropping on them.

Instead, when Virginia came to sit at the table with her, Alex let go of Harry's hand and began to pile some food onto her plate. Her stomach was aching with hunger – she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. She scooped up a spoonful of some sort of stew and took a thick piece of fluffy white bread to go with it. Soaking the bread in the gravy, Alex sighed audible as the warm richness of it spread over her tongue. It was far better than anything she had eaten at home.

Next to her, Harry wasn't quite as enthusiastic in his eating. He picked at a piece of chicken with his shiny silver fork (much nicer than anything any family would have in Twelve), miserably fixing his eyes on his plate. He didn't understand why this had happened. He wasn't supposed to be in the Games. He was the son of the mayor, his name had only been in the bowl five times. It was always kids from the Seam who went in, ones who'd had to sign up for Tesserae so many times that their odds were so much higher than most people's.

And Alex should have escaped. Her name hadn't been called at all. She'd volunteered. Why the fuck had she volunteered? He couldn't work it out. To save him, that had been her explanation. But she had to know what he wouldn't die after her, he couldn't do that to her. She'd not only doomed herself, but him too.

As she ate, stuffing food into her mouth as quickly as she could without choking (and without looking like a complete animal), Alex realised that there was someone missing from their table.

Anthony Stark had been the victor of the thirty fifth Hunger Games. He was District Twelve's only currently living victor. And he was well known throughout both the District and the rest of Panem as the 'town drunk'. He would buy up the majority of the Hob's supply of liquor and spend most of his time drinking away the memories of the Games in his house in the Victor's Village.

Alex had never really had any respect for Anthony. After all, it was quite difficult to respect a man who made a fool of himself every year, and just added to District Twelve's negative reputation. She was almost glad that he wasn't at the table – she didn't expect that he would actually be able to help either her or Harry in any way. But she felt that talking to him might hold some benefit, however small.

Harry, however, felt that he and Alex needed as much help as they could possibly get, even if it came from a drunkard. Neatly setting his fork down next to his plate, he looked at Virginia. "Will Anthony be joining us at any point?" he asked, a definite irritation to his voice.

The expression on Virginia's face was like that of someone who had just been told to go and clean out the pigs. She grimaced, but forced a sweet smile onto her face. "Oh, he's probably just having a nap. I'll go and find him, shall I?" She bustled out of the room, leaving Alex and Harry to eat in silence.

Ten minutes later, Harry had just about to suggest going to help Virginia when, as if on cue, Anthony Stark stumbled through the door, his dark hair falling in his eyes and his beard unkempt. There was a half-empty glass in his hand.

Alex found that it took an awful lot of self-restraint not to roll her eyes as the man who was supposed to mentor them moved groggily over to an empty chair and practically collapsed into it. She was about to speak when a loud belch erupted from him.

Harry, on the other hand, was trying not to laugh. Not out of amusement, but because of the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. They were the least liked District. Neither of them had any real training. Each of them was expecting to die before the other one. And now they were sat opposite their mentor, who was far too preoccupied with pouring himself another drink whilst trying to keep down the last one he'd had.

Her eyes narrowed in contempt for the man sat in front of her, Alex waited in mock politeness for Anthony to finish making his next drink. And no-one would be able to miss the dislike in her tone when she spoke. "Great first impression."

"It could have been worse," Anthony replied, not even bothering to look at the girl. "I didn't throw up this time. Or, at least, I haven't thrown up yet."

Leaning back in her chair, Alex folded her arms and glared at Anthony. "Are you trying to be funny? You're supposed to be offering us help and advice, and we need as much of that as we can get."

A small snort came from the older man. "Yeah, I'm trying to be funny. Humour's pretty much the only thing we've got left, might as well use it. As for help and advice?" He finally turned his head to look at the two Tributes. "Don't die. There you go. No need to thank me."

"Are you serious?!" The outraged cry came from Harry, who stood up from his chair in anger. "'Don't die'? That's all you've got?"

Anthony sighed as he sat back down at the table, and he took another swig of his drink. "Listen, kid, I go through this every year. There's nothing I can say that will help you. So, try not to die for as long as you can, and then hope that there's something for you in the afterlife."

Harry stared at the man as if he couldn't believe that he'd actually said those words. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. And so, he closed it again, turned, pushed his chair out of the way, and stormed off to where they'd been told the bedrooms were.

"Kid's got a temper," Anthony replied, his tone one that might be used in a casually conversation at pleasant garden party. He looked at the remaining person in the room. "If you both want advice, tell him to do something about that. It'll get him into trouble."

Alex had to bite her lip to stop herself from swearing at Anthony, though she didn't doubt that he'd just find that funny as well. Instead, she took a deep breath, and smiled falsely at him. Maybe he would respond better to a bit of positivity? "I know that no-one has any faith in us just because we're from District Twelve, but doesn't that mean that we have an opportunity to show them what people from Twelve can do?"

She'd barely finished the sentence when a giggle fell from her mentor's lips. "Yeah, good fucking luck with that one, sweetheart. As District Twelve Tributes, you have the honour of being the clowns of Panem. Try looking respectable and dignified when your stylists dress you in overalls and coal dust. Maybe, if you're lucky, they'll even give you a yellow hard hat too."

Clearly, the friendly and optimistic approach wasn't going to work. "Look, maybe the Capitol has already written us off, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to try," Alex snapped, real venom in her voice now. "Either be our mentor, or don't. But, if you're not going to be, then stay the fuck out of our way."

Anthony just rose his eyebrows. "Yeah? You want to be tough? Prove it."

Alex didn't even think about what she was doing. Within a few seconds, she reached over the table and pulled the glass out of Anthony's hand, aimed it at the ice sculpture, and threw it as hard as she could. It took the head clean off the sculpture, and then shattered against the wall behind.

Looking back at Anthony just as Virginia walked back into the dining room car, Alex raised her eyebrows and said, "I have a temper too." She didn't really, but Anthony didn't need to know that.

As she walked out of the car, Alex heard a thud. Anthony had stabbed the table with his knife in frustration.

Alex couldn't help but giggle to herself as she heard Virginia's indignant cry of, "That is mahogany!"

And then she went to find Harry, knowing that they needed to have a proper talk.

I just couldn't resist putting the mahogany line in ;) Pleasey leave some reviews :) xxx