"You're late!" Effie exclaims when we're finally inside the train. "We should have left five minutes, but since I'm the only one who seems to care about getting District 12 to the Capital early for once…"
"Actually, Effie, I'd say they made it quite early. They probably just wanted to have a small conversation among themselves before getting prepared for the games. There's no need to get all worked up about it."
It's O'Brien. In comparison to Effie, who looks as if some disaster were about to happen, he looks completely calm, just as I've always seen him. After he gets Effie to settle down, he turns to Winston and me and says, "Hello there, Katniss and Winston. It seems no surprise to me that you're both tributes this year. I believe you both had a rather unpleasant encounter a few years ago."
Why does he have to this now? As if the fact that I'm probably never going to come home again weren't hard enough, I have to deal with O'Brien telling us that he already knows what happened between Winston and me four years ago. I don't care if he can read minds. That shouldn't give him the right to get into other people's personal business.
It's not that he's always unpleasant. As a matter of fact, he's usually very polite and even a bit nice with everyone in District 12. Once, when my mother ran out of those herbs she uses to treat her patients with, O'Brien showed up with a basket full of them and told us that he just guessed we needed something. The problem with him is that he knows too much about everything and you never know whether he's on your side or against you.
After shaking hands with us, he turns to the telescreen (which was showing interviews with party members about who their favorite tributes were so far) and turns it off. Both Winston and I gasp. Then Winston asks, "You can do that?"
"Of course I can. We've got the guards in case anything goes wrong. And besides, there's not much use in watching over tributes. You're both already under the Party's custody."
He finally leaves us alone to go read a newspaper from the Capital. Winston and I go sit by the window as the train starts leaving. As I look around District 12, I start feeling sad. I may never come back here again. I won't be able to go hunting, play around with Prim, talk with Madge at school, and worse of all, I won't be able to have to have time simply for myself. They've taken everything away from me.
Tears start running down my cheeks. I try to wipe them away, hating myself for being such a coward, but not before Winston sees me like this. He puts an arm around me and says, "I miss District 12 already, too. Life may have been hard there, but it was still home. And at least we had some freedom there."
" Nobody has freedom anymore," I say sadly.
He does not respond to this. Instead, he starts writing in his notebook again. I manage to get a glimpse of what he writes, which includes, 'I love', but I'm not able to see the rest. He seems nice, but that may not be the case a week from now. The games turn even the nicest people into monsters. It'll do no good to get too close to Winston, considering the fact that one of us may have to kill the other. But I can't think too much about this. I must keep my promise to Prim and do my best in the games no matter what.
I realize this chapter is shorter then the others, but since I'm on winter break now, I plan to update this and another story more often, so please continue reading. Things will get a lot more interesting in later chapters.