A/N: Hi! I'm posting this on Wattpad and Qoutev! I might even make a website for it! (Because I'm a looser. I know.) Soo.. .yeah. I'll include the links next chapter... and I guess that's it.

I woke up alone, the incessant rattling of the train, informing me that we were still moving. I got up, my balanced impaired from the hit I took yesterday. I let my hair lie loose, and I dressed in a flowy white shirt and some jean shorts. I felt weird, as I walked into the dinning hall.

Mags sat next to me, she was like my mother right now, in fact I already think that she's closer to me than my mother. I ate in silence, I hadn't even tried talking since I yelled Naunet. I shoveled the creamy substance in my mouth ignoring the taste.

"Oh! Look the capitol!" Brye chirped. I slid out of the chair and walked up to the window. I waved. I smiled, hell, I think I may have even winked. Did they see me? Based on the increase of noise and cheers, I would take that as a afirmative.

I almost stepped back when we entered another tunnel, Mags grabbed my arm, her bony fingers lacing around my strong arm. She carefully pulled me away from the window and down to the exit of the train. Finnick did the same with Poseidon who had been carefully avoiding me this whole time, probably afraid that I would lash out at him, like he had on me.

But something stopped me, almost like how I knew that he had lashed out on me, at both of our lows, and I didn't really want to lash out at him, when he was at his low. It would make me that much more of a monster. The tunnel didn't end, but the train stopped, and Mags started moving. She took light steps, barely jostling me, and I followed, trying not to appear clumsy or heavy footed.

I was led down a hallway, and as I moved the tile changed colors, going through the rainbow, the floor did the same, and I stared hypnotised at the hidden beauty of it.

"C'mon Charlie we have to go." Mags voice was barely understandable, but I hadn't realized that I had stopped, holding up the line, and a very irritated Posiedon spat at me form behind.

"I know that you might not think that you need the prep teams help, but I actually do." He ripped himself from Finnick's grasp and strutted around Mags and I, speed walking down the hallway.

"I would keep that temper in check if I was you! Do you even know where you're supposed to go?" Finnick merrily called down the hallway.

"Sorry." He gave us an apologetic look as he went after his tribute who was now much farther down the hallway.

"C'mon." Mags grumbled, I couldn't tell if she found this amusing or irritating. I thought it was pretty funny. She led me to a blue room, there were tiles but they didn't change colors, and I was laid out on a table, and I almost cringed as the dangerous instruments were carted in by 3 preppy looking Capitolites.

"Hi! We're your prep team. I'm Avitus." I watched all of them do some complicated bow. It was like the name games you have as a child, where you're told to do one motion, and everyone goes around the circle doing that one motion, and every name a new motion comes up. Avitus looked almost like an octopus. She had periwinkle skin, and navy hair. Her hair was so large and puffy, it formed a perfect circle around her head.

"I'm Iovita." She almost sang it like some sickly sweet song. She twirled her bright orange hair spinning, the curls bouncing. She had cat ears, on her head. She was dark orange. Like an orange, the kind that we ate.

"I'm Pontius." He fell to the floor suddenly, at the same time as the other stylists, and they all popped up together. He had black hair, almost normal black hair, that reached the floor. He was pink though, his hair was greasy and his mouth looked almost deformed his lips were so huge. It frightened me.

Their introductions were supposed to make me feel more at home, or adjusted, but in truth they made me feel a lot more alienated. I watched with wide eyes as they took all of the hair off my legs with painful tears. I clenched my teeth and nearly cried out in pain every time. They even plucked my eyebrows.

I have never ever felt self conscious, not in my whole entire life. But now, I felt like I knew nothing about my body as they lathered lotions on me and washed my hair. What did people think of my salty hair, surely almost everyone in the District looked the same. Were my eyebrows weird? Is that why they needed to totally mutilate them?

They took over an hour, and the whole time my mind wondered, from Naunet's death to the destruction of my body. I decided halfway through the torture, that I liked the way I looked, and they were just making me pretty to them.

And as quickly and with much flare as they entered, they all left. They even went through the motions, before all three of them strutted out of the room, not a singe one of them even said goodbye. A man walked in, his body, his clothes, his hair, his eyes, his lips, all of him was green. Like seaweed green too.

"Hello. My name is Maximus. I am your stylist." He came around to me, he talked emotionlessly, almost like a robot.

"I already have an idea, but tell me. What do you want to come out as?" He asked.

"Strong. Independent, tough but caring. Charismatic, but still a bit mysterious." I told him, and he rose an eyebrow at all of my demands.

"You think you can make that work?" He snorted, and I felt a bit of anger rise up in me.

"I won't be pretending." I answered curtly. He rolled his eyes as he left the room, without a word. I rolled my eyes and brought my legs up underneath me, sitting like a child. He entered the room, mear minutes later, a white dress in hand. He shoved it at me. I took it and quickly slid into it.

"You can look now." He unearthed the mirror and I stared into it. My blonde hair was lighter and shinier than normal. The dress was white but as I moved it shimmered blues and greens, he took a version of the shell crown that Naunet had given me, and placed it on my head. The shells seeming heavy. I nodded.

"Thank you. It's beautiful." I told him.

"Now, Finnick and Mags would like to talk to you." He said, walking out of the room, I followed him, and found that Posiedon still wasn't ready. I walked up to Mags.

"Beautiful." She smiled at me, and Finnick nodded approvingly.

"Now, I want you to remember, that this is important. Smile, head up high, you need to be kind, and you need to smile. Seem happy." Finnick told me. I nodded. I calmly stood waiting for Posiedon, when he came back, he was mad.

"Look at me! I look like some kind of... pacifist!" He spat, motioning to his outfit. He was wearing a shirt made from the same material mine was, and his pants were khaki. He wasn't wearing any shoes, like me. He looked nice.

"This is not what I want to look like!" He yelled at Finnick.

"Maybe they want to make you seem more level headed." I said calmly.

"What!?" He exclaimed getting closer to me.

"Once they meet you, they'll realize how angry and cocky you are. Maybe they're trying to make it seem like you can also be a nice person. Capitolites have to like you, not just believe that you can win." I told him.

"Charlie." Finnick warned.

"And how would you know!" He exploded.

"Reasoning. I try to think before I do." I told him.

"Yeah, because you totally thought before you did at the reaping! You're just as impulsive as me!" He was so loud, and in my face. Finnick placed a calming hand on his chest.

"I said I try." I whispered before we were ushered to a chariot. Poseidon was still seething with anger.

I watched with interest when District 1 came out. The girl was wearing a silver gown, her black hair pulled into some intricate up do. She had ribbons of jewls and gold chips tied at her waste in a large bow, and in her hair. The boy was wearing black dress pants and a jewel and gold chipped shirt, with a sash of silver around his torso. His light brown hair was tussled.

Next came District two. I didn't see how the girls fancy large floofy dress had anything to do with her district, but I kept quiet. It was red and white, and the boy wore a simple black suit.

I barely got to glance at District 3, as our chariot lurched forward. I nervously gripped the edge of the chairoit attempting not to fall right off. I smiled and waved.

District 3's costume lit up, and showed a million little screens. The crowed awwed, but it grew a bit hushed as we came out. I knew that we probably seemed to natural to them. I waved and smiled, I think I may have even included a few giggles. I was different from Posiedon who flipped off someone who threw a rose at him. The crowd still went wild.

District 5, was sizzling literally, and when we pulled up into the circle, I could smell the smoke. I winced as it made me feel a bit dizzy. Posiedon was holding in some coughs.

District 6 had wings, like huge wings. They were white, and the two tributes were dressed in toga's. They looked a bit interesting.

District 7 on the other hand looked pretty cool. The girl had bright red hair that was let loose, and looked almost a bit like me, with a dark green dress, with a brown ribbon tied around her chest. The boy was huge and shirtless, leaves strung around his chest, and little branches were in their hair. I smiled at them, purposely waving. The guy looked from the crowd, and smiled back. I winked, and he laughed. I knew the camera's would be zooming in on us.

And once again, I did something impuslive. I crossed my eyes and blew my cheeks up. Both of them, as well as the crowd broke out into full blown laughter. I was smiling hard too, and as I turned back to face the president, I couldn't wipe the mischevious smirk off of my face.

District 8 looked like hobo's as they both wore patchwork clothes. The girl had a predatory look on her face, she almost reminded me of Poseidon.

District 9, were two little children. They were wearing yellow overalls and and blue shirts. They were so scared, it was heartbraking.

I almost shuddered when the outline of District 10 appeared, they were scary, both of them dressed up like cows, but they were huge. It didn't matter what they were dressed up because both of them were my height and twice my build.

District 11, was much the same, and I couldn't help but feel like this year was going to be a war between the Careers and the outlying district. I would make sure to stay out of that war.

District 12 was sickly looking. Both of them, could barely stand and were so pale and skinny they looked like simple pebble could shatter them. I was glad that I had been subconciously smiling and waving, while I was watching the districts and evaluating them.

I caught the eye of the District 7 boy, and he looked to the careers, almost as if he was asking me if was aligned with them. I shook my head. He raised his eyebrows and I shrugged. He grinned, and I smiled back biting my lip. When I looked up I realized that I was on camera. A minute after district 12 swung in, President Snow took the stage.

He looked sick too. He was to pale and was old, his voice was raspy and he had razor like teeth. He addressed us all, and made some kind of speech, The chariots all sped into some underground tunnel, and I fluidly jumped out of the carriage.

"Brilliant! Fantastic!" Finnick cried, clapping me on the shoulder.

"Posiedon, maybe you should've been a little more... friendly. But hey! We learn from our mistakes right?" Finnick's smile was stretched.

"I'll go with him and meet you up at the elevator?" Blye Sterlingshire said to Finnick. He nodded, and I walked over to District 7, as soon as their chariot landed. Finnick smiled. I rushed over to help the girl out, as she looked nervously at the floor. She was a good half a foot shorter than me. She looked at me with calculating eyes.

"Hi I'm Charlie." I smiled sticking my hand out.

"Birch." She hesitantly smiled her black hair swishing around as she spoke. It was short, cut just below her shoulders, whereas my hair reached my mid back.

"Ashton." He said, offering his hand.

"So you're not aligned with the careers?" Birch asked me.

"Nope." I popped the p.

"Why not?" Ashton suspicously asked me.

"We want different things." I told them. Finnick came up to me and whispered something in my ear.

"Will you meet me at the roof, the top floor, at... 8:30 pm?" I asked them, smiling.

"Why?" Birch asked.

"Because I have a proposal to make to you. But you have to promise me something." I looked into their eyes.

"Don't tell the capitol." I whispered in their ears winking at them one more time before spinning around and falling in step next to Finnick.

"I think that this is looking good for you. Allies and you haven't even got to training yet." Finnick said as we met Mags in the elevator.

"You did great." Mags said and my heart lifted and almost felt like it was flying. I felt on such a high, everything was working out so well.

The elevator ride was silent and when we reached the fourth floor, I stepped out. The whole room was incredibly impressive. Everything was so fancy, I felt... almost dirty compared to it.

"This is your room." Finnick told me pointing to door.

"That's Mag's room." He pointed to the room right next to me.

"That's my room." The room on the other side of mine.

"And that's Posiedon's room." It was next to Finnick's at the far end of the Hallway.

"Thanks." I told him smiling. I stepping into my room it was big. The bed looked soft, and the windows seemed huge. I went to go take a shower and looked at the shell crown.

I had forgotten, for that whole ceremony, I had forgotten about Naunet. I had been to focused on myself, I had forgotten about Naunet.

The guilt was like a million bricks crushing me, shredding me into a million pieces. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten. I had forgotten that my best friend was dead. I was a terrible person.

The tears came on their own accord pouring out of my eyes. I melted against the wall. Mags slipped into my room and slowly began stroking my hair.

"It's alright. You're going to be okay. Relax." I tried to, but it was overwhelming. I couldn't cope or deal with it. It was going to kill me.

"Don't let Naunet's death be for nothing." Mags whispered, and I stood up, nodding. I needed to do this for Naunet, so no one ever died like her again. So people wouldn't have to protect their best friends. So people wouldn't be punished for what they say, and no one would be shipped off to the hunger games. This was bigger than me, this was bigger then Naunet, but this was all because of Naunet.

"Okay. I won't. I'll get out of this. I'll make it all worth it." I chanted, and I began formulating a plan in my head. This was going to work. I knew it would.

"Thanks Mags." I told her graciously, and I got up and took a shower. The warm water did nothing to the guilt that was building up. I washed my hair and my body. I took off all of the make up and shimmer things. I stepped out, feeling better, and fresher. I pulled on a simple long sleeve blue shirt and a pair of tight jeans. I didn't wear any shoes or socks as I walked out to the living area.

Finnick was gone and Mags was sitting on the couch watching the Reapings. I joined her, just in time for our district. I watched as I walked up, smiling, like I was happy. And then came Posiedon who stomped up the steps angrily. Then it was over, there was no video of Naunet getting shot, or me yelling. It was simply over, like the rest of the clips.

District 7 was fascinating. When Birch was called up, she looked scared and small, and then when a small boy was called Ashton looked like he just cracked.

"I Volunteer." His voice may not have been loud, or emotional, but it was powerful. It was demanding and it was confident. He almost sounded like a career. He walked up onto the stage and the little boy began crying.

We ate dinner without Finnick. I picked at my meal watching the clock for 8:15pm to roll around. When it did, I politely excused myself and walked to the elevator. I pressed the button as fast as I could, but when Finnick stepped out, a Hickey prominent on his neck, I almost made a face and stepped back.

He never wanted this.

I smiled at him, and he weakly smiled back.

"Good Luck." He smiled.