The anthem ends and we are taken inside the Justice Building and put into separated rooms. The room I am in is the richest place I've seen. It has carpets and velvet couches and chairs. Touching the fabric helps me calm down a bit and prepare myself for the next painful hour: saying goodbyes to my loved ones. I can't cry now. More cameras will be coming.
The first ones who enter are Prim and my mother. I open my arms and Prim climbs on my lap, wraps her arms around me, and rests her head on my shoulder. My mother hugs the both of us and we stay like that for a few minutes, saying nothing. I tell them the things they should do when I'm gone.
Prim won't sign up for tesserae. They can earn well by selling milk and cheese from Prim's goat and from my mother's small apothecary shop she runs in the Seam. Gale will get her other herbs, as long as she will describe them exactly because he's not familiar with them as I am. He'll also bring them game in exchange of milk or medicine. I tried to teach Prim how to hunt, but every time I shot anything; she'll cry and ask me if we can heal it. She's better off with her goat, and that's how it is.
When I am done, I turn to my mother and grip her arm.
"Listen. Don't go," I say.
"Yes. I won't. I should've—" she says, eyes on the floor.
"Never leave Prim. I won't be there to keep you alive. Whatever you see on the screen, don't mind it. Promise me you'll stay!" I shout, releasing all my anger from her abandonment.
She removes my hand from her arm. "I could've just treated myself with the medicine I now have."
"Then go! Take care of Prim!" I say.
Prim takes my face in her hands. "I'll be okay, Peeta. You should take care of yourself, too. You're brave. You can win."
I can't win this. There'll be 24 of us. Boys bigger than me and girls who can kill me with a knife.
"Maybe I can," I tell Prim. Maybe I can, though. I don't give up easily. "We'll be rich like Haymitch."
"It doesn't matter if we're rich. I just want you to go home," says Prim. "Please try to win. Really, really try?"
"I'll try. I swear," I tell her. I have to. For her.
A Peacekeeper signals us that our time is up. "I love you," I tell them and they say it too. The Peacekeeper tells them to leave and the door closes. I bury my face in my hands to forget.
The next person who comes is, surprisingly, the baker: Katniss Everdeen's father. He's big, broad-shouldered and has burn scars from ovens. It is kind of shocking, the idea of him visiting me when I'd be trying to kill his only daughter out of his three kids. He knows us a bit. Prim sets aside two of the goat cheese she sells at the Hob to trade it to him. In exchange, he gives us generous amounts of fine bread. Gale and I also trade with him when his evil wife isn't around because he's very kind. I think he just said goodbye to his daughter.
He hands me a white paper bag. There are cookies inside when I open it. I wish I could call Prim now and give these to her. These are the ones she loves to look at by the bakery's shop window. The ones we could never afford, even just one piece of it.
I tell him, "Thank you." He's a man of few words, but now, he really doesn't have anything to say. "Gale told me he traded a squirrel for some of your bread. We had some this morning." He just shrugs when I say, "Not your best trade."
We just sit there in silence. Turns out I don't have anything to say too. A Peacekeeper signals us the time up again. He clears his throat and said, "I'll watch her. Make sure she has something to eat."
His words relieved me. A lot of people are fond of Prim. Thankfully, one of them is Mr. Everdeen.
Another unexpected guest arrives. It is Madge. She stands in front of me and says in an urgent tone, "They'll let you wear something that will remind you of home. Will you wear this?" She holds out her pin. The one she wore earlier. I see it has a bird in it.
"Your pin? Are you sure?" I tell her.
"Yes. Let me put this for you," she tells me, leans in and puts the pin on my collar. "Promise me you'll wear this in the arena. Promise?"
"I promise," I say. I got lots of gifts today: cookies, a pin and one more. Madge gives me a friendly hug. I return it. Maybe Madge was really my friend all along.
Gale is next. He gives me a big, brotherly hug. He starts giving me tips for the Games.
"You can easily get a knife, but you're great on a bow. It'll be your best option," says Gale.
"There are no bows sometimes," I say. There'd been Games where tributes were only provided the same weapon: spiked maces they used to chuck one another with.
"Then make one. Better than nothing."
"If there's wood. I can't even copy my father's work."
"There will be. Watching the tributes die freezing is boring for the Capitol. Go hunting. You're the best hunter I know."
"Not just hunting, Gale. They have weapons."
"You have one, too. You know how to kill, we've had lots of practice in the woods."
"But those were animals."
"What's the difference?"
Gale asks for more time, but the Peacekeepers didn't give him.
"Watch them for me!" I shout.
"I will! Take care!" he says, and the door closes.
The ride from the Justice Building to the train station is short. We ride a car to it. I've never been in one; in the Seam, walking is our main form of transportation.
Katniss Everdeen obviously cried earlier. It may seem normal for girls to cry, but it could also be her strategy to appear weak then be vicious in the Games, just like what Johanna Mason from District 7 did years ago. It'd be also conflicted, because she's stronger than she looks. Her mother made her carry sacks of flour over the years, and taking trays to and from the oven with ease. It would be hard to appear weak.
We stand there in the station for a few minutes with photographers surrounding us. Lots of them. When we enter the train, it moves at once.