This chapter doesn't seem quite as good, in my opinion, as the ones before. It seems a little... weird... If you can figure out why, could you let me know in a review. Or if you blatantly disagree with that and think it's great, but I'm still convinced it's different to the others somehow.

Delicia didn't lie; dinner is, I hate to admit it, gorgeous. When the three of us- me, Betony and Delicia- reach the table, the boys are already sitting down- Wilhelm at the end of the table, Baxter and Haymitch awkwardly sitting side by side. Betony darts right for the chair at the other head of the table, directly opposite Wilhelm. Delicia makes a 'huff' noise (I take it she usually has the other head end) and sits opposite Haymitch, nearer Betony's end than Wilhelm's. I, seeing as it's the only place left, slip into the chair opposite Baxter.

Then, I just stare at the plates arranged across that table; there are bowls of salad, a big carcass of what I assume to be chicken, but it could just as easily be duck or turkey- I'm not an expert when it comes to dead birds. There's various fruits, vegetables; even, to my surprise, a little bowl of peanuts! Everything's so beautifully laid out, like it's a piece of artwork and not just dinner. I almost feel bad thinking about eating it, just because it'll ruin it.

And then I remember that if it's a lot of gorgeous food for me, it must be the most amazingly fantastic food to Betony and Haymitch; the Seam kids. The latter doesn't really look too fased, though there is what I suspect to be mild amazement making the corners of his mouth lift ever so slightly in what I think might be the beginnings of a suppressed smile. Betony, however, isn't even trying to contain her excitement.

"I've never even seen so many different types of fruit at once!" She squeals, grinning ecstatically and pointing, "Haymitch, look!"

"Yeah, I see." He says, following the direction her finger is pointing with his gaze to the bird on the dish that may or may not be a chicken. "It's duck, isn't it?" He looks across at Delicia for confirmation.

"I believe so." She confirms. The chicken is duck. Okay.

We sit there, no-one saying anything, no-one moving a muscle. After a while, I take it Wilhelm's stomach was telling him to get on with it because he's reaching across the table and slowly pulling the nearest bowl of salad toward him. Really slowly. It's like he's under the impression that if he moves it slowly, we won't notice it's moving.

Still, that one action of Wilhelm's starts up all of us. Soon I find myself munching through a slice of freshly cut bread. I could put butter on it, but that's all the way down on Betony's half of the table and I doubt I could reach it.

"Now then," Delicia says, dabbing at her mouth with a paper napkin. "We'd all best get an early night tonight; tomorrow morning we'll be arriving in the Capitol." She looks around at all of us, as though she's expecting us to say something. No-one says a word. In the end it's Betony who speaks for us:

"What's the Capitol like, Delicia?"

"Well…" Delicia struggles, apparently not expecting a question like this. "It's… Very… Gorgeous? Yes, that's the word."

"Uh huh." Betony replies. "Are the people there friendly?"

"Oh, they're fantastic." Delicia insists. "They're just like… Wilhelm, help me out here."

"Wild dogs." Wilhelm replies flatly, not even looking up from his plate. "They're just like wild dogs." Delicia glares at him.

"I see you still know nothing." She scolds, using the sort of voice you'd expect someone to use with little kids. "Honestly, I would think that you'd know better, what with how many times you've visited the Capitol now." Wilhelm says nothing, but he's smirking pretty cheekily. It makes me wonder what the playful boy Mum always described was like, and whether or not he used to tease people so easily and finish with a childish smirk back then too.

When dinner's finished, Wilhelm is the first to leave.

"I need sleep." He mutters, shuffling off out of the dining cart toward the room that is his bedroom for the duration of this train journey. Delicia coughs lightly.

"You should get some sleep too." She tells us. "We've got a lovely busy day tomorrow." She scurries out of the room too.

There's silence as the four of us, all still sitting in our respective seats, think about what we can say. It's Betony, once more, who breaks the silence:

"I don't like busy days." She says. "I like days when Daddy isn't working, because it's the weekend, and Gracie is asleep, and Toby is playing with me outside, and Francis comes over to join in. They're my favourite days."

"I like lazy days." Baxter replies. He's not one to talk all that often to strangers, so it surprises me that he's saying anything at all to anybody other than me right now. "You know; days where you don't have to wake up until midday, and you can spend all the rest of the day in your pyjamas."

"I like having a lie in," I say, shooting a brief but pointed glance at Baxter. "But not until midday." He gives me a slight grin. "I like dragging Macy, my sister, round to Anise's house. I like it when the three of us are all together. We could be anywhere, doing anything, but they never fail to make me smile."

"Aw, how touching." Haymitch says. I think it's highly possible he's being sarcastic.

"Oh yeah?" I decide to challenge him. "What are your most perfect days like?"

"The days," He pauses to think for a moment. "Where I hurry over to Betony's house, always knowing Francis is highly likely to be there. And then I, uh," he glances at Betony. "'Kidnap' her."

"Because," Betony continues brightly. "Francis is the fairy princess and Haymitch is the evil warlock who wants to kidnap her and lock her in a tower far away."

"So it's not just that Haymitch has a thing for Francis." I say smugly, looking diagonally across the table at the Seam boy in question. He turns an interesting shade of red.

"No!" He insists. "It's… It's a game we have, that's all."

"Of course it is." My turn to be sarcastic. He glares at me, but I'm grinning so hard that it had little to no effect.

"Well," Baxter says, stretching his arms out above his head. "Delicia said we should go to bed. Maybe we should."

"I'm not tired!" Betony states. This statement is swiftly followed by a loud yawn which seems remarkably large for a girl so small.

"Of course not, Bet." Haymitch agrees. Once again, I am sensing some mild sarcasm here.

"Come on," I say, standing up. "I'm not sure I can remember how many doors down this train we are anyway." Betony obediently slides her chair back and steps away from it, just as I stand behind my own and push it back under the table.

"Night, Haymitch," Betony says brightly. "Night, Baxter. Come on, Maysilee, it's this way!"

She scampers off out of the door. I start to head after her, but stop when I hear my name. It's Baxter.

"Night," He says once I've spun round to look at him accusingly.

"Yeah, night," Haymitch adds.

"Nighty night, boys." I reply, smirking slightly. I hurry after Betony before they can comment. She waiting patiently just outside the door to the dining cart and the two of us head back to our shared room together.