"Oh I am so glad we are back in the Capitol," chirped Thrypol, a member of my prep team, "especially since now we can do some slight alterations."

"What?" I gasped.

"Yeah it was all approved by Pluvita, but she said only one skin alteration,"

Hours later I could take off the bandage under my right eye. It still stung, but it was this or having my skin dyed blood red. I slowly peeled it off each second bringing a burning hot sensation to my entire face. After what seemed like ages I saw the black swoops on my face that created the image of, that's right, another raven.

To me it seemed flashy and ugly, but the team couldn't stop saying how good it looked. The days of the Capitol and the District 2 feast seemed to fly by, the next thing I knew I was lying in Clare's house, to my left was her kitchen, to my right, the stair case. Woah, what the fuck happened?.

Clare came down and sat next to where I had moved to on the couch. "Hey mister quiet." She said slipping the rest of her midnight blue top on over her dark purple bra.

"Hey miss stripper sleeper. What do you mean quiet?" I asked.

"You were like zoned out the whole time you were here." She said putting on a pair of fuzzy green socks and fixes her short shorts.

"Really? Hopefully I don't become a drunk like my father." I said looking around for my glove. Finally I found Klit using it as a pillow. "I'll take that." I said as he hissed at me. "Hey Clare I'm gonna go home ok."

"Oh wait I'll go too." I waited for her to change and we went to my house. "So how were the other Districts?"

"They were weird, I mean they all looked so different and I learned so much from sneaking around."

"Learn anything 'bout anything I care about?" she said with a smile saying 'skip the cheesy crap'.

"Well I learned that that girl Emily from the Games has- had a twin sister, that Kyle kid had a fiancé, oh and then there's the stuff about my mother," I explained everything to her.

"Wow."

Time passed, everything went back to normal. Things started getting interesting during the next Games. The first ever double victory. They acted like lovebirds, but I saw through their ploy. Afterwards the months seemed to drag along, before long yet another Victory Tour came along. During their Capitol written speech I focused my gaze, something seemed odd about the girl, "Clare," I said tapping on her shoulder, "what are their names again?"

"Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen."

"Katniss?" I yelled not believing it. Heads turned to shush me as they droned on as I had nearly a year ago. Soon it was time for the feast, as he former Victor I was invited.

Everyone was escorted to pre-decided seats. To my right were the Victors themselves, to my left was Clare, my +1. Behind us was the mayor and his family. "So Katniss," I begin, thinking about where to go with this, "how do you like being a Victor?" I asked sipping at my unbearably sour punch.

"Eh." That was her only response.

"You know you look familiar to me, were you ever on TV before the Games?"

"Nope." She continued to look at her plate, as if avoiding my view.

"You know when you're conversing with someone it's customary to look them n he eyes." I said lightly putting my hand on her chin and pivoting her head to look at me. The second I did her eyes went wide. Her hands covered her mouth as I let go of her chin, "recognize me?" I explained all my sneaking out and she listened in awe, occasionally having to stop to suck Peeta's face.

"Wow. I wish I did more stuff like that during the tour, but I have to stick to Peeta like glue."

"Here," I wrote my number on a piece of paper, "Call anytime, your pretty funny."

"Wow, thanks." She said with a slight blush. Her eyes went wide and she gave me funny look, "Wait, are you-"

"Don't worry," I say cutting her off "I don't want to destroy everyone's illusion of you and Peeta."

"Well at least someone can tell."

"More than you think, by the way why were avoiding me at first?" I asked referring to before I revealed myself.

"The mark on your face, it reminds me of the Capitol, which I don't wanna be a part of."

I reached up and grazed the mark with my finger, sharp pain exploding in my face from a touch even as slight as that. "Yeah well I didn't want it, my prep team did."

"Sheesh, I'm glad my team isn't that pushy."

"You should be."

We talked the whole time until it was time for them to go to 1. I told Clare about the whole conversation, since she was more focused on food than our talking

"So that's why you asked her name."

"Yeah, I'm going home, if she calls I don't want to disappoint."

Over the next few months I got a few calls from Katniss, the first was about her hurt friend, the guy she was with that day in the woods, after 2 hours or so about Gale we changed over and I talked about Clare. The next call we just talked family. Then she told me about a recent hunting trip where she found some people who escaped 8, and also about her recent injury.

After that conversation I started talking to Clare about an uprising. "Chase your crazy, we live in 2, specializing in weaponry and Peacekeepers."

"Exactly, we can steal the weapons, learn about Peacekeepers, we can-" an unbelievably painful shock exploded in my face. My hands cupped my marked cheek.

"Sorry about the slap, but you're talking crazy!" we went on yelling at each other until I went home, I didn't feel like yelling anymore, but the last two things said still echo in my head "Chase if you go through with this I'm never speaking to you again!" "Than this is good-bye!"

I lied on my bed regretting my words, time went on and I worked on my book, people would stop by from time to time to check on me. I started forgetting the most basic of stuff, so I began thumbtacking reminders on my ceiling above my bed for when I roll over. One day I awoke to 'BIG CAPITOL PROGRAM'. I went downstairs at seven thirty, at first it was just Katniss in flowing wedding dresses, then an announcement about the Quarter Quell, between the two I ran to Clare's house, apologized and watched with her family, the closest thing to a family a have. Snow read about the Dark Days. Then got to the topic of Quarter Quell.

"On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it." I wonder what 2 would do, vote the weak, to weed them out, or the strong to stay on top? "On the fiftieth anniversary, as a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen, every district was required to send twice as many tributes." The thought of outliving 47 people, and being from 12 like that victor, is unimaginable. I wonder if he's still alive, he was hurt pretty badly in the repeats I've seen. "And now we honor our third Quarter Quell," the child next to him opens a box and Snow took an envelope marked 75 out. He removes the paper and reads "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing victor pool."

Our eyes went wide, there are currently 25 victors in 2, 19 are male, I have a 1 in 19 chance of going back to the pain, the agony, the torture, of the Games