My eyes open blearily to see the gray light of dawn streaming through the curtains. A smile curls up my mouth as I remember the reaping, and how I woke up with exactly the same feeling churning in my stomach- excitement.

I know I was having odd thoughts yesterday, but I have those down to a place where I don't have to think about them. I volunteered for this, I promised I'd come home… well here I am, and I will go home.

I'll bring pride to my district.

Oliana enters my room and gives me a shift to wear (until I get my arena uniform, I suppose) and I follow her to the roof, where a hovercraft materialises and a ladder drops down. I know how this works. There is a current running through the ladder that freezes you in place, and then you have your tracker inserted. Your tracker helps the Gamemakers to know where you are in the arena, and whether you are dead or alive.

Sure enough, as soon as get my hands and feet on the rungs, I can't move an inch. Once I'm inside, a young woman wearing a white coat comes toward me and explains the tracker, then inserts it into my forearm. I feel a small twinge, but it's not a big deal. Some of the other tributes are probably crying and moaning in pain, but I say if you can't handle this, you sure as hell can't handle the arena.

Oliana is retrieved from the roof and we are directed to a room with a big Capitol breakfast sitting on the table.

"Make sure you eat," says Oliana. "You'll need the energy in the arena."

She's right, of course. But this is really like any other day for me. Get up, eat breakfast, shower… I'm not nervous about the Games- I can eat all I want.

I'm just finishing my last piece of toast when the windows black out, indicating that we're nearing the arena. I smile for a second (we're so close!), then fight it down, determined to look stoic and impassive, even if it is just Oliana and some random Capitol people on the hovercraft.

We land and Oliana and I receive directions to my chamber, an underground "Launch Room" where I will shower, dress, wait, then enter the arena through a tube.

I take an icy shower (to make sure I'm woken up) then brush and floss my teeth. Oliana does my hair in a high ponytail so it's off my face and helps me into the clothes that all the tributes will be wearing in the arena- tawny pants, light green blouse, brown belt, and my favorite item, a thin, hooded black jacket. I can tell the material is designed to reflect body heat, which will help, but I love the way the jacket almost moves with my body, as if it's part of me. I slip into the equally flexible boots and do some light jogging around the room, getting used to this new clothing. I stretch the muscles in my legs and arms, and give Oliana an excited grin. It's almost time.

Almost time for the Games to begin.

I'm reluctant to sit down (I want to keep the muscles in my legs active and warm) so I keep moving around the room, going through everything Brutus and Enobaria told us about the Hunger Games in my head. By the time a chipper female voice announces that it's time for launch, I know I'm prepared, and I feel even more so when Oliana presses a small object into my hand.

Shalom's earring! I had forgotten about it. I slide it into my jacket pocket, sticking the hook into the fabric so it'll stay. Oliana guides me over to the tube and smiles at me.

"I have complete confidence in you, Clove," she says, touching my shoulder.

I smile back at her and state the truth. "I have complete confidence in me, too."

The cylinder begins to rise and I'm enclosed in darkness. Then I feel the air change, and I'm thrust up into sunlight. I'm blinded for a moment, but I smell pine trees and catch a glimpse of sparkling blue that might be water to my right. Good. Perfect. I'm ready to run, ready to fight. I adjust myself on my pedestal as the voice of Claudius Templesmith, the announcer, booms across the arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"