It's been two hours at training to be a refine woman. It's not hard, if you can remember all the dumb rules. To cross your calves when your seated, to not lift your skirt above your ankles, to keep the volume of your voice as low as possible while still allowing people to hear you, don't use slang or filler words such as "like," "uh," "so", and keep silent and only talk when I have something important to say. This apparently adds weight to my words. Her final advice was to smile and feel positive. Remember smiles are contagious. Panama tried drilling that idea into my head.

We were now practicing to walk in heels, which proved some difficulty because Mag's old high heels weren't nearly as high as these skyscrapers Panama gave me. She sighed as she glanced at the time and said, "I feel like you conquered some big steps today." No pun intended, I thought.

I went over, thankfully not tripping, and took her hand. She was startled by this motion and at first reaction want to pull back. But I kept a steady grip and shook her hand as I said with sincerity, "Thank you." Even though she was ignorant to my feelings of being a person like herself, she was deeply trying to help me win.

She smiled at my gesture and said, "Your welcome."

Panama began to walk out the room and whispered with hope in her voice, "I am rooting for you."

She was gone and I slowly kicked the heels off. How she managed to walk in those heels all day, I'll never know. Knock. Knock. I glanced up to see Moxie and she asked, "Ready to get changed?"

I nodded my head and stripped out of my comfy clothes and held my arms up. Moxie steadily slipped the dress over and I looked down to check out the dress. I wasn't disappointed by Moxie's work because I loved it. It's a simple gown only decorated with all interchangeable sequins of blues, greens and silvers and in the back it had a slit, showing off my calves. Moxie dropped my silver heels on the ground and I was pleased they weren't very high like the ones I was trained in. Moxie then helped slip on my shoes as I glanced up in the mirror to see Finnick by the door way checking me out. For some reason, I couldn't tell if he's acting or not.

He snapped out of his trance and knocked on the door to capture our attention. I turned around surprised, even though I knew he was there already. I asked, "So what do you think?"

Why does he have to look incredible in a suit? Whoa, where did that thought come from?

He gulped as he looked up into my eyes, "You look beautiful."

Moxie cut in and said, "Well she's not done yet."

Moxie dragged my tall self over to a chair and began to braid my thick hair to the one side. She then skillfully weaved gold threads throughout my braid. After that she applied my makeup and even though my eyes were closed, I could sense Finnick was still watching. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

I could almost hear the smile in his voice, "I'm going to escort both of you to the back stage."

When Moxie had achieved what she called perfection, we all head to the living room to where Reid and Mags were waiting. Moxie was about to exist the door when she stated, "I'll be in the crowd. Good luck!"

My brother and I both chimed in together, "Thanks."

Finnick asked as he glanced over to us three, "Ready to go?"

I nodded my head as Reid moved to the doorway. I reached out my hand and Finnick took it without hesitation. I could tell Mags was out of the loop when she raised her eyebrows at the gesture. I would somehow have to inform her without being over heard. Maybe I could write her a note and when she's done reading it, I then could…eat it.

By the time I'm done thinking about how I would tell Mags, we were at the back stage. I bit my lip and Finnick hugged me close. He whispered, "Remember to relax. You're going to do fine."

He kissed my cheek and slowly left me. "So is that your boyfriend?"

I turned around to Rocko's calm voice. I shook my head and replied unsure, "I don't know really. I just found out yesterday he loves me."

Rocko nodded his head in understanding and asked, "Did you know each other before," he waved around, "this?"

I smiled a little as I took a glance around the curtain to see a huge audience, "That's how it goes."

Rocko placed a hand on my shoulder and replied sympathetic, "I'm truly sorry for your situation, Willow."

I turned around at Rocko and said somberly, "I'm sorry for yours too." I now hated the fact I have gotten close to Rocko. I also hated knowing that he's a part of the alliance with the Careers and after tomorrow he will be hunting me down. As sick as it sounds, I hope someone else killed him quick. I don't think I could hurt him with everything we have talked about.

I looked back to the stage in thought. This year each tribute would be called up to occupy the lonely chair, so we could be interviewed by Caesar Flickerman. Seven people. I have to wait for seven people to go before I could set one foot on that stage. I felt sicker now that the pressure was on to impresses everyone.

"I think I'm may throw up," I heard Rocko echo my very thought behind me. I twisted around and tried to comfort him. "It'll be okay. You're the second district and it'll be over soon. And then you can leave this stage and relax in your bed."

"She's right, you know." Caesar Flickerman himself was behind us and he patted Rocko on the back, "I'll give you easy questions to answer. Just try to be honest."

Caesar gave us a smile before fixing his green bow tie that matched his grass color hair. He skipped off the stage and began to warm up the audience with some jokes. Soon he had settled down in his chair to begin our 15 minute interviews.

Taking the stage first was Chason, who pumped his fist up into the air, showing how macho he was. I begin to walk away from the stage because I think hearing their interviews might daunt me. I know I was pacing, probably going to bring on a sweat and melt my new face away, but I didn't care. I felt more at eased while moving. I soon heard my brother's name called and realized I missed Rocko's whole performance.

I strolled over to the side of the stage again to watch Reid. Reid marched onto the stage with his contagious smile and shook hands with Caesar.

"It was interesting seeing you so proudly holding the famous District 4 Victor Finnick Odair's trident. Are you taking after his legacy?"

My brother wiggled his feet and answered, "Those are some big shoes to fill," The audience laughed as he said, "No pun intended." He gave charming smile to the audience and continued to say, "But I'll try my hardest to not let my mentor down."

Caesar responded, "I believe that's something he would appreciate to hear. Now I know the judges were pretty harsh this year, but your score seemed pretty low for a Career District. Did something happen to throw off your game?"

My brother kept his cool and responded, "I like to keep my competition guessing."

Caesar nodded his head in agreement, "Aw, there's no way better than the element of surprise."

Someone placed their hands on my shoulders and I inclined my neck to see Finnick. He began to rub my shoulders and asked softly, "How are you holding up?"

How was I holding up? Not well, my legs were shaking, I'm probably dehydrated from sweating, and I clasped my lips tightly afraid vomit would come out instead of words. All I could do was shrugged my shoulders. He turned my body and whispered, "I want you to close your eyes." I gave him a questionable look, but proceeded to do what he asked.

"Take a deep breath in and out. Imagine the ocean; hear the calmness of the waves, the smell of the sea salt, the birds singing. Remember the how the warm sun shone down on your body."

I'm taking it all in, my safe haven. "Now keep that feeling with you and image the lights are the bright sun."

I opened my eyes feeling a lot better. He smiled as he swept a piece of my hair to the side, "There, your color is back the shade I like."

I glanced back to the stage to see Caesar shifted closer to Reid and asked, "Any crushes?"

Reid shook his head and said, "No, but there might be one out there just waiting for me." He looked over to the audience and winked at a young girl that looked around his age.

I thought sulkily, for all you know she might be 150; people seem to never age here with all the surgery.

But thankfully, the audience is eating his words out of the palm of his hands.

"What do you think about your sister joining?"

I swallowed the hard lump in my throat as he replied, "I thought it was vigorous to watch Willow fight her way to the top. If there's one thing I know she stronger than she looks." He tacked on jokingly as he rubbed his one shoulder, "I would know, since I'm her brother."

Caesar stood up to shake Reid's hand and said, "It's been a pleasure to meet you Reid. Everyone Reid Sparks, District four!" Everyone applauded and for a minute I felt relief, until I heard my name being called to the stage.

Finnick told me as he gave me a push, "You got this."

I plastered a smile onto my face quickly and prayed I would make it to my seat without falling. As I walked over I placed a kiss on the side of Caesar's face, hoping his white makeup wouldn't rub off on my lips, to greet him kindly. Taking my seat I quickly cross my calves. So half the battle is won, right?

Caesar smiled over at me and complimented, "I love your dress. You look absolutely stunning my dear."

I blushed from embarrassment and replied, "Thank you. I like the color you picked this year for your hair. Green's my favorite color."

Caesar ran a hand over his hair and said cheery, "That's my favorite color too. So getting down to business, we all had witnessed your heroic determination to be a tribute. I want to know is what was going through your mind at the reaping?"

I took a breath in and started to explain, "I wanted to be tribute and have my chance to be a Victor. I think most people know District Four is actually quite competitive to be in the hunger games. It gives us a sense of gaining our honor back for all the wrong we did. So it was my last chance to enter, but low and behold, Pearl get's it."

Caesar chimed in, "I take it Pearl and you don't get along."

I shook my head and made a disgruntled face, "No. That's why we had to battle it out in the end."

Caesar answered back, "And what an amazing ending it was. Almost as amazing as your score yesterday. A ten!"

I smiled, "I'm extremely proud of that score."

Caesar agreed, "Of course, you are the only one to get a ten. How did you do it?"

I rethought my first answer I was going to say because I believe were not allowed to tell any information on it. I simply retorted, "All I can say is that they fell hard for my talent." I could hear the game makers even laughing at my hint of the truth.

"So has having your brother as a tribute put a damper on your winning?"

I wanted to bit my lip, but refused to show any weakness. I reply, "I feel like I have an advantage with having my fellow tribute as my brother. I can watch his back and he can watch mine for most of the competition. After all what's strong than blood."

I prayed he wouldn't continue on to ask the question I dreaded. What if it comes down to the two of us, who would I think would win?

Caesar nodded his head and directed the conversation to a new topic, which I was grateful for. "Very wise. So what about a certain love interest I've heard rumors about?" Caesar inquired.

I managed to make myself blush, "I don't know if I should say, woman in the crowd may attack me with jealousy."

The crowd chuckled as Caesar interjected, "I promise no one will touch you. Tell us details. It's not every day you hear a tribute falls in love with her mentor."

"Actually, I liked Finn a lot, way back when we were kids, though I was too stubborn to admit it." I smiled at the thought of our good times together. "Love was so much easier when you're younger." I then thought about when Finn and Annie were together before Finn was ripped out of our grasp. Even though I knew my chances were gone with Finn when he was with Annie, it was one of the happier times I had when I was younger.

I could feel my smile beginning to pull down as I continued, "It's bitter sweet really that we hadn't confessed our love sooner. With the games it seems to make things a little more complicated." My eyes began to well up in the truth I had spoken. Complicated was an understatement. They had destroyed our lives. The audience awes but I can't tell if it's a sound of relief from the ladies, or if they genuinely care.

Caesar agreed, "I can see why. A mentor can always lose his tribute. I'm sorry for your predicament." Caesar turned to the crowd with a sad face, "I think the audience would agree with me that you hold a lot of promise to win." People are nodded their heads and clap in response.

He placed his hand over mine and said, "Let's talk about something a little more positive. Explain your siren costume to me."

"Well sirens were these majestic creatures, half bird, half human, that could sing and enchant people with their beautiful voices. So when sailors heard these angelic voices most times, sailors couldn't resist and would crash their boats into the rocky coast." Bottom line, I would lure and lead my competition to their death.

Caesar added, "Interesting and well put together since you are a very beautiful and yet fierce competitor."

I thank him on the compliment as I sat up straighter in my chair. I literally felt my butt falling asleep.

"I've heard that you contain a remarkable singing voice, enchanting as a siren itself." I'm shocked that he knew I could sing. How does everyone know this?

"I quote from your lover, 'She can mesmerize anyone when she sings a song.'"

Finnick? I never sang in front of him before.

I nodded my head and replied, "I'm not a bad singer."

Caesar smirked and said, "She's being modest. Will you sing us a song?"

I nodded my head again knowing I should not resist any chance to shine, but what the heck am I going to sing. I stood up and faced the audience saying, "If I knew you wanted me to sing for you I would have prepared something a little more polished." I paused to let the few chuckles pass. "I'm going to sing a song my father taught me in District Four." I cleared my throat and began to sing.

It's high tide in the rolling sea

Waves crash before my feet

The ship is rolling away from me,

Carrying Johnny away

Over the sea, I wait for Johnny to come back to me,

Nothing ties me to the earth you see

Let the dark sea take me away

My lover waits for me, down in the sea

As the storm will swallow me whole

Just remember me as I sing

My heart belongs with the sea

Waiting for Johnny to be

I'll be waiting at the shores

For my lover to come once more

The forage is dry, the trees have died but I can see,

Johnny's dead and waits for me

Here I die for my lover's breath

Waiting, waiting for Johnny's lead

Count the days, chasing dreams

Look not at the skies, but at the sea

The bellows will ring

When you join the sea and there you will be set free

Johnny is there and I shall not wait

For my heart is with Johnny is my fate.

I finished singing the last line and every one began to clap and even stood up. I gracefully bowed and turned back to Caesar. He grabbed my hand and kissed it while the audience was dying down. "Thank you, Willow. Your voice is so pure it has pierced my very soul. Ladies and Gentlemen, Willow Sparks of District 4."

I smiled and waved as I walked off stage. I made it and the audience loved me! Immediately, I was pulled into a crushing hug by Finnick. But I don't care that I can't breathe. I'm so excited that I full on kiss Finnick. If the cameras were on me, let them see.

After the spontaneous kiss, Finnick placed his one arm my brother's shoulders, while his other was around my waist.

"Let's go to our room and celebrate, District four."