Sitting cross-legged beside her small but lively fire, Katniss decided that there wouldn't come a time when implementing Haymitch's plan to socialize would be any easier. Her fellow fire station participants were the District 3 victors, and they seemed relatively nonthreatening. Communication with people from other districts normally never occurred, and she also realized the potential for gauging how far the rebellion had spread.
What started as an expansive stretching of the arms turned into standing to her feet, and she drifted casually towards her fellow victors. Easing herself back down to the floor, she looked at them as if having recently noticed their existence.
"Hey guys," she said casually.
They greeted her in turn.
"So, what's going on?"
Beetee, the male victor, replied, "Nothing, really," and his female counterpart, Wiress, answered in the same casual, slightly nervous manner.
Eyebrows raised, Katniss pressed. "Yeah, but what's going on."
"I'm afraid I don't-"
"Is your District," she said, accompanied with aggressive air quotations, "In rebellion?"
Seemingly frightened by her directness, Beetee shook his head, eyes dodging around the room.
She shook her head back at him. "Honestly, sometimes."
The pair mumbled at each other, facing their sickly little flame. Beetee removed his glasses and inspected the lenses while Wiress stirred some charred sticks, seemingly without a particular goal in mind.
Perfect, thought Katniss.
Later, the three of them moved on to the camouflage station, which seemed to be slightly more suited to the interests of Katniss's new allies. As they absentmindedly applied various mixtures to their forearms, Beetee took a casual glance at the raised area from which the Gamemakers viewed the room.
"They've added a force-field this year," he remarked.
Surveying the seemingly open air, Katniss asked, "How can you tell?"
"All force-fields, at least all that I know of," he explained, resuming the dying of his pale skin, "Have a weak point, a chink in the armor, that's visible if you know where to look."
Katniss continued to scrutinize the air. "So what?"
"So, this is obviously going to come back up later," sighed Wiress, "Do we have to spoon-feed you everything?"
At the appointed time, the victors moved into the dining hall. A certain group predictably spent the majority of the time taking advantage of the free alcohol, while the rest took seats with their budding alliances. Peeta called Katniss over to him at the end of a table.
"So I think Haymitch was right. I've been talking to some of the people he said he's known just from being a mentor for so long, and-"
Resting the tips of her fingers on the table before her, Katniss cut him off. "It's going to be the two of us, Beetee, Wiress, and this eighty year old woman named Hags."
Peeta shrugged. "Of course. Any particular reason why?"
"Nope."
"Sure," he nodded to her, "why not?"
Jealously eyeing Effie's glass of wine, Haymitch looked up as his mentees entered the room. The pair took their seats across from him.
"Well?" asked Haymitch expectantly, "How'd it go? What did you guys do for the private sessions?"
"I did my stand-up routine," answered Katniss, "The one with all the mine explosion jokes."
As Haymitch rested his elbows on the table and his head in his hands, she followed up with a brief summary of how she felt her relationship with the crowd had been, which jokes had hit, and her thoughts on how stand-up should really be a dialogue as opposed to a monologue.
When she had finished, he turned to Peeta. "And you?"
"I painted a picture on the floor of Rue in an effort to make them feel guilty for murdering children."
Haymitch's response to this was similarly unenthusiastic. "You two," they each got an index finger in their direction, "Need to decide right now whether or not you're going to try and 'fight the system', or actually win, because I'm sick of going back and forth."
"Actually, I don't know about either of you guys, but I was just planning on continuing to go back and forth and just kind of see how that turns out," said Katniss.
"That was actually my plan as well," agreed Peeta.
"Hey," Katniss raised a hand, "It worked last time."
Haymitch seemed conflicted about this last point for a moment, but ultimately gave them a concessionary nod.