A/N: sorry for the long wait! First I was sick and then I got better and everyone was home and annoying. Then… I have to do a music appreciation project…. Then I have to hang out with friends and today is the only free day! :D Have you guys heard of Hannah Marks? She is so my second choice for Katniss. Kaya is still # 1 though! Well, I'm excited for tomorrow! I'm going to be Dorothy! Ha-ha! Well, here ya go!

"Stop squirming boy!" screeches a women named Carnia, a middle-aged women with bright yellow hair and a pink body. I keep still as my prep team works on me. "You know. He's kind of gorgeous!" trills a young girl whose name is Malezie. I get worried. I wouldn't want to be with her. She has purple hair, gold skin, and tattoos that crawl up her arms. I force a smile to show that I appreciate her comment. "Oh, Malezie! You're just happy he's better than last year's tribute! Now he was horrible! All that filth and grease in his hair!" says Trillck, a man with green shaggy hair, tattoos curling at his mouth, and freakish purple eyes.

"Well, I try to look my best," I tell them and they all nod enthusiastically.

"Well," starts Malezie, taking my face in her cold hands. "You have the most beautiful eyes. They're so natural!"

"Now wait. Look at his hair! It's not greasy or filthy!" says Trillck ruffling my hair. That one small gesture reminds me of Jamie. I can't get his note out of my head. Why can't he see? I have to save Katniss.

Trillck puts something in my hair and pulls on it. Malezie and Carnia fix my eyebrows. "Well, your eyebrows aren't that hairy, but still need to be fixed!" screeched Carnia and started plucking them, causing me to squirm. "Now, now. You want to look your best for your district partner, don't you?" I stiffen up and that causes them to all laugh. If these bunch of idiots can tell I like Katniss, can she?

When they're done they circle my naked body and appreciate their work. I force another smile. "Wow. Thank you. I'm so glad to look this nice, in your amazing city."

This sends them over the top. "Oh! You haven't even tried the food! You will once you meet Portia! Should we call her?" asks Malezie.

"Of course! Stay right here boy," says Trillck. They leave and I grab the robe they left me. It's funny though, I don't feel exposed or embarrassed around them. I guess it's because they're so far from real people.

When my stylist, Portia, comes in, I'm amazed at how normal she looks. Straight brown hair and brown eyes that look that they are natural. She only has light pink lipstick and eye shadow. "Hello, Peeta. I'm Portia, you're stylist. Can you remove your robe for a minute?" she asks. I take off my robe and she circles me. "You have gorgeous eyes you know. They're the perfect shade of blue."

"Thank you. I get them from my father," I tell her.

"Well he must have brilliant eyes too. Peeta, please get your robe and we'll go eat." I put on my robe and follow her to a room with a two couches that face over a low table. Three of the walls are plain, while the fourth is a big window that shows you the Capitol. I walk over to the window and admire it. No one is mistaken by its beauty. "Beautiful isn't it?" says Portia startling me. I nod and she leads me over to the couches. She pushes a button and food appears.

Chicken with chunks of oranges with creamy sauce, which lays on white grain, peas and onions, rolls that look like flowers and pudding the color of honey.

They seriously have it easy here don't they? If I had this in my house, we would be broke and forced to move to the Seam. How simple, in the Capitol, it would be to just push a button and eat, while the rest of us starve in the district. What do they do for a living? I work at only the age of 16, while they eat and look at their tributes ready to die for them.

I look up and see Portia looking at me carefully. "You think we're horrible for eating at just a button, while you starve don't you?" I don't know how, but it's like she could read my mind, so I nod. She shakes her head. "So, Peeta, the first thing is your costume for the opening ceremonies. My partner, Cinna, is the stylist of your district partner, Katniss. I think you know by know, it's customary to show your district's….. flavor."

In the opening ceremonies, the tributes are to wear something that represents your district's industry. District 1, luxury items. District 4, fishing. District 10, live stock. District 2, peacekeepers and weapons. Coming from the coal district, me and Katniss will be in horrible coal mining outfits. I remember one year, there was a set of tribute, from our district, covered in black dust and naked.

"I'll be a coal miner?" I ask Portia.

"Oh no! Me and Cinna think that coal miner get up is… overacted. You won' be remembered in that. We want to make you and Katniss unforgettable."

I'll be naked I think.

"We're not going to focus on coal mining. Just on the coal."

Naked AND black dust. Great just how I want the love of my life to see me in. I think.

"Now, I know what you're thinking, but you've got the wrong idea. Now what do we do with coal? We burn it! You're okay with fir aren't you Peeta?" asks Portia. I'm going to be set on fire. Portia laughs when she sees my expression

In a few hours in dressed in a black unitard that covers me from ankle to neck. I have leather boots up to my mid-calf, and a cape with streams of orange, yellow, and red. I also have a matching headpiece that proves the costume. Katniss' stylist, Cinna, is going to light up my cape and headset before we roll into the city circle.

"Don't worry, Peeta. It's not real flames. Just a synthetic fire me and Cinna created. It's perfectly safe," Portia tells me. I trust her, but I'm still scared that when we reach the city circle I'll be in ashes.

Portia tells my prep team to just leave my face alone. "I want them to know who you are. I don't want them to think you're a different person that the capitol made," she tells me. I smile. It's true I don't want them to make me into something I'm not. I smile at her and she returns it. "Come on, the opening ceremonies are about to start."

We go out of my remake room. I see Katniss. We both have the same outfit. She looks beautiful. Her outfit actually shows her fiery passion. She looks relieved when she sees me. Portia and my prep team are over come with giddiness. Katniss' stylist just looks exhausted when he accepts congratulations.

We go down to the bottom of the remake center, which is practically a giant stable. I look around and see the other tributes being loaded on their chariots pulled by 4 horses. No one even bothers to train the horses. They already know what to do. Unlike me.

Portia and Cinna lead Katniss and I to our chariot. They arrange our capes and our body positions. When they're done they go off to talk to each other.

"What do you think?" Katniss whispers to me. "About the fire?" I'm surprised she's even talking to me, so I try to joke and act charming.

"I'll rip off your cape if you rip off mine," I tell her through gritted teeth.

"Deal," she says. I was hoping she would get the joke but she didn't. "I know we promised Haymitch we'd do exactly what they said, but I don't think he considered this angle."

"Where is Haymitch, anyway? Isn't he supposed to protect us from this sort of thing?" I ask her as I look around to see if I can find Haymitch. No luck.

"With all that alcohol in him, it's probably not advisable to have him around an open flame," she says.

Next thing I know we're laughing. This is the way it should've been. Me and her, laughing, and having a good time. Almost like friends.

The opening music begins, stopping me from smiling. It's so loud, blasted around the Capitol. Huge doors open and I see crowd-lined streets. The ride only last 20 minutes until we're at the city circle and go into the training center, where we'll be trapped until the games begin. The tributes from District 1 ride out and they look amazing. The crowd screams for them. District 1, 2, and 4 are the crowd's favorites. They are also known as the careers. The kids who have trained their whole lives, and think winning is a great deal of fortune. The other districts see winning as life. District by district go by. District 11 leaves when Cinna comes over to us. "Here we go then," he says, and before we can do anything he sets our capes on fire. I wait to get burned but it only tickles. He climbs and lights our headdresses. He lets out a sigh. "It works." He puts a hand on Katniss' chin and says, "Remember, heads high. Smiles. They're going to love you!"

He gets off the chariot and yells something at us. "Hold hands!" he tries to gesture it but Katniss is still confused.

"What's he saying?" she asks me and for some reason she looks amazed.

"I think he said for us to hold hands," I tell her and grab her right with my left. It feels so good to hand her fingers fill the spaces between mine. Without them I feel empty.

We look over to Cinna. He nods and gives us a thumbs-up. He's the last thing we see before we enter the city.

The crowd is amazed at our costume and they cheer. We hear shouts of "District 12!" We've grabbed the attention from all the other tributes. Katniss seems frozen until she looks at a large television screen. I look over to it and we both look incredible. It would be hard for any of us to forget us.

I wave and smile but I can't keep my eyes away from Katniss. I'm also terrified that I'll fall. Katniss might have sensed this too, because her grip on me tightens. She blows kisses to the crowd. They love her. It would be hard not to. They throw flowers at us and shout our names. "Peeta! Katniss!" I'm surprised they even bothered to learn our first names. Usually, being the poor district, our tributes are forgettable. Not us.

I sneak a look at Katniss and see hope in her eyes. Good. She needs confidence. Someone throws her a red rose, she catches it, gives a sniffs and blows a kiss to the direction it was thrown. Oh, how I wish I would get a kiss from her. Those delicate lips are so desirable to me.

A bunch of hands try to grab her kiss as if it's life need. "Katniss! Katniss!" Everyone is admiring her. Including me. She really will win this. My protection and Haymitch can save her.

We enter the city circle and my hand starts feeling numb. Katniss must be as scared as I am, she looks down at our hands and loosens her grip. I cling tighter to her hand. No I think Not yet. Please. "No, don't let go of me," I beg. She looks deeply into my eyes. "Please, I might fall out of this thing." She needs to keep holding my hand. I'll feel empty without. Also, it's true; I'm scared to fall out of this.

"Okay," is all she says. She keeps holding on and I'm grateful. I want to have some sort of her before I die.

The chariots circle around the City Circle. Our horses stop right up at President Snow's mansion. The music ends as we come to a halt. The President is a small, skinny man with white hair and big, puffy lips. He gives us the official-welcome from his balcony. The cameras cut to the faces of the tributes, but me and Katniss get more time.

As it becomes darker, the crowd's eyes are making impossible to look away from us. The anthem plays. Our chariot goes around the city circle one more time, and the camera is still on our faces, when they go into the Training Center.

When the doors close, we're attacked by our prep teams. "Oh, Peeta, that was just fantastic!" says Malezie. Carnia and Trillck nod in agreement. Once they leave I realize I'm getting dirty looks from the other tributes. We have shone them all out.

Cinna and Portia come and help us from our chariot. They remove our capes and headdresses and Portia extinguishes them with a spraying can.

I look down and realize I'm still stuck with Katniss. We free our hands and massage them. My moment's gone.

"Thanks for keeping hold of me. I was getting a little shaky there," I tell her.

"It didn't show. I'm sure no one noticed," she tells me.

"I'm sure they didn't notice anything but you. You should wear flames more often. They suit you," I tell her. Then I realize how weird that might've sounded, but I give her a sweet smile but I can tell she knows I'm shy. It looks like she's happy as she smiles, until she gets confused. Then, she her eyes have a sly feeling.

Suddenly she stands on her toes and kisses me on my cheek.

A/N: Awwww! I love that little kiss! So sweet! I love that boy with the bread! Sorry about the short chapter. I kind of rushed. Final Halloween preparations! K well Thanks! Oh! Did you guys see that little line from Vanilla Twilight by Owl City? Well, it's not exact but Oh well! I do get quotes from some of my favorite things. Like in the 2nd chapter I used a line from the Titantic, sort of, again, at the end. :D Oh and remember: HAPPY HALLOWWEEN!

Updated day: October 30th, 2010