Chapter 3

I sat alone in a lush room in the mayoral house, waiting for my parents to come in and say goodbye. On the table in the centre of the room, someone had put a light lunch for me but I barely picked at it as I waited.

I knew that I would be in this room for a while. Whilst I knew that the other districts would be heading to the Capitol already, we would wait right until the very end. We were too close to warrant leaving any earlier and we would be timed to make sure that there wasn't too long a gap between the arrivals.

As I thought about my arrival in the Capitol, my stomach gave a sickening lurch. There would be so many people waiting to see me. I swallowed back what I was sure would be vomit and tried to calm down. It seemed that my fear of attention was going to have to be the first challenge of the Hunger Games for me. Finally my parents walked into the room and I ran into my father's arms. He hugged me tightly and I could tell that he had been crying.

My mother went and sat down on a chair frailly. My father pulled away from me and moved into the centre of the room.

"I have something for you." He said, his voice choked from his tears and rummaged in his coat for a moment. Then he pulled out a small vial of perfume and handed it to me. I looked at the small vial and read the tiny writing on the side "Allure" it said and I smiled at my father. He didn't smile back.

"This isn't just a perfume, Allure." He said sternly.

"Then what is it?" I asked curiously, turning the vial over and over in my hands.

"It's a pheromone rich perfume." He said and I looked back blankly. He smiled gently at me.

"If you wear it around people, they will immediately like you. I would use it around the sponsors and anyone else you can." He explained. I smiled back. At least we were both on the same page in our strategy.

When the time came for them to leave, I didn't know what to say. What do you say when you probably wont see the people you care about most in the world, ever again?

I hugged both of them. I told them that I loved them. They wished me good luck. There was nothing else we could do. Too soon, they were escorted out of the room and I was shuffled to the train station to start my journey to the Capitol.

As I walked down to the station, I saw Jasper walking down as well. I had to avert my eyes quickly, he terrified me. We walked aboard together and went into the dining cart where two of the beautiful victors and Beryl were sitting waiting for us.

"Sit, sit." Said Beryl, gesturing to the two spare chairs at the table. Jasper and I sat down opposite each other. "Now," started Beryl. "Allure and Jasper, it is great to have you here, I'm sure you'll make District One proud." I found myself nodding and at least pretending to listen cool-headedly. Maybe I was becoming a better at this attention thing.

"Here are your coaches." She continues gesturing to the two beautiful people sitting at the table. "Allure, your trainer will be Cashmere, she won the games six years ago." She said gesturing to the proud, blonde, tanned girl to my right. "Jasper you will be with Erran, he won the 46th games." She said gesturing to a man in his sixties. He had silvered hair and lines near his eyes, but he still looked fighting fit and formidable.

I couldn't help but feel like I would have preferred the older man than the scarily stern woman, but I was stuck with who I was stuck with. As I was looking at the victors, I became aware that Jasper was staring at me intently. I refused to look at him, but I was unnerved. Beryl cleared her throat and assumed a business-like tone.

"Right then, it is very important for our district that we are presentable. You both did a good job with your clothing this morning, I think that we are off to a good start." She said and smiled at the both of us. I suddenly felt uncomfortable in my dress and wished that I had worn something a bit less showy.

As she continued to plan, two waiters came into the dining car and delivered some fresh looking fruit and some of the fluffy bread. I really did not feel like eating. They then delivered two glasses of some thick white liquid to Jasper and myself. I looked at the liquid suspiciously and turned to Beryl with a disgusted look on my face.

"It's a protein drink, it's all you'll be eating until the games." She explained. "It will make sure you can last if there are food problems and it will help you put on muscle quicker."

I looked back at the drink and I could see that Jasper wasn't exactly fond of it either. He sniffed it suspiciously and then drank the whole cup full in one go, finishing breathlessly and shaking his head as though he had just taken a strong drink. I held my nose and drank as much of it as I could. It wasn't that it tasted bad, it was just so thick and rich and strange. I finally managed to drink the whole thing as we rounded a corner into a tunnel and we left the suburbs of District One behind.

A sickening green light flashed on our faces in the tunnel, making us all look rather alien. I held my breath, knowing what I would see next as the train started to slow down. The tunnel ended suddenly and my stomach dropped even further down, if that was even possible.

There was the station with hundreds of Capitol people in their lurid clothing, shouting and waving. I saw Jasper get to his feet, but I beat him to the window. I swallowed up my fear and waved regally at the spectators.

Through the glass, I heard them scream even louder in their excitement. I felt proud, I had made sure that I was the first tribute to be seen. That always counted for something. I felt Jasper sidle up next to me and wave to the audience too.

"Nice work." He said. I smiled back sweetly and shrugged. I didn't like the tone of his voice. There was a threat in there and my brow furrowed as I wondered if I had started making enemies too quickly.