The next day we saw our scores on the TV. The announcer, who was an extremely tall and skinny woman with purple skin and floor length hair, told everyone that the scores were out of twelve. I crossed my fingers behind my back and watched as the pictures of the other tributes flashed on the screen. Patin got a 10 and Beam got an 8. Urso's score came first for district 4. He got an 9, and I got a 10. Cayne got a 9. A lot of the other tributes got pretty high except for a few prissy looking people who probably didn't fight in the rebellion.

"Good job," I said to Urso.

"You too," he smiled.

"Don't get too excited," growled Grig. "There's still the interviews."

"I'm not even going to ask," I said with a groan.

"You might want to," Grig replied. "We have to work on your angle."

Grig wanted me to be sexy for the interview, but I refused. Even Urso agreed I could pull it off.

"Thanks guys, that's really nice you think I'm sexy, but I don't want that angle," I said. I was frustrated.

"Well than, what the hell are you going to do?" shouted Grig.

I glared at him. "I have a personality."

"You could be confindent," said Urso.

"But I'm not confident." I sighed. "I could be determined I guess. And possibly intelligent. And I could get into my love of the sea." Everybody agreed and we decided Urso would be tough and thoughtful.

I wore another "mermaid" dress for the interview. This time it was purple and had straps. Urso wore another tight, white shirt and some loose pants. Everything went well. I noticed that Patin's interview personality was sharp, wary, and a little bit firy. She wore a tight white dress that went down to mid-thigh and had sparkles all over it. Beam was pretty silent and seemed kind of mysterious. Cayne was, of course, sexy and charming.

The next day was the beginning of the Games, and I figured I should get enough sleep, so I went to bed early. I tossed and turned all night, trying to get a little uninterrupted sleep. I had nightmares that we were tossed into a nice, salty sea, but just as I felt relieved, the water boiled away to become an aweful desert. Some of my other dreams consisted of a boy from District 7 swinging an axe at my head. I would wake up in a cold sweat after all of them. Even though I really wanted to get up and run outside, I fought off the urge. I needed to sleep. Maybe the nightmares would get better. They didn't.

The next day was overcast, which I thought was pretty fitting. We boarded a hovercraft where we would get our outfits for the games.

Queego gave me some tight, stretchy black pants with a huge pocket on the side. They seemed kind of water-proof and were pretty thick.. That gave me some hope. Next came some black boots with big, rubbery soles that also went over the toe. They laced up to mid-calf. Then there was a brown tank top that Queego said was made out of a water-proof material. Over that went a cozy, black jacket.

"The people in the Capitol aren't completely happy about the Games," said Queego.

"I guess that's a lot better than them being really excited to watch us fight to the death," I said.

"Well, some of them are actually looking forward to it," he said with a frown.

"Oh," I thought for a moment. "Are you?"

"No," said Queego in a split-second. I could tell he'd been thinking about it. He looked at his watch and said, "Ok, you can stand on that metal plate over there."

I stood on it and just as the glass was lowering over it, Queego said, "Good luck," with an encouraging smile.

I smiled back and gave a quick wave.

I watched his form disappear as I was lowered under the hovercraft.