The bright lights shine in my eyes as the horses pull my chariot forward. I nearly stumble and I have to grab Phelan's arm to balance. He helps me steady myself.

I see us on the big screen. We look great. I don't look like myself. I look brave and a bit threatening.

Then I see Asriel and the girl from his district and they look great too. I had initially thought that they looked ridiculous, but now that I see them on the screen, I understand their stylists' choices. They stand out and the jewels sparkle, making them look a bit godly.

The people of the Capitol are cheering loudly. They all cheer our names. When Pheelan and I pass by the crowd, they cheer our names.

"Pheelan!"

"Ivory!"

I figure that this will be my only chance to charm the audience until the interviews so I start waving and smiling.

Pheelan sees what I'm doing and catches on. He takes my hand and lifts into the air.

The music and pounds into my ears. It is quite intolerable, but I don't let my annoyance show. I'm smiling so widely, my cheeks hurt.

I can't help but notice how nice the costumes of the tributes from Four are. Their bodysuits seem to glimmer like the scales of a fish. It's quite a nice play on the district's main industry.

I turn back to look at the other tributes and the tributes from twelve catch my eye. Their designer made the unfortunate choice of having them dress up like coal miners, but I guess that there is not much you can do with coal mining. The girl was very beautiful, but so underfed. It made me glad that Seven wasn't as poor as Twelve and Eleven.

As the chariots reach the end of the pathway, they halt to a stop and I nearly fall again.

"Seriously, Ivory, you need to work on your balance," Phelan jokes after catching me mid fall.

As President Carr gives us a speech, commemorating us on our sacrifice, Phelan turns to me to make yet another joke. "We already have a one in twenty four chance of survival, the least he could do is spare us the long and boring speech."

I can't help but smirk as I hear this. President Carr is known for having lengthy speeches. "Give the man a break Phelan," I say, trying to keep a serious tone. "There's nothing wrong with being in love with the sound of your own voice."

I can imagine myself partaking in such banter back in the districts but now that I'm here and I'm probably going to die soon, I might as well say whatever I want.

After the ceremony was all over, we were helped out of our chariots and we walked towards the elevators to the apartments in the training center. As Phelan and I stepped into the elevator, the girl from One follows us.

"Asriel, the boy from my district, told me that we were on the second floor and that we should take the stairs, but I figured, 'Why not?', this may be one of my last elevator rides ever," she explains.

As the elevator reaches her floor, she sighs, "This is me," she says. Then she looks at me. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

I nod and step off with her, wondering what she could possibly want with me.

"What's your name?" she asks.

"Ivory Portshore," I reply. I start chewing on my cheeks, a bad habit I inherited from my father.

"Ivory, I'm Swann Lascius," she informs me. "I just wanted to talk to you about a certain... opportunity, you may want to call it."

"Go on," I say.

"Well, as you may know, those of us from career districts, have been training for this ever since the games have been announced. We all volunteered for it, and we are all the strongest. We plan on forming an alliance between those of us from One, Two and Four and maybe the odd person from another district. We would like to become allies with some people in the other districts, and well, that's where you come in," she says.

"I don't understand," I say, confused. "How do I play a part in this?"

"You don't... yet. We want you to join us. You seem smart, strong and you're pretty. Asriel has already labeled you as a threat and we could use your strengths."

I didn't like that idea. "But what happens when we all kill everyone and it's just us left?" I ask.

"Then I supposed we kill each other," she replies.

"Count me out," I say. "I just prefer to go at this alone."

"Your mistake," she says, sighing. "But beware: you have a target set on your back, and we won't go easy on you."

"Thank you for the warning but I think I'll do just fine," I say, and I walk back to the elevator and head up to my floor.

I walk into the luxurious rooms for the tribute from twelve and feel sick to my stomach. Everything here is so expensive and beautiful. There's food everywhere and there's way too much for all of us. And to think that while all this is surrounding the people of the Capitol, there are people in the districts that are dying from starvation.

"Ivory! There you are!" Cass calls out. "Go wash up and meet us here for dinner!"

I walk to my room and head to the bathroom. There is makeup smeared all over my face, and it will probably take a while to wash off.

I take a shower, taking my time to test out each of the different buttons in the shower. By the end of it, I smell like at least ten different scents, but I like the feeling. There is something that instantly dries your hair, but I decide to leave it wet.

I slip on a nice dress, that's soft and silky and brush my now short hair out.

I walk into the dining room and take a seat, instantly served. One of the servers pours alcohol into my glass and I decide to try it.

I take a sip, and the first thing I feel is warmth. I down the glass, and suddenly, I feel very lightheaded and relaxed.

"You two were amazing today," Cass says, looking at us the way a proud parent would at their child.

"Thank you Cass," I say. I can't help but stare at her green tattoos. "Hey, why did you decide to get trees tattooed on your face?"

"Do you like them?" she asks.

"Yeah, sure. It reminds me of home," I say after I down another glass of the alcohol. "But why a tree?"

"I got it for my mother, her name is Maple so I got a maple tree on my face," Cass says, smiling warmly.

"That's not maple, that's birch. You can tell from the ovate leaves. I would say it's a common mistake, but it really isn't," I say. I seem to have lost any type of filter I used to have. It was as if my mouth and my brain were racing and my mouth was winning.

It suddenly get really quite. Phelan looks at me and he rolls his eyes.

I can't help but get extremely angry as the lot of them glance at me like I've done something wrong. "Oh stop freaking out. It's not my fault that she doesn't know the difference between maple and birch!"

I want to yell at them all. My stylist, Cass, Phelan, and the rest of them. I want to take my anger out on them. But I'm not really angry at them though. I'm angry at President Carr, the Capitol. I'm angry at them for taking me away from home and forcing me to compete in the Hunger Games.

I rush over to my room.

"This is what happens when you drink on an empty stomach," I can hear Terra say.

I strip off my clothes and wish for the smell of the forrest. Anything from home. I wish that Lauren was with me right now. I wish that my mother and father were here too. But I know that they would be ashamed of me, for being so rude and selfish.

I can feel myself breaking down as I curl up into a ball on my bed and sob, wishing for this to be all over.