The next morning, I woke up with a sense of loathing. And yet, I was so sure I was still at home. I figured that my mother was in the kitchen, humming like she always does, and making breakfast. And my brother was surely in the sitting room with my father, talking over some new contraption that they had made. Yes, surely, this had to be the case. In a few minutes my mother would shake me awake, and I would sit down to a nice breakfast of fruit and bread. And then I would go to school. Hope began to fill up inside me, but when I opened my eyes and saw the bright green fluorescent walls, it quickly went away. I was still in The Hunger Games.

Slowly, sighing, I jumped out of the fluffy bed, and walked right past the shower room. I didn't at all feel like showering while I was in this place. I turned the handle to the door, and walked down the hall back to the main compartment, where Ray was surprisingly sitting looking refreshed. He caught sight of me and waved.

"Hey, Mag! Come on over here! The food's delish!"

I smiled slowly. I wasn't to be won over so easy while I was still in a bad mood.

I sat down. Quickly, Ray shoved something into my hands. When I looked at him for explanation, all he said was: "Try it! It's THE BEST THING you'll ever eat, EVER!"

I looked at him suspiciously. After last night, I wasn't sure what was fact or fiction coming from Ray. But still, I took a bite of the soft something in my hands, and my mouth instantly began to water as I scarfed the rest of it down.

"Woah! Take it easy tiger! You're not going to run out! There's plenty here!"

"What WAS that?" I asked incredulously as I began to grab up the delicious food from the table.

He laughed, showing off his white teeth. "They call it coffeecake. And hey! Save some for me!"

He said this because I started shoving every piece of coffeecake I could find on the table into my mouth.

"Ohmp, Sowwri." I said through my mouthful of food.

He chuckled. "Nah, it all right. But save some room for lunch later! I heard they have this thing called 'pie' and that it's to die for!"

I began to laugh, forgetting my mood from earlier, and then I swallowed breathlessly.

Suddenly a thought came to mind.

"Hey," I asked, grabbing an apple from a nearby basket. "Do you know who our mentors are?"

Ray thought for a second. "No, no idea. But I heard that they're coming to lunch this morning to meet us…"

Just then, right as he said that, two people pushed into the room, one was brandishing a purple handbag and the other holding a hairbrush.

One look at them and instantly I could tell they were our mentors. And I could also tell that they were big on the capitol fashions.

The woman, for example, was young, maybe a little older than us, and had her skin died a light pink, and her hair done up in intricate buns up high on her head. Also, she had bright blue eye shadow, long eyelashes, and her lips were shaded a dark red.

The man, on the other hand, was a little bit older, and had his orange hair spiked up so that it looked really pointy, tall, big black boots on, and purple lipstick on his big lips.

As they approached us, I quickly, took a step back and so did Ray, I guess in the hopes of trying to get them away from us, but it was too late, they were already staring at us with humungous eyes.

"Why, HELLO!" the woman said to me with a thick capitol accent. "You must be the tributes this year. And aren't you the cutest little things!" She grabbed Ray's cheeks with her chubby hands. "Yes you are! Yes you are!"

"What are we, dogs?" I muttered under my breath sarcastically.

The woman didn't seem to hear my comment and kept talking. "Well, we are your mentors, and my name is Penelope, and this handsome man over here is Dash." She smiled, and then looked at us seriously. "Those are pronounced PEN-ELL-O-PEE, and DAH-SHAH."

Apparently we were dumb and dogs. Ray and I exchanged a look.

"So, anyway, to get down to our first order of business, we are going to get to know you a little better! You," she said staring at me with icy blue eyes. "What is your name, dear?"

"Mags." I said, quietly.

"Well, Mags, nice to meet you." She quickly moved on to Ray without even giving me a second glance. "And what is your name, cutie?"

"Ray." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Ray!" The woman exclaimed happily. "Oh, Ray, what a wonderful name! Don't you think so Dash?"

She looked over to the man, who was too busy combing his hair. "What? Oh, yeah. Absolutely darling."

"You look like you have real potential!" she said, flashing Ray a smile.

I about vomited all the coffeecake I had eaten up onto the carpet at that comment. Ray looked over at me. Penelope didn't seem to notice.

"Well, now that we've met you, let's go over here and talk about some things you might need to know in The Hunger Games!" She beckoned to Ray to sit down, and as he followed, he turned his head to me and quickly slid this hand across his throat and made a gagging sound. I laughed as I followed them, but honestly, I don't think Penelope even remembered I was there anymore.

The 'things' she said we needed to know about the Hunger Games was actually basically just a way that Penelope got to flirt with Ray some more. Throughout the entire thing, she kept flipping her hair and saying 'um,' and giggling a lot. Okay, now I definitely knew I was going to barf.

Later, after Penelope and Dash had left, (Penelope with a kiss in Ray's direction) we all sat down in a sitting room with our escort , watching the recaps of the reapings in the districts. Of course, the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 were big, bulky people, and they looked like they could kill you just by looking at you. The other districts though were a little better. Like, in District 5, there was a small, tiny, shrimp of a girl with long, brown, curly locks, and a long, pinched up face. She couldn't be more than twelve or thirteen.

And in District 8, there was a boy about our age with long blond hair that looked like it needed cutting, blue eyes, and a pimply complexion. Ray laughed when he saw him.

After the recaps were over, we were ordered to go to bed. As I made my way over to the door, Ray whispered to me from the crack In his door.

"Hey, uh, Mags?" he whispered slowly.

"Yeah? I asked.

"Hey, you know, this is our last night on the train, and I was wondering…would you..like to sleep with me in here tonight? We don't even have to sleep! Just to talk, I mean. Before we get to the Capitol and the arena." He said quickly, avoiding any implications.

"Um..sure.." I said slowly, surprised at him. I walked through his door and sat down on the bed.

"Thanks." He said smiling. He looked relieved. He sat down next to me.

"So, Mags?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair slowly.

"Yeah?" I asked, staring into his eyes.

"You know..I…" he faltered. "I…" he tried again.

"Yes?"

"You know..I…really miss my family.." he said lamely.

"Yeah, me too… "I said, still staring at him.

"Well, it's just that..I can't… we can't…only one victor.." he muttered, trying to find the right words to say.

Suddenly, I was filled with an impulse I had never known before. And before I knew what was happening, I had grabbed his face, and pulled him into a tight embrace. He looked genuinely stunned for a minute, and then closed his eyes, giving up to me. Then, I pulled away, and both of us stared at each other for a long time.

Suddenly, he broke the silence.

"Wow…" he said, staring at me. "Is that what it feels like to kiss the perfect girl?"

I blushed, embarrassment filling me. I shouldn't have kissed him, but yet, it felt so right at the time. I mean, he was only my friend, we weren't…were we?

I smiled, and he smiled back.

Slowly, I reached out my hand and placed it beside him, and he grasped it in his.

He examined our closely locked hands.

"Perfect." He said, staring at our hands together.

I smiled, the hope from this morning filling me up again, but also with a feeling I couldn't recognize. As I drifted off to sleep that night, I could hear Ray's voice echoing in my ears.

"Perfect."

And it was.