I dip my toes in the water. It's freezing.

"Finnick, you said water was warm!" I exclaim, and put my hands on my hips.

"It is!" he insists, and tries to push me in. I jump out of the way.

"Oh, no! It's cold!"

"What do you know about water, Johanna?" He says.

"Well, I've had baths," I say, and unfortunatly, this is the best I can do. "Oh, and there was some kind of river during the Games."

"I've been swimming since I was two. Get in the water!" He says, not in a mean tone, but serious. Well, I can't say it's serious, since he's smiling.

The Capitol has a pool, reserved for us Victors. Finnick enjoys it the most. Most of the other victors refuse to use it.

Finnick dives in and the chilly water splats across my entire body. I shiver. "Agh!"

He just laughs, and seeing no point in arguing about water, I finally jump in. Cool waves attack my body, and when I push myself to the surface, warmth runs through me. I gasp, because it feels so nice, so warm. Like piss. But less. . . disgusting.

Finnick raises his eyebrows. "Told you."

"Whatever," I say, and wave away his bragginess. "You, my friend, are from District Four." And then I dive back under and feel the water rush past me.

Over the next few days, Finnick teaches me how to swim. At first, my skills are worth shit. But I get better. As I slowly progress, he always tells me we have to get out in a sympathetic voice. We shower, not together, of course, and go back to our rooms back at the training center to retrieve secrets in a not-so-fun way.

Right before Finnick gets off, we wish each other goodluck and fist bump. He always looks so upset when he gets off, but somehow manages to wipe off the look before retreating to the room, where surely some sicko Capitol chick is waiting.

I meet with ugly, rich guys and they tell me crazy secrets. They leave as soon as it's over, probably fearing me. Who isn't scared of me, besides the Victors? Nobody, really. Well, my prep team and Yemenda aren't afraid.

The only time they ever get upset at me is when I do something stupid to my looks that may make me unnatractive.

Suddenly, as one of the guys leaves, winking at me, I have an idea. I jump up and run to the bathroom. After digging through all the cabinents, I find some scissors.

As all my long hair falls to the ground, I set the scissors covered in dark brown long pieces of it down. Then I dare to look in the mirror. I look terrifyingly horrible. For most girls, this would be a nightmare. Not to me, though. It makes me proud. Nobody will want me anymore.

And when I pick up a bottle I also found, I take one sip and pass out on the ground.

When I awake, I'm not in the hospital. Instead, I was being worked on while unconcious by my prep team. That's so un-human like.

Oh, don't care about her health, look at those nails!

To their own idiotic surprise, I sit up. There's a mirror in front of me. My hair is not the choppy way I cut it up. Instead, it's spikey. When I run my fingers run through it, there's no hair gel-it's naturally like this. And, being honest, it looks pretty good.

"Wha-What did you do?" I sputter out.

"Well, we fixed your hair! It was a mess! Why would you do that, Johanna?" They ask stupidly.

"Because I wanted to look like a peacekeeper," I say, rolling my eyes and getting up.

"What's a Peacekeeper?"

They all have to think for a few moments before they remember. "Oh, those guards who protect the people of the districts!"

I raise my eyebrows. "Who told you they protect us district people?" I say, leaning in to hear their answer carefully. They don't know it, but I'm getting good information out of it.

"President Snow! He didn't lie to us, did he?"

"No," I say, shaking my head in a sarcastic way, but they won't notice. "So, what else did he tell you about the people from the districts?"

And as they blabber on, I realize, that he's a liar. I already knew that, but he lies to them about everything we do. And there's no way for us to tell them they are lies. Because:

1) Most of us don't know

2) The Hunger Games kids could tell over live TV, but they're too busy focusing on their lives.

President Snow's been telling the nutjobs of the Capitol that we only work 5 hours chopping lumber a day, because he's 'so kind' and doesn't make us work that long. We work ten hours.

In District Four, the Capitol has the Peacekeepers by the ocean to protect the civilians from drowning.

This is most likely false, in fact, I'm almost positive. But I'm still losing patience, because I want to go ask Finnick.

In fact, they tell me more, but when they run out of examples of how the District life isn't all that bad, I run out of the room. When I get in the elevator, instead of pressing 7, I smack my hand on the bold number 4.

The elevator opens two seconds slower than I need. I don't know why, but I'm so urked to ask him. He's not eating in the dining area, but I hear a toilet flush and walk casually towards the bathroom. Finnick comes out, and, unlike most other people, is not alarmed by my sudden appearance.

People suddenly appear in the Games to kill you. Friends appearing out of nowhere will not bug or scare Victors.

"Johanna! What's up? Are we going to go swim-what happened to your hair?" He says.

"Not now," I say. "I have to ask you something. Do the Peacekeepers in your district station themselves by the ocean to protect anyone potentionally drowning?" I ask clearly.

He wrinkles his nose and frowns. "Not in a million years would they try and protect us. I saved someone from drowning while the Peacekeepers stood and watched. They're horrible people. Who told you they were guarding the sea to save us?"

I press my hand to my forehead. "My prep team. President Snow is telling the Capitol people lies about what we're doing! He tells them, because he's a 'nice person', that they're only making the lumberjacks of my district chop wood for five hours a day. We do it for 10! Ten hours, Finnick!"

"Well, what can we do?" He says, and sighs unhappily. "We may be Victors, but no Victor can bring down the power of the Capitol. At least, not alone."

My face lights up. We need to have a meeting sometime soon with our taking down the Capitol group.

"We'll do it," I say. "I swore to President Snow, anyway." I shrug like it isn't a big deal.

"And now, you have to tell me about your hair as we go swimming!" He says, and we walk out the door and into a car.

When we arrive at the pool, I'm just getting our pool bag out of the back when I feel an uneasiness. I don't know where it's coming from.

"What's wrong?" Finnick asks.

"Nothing," I say, and wipe away the thoughts like washing away mud with a sponge. There's always some left you never cleaned up. The thick pieces, that really stick.

Like the important thoughts stick to my brain.

I tell him about my hair. He pulls open the door to the pool and holds it open for me. I'm just stepping in when the hands grab me.