I rewrote this chapter several times, not fully satisfied with it each time. Sorry for a long wait and not describing the Opening Ceremonies, that's what I struggled mainly on.

"Hey Serenity!" I stopped dead from stalking off to the elevator and whipped around. It was Maysilee. I was not in the greatest mood and to be completely honest I was not in my right mind nor was I fully awake. "Haymitch told me what you did."

I stopped my eyes from closing, they felt like a thousand pounds. "Oh, did he now?" I asked coolly, mainly because I couldn't believe it.

"Yeah." She smiled. "I'm just glad we didn't have to go naked, what made you argue with the stylist?"

I close my eyes breifly, smirking. "My mom always made me get out of the room when tributes were starked, didn't want me getting ideas. Now that she's not here to make me I don't want myself to get ideas either." I stepped into the elevator. "I'll see you tomorrow bright and early or else I'm helping Haybitch-"

"Haymitch." She raised an eyebrow.

"Potato,potahto." I shrugged. "It doesn't make a difference to me. Bright and early. Goodnight."

/\\\\\\\\\/v\/

I hear a rap at my door. I roll over to my side and read the alarm clock. 4:26. "Who the hell is it?" I yell, covering my head with the nearest pillow. "Effie, goddammit is it you?"

"Nope. It's Maysilee, you did tell me to be here bright and early." She reminded me, cracking open the door just letting the slightest bit of light enter my room.

I yawned and stretched out of my sleeping position. "Not this bright." I sheilded my eyes. "Or early. Why the-just why did you come at four thirty in the morning? Seriously, you don't get that much sleep in the arena. D1on't abuse your time here, take it as a luxiurious advantage."

I can just barely see her smirk. "Not all of us are all that comfortable in the Capitol as you are, Serenity."

I prop myself up on my palms, and turn on the light. "Well it's pretty damn pathetic that I'm thirteen and you're, what, sixteen and you're scared shitless of the glory of Panem."

"Do you curse often in the morning, Serenity?" She asked, slightly amused.

I got up and slid a sweat shirt onto my body. I searched the floor for it's matching pants. When I found them I snatched them up. "Eyes closed." I ordered, and when she did I slid the pants on. "Okay, you're good. And the answer is no, I don't curse often in the morning. However, if you wake me up earlier then the crack of dawn, you're bound to get me pissed."

"Haymitch would have been here thirty minutes later, he's very serious about winning, I mean I am too, but it's like nothing can compete in his mind besides ways to come out alive. He's paralyzed with finding out how to do it." Something came over her voice when she talked about, and I don't know why but I hated it. Just a odd feeling in my chest that wasn't welcomed.

"Maysilee, I am under the impression you like Haymitch." I tell her slowly. "I'm not saying it's wrong but, and I really hate to be the one to tell you this..."

She's staring at me, keen on whatever I have to say. It's really hard to not like her. She's just so...willing. I know it's every mentors dream to have a cooperrative tribute.

"Alliances are awesome, don't get me wrong, I made about fifty but becoming attatched to someone is lethal. Once you see them die or learn about their death puts a strain on you and it can make you feel like the biggest piece of crap. Take it from me, don't stick around too long or you'll be heartbroken."

She nods, blinking several times but I think she understands what I'm saying to her. "Okay...yeah...I can do that." She says defiantly. "Is there someone I should, uh, ally with?"
That's when I think I've given her the wrong idea. "No, no, no!" I say quickly. "Ally with whomever you want, I'm just saying only one person can win and if that person is you then you have to be ready to witness deaths you may not be okay with."

She raises her eyebrows at me. "Do you really think I can win the Hunger Games?" She asks incredulously.

I snort. "You're asking the girl that won at twelve years old."

She thinks it over. "You also came from a Career District and had numorous people trying to help you."

"The twins and Blue do not count and coming from a Career District means nothing if you aren't one."

"The twins and Blue aren't the only ones, wait, you haven't seen your Games, have you?" She asks.

"I've been pretty busy to see the games I lived through." I rolled my eyes. "Don't want to relive what I lived through, you know?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. So why don't we go to the Training Center."

I scowl. "It doesn't open until seven. I'm willing to give you guys strategy tips. I'm not to supposed to be picking favorites so we might as well get Haymitch or wait for him at least."

She frowns then smiles, sort of like a bittersweet feeling. I wouldn't know. "Alright, let's go to his room." She says.

"Are you sure he's awake?" I ask. It's too mean to wake a tribute up and I think it's illegal although I know Snow wouldn't dare send me to execution.

"Positive."

I stop for a second. "Then why didn't he come here like you?"

We passed a few hallways. "He knows his limits, I guess. While it might be alright for me to come and get you he knows if he so much as dared then you would murder him."

"Like he really cares what I would do." I retorted, amused by the thought.

"He does." She insisted. "He knew he went to far during the dinner and since you've given him atittude he's giving it back to you."

"Oh so now you're some expert at Haymitch Abernathy." I chuckled.

That shut her up.

I rap on his door. "Haymitch, it's me and Maysilee." I like the sound of my voice; strong, comanding, assertive...I should use it more often.

"Come in, I'm just gonna put on a-"

He was cut off by me opening up the door. He was shirtless. "Oh God!" I hissed. "Do you even know what a shirt is?"

His voice is cocky as he put t-shirt on. "Might as well get used to my bare chest, you never know if I might be shirtless, even pantless, in the Games." He chortled at my horrified expresssion. "What? It does happen."

"You didn't see anyone shirtless in my Games." I snap.

"We've also never saw twins in the arena together or a twelve year old victor as a matter of fact." He smirks. I draw my attention away from him for a milisecond to catch Maysilee gawking at him. I'm surprised he didn't notice but his gaze was on me which made me feel a little wierd.

(AN: Remember kids, this isn't a Haymitch/Maysilee fic so even though I'm making Maysilee starstruck by Haymitch he has a girlfriend and eventually fall for our girl Serenity.)

"I always knew you were in awe by me." I mocked, following his eyes. Some would call it flirting but I call it teasing...and annoying. The thought would never occur to me especially since he is two years older than me and I am only newly thirteen. And he's just as good as dead but then again so was I not even a year ago...

God, stop with these conflicting thoughts. They're giving me a headache.

Maysilee cleared her throat. "Achem...uh, shouldn't we discuss the strategy?" She asks a tad bit loudly.

We both ripped our eyes away from each other to look at her. "Erm, yeah. Well, what do you want to start off with?" I was very new to this and I hoped for their sake I could do decent enough.

"Appearance!" Maysilee is quick to leap to that subject. I know most girl tributes are always excited for their outfits...while the smarter ones are trying to imaging who they're going to be.

"Appearance and image are two totally different things," I say. "Appearance isn't up to me or you, it's all in the hands of your stylist." Haymitch snorts to that. "And I can only give you my input and advice. Whether you choose to take it or not is all up to you."

I thought about both of them for a minute, leaving the room in peaceful silence. I pointed to Haymitch first. "You. Stay cocky, be a little humorous. As sick as it makes me to say this Capitol girls find you very attractive. Just make sure you don't say anything to offend the Gamemakers and you should be good."

"Ah, and you." I turned to Maysilee. "You might be hiding a special skill, I don't care if you are or aren't. Mine was knives. You need something to stand out about you besides a pretty face. Maybe it would be good enough if there were eleven other girls but there's twenty three and most of them are pretty. I hate it but we still live in a sexist comunity so girls don't stand out as men."

Maysilee nods. "Yeah, yeah. I can do-"

I silence her with my hand. "Uh-uh-uh! Are you two planning on allying with each other?"

Her and Haymitch exchanched glances. It was Maysilee that spoke up. "Um...no." She shook her head. "But we wouldn't use our strengths against each other."

"In the end you can't help it. The Games change you for better or worse. You grow newfound strength and bravery and life is your number one priority. Take in the information you gain, you never know when it will come in handy."

\

"Oh my god I did terrible." Maysilee muttered to herself for the thousandth time, pacing back and forth in front of the couch Avery, Effie and I were sitting on. I had to keep leaning around her to see the tv. The results were about to come on and I was getting pretty annoyed.

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Tributes underestimate themselves all the time. Right..." She she searched for the tribute closest to her. "Haymitch?" He raised an eyebrow and held back a laugh but said nothing.

"How did you react at this time?" She asked Avery, still pacing until the point I got too fustrated and took an arm chair.

"It's not an encouraging tale." She said quickly.

Maysilee stopped pacing and turned to me. "What about you, Serenity?"

I thought. I was pretty cocky about my scores and I ended up getting the second highest. That wont help her anxiety. "Not an appropriate story for this situation." I said sharply.

"Great!" She threw her hands up in the air. "Both mentors have done amazing and I can't even manage a four I bet!"

I was getting tired of her babbling. "How do you think you did Allison?"

Allison smiled. "To the best of my abilities." I've come to learn she was always a happy girl, to happy for my taste, and always trying to stay on the optimistic side of her feelings.

The scores started coming on. All the tributes from One got identical eights. The one boy that freaked me out from Two got an eleven, great. Nothing new from three. Poor Beetee will have to watch his kids die in the bloodbath.

Decent scores from Four. Mostly eights; Wave's tribute got a seven. That must make home feel good.

"I can't watch!" Maysilee yelped at the end of Eleven's scores.

A six appeared next to her picture. "You did fine, six isn't a bad score." I cooed to her and Avery nodded in agreement.

Allison came next and got a seven, not bad for a girl of her size. Asher got a five and he burst into tears, needless to say. And Haymitch got a nine.

Since he got the highest for us we gave him a round of applause but all he did was smirk and leave the room.

What a jackass.