"Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth." -Anonymous

District Nine's Talliana's Messine's POV

Uuugggghhhhh.

Head, hurts. Stomach, burning. Mouth, tastes funny.

I just woke up and this is how I'm feeling? This day wasn't off to a good start, but it was to be expected by the activities that I participated in last night. I guess it can't get any worse than this. Thinking back on the rare parties that my friends and I created back home, I knew that this wasn't the worst hangover I ever felt, but it was the most unique. It was unique because my stomach didn't feel empty and burn at the same time, my stomach felt normal, like there was something still inside of it while having a burning sensation inside.

What happened last night? I remember enjoying myself on the Capitol food and even enjoying the spirits that were much smoother and flavourful than the homemade ones back in District Nine. It was great, but the farther I tried to remember, the more it was just a blank piece of memory. A black out. I couldn't remember anything past a certain point.

I had probably consumed too much alcohol and blacked out. Now I'm stuck with this pulsing headache and raging glow in my stomach. Ah well, could be worse, at least my stomach didn't feel hollow and on fire.

I tossed the soft and comfortable bed sheets that I knew weren't my own. It was too soft and too comfortable to be District Nine sheets. I didn't miss the sheets of my home district, but these sheets were such a contrast to the itchy and stiff sheets that I was used to. It was strange, but these Capitol blankets felt almost uncomfortable.

I was still fully dressed in simple clothing that was provided to me from the Capitol. I was glad for that as I would have killed myself if I had ruined my great great grandma's dress if I had been still wearing it.

I turned my head around, trying to ignore that the lights were shinning brighter than normal, almost painfully, and looked around the room to see if I could see my reaping dress anywhere. I quickly found it hanging in a closet close to me in the shape and condition that I had last seen it in. I gave a sigh of relief as it wasn't ruined by whatever had happened last night.

I would have never forgiven myself if I let anything happen to that dress. It had been in the family for such a long time, and if it were to be ruined, I wouldn't want to be the one that had done it.

I forced myself to get off the bed and stand up, causing me to feel a little faint and dizzy. I feel a little bit better, but it's still a nuisance. I rubbed my face before I make my way from my bedroom car to the main car, where almost everything on this train took place. Where Arrowe and I, as tributes, would spend the majority of our time on this train.

Passing the adjoining hallways with little thought, wondering how the heck I managed to make it this far if I had consumed as much as I thought I did.

A thought came by me as I neared the main car. If I felt this bad, how was my district partner feeling? Surly I couldn't be the only one feeling this way.

I opened up the door and got my answer. He was sitting on the couch and talking to our escort and mentors, perfectly fine, like he wasn't experiencing the wicked symptoms that I was feeling. What did he do last night?

Before I knew it, the talking in the room came to a sudden halt, and I wished that I came in quieter. Just snuck into this room without drawing attention to myself.

I continued to stare into the room as four pairs of eyes continued to stare at me. I was unsure of what to do.

"Good morning." Our escort, Sandy Villas said, breaking the silence with her high pitched voice that sounded like a knife in my skull. I winced and turned my head away from her slightly, I didn't want to be rude to her and say that her voice was annoying me due to a hangover. I didn't know if she'd take it badly or not. "How are you feeling?" She asked, driving the pain even deeper.

"I'm not feeling too well." I told her truthfully. "My head's throbbing, I'm feeling a little dizzy, I'm stomach's burning and I'm thirsty." I left out that her voice was like nails digging into my head, and hoped that she'd have something that would make me feel better.

"And you stink as well." I heard my district partner, Arrowe Winter, exclaim playfully as I saw him wave his right hand in front of his face. His voice wasn't terribly painful, so I guessed that it was only loud and high pitched noises that were affecting me right now. That, and the darn lights that seemed brighter than normal and gave off a little glare. "You should really hit the showers before you go into the Capitol and scare away everyone."

I looked up and down Arrowe's body and saw that he was still in the same ratty clothes that he had been reaped in. It made me look down at the clothes that I was wearing, and saw that they were stained with food and liquid markings. At least, I think they were all food and liquid stains.

I looked back up at Arrowe before I started to speak.

"Well you don't exactly smell like a rose yourself." I kidded with him.

"I'm the smell of District Nine." He loudly sighed, like he was in love with his own scent. "If the Capitol doesn't like that, then they can all be impressed with you smelling like puke after they witness how much alcohol and food you can consume."

With him saying that, I remembered some of what went on last night. I ate and drank like there was no tomorrow, and I certainly almost felt like that was the case. And with everything that I wanted right in front of me, ripe for the taking, how could I refuse? Free food, free drinks, as much as I could eat without rationing. I simply couldn't.

I smiled as I thought of all that heavenly delight.

"It was so totally worth it." I sighed as I fell on soft leather couch Arrowe was sitting on.

I looked out the window in front of me, and found that the sun was already up in the sky. I still felt tired, even though it was probably closer to noon than morning.

But it had been worth it. It was better than any party that my friends and I could have ever put on back home. The wonderfully flavoured food, the bottles of alcohol, the fun Arrowe and I probably had, it was like a miniature party. But it was still a better one than what might of been put on if I was back home, celebrating another year that my friends and I hadn't gotten reaped.

Getting reaped.

I felt myself go from joyful to sorrowful I remembered that I was getting this treatment because I had been reaped. I never really thought that I'd get reaped, but now here I was, on a train that was heading right for the Capitol.

I looked at the shiny table in front of me and saw at least a dozen or so plates of food. Left overs. I could see feeding entire families with this amount of food, and yet, they were pulling no expense for us. Because they wanted us feed and as healthy as they could get us so that we could put on a good show for them.

I wanted to send all this food back home for my family consisting of my mom and dad and two, seven year old siblings, but I knew that the Capitol wouldn't allow that. They weren't part of this event until the final eight interviews, and even then I wouldn't be able to do anything for them. Not unless I won. But, there was a good chance that I wasn't coming back.

When Sandy asked if there were going to be any volunteers, I told her that there were going to be no volunteers, because I knew that nobody was going to volunteer for me. I mean, I love my friends, and they love me, but love only goes so far when it's your life on the line. Were you willing to sacrifice your life so that someone else could live?

Arrowe did, but I had a feeling that his main objective wasn't to save that kid's life.

I didn't know Arrowe that well. In fact, I hardly knew him at all. But I'm guessing that his family is so poor, he took a chance and volunteered so that his family could live better. Or maybe he really did care for that kid. I don't know, and I haven't asked.

I never thought of the games too much, but I still had to wonder if anyone was really that desperate to go into the games. I mean, there are the careers, but that was different. They lived to go into the games, I don't think Arrowe's dream was to fight in the arena. The careers were trained, Arrowe wasn't. And neither was I.

Just what was going through my district partner's head when he volunteered? "What do we have to drink?" I asked, looking at all the food that was in front of me while thinking about my thirst in an attempt to stop me from thinking about the games.

"Well I know what you're not getting," Arrowe said to me. "Anything with alcohol. You were pucking your guts out and acting funny because of it."

"Yeah," I agreed, thinking of how I might of said or did some stupid things while intoxicated. Hopefully it wasn't anything too embarrassing. It was mostly okay when I was around friends, but with strangers around, I just didn't know if I wanted them to know secrets or not. "I'll just stick with water for now." I wasn't in the mood for alcohol anyway. "Or juice. Juice is good as well."

"I'll order it up." Sandy told us before she walked over to a speaker thing and spoke her order into it. Then within thirty seconds, tall glasses filled with bright orange liquid appeared. I wondered how they could get their stuff so fast. Yesterday, it only took about a minute and a half for her to get a huge plate of food to appear in front of her.

While I wondered just how food managed to get here so fast, there were other questions that my mind wanted answered.

"So you think that the food and alcohol made me this sick?" I asked as Sandy placed my glass of juice in front of me.

"We know that the food and alcohol made you sick." Our male mentor answered. "This isn't District Nine food, it's rich and flavourful Capitol food. Something that your stomachs aren't used to. And the alcohol didn't do you any favours either."

"I think we have to ban tributes from consuming spirits." Our female mentor commented. "Otherwise they'll end up like Talliana here. In horrible shape with smelly clothes and bad breath."

If my breath was smelt half as bad as it tasted, then yes, it was bad.

I sipped at my juice, it was sweet and tasted of tangy fruit, as I looked at Arrowe.

"How are you perfectly fine?" I asked, seeing that he wasn't moaning or groaning like I was.

"I'm not." He bluntly answered, smiling as if he was joking. I had to wonder if he was joking.

"Arrowe here ate too much Capitol food before spilling it out." Our female mentor told me with a smile, assuring me that Arrowe was telling the truth. "He had a stomach ache for several hours before that. And when he finally recovered, he tried to eat again without getting sick. He failed."

"And here we are." Arrowe laughed, patting his stomach lightly.

"So you're aching as well?" I asked.

"A little." He shrugged before grabbing a crispy roll of food. "What do you think these are?" He asked, examining the piece of food.

I shrugged, not knowing the answer.

"Your guess is as good as mine." I told him as I sipped at my drink. There was so many different kinds of food in front of us, nearly everything I didn't even know what they were except for the simple foods such as rice and bread. Trademark foods of District Nine since we gave away grains that included rice, rye, and barley.

In front of me was food that I could only dream about eating in the district. "Are you sure you want to do that? After all, you are feeling sick and the food was the cause of it."

"Eugh," Arrowe shrugged, clearly not even caring what it was anymore. Not that I blamed him, it was Capitol food, and whatever it was, it was going to be good. "Whatever. It's Capitol food." He said before he took a big bite out of the crunchy roll.

I started to sip on my drink, tasting a sweet flavour in the liquid, before hearing Arrowe exhaling heavily. Not in pain, but something closer to uncomfortable. I looked towards him and saw him huffing in air like his life depended on it.

"What is this!?" He shouted in both confusion and pain while pointing to the roll he had bitten into.

Now I was wondering the same thing, and mentally told myself not to bite into one of them.

"Spicy spring rolls." Our escort answered before drinking out of her bottle, like nothing serious was happening. In fact, I thought I saw her smirking.

I then saw Arrowe hold out his left hand towards me with an expression on his face that cried out 'please.'

"That bottle of whatever, can I have some?" He asked desperately. I was about to point out that he had a drink of his own when I heard our escort say to us.

"I wouldn't drink anything if I were you, if you drink something Arrowe, it will only get spicier." I quickly pull the glass back before Arrowe could grab it. I didn't know if what she was saying was true, but if it was, then I didn't want to make it any worse for him.

"Well how to I get rid of this pain then?" Arrowe asked desperate for an answer. His face turning slightly red from what I guessed was the heat inside his mouth.

"You don't." Our escort answered with a laugh.

"Wow," Our male mentor spoke up while laughing a bit as well. "That's some touch luck son." I couldn't help but laugh a bit as well. These were interesting people.

"Oh ha ha." Arrowe laughed sarcastically before grabbing a glass of water in front of him and drank deeply. When he was done, he let out a satisfying exhale of air. For a moment there, he looked fine and I started to relax. If some liquid could cure his trouble, then I might want to try some as well. But then he started to inhale air deeply again. The pain was back.

"I told you." Our escort said looking displeased. Well, she was telling the truth, and I thought it was just to make Arrowe suffer.

"Just wait for a bit," Our female mentor told him taking one of his spicy spring roll things and taking a bite out of it. It was having no effect on her for some reason. "It will go away eventually."

"Nah," Arrowe said smiling. "I can take it." And with that, he seemed to calm down a little.

Well, that was interesting. These seemed like fun people. People that I wouldn't mind hanging out with for a bit.

"Oh hey, look at that, we're almost to the Capitol." Our male escort announced.

"What?" I asked, wondering how she could know that. "How can you tell?" I then saw him lift a finger up and point to somewhere behind me. I turned around and saw through the window, a beautiful city beyond anything I'd ever imagined before. Everything was so shiny, clean, and wonderful. I was truly amazed by the Capitol. I looked though the city looking at their shops and the people and their bizarre fashion. I was no really excited to go and see what else the Capitol had to offer. It was just, amazing.

"Pshhhh! Nice place." Arrowe said with some disgust in his voice. I looked at him like he was crazy. How could he say that? This was the best thing I'd seen in my life.

"How could you say that?" I asked him. Arrowe then nudged his head towards the city.

"Look at the colours and look at the people," He told me. "Then you might see why."

I looked out towards the city again, and didn't see anything wrong with it.

"You two better shower up," Our female mentor quickly told us, reminding me of how I still hadn't showered. "Before the Capitol smells you two and think your nothing more then dirty kids."

District Six's Ricky Coler's POV

Wow. Amazing. Those were the only words I could think of at the top of my head. So this is what the capitol looked like up close, it was even better seeing it in person then it was on T.V. Seeing was believing. You go through a dark tunnel, and then the first thing you see when you emerge from it is this. Like going to another world.

If there was any place that I'd like to live, it was here. I wouldn't have to worry about going hungry, cruel peacekeepers, or dying before my time. I also wouldn't have to worry about no Hunger Games reapings drawing my name.

In the Capitol, the only things that I'd have to worry about were if I'm up to date on the fashion accessories and wither or not the Hunger Games were going to be good this year or not. That would be a great life to have. It sounded harsh of me, since I didn't like what the games did to us, but at least I wouldn't have to watch members of my home get slaughtered.

Not being scared, worried about death, or living in District Six where you work on either machines or trim branches off the trees scattered across the area.

Work until your dead, that's the life of most people in District Six. The few lucky ones, the rich, don't have to work as hard as the rest of us do, but even then, they still have to work.

I gazed at the Capitol folks and wondered if they really had anything worth worrying about. Sure they might worry about being out done by someone else in terms of looking, odd, and that they had to look other places for entertainment if the games weren't happening. But did they have anything to really worry about?

I racked my brain to find something that was a life or death situation for the Capitol people, and anything short of a civil war or an uprising, I found nothing. Yep, if there was any place that I'd like to live, it'd be in the Capitol.

"Those people look ridiculous with those stupid fashion trends." My district partner Rayne Page announced, even though our blue skinned escort, Sky, was right behind us.

I turned my head towards Sky and saw the hurt and angry expression on her face. It would have been funny if I didn't see the big fork she was holding in her right hand like a dagger, ready to stab anyone that dared say another word. Even worse, she was pointing it right at us.

I just smiled at her, hoping that she wouldn't stab me since I didn't say anything, before turning back to the Capitol audience. Better not provoke Sky anymore then we needed to. But Rayne didn't seem to care what our escort was doing and what her expression was. She wasn't going to any Capitol support any time soon.

Though I did hope that Rayne would continue talking trash about the Capitol and their citizens. That way, she'd be hard pressed in the arena and wouldn't be getting any outside support from anyone but her family, whose meagre income probably wouldn't allow them to buy anything.

I knew my family was the same, even though my mom and dad only had me as their single child, but we weren't much better off then the majority of the district. They wouldn't be able to send me anything, which is why it would be ideal for some Capitol folks to get interested in me. The more Rayne shot down her chances, the better chance I got some sponsors. Hopefully.

As I looked out the window, the Capitol citizens were all staring at us, the new tributes for the games. They acted as if we were celebrities, they were staring, cheering, clapping, and even waving at us. But despite all the attention they were giving us, I had to agree with Rayne about the Capitol fashion, at least some of it. Some if it wasn't bad, like simple dyed hair like saw on some of the young Capitol kids. Or the earrings and simple claws on some of the older kids. But I didn't like the dyed skinned, animal eared, unnatural colour eyed stuff along with stuff that I couldn't even say. And that was the majority of what they were. Even so, I couldn't help but give little waves to them and smile at them.

"Why are you waving to them?" Rayne said in a kind of demanding voice. I turned to her while still smiling and gave her a shrug. "It's not like any of them are going to protect you in the arena." She told me. Why? Because you're going to make sure you kill me? I wouldn't be too sure about that. I wasn't going to die from you, and try as you might, you weren't going to be the one to end my life. And wither the Capitol likes me enough to give me sponsors or not isn't up to you. But I was going to return home with, or without the Capitol's help.

"You might want to show them some respect," Our female mentor, Hanna Cooper, said to both of us, but I could tell that she was saying it more to Rayne then to me. "Those sponsors might be the difference between you being alive and you being dead. After all, you might not get a backpack at the cornucopia. And let's say you do get a backpack, what makes you think that you'll get everything you want? You might get a weapon and no food, or get food but no weapons. That's where the sponsors come in to save your ass."

She would know about sponsors saving you, her sponsors had saved her when she had left the bloodbath empty handed.

Copper, who was hitting the hard side of fifty, had won her games because she had gotten a coil of wire from her sponsors. She wasn't the one for full on fighting, so what she did with the coil of wire was sneak up behind her opponents and strangle them with said item. She then stole the backpacks of the dead tributes she had strangled.

It was a rather scary and unexpected death if you ask me. One second your fine, then the next second someone is strangling you from behind to give you a slow death as you struggled to stay alive.

"They won't sponsor me," Rayne responded. "They'll want to sponsor one of the careers, especially if it's a good looking boy or girl. They'll be their first choice while the rest of us will be fighting for the rest." I then heard Rayne give out a laugh, which I found a little odd since she was basically talking about how sponsors were abandoning us, before she continued to talk. "Besides, I don't need sponsors to win. There have been tributes in the past that have won without sponsors, so I won't be spending my time trying to impress those who only see our face value."

A/N: Some minor changes for this chapter.

Created website for characters. Hopefully now their pictures won't be deleted. Website link can be found in my profile and website will be updated when needed. See tribute pictures at own risk as they might not be head canon.