Author's note- My apologies... For those of you who have pointed out Gale's age, well I'll be honest and admit that I forgot he had already turned 18. Please forgive me and use your imagination that he is still of eligible age here. It's been a while since I read the books, so there may be other slight inaccuracies along the way as well. This is just supposed to be a fun read, not necessarily 100 percent factually accurate to the books, so please be understanding, and as always, thank you for reading and hope you enjoy.

-belladonnablush

The train ride to the capitol felt incredibly awkward to Katniss. The idea of being confined in this small space with Peeta, Gale and Prim made her feel tense and uncomfortable, especially with all the memories she had of her own train ride last year. If she was alone with any one of them, it wasn't so bad, but when they were all together, it just felt overwhelming.

She thought that she had prepared herself mentally before the reaping to be a mentor this year, but that was when she assumed she would be mentoring two people who were either strangers to her, or at most, mere acquaintances. Never in her mental preparations did this scenario reveal its ugly head as a possibility, that she might have to mentor her best friend and her younger sister. She didn't know why she hadn't considered this as a possibility. In retrospect, she felt that she should have anticipated a retaliatory move like this from President Snow. This was exactly the type of psychological warfare that he liked to employ.

The next several days in the capitol went by in a blur for Katniss. She stood by and watched helplessly as her sister was transformed from a poor, unprepared girl from district 12 to a beautiful young woman for the interviews. Cinna worked with Prim, just as he had with Katniss. But this time, he went a different direction. With Katniss, he had made her the girl on fire... strong and fearless looking. But with Prim, he wanted to appeal to her younger age, her sweet, youthful innocence. He knew that people in the capitol would just eat that up, and would probably be eager to sponsor someone who had the ability to tug on their heartstrings.

He dressed her in a flowing yellow satin dress with a softly scalloped hem, reminiscent of the petals of a yellow primrose, her namesake. Her hair fell in soft ringlets around her shoulders. Her face looked dewy and radiant, with just a hint of shimmery blush on her cheeks, and pink pouty lips. Katniss thought she looked beautiful, and yet delicate and vulnerable. This was the genius of Cinna. Rather than make her a warrior, he had given her that gentle, tender look that could appeal to the masses... she could be anyone's little sister, anyone's daughter... and they would all want to protect her, to save her. That meant sponsors, and sponsors meant survival.

With Gale, the prep team just made him, well, still Gale, but with infinitely more intensity. He looked very sharp, dressed in his expertly tailored suit, his hair cut perfectly. Katniss was actually taken aback at how incredibly, breathtakingly handsome and sexy he looked, dressed in this expensive clothing. He reminded her of the vampires she had read about in books, who were so dangerously attractive, and would lure you in with their physical beauty and their silky words, and then kill you with one bite. He was very charismatic and powerful in his interview. They portrayed him as the hunter he was. Predatory, intimidating, like a wild animal who could take down any prey he wanted to.

They played upon his being Katniss' "cousin", which of course he wasn't, but the audience didn't know that, and they loved it. Caesar commented to Gale that being part of the Everdeen bloodline must give him an advantage, and a certain amount of confidence in his own ability to survive.

"Yes," Gale agreed. "Katniss and I are a lot alike. We both have the ruthless ability to befriend you and then cut your heart out."

Katniss swallowed hard at that comment. She supposed he was right, that they had both done enough of that to each other recently.

When it came time for Prim and Gale to demonstrate their skills in front of the game makers and receive their scores, Katniss was a nervous wreck. She wasn't worried for Gale, because she already knew all too well that he had quite an arsenal of deadly skills that he used for hunting. It would be no problem for him to modify any of his traps or snares to capture and kill people rather than animals. And Gale was also quite skilled with knives and with the bow and arrow, and he wasn't squeamish about blood. So, she wasn't worried for Gale. She was worried for Prim.

Prim was not a killer, and never had been. She was a healer, like their mother. She had extensive knowledge about plants and herbs... what you could eat, and what was poisonous... what would heal you, and what would kill you. Katniss hoped that this knowledge would work to her advantage in the arena to help keep her alive. At least Katniss wouldn't have to worry about her eating any nightlock berries, because Prim would know it just as well as she did.

Gale ended up scoring a 10, which did not surprise Katniss. She wasn't sure of what exactly he had demonstrated as his skill, but it must have been pretty good.

Prim ended up scoring an 8, which Katniss thought was quite respectable, since she really had no dangerous skills. She was dying to know what Prim had done.

"I just showed them some things I knew about using plants as weapons." she explained. "I showed them how I knew which ones would cause vomiting and dehydration, how the juice of red velvet berries makes you hallucinate and see things that aren't real, and then for my last demonstration, I showed them my knowledge of Fire Ivy."

Way to go, Prim! Katniss thought to herself, as she beamed at her sister.

Red velvet berries are a plump, red berry with soft velvety skin like a peach. They look tantalizing to someone who is hungry, like the tributes would be. But these berries are dangerous. Even if you don't eat the flesh, just consuming a small amount of the juice of these berries... say, squeezed into your water supply...can make a person have mindbending hallucinations that last for hours.

But the ultimate in lethal plants is the Fire Ivy, which is not widely known across Panem because it is fairly rare. Fire Ivy is a genetically altered variety of Poison Ivy, created many years ago by Panem's government scientists. If you were to touch its leaves, you would have an uncomfortable skin reaction causing the same itchy, blistering rash that Poison Ivy does, and it looks fairly similar, so most people can't tell the difference between the two plants, and assume that they are the same thing. However, what most people don't know unless they are experienced botanists, is that if you take the leaves of the Fire Ivy and crush it up into a paste with a few drops of water, the chemical reaction of the extract in the leaves with the water forms a compound so highly acidic that it can burn through any type of soft tissue, like skin, fat or muscle. It burns a hole, quickly eating away at everything in its path, destroying blood vessels in seconds, causing the victim to bleed out within minutes. But it can't eat through impermeable materials like plastic or rubber, so as long as you have a barrier between your skin and the extract, you would be safe.

"I wore rubber gloves, and showed them the Fire Ivy reaction on a thick mushroom cap. It ate a hole right through the mushroom all the way to the plate beneath it in three seconds." Prim boasted.

Katniss was very impressed. She had forgotten about the dangers of Fire Ivy. She was willing to bet that after Prim's demonstration, there would probably be plenty of Fire Ivy scattered throughout the arena, because the game makers would be enthusiastically hoping to see this sweet looking young girl wield this deadly weapon, created by the government, against her fellow tributes.

Katniss allowed herself a moment of hope, that maybe Prim had a chance of surviving the arena after all.