"She's crazy, Odair! I can't believe you want her on that mission so badly!"

"She's not crazy, it's just who she is."

"Well, then I don't like who she is."

"I'm sure she feels the same way about you."

There's a pause in Gale and Finnick's conversation and I'm wondering if I should burst in and reveal I've been eavesdropping all along now or wait for them to continue. But Gale starts speaking again and I decide to wait a little longer.

"She's not mentally stable enough to come with us. I don't want her threatening someone every time she doesn't get what she wants."

"Hey, when she threatened Plutarch she did it for all of us!"

I smile at how defensive Finnick is getting. Gale better watch out.

"Doesn't matter who she did it for! She's crazy, I don't want crazy in my squad."

"Your squad, right."

"Oh what, you're giving me the we-are-Victors-so-it's-our-squad again?"

"No, he's not," I say when I finally walk through the door.

Gale is standing straight up but his hands are balled into fists. Finnick is leaning over the table towards Gale, his hands firmly planted on the table for support. I suppose I chose a good time to enter, since it looks like it wouldn't have taken them long to start fighting with fists instead of words.

"Of course you were eavesdropping!" Gale says, throwing his hands in the air.

"Yes, of course I was. Anyway, I'm not crazy and I will be in your squad so you better suck it up or the next person I'm threatening will be you."

"Actually you are already threatening me."

"Whatever, just suck it up."

Gale crosses his arms defiantly. "And what if I won't just suck it up?"

I smirk. "Then you won't have nearly as much fun as I will."

Gale just shakes his head and leaves.

"I'm surprised he didn't slam the door," I mutter.

"He's an ass."

I burst out in laughter at Finnick's words. "Since when do you call someone 'an ass'? I'm the rude one, you're supposed to be the nice one."

"He called you crazy," he says as if that's reason enough.

"Yeah, well, I am crazy, sort of, so he wasn't really lying, was he?"

Finnick leaves his spot at the table and starts pacing around the room. "We could use some crazy in our squad. Have you seen how boring they all are? That woman, Jackson, seems unable to smile at anyone, Boggs favors Katniss, Homes and Mitchell don't say a word except to each other, those twisted Leeg sisters freak me out and Katniss is on the verge of neurotic."

"And don't forget Gale, who is an ass," I add smilingly.

He smiles back. "I figured that was a given."

"It kinda was," I admit. "So we go to the Capitol tomorrow."

His face looks suddenly grave and sad. "Yeah…"

"You don't want to go anymore?" I ask, confusion probably all over my face.

"I do!" he quickly says. "It's just… Annie."

I walk over to my best friend and take his hands in mine. "She'll be fine. She's safe here, no one can hurt her here and we are going to the Capitol to make sure no one will ever hurt her again."

He looks deeply into my eyes, as if all the truth of the world lies in them, and then he hugs me with one arm.

"You're right," he says. "When did you become so wise?"

I chuckle lightly. "There is a lot of undiscovered wisdom is craziness."

After that Finnick goes to spend some time with Annie and I go to my room to lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling. I have no idea what this mission will bring but I am sure as hell going to fight. Plutarch can film some pebbles for all I care but I will fight.

The next morning I'm the first one ready to get on the hovercraft. Everyone else is still saying goodbye but as I have no one to say goodbye to, except for Haymitch who is still asleep, I'm the first one here, waiting for the rest to join me.

Exactly forty-three minutes later we are all set to go. Inside the hovercraft I see Katniss avoiding everyone's eyes, and Finnick chewing his bottom lip every now and then while tying knots in his little rope.

After a time which was way shorter than I expected, we start landing.

"We're landing in District 12. We'll move from there," Boggs explains to the rest of us who clearly didn't have a clue as to where we were headed.

We get out and are stacked in a cargo car with dozens of others. Boggs arranged for Gale, Katniss, Finnick and me to sit in the same car while he and the others are in the car following ours.

I'm packed between two very broad-shouldered soldiers and Finnick, who is facing me, raises his eyebrows suggestively while flicking his eyes between the two men next to me and me. I sigh loudly and make several heads turn but Finnick gets the message. Somehow he still hasn't given up on trying to set me up with someone.

We drive and drive and drive and the road is terribly bumpy at times which makes me sick to my stomach – and it's not just me according to the several pale or green faces I see.

"So," the guy to my left suddenly says. "You're Johanna Mason. I'm Brett Tully."

He holds out his hand for me to shake it but the drive has made me crankier than usual so I give him a sour look.

"Okay then," Brett continues. "So are you excited about going to the Capitol to fight? Because I am. They deserve it. I mean, all those…"

"Do I look like a freaking people person to you?" I snap.

Brett looks taken aback by my sudden outburst of sarcasm while Finnick and Katniss are chuckling without even bothering to keep it silent. "No, ma'am. You sure don't," a blushing Brett says.

"Then don't talk to me."

"No ma'am."

"And stop calling me ma'am. I'm not a ma'am!"

"Okay ma'am. I mean, Johanna."

"Did I say you could call me Johanna?"

"No…"

"No indeed. I told you to shut up, why are you not shutting up?"

"Because you keep asking me questions."

I grunt loudly. "Finnick, switch places with Mr Talkative here."

"No I'm fine where I am," he says between snickers.

"What? No, you're not fine where you are. Switch. Places!"

"And give up my front-row ticket? No thanks."

I sigh and close my eyes. "Fine. I can handle it."

"You know," Brett starts tentatively. "It's not because you look that angry you always have to be that angry. Can't you ever be nice to people?"

I narrow my eyes at him. "I am nice to people when they leave me the fuck alone! What do you want from me anyway?!"

"I just want to have a little conversation!"

"And you can have little conversations but with someone else!"

"Why? I want to have a conversation with you. I mean, you're sitting next to me, our arms are constantly touching and you can't seem to shut up either. Everything happens for a reason, right?"

I arch my eyebrow. "And sometimes things happen because this car is stacked with people and there's no room to move or even breathe and I was stupid enough to sit here instead of somewhere else."

Brett says nothing but keeps looking at me with this weird look in his eyes.

"Now what?" I almost yell.

"This conversation didn't turn out the way I imagined it to but I think I like you."

I can practically feel everyone's eyes burning holes in my skull.

"Okay, enough. I'm going to need you to turn down your stupid a notch, Sir Flirt-a-lot!"

Suddenly, Katniss' voice fills the car. "Maybe you should just make out with him, Johanna. Seems to be the only way to put an end to this."

"Yeah, put yourself out of this misery!" Gale pipes in.

A few other soldiers begin cheering and just as I'm about to hit my boiling point Finnick steps in and saves the day.

"Just let her off the hook, people."

"Finnick Odair," Brett says with a smile while shaking his head. "Panem's biggest playboy is opposed to a little make out session. The world really is going up in flames."

Finnick's expression falters simultaneously with mine.

"The only world going up in flames today is yours, Brett. Stop the car!" I yell to the chauffeur who immediately pulls over.

"Get out," I simply tell Brett.

"What?"

"Get out. Now!"

"Fine, whatever. You Victors are nuts," he mumbles angrily.

When Brett's in the other car Finnick comes to sit next to me and takes my hand in his. Both Katniss and Gale smile apologetically at us but the others just look as if they agree with Brett: we Victors are nuts. And here we were, thinking the Capitol had nothing against us anymore. But if even District 13 still thinks of me as a batshit crazy person and of Finnick as a playboy, then I don't know if we'll ever be entirely free from the Capitol. No matter what we do or what we stand up for, in everyone else's eyes we are still just celebrities who don't know anything about the real world anymore because we've spent years lying in the Capitol's big fluffy king-size beds, sipping wine more expensive than anything common people have ever owned. We are just famous Victors in their eyes. Not rebels, not soldiers, not fighters. Nothing. When you're not the Mockingjay, you're just one of Plutarch's stars.