Chapter 3

I wait for one of my family members to enter the room. After minutes of waiting, my mother walks in. "Can we make this fast?" she asks as she walks to me.

"Sure," I say. My mother can't even take the time to give me a proper goodbye. We all know I will die.

"Alright, goodbye." my mother mumbles. She steps closer to me and I close my eyes out of instinct and wait for her to hit me. Her arms wrap around me, and we hug. I open my eyes. Maybe she does care about me.

My mother pulls away and begins to walk the door. "Maybe District Twelve will finally have a winner." she mumbles. I smile but then she adds. "She's a survivor." I frown and nod as the door closes, at least she said something positive about Katniss. A tear falls on my hand. I wipe my face off quickly, Rye and Graham might walk in and I don't want them to see my cry.

When the door opens again, both my brothers walk in. "Hey, at least you have an excuse to talk to her." says Rye.

I look up. "How did you know about..." I trail off.

"Peeta, you stare at her all the time!" Rye says. "It's so obvious you like her." Graham punches Rye on his arm, signalling for him to stop talking. I look down.

Rye sits down next to me. "Hey, you have an advantage over the rest of them,"

I look right at him. "Yeah, and whats that?" I ask, knowing he'll say something stupid.

"If you can survive sixteen years in the same house as mom, you can survive anything the Gamemakers will throw in your path." Rye says. Graham and I roll our eyes.

"But, what if I don't want to win?" I ask.

Graham looks at me. "Your suicidal?" he asks.

"No. I mean, I'd rather live, but I want Katniss to come back." I say.

"Oh, Peeta that's so sweet!" Rye says. I roll my eyes. The door opens, and the Peacekeeper motions for my brothers to leave.

"Bye, Peeta!" Rye shouts as he hugs me.

"Good luck in there, Peeta" Graham says, then gives me a hug.

They walk out the door and the Peacekeeper shuts it.

After a while my Dad walks in, he brought me cookies. He doesn't says anything. He just walks to me and hugs me. We hug for the whole goodbye, but that's fine with me, it's more comforting to me than my brothers awkward goodbye, or my mother.

The Peacekeeper opens the door, and we pull apart. He hands me the cookies, and walks to the door. "Bye son," my dad says before the door shuts.

Now that I know no one else will come, I cry until it's time to get on the train. Why is this happening? Why am I going into The Hunger Games with Katniss?

A Peacekeeper comes in and notices my tears. He motions for me to follow him. I stand up and stop crying. But, I don't wipe my tears. Why should I? I won't win. Katniss will. I'll make sure she does.

We travel by car to the train station. I've never been in a car before, but I have traveled by wagon, which is similar in some ways.

Once we get to the train station, there are lots of reporters and cameras. I know they will see my tears, but it will make Katniss look stronger.

Katniss looks like she doesn't care about what she'll have to do. I know deep down she does. I know she is worried about how her sister would get food if she didn't come back. I sigh. Gale would fed her family. Gale would take care of Prim, just like Katniss would take care of Gale's siblings, if he went into the Games. I wish Gale was going into the Games instead of me.

We get onto the train, the train doors close, and the train starts moving. Effie tells me I can do anything I want, as long as I'm ready for super in an hour. Katniss goes into her room, on the train.

I take a shower and change my cloths. I go to the table where dinner will be served and wait for the others. I get to meet my mentor, Haymitch there. Effie walks past me and stops when she sees me. "Oh! I see you're already here. I was just going to get you." Effie says, then goes off to get the others.

After a minute of so, Effie comes back with Katniss. She's wearing a green shirt and pants.

"Where's Haymitch?" Effie asks.

"Last time I saw him, he said he was going to take a nap." I tell her.

"Well, it's been an exhausting day!" Effie says.

We eat of food in silence. "At least you two have decent manner!" says Effie. "The pair last year ate everything with their hands like a couple of savages. It completely upset my digestion." Effie tells us. I roll my eyes.

Katniss drops her fork and knife and picks her food up with her hands and shoves it into her mouth. She eats like this for the rest of the meal. I smile. After Katniss is done with the whole meal, she wipes her hands on the table cloth. She looks up to Effie, and smiles.

Once I'm done with the food, I work hard to keep the food down. I have never eaten so much food. Mom only lets us eat the stale bread. And we usually only get meat when Katniss or Gale trade with us.

I look at Katniss, she looks like she's also not trying to throw up. I notice something pined to her shirt. It's a bird holding an arrow in it's beak. I think I've seen that kind of bird before.

We go to another room on the train to watch the Reaping. I don't really pay attention to it though, because I know I wont make it out of the arena. Instead I watch Katniss. She is way more interesting than trying to figure out who will kill me in a few days. Once they show the District Twelve Reaping, we sit there for a minute. I continue to watch Katniss as she stares at the blank TV screen.

"Your mentor has a lot to learn about presentation. A lot about televised behavior." Effie says and I finally look away from Katniss to meet Effie.

I laugh. "He was drunk. He's drunk every year." I say, still laughing a little.

"Every day." Katniss adds. And I laugh harder.

"Yes." Effie says. "How odd you two find it amusing. You know your mentor is your life line to the world in these Games. The one who advises you, lines up your sponsors, and dictates the presentation of any gifts. Haymitch can well be the difference between your life and your death!"

Haymitch walks into the room. "I miss super?" he says. Haymitch, then vomits on the carpet, and falls in it.

"So laugh away!" Effie says then hops around Haymitch's vomit, and leaves the room. We watch as Haymitch struggles to stand up but keeps falling back into his vomit. Katniss and I exchange a glance. We both stand up and take one of Haymitch's arms and help him up.

"I tripped?" says Haymitch. "Smells bad."

"Let's get you back to your room. Clean you up a bit." I say. We carry Haymitch to his room. We put him in the bathtub and turn the shower on. I look at Katniss and can tell she is not looking forward to cleaning off Haymitch.

"It's okay, I'll take it from here." I say.

She looks at me for a long time. "Alright." she finally says. "I can send one of the Capitol people to help you." Katniss says.

I couldn't make those people come here and help me clean off Haymitch. "No. I don't want them." I say.

Katniss nods and walks out of the room. I turn to Haymitch, who just sits there. I take off Haymitch's cloths, and clean him as fast as I can, because, I really just want to go to sleep.

Once I'm finally done, I help Haymitch into his bathrobe and drag him into his bed. I pull the covers over Haymitch, and walk back to my room. I take another shower, put on some cloths and lay down.

I cry some more, and fall asleep.