Simon is silent when we arrive backstage. For the first time, Laurentia is too - her lips are pressed shut, but she's worse at hiding her anger than Simon is.

"Time for bed," Simon says quietly to me. His face is neutral, but I can see the fire blazing in his eyes.

Laurentia places a firm hand on my shoulder, pushing me through the crowd of tributes disembarking from their chariots. Most of them are staring at Damien as their mentors murmur in their ears. One of the girls from Two glares at me Laurentia leads me past her, and I want to shrink away from her gaze. This Parade was supposed to be her moment; the girls from Two are all anyone's been talking about since the Reaping, and this was their introduction to the Capitol. I've stolen their moment, and I will pay for it eventually.

I hear shouting that night coming from outside my room. It seems that Simon wasn't able to keep his cool once I left with Laurentia.

"Think about more than just yourself, boy!" Simon roars as a beeping sound rings down the hallway - they must have just arrived in the elevator. It's been almost an hour since Laurentia shut me in my room.

"Tell me how else I could have gotten them to give a shit about us," Damien bites back. He's never been one to back down from anyone, even someone as respected as Simon. "Nobody goes anywhere in the Games by playing it safe."

"I know more about going somewhere in the Games than you do, Damien," Simon points out, and I can hear Laurentia's heels clicking past my door. "Your life isn't the only one on the line here. Everything you say and do reflects on me, Damien! And what about your sister?"

I lift my head, straining to hear Damien's response. Does he really care about how all of this is affecting me?

I don't get that satisfaction, though. Laurentia cuts into the conversation, dragging Damien to his room. A door closes with a slam, and the suite is silent for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Damien pretends that nothing's happened. Maybe to him, nothing has. Simon is more uptight than usual, but he's always been hard to read, so who knows what he's thinking. He doesn't have anything to say to us as we eat breakfast, and Laurentia is the one to send us to our first day of Training.

As the elevator doors close behind us, Damien turns to me for the first time this morning.

"So," he says, his eyes darting around us. "We need to work together."

I'm startled at Damien's sudden change of heart. I was expecting to handle training alone; this was not something that I anticipated.

"Okay," I say, trying to be as convincingly nonchalant as I can.

"Well, don't make a face about it," Damien says, crossing his arms. "Simon thinks it's best. We have to make them think we like each other."

I can't hold back my laugh. "Oh, so now you want to do what Simon wants to do? Did he scream at you enough to convince you?"

Damien looks pissed now. "I can do what I want, Luna. Simon's our mentor. It would be stupid to upset him."

"Well, I'm glad you see that now, after everything that you've done to upset him last night," I tell him. "You know what? It's fine. I can train by myself. You'd probably just abandon me in the end - wouldn't be the first time. The others can think what they want about us. They probably don't think we're a threat anyway."

Damien shoots me a glare, but he doesn't have any more time to respond as the doors of the elevator slide open.

The training center is much larger than I expected - it looks almost as big as District Five's entire town hall. The massive space is filled with an overwhelming number of stations, and I can see weapons at most of them. I follow Damien to the center of the room, where the other tributes are surrounding a lifted platform. A bearded man watches us approach; Damien immediately separates from me, standing next to some of the older boys at the other end of the circle.

It's not long before the other tributes arrive. The bearded man glances up at a clock, and he begins his speech.

I barely listen to the man talk, mostly because of how anxious I am. It's nothing important, anyway - he's just telling us not to kill each other, pretty much.

I don't even realize the man's speech is over until the girl in front of me begins to move. The others disperse, and in a brief moment of panic, I realize that I have to find something to do. I don't have a training partner, and I don't have a plan. After quickly scanning the room around me, I make my way to a station filled with books about plants. My time working in the power plant didn't necessarily prepare me for life in the wilderness, so I should start there.

I hear the clashing of metal as I flip through the first few pages of a plant manual. I glance up to see the Careers at the station in front of me. Midas is in the front - he's throwing knives at moving targets - and Trent stands behind him, passing him new knives to throw. The two look nearly identical; they could be twins. There's no denying that Midas is more of a threat, though; he's visibly more muscular than Trent, and he has an air of confidence that I don't spot in his brother.

Behind the boys, the girls from Two watch silently. The older girl seems intent on watching Midas; she looks almost hypnotized as he throws his knives. Her dark brown hair is starkly contrasted by her sister's blonde, and it seems that the two have different interests, as well. The younger sister doesn't seem as impressed by Midas, and she seems to be doing the same thing I'm doing as she scans the room. She turns to look at me, and I quickly glance back down at my manual.

I hear rustling next to me, and I look back up to see a small girl sifting through the books next to me. She sits a few feet away from me with her legs crossed, opening a thick book in her lap: A Comprehensive History of Muttations in the Hunger Games.

I decide to take another look around the room - I'd rather know who I'm going up against in here than go into the Arena completely oblivious.

Behind the Careers, the siblings from Ten are learning to shoot bows. Just like the pair from Four, the girl looks older than the boy, but the age difference doesn't look as severe. Still, I watch as the girl leans over to help her brother with his aim. Next to them, one of the girls from Eight is trying to weave a basket. Her sister is nowhere to be seen, and I'm relieved. At least I'm not the only one in here who's not training with their sibling.

Speaking of my sibling, there he is, sparring with one of the trainers. Even from here, I can tell that his technique is horrible, but he seems to have a strong approach.

I can feel my anger bubbling up as I watch Damien sparring. That should be me there with him, not that trainer. I should be helping him in here like any sibling would. We should be at the bow and arrows right now, and he should be helping me with my aim like the girl from Ten. Instead, despite how hard I try to get to him, he still won't stop ignoring me. Still, if Simon's insistence is what it takes to convince Damien to align himself with me, I won't accept it. I'm not just going to forgive Damien so easily just because he wants me to.

"So, you're scouting everybody out?"

I turn, startled, to see that the girl next to me has lifted her head from her book. She has a small '3' on her shoulder; she looks quite young, but that may just be because she's small in stature, because something about her seems extremely intelligent.

"I don't see how any of us could have a chance," the girl says with a sigh. "Not with macho Midas running around here."

I laugh a bit. "Everybody has a weakness, I'm sure," I say, trying to sound wiser than I am.

"Right," the girl says with a nod. "Some of us are just one big weakness."

As she speaks, a boy falls from the obstacle course with a thud. The girl glances behind her, grimacing as she returns her gaze to me.

"That's my brother," she tells me. "He really thinks that he's going to somehow impress the Careers enough to join them or something like that. I don't really understand the whole idea - they're just going to kill him eventually, and there's no way he'll be able to defend himself."

I nod in agreement as a trainer helps the boy to his feet. He glances over at the Careers, but they're still distracted with their knives.

"I'm Lindsay," the girl says with a smile. "And you are?"

"Luna," I say, and I feel a rush of excitement take over me. Even if my own brother doesn't want to align with me, at least there's somebody in here who's willing to talk to me.

Lindsay glances toward Damien. "Your brother looks strong," she notes. "That's good for you, I'm sure. There aren't really many fighters in here other than him and the Careers."

"We're not working together," I tell her. Honestly, I don't care if she knows - she's been more friendly to me than Damien has this whole time, so why should I care if I'm protecting Damien or not?

Lindsay doesn't let her surprise show, but her eyebrows do raise slightly.

"Well, that's no good, then," she says, turning to watch Damien again. "That would've been a great way to get to the end, really. Just let someone stronger protect you. If I let my brother protect me, we'd both be dead before we even got into the Arena."

I can't help but agree - it would be stupid for me not to work with Damien. He's one of the strongest tributes. Still, I can't get over the fact that he's ignored me since the Reaping. I haven't done anything to him, and I won't stand up for mistreatment like that.

Nearby, the girls from Two clap as Midas turns away from the knife station. Trent beckons the blonde sister to the front as the older sister congratulates Midas.

Panic begins to set in again. There is no way that I will be able to outmatch these people. I have no choice - I have to work with Damien, even though my pride doesn't want me to. It's the best thing for me, and it's the best thing for Damien. We are each other's best chance, and in the end, that's the only thing that matters.