p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It is not entirely uncommon to see folk taken out by alcohol in dark corners of The Hob or in decrepit doorways along The Seam. For those who have money to spend on the home-brewed bottles of white liquor that Ripper keeps the district supplied with, but nothing much else, it provides an acceptable escape from reality. With spirit warming your bones, the frostbite feels a little further away. Booze in the stomach is better than nothing at all. Until it all comes back up, like it has for Haymitch tonight. As used to the sight of some sorry soul sprawled on the floor as I am, I am not so used to the smell. Not trapped in a small, heated room like this one. In fact, the stench threatens to bring up the supper I only just got settled. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"For what feels like a long moment, both me and Katniss just stare as our lifeline slips and staggers to his feet. He's almost successful once, but he can't keep his balance for long, so back down he goes into the vile, thin, white liquid. I find myself wondering how he ever made it out of his games. With twenty-four extra tributes to compete with at that. After a while, it begins to feel cruel to just watch the man suffer and so wordlessly, me and Katniss rise to our feet to assist. We pull him up, each clutching one of his arms. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I tripped?" He's still slurring. "Smells bad." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sure does," I agree. "How about we get you cleaned up and into bed?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"We half carry, half wrestle him along the train until we find his quarters. It seems wrong to just plonk him down on the pristine silken sheets, so instead we usher him into the adjoining bathroom. "Should we just hose him down?" I ask. I'm beginning to feel out of my depth. Neither my Dad nor Hazel ever drank so I've no experience actually taking care of wasted adults. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Maybe we should call for one of The Capitol people?" Katniss suggests. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I don't want to have to interact with our keepers again this evening though. As much as I would love to get a couple of doors between Haymitch and my nose. Perhaps this could provide me with a good opportunity to get Haymitch alone for a chat anyway. Ideally, I was planning to talk to him when he's a little more coherent, but I'm not entirely sure that he gets any clearer-minded than this. If so, I've yet to see any evidence./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So I say, "Don't worry, Catnip. You preserve your innocence. I'll sort him out." Since adorably, I know Katniss doesn't do well with nudity or having to touch people. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She's not immediately convinced, but I can already see the relief flooding her features. "You sure?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I nod. "You can bathe him tomorrow night. I'll come find you when he's all tucked in, alright?" So she flees. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's a thankless job, undressing and washing Haymitch. But at least he doesn't fight me on it. In fact, he barely seems aware of the shower at all. And the water is warm, so I can still feel my hands by the time I'm lifting him out and dragging him to bed. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Haymitch," I prod him once I've got the man propped up in bed. He groans. "I want to talk to you. About the games." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You want my advice?" He grunts. His eyes are still rolling back in his head. "Here's my advice. Stay alive!" Then he laughs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hearing his scratchy, self-gratifying laugh is harder to bear than smelling his puke. I'm so repulsed that I almost decide to just get up and leave him then and there. If this is our mentor, then maybe we are better off just fending for ourselves. I don't know why I thought the games would be any different. No one has ever helped us before. And maybe if it were only my life in the balance, I would leave. But for Katniss, I persist. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I grab him by the collar and hiss. "She could win this, you know? She's the best shot with a bow and arrow the arena has ever seen. And she's fast and she's smart and she's needed back in 12. So you better pull yourself together!" I punctuate with a shake. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch snarls, kind of lazily. He pats my fists, which are still balled in his pyjama top. Then, with surprising speed and accuracy, he lunges forward and headbuts me. Hard. I recoil on instinct, one hand coming up to my lip to check for blood. When I look at my fingers, they glisten red in the dim light. My lip is split. I curl my hand into a fist and raise it to retaliate. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Cool it, kiddo." For the first time, Haymitch's grey eyes clear. Just a smidge. I lower my first, but I don't unclench. "So she's a winner, huh?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yes." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I don't know, she looks mighty small to me," He shrugs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I insist. "It's going to be her." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Why not you?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"My lip twitches with unsaid answers. Because I love her. Because I can't live in a world that she's not in. Because I won't be able to live with myself after the things I plan to do in the arena. "It's her. Will you help?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch sighs. "I'll sleep on it." This seems like the best I'm going to get from him tonight. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"My lip pulses as I find my way back down the train to Katniss's rooms. The last time I was hit, I was fourteen years old. I used to get into a lot of scraps at school. I stuck out, having always been tall for my age. None of my clothes fit me properly and I always ended up with tears at the knees and elbows. This, matched with my explosive temper, made me a prime target for anyone looking for trouble. Before Dad taught me how to dodge and throw a punch, I would come home bruised and muddy from beatings at the dirt patch behind the school building. The trouble didn't stop entirely once I learnt to defend myself. But my tormentors reduced to other, poor, angry kids who just wanted to blow off some steam through a scrap. The bruises were mostly replaced by red and bloody knuckles. I got myself a reputation as someone you don't get on the wrong side of. But nothing more serious. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Then the mine collapse happened. It was the third day they had failed to find survivors and I had been ordered back to school. Though with over half of the kids affected by the accident, we weren't learning much. There was this constant pressure in my head. Impossible to ignore. Compounded by the growing sense of dread in my chest. Three days earlier I had stood at the gates to the mine, along with the rest of The Seam, watching as men who weren't my father stumbled, faces blackened and coughing, through the smoke. They were so unrecognisable from the blanket of coal, that for a moment every time, I thought span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"maybe that's him/span. Except it never was. After hours of this raised and shattered hope, something had unravelled within me. Back at school, I was no longer waiting for him to appear at that gate, but for my father to be pronounced dead. I was like a coiled spring. It could have been anything that set me off. This time it just happened to be Cona Turner. A merchant boy in the year above who knocked into my shoulder in the school corridor. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I had exploded. It had been far from a fair fight. I don't actually remember much of it. Except that his face was unrecognisably bloated by the time I was pulled off of him. His parents had wanted me whipped. But the Peacekeepers had let me off with a night in a cell. They knew my dad. Knew that we were all waiting now for the search parties to give up. From then on, I let out my steam in the woods. Away from people. But the anger has never really subsided./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Is that what I'll be like when I'm uncorked in the arena? I shudder. I never want to be out of control like that again. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Are you okay? What happened to your face? Was it Haymitch?" Katniss is waiting up for me in her room. Legs crossed and back straight on the giant bed. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I laugh. "Rogue elbow. Nothing to worry about." I flop down next to her. "How are you?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's strange, being in a room alone together like this. Me and Katniss spend a lot of time isolated out in the woods, there's just never usually a bed present. We aren't touching, but I can feel her warmth from across the mattress. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" "It still doesn't feel real to me." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I know what you mean." I agree. "I talked to Haymitch by the way, he's going to help us." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Katniss pulls one side of her lip up incredulously. It's kind of a silly-looking expression that makes me smile. "Are you sure we even need his help? I mean, I've been thinking. We can hunt, we know how to find water. Maybe we don't need him." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Her optimism surprises me. "You think we could win this?" I say we because it's easier than acknowledging that that's impossible. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She collapses backwards on the bed, her legs remain crossed. One hand picks at the floral embroidery her sheets are decorated with. "No. Probably not. But I promised Prim that I would try." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We'll need to get you a bow." I state the obvious./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""They don't always have bows." This is true. I think we are probably both recalling the year the arena was fitted only with brutal spiked maces. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Then you can make one." The bows we have back in 12 were both made by Katniss's dad. But I know she knows how they're crafted and even a poor bow is better than nothing. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We don't even know that there will be wood." She argues. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""There's almost always some wood." There has been every year since the empty tundra. "Not much fun in watching us all freeze to death." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yes, but," /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I cut her off. This pep talk is not going the way I saw it playing out. "Katniss, it's just hunting. You're the best hunter I know." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's not just hunting. They're armed. They think!" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So do you. And you've had more practice. Real practice," I counter, worried now that she's giving up. "You know how to kill."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Not people," she mumbles. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So then I saw something awful. "How different can it be, really?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She doesn't answer, won't look at me. But I don't regret saying it. Six of those twenty-two other tributes have actually trained and chosen to be there. As far as I'm concerned, they're fair game. The rest? Well, the smallest and slowest of us will be taken out by the careers in the bloodbath. Rue, the crippled boy from 10. I won't take any pleasure in eliminating the remaining tributes. I won't go out of my way to do it either. But the fact remains. There can only be one victor. The sooner we come to terms with that, the better off we will be. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm tired," Katniss says flatly. She's pulled her knees up close to her chest and all the life has drained from her face. "You should sleep too." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Night, Catnip," I tell her before returning to my own compartment. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Alone in my giant, empty bed, sleep is an evasive creature. I'm taunted by it, slithers of dreams linger at my peripheral. Trees, berry-stained lips, a golden Mockingjay that sings in Katniss's voice. But when I grasp at them, I'm jolted back onto the unfamiliar expanse of my cell's mattress. By the time the pale sun rises, I am jittery and agitated from exhaustion. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Dressing in my father's clothes once again, I pad to the dining cart. Effie Trinket is already waiting there, with a steaming cup of something black and her precious diary. She's tutting to herself as she goes through it. Today her wig is blue. She doesn't notice me lingering in the cart entryway at first and so I take a moment to really look at her. Under the powder and overdrawn lips, I actually think she might be pretty. Or at least younger than she appears at a glance. I find myself wondering once again why The Capitol's people do this to themselves. But I guess that's kind of the least important thing I don't understand about them. I continue into the room. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh!" Effie's head snaps up. "Good, you're awake. Would you like coffee?" She doesn't seem to be too sore about my mocking her last night. We can't afford coffee at home. We brew tea from nettles and dandelions when there's an abundance, but coffee has to be imported so it carries a heavier price tag. Noticing my hesitance she offers, "Or there's hot chocolate?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I take the hot chocolate. It's thick and creamy and about the richest thing I've ever consumed. There's a soothing element to it too. Like drinking Lady's warm milk. I have to remind myself of how sick I felt yesterday from eating too quickly, so I don't gulp it all down in one. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"To our escort's credit, she doesn't make me chit-chat. We share an almost comfortable silence until Haymitch arrives to help himself to more booze. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Really Haymitch, it's not even eight yet!" Effie huffs. For once we are in agreement. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I thought you said you were going to help us," I grit. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch waves his hand dismissively. "I said I'd sleep on it." I'm surprised he remembers, actually. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Effie must notice the temperature drop because she hops up and says, "I'll go fetch Katniss shall I? It's a busy busy day after all! She wouldn't want to miss all the fun by sleeping." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Is this some kind of a joke to you?" I hiss at Haymitch. "These are our span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"lives /spanwe're talking about and you're supposed to help us." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Unperturbed, Haymitch swigs his drink. "That bruise is coming up nicely!" He gestures to my swollen lip. "Good thing you didn't ice it." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""And why's that?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Because it will make the audience think you got mixed up with another tribute before you've even made it to the arena." He winks. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I think about this. Recall the way my bloody knuckles and black eyes would make the kids at school part in the hallways. Fighting before the games is strictly forbidden. But then so is training for them and that happens every year. Grudgingly, I accept that this might be good advice. He's craftier than I would have guessed. Then I try to recall exactly how it was that Haymitch won his games but find that I can't. They were well beyond my time, of course. And it's not like I had either the time or desire to sit around watching old Hunger Games reruns. But it is strange. We have exactly one living victor to look up to, and I have not the faintest idea how it is that he made it out of the arena alive. I put it down to 12's general unwillingness to engage in The Capitol's games. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Katniss appears, guided by Effie, not long after this. She's still wearing her braid and her face is creased sweetly by sleep. She looks young. I feel a pain in my chest. She sits down opposite to me. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""What's that?" She gestures to my hot chocolate. I answer and she helps herself to her own cup. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Immediately, the parade of plates begins. I'm actually still kind of full from last night, but I dig in anyway. Katniss is staring at Haymitch as he downs his second glass of white liquor and orange juice with disgust in her eyes. "So, you're supposed to give us advice." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch cracks the exact same joke as he did last night to me. Then he laughs even harder. I exchange a look with Katniss. There's anger there, definitely, but panic too. Under the table, I hook my foot around one of the legs of his chair and then pull it, tipping him onto the floor with a nasty crack. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Effie, who doesn't seem to realise that it was me who shoved him, hoots and flaps around us. "Goodness! I told you to slow down!" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch staggers back onto his feet. There's a damp patch on his shirt where he spilt his drink during the fall. I snicker. He lunges. I think for me at first, but then I realise his aim is the bottle. Katniss, sharp as ever, slams her knife down into the table, right in between his hand and the fancy glassware. It's at this moment that I think, perhaps, she didn't buy my story about Haymitch's rogue elbow last night. I stand, ready to jump in if he goes for Katniss, but he doesn't./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He squints at us both. "Well what's this? Did I actually get a pair of fighters this year?" He chuckles. "Go on then, can you hit anything with that knife besides a table?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Without hesitation, Katniss yanks the knife from the table and throws it expertly into a seam between two of the wood panels. I'm sure my smugness is plastered all across my face. span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I told you, you bastard/span, I think. My confidence in my friend, at an all-time high. span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Just wait until you see her with her bow. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Stand over here, both of you," he instructs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"We both obey, standing side by side in the middle of the carriage. He circles us. Once, twice. He pinches my bicep, tilts up Katniss's chin to inspect her face, even prods us on our stomachs. Once he feels like he's got us down, he steps back and says, "Well, you're not entirely hopeless. Seem fit. And once the stylists get hold of you, you'll be attractive enough."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Grey eye meets grey eye. I cock an eyebrow. I am not entirely unaware of the way the opposite sex looks at me. Not like Katniss, who is genuinely beautiful, but oblivious. Looks aren't everything in the games, but there does seem to be more attractive than unattractive victors floating around. A pretty face compels sponsors to be more generous. In fact, it's District 1, the luxury district's annual tactic. Their tributes always look like they've been plucked straight from some Capitol fashion magazine. And it works decently enough since they're tied with District 4 (after 2) for the most heavily populated Victor's Village. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""All right, I'll make a deal with you. You don't interfere with my drinking, and I'll stay sober enough to help you," says Haymitch. "But you have to do exactly what I say."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"That last part might be tricky. Neither me or Katniss respond well to being told what to do. But I'll try, for as long as Haymitch proves helpful to us. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So help us," Katniss says. "When we get to the arena, what's the best strategy at the Cornucopia for someone—" She doesn't get to finish that thought. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Slow down, sweetheart. One thing at a time. In a few minutes, we'll be pulling into the station. You'll be put in the hands of your stylists. You're not going to like what they do to you. But no matter what it is, don't resist," he tells us ominously. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I've been avoiding thinking about the Tributes Parade. It's the part of the games where they dress us all up like toy dollies to be paraded around on carriages. Possibly the most humiliating part of the whole affair. It's maybe not so bad if you're from a winning district, then you might get a stylist that actually knows a thing or two about looking good. But, if you're from the joke district like me and Katniss, then year in year out you get sent out dressed as coal miners. Or as something sort of akin to coal miners, since I've never seen anyone in 12 go down the elevator with their nipples showing. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""But—" Katniss protests. But that's all we are getting out of Haymitch today, apparently. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bottle in hand, he's already backing out of the dining cart when he says, "No buts, don't resist!" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"A moment later, we are plummeted into darkness. On instinct, me and Katniss press a little closer together. Then I remember that we must be in one of the tunnels that run under the mountain The Capitol is bordered by. These vast, underground tunnels are the only way to access the city if you're coming from the east. This range was one of the major advantages The Capitol had against the districts during The Dark Days. The Capitol airforce made easy pickings of shooting rebel forces as they attempted the ascent. If The Capitol had been positioned anywhere else in Panem, I might not be standing on this train as a tribute now. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Katniss is no more a fan of being encased underground than I am. I can feel the anxiety rolling off of her in waves. As much to comfort myself as her, I wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her close. On and on the darkness goes. I wonder just how many tonnes of stone we are hurtling under. I am certain that we are both thinking of our father's final moments right now. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The second we see light, we both hurry to the window. I drink in the sight of the wide blue sky greedily. When I'm full, I turn my gaze to what I've only ever seen on television before now. The Capitol. Taking it in in all its glory, I feel as though I have landed on another planet. Everything -its people included- is shiny and massive and needlessly ornate. I don't want to be impressed, but it's impossible not to marvel at the sleek, shiny cars that zoom along wide paved roads. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As we near the station, the people start to point and wave, recognising the tribute train. I shrink back at the sight of their bared white teeth. Even their smiles seem artificial. Here are the people who can't wait to watch us die. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"For what feels like a long moment, both me and Katniss just stare as our lifeline slips and staggers to his feet. He's almost successful once, but he can't keep his balance for long, so back down he goes into the vile, thin, white liquid. I find myself wondering how he ever made it out of his games. With twenty-four extra tributes to compete with at that. After a while, it begins to feel cruel to just watch the man suffer and so wordlessly, me and Katniss rise to our feet to assist. We pull him up, each clutching one of his arms. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I tripped?" He's still slurring. "Smells bad." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sure does," I agree. "How about we get you cleaned up and into bed?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"We half carry, half wrestle him along the train until we find his quarters. It seems wrong to just plonk him down on the pristine silken sheets, so instead we usher him into the adjoining bathroom. "Should we just hose him down?" I ask. I'm beginning to feel out of my depth. Neither my Dad nor Hazel ever drank so I've no experience actually taking care of wasted adults. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Maybe we should call for one of The Capitol people?" Katniss suggests. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I don't want to have to interact with our keepers again this evening though. As much as I would love to get a couple of doors between Haymitch and my nose. Perhaps this could provide me with a good opportunity to get Haymitch alone for a chat anyway. Ideally, I was planning to talk to him when he's a little more coherent, but I'm not entirely sure that he gets any clearer-minded than this. If so, I've yet to see any evidence./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So I say, "Don't worry, Catnip. You preserve your innocence. I'll sort him out." Since adorably, I know Katniss doesn't do well with nudity or having to touch people. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She's not immediately convinced, but I can already see the relief flooding her features. "You sure?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I nod. "You can bathe him tomorrow night. I'll come find you when he's all tucked in, alright?" So she flees. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's a thankless job, undressing and washing Haymitch. But at least he doesn't fight me on it. In fact, he barely seems aware of the shower at all. And the water is warm, so I can still feel my hands by the time I'm lifting him out and dragging him to bed. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Haymitch," I prod him once I've got the man propped up in bed. He groans. "I want to talk to you. About the games." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You want my advice?" He grunts. His eyes are still rolling back in his head. "Here's my advice. Stay alive!" Then he laughs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Hearing his scratchy, self-gratifying laugh is harder to bear than smelling his puke. I'm so repulsed that I almost decide to just get up and leave him then and there. If this is our mentor, then maybe we are better off just fending for ourselves. I don't know why I thought the games would be any different. No one has ever helped us before. And maybe if it were only my life in the balance, I would leave. But for Katniss, I persist. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I grab him by the collar and hiss. "She could win this, you know? She's the best shot with a bow and arrow the arena has ever seen. And she's fast and she's smart and she's needed back in 12. So you better pull yourself together!" I punctuate with a shake. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch snarls, kind of lazily. He pats my fists, which are still balled in his pyjama top. Then, with surprising speed and accuracy, he lunges forward and headbuts me. Hard. I recoil on instinct, one hand coming up to my lip to check for blood. When I look at my fingers, they glisten red in the dim light. My lip is split. I curl my hand into a fist and raise it to retaliate. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Cool it, kiddo." For the first time, Haymitch's grey eyes clear. Just a smidge. I lower my first, but I don't unclench. "So she's a winner, huh?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yes." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I don't know, she looks mighty small to me," He shrugs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I insist. "It's going to be her." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Why not you?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"My lip twitches with unsaid answers. Because I love her. Because I can't live in a world that she's not in. Because I won't be able to live with myself after the things I plan to do in the arena. "It's her. Will you help?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch sighs. "I'll sleep on it." This seems like the best I'm going to get from him tonight. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"My lip pulses as I find my way back down the train to Katniss's rooms. The last time I was hit, I was fourteen years old. I used to get into a lot of scraps at school. I stuck out, having always been tall for my age. None of my clothes fit me properly and I always ended up with tears at the knees and elbows. This, matched with my explosive temper, made me a prime target for anyone looking for trouble. Before Dad taught me how to dodge and throw a punch, I would come home bruised and muddy from beatings at the dirt patch behind the school building. The trouble didn't stop entirely once I learnt to defend myself. But my tormentors reduced to other, poor, angry kids who just wanted to blow off some steam through a scrap. The bruises were mostly replaced by red and bloody knuckles. I got myself a reputation as someone you don't get on the wrong side of. But nothing more serious. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Then the mine collapse happened. It was the third day they had failed to find survivors and I had been ordered back to school. Though with over half of the kids affected by the accident, we weren't learning much. There was this constant pressure in my head. Impossible to ignore. Compounded by the growing sense of dread in my chest. Three days earlier I had stood at the gates to the mine, along with the rest of The Seam, watching as men who weren't my father stumbled, faces blackened and coughing, through the smoke. They were so unrecognisable from the blanket of coal, that for a moment every time, I thought span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"maybe that's him/span. Except it never was. After hours of this raised and shattered hope, something had unravelled within me. Back at school, I was no longer waiting for him to appear at that gate, but for my father to be pronounced dead. I was like a coiled spring. It could have been anything that set me off. This time it just happened to be Cona Turner. A merchant boy in the year above who knocked into my shoulder in the school corridor. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I had exploded. It had been far from a fair fight. I don't actually remember much of it. Except that his face was unrecognisably bloated by the time I was pulled off of him. His parents had wanted me whipped. But the Peacekeepers had let me off with a night in a cell. They knew my dad. Knew that we were all waiting now for the search parties to give up. From then on, I let out my steam in the woods. Away from people. But the anger has never really subsided./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Is that what I'll be like when I'm uncorked in the arena? I shudder. I never want to be out of control like that again. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Are you okay? What happened to your face? Was it Haymitch?" Katniss is waiting up for me in her room. Legs crossed and back straight on the giant bed. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I laugh. "Rogue elbow. Nothing to worry about." I flop down next to her. "How are you?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's strange, being in a room alone together like this. Me and Katniss spend a lot of time isolated out in the woods, there's just never usually a bed present. We aren't touching, but I can feel her warmth from across the mattress. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" "It still doesn't feel real to me." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I know what you mean." I agree. "I talked to Haymitch by the way, he's going to help us." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Katniss pulls one side of her lip up incredulously. It's kind of a silly-looking expression that makes me smile. "Are you sure we even need his help? I mean, I've been thinking. We can hunt, we know how to find water. Maybe we don't need him." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Her optimism surprises me. "You think we could win this?" I say we because it's easier than acknowledging that that's impossible. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She collapses backwards on the bed, her legs remain crossed. One hand picks at the floral embroidery her sheets are decorated with. "No. Probably not. But I promised Prim that I would try." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We'll need to get you a bow." I state the obvious./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""They don't always have bows." This is true. I think we are probably both recalling the year the arena was fitted only with brutal spiked maces. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Then you can make one." The bows we have back in 12 were both made by Katniss's dad. But I know she knows how they're crafted and even a poor bow is better than nothing. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We don't even know that there will be wood." She argues. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""There's almost always some wood." There has been every year since the empty tundra. "Not much fun in watching us all freeze to death." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yes, but," /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I cut her off. This pep talk is not going the way I saw it playing out. "Katniss, it's just hunting. You're the best hunter I know." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's not just hunting. They're armed. They think!" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So do you. And you've had more practice. Real practice," I counter, worried now that she's giving up. "You know how to kill."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Not people," she mumbles. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So then I saw something awful. "How different can it be, really?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She doesn't answer, won't look at me. But I don't regret saying it. Six of those twenty-two other tributes have actually trained and chosen to be there. As far as I'm concerned, they're fair game. The rest? Well, the smallest and slowest of us will be taken out by the careers in the bloodbath. Rue, the crippled boy from 10. I won't take any pleasure in eliminating the remaining tributes. I won't go out of my way to do it either. But the fact remains. There can only be one victor. The sooner we come to terms with that, the better off we will be. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm tired," Katniss says flatly. She's pulled her knees up close to her chest and all the life has drained from her face. "You should sleep too." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Night, Catnip," I tell her before returning to my own compartment. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Alone in my giant, empty bed, sleep is an evasive creature. I'm taunted by it, slithers of dreams linger at my peripheral. Trees, berry-stained lips, a golden Mockingjay that sings in Katniss's voice. But when I grasp at them, I'm jolted back onto the unfamiliar expanse of my cell's mattress. By the time the pale sun rises, I am jittery and agitated from exhaustion. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Dressing in my father's clothes once again, I pad to the dining cart. Effie Trinket is already waiting there, with a steaming cup of something black and her precious diary. She's tutting to herself as she goes through it. Today her wig is blue. She doesn't notice me lingering in the cart entryway at first and so I take a moment to really look at her. Under the powder and overdrawn lips, I actually think she might be pretty. Or at least younger than she appears at a glance. I find myself wondering once again why The Capitol's people do this to themselves. But I guess that's kind of the least important thing I don't understand about them. I continue into the room. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh!" Effie's head snaps up. "Good, you're awake. Would you like coffee?" She doesn't seem to be too sore about my mocking her last night. We can't afford coffee at home. We brew tea from nettles and dandelions when there's an abundance, but coffee has to be imported so it carries a heavier price tag. Noticing my hesitance she offers, "Or there's hot chocolate?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I take the hot chocolate. It's thick and creamy and about the richest thing I've ever consumed. There's a soothing element to it too. Like drinking Lady's warm milk. I have to remind myself of how sick I felt yesterday from eating too quickly, so I don't gulp it all down in one. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"To our escort's credit, she doesn't make me chit-chat. We share an almost comfortable silence until Haymitch arrives to help himself to more booze. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Really Haymitch, it's not even eight yet!" Effie huffs. For once we are in agreement. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I thought you said you were going to help us," I grit. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch waves his hand dismissively. "I said I'd sleep on it." I'm surprised he remembers, actually. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Effie must notice the temperature drop because she hops up and says, "I'll go fetch Katniss shall I? It's a busy busy day after all! She wouldn't want to miss all the fun by sleeping." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Is this some kind of a joke to you?" I hiss at Haymitch. "These are our span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"lives /spanwe're talking about and you're supposed to help us." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Unperturbed, Haymitch swigs his drink. "That bruise is coming up nicely!" He gestures to my swollen lip. "Good thing you didn't ice it." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""And why's that?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Because it will make the audience think you got mixed up with another tribute before you've even made it to the arena." He winks. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I think about this. Recall the way my bloody knuckles and black eyes would make the kids at school part in the hallways. Fighting before the games is strictly forbidden. But then so is training for them and that happens every year. Grudgingly, I accept that this might be good advice. He's craftier than I would have guessed. Then I try to recall exactly how it was that Haymitch won his games but find that I can't. They were well beyond my time, of course. And it's not like I had either the time or desire to sit around watching old Hunger Games reruns. But it is strange. We have exactly one living victor to look up to, and I have not the faintest idea how it is that he made it out of the arena alive. I put it down to 12's general unwillingness to engage in The Capitol's games. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Katniss appears, guided by Effie, not long after this. She's still wearing her braid and her face is creased sweetly by sleep. She looks young. I feel a pain in my chest. She sits down opposite to me. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""What's that?" She gestures to my hot chocolate. I answer and she helps herself to her own cup. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Immediately, the parade of plates begins. I'm actually still kind of full from last night, but I dig in anyway. Katniss is staring at Haymitch as he downs his second glass of white liquor and orange juice with disgust in her eyes. "So, you're supposed to give us advice." /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch cracks the exact same joke as he did last night to me. Then he laughs even harder. I exchange a look with Katniss. There's anger there, definitely, but panic too. Under the table, I hook my foot around one of the legs of his chair and then pull it, tipping him onto the floor with a nasty crack. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Effie, who doesn't seem to realise that it was me who shoved him, hoots and flaps around us. "Goodness! I told you to slow down!" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Haymitch staggers back onto his feet. There's a damp patch on his shirt where he spilt his drink during the fall. I snicker. He lunges. I think for me at first, but then I realise his aim is the bottle. Katniss, sharp as ever, slams her knife down into the table, right in between his hand and the fancy glassware. It's at this moment that I think, perhaps, she didn't buy my story about Haymitch's rogue elbow last night. I stand, ready to jump in if he goes for Katniss, but he doesn't./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He squints at us both. "Well what's this? Did I actually get a pair of fighters this year?" He chuckles. "Go on then, can you hit anything with that knife besides a table?" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Without hesitation, Katniss yanks the knife from the table and throws it expertly into a seam between two of the wood panels. I'm sure my smugness is plastered all across my face. span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I told you, you bastard/span, I think. My confidence in my friend, at an all-time high. span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Just wait until you see her with her bow. /span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Stand over here, both of you," he instructs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"We both obey, standing side by side in the middle of the carriage. He circles us. Once, twice. He pinches my bicep, tilts up Katniss's chin to inspect her face, even prods us on our stomachs. Once he feels like he's got us down, he steps back and says, "Well, you're not entirely hopeless. Seem fit. And once the stylists get hold of you, you'll be attractive enough."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Grey eye meets grey eye. I cock an eyebrow. I am not entirely unaware of the way the opposite sex looks at me. Not like Katniss, who is genuinely beautiful, but oblivious. Looks aren't everything in the games, but there does seem to be more attractive than unattractive victors floating around. A pretty face compels sponsors to be more generous. In fact, it's District 1, the luxury district's annual tactic. Their tributes always look like they've been plucked straight from some Capitol fashion magazine. And it works decently enough since they're tied with District 4 (after 2) for the most heavily populated Victor's Village. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""All right, I'll make a deal with you. You don't interfere with my drinking, and I'll stay sober enough to help you," says Haymitch. "But you have to do exactly what I say."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"That last part might be tricky. Neither me or Katniss respond well to being told what to do. But I'll try, for as long as Haymitch proves helpful to us. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So help us," Katniss says. "When we get to the arena, what's the best strategy at the Cornucopia for someone—" She doesn't get to finish that thought. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Slow down, sweetheart. One thing at a time. In a few minutes, we'll be pulling into the station. You'll be put in the hands of your stylists. You're not going to like what they do to you. But no matter what it is, don't resist," he tells us ominously. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"I've been avoiding thinking about the Tributes Parade. It's the part of the games where they dress us all up like toy dollies to be paraded around on carriages. Possibly the most humiliating part of the whole affair. It's maybe not so bad if you're from a winning district, then you might get a stylist that actually knows a thing or two about looking good. But, if you're from the joke district like me and Katniss, then year in year out you get sent out dressed as coal miners. Or as something sort of akin to coal miners, since I've never seen anyone in 12 go down the elevator with their nipples showing. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""But—" Katniss protests. But that's all we are getting out of Haymitch today, apparently. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bottle in hand, he's already backing out of the dining cart when he says, "No buts, don't resist!" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"A moment later, we are plummeted into darkness. On instinct, me and Katniss press a little closer together. Then I remember that we must be in one of the tunnels that run under the mountain The Capitol is bordered by. These vast, underground tunnels are the only way to access the city if you're coming from the east. This range was one of the major advantages The Capitol had against the districts during The Dark Days. The Capitol airforce made easy pickings of shooting rebel forces as they attempted the ascent. If The Capitol had been positioned anywhere else in Panem, I might not be standing on this train as a tribute now. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Katniss is no more a fan of being encased underground than I am. I can feel the anxiety rolling off of her in waves. As much to comfort myself as her, I wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her close. On and on the darkness goes. I wonder just how many tonnes of stone we are hurtling under. I am certain that we are both thinking of our father's final moments right now. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The second we see light, we both hurry to the window. I drink in the sight of the wide blue sky greedily. When I'm full, I turn my gaze to what I've only ever seen on television before now. The Capitol. Taking it in in all its glory, I feel as though I have landed on another planet. Everything -its people included- is shiny and massive and needlessly ornate. I don't want to be impressed, but it's impossible not to marvel at the sleek, shiny cars that zoom along wide paved roads. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"As we near the station, the people start to point and wave, recognising the tribute train. I shrink back at the sight of their bared white teeth. Even their smiles seem artificial. Here are the people who can't wait to watch us die. /p