AN: Hey, so I'm really nervous and excited about this story. It starts off slow, but it gets better I promise.

"Katniss get out of here! Run! There coming!" I yelled. I tripped as I tried to follow her.

She looked back and frowned. "Sorry, Peeta. It was nice knowing you." She hurried off until I couldn't see her anymore.

I was alone, and they were coming. The careers were almost here. I looked up to see them hovering over me, grinning.

"Should we kill him?"

"Let's let him watch everyone else die!"

"I think we should tear him to pieces!"

"Let's tie him to the tree, naked."

The careers were easily six feet tall each. One of them had green, scaly skin with reptilian eyes darting everywhere. Her seaweed like hair seemed to move on its own.

The girl standing next to her was at least seven feet tall, with arms that were literally tree trunks. Her body looked like it was a giraffe, and her four legs looks like a lion's. She glared at me.

I turned to look at the next two. It was horrible. One was a vampire and one was a werewolf. The both showed off there pointy teeth.

"Peeta wake up! Honestly, we just got on this train. If you plan on sleeping your time away then you might as well just write 'kill me' on your forehead." Effie screamed.

I couldn't believe or understand anything right now. I felt like someone actually had written "kill me" on my forehead. It was only some time ago that I was reaped. I was picked with the one girl that I might have loved the most. Katniss.

I couldn't believe how admirable and brave Katniss was. Volunteering for her sister is something that no one else would've done in that situation. If my brother was chosen, I wouldn't have even have thought of volunteering.

I never had a best friend. I had Delly, a girl who talks to me now and then, but we weren't close at all. Although, she was the only person to visit me before I left. I'd always wanted to be Katniss's best friend. We could have gone hunting together, or selling our game. I could never kill her.

I couldn't hurt a fly, and I wasn't planning to either. My main goal was to stay the same and not change a single bit.

"Now, is everyone here? Let's eat and then talk about the upcoming events." Effie decided.

Haymitch burped, much to Effie's dismay, as he started to refill his glass with whiskey. Katniss and I stared at him for a moment before grabbing our forks and tasting this capital food. It was all so much better than the best food District 12 even had.

Effie started to clap vigorously as her pink wig bounced around. "I'm so proud of you two! I've never seen my district 12 tributes eat so properly."

I grabbed my fork tighter. The last poor kids were from the seam, and they've probably never seen so much food in their lives. I could see Katniss was thinking the same thing by the way she held her spoon. We made eye-contact and I smiled. She looked at me and continued eating.

While I have always wanted to be Katniss's friend, the feeling was not mutual. She barely acknowledged my existence. In fact, the only time I really got to interact with her is when I saw her in the rain, hungry and soaked, a while after her father had died. I had burt some bread to feed to her. I was ecstatic to do it, to help, even though I got beaten by my mother. Katniss and her father were the only people, besides Gale, to know how to hunt.

After we finished eating in silence, Effie gave us the 411. We would go to the Capital and be given make overs for the opening ceremonies. We would then spend the next ten days training, and then the game makers would score us from 1 to 12, from impossibly terrible to impossibly good. Finally, there would be an interview the day before the games.

We watched the rest of the reaping. In District 11, a small dark skinned girl and a large dark skinned male were reaped. Katniss looked brokenhearted to see a girl so young having to play. District 5 reaped a ginger girl. I hear Katniss whisper "Foxface" under her breath. District 2's female volunteer was a small brunette who looked like she could literally force someone to eat there heart out.

The male volunteer, however, looked amazingly fierce. He wore a very tight shirt with tight shorts showing off his muscles, his biceps, his tree trunk legs, and his sculpted calves. He was blond with blue eyes. I saw a picture of a man similar to him at school, Aquaman, the greek god of beauty and desire who lived in the ocean. He yelled his name, Cato, loud enough for his whole district to hear. He marched his way up to the stage forcefully and smiled as his district cheered for them.

I barely could even think about the District 1 tributes. I was so worried, and felt like someone changed the "kill me" on my forehead to "kill me first!" If this guy, Cato, was playing then I had no chance.

Katniss seemed a bit bored and went back to the couch. Haymitch was there drinking and I guessed she was going to squeeze real advice out of him. I followed and we stared at him, waiting, for a good four minutes. Katniss eventually lost it.

"Hey! Drunky! We're waiting!"

He looked up, not amused. "For what princess? A unicorn?"

She glared at him as she picked up a kitchen knife. "I'm no princess. Your welcome that I won't cut off a finger when I break your glass."

He watched her for second and burst out laughing. Katniss furrowed her eyebrows and threw the knife. It knocked Haymitch's drink out of his hand without touching him at all, and the glass shattered as it hit the floor. His face turned serious as he picked the knife up and waved it at us.

"Now you listen here you little shits, no one touches my drinks. I can either make you or break you by sending or withholding sponsor gifts. You do not want to be on my bad side. If one of you even thinks about interfering with my drinking, both of you will be on your own." He looked back and forth between the two of us, and then burped.

Katniss narrowed her eyes. "Well, if you're not going to help us, then we might as well be on our own. Isn't it your job to give us advice?"

He looked at the knife and the broken glass on the floor, and laughed a little more. "Sweetie, I only came for the free food and drinks." Katniss grabbed my knife and knocked over the bottle of liquor.

"Okay, fair enough. Now, I'll remain sober enough to help you out as long as you let me drink however and whenever I want. You both may actually survive in the arena long enough to get a sponsor. The easiest way to do that is to get people to like you. I'd say that you're not starting off great."

We arrived in the Capital a day later. It's sad to admit but I had really good sleep last night on the comfy, capital bed. As soon as we got there, people were cheering and screaming for Katniss and I, taking pictures and holding up signs saying "Hunger Games!"

I turned and waved to them, and wink and kiss at a few people. I asked Katniss to join me, but she said that the thought of them cheering for our deaths made her sick. I stopped to think if the real reason was that Katniss hated me. She's never even said my name. I heard her annoyed sigh as they called my name at the reaping. I was probably one of the last people she wanted to be in the arena with.

We got out of the train as soon as it came to a stop. The avoxes took our bags away as Effie rushed us to our stylists. I saw Katniss being followed by a tall, dark, and handsome man, but I couldn't see who was behind me.

When I got there, my "prep team" came out. The team consisted of three men with different neon colored wigs and skin tones. They gossiped about the tributes as they shaved, scrubbed, and washed me down.

"So Shivon, who do you think is the hottest tribute?" asked the pink skinned man with a purple wig.

The man with blue hair and a green skin tone, Shivon, replied, "Well, besides our darling Peeta, I'd have to say maybe Cato."

The last one with red skin and yellow hair nodded. "Definitely Cato. I like my men big and strong."

"Amen, Darcel. Amen," replied Shivon.

The first one thought for a moment before adding, "I don't know guys, I thought Marvel was hot. You know? District 1?"

Darcel looked at Shivon as they giggled. "Okay, Pavio. Marvel's cute, but he's no Cato."

Pavio frowned and pouted. "At least my man has good style." He looked at me before continuing, "Peeta you agree with me right?"

I was dumbfounded when they added me in to the conversation. I finally responded, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch the District 1 tributes. I saw Cato though, and he looked pretty strong."

Shivon grinned. "Ooh, so you like Cato too?"

I panicked and quickly responded, "What? No! Of course not!" I paused and added, "I mean that, I don't think I like guys like that."

Darcel leaned down to hover over me, "So have you found any girls you want to tile with?"

My eyes widened as I stared at him with confusion. "Sorry, that's Capital lingo. I mean do you have a girl that tickles your fancy? You know, washes your willies?"

"Uh, no. No, not really. My willies do not feel washed." I replied.

"Well have you ever liked a girl intimately?" Shivon asked.

"Not really, no," I answered.

"Well, how do you know you don't want to tile with a guy?" questioned Pavio.

I didn't know how to answer that, so I remained silent. The three of them continued to chat about things like what the new arena would be like.

The entire thing was painless, except for the waxing. That was probably worse than the games. After they were done, they all left. A very normal looking blonde woman appeared.

"Hello, Peeta. As you most likely assumed, I'm your stylist, Portia. I have big plans for you." She pulled out a black suit and a cape. "Do you have issues with fire?"

I gulped. "No, um, not that I know of."