Adair shows me into a large warehouse that is as elegant as any warehouse I have ever seen. The walls are made of large white bricks and the floor is carpeted in red velvet. The chariots are painting in white and outlines with gold designs. When I arrive at the District Four Chariot, Finnick is there to meet me. Troy and his stylist stand on the other side with Mags. She has a strange smile on her face when she looks at me.

"There was a man there." I blurt out and he stares at me for a moment.

"And?" He wonders like it is completely normal.

"I had to get naked in front of a man." I say urgently.

"And I had to get naked in front of a woman when I had my prep team." He laughs.

"And I'm sure you enjoyed it." I can't help, but smile at my comment.

"Did not!" He objects to me.

"Did too." I rebuttal.

"Alright, you two." Mags comes over and says. "It's time for parade to begin."

I get into the carriage next to Troy who is wearing something similar to me. Instead of being a dress, he wears pants and a net over his bare chest. The Capitol would want someone from District Four to go shirtless. I look back at Finnick and stick my tongue out at him and he rolls his eyes back.

"Now, remember to smile!" Troy's stylist reminds us.

A moment after she speaks the chariots begin moving. My hands are shaking and sweating I realize. I try to rub them on the fabric of the dress although this does not help at all. The material of the dress is to slippery to be able to absorb anything. I try to focus on something else. The horses of the chariot are both black and are wearing harnesses the same color as Troy and I's outfits. The Capitol is the only place that would coordinate horse harnesses with outfits. I try to catch a glimpse of what other tributes are wearing in front of us. All I can tell is that whatever they are wearing is gaudy and flamboyant to say the least.

The chariot pulls up once again and out into the City Circle. Stands have been set up so that citizens of the Capitol can watch. The stands are filled with color and the people throw roses at the chariots. I do my best to put on a smile. I try to forget that this is all a game and punishment for something that I did not do.

The Tribute Parade seems to take forever. I attempt to smile but I'm not sure if it working. I look over to Troy who is frowning. I remind myself that they like people who are pleased to be here better. We go around the city circle once then stop in front of a government building with a balcony. I see Snow step out onto the balcony with a nauseating smile on his face. He enjoys every bit of this, which makes me hate him even more than I already do. Before he speaks, he waves to the Capitol Citizens and they cheer even louder. I despise them for loving someone so terrible.

"Welcome, tributes. We salute to your courage and your sacrifice." He says the same thing as he says every year. This year, it is me he is saying it to. I can't stand the way that he smiles for my death. It isn't a sacrifice that I have chosen to make. I don't have courage for this. "We wish you a happy Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in your favor!" A happy Hunger Games! I'll be getting slaughtered in just a few days and you say it is happy? I almost want to scream back at him, but I keep myself quiet.

The crowd cheers and the chariots pull us back to the warehouse. We stop the same place that we started. Finnick, Mags, and Evangeline are all there waiting for us. Mags has the same mysterious smile on her face as she did before when Finnick gives me a hug for doing well. The thing about Finnick is one moment I can't stand him and then the next we are best friends.

We go back up to the Tribute Center and have dinner. I eat and Troy does not once again. I feel sorry for him, he must hate this more than I do. Evangeline fills the dinner with small talk about how well we both did and how wonderful our costumes were. I don't speak much during dinner because I am so tired from the long day.

Once dinner is over, Evangeline shows Troy and I to our rooms. The bed in my room is twice the size of the one that I have at home. The room is decorated in various blues. It must be to go with the colors of District Four. I change into a gray v-neck and blue shorts then lie down on the bed when there is a knock that comes from my door.

"Come in!" I call out to whoever it is.

Finnick enters with a few knives in his hand. "Come on, it's not time to sleep yet."

"What, it's 12 o'clock?" I question him.

"There is still things to be done." He tells me

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" I moan into the pillow.

"Nope, get up." He demands me.

"No..." I moan.

"Annie..." He scolds me. "Get up." It is harsher this time although not by much. Since I don't move he drops the knives then he grabs me and throws me over his shoulder.

"Finnick!" I protest and he doesn't seem to notice. "Put me down."

"Not yet, Princess." I can hear his smile in his voice.

I sigh and let him drag me back out to the living room. When we get there, Mags is reading a book and looks up. She smiles and shakes her head. Finnick puts me down finally and returns to my room to get the knives.

"Why are you shaking your head?" I wonder.

"I knew it." Mags giggles happily.

"Knew what?" I asked her confused.

"I just knew!" She says once again, before I can ask her what she knew Finnick returns with the knives. He throws one and hits the center of a flower that is painted onto the wall. He goes and yanks the knife out of the wall then hands it to me. There isn't even the slightest possibility that I could get a knife to hit one of those flowers by throwing it.

"Try it." He says into my ear.

I do my best to imitate his stance. I spread my feet apart and line them up with each other. I put one hand out in front of me to stay steady. I lift the knife behind me and prepare to throw. I take on deep breath before swinging my arm forward and releasing the knife. The knife goes flying, handle over blade. It does not lodge itself in the wall, instead it just hits the wall and falls to the ground.

"Not bad for a first try." Finnick tells me. "You could be good at this."

It is not what I want to be good at, I want to tell him. This isn't the time for complaining even though I am so tired. I need to get a handle on this so that I even have the possibility of living. If only the arena could be a swimming competition, then I could win, after all I am from District Four, the fishing district where everything involves water.

Finnick shows me various tricks that should make my throwing better. Finnick shows to me that he is a patient person during practice, the exact opposite of me. He does not give up on me no matter how hopeless I think I am. He is encouraging in ways that I have never seen before. He even makes me think that I could win, but just for a moment. We continue trying and he tweaks my movements as we pretend to throw knives in slow motion.

After working for about an hour, my throws get progressively better. They begin to actually stick in the wall. Soon enough they are getting closer to the center of the flowers. Mags makes a comment every once in a while about how well I'm doing and that she wishes Troy were here to see. Finally after another 30 minutes I hit the center of a flower.

"Yes!" I cheer for myself and punch the air. Moments later Finnick is picking me up and jumping up and down. I can't help, but laugh because of his behavior. After realizing, what he's done, he puts me down awkwardly. We step apart and are quiet for a moment. I look over and catch Mags creeping out, I question her on what she is going. Mags tell us that it is time for her to go bed and that tomorrow will be a long day. After all it is the first day of training.

Finnick and I are not done training quite yet. Since he knows that I can do it he now pushes me to do it again. Once I hit the center of the flower two more times, he lets me stop. I flop over on the and lay on it upside down. I look over to him and I think I catch him smiling at me. I do my best to ignore his bright white smile and instead think of how exhausted I am.

"Can I go to bed yet?" I moan to Finnick.

"Not yet." He tells me softly. "We still have to discuss what you are going to do in training.

"Throw some knives around, avoid the Careers, try not to look like an idiot." I summarize my ideas.

"No." He tells me plainly. "You are going to focus on survival. Avoiding the Careers is a good idea, don't act as if your scared of them even if you are. Just stay off their radar. You don't want to be who they come to kill first, which means that you're weak. But you also don't want to be the one they want to fight, meaning that you are the strong one. I want you right in the middle of the pack, whether you really are or not."

I nod. He has really thought this out. He has been doing this for the past few years so he must have figured out how to get a tribute to live by now even though none of his have before. I don't want anything to do with the Careers. If I were to join them then I would have to kill more than it would please me. I don't want the coming after me either because I look strong so avoiding practice with any weapon that I could be at is a good idea.

I have figured out by now that I am not going to win the Games. I can still see the hope of me winning in the back of Finnick's mind. I want to tell him to just give up on me, for there is no reason to try on someone who is already dead. I suppose even if I am wrong, and he has figured out that I am going to die, he is trying to get me to live for as long as possible.

He spends the next twenty minutes explaining to me what the training is like. Apparently, they actually let people fight each other in hand to hand combat prior to the Games. Shouldn't this spoil part of the whole reason for the Games? The surprise of fighting someone who you have never fought before? The Capitol is a weird place, as you probably know. The Careers hog all of the weaponry stations, as I would suspect. Several stations that he names interest me such as animal hunting (for food), camouflage, shelters,and tree climbing.

"On the third day of training, I want you to throw knives." He suggests to me and I laugh immediately. "I'm serious." He retorts.

"I can't throw knives in front of anyone, they will see how much I stink at it and come after me first thing in the Games."

"You'll get better. We are going to keep practicing everyday. Trust me, okay?" He pleads.

"How am I not supposed to trust the Great Finnick Odair?" I say dramatically and relieve the tension.

"I don't know, Cresta, but you better." Then we both can't stop smiling.