The train.
Me and Luke were alone. Both of our cheeks were wet from tears.
"Meet your mentors!" Marina said and the past victors walked in.
20 year old Daisy from 270th Hunger Games, Greg from 236th and Anastasia from 219th.
I don't pay attention to the past games that much so I can't tell you anything about them.
"Hello." Daisy looked at us seriously.
"Both of you know about brutality of this." She added.
"Everyone in the arena will, that's why this games will be different."
"How?" Luke asked.
"Just different."
"I see but how do we survive?" He asked.
"Have allies. They'll help you survive." Greg replied.
"But there's one winner, what if they turn on us?" Luke asked.
"That's why you pick carefully, observe other tributes whenever you can."

...

Next day, me and Luke arrived to the dining room earlier than the others. I sat next to him and again we were in  an uncomfortable silence.
"Hey, Florence." He started.
"Yes?"
"Who was in games from your family?"
"My sister. 268th Hunger Games, got killed by a career in the Bloodbath."
"What about you?" I asked.
"My girlfriend. 273rd Hunger Games, she died on the second day."
I realized that I know nothing about other games. I could tell you everything about the games that my sister was in, from the names of the careers to every detail about the arena and the winner from District 5. But other games?
I knew nothing about them. I didn't know anything about Luke's girlfriend or my own mentors. It felt horrible.

...

That night, I decided to watch Luke's girlfriend's games. I played it on the tv and watch it entirely.
I saw her running away from the Bloodbath and sleeping on the trees. Then on the second day she got shot in the head by a tribute from 4.
Her name was Jane, she had those green shiny eyes. I felt sorry for her, she seemed like a such a nice but strong woman. When she was running away from the Cornucopia she ran into a boy from 3 and despite the fact that she could easily push him of the mountain, she left him and ran away.
I watched this games till the end and saw the District 7 female winning the games. I won't say that she didn't deserve winning, everyone who gets on the arena dreams about getting out of it. Everyone wants to survive but only one gets the chance to.

...

After watching and thinking about Jane's games, in the morning I went to meet with everyone.
"Today is the day when you will meet your stylist team!" Marina said.
I didn't know how to feel about it.
"Make sure to give a good impression, no matter how ridiculous the outfits will look." Anastasia replied.
"And look around other tributes." Greg added.
"Should we be allies with eachother?" Luke asked.
"If you want to then sure."
We exchanged a look. Did he really had to ask about that?

...

Later when we were left alone and waiting for our stylist to come.
"Your girlfriend was brave." I told him.
"I know. She was amazing."
"How long have you been together?"
"5 years."
I was amazed, that's very long.
"5? So you started dating when you were 10?"
"Yeah. Everyone was thinking that it isn't true love but we knew better."
When Luke was talking about his girlfriend, he seemed happy. The kind of happiness when you talk about something or someone that you truly love.
Then the stylist walked in and he talked with us about our outfits for a while. I honestly, didn't like talking about clothes and I only acted like I care about them.

...

The night before the parade, I decided to watch one of my mentors' games. Each night, I have time for only one video about the games so I decided to start with Daisy.
Her games were the 270th ones. She was 15 at the time and she had perfect orientation. She teamed up with a guy from 6 and together they made a plan of the arena. They figured out where the careers were so they could avoid them. Everything was going well until a fire on the arena. Daisy's ally died and she broke into tears. She then had a fight with a tribute from 2 and killed to win.
This made me think,
Why do they want us to make allies?
If they know the pain behind losing one, then why we should have ones?

...

Unfortunately, I didn't got to ask my questions before the parade. Still, I decided to wait with them until watching all the videos.

Me and Luke were in golden bright yellow outfits with wheat on it. I had wheat in my short light brown hair.
I wasn't sure about myself but I thought that Luke looked quite good in his costume. He normally was wearing things that didn't show how his body looked like. Maybe he was ashamed? He was very thin. Thin to the point that you could see his bones.
I remained myself that we were supposed to look at other tributes so that's what I did.
First, I took a quick look at the careers. District 1, 2 and 4 were all together laughing and knowing that they would win. Teaming up with any of them would be like a suicide. There was Haven from 1, she was tall and gorgeous. She definitely looked like the leader of the group and then there was Gabriel also from 1. He looked handsome, I was wondering if maybe he and Heaven are siblings. They had the same eye colour and their noses were the same.
District 2 were Regina and Wyatt. They were both muscled and Wyatt had some scars on his body. I wonder where did he get them, is fighting in training academy that brutal?
District 4 tributes were Bianca and Sebastian. Bianca had red hair and was very pretty, I bet that's getting her sponsors. Sebastian looked like a great swimmer.

"Time to go District 9!" Someone said.
We got on the platform and got greeted by the Capitol viewers. I wasn't sure how to act so I was just waving to the crowd along with Luke.

...

"You two did amazing! Now go take rest because tomorrow you will start training!" Marina explained.
Me and Luke sat down to discuss some stuff.
"I looked through the careers." I said.
"And?"
"Heaven from 1 is the leader, Gabriel looks like her sibling. District 4 is with them." I explained.
"I see, I took a look at other tributes."
"What did you find out?"
"Daphne from 12 seems to care a lot about the boy that she came here with   but they're definitely not family. Nadia from 6 talked about camouflage with he District partner so I suppose that's what she will do." He explained.
I wish that I could watch the games of family of my allies but I don't with who I will ally in future.