On the mannequin was a practically beautiful dress. It was orange and black, little black jewels woven into the fabric wherever the black pattern was. The pattern was made to look as if it was a monarch butterfly; I remember how every year there was a flood of butterflies that visited us. I'm not exactly sure if it was normal, but all in all it's beautiful. The dress itself was short, the bottom part all ruffley. It was strapless, and the shoes that went along it were just simple ballet flats. It was beautiful. And to top it off, there was a pair of butterfly wings for me to wear with the dress.

I turned to Syra in astonishment. "It's... beautiful. How did you know that butterflies came to our district? What does Bates' look like? Is he going to be a butterfly as well?"

Syra looked bored with me. "You stupid girl, I used to live in District Eleven. I moved to the Capitol when I was three. This was before the Hunger Games started, so we were allowed to move freely. Bates doesn't look like a butterfly; I think he's more of a flower of some sort. Now hurry up and get it on, I'm sure the Capitol people are just dying to see you." All of Syra's words had a sense of sarcasm when spoken. I realized that it probably was going to get mad at me, considering all of my questions. I silently pulled the dress up, and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't look like I was twelve anymore; I looked as if I was sixteen, maybe seventeen.

"Hello? Girl? Girl. Come on. Time to go." Syra snapped me out of my trance. I looked at it, to only see that Syra had a list of some sort in its hand. "Let's see... dress. Check. Wings. Check. Make-up. Check. Tell girl about the 'great idea' her mentor had. Not check. Oh yeah. You and Bates are now going to act all brotherly and sisterly with each other for sponsors. Now check. That's everything, thank goodness. I'm out of here. Just walk out of here and your mentors will take you to wherever you need to go. Have fun." Syra then sashayed to the door. I don't think I'll ever know if Syra was a boy or a girl.

I walked out of the prep room and found myself face to face with Estella. "Oh my stars you took forever!" She seemed angry, but I wasn't intimidated by her with her annoying Capitol voice. "Hurry up and go over there. Bates is waiting for you. You've seen the Tribute Parade before, I presume?" I nodded. "Good. Now Bates and you have sibling love towards each other. Got it?" I nodded again. "Good. Now get out of here. You're going to make me late, and I absolutely positively hate being late for things!" I quickly walked away, my wings fluttering behind me. I heard Estella shout out something as I was leaving, but all I could get from it was "So don't be frightened!"

Our chariot was decorated with a bunch of flowers, butterflies and a bunch of other things relating to our District. We were going to be second to last in the parade, so it gave me a chance to see all of the different outfits for the other kids.

District One's girl, Astrita, was dressed in a pink, ballerina type dress with pink and green jewels woven into it. Her hair, still shading her face, was glittered with the same jewels. Her shoes had the same jewels decorating the heel, so that no matter what angle she was at she was sparkling. Her partner was dressed in the same fashion, just with opposite base colors and wearing a tuxedo.

District Two was wearing gray and silver decorated outfits. Shining, they were wearing big headpieces that consisted of a bunch of irregular shapes woven together, both big and small. I think they were supposed to represent the rocks that they find. Either way, they looked incredibly good. I knew that the sponsors would go crazy about them.

District Three's outfits consisted of a suit and dress that were seemingly made out of circuit boards. They looked really cool. Cassandra's matching wire jewelry went so well with her dress that I knew she had a great stylist.

District Four went with what usually happens, as they were dressed as if they were mermaids and mermen. Daniel was holding a trident that I knew would be his weapon in the Games. I was terrified of them, but at the same time couldn't help but admire how beautiful their costumes and chariots looked. Somehow their stylist managed to dress the horses up to make them look like their chariot was being pulled by seahorses.

District Five's tributes were dressed as light bulbs, but their stylist didn't do that great of a job when putting it together. Their outfits were obviously too big for them, as if the stylist didn't take into consideration their measurements while making them. The colors were also a little boring. I didn't think they would impress the sponsors that much.

District Six had tributes dressed as conductors. Generally, the idea of a conductor's outfit would not be that attractive. Somehow their stylist managed to make them form-fitting and actually kind of... cute. Lyla looked even more adorable and innocent than she had on her Reaping day, when everyone nominated her to go.

District Seven's tributes weren't dressed in anything that impressive, but it was their reactions that were the best. The girl was crying, and the boy was screaming his head off. I would have thought he would have stopped by now. They were dressed in tree outfits, as usual.

District Eight had quilt parkas on them, not doing much for appearances, as the colors were red, white and blue. Every part of them was somehow covered in those colors. Their stylist must have been either very nostalgic about how life was before the Rebellion (my mother told me about that once when I was a little girl), or didn't have that much effort put into the costumes.

District Nine and Ten hardly fazed me. Nine was dressed up as grain (the boy was still laughing to himself. I really was worried about him) and Ten was dressed up as cows. I felt bad for Ten. They must have felt incredibly embarrassed about their outfits. Isaac had an udder right where his... well in a spot that I'm sure he probably would not have chosen to put an udder.

I wasn't able to get a good look at Twelve, but I'm assuming they were just going as coal miners again. Covered in all black, they really wouldn't get many sponsors. They never do. It's a little depressing, actually. I made a silent vow to help them out if I got a chance to, only because no one else would.

I heard a loud voice call out "The chariot started moving. Bates looked down at me, his face full of questioning. Are you okay? Ready for this? What are you thinking? I just shrugged him off and shone all of the sponsors my smile. As we rode along my wings were flapping as if I was flying down to the President instead of riding in a chariot. At one point during the ride I started blowing kisses to the people. They went wild. The Capitol people tried to "catch" them, and some even blew kisses back. It was almost sickening about how crazy these people were about the Games.

Once my chariot reached about halfway down the runway towards President Snow, I felt something release behind me. I turned around to look, that fake smile still on my face, and saw what looked like a hundred butterflies, actual butterflies. I couldn't believe my eyes. That's when I realized that's what Syra was trying to warn me about. I wasn't scared at all; if anything, I loved them. They seemed like a crack of light in the darkness that others know of as the Hunger Games.

The crowd went wild for the butterflies. I don't think there's ever been an animal... err insect release during the Tribute Parade before. The butterflies were everywhere, but not so much that you couldn't see anything. They were making the whole thing beautiful. Bates and I hugged for the crowd, trying to go for the brother-sister effect, and it worked. The Capitol people all started screaming in excitement. I smiled and waved more, blew some more kisses, "caught" kisses that were flung back at me, and eventually finished our circle around.

I could hear Caesar Flickerman's comments as we went on in the Tribute Parade. "District Eleven everyone! Wait, what's this? It's an arrangement of butterflies! Don't be alarmed people! They're harmless! And here comes District Twelve!"

I was grateful that the parade was over. I wanted to just go up to my room and go to sleep, pretend like this wasn't real. So that's exactly what I did. I stripped off my clothes and put on a nice, silky nightgown that I found in one of the drawers. I didn't want to go down to dinner, but I still needed to eat something. My eyes scanned around the room until I found a strange looking device seemingly built into the wall. I pushed a button and heard an electronic voice come out.

"Hello. What would you care to eat today?"

I was stunned. I didn't know what to do, so I just said the first thing that came to mind. I didn't even consider the fact that the computer probably wouldn't know what I was talking about.

"Um. My mom's beef stew that we have in wintertime." I heard a small ding! and all of a sudden I saw it sitting right there in front of me. I couldn't believe my eyes; imagine what it would be like if we could have this sort of food all the time. I quickly gulped down my stew, which tasted almost as good as the kind my mom makes, and went straight to bed. Considering I would be going into the Training Center tomorrow with no clue as to what I would be doing, I needed all of the sleep I could get. I was terrified of going into the Training Center with all of the people around. I had a feeling I wouldn't be very good at things and people would judge me on that. That could work in my favor though, if people just ignored me in the Games because I might die off quickly. I went to sleep almost instantly, my mind still running with what I would be facing the next day.