Peeta didn’t talk to me after my interview; I suppose he thought I was no better than Blaze.

When we got back to the penthouse I pulled on my pants and tank-top, really glad that I was able to cover myself up. Effie escorted me and Peeta waited with Haymitch. I finally met him when they came back up.

I was sitting on the couch and Effie had the interviews playing on the television, she was so excited.

“Oh you were just wonderful! Adding a little fire to your image, just astounding. And blowing a glitter kiss to the crowd at the end was just the perfect touch! Oh Peeta, Haymitch, so good of you to join us! We were just talking about the interviews!” She flitted about like a bird and it almost made me dizzy watching her.

“You just saw them live, why do you need to see them again?” I heard Haymitch’s gravelly voice ring out from the entrance and I stood up as they walked through the door.

He was much different than I had expected, taller and more muscular. I had pictured him to be a little more dishevelled, but I suppose he has just been in the hands of his prep team and stylist. His skin was a healthy olive colour from years in the working area of the seam in district 12. His grey eyes were distant, as though he didn’t want to be here, not that I could blame him for that.

He looked over at me and I smiled. He narrowed his eyes and stopped to examine me, that’s what it felt like anyway. “Well if it isn’t little Miss Glitter, I’ll be wearing this crap even when I get into the arena.” When I looked at him closer I could see that his skin, hair and clothes were covered in a thin film of gold glitter.

“Hi, Hello, I mean, I’m sorry about the glitter, it was Cinna’s idea, and I didn’t really even know it was happening until it happened.” I smiled and laughed nervously.

The three of them stopped to look at me but I couldn’t stop, it was almost involuntary.

“What are you, some kind of fan girl?” Haymitch chuckled to himself.

“Oh, no! No I’m not a fan-girl, no, of course not, no. I just- I mean it’s great to meet you.” I had a big nervous smile on my face and I must have looked like a complete idiot.

Peeta was eying me suspiciously and Haymitch folded his arms. “Yeah, she’s a goner. She’s a good actor though, I’ll give her that. ‘Air out your coffins!’ Classic.” He chuckled to himself again and walked to his room, grabbing a bottle of white liquor that was hidden behind some flowers as he went.

I was so embarrassed. To be fair I acted like an idiot. I didn’t think I would act like that when I met him but no, I fell all over myself.

“Oh, well, I’ll go and see to removing the liquor from the rooms.” Effie seemed quite confused.

She was probably trying to figure out how anyone could turn into a bumbling idiot in front of someone like Haymitch. Peeta just stood in the same place looking at me.

“What is it now?” I said.

“That was odd.”

“I know, I know! Just leave it alone!”

“Okay, but that’s not normal.” He said flatly.

“Yeah I know! It’s about as normal as you, now that you’re covered in glitter.”

“Well whose fault is that?” He rubbed his face with his hand and checked for glitter.

He did it a few more times and I groaned. “For god’s sake come here.”

I walked over to him and grabbed a napkin from the table. He looked confused and I wiped his face just over his brow where most of the glitter was. He flinched away but I took a hold of his shoulder and held him forward.

“This is ridiculous.”

“Shut up and stay still.”

“You’re just angry because you made a fool of yourself.”

“Yes, I am so deal with it.” He sighed but stopped resisting.

I pulled away the napkin and looked at his forehead, the glitter was never totally coming off but a shower might do it.

“That’s as good as it’s going to get, when you shower it should do it, but you can do that one yourself.” I tossed the napkin aside and leant against the table.

“Well I’m not going to ask you to do it.”

“I thought you might have after the way you looked at me in my golden dress.”

He scoffed and shook his head. “You’re too confident for your own good you know. The whole ‘coffins’ thing was way to over-the-top. It was the same as that district 2 tribute saying that she was going to personally target you. Cocky, arrogant and dangerous in this game. At least at this point.”

“Yeah okay, I get it.” I felt so stupid and I know it showed on my face.

He sighed and looked down. “All I’m saying is be careful or you’ll get killed… easily. Sure you can impress the crowd but make sure you get their sympathy too. You don’t want them to ignore you because they think you’ll be fine without sponsors. You won’t be.” He looked up and when he caught my gaze he sighed again. “Just look around like that, they’ll be sure to sympathise. You should really figure out how to talk to Haymitch too, you could use him as an ally.”

“I know how to talk to him!” I snapped.

“You talked to him like a groupie. You’re not a groupie are you?”

I shot him a warning look. “I’m not, I was just shaky and edgy after the interview and I cracked I guess. And he’s not going to want to team up, and why should I?”

“It’ll be much easier for you if you’re not alone all of the time. At least pair up with him for some time, help each other. Find someone else to pair with if you can. Trust me; it’s better than being alone.”

I remember watching him last year, he had spent some time with the girl from his district and found solace in foraging with the district 11 boy, Gruen, who was only thirteen. But most of the time he was alone. In the end he tricked the tribute from district 2, Cato, into thinking he was dead. Cato had thrown a dagger at Peeta when they were atop the cornucopia at the very end. Cato thought he had won when Peeta didn’t get up and turned around to face the snapping monsters below with his arms up in triumph. He didn’t know that Peeta was pretending, he saw the blood and must have thought it was almost over. I remember thinking that the canon hadn’t sounded when Peeta stood up, the knife still lodged in his arm, and shoved Cato who lost his balance and fell. Peeta literally fed him to the wolves. I remember watching as Peeta fell to his knees with tears in his eyes and blood streaming down his arm, and hearing Cato’s screams. I swear I saw him mouth ‘I’m sorry’ on one of the replays.

Peeta didn’t directly kill anyone, he pushed Cato off the edge, he kicked a female tribute who was snapping at his heels as they climbed up through tree branches and she lost her footing and broke something, the tributes she was teamed up with took pity on her as the blood dribbled from her mouth by snapping her neck. That one was added to Cato’s record. The last kill that Peeta was responsible for was when he set a fire near the careers camp to flush them out. They had left the district 10 boy in the path of the flames as they fled; he was obviously no use to them. He perished in the flames.

I could almost see the image of his victory in his eyes; Cato’s screams as he pleaded for death to come soon and the parts of his flesh and blood staining the golden cornucopia.

He looked away and headed to his bedroom without another word. I didn’t really feel like saying any more to him after thinking about his experience in the games. It made me really start to question my decision to enter the games and fear what was yet to come.

I was back in the training centre after the night of interviews, after making a fool of myself in front of Haymitch. He was actually down here today, checking out the knives at the weapons station. I kept my eye on him and couldn’t help but watch him as he swung the weapons around and laughed with the man from district 8 who he must know from mentoring at previous games.

I was climbing across the exercise platform and came to the jump. I hesitated for a minute before leaping off the edge and landing shakily on my feet on the other side. I climbed up the net and lost my stability; I came crashing down onto the mat below. I winced as I stood up and looked over to where Haymitch was working. He hadn’t even noticed my fall.

“Are you trying to catch his attention or something? You keep looking over at him. You’re not into him are you?” The smooth wave of his voice washed over me and I turned around.

I recognised him as the heart-throb that my prep team were fawning over; Caius Andromeda. He stood about a head taller than me with short brown hair that stood in all directions. He had a strong physique and a muscular build. His eyes were a sparkling green and he had a square jaw that just helped him to ooze sex appeal. I hadn’t seen him since he was in the games and he had definitely built himself up since then, he was only fifteen.

“No I’m not into him; I just wish I knew how he was so chilled.” I rolled my eyes and started walking back to the start of the course.

“Maybe because he doesn’t expect to come out and he’s accepted it.” He followed me and hopped effortlessly up onto the first level of the platform and reached a hand down to help me up.

I looked at his hand and then back up at him and he smirked.

“Come on, I won’t bite.” I took his hand and sighed.

He reached the other down and I took that one as well. He pulled me up with ease and caught me in his arms as I fell forward. He looked down at me and smiled as he held me tightly against him.

“Or maybe I will.” He winked and I shoved him away from me.

“Leave me alone.” I shook my head and said with attitude.

He smirked again and climbed the structure like it came as naturally as breathing and scaled the net in a matter of seconds. I sighed with amazement. “Spider monkey,” I thought about the creatures that I’ve read about in Caledon’s books.

I waited until Haymitch and his friend had moved on to another station before I headed to weapons. I had seen Blaze viciously attack a dummy with a knife at close range yesterday so I knew that she was good in close-quarter combat. I picked up a blade and examined it. I was used to throwing in sport in the Capitol, but nothing like this.

I turned and focused on a target and threw the knife. It was fast and hard and it went the distance, but it missed the target completely. I threw three more and only one hit the target but it was a bad shot. At least they were all forceful enough.

“Nice throwing, where do they teach that in the Capitol?” I sighed and turned around irritably.

“Are you trying to catch my attention or something? Are you into me?” I mocked him in the same way that he did earlier.

Caius laughed. “Fair enough.”

“So what are you trying to do? Patronise me because I have no aim?”

“No I meant the actual throw was genuinely good, your aim sucks, I’ll say that flat out.”

“Go ahead and show me how it’s done then genius.” I stepped aside and gestured to the rack of weapons.

He shrugged and picked up a small axe. He smiled over at me and threw the axe quickly with just a quick glance at the targets. His aim was almost perfect. He gave me a confident glance and shrugged again. “How did you do that?” I asked.

“Don’t think so much about it. Just breathe and throw, you have the strength down. Come here, I’ll show you.” I picked up my knife and walked over to him.

He stood behind me and pulled me into him so I shoved him back and shot him a death glare.

“Do you want to learn or not?”

“Do you have to touch me?”

“Yeah, at least it’s more fun that way.” He laughed and I rolled my eyes.

“Just get it over with.”

He stood behind me and pressed his body into mine and held my arms. He stretched out my arms and made a throwing movement. “Close your eyes, and breathe.” He said.

I was reluctant, but I did as he said. “Relax your body,” he spoke softly in my ear and I resisted the urge to elbow him in the ribcage. “Breathe in deeply, and let it out.” He whispered to me this time and I allowed myself to feel the moment.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and the blood running through my veins. I could feel Caius’ body against mine and the heat that radiated from him. I could feel the rubber end of the knife in my hand and the cool blade that I knew came after it was itching to hit the mark.

I felt Caius peel away from me as he whispered, “Breathe in and let go.”

I opened my eyes and hurled the knife towards the board. I exhaled. The knife was almost exactly in the middle of the target. Goosebumps licked my skin and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Maybe it was just because I had Caius’ breath in my ear moments earlier.

“Nice shot Golden Girl.” He smiled and jogged to another station.

I just stood in my place and tried to imagine how in hell that just worked.

It was the private training tonight and I was heading back down towards the training arena after having spent most of the day in there anyway. This was where I would get my ranking. Hopefully I could impress them enough so that the others wouldn’t see me as such a weakling, or such easy pickings.

Even Haymitch was here on time tonight, I took my place next to him as we waited to be called.

“I’m sorry about last night, I was, a bit nervous.” I said to him and he just looked at me blankly, pausing momentarily to look into my eyes.

He turned away quickly after that. “Relax princess, I wouldn’t expect any different from someone from the Capitol.”

“I beg to differ.” He turned back and raised his eyebrows, this time I was the first one to turn away.

Each tribute slowly entered the training room and it wasn’t long before it was only Haymitch and I left. They called my name and I turned to wish Haymitch good luck but he was disinterested.

I walked into the empty hall and looked up at the gamemakers and they stopped what they were doing to watch me curiously. I assumed they have been waiting for me all day. I nodded up to them and headed to the plants station. I found the ingredients I needed and mixed them up the way I wanted. I found the type of leaf I needed and put it to the side.  When I was done I turned around and stared at them.

I had their undivided attention and I could hear the old band music playing in the background through the silence of the room.

“This…” I held up the small bowl of my mixed ingredients, “is a poison. It burns your throat before sending you into shock and then you die. This…” I held up the leaves, “is the antidote. Who wants to test it out?” They all looked at one another as if this was new to them, it may well be.

I stood there waiting before the doors at the opposite end of the arena opened and a peacekeeper walked through escorting an avox girl. He shoved her forward and I held out the poison. “Eat this, and then eat these leaves when I say.” She nodded and tipped the bowl so the sticky contents emptied into her mouth and she grimaced.

She stood there for a few seconds before she started clutching her throat and making gagging noises, she started sweating and I handed over the leaves. She snatched them from me and forced them into her mouth; she stopped gagging and started breathing normally before she vomited on the linoleum floor.

“Ten seconds more and she would have started seizing, foaming at the mouth and slipped into a coma. Another ten minutes and she would be dead. It’s a messy disgusting way to die, I prefer the more subtle poisons myself but I thought I had better give you something that you can see.” They all looked reasonably impressed.

I walked quickly over to the weapons area and took a dagger. I stood in front of the targets and closed my eyes. Deep breath in… I let it go. I opened my eyes and the knife was almost dead centre of the target.

I turned back to them and smiled arrogantly.

“Thank you Miss Hanspark, we have seen enough.” Seneca Crane stared down at me ravenously and I smiled despite being repulsed by his hunger.

I left the training room and started walking to the penthouse of the hotel, escorted by peacekeepers of course. The poison I used was far less dramatic than I told them. Yes it burned the throat in an incredibly painful way, but that’s about it. The antidote soothes the burning and prevents the tissue from scarring, without it a person would be in pain every time they swallowed for at least a week. Nasty stuff.

My mother was a doctor and when she died she left me a book of all the poisons she knew, how to make them and find the ingredients, and their antidotes. She had no idea just how useful it would become for me.