I walk back to my seat, and smile when Blitzen gives me a thumbs up. The applause dies down when Malcolm stands up.

Malcolm goes up next, and manages to seem a bit witty. He gets a decent applause. Then Rachel is up, pulling off a feisty act with no problem.

Then it's Percy, who walks up to the stage while waving to the crowd. He has a strange ability to make my eyes stay fixed on him.

Loki asks him about his personal life, about his brother. Percy sounds sincere when he talks about how much his brother means to him, about how much he loves him and wants to win for him.

When Loki asks him if he has a girlfriend, he laughs and says, "Soon, I will."

I don't even want to think about that. The prospect of Percy being with a girl makes me... oddly jealous.

The rest of the interviews go by in a blur. When the anthem plays, I stand up out of respect. Then we make our way back to the suite.

"You did well," I told Malcolm.

He smiled. "You did, too."

We get up to the suite and have dinner. Afterward, we watch the replays. I look exactly as I tried to; cold, calculating, and intelligent. After it's over, I say my goodbyes. Minerva actually hugs me.

"I have faith in you," She whispers in my ear, so quietly only I can hear her. "Good luck."

"Any final advice?" I ask Vulcan.

"Don't go to the cornucopia, there will be other options to obtain resources available to you," He told us. "And find a water source. Dehydration is one of the most deadly killers in these games."

Well, I won't listen to his first words of advice, but I'll listen to the second.

I excuse myself. I'm exhausted, but there's something I have to do first.

***

"So, who's this girl who's going to be your girlfriend?" I asked Percy.

He laughed, the wind on the roof blowing through his hair, making him look even more handsome. "Like I would tell you that."

"Do I know her?" I asked.

He smiled at me. "Very well."

Well, that brings me back to square one.

"So, your dad died in the Games?" He asked. "That's... horrible."

"I know," I replied. "I never even met him."

"How old was your mother when she had you?" He asked.

"Eighteen," I replied. "Just like him."

We're silent for awhile, watching the flickering lights of the Capitol. There seems to be some sort of celebration going on, probably to celebrate the Games.

"Well, I should go," He said. "We'll need all the energy we can get for tomorrow."

I don't want to think about tomorrow. "Yeah."

"May the odds be ever in your favor," Percy said, extending his hand to me.

"And to you," I replied, taking it.

And with that, he nodded and walked down the stairs.

Percy was a career, and he had allied with the rest of them. When we see each other in the arena, it will be as enemies. Tonight was our last night as friends. And that was our goodbye.

I took me awhile to fall asleep. I practiced not blinking. After a while, your eyes get so dry that it's easy. I took a shower, washing all the makeup and glitter off of me.

After a while, though, I do fall asleep. My dreams are full of nightmares, about me dying in the most painful ways possible.

Blitzen comes for me at dawn. As my stylist, he'll be preparing me for the games in the catacombs under the arena. He takes me to the roof, where a hovercraft is waiting.

When I grab onto the ladder, some sort of magnetic pulse keeps me on it. I wonder how it works. When I get to the top, a woman approaches me and tells me to stay still. I obey, and feel the sharp pinch as she injects my tracker into my arm.

An Avox leads me to a room, where Blitzen is waiting with breakfast. I'm so nervous, I can barely taste the food.

"Say, Blitzen," I asked, "Is it possible to, I don't know, throw something small hard enough at a landmine that it'll explode?"

"What type of landmine?" He asked.

"The ones they surround our starting platforms with," I replied.

He smiled. "I would say so, yes."

"And you wouldn't happen to have something on you that I could borrow that could do that?" I asked.

He grinned. "I suppose it's not too late to get a district token screened."

When the windows blackout, I know we're nearing the arena. A few minutes later, the hovercraft lands, and Blitzen is leading me through the catacombs. I will be the only tribute to ever use this launch site. The arenas are preserved after the Games, as tourist destinations.

I take a shower, and Blitzen does my hair up in a simple braid. Then the clothes come, a black tee-shirt, pants, and jacket that, according to Blitzen, reflects body heat.

After we made sure everything fit, he gave me exactly what I had asked for; a pearl bracelet.

"This barely passed the review board," Blitzen smiled. "They were pissed off that it was so late. I told them you just now told me about it, and thankfully, they relented."

I slipped it onto my wrist. We had some time, so I ate all the food Blitzen could give me. In the Games, there was a high chance I wouldn't have easy access to food, and I'd be burning a lot of calories. I'd need all the substance I could get.

A pleasant female voice filled the room. "All tributes in their chambers."

"It's time," Blitzen said, leading me to a circular metal plate. "Good luck, Annabeth Chase. May the odds be more in your favor than they were for your father."

Then a glass cylinder is lowering, and I'm rising up, away from Blitzen, who was waving at me, and up to the light that was above me, getting closer by the second.

When I'm at the top, sunlight blinds me. It's sweltering hot, and the sun reflects off my hair.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Booms Phorcys, the game's commentator. "Let the sixty-ninth Hunger Games begin!"