What if the odds were in our favor?

Twins

After the tribute parade, Evander comes and I get all of my makeup off and my costume off and I'm put into this white shirt and blue jeans.i look at myself in the mirror.

I don't look Artificially pretty, and I look a lot more like my old self again, but not completely

My hair isn't raggedy, and is completely washed and detangled. All of the body hair and dirt still is gone from my body. And my pimples are still absent.

But as I stare in the mirror, I couldn't be any more grateful for my large forehead and off center nose. They make me feel like me

After this, we meet up with Rumina and she takes us into the elevator to our apartment in the training center. The elevator has crystal walls and moves up and down so smoothly, nothing compared to any elevator I've ever seen. Scr that, I've never been in an elevator before, so even if this elevator was slimy and snail-like I could still say the same thing, but it truly is magical.

As we stand in the elevator, I can't shake the feeling of Leaf's hand on mine when we're in the chariot. He made me feel safe, and took away my sadness and scaredness, even just for a couple of minutes.

I've never felt like this before, and I don't know how to put a name on it.

I brush it off as we exit the elevator, and this feeling is replaced with fear. Deep,deep fear. I wonder how I'll die. I hope it's something relatively quick and painless, and whoever kills me doesn't decide to torture me for whatever reason. Yup, step one stay on the other tributes good side so they don't decide to torture you. Fun. Rumina brings us into our apartment. The apartment looks even cooler than the quarters on the train, and I can't even begin to describe the wonder of the apartment, with all of the buttons to control different things, the floor to ceiling windows and so much more.

But , I would give anything to go home, to my shared bed with Lav and Lily, to the massive room I share with at least 200 other girls, to the lake I love to submerge myself in after school and all my other duties are taken over, to my forests, to the trees, to the meadow we found that houses Liles, Lavenders and Irises, all three of us lined up, in our full beauty.

The irises were right under a tree, an oak tree. I would love to be that tree, with that irises under me. And the Lavenders and Lillie's could be under me too.

I miss my soul sisters.

Instead of this, I'm going to die alone in an unfamiliar place with a knife to my stomach. Or an ax. Or a spear. Or an arrow. Or just a gnarly punch.

Leaf nudges me " Hey, Iris Rumina is calling us. She says she wants to talk to us"

I follow Leaf into the living room where our escort, Rumina Winslow is sitting. She has her hands in her wig and looks worried. Leaf and I sit down on the couch above her.

"What's up?" I ask, confused.

"That was some show you pulled at the tribute parade." She says "Just know it won't work." For a second I have no idea what she is talking about, and leaf shares my confused look. And then I realize what she means. She's talking about me and Leaf holding hands. But what won't work? I'm still confused.

"It may have worked for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, but you see where that got us now. Dead, along with 73 years of victors before them." She says.

I decide not to point out that it's only 72 years of victors, because Annie Cresta was allowed to live because 72 victors is just as bad. And I understand what she means. She means the star crossed lovers' angle, that Katniss and Peeta played. The one that allowed them to win over the capitols hearts, and the fake two victor rule. And then the nightlock. And then the uprisings. And then the quarter quell. And then the bombing of district 12. And then the rebellion. And then the extinguishing of the rebellion and execution of surviving victors and everybody in 13. See, the only thing that came out of that is 10,000 dead district 12 citizens, all of district 13, and all of the victors besides Annie Cresta being gone.