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It's been almost exactly six months since my victory tour, things have settled into a norm once again. I wake up, train, go see Gran, train, and go to sleep. Pretty boring I know. But without training my life would feel empty. It's been a part of me for so long I'm not willing to let it go.

Unfortunately my continuous training and young age, of barely 18, has gotten me to the top of the list for this years female mentor. Of course most of the younger Victors will go to the 69th games, I'll be the one who has to do the sponsor corralling and actually putting up with the kids.

While training I've heard rumours about who's going to be the volunteers for this year. It's supposed to be a girl named Venus and a boy named Perseus. Apparently the boy is good with swords and the girl is good with daggers.

We'll see who gets reaped though because in District 2, the games begin a long time ago.

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I stand on the stage waiting for the names of the next tributes to be called. Fallon is finishing her speech, that no one really listens to might I add, about how the Capitol is so great and powerful. Gimme a break, I could take those wimps any day.

"First I'll pick for the girls." Says Fallon reaching her hand into the bowl containing the names of all the girls aged 12-18 in District 2. "Felicia Perdus." She searches the crowd.

"I volunteer!" I hear two people shout at the same time. I see two girls step out of the 18 year old section and begin to brawl it out. I try and see if I can recognize them because they are my age but I was trained with the now 19 year olds so I don't recognize them.

The girl with dark brown hair finally managed to knock out the red head and make her way up to the stage. "What is your name dear?" Asks Fallon, clearly a bit wary of the girl.

"Magenta Lopes." The girl replies giving an evil sneer to the camera.

"Okay then moving on." Says the escort a bit to quickly. "And for the boys... Gleb Riviera." A small boy starts to move forewords from the 12 year old section but a jet black haired blue eyed male steps out from the 18 year olds section, volunteering.

"And what's your name?" Fall asks the boy.
"Perseus Yates." Replies the black haired boy.

"There we have it folks, Magenta Lopes and Perseus Yates, District 2's officials tributes for the 69th annual Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favour." Finishes Fallon.

I get onto the train to wait for the kids to say their good byes and to my surprise Brutus is sitting down at the table of the dinner cart.

"Hey kid." He says. "Ready to be the mentor this time and not the tribute?"

"It's sure a lot less nerve wracking that's for sure, but this is like opening up a whole new bag of cats. I can be good with people for 20 minutes but after that I snap. How am I supposed to get sponsors for these kids if I can't hold a conversation without yelling?"

"I felt the same way too kid. We weren't trained to be a people's person, we were trained to be warriors. But don't worry you're smart, you'll learn the ropes fast."

"Thanks." I say.

"Anytime kid, anytime."

"Are we in the right place?" I hear a new male voice ask. I look over to see Magenta and Perseus standing in the doorway.

"Yes of course we're in the right place meathead." Says Magenta, with no sarcasm what so-ever. She walks over to me and Brutus with her hand extended.

"Hi, I'm Magenta but you probably already knew that." She says as a-matter-of-factly. "Future winner of the 69th annual Hunger Games."

"Don't get ahead of yourself kid, we aren't even in the Capitol yet." I say turning to Brutus.

"Don't call me kid." Snaps Magenta.

"Respect your elders KID." I say with venom dripping from my voice.

"I'm older than you by three months." She says smugly.

"She's got you there." Brutus whispers.

"Oh shut up." I say to Brutus. I then turn to the little brat named Magenta. "Listen up here you little brat. I'm your mentor and a Victor so I demand respect, especially from a tribute. Second of all, you may be older than me, so that leaves me with the question of which of the two of us has actually won the games? Yeah, that's right, it's me. So if you want any sponsors you better tone it down with me, got it?"

Magenta rolls her eyes and storms off on the train.

"Look she's just like you." Says Brutus laughing.

"I wasn't like that was I?" I says slightly horrified.

"You got into a fight with Enobaria, within the first 5 minutes of being on the train."

"Ya well..." I start.

"And you introduced yourself to Caesar like that too." Says Brutus.

"Well I was joking around!" I say.

"I know I know, but the Capitol didn't know that. Here, why don't you take the boy and I'll take the girl."

"Deal." I say relived that I won't have to put up with that brat Magenta. Brutus gets up and goes off in the direction Magenta took off.

"Well she seems like a bundle of joy." Says Perseus sarcastically, leaning up against the door frame. I had forgotten he's still in the room.

"Yeah she's great." I reply, sitting down. "So Perseus, let's get started with strategy. What's your strengths, weaknesses?" I pull out my note book to begin writing things down. Perseus takes a seat across from me.

"Uh I'm really good with swords I guess. I was in the accelerated program for sword fighting. I was in your year actually."

"Oh you were?" I ask feeling bad for not recognizing him.

"It's okay." He says. "You were so busy with your training. Besides we weren't even in the same programs."

"So your strength is sword fighting." I say aloud as I write it down.

"And hand-to-hand combat skills." He adds. "And my weakness is my presentation skills, I'm not very good at talking in front of audiences."

"Well you've been pretty good talking with me."

"That's because your like nothing I've ever met before." He says locking eyes with me.

I clear my throat. "So do you have an idea of what angle you want to play?"

"I was hoping you could help me with that."

"You came to the right person." I say brightly. "I have a few ideas after talking with you, but in going to run them by a friend tonight, and I'll get back to you tomorrow morning. But for now when you get off the train smile, wave, put a smug look on your face and have fun. Go rest up before we get there, because once we get there this afternoon it's gonna be go-go-go."

"Sounds good." He replies as he gets up from his chair. He's just about to go out the door when he turns back to me. "One more thing." He says. "Call me Percy."

"Alright, Percy." I say. He leaves and I just sit there with a smug look on my face. If he could play the audience with his charm like that we could have a real winner here. Who knows maybe I could walk out of this with a friend and a new Victor for District 2.

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After only being on the train for about an hour we're already in the Capitol. I'm staring out the window when Percy comes up beside me, he's probably about six feet flat so he's currently looking down at me, which is odd because I'm the one whose supposed to be the Victor. But then again I'm supposed to be mentoring Magenta, so I'm not gonna complain.

"They all look ridiculous don't they." He chuckles.

"They do, but as far as your concerned they look great. Are we clear?" I say sternly.

"Crystal." He replies. The train begins to pull to a stop and Brutus and Magenta enter the train cart.

"Go get'm kid." Says Brutus patting Magenta on the shoulder. She smiles back. The doors of the train part open and the two tributes step out. Percy is doing exactly what I told him to do perfectly. Magenta is blowing kisses and other things. God I hate her.

"I thought we didn't like her?" I ask Brutus curiously, because I'm not sure why he's being so friendly to her.

"She's still my tribute Octavia." He replies.

"Right." I reply. I was probably being too hard on him, it is his job to mentor her after all.

I adjust by black leather jacket over top of my tank top and leggings. It's Brutus and I's turn to step out of the train. Let the games begin.

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