Thg (C. 6-7)

CAPITULO 6

The Training Center has a tower designed exclusively for

the tributes and their teams. This will be our home until the actual Games begin. Each district has an entire floor. You simply step onto an elevator and press the number of your district. Easy enough to remember.
I’ve ridden the elevator a couple of times in the Justice

Building back in District 12.Once to receive the medal for my father’s death and then yesterday to say my final goodbyes to my friends and family. But that’s a dark and creaky thing that moves like a snail and smells of sour milk. The walls of this elevator are made of crystal so that you can watch the people on the ground floor shrink to ants as you shoot up into the air. It’s exhilarating and I’m tempted to ask EffieTrinket if we can ride it again, but somehow that seems childish.
Apparently, Effie Trinket’s duties did not conclude at the

station. She and Haymitch will be overseeing us right into the arena. In a way, that’s a plus because at least she can be counted on to corral us around to places on time whereas we haven’t seen Haymitch since he agreed to help us on the train. Probablypassed out somewhere. Effie Trinket, on the other hand, seems to be flying high. We’re the first team she’s ever chaperoned that made a splash at the opening ceremonies.
She’s complimentary about not just our costumes but how we conducted ourselves. And, to hear her tell it, Effie knows eve- ryone who’s anyone in the Capitol and has been talking us up all day, trying to win us sponsors.“I’ve been very mysterious, though,” she says, her eyes squint half shut. “Because, of course, Haymitch hasn’t bo- thered to tell me your strategies. But I’ve done my best with what I had to work with. How Katniss sacrificed herself for her sister. How you’ve both successfully struggled to over- come the barbarism of your district.”
Barbarism? That’s ironic comingfrom a woman helping to

prepare us for slaughter. And what’s she basing our success on? Our table manners?
“Everyone has their reservations, naturally. You being from

the coal district. But I said, and this was very clever of me, I said, ‘Well, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls!’“ Effie beams at us so brilliantly that we have no choice but to respondenthusiastically to her cleverness even though it’s wrong.
Coal doesn’t turn to pearls. They grow in shellfish. Possibly she meant coal turns to diamonds, but that’s untrue, too. I’ve heard they have some sort of machine in District 1 that can turn graphite into diamonds. But we don’t mine graphite in District 12. That was part of District 13’s job until they were destroyed.
I wonder if thepeople she’s been plugging us to all day ei-

ther know or care.

“Unfortunately, I can’t seal the sponsor deals for you. Only Haymitch can do that,” says Effie grimly. “But don’t worry, I’ll get him to the table at gunpoint if necessary.”
Although lacking in many departments, Effie Trinket has a

certain determination I have to admire.

My quarters are larger thanour entire house back home. They are plush, like the train car, but also have so many auto- matic gadgets that I’m sure I won’t have time to press all the buttons. The shower alone has a panel with more than a hun- dred options you can choose regulating water temperature, pressure, soaps, shampoos, scents, oils, and massaging sponges. When you step out on a mat, heaters come on thatblow-dry your body. Instead of struggling with the knots in my wet hair, I merely place my hand on a box that sends a current through my scalp, untangling, parting, and drying my hair almost instantly. It floats down around my shoulders in a glossy curtain.
I program the closet for an outfit to my taste. The windows

zoom in and out on parts of the city at my command. You need only...