haymitch's point of view

It was reaping day for the 74th annual hunger games. Effie came to my house in the victors village to wake me and make me look presentable, as a previous victor and mentor, I had to be there when the tributes came on stage. I hated this day. "Haymitch! Haymitch! Get up! It's reaping day!!" I swung around the knife that I slept with until I regained sense. "Hello Effie, Nice hair-do.." I said gruffly. "Thank you Haymitch! I had it done for the reaping today! You'd better get dressed, have you sorted out the designers for this years tributes?" she said in her peppy voice. "Yea, some guy called Cinna wan't to do it, he's already got the outfits organised, not that it matters, District 12 kids are always laughing stocks, but if this guy wants to do it..I let him" was my meek reply. "you've excelled yourself as a mentor yet again!" said Effie sarcastically. I got dressed and I drank a bottle of white liquor, I was going to need alot of of this stuff today.

I arrived to the reaping late. I had been drinking but even with my blurred vision I could see the pale, scared faces on all of the district 12 kids. Effie followed the protocol of picking the girl tribute, she reached deep into the bowl and pulled out a name. "Primrose Everdeen!" called Effie proudly. I scanned the crowd quickly and saw a girl of twelve step forward to take her place on stage. I had to wonder how much tesserea she'd signed up for, or if she had actually only been entered once.I heard shouting "I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE" said the voice as she ran to the stage, this was unexpected. Then I realised I knew the girl, I knew her father before he was killed in a coal mining accident, the girl picked in the reaping Primrose must be her younger sister. This was a total shock to everyone in district 12. The new tribute was named Katniss and the boy tribute was the bakers son, Peeta. I knew if either of them stood a chance it was Katniss, she used to hunt with her father, and they'd sell game in the hob when I was there buying liquor. The tributes were taken to the justice building and I went home to pack for my trip to the capitol.When I went home with Effie and we packed I couldn't help but feel sorry for the tributes. The hardest part was thinking that they maybe stood a chance. They're the best pair of tributes district 12 has had in a long time, but they were still no match to the career tributes of 1,2 & 4. I packed some, I drank some and eventually it was time to go to the train station. The tributes had gone from a scared looking shade of white to a sick looking shade of green, which is odd, because seam kids have a natural olive coloured skin. When we got on the train I noticed Katniss was wearing a pin, her token of home I suppose but I recognised this pin. It had a mockingjay on it. I wondered if Katniss knew of the importance of this pin, and who it originally belonged to, I was going to bring it up but she went to get changed and when she came back the pin was gone, I soon forgot about it anyways.I tried to talk to the kids, but they weren't in the mood for conversation. The only questions they asked were "Any advice?" "stay alive" was my answer. We reached the capitol and the kids had to meet their styling teams for the opening ceremony. I just went to our floor of the justice building to unpack and to drink some more, I even slept a little. I wouldn't know until training if the kids had a chance or not. Also I didn't know how their sponsorship would go until they were unveiled to the public.