You’ve got about as much charm as a dead slug.

but it's not safe and I can feel him slipping away, so I just get out one more sentence. "Stay with me." As the tendrils of sleep syrup pull me down, I hear him whisper a word back but I don't catch it.

And then, if you make it to bedtime, you feel the joy of cheating death out of one more day," she said. "Do you see?

My mother just wanted me to forget it. So, of course, every word was immediately, irrevocably branded into my brain.

But some secrets are too delicious not to share.

But in school I remember hearing that for the second Quarter Quell, the Capitol demanded that twice the number of tributes be provided for the arena. The teachers didn't go into much more detail, which is surprising, because that was the year District 12's very own Haymitch Abernathy won the crown.

And there I am, blushing and confused, made beautiful by Cinna’s hands, desirable by Peeta’s confession, tragic by circumstance, and by all accounts, unforgettable.