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They had, Katniss realised, her favourite lamb stew. The one she'd told Caesar Flickerman was her favourite part of the Capitol, live in front of everyone in Panem. For a moment, she wondered if that was yet another dig from President Snow, until Effie fluttered on and on about how the staff had made sure the stew was there for them. At that, Katniss and Peeta exchanged a glance, and both made sure to go above and beyond in their thanks for the "incredible thoughtfulness". Effie soaked it up, beaming and waving and dabbing at tears.
"Well, it's only right, when this has happened, I mean, it's just so, so sad," she trilled, then covered her mouth at her own daring.
Katniss almost raised her eyebrows. Coming from Effie, that was almost a criticism of the Capitol. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gale's face - unreadable to anyone who didn't know him, an open book to her, and her amusement vanished. She remembered her awed revulsion, her first trip on this opulent train. By now he'd have had time to get over the sheer decadence of being able to eat and eat until he was full, and be able to think about the fact that the food set out here in one day would feed a family in the Seam for a week.
And here she was, and Peeta, humouring Effie's delicate Capitol sensibilities and seeming to take it for granted. Old Capitol hands. The silence stretched out for an awkward minute, then Peeta seemed to catch that something was wrong and began to say something, but Haymitch arrived with unusually good timing and shoved past them all with his usual morning grumpiness. It broke the awkward moment, and they all sat down at the table to eat.
She'd missed breakfast, with the sore head and unsettled stomach she'd given herself with the sweet alcohol from the night before, but she was hungry again, and the stew was still delicious. No sense wasting it. Beside her, Gale was eating with renewed vigour, encountering the tasty dish for the first time, but there was no ignoring the silent tension spanning the table between him and Peeta, eating stolidly across from them. Haymitch was too busy adding booze to his coffee and scowling to make conversation, so Effie carried on a fairly nervous-sounding, bubbling conversation all by herself.
Finally, tired of endless speculation about whether or not the designer Trianna Toridon would be an improvement over Corill Mayless as the stylist for the female tributes from District 11, Katniss suggested they watch the recap of the Reaping. Effie jumped on the suggestion with thinly-disguised relief, though Katniss was fairly sure that Effie and Peeta and Haymitch, at least, had watched it already. Still. Apparently, watching it again was better than sitting in tense silence.
District 1's Reaping, naturally, actually had some suspense, since they had a fairly large pool of victors. In the end, it was the brother and sister of consecutive years, Gloss and Cashmere. Gloss's twelve-year-old daughter was replaced by a volunteer from within the family, a woman who looked to be in her forties with only one eye (Effie trilled that she'd lost out on the "opportunity" to be a Tribute), and Cashmere's fierce fifteen-year-old brother bounced eagerly up to the stage, pumping a fist over his head triumphantly. In District 2, the scene was almost replicated, with Brutus (typical Career, Katniss thought) and Enobaria - a woman famous for using her teeth to kill one of her opponents. There it was young cousins, both times.
After that, Finnick Odair was the first to stick in her mind, the preternaturally handsome victor from District 4, deadly (so she recalled) with a trident. A very old woman with a cane immediately volunteered to replace a young, hysterical Annie Cresta, and then Finnick's younger sister and Mags' grandson were chosen from the families.
Two morphling addicts from 6, with two unmemorable cousins. Johanna Mason from 7, the only female victor from that district. Katniss remembered her - she'd pretended to be weak and helpless through most of the Games, overlooked and ignored, until it came down to the end and she began killing off the opposition viciously. Her cousin was equally memorable, a giant of a boy with slab-muscled shoulders who probably worked felling trees.
Cecelia, from 8, a well-known mentor, tugging three children away from her legs to walk up onto the stage. When one of those children was called up, her fists balled and an angry murmur swept the crowd. Chaff from 11, who seemed to be a friend of Haymitch's though he only had one hand, and his counterpart Seeder, who still looked tough and fit - a cousin and a brother, for those two.
Katniss turned off the recording before it could replay their Reaping, the pathetic moment as Effie clawed around for the single piece of paper in the female tribute-bowl, Clover sobbing and shaking as she stumbled up onstage, Gale's iron-hard face and Hazelle tearing a sobbing Rory away from him, Posy crying because her brother was. They didn't need to see that.
"So now what," Katniss asked quietly.
Peeta leaned forward, leafing through his notebook. He'd torn out the pages with the victors that hadn't been chosen, she saw, leaving only the ones they'd be facing. "Now we concentrate on who's left," he said quietly. "And figure out who we want for an ally, and who we need to watch out for."
Katniss almost asked where Clover was, and stopped. She didn't want to know, and it would probably be cruel.
"Do we have all the tapes of the Games they won?" Gale asked Peeta, surprising her. Peeta nodded, and Gale leaned forward, eyes intense and calculating, as when he constructed a new trap. "Okay. You've probably seen them, but I want to look. Don't tell me what you've got - maybe I'll see something different." And then, shockingly, he smiled. "Something different from a baker's eyes, I mean."
There was a long moment, and then Peeta smiled back.