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Summary: Chapters 5 & 6

Chapter 5

Wyatt elaborates that he is an oddsmaker, not a Booker Boy, meaning he merely determines the odds of an event that people are betting on. They wait on the platform and Haymitch notices propaganda posters with slogans like “NO PEACE, NO PROSPERITY!” and “NO HUNGER GAMES, NO PEACE”—the same type of messaging they use in the districts. He’s fascinated to find that the Capitol needs to convince its own citizens, too.

They are bound and directed to the tribute center, where they are separated by gender and taken to the showers. A Peacekeeper asks if the striker is his token, a personal item that each tribute is permitted to bring into the arena. Haymitch says it is, and hopes nobody will notice what the necklace really is—tokens are not allowed to give tributes an advantage. The tributes are showered and given a sheet of crepe paper to wrap themselves in while they head back to gym. 

Haymitch soon meets University students Proserpina and Vitus, who make up his prep team. They tell him that Magno Stift is going to be Twelve's stylist, which annoys Haymitch; he dresses the Twelve tributes in the same coal miner overalls every year. His prep team leaves and Haymitch worries that Lenore Dove will say or do something that will get her into trouble. She has already been arrested twice, once for cutting the hangman’s rope the night before someone was going to be executed and once for burning a flag under the stage on her first Reaping Day. Lenore Dove was not punished either time because there was not enough evidence to convict, but Haymitch believes she did both things. 

Magno Stift finally arrives with the same dilapidated coal miner overalls from previous years. When Drusilla complains, Magno asserts dismissively that “nobody cares about Twelve.” Haymitch, Louella, Maysilee, and Wyatt are uncuffed and led to a shabby chariot. Haymitch looks around, realizing everyone else is dressed better than they are. Luella starts to panic and Haymitch quickly tries to reassure her before they are paraded in front of a jeering, drunken crowd. Someone throws a firework right in front of them, spooking the horses. There is a large chariot crash, and Haymitch is horrified to see that Louella has been killed. 

Chapter 6

Maysilee lays one of her necklaces on Louella and says she was going to give it to her as a token so that she would have something from home. Peacekeepers begin to head in their direction to take Louella’s body, but Haymitch grabs it and runs. He does not want them to touch her. As he does so, he sees a District 1 tribute attempting to get his horse to start moving; he clearly wants to be the only tribute to arrive at President Snow’s mansion. Haymitch steals his idea (and his chariot), landing before Snow who simply smirks at him, unimpressed. Haymitch lays Louella at Snow’s feet and starts to applaud, “giving credit where credit is due.” He is soon dragged away but, as he is, he hears Capitol citizens yelling that they want to sponsor him. 

Later, Maysilee finds him lying on the street and praises him for showing that people should not mess with District 12. Wyatt approaches and says their odds have improved slightly with the crash because the tributes from Six and Ten were injured. Haymitch and Wyatt argue about reducing people to statistics, and Maysilee and Wyatt leave.

Haymitch is soon approached by a twelve-year-old boy from District 3 named Ampert, who asks to be Haymitch’s ally. He explains that he is building a team to rival the Careers, tributes from the wealthier districts (One, Two, and Four) who often band together and win the Games. Ampert says that Three, Seven, and Eight are on board, and that Eleven is thinking it over. Ampert departs, and Haymitch thinks to himself that his ally days ended with Louella.

Haymitch, Wyatt, and Maysilee are taken to their quarters and presented to Wiress, one of their mentors (from District 3) who won last year's Games by finding a blind spot in a reflective arena. Haymitch is upset that their mentor is a weird girl who does not even fight when an older woman named Mags (their other mentor, from District 4) enters and opens her arms for a hug. She tells Haymitch that she is sorry about Louella, and he collapses in her arms and starts to cry.

Read more about Wiress and Mags in Catching Fire.

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