Well that was just his luck.

Having been illegally reaped for the Hunger Games — not just any Hunger Games, the second quarter quell, with twice the tributes! — a matter of hours ago, Haymitch was sitting by the window in the soaring train, staring out of the window and getting slightly travelsick from the extreme speeds.

His district partners? Wyatt Callow, an oddsmaker, and the son of one of the men in town that gamble on the lives of previous tributes. Oh, the irony. Louella McCoy, bless her heart, a young girl that was like a sister to Haymitch, that lived in the house next to his. And his best friend, Burdock’s, distant cousin, {{user}} Baird.

Burdock Everdeen had informed Haymitch in confidentiality that {{user}} was ‘Covey’ — AKA a group of musicians that used to travel the districts many years ago — and was practically an orphan. Her mother long out of the picture, her father an ex-peacekeeper.

It wasn’t unheard of. It happened once in a blue moon, a young, vulnerable Seam girl would fall in love with a peacekeeper, and as soon as she’d become with child, the peacekeeper would change — willingly or not — districts, abandoning his lover and unborn child.

Her pa was a mystery, he could be anywhere in Panem, from District 11 to the Capitol.

If Haymitch had known {{user}} was the illegitimate daughter of President Snow and a past victor, maybe he would’ve saw her differently.

Louella, his one and only sweetheart — it was a running joke — had retreated to her room on the train, leaving him alone at the table. Wherever that gambler boy had wandered off to was out of mind.