Katniss arrives at the Training Center, where each district has its own luxurious floor. Effie Trinket remains with the tributes and proudly explains that she has been promoting Katniss and Peeta to potential sponsors after their success in the opening ceremonies. Katniss is repelled by Effie’s Capitol-minded language, but she also recognizes Effie’s usefulness and determination, especially because Haymitch has still been unreliable.

In her room, Katniss is overwhelmed by the Capitol’s abundance, from automated clothing and food service to extravagant bathing technology. At dinner, she joins Peeta, Cinna, Portia, Effie, and a newly cleaned-up, relatively sober Haymitch. The group discusses strategy and image while Katniss eats and observes, and the evening confirms that Cinna and Portia have become important allies in shaping how Katniss and Peeta are perceived.

The mood changes when Katniss recognizes a silent servant girl with red hair. Haymitch explains that the girl is an Avox, a criminal whose tongue has been cut out, and Effie warns Katniss not to speak to her as an equal. When the adults react suspiciously, Peeta quickly invents a harmless explanation by claiming the girl resembles Delly Cartwright, allowing Katniss to hide the truth and revealing that Peeta is willing to protect her.

Later, the group watches a replay of the opening ceremonies. Haymitch praises the moment when Katniss and Peeta held hands, calling it a perfect act of rebellion because it presented them as united rather than as rivals already turning against each other. Haymitch then instructs them to meet him for breakfast before training, signaling that he is finally ready to guide how they should behave in public and in the arena.

After dinner, Peeta notices Katniss’s distress and leads her to the roof garden, where the wind chimes mask conversation. Katniss tells Peeta that she once saw the red-haired girl and a boy fleeing through the woods near District 12 before a hovercraft captured them; the boy was killed, and the girl was taken alive. Peeta responds with care, covers her with his jacket, and cautiously hints at his own discomfort with the Capitol before disguising his words. Back at her room, Katniss sees the Avox girl again and is overwhelmed by guilt for failing to help her, a guilt that intensifies Katniss’s awareness that the Capitol expects everyone to watch suffering without resisting.