Our Love Could Be Lethal Act I Re-Write

Act I: Pre-Games Games

I resist the urge to roll my eyes as Brutus goes to wave them away when they place the dessert on the table, but I insist on having it. The least they can let me do after winning the Hunger Games is eat some dessert. Only Fallon and I indulge in the strawberry-cream cake.

I can feel the stares of Magenta and Percy so hard, it's as if they're going to make my head explode spontaneously. "You know when people at the Academy said you'd gone soft, I didn't think they meant literally." The joke stings, especially coming from Percy. The sweet cake suddenly feels a bit stale in my mouth. I try not to stare down at my body to see if there really has been any change and excuse myself from dinner the moment I get the chance.

I try to quickly forget the fiasco from dinner because the next day is spent prepping for interviews, teaching Percy the ins and outs of what to say and working on making sure that he hammers his 'angle' home. Though to be honest, he doesn't need much practice with being charming and mysterious, so I put my focus into making sure that he's comfortable in front of the camera. He seems to be fine whenever I run my mock interviews with him, even when I throw him a curve ball by using my best Caesar impression, but as soon as I bring Fallon the escort in, he seems to lose his confidence.

We go over questions again and again on his insistence to go until he gets it right. I come up with what I'd like to think is a rather ingenious plan by setting up tissue boxes in the areas where I remembered the cameras to be onstage. I gently guide him to the middle of the stage, in this instance the middle of floor 2's living room, and point to each of the boxes one by one. "Don't worry about the crowd. Your real audience is there, there, and there."

I feel him shift nervously. "But how do I know which one to look at?"

"There's a five-second delay. The editors will switch to whatever angle is best. You give them what they want, and that's how you take control," I say. "The close-up for your chair is the one closer to the audience on the right, the one closer to backstage on the right is a waist-up shot, and the one in front is wide."

"Alright, so, if I'm smirking, I should be angling towards the one towards the audience on the right. But if I'm gesturing with my hands I should go for the one closer to backstage."

"You're a good mentor, you know that?" he says.

"Well, I have some extra motivation."

"And what would that be?"

"Bringing a friend home."

He gives a slow but sure nod, and a smile grows across his face. He practices a few more times, and when we invite Fallon in, it goes off without a hitch. She even lets out a few chuckles. As he slinks off to go and get ready for bed, Fallon turns to me. "I was worried for you. You might think that I'm not very smart, and that may be true, but I saw that spark in your eyes last year, and how it was gone afterwards. It's nice to see that it's coming back."

Not exactly sure what to say, I simply give her a curt nod and walk out of the room.

~~~

I begin to pace back and forth backstage, waiting for Percy to come out of the dressing room, waiting for him to come out. I saw the rack of outfits going into the dressing rooms, and I must admit that it's making me a little nervous. One of the options was a tacky-looking suit in a stone-wall-like pattern, and I really hope that's not the one that they're going to go with.

Just then Percy emerges from the dressing room. He's wearing a blue suit and a white shirt, thank goodness.

"Looking good," I say. Percy spins around to show off his whole suit with a smirk on his face.