Gale's POV

Elefanio whisks a skin-tight outfit out of a small closet. The shirt and pants gleam like molten lava, and ripples of red, orange, and yellow flow and waver over the black spandex. I slip it on, and the T-shirt hugs my skin, showing off my muscles. The pants look like skinny jeans, but that's okay. I look good in them anyways. Then Elefanio hands me red-and-black-striped Converse and black gloves, which I put on.

"The gloves are made of the same material as last year's outfits. We'll set them on fire, so your hands will look as if they're on fire," Elefanio explains. "Now, we're kindof behind on schedule, so go, go, go!" Elefanio shoos me through the doorway to the gray, ruby-encrusted chariot. Black horses with red-and-yellow dyed manes are strapped to the chariot. Haymitch motions for me to get in the chariot, and as the large garage-door type door opens, Katniss jumps on the chariot with me. The prep teams are lighting our hands on fire, and soon the chariot starts to roll. Elefanio is waving his arms at me, and when I look at him, he motions for me to put my arm around Katniss's waist. So I do. And since Katniss doesn't pull away, I guess the fire doesn't burn her.

Once the District 12 chariot rolls out, I can tell District 12 stole the show another year in a row. The crowd cheers and waves their flailing hands at us. Katniss and I are beaming, and we wave our flaming hands back. I look at the screen above the crowd. Our natural tans give me and Katniss a golden-brown shade. Once again, the cameras are zooming in on my hand around Katniss's waist.

I look at Katniss, who looks amazing -- no, more than that. Stupendous. She's wearing glowing "lava" spandex short-shorts (that make her legs look wonderful, I must say) and a "lava" V-neck with a red camisole underneath. Glittering body glitter is on her collar bone, temples, and on her eyelid like eyeshadow. Katniss is also wearing the same red-and-black-striped Converse as I am.

The chariots finally roll back into the Tribute Tower, and we change out of our costumes. Time to get ready for our interviews, which will air tonight.

TIME PASSES

I'm wearing baggy red shorts held up by a black and yellow studded belt. Hopefully my red plaid boxers aren't showing, but I think that was Elefanio's plan. I'm wearing another spandex shirt, but this time it's red underarmor and long-sleeved. I'm wearing a wrinkled black shirt over my underarmor. My hair is messed to perfection. I think Elefanio's idea was to make my outfit "effortless". Oh well, I've already received endless complements from local girls throughout the Capitol.

Katniss is wearing a red strapless dress with gold bangles, and black ballet flats. She has gold eyeliner on, and black mascara. Again, gold shimmer is on her wrists and collar bone. Katniss's hair is not in her usual braid, but straightened almost as flat as paper. She looks magnificent, again.

We wait for almost 2 hours until Katniss's name is called.

"Katniss! Winner of the last Hunger Games, how did you feel when you were called again?" Caesar Flickerman asked, getting right to the point.

"Cheated. I can't believe I have to go through this again," Katniss answered with a straight face.

"I bet, I bet… So, how about your costumes? Apparently they stole the stage once more!"

"Yeah. Cinna has a great imagination to come up with these costumes. Elefonio, too," Katniss says with a smile on her face, looking at Cinna in the crowd.

"So, at the reaping, it looked like you knew Gale already. Did you?" Caesar asked.

"Of course. We're best friends," Katniss answered, looking back at me and smiling. I smile back. And the buzzer rings.

Katniss walks off the stage and I walk on, trying to keep my pants up. "So, Gale, best friends, huh?"

"Yep," I answer.

"Any intentions on being anything more?"

"Huh?" was my smart response.

"All of Panem saw you and Katniss holding hands on the first day. Not to mention the arm-around-her-waist trick with the chariots," Caesar explained.

"Uh…" I say, my face blushing. On the screen, Katniss is blushing too. Crap. Hopefully Caesar isn't trying to start the whole "star-crossed lovers" crapola like last year.

"But she is looking lovely, right, Gale?"

I nod eagerly and the crowd cheers and aww's. Katniss blushes a deeper red. Shoot. The last thing I want to do is embarrass her. The buzzer rings as Katniss and I are staring at each other. And the cameras are soaking up it all.