Chapter 10

"Relax," I say, shuffling the deck of playing cards in my hands. The cards are the same as they are back home, down to all the different suits. "Do you know how to play poker?"

Katniss glowers over at me. "I should kill you. If we survive long enough to make it to the arena I will kill you." She's sitting cross-legged on the bed in our new guest suite/prison cell in President Snow's mansion, watching the re-cap of the tribute interviews on the large screen that dominates one wall of the bedroom.

"It's going to be okay," I say. "If it weren't for me, we would be going to the arena in the morning." I waggle the card deck at her again and she shots me another deadly look. I decide to play solitaire instead.

"If it weren't for you, Peacekeepers wouldn't have come and dragged us here," Katniss yells. "You should have told me what you were going to say in your interview. That way I could have killed you before you got me turned into an Avox."

"It's all part of the book," I say. And it is, mostly. Getting the Games postponed was my addition. I'm hoping it will buy me enough time to get out of here.

On screen, Caesar Flickerman with his blue wig, blue lipstick, and ghost pale face is interviewing Katniss and everything proceeds like it does in the book: the twirling, the giggling, the part about her sister. And then Caesar is calling my—Peeta's—name.

I hate watching myself on screen; it's more nerve-racking than actually doing the interviews. You see all your fuck ups and you can't go back and do another take like when you're doing a movie. But, I watch this one. I want to gauge the audience reaction.

It starts just the same as it does in the book. Caesar asking about the Capitol and I tell that story about the shower and smelling like roses, remembering my lines from five years ago. The crowd laughs and Caesar plays it up. Personally, I think Stanley is a better Caesar than the real Caesar.

Caesar asks about my family at home, so I make up some stuff about my loving brothers Rye and Whole Wheat (we call him W). I rip-off the plot to an old episode of I Love Lucy and tell Caesar about the time I adding too much yeast to some flour and the dough filling the entire bakery. The audience titters loudly.

Then we get to the part where Peeta's supposed to talk about Katniss.

"Handsome lad like you, there has to be some special girl waiting for you back in District 12? Come on, tell us her name," says Caesar. For some reason, the television screen makes him look more ghoulish than he did in real life.

"There is a girl, but she's not waiting for me at home…she's here," my on-screen self says.

"But that must mean…" Caesar starts.

My on-screen self nods sadly. "She's a tribute with me in these Games."

The crowd gasps and the camera pans over the shocked faces.

"Tell us, Peeta, who is she?" Caesar says.

Caesar leans into me and the camera pans into a close-up of our faces. I look directly into the camera like this is a telenovela. "It's Katniss. I've loved her forever. She is the light of my life, the fire of my loins."

The whole audience breaks out in sympathetic sighs at these words.

At this point, I know I was trying to hold back laughter, but I managed to make it look like I'm holding back tears on screen. Quoting Lolita seemed appropriate considering the age difference between Katniss and me.

"That is why, as a citizen of Panem, I'd like to petition President Snow to postpone the Games so that Katniss and I can get married. It's our dying wish."

The camera cuts to a shot of Katniss. She's looking dazed, but her eyes are downcast, demure in a way I've never seen the real Katniss act.

The crowd roars in agreement, clapping and stumping until the stage shakes. Caesar tries to calm them, promising he'll do everything in his power to get this petition to the president, but the crowds are so loud, the shouts drown out the anthem.

As soon as the anthem went off, a dozen Peacekeepers came and escorted us to the president's mansion, locking us in this room with the promise that the president will see us tomorrow.

Beside me, Katniss clicks the television off. "If I tell them you're insane, do you think they'd let me go?"

Yawning, I stretch my legs on in front of me on the bed and lay down.

Katniss scoots a little closer to the edge of the bed. "I'm not marrying you."

"Trust me. I know more about fauxmances than you. This is going to work in our favor."