The 175th Hunger Games

Chapter 19 - Alexia's POV

As Chastity and I walk out of my room, I see Margo hobble out of hers, depending heavily on Helios.

"God, I hate these shoes," she says, then notices me, "Alexia!"

"You guys need any help?" I ask, stifling my laughter as I calmly walk towards them.

"Nope, nope, I'm good," Margo says, almost falling into the wall.

"I'll take the other side, Helios," I say, I grab Margo's arm.

We walk, slowly, to the elevator, and go up one floor, to the studio where they'll be filming the interviews. After a few minutes, Margo seems to get a little bit more comfortable, so Helios lets go and the two of us walk arm in arm together.

The studio this year is a large auditorium with probably a thousand seats, and on the stage is a white chair and a large cream colored couch, one for Augustus Keller, and the other for the tributes, respectively. Behind the center stage area are twenty-four seats on three levels of risers, where the tributes that aren't speaking will sit. At least half of the tributes are already seated, and Augustus Keller is getting his makeup retouched and his bright red off the shoulder suit fixed off stage. No one is in the audience yet, and Helios and Chastity bring us up to our seats, which are on the top riser, right next to District Eleven, who haven't arrived yet.

"So, none of the live audience members will be allowed in for another thirty minutes, then another fifteen minutes after that the interviews will start, and sadly you two will be going last so you'll have to sit here for quite a while," Chastity explains.

"That's fine with me," Margo says.

"Also, one last thing that we didn't tell you about the dresses," Helios begins.

"When you're up there, we made sure that towards the end Augustus will ask you about your dresses. You need to say, 'we actually have something to show you' or something along those lines," Chastity says, looking at me, "Then I need you both to get up and spin around twice, in unison. We'll take it from there."

"Are our dresses going to explode or something?" Margo asks nervously.

"No, not that dramatic, but you'll see what happens," Helios says, smirking.

By that point, all of the tributes arrived and have sat down, and Augustus Keller and a woman come out from backstage.

"Hello tributes! Welcome to the pre-interview chat. If I can just have all of the stylists come off stage, please? Thank you, thank you," Augustus says, "Wonderful! Now, my name is Augustus Keller, you may know of me, but please just call me August."

"And my name is Wade Lystra, and I'm the stage manager," the woman says, "In roughly twenty-five minutes, those doors will open, and you need to be waving and smiling to everyone they come in. Then, once everyone is seated, the live broadcast will begin and the lights over your part of the stage will dim. Posse! Can you dim the tribute lights quickly so they can see what it looks like?" she yells backstage.

The lights dim, but we can still see everything.

"See, you should be able to see everything still, but the people out there won't see you at all, until the very end when Posse here brings the lights back up," Augustus explains.

"Bring them back up, Posse!" Wade yells again.

The lights go up slightly.

"Wonderful. So, the broadcast begins, the anthem plays, then Augustus here comes onstage and welcomes the people. That will take roughly five minutes for his opening speech to end, then he will welcome the lovely ladies from District One onto the stage, and you two will walk up," she says, pointing to District One, "When you're done, you get up, shake hands with August, then go back to your seat, and District Two is welcomed up. All of you decided to do duel interviews, so once your District is called, you both walk up. Any questions?" Wade says.