A disguise I never wanted, one where I was supposed to sit back and wait. I couldn't meet up with my friends or let them notice me either. A disguise of food and sleep. I wasn't looking like a skeleton anymore and the circles under my eyes were gone. My hair had been trimmed and I no longer felt like the ghost king I am. Bee was having fun with Caesar, teasing her about how her outfits looked stunning and how she had somehow gotten someone to volunteer from an outlier district.

"Well ladies and gentlemen, we are almost done tonight. Tomorrow we will sadly be saying goodbye to some of our lovely tributes." The crowds sighed as if they actually cared about us and this wasn't entertaining for them. "Now our last tribute, he's from district 12 but don't count him out. He is a volunteer and got a very high score for his district, you know his name, Nico Di Angelo!"

I noticed one person was still looking out from the other wing, the only one paying attention, Hazel. Her jaw dropped at the sight of me. I walked to the seat keeping my eyes on her. She started pestering Frank who was talking to Percy and Annabeth. He didn't seem to notice her slapping his arm. "Why hello there Caesar, thank you for having me." I scanned the crowd for a possible face of possibly a god or Chiron... but that was impossible.

"Hello there, I'm going to cut right to the chase because I'm sure everyone wants to know. Why did you volunteer?" His hair was getting frizzy from the constant shake of his head.

"Well, my family has all recently died due to a mining incident and I had nowhere to go, Bee was the only person who reached out and helped me so I knew I had to protect her. In no way did I ever think of her as more than a friend, but we became closer, like brother and sister." I emphasized the words brother and sister hoping Hazel might connect the dots.

"That's so sweet, you two must be really close now." He smiles and looks out at the crowd, people towards the back where yawning and he puts his finger to his ear. "Now Nico, I so wanted to know more but our show has been so... eventful that I have to say good bye now." He chose his words carefully like one slip may fracture the world. He guides me to the wing and see that Hazel and Bee were the only two still there.

"So, you two have met..." I say trying to avoid all eye contact with Hazel.

"Yeah, and you have been avoiding us all this time! I've missed you!" Hazel said embracing me in a hug. Bee looked uncomfortable like she had just walked in on something.

"Bee, meet my half sister, Hazel." They greeted each other like anyone would buy it was awkward, like tension was rising. "Hazel, have you sensed her power yet?" I whisper so that Bee can't hear.

Hazel nods and starts to speak when Frank came up and pulled her away. "Oh hey you two..." he looked confused and Hazel just gave him an 'I'll explain it later' look.

"Nico, tell me the truth... who are you?" Bee says as Effie come around holding a very drunk Haymitch by the hand.

"Oh, good, let's go, you need plenty of sleep tonight before the games." Effie hurried off as fast as she could with a drunk man slowing her down.

"Bee, I'll explain, just right now isn't the time."