"I look ridiculous" Peeta laughs as we wait in the main room of our capitol suite for Effie to be finished getting ready. Peeta is of course referring to the ridiculous getups we have been dressed in for the event tonight. Cinna, Portia, and their teams have just finished dressing us for our party tonight in the Presidential Palace. Finally, our last night of torture before we get to go home.
I am dressed in this warrior styled black gown. I have no idea how I am supposed to walk in this thing, or run. My makeup is caked on so much it almost hurts and I can barely see out of my eyes past the red and black. But I definitely have it better then Peeta. He is in this very boxy, uncomfortable looking suit. His hair is gelled back to match the shape of his suit almost. And they have caked some smoky make up on him too. We look absolutely ridiculous.
"Yea, you look like a sliver mine." I tell him, and we both start laughing.
Effie walks in. "Come on you two! I'm so glad to see you in good spirits for the party. Anyone who's anybody is going to be there! You'll get to speak to all the style icons, celebrities, past and present gamemakers. Oh, and President Snow himself of course!" Effie prattles on, but her words wipe the smiles from both Peeta and I's faces. Effie's words are a stone reminder of what tonight really is. Socializing with capitol members, being paraded around as heroes, and most terrifying of all our judgment day. Did we actually convince anyone that we're in love?
Effie ushers us out and towards the party, continuing to prattle on and on about how we should act and what we should do. Peeta and I walk in stone-faced, this is a giant nightmare. The moment we are spotted people more ridiculously dolled up then us descend upon us, with huge creepy smiles on their faces. Some are baring cameras and flashing in our faces. I try to put on my best smile as we fight our way through the crowd. There is only room to walk single file because everyone is closing in on us. At some points I have to turn sideways to fit. I look back at Peeta and he takes my hand. Everyone awes around us and keeps on snapping more photos. But it isn't for them. It's for support. We need each other to get through this night. Even Peeta's immense social skills can't keep up with this assault on us.
Effie tours us around the whole palace. It is quite a spectacle. People are dancing around fire and hanging from ceilings. Effie seems to know everyone. Peeta and I stay composed, arm in arm, as she drags us around to meet everyone.
Finally she lets us be outside in the courtyard. We both take a breath we didn't know we'd been holding and look at each other and laugh. Before we can say or do anything though, a flamboyant man shoves a plate of food in Peeta's face. But neither of us can eat any more we're too full. So the man tries to hand us a glass full of pink liquid that, apparently, will make us sick so we can go on eating.
Peeta stares for a moment, and then recovers with a smile. "I think it's time for a dance. Katniss." He whisks me away and onto the dance floor. Thankfully Peeta always knows what to do and say to help us escape.
He pulls me into him and we start to dance. Finally, we get some time to breath and some privacy from this nightmare. "People are starving in 12 and these people are throwing food up just to stuff more in." Peeta is clearly disgusted and so am I. All I can think of is starving as a child and watching Prim starve before I was old enough to do anything about it.
Of course Peeta and I can't have five seconds to breathe before Effie comes bustling over to introduce us to yet another person I don't want to talk to. She is simply bursting this time as she gestures to an older man of stalky build with white hair. He isn't extravagant like the others. He actually seems like a simple man. "Katniss! Peeta! This is Plutarch Heavensbee, Head Gamemaker, and successor to Seneca Crane. " I can't stop my smile from dropping. Cynical bastard!
"That's a tough act to follow." Peeta levels. I turn to him and give him the smallest smile. I am proud. He is being sarcastic and sticking it back to them. Maybe my attitude is rubbing off on him.
Effie gasps, "Peeta!" She looks nervously back and forth from Peeta to Plutarch. But Plutarch just starts laughing.
Then he points straight at me like I am some sort of object. "May I?" He asks Peeta. I will myself to stay calm and be good.
"Just don't get too attached to her." Peeta moves out of his way. Damnit Peeta.
Plutarch pulls me onto the dance floor and starts to waltz with me. I look everywhere but at his face for as long as I can, trying to forget who he is. A murderer, an organized murderer. Plutarch proceeds to chat me up with strange banter about the Games and what they mean to him while I try my hardest to be polite. And I have to try very hard. Thankfully I'm not forced to keep the act up for too long. We are interrupted by the announcement of the President's speech.
Everyone claps and cheers. Effie ushers Peeta and I over to the spot in the courtyard where we can best see Snow's Presidential Welcome.
"Do you think we convinced him?" Peeta nervously leans in towards me as we walk towards the gathering area.
"I'm not sure what else we can do." I tell him, trying to comfort us both as we nervously go through the motions of clapping for President Snow's welcome.
I hold onto Peeta's arm tightly as President Snow speaks. Eerie chills roll down my spin as he glances at me during his speech. I'm not hearing what he's saying. I only study his face for some sign that our efforts have been good enough. But as the fireworks burst around us at the conclusion of his speech I see President Snow grimly shake his head. I wasn't good enough. And now I can only imagine the horrors in store for us, and our families. I want to break down and cry, but I refuse to show Snow weakness.
I squeeze Peeta's arm. "Peeta." I breathe out not trusting my own voice. "We need to get out of here. Please."
Peeta is on it in a flash. He finds Effie in the crowd and pulls her aside. "Effie, Katniss and I are quite tired from all the excitement of the night. We're going to retire back to the suite and get some sleep."
"Peeta, I simply can't allow that. You've barely been here. It's quite rude! This is a party for you two afterall. Besides, you may be engaged, but it would be highly inappropriate of me to allow you two to go back without a chaperone." Effie lectures us. Great, we will never escape this nightmare.
"Effie, let the kids go back. They've been here long enough. I'll chaperone them." A slightly drunk Haymitch comes to our rescue. I don't think I've ever been happier to see him.
Effie ponders this for a moment, "Well, alright fine. It won't reflect poorly on me. But just say…" Before Effie finishes her sentence I roughly pulled Peeta away and start high tailing it out of there.
Once we reach the outer gate I lose it a bit. I start yanking at my shoes, which have been killing my feet all night, trying to pull them off. As I struggle the heel gets caught on my dress and tears apart the whole bottom. I collapse on the ground and rip my killer heels off and fling them across the grass in aggravation, both at the shoes and the situation I'm currently in.
"Whoa Katniss! Maybe you should've brought those into the arena. You just missed my head." Peeta laughs. Then he notices me fighting back tears of fury. "Katniss, what's wrong?"
"We couldn't do it Peeta. I couldn't do it. Snow didn't believe us." I scream tugging at my hair in anger and to keep from breaking down completely into tears.
"What do you mean? How do you know that?" Peeta looks shocked, sitting down next to me.
"He shook his head at me at the end of his speech. His meaning behind it was crystal clear." I tell Peeta. A stern look still occupies my face, but tears start to spill. Peeta pulls me in tight as I shake, not because I'm crying so hard, but because my whole body is bursting with shame and fear. Even though it isn't due to the cold, Peeta takes his metallic jacket off and puts it over my shoulders.
"Katniss." He turns my face to him. "I promise you it's going to be okay. He won't hurt our families I promise. We won't let him." Even though we both know Peeta's words are a lie, they're comforting.
"Screw the capitol." Peeta whispers. I have never heard him speak so outright. "Screw them and their rules, and their cruelty, and their food, and their stupid-ass makeup and dresses. Screw it all!" He gets louder and throws his ugly tie across the lawn. That gets a small laugh out of me.
"Let's get out of here. I don't want to sit on their stupid lawn anymore." Peeta tries to help wipe the makeup from my eyes but he probably just smeares it more.
Before we can get up I hear a loud "Oooo!" I look up and see two women, decked out in capitol garb. "How scandalous!" For a moment I think they may have heard what we said. Then I see Peeta blush and start to try to explain. I suddenly realize what this probably looks like, with some of our clothes thrown about and me looking like an absolute mess. I feel horrified and embarassed. I get up and just start to run, thankful I threw my shoes and ripped the restrictive dress. I can hear Peeta running behind me.
The women giggle and yell after us. "Don't worry darlings we won't tell."
I reach the suite a couple of minutes before Peeta does, I think he purposefully ran slower to give me space. I run into my bedroom and slam the door, getting undressed and stepping into the shower. I need some alone time. When I get out he is waiting in the living room in his loungewear. I guess he also decided he needed out of that ridiculous getup and makeup as soon as possible.
Before I can say anything to him Effie storms in. "You two! Where is Haymitch? He clearly wasn't there when you were causing a scandal, and right outside your own party! You should be ashamed." So much for not telling anyone.
Haymitch is there and to the rescue again. "Effie leave the kids alone." Effie tries to interrupt but he cuts her off. "I paid off those women. Just give it a rest. They had a long day. And we have to get onto the train now to go back to 12."
Effie doesn't look like she's done, but Haymitch makes a good point about sticking to her schedule so she ushers us out and onto the train. Before she can continue her fight I am in my room.
Peeta follows shortly after. I thought he might not because of the awkwardness of earlier, but I'm glad he does. We definitely both need to avoid nightmares tonight. Peeta is fast asleep within a couple of moments. I don't snuggle against him like I normally do, and I don't sleep. All I can do is stare at the ceiling and think about President Snow's threat. How am I to save my family? Gale? What about Peeta's family? Peeta? I sit up for hours. Then I finally know what I have to do, to save everyone.