A/N: This is a Capitol chapter, sorry if you were wanting a Games chapter... Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy reading it, too! :D

Chapter 11

As a rule, Capitol weddings are crazily extravagant, more so since the Dark Days ended. I lost count of our guests once we passed one hundred.

Actually, I'm still recovering from my stag do last night. I drank a bit too much, I think - most of us did - and ended up outside my boss's house. It was a good time, though, and I met up with people I haven't seen for years, as well as meeting some of Pia's relatives. She has a brilliant older brother called Peveril and a weird cousin called Arco (Who said he was of age but I haven't seen him since his first drink made him hyper).

I never had a brother, so my best friends were my siblings. Sever and Petula have been my friends since we were tiny, though I haven't seen Petula since I left for college. Sever, however, I have written to loads - he's very interested in the Gamemaking business.

He's here now, giving me a check over before I go to the fore-party.

"I can't believe you're getting married!" he's saying. "It seems only yesterday that we were standing with Petula on our first day of school."

"You sound like my mother."

"Oh, shut up!"

Petula comes in with her partner, Marcius. Her flowing black hair has been curled and pinned up on her head for the occasion, and Marcius is fiddling with a lock of it. He's such an idiot, I hate him for even being here with Petula.

"Your mother is just organising the guests," Petula announces. "She says she wants you to come now."

Capitol weddings are made up of two parts: the fore-party and the ceremony, the former of which is just about to begin. Basically, they will make a corridor of people for Pia and I to walk down from opposite sides and start the dancing. Then they will dance with us, and eat and converse and all of that exhausting stuff.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. "Ok, I'm ready."

When I step out into the huge ballroom of people, the first thing I see is Pia. She is right at the other end of the room, looking absolutely stunning in her huge, white wedding dress. Her hair has been bleached a very pale blonde to match and it falls over her shoulders in perfectly straight sheets. We walk towards each other as our guests ready handfuls of confetti. The second we meet, the music starts, the confetti is thrown and we begin to dance.

The room is flooded with with noise and dancers instantly and Pia and I are approached by socialising guests only a minute or so after that.

"Pia!" cries the first, a college friend of ours called Nona. "Adrastus!"

"Hello, Nona!"

"Oh, you look so handsome in that suit, Adrastus! You should wear suits more often."

"I wear them to work every day," I say.

Her reply is cut off by the appearance of my great-great grandmother. She's short, thin and wrinkly, and, quite honestly, she shouldn't be alive; she's been on life-enhancing pills for the past thirty years.

"Oh," she coos, "Adrastus, dear, your wife Pepper is so beautiful!"

"It's Pia, grandma."

"Yes, yes, that's what I said. When's the baby due, then?"

"What?!" Pia exclaims. Thankfully, my elderly relative then gets dragged away by an elderly man who I presume is my great-great grandfather, but you can never be sure these days. I watch as they engage in conversation with Sever -poor guy - then turn back to Pia and her mother, who is accompanied by an awful-looking man who looks around my age.

"Oh, Pia!" he drawls, shaking her hand and pulling a face that makes him look like a vole. "I haven't seen you in ever so long!"

"Yes," Pia's mother adds. "Pia, you missed him when he called last week. This is Pius, remember?"

"Very well, thank you, mother." Pia looks Pius up and down. "Though I haven't seen him in ages. Have you met Adrastus, Pius?"

"Not really. Hello, Adrastus."

Pia's mother disappears into the crowd as I introduce myself. Pius soon follows as he spots the buffet table.

"My mother tried to set me up with him," Pia whispers. "But he turned out to be, um, homosexual."

I raise my eyebrows at this, but can't say anything because Pia's cousin, Luna, turns up with another man who I don't know.

We go through the whole pleasantries business and then Pia leaves me alone so she can get some food.

The man with Pia's cousin - Elian - turns out to be Pia's gatecrashing ex who is dating Luna, despite being far too old for her in my opinion. He steals Pia for a dance when she comes back and I abandon Luna to go rescue Sever from my elderly relatives. My childhood neighbour, Laris, also joins us, but then spots one of my colleagues and disappears again.

"You tired yet?" Sever asks.

"Yes!" I reply. "I have so many relatives!"

Sever laughs.

"You know," I continue, "I sort of wish Pia and I did a toasting, like in District 12."

"Really?"

"It would've been a lot simpler."

"I-" Sever spins suddenly. "What?" A young woman stands behind him. She is wearing the height of fashion and a ton of make up. She steals Sever away for a dance between her giggles, leaving me to talk to Pia's great grandfather.

"Oh, I do like these big dos," he says. "It reminds me of before the Dark Days when I had my wedding. Fabulous do, that was, and you better be thankful that you can still do this now!"

"Oh, I am, sir."

"Call me Janus, boy."

"I'm Adrastus, by the way."

"You're marrying my little Pia are you? Well, well." He looks me up and down. "You look good enough. I want good, strong great-great grandchildren, you know!"

"Um, yes. Now, do exuse me, I have to find my, um, wife. There she is."

"Yes, yes. And drink some wine, yes? It's good stuff, and it'll help you through the ceremony later." He winks and bumbles on.

Before I can take a step towards Pia, though, I am greeted (More like assaulted, actually, but I can't say that) by Novia, a girl who used to do District Ten's prep stuff before the Games. When the pair from her district were brutally slaughtered last year, she broke down with grief and went a bit wild. I helped her get her job back and she won't stop thanking me. Now, she's full-on tears, hand gestures, blurting emotions all over the place, telling me something unimportant.

After her, I meet Pia's eccentric friend who uses he word 'like' too much, an old family friend who worked with my father in District One, another friend of mine from college and annoyingly giggly girl who seems to have adopted me. And then I take Janus's advice and start on the wine, getting to my fifth glass when Pia comes to me with our mothers to leave for the ceremony.

The ceremony room sways a little as I step in, but levels out when Pia clutches my arm and pecks me on the cheek. Our guests start to crowd in and the ceremony starts.

And that's when I spot Jezzebelle.