I hope to get this up soon! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last…many chapters. ;) So enjoy this chapter and please review!

oOo

Mr. Webb expected it when all four of us walked into the tailors (not including Ivy and Jace who were being comfortably carried). He stood up and smiled at us, black eyes crinkling up.

"I see you got the whole gang together. Excellent, excellent…" The tailor walked slowly around his desk and leaned on the front, hands in pockets, disregarding us with slit eyes. After a second's pause, he spoke. "So do you have the slip of paper I gave you yesterday?"

My heart sank a bit. Uh-oh. I set Ivy down with a grunt and rummaged through my pockets, but it wasn't in there. "Um…"

Prim reached into her own pocket and pulled out the little sticky note. When she caught my look, she smiled. "I knew you'd forget it." She held it out to Mr. Webb and he took it.

Obviously, he understood the gibberish written on it, because he nodded and pulled out a binder from the shelf. The tailor flopped it down on the table and flipped through the pages until it was on the right on ten seconds later. His finger jabbed the dress, which was indeed the one we had marked. "There it is, girls."

We all crowded around the binder to get yet another look, but we allowed Annie to be in the front. Her eyes scanned the dress for a few minutes, until she leaned back. "It's okay."

For the second time in five minutes, my heart deflated. Though he words were casual, I knew it wasn't what she was looking for. But that's okay, because there were dozens other designs. I coughed and didn't let my disappointment show.

"Might I remind you," Mr. Webb pointed out, "that I can put together different elements of them. If you don't like the length or the seam design or the pattern of the neck, we can mix and match."

All four of us exchanged glances, but it was me who looked up and gave the final affirmative nod. "Please."

Chairs were pulled up to the table on one side, and Mr. Webb sat on the other with a sheet or two of paper and a pencil, used for jotting down what we wanted.

"I like the sleeves of this one, though." Annie noted, pointing at the dress we'd previously chosen.

"Me too," Prim said, nodding thoughtfully. "But where the sleeve ruffles turn into the neckline we might want to make them a little less….low-cut."

We all nodded.

I lifted my head up to the tailor. "I think that's a definite choi—"

"Excellent." Mr. Webb's smile widened and he drew a very careful sketch of that on the top half of the page, with a few words by the side pointing to the sleeves.

We bent our heads back over the binder, ignoring his interruption.

There was a long pause.

"The hem should be shorter, though." Caroline said pensively, putting her slim finger on the design. "Maybe about an inch or two above the knees."

"Yes, good idea…" Annie nodded with Prim. "It's flattering, too…"

Mr. Webb jotted that down, too.

When the pause after that was the longest yet, Annie tentatively reached out and flipped the pages twice, landing on yet another dress, delicate and fluttery. It reminded me on some sort of butterfly.

"What's that?" Ivy reached up over Annie's hand and tapped her chubby finger on a funny lace pattern on the chest of the dress.

"Lace, honey." Caroline made another face, considering it.

The page was abruptly turned.

"Ooh, I love the diamond seam right here on the waist," Prim nodded her head vigorously, pointing it out to Annie.

"Oh, yes, the way it hangs off. But I don't like lavender..." She frowned.

"Don't worry about that," Mr. Webb, after jotting that down, reassured them. "It can be in any color you like."

Now there was something else to stop and consider. The two mature bridesmaids put their heads together, making low humming noises of consideration.

"How about blue?" Annie suggested. "Maybe a nice sky color. It would compliment your eyes and hair."

Prim mulled that over, but then glanced down at Ivy. "It would clash with Ivy's hair."

The little four-year-old weighed in her thoughts with a giggle. "Pink!"

Caroline shook her head at her daughter amusingly. "No, honey…"

I thought of some of my clothes at home and their colors, then I remembered a dark green blouse I had. "Forest green?"

They looked at me.

"It would make Prim's hair blonder and lighter, it would make your eyes stand out, Annie, and it would just…" I stared at Ivy as she grinned up at me. I grinned back. "…make Ivy all that more adorable with her hair and eyes as well."

"Green?" Prim seemed to like the idea, nodding with eyebrows raised in assent.

Annie nodded, too. "Green. Forest green."

Ivy giggled. "Green."

I smiled as Mr. Webb jotted the color down. We were getting somewhere, at last. When only silence responded him, he took the piece of paper and put it in front of us. There was a rough sketch (though better than any I could ever draw) of an original dress on it, with little side notes. It was simple, but seemed nice enough.

"It needs pleats at the bottom." Prim said matter-of-factly.

We all looked at her. She just shrugged.

"Pleats, then." Mr. Webb reached across the desk and jotted that down as well. "Anything else?"

Another long pause.

"I don't know. It looks pretty good to me." Annie nodded her head in appreciation, eyes shining with excitement.

"How about you, Ivy?" Caroline asked, poking her young daughter in the side gently.

Ivy squealed, and then giggled. "It's a pretty dress. Is it mine?"

"Yes, hon."

Those two words earned an extra-loud squeal.

Prim laughed. "It's fine with me, too."

"Fine?" I inquired, glancing at each of my bridesmaids in turn. "Is 'fine' good enough for my three beautiful bridesmaids?" The word 'beautiful' slipped in there unintentionally, but it suited just fine.

"Better than fine." Annie nodded. "It's…more than I could ever imagine myself in…"

Prim giggled, and then bent closer to the other girl to whisper, "Finnick's going to go crazy about you in this dress, Annie."

Annie let out a small laugh, too.

After all that was done, all of us straightened up in our chairs.

"Is that all, girls?" Mr. Webb took the paper back and examined it. "Excellent, excellent…"

Prim seemed to shin with excitement. "How soon can we get the appoi—"

"Business is slow right now, so unless you ladies aren't doing anything else, we can begin right away." He stood up, ignoring the fact that he had interrupted a 15-year-old girl mid-sentence. Mr. Webb's curious black eyes blinked at us once, and then he turned to the back door where he disappeared into yesterday.

Uncertainly, we followed.

The back room was massive; even bigger than the lobby. Racks and racks of clothes of all sorts of colors hung, packed into the wall all the way up to the ceiling. In one corner a smaller hallway—that seemed door-less—stretched, and apparently endless rows of plastic-covered dresses were hung up. On the very far side of the room was a raised section of floor. It was a hexagon, and four mirrors pointing at slightly different angles were on the bit of raised floor. A small rack was on the lower part of floor next to it. Behind that was a simple door, which probably led to some type of dressing room maybe?

Mr. Webb let us gawk at the room for a few seconds, but then he clipped the sketch of the dress onto a clipboard and rubbed his hands. "Who is first, now?"

The eldest bridesmaids exchanged glances (because Ivy wasn't paying very good attention), but it was Prim who smiled. "Let's do oldest to youngest."

Annie gave her a look, but nonetheless complied. "I suppose so…" She walked over to me and gently slid her son—who was back to sucking his fingers—into my arms. A nervous smile flitted across her face, and she admitted, "I've never been to a tailor before. I've never…done this."

I gave her a reassuring smile back. "Neither have any of us. It'll be okay. We're all girls here, right?"

Four sets of eyes flicked over to Mr. Webb, who was busy searching the racks of material for the right color of green.

Then Annie gave me an incredulous, "oh-really" look.

I shrugged. "You never know."

That sent us all into a wheel of anxious laughter.

Mr. Webb returned shortly after the fit ended, with an odd-looking swathe of forest green material. It appeared to be a rough, choppy version of a dress. I tried not to question it too much. He knew what he was doing.

"So, eldest first, right?" He asked, and I immediately worried that he had heard my girl comment.

Annie stepped forwards uncertainly with an uncomfortable grimace. "Yes, sir."

The tailor let out a laugh, and it was slightly higher than his voice. "Don't be worried, Ms. Cresta. I have tailored countless young women like yourselves, and I've seen too many people naked to count."

That just put a horrified look on Annie's face and she began to back away, but not jokingly. I could see the blank-ish look in her eyes that came up every time she was leaned forward to close to an unwanted emotion.

"Please, Ms. Cresta." Mr. Webb then took off his teasing grin and put on one of business. "You have nothing to be worried about. This is the tailors. I'm here to measure you, not do anything but."

Slowly, Annie swallowed and shook her head reluctantly.

"Now," He had thankfully put away his humor and was less frightening when talking about nudity. His finger pointed to the door behind the raised floor. "There is the bathroom. If you could step into there, miss, and remove your clothes. There is a robe to wrap yourself in until it's needed to be removed. Meet us back up onto the raised bit of floor for your measurements. The clothes can be put on the rack in there. You have nothing to be nervous about."

I felt for Annie. The first time I had to be naked in front of strangers, they were so…strange, it was hard to be embarrassed because they were mutilated beyond recognition of real human beings. It was kind of like being naked in front of a purple moose. It made you want to laugh instead of cower in mortification.

I reached over and squeezed my friends' hand once in reassurance. Annie gave me a smile, put her shoulders back and raised her chin boldly. And without any other words, she simply strode into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Meanwhile, Mr. Webb put himself to work. I didn't understand most of what he did, so I didn't bother watching. I rocked Jace for a bit, and then upon request, knelt down on the floor for Ivy to tickle his feet. Prim paced a bit, wandering closer and closer to the bathroom door, waiting for our friend. And Annie came out five minutes later wrapped in a white robe that was so thin and clean it was almost as if she wasn't wearing anything. Better than nothing, though.

Annie shuffled awkwardly towards the raised floor, casting glances over at us the whole time. That was cue for us to go over and put our arms around her encouragingly. We walked her to the raised floor and helped her up the two small steps until she was standing in the focus points of all four giant mirrors. Then we backed off and waited at the bottom.

Mr. Webb was done doing whatever he had been doing by then. He still had the funny dress-thing draped over one arm, and upon seeing Annie waiting, he simply strode up next to her and flattened out the dress-thing on a nearby table.

"Miss Cresta, please remove the robe. We need to get your measures now." He said with a passive face.

Only after swallowing a bit, Annie untied the robe and slipped it off her shoulder and put it on the rack. She looked so incredibly uncomfortable, I wanted to put my arms around her again and comfort her. I did nothing.

With a still emotionless face, the tailor took out a bendy measuring tape and began to measure her. Around her waist, her chest (Annie stifled an upset whine), her hips (failed to stifle), her shoulders, length of arm, circumference of arm, length of leg. When all that was done and recorded on a piece of paper, Mr. Webb then slid the funny dress-thing over Annie's head. It hung all lumpy-like and ugly.

"Beautiful bridesmaid dress, Katniss." Prim said in a mocking, falsetto voice. "Did you design it yourself?"

We both laughed, despite the tension of the situation.

It was tedious work, what Mr. Webb was doing. Half the time I was tired and just curled up in a chair and hummed to Jace, thoughts elsewhere. After an hour, Annie was done. She gratefully hurried back into the bathroom. And, to be honest, I've never seen someone gladder to wear clothes. When she came back out, she wrapped her little son in her arms and hugged him, all the while smiling with relief.

Prim next. She was encouraged by Annie's performance, which obviously made hers a lot easier. I felt a little less please to see my innocent 15-year-old sister up there without clothes being measured by an old man, but trust was valuable and I held onto that. Mr. Webb was just a tailor. Plus, I was incredibly capable of kicking his butt in case anything wasn't how it was supposed to be.

Prim's measuring went quicker than Annie's, about 45 minutes, and then it was Ivy's.

"Little girls are the easiest." The tailor explained as Caroline carried her daughter up. "We don't need any hip or chest measurements. She can keep her clothes on."

And hers went faster than the other two by far. And before I knew it, we were finally done. We all went back to the front room (it was still empty) and Mr. Webb scribbled on a packet of paper.

"All three dresses should be done by Saturday." He glanced up at Caroline. "If you come in tomorrow, Ms. Sawyer, we might be able to get it done Friday."

She nodded. "Thank you, Tholemew." [a/n: pronounces tall-a-me-u]

Odd name.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then, ladies." He smiled and put the packet of papers in a desk drawer. "And congratulations on the wedding, Miss Everdeen."

I smiled back at him. "Thank you."

With a wave and a farewell, the six of us left, Ivy holding her mother's hand and Jace in Annie's arms.

oOo

That went by surprisingly fast. One second I was typing up the first A/N and the next I'm writing this one. Huh. Anyways, please review! I love all of you so much and I want you to review! :D