Chapter 10:

Peeta and I are sleeping comfortably in each other's arms when Effie Trinket raps loudly on the door of my room, telling us that I am in for a "big, big, morning," before heading back to District 12. President Snow wants to see me. She clearly hasn't gathered the fact that I am not alone.

I sigh. Somehow, I had a feeling that a visit to President Snow was going to be on the agenda after my reaction last night. Peeta quickly gathers himself, wishes me good luck with my meeting, tells me he'll see me on the train, and gives me a quick goodbye kiss on the cheek. I shower and dress, and then head down to the lobby where two Peacekeepers wait to escort me outside.

They don't have to take me all the way to President Snow's office; instead I am escorted to the gardens, where President Snow is tending to his roses. One rose in and of itself gives off a pretty potent smell, but here, in being surrounded by them, even breathing normally makes me feel as though I am going to suffocate from the stench. I immediately open my mouth in order to breathe through it instead; as I inhale, however, whatever chemicals are in those roses seem to enter my lungs faster- and I feel woozy, like I am about to pass out. I close my mouth again.

President Snow addresses me. He gets right to the point. "Good morning, Miss Everdeen. I brought you here so that you might see where we are growing the flowers that will be used for your wedding ceremony." He gestures around him.

I fight to not roll my eyes. No surprise there.

He continues. "But there is one additional thing that I wish to announce to you. After I say it you may go, and I won't require your or Mr. Mellark's attendance in the Capitol again until the opening ceremonies."

I sigh in relief that Peeta and I will not be required to participate in any more pompous wedding-preparation events at the Capitol, at least not until we arrive for the Quell. Last night's was pure torture. "Thank you," I say simply. I then look at President Snow expectantly.

"In light of last night's reaction by the audience to your announced wedding date, I've decided to consider postponing your event by twenty-four hours," he says, "so that if either of the District 12 tributes wins the Quell, they will have adequate time to prepare for and attend your wedding."

Involuntarily, the side of my mouth creeps upward, and I fight to suppress a grin. But upon seeing my face, President Snow quickly adds, "It's not definite, Katniss, and this is only under the assumption that one of them win, of course."

The look in President Snow's eyes at that moment makes it clear to me that he fully intends to make sure that the above scenario doesn't happen. Seeing the deer-in-headlights look in my eyes prompts him to flash me a plastic-y grin of his own. Suddenly I don't feel like smiling anymore.

With that, he turns away, and the Peacekeepers guide me directly where the Capitol train is to take Peeta, Haymitch, and I home. They are both already there, anxious to hear about how my meeting went, and I relay to them what President Snow told me, though it doesn't take long. In response, Peeta and Haymitch look, for the first time in quite a while, dejected. How on Earth are we going to counteract what President Snow is planning to set into motion? We fall into an anxious silence. I don't know about the other two, but I personally need the time on the train to mentally prepare myself for what I am about to face at home.

Our siblings are waiting with less than a month of training left before the Quell. From a completely objective standpoint, they are two tributes who are at best pretty good, but are probably more accurately considered mediocre in their preparation, especially compared to the Careers. The cards were stacked against them before, but with this recent announcement from President, it is clear that they will be early targets for the Careers, and possibly the arena itself.

I reassess Prim's strengths and weaknesses so far. The experience she has watching and helping my mother heal our unhealthy district is clearly Prim's biggest asset; her medicinal and apothecary skills are top-notch. She will do well to heal any members of her alliance that happen to get hurt in order to gain their favor. To that end, her plant knowledge is also very impressive. She's seen all of the plants that my mother uses and the ones I've brought home from the wild which have been transformed into fine powders and potions for the apothecary, not to mention everything that we've eaten over the years, and she has an excellent memory. Hopefully she can visualize them well enough from what she already knows as well as the book I'm writing with Peeta to be able to recognize them if they are growing in the arena.

Aside from that, after the last couple of months of training, her camouflaging skills are consistently pretty good, she is quick at starting fires, she can set basic snares, and she's in shape. She's fast- she could probably outsprint most of the other tributes, and she's put on a little bit of muscle tone as well. I am convinced she could survive the elements to a degree- as long as the plants were edible and she could snare an occasional animal. But my heart skips a beat or two when I realize that's essentially it- thinking of her in combat with other tributes makes me cringe with fear. All of the effort spent in archery training was for naught- I hope that at the moment she's faring better with knives from the Fish Man- but I somehow doubt it. While the exercise has made her stronger, strong enough to throw a knife or other small weapon a good distance with a fair amount of speed- her aim is pathetic, and has shown no sign of improvement. And though she's fast, she can't outrun people forever- so I am scared even of her ability to evade. Thinking about it makes me so nervous that I can't focus on it for too long.

My mind wanders. I think about last night, of all of the ridiculous wedding stuff that Peeta and I were forced to select, so close to the Games. Was it to purposefully distract us? I think about the intense discussion of the plusses and minuses of the three frilly dresses- when in my opinion they are all equally unlike me. I think about the questions we received about the wedding party, Peeta's perfect way with words, how he chose Cinna as our groomsmen. I think about the obligation of Peeta to choose his brothers, who he doesn't even get along with, when he probably could have picked from a number of our friends at school- he was always so popular. I think of how I could think of next to no one other than my immediate family to be in the bridal party. My mother. Prim. I suppose if I could have a best man, I could pick Gale- if he wasn't so against me marrying Peeta. I guess I could have picked Rue as well, if she were still alive.

I think about Rue. Visiting her family in District 11. I think again about singing to her as she died, of surrounding her with flowers. The mockingjay tune that she taught me. I think about her cleverness, how she pointed out the tracker jacker nest. I smile as I think about how she jumped from tree to tree, light as a feather. I think about how much she reminded me of Prim.

I feel a rush of excitement as my mind finally connects the dots that have been laid out before me for quite some time. Rue reminded me of Prim! Prim of Rue! Rue had the skills mixed with a strategy that got her far in the Games.

I realize that I am going to have to ask Haymitch and Peeta to train Prim separately. Because I'm going to have to teach her to climb trees.