Real or not real? (everlark)

35

These characters as well as their original story belong completely to Suzanne Collins.

I stare at my reflection in the mirror. My past self had never dreamed of marrying anyone, and here I was, about to do it. And I was extremely happy about it.
I was instructed to stand and wait for the music to start playing, and try not to mess up my makeup. It was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours. I was nervous, my palms were sweaty, all of it.
Anna, Johanna, and Effie had been the three to dress me up for my wedding. They have all been being extremely light with me, as if I was a bomb that was going to explode any second. I suppose they heard about the news on my mother's death. And how I'd locked myself away from everyone.
Worst part was, my mother never got to see me get married. Never got to truly get to know her granddaughter. But there was nothing I could do to bring her back now.
To be honest, I'm not even completely sure that she is dead. Peeta retraced the letter, and it turns out it was not mailed from the district 4 hospital. In fact, it was sent from someone in the capitol area.
If his wasn't suspicious enough, the District 4 hospitals claims that they hadn't seen nor heard from my mother in days. They told me that they had no record of my mother's death or the letter that was supposedly sent from them.
I wasn't sure what to do. By the looks of it, everything was just a cruel joke- something someone was doing to try to get to me. But I had tried contacting my mother as well- nothing. Everyone had tried. The entire population of District 4 claims that they hadn't seen my mother in days... as if she'd vanished off the face of the earth.
But I knew that she hadn't. Maybe she'd been kidnapped or something like she had in the past, I don't know. But I knew that I was going to find her, one way or another.
I take a deep breath and try to calm my shaking hands. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was about to get married to Peeta, the love of my life, in a matter of minutes. All I had to do right now was wait for the music to cue me in.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate the joining of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark..."
The speeches were long and boring. i'm sure that my vows were nothing special either. Honestly? I was having a really hard time concentrating. My mind kept wandering off and taking field trips, riding the train of thoughts, and skipping around in imagination land. I struggled to stay focused on what was going on, but the priests words were long and dull.
I said my vows straight from the heart. I'm not joking. I blanked out and forgot everything that I was supposed to say. All of it. Gone.
So I decided to say what I felt every day, all of the emotions that churned inside of me. Everything i felt when we both fell asleep, when he fought away the nightmares and held me close when I was afraid. All of it came rushing out in beautiful sentences that I had never wuld have guessed were mine.
And of course, Peeta's was five times better than mine.
"Katniss Everdeen, do you take Peeta Mellark to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I do."
"And Peeta Mellark, do you take Katniss Everdeen to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do."
"Then you may now kiss the bride."
And we did. His lips were soft and sweet, but we made it short to spare the audience.

Everyone was coming up to us and saying congratulations, and how both of our parents would be proud of us. Johanna approaches, and I grin at her once she's near enough.
"Congratulations Mellark and Mellark." She grins. "Have fun on your honey moon. Send me a postcard?"
I would've given her a friendly slug in the shoulder right then and there if she hadn't jogged away to chat with some of our other friends.
"Congratulations you two." Haymitch says, his arm locked with Effie's. A golden wedding ring gleams on both of their fingers.
"The star crossed lovers have finally taken their love to the next level! I'm so happy for you two!" Effie exclaims, practically hopping with joy. Good thing she hadn't though, or else she probably would have fallen over after teetering around on those high heeled shoes of hers. They were about 8 inches tall. "You know what this means, don't you?"
I glance at Peeta, who shrugs his shoulders.
"It means interviews! Paparazzi! Photos!" Effie shrills with excitement.
I furrow my eyebrows. "Why?"
"Two well known celebrities married? That's huge! Two celebrities known for saving the world with their love, and then getting married and having a child? EVEN MORE HUGE!!"
"Oookay." Haymitch says. "Looks like you had a little to much coffee this morning... lets go dance."
He leads her away. I grin over at Peeta.
"What?" He asks.
"EVEN MORE HUGE!!" I mimic loudly, and he laughs.
"She's right though. The paparazzi is going to be all over us. I'll be surprised if they don't follow us on our honeymoon." Then he stops. He stares at a figure in the hall, his eyes wide with shock. His mouth gaps open.
"Peeta what's wrong..." Then I look too. And I see her. She walks towards us quickly, a smile on her face and her arms open for an embrace.
She engulfs me into a hug and I breath in her beautiful scent before murmuring.
"Mom?"