Catching Fire: Peeta's POV

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

We haven't done enough to convince the Districts. Nothing we could do would be enough to convince them.

President Snow turns and quiets the crowd. A sinister smile graces his features, "What do you think about us throwing them a wedding right here in the Capitol?"

Katniss squeals rather girly at the idea.

"Do you have a date in mind?" Caesar asks.

"Oh, before we set a date, we better clear it with Katniss's mother," Snow smirks as he puts his arm around Katniss. The crowd laughs at the thought of Katniss' mother having to clear the idea. This wedding is happening whether Mrs. Everdeen wants it or not. We don't have a choice. "Maybe if the whole country puts its mind to it, we can get you married before you're thirty."

Katniss giggles, "You'll probably have to pass a new law."

"If that's what it takes," Snow replies.

We leave the stage to head to the party held in the dining room of Snow's mansion. The high ceiling looks the night sky with it's dark paint job. Halfway between the floor and the ceiling, musicians float on clouds of some sort invisible wires holding them up. Instead of dining tables the room has sofas and chairs for guests to lounge on. All of the furniture is situated around fireplaces, flower gardens, and ponds with rare looking fish. One corner of the room serves as a dance floor where a multitude of bodies dances to the Capitol style music.

By far the best part of the party is the food. I can't complain about all the options the available. Long tables covered in food over-piled platters: roasted cows, pigs, and goats, fowl stuffed with fruits and nuts, unknown to me creatures from the oceans with sauces drizzled over them, cheeses, breads, vegetables, sweets, wine and spirits.

Katniss turns to me, "I want to taste everything in the room."

"Then you'd better pace yourself," I say wrapping my arm around her. With all the food in this room, it would take an army to finish all this food, and they would probably pack on about twenty pounds.

"Okay, no more than one bite of each dish," she concedes.

However, once we reach the first table, one bite of each dish is thrown out the window. The table has at least twenty soups alone. All of them rich in flavor. Katniss gets stuck on eating a large portion of this one soup.

"I could just eat this all night!" she exclaims taking another large bite of the delectable soup.

People introduce themselves to us, and pictures with us are taken to be featured on TV, in the news, and for people to say they met us. Katniss' mockingjay pin seems to be the new fashion statement with many of people here wearing some variation of the pin.

We keep moving on to new tables ladened with more food. Katniss picks up a roasted bird to take a bite and hands me the rest to eat. After ten tables we're both stuffed. I feel like I can hardly move, and there are still so many dishes to try.

Katniss's prep team finds us, and they're pretty intoxicated by the way they slur their speech and clumsy actions.

"Why aren't you eating?" asks one of the members of her team.

"I have been, but I can't hold another bite," Katniss says simply.

They all laugh. "No one lets that stop them!" another member says. They lead us to another table filled with wine glasses of clear liquid. "Drink this!"

I pick up one and almost take a sip and the team throws a fit.

"Not here!" the first one yells.