All right, you guys that are wondering, "What happened to the other chapters?"

Here's the embarrassing truth...I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED the story. I know, I know. Who does that? Accidentally deletes a whole goddamn story? -bangs head on wall- Hmm...at least it's led to one good thing. I can start new and fresh and fix some of the bad things in the original one.

Don't worry, it'll have the same plot, just worded a bit differently. And Katniss will be slightly more in-character. I want to thank Twix for giving me a ton of CC to make it better...so thanks! And a huge apology to all my readers for this inconvenience.

Enough ranting. Here's the first chapter again. I hope you review and tell me if it's better than before!

"Real." That one fatal word that brought my life to ruins. I really wish to this day that I'd never uttered the word to my then-future husband while lying next to him, stroking his hair. I'd told him the biggest lie of my life, but the truth is, I hadn't known it then. It was only after a month or so that I'd wondered if I'd really ever experience falling in love.

"Katniss, honey, are you ready?" My mother burst through the door. "It's almost time! Hurry!"

"Coming, Mom," I told her, ushered her out of the room, and shut the door. I needed some time to think to myself. Was what I was doing really right - marrying Peeta so quickly? It had only been a year since the war had ended, and I was just beginning to try to live my old life again. Peeta, admittedly, was making things more complicated by proposing to me the next day. For one thing, I couldn't blame him because I knew he needed someone to depend on, and I knew he really loved me and wanted me to depend on him, too. But I couldn't get myself to tell him that it took me months to sort out my own feelings.

I looked in the mirror and sighed. Katniss Everdeen, seventeen years old, stared back at me with elegant makeup that completely changed her normal appearance. She knew the cameras would be waiting outside so she shouldn't look unpresentable.

Who cares? I don't. With a swipe of a wet Kleenex, I wiped off all the blush, eyeliner, and unnatural color off my face and looked at the mirror again. This time I saw a more confident and poised Katniss than before.

"Katniss! Come one! What are you doing? There's one more minute left for you to get out there!" My mother was in the doorway again. She stood there, hands on hips, lanky and thin with a lovely face to cover up her figure. I nodded and and she came over and put her arms around me.

"Oh, Kat. I'll really miss you. But be thankful you're a house away from me!"

I buried my face into her hair and nodded, ignoring the fact that the last person to call me the nickname was my father. "Let's go," I finally said, pulling away from her, and dragging her down the corridor. "Let's get me married before I change my mind."

The music that began to play sounded rather like a funeral hymn to me. I shook my head and looked at Peeta, and the happiness I saw on his face brightened my mood considerably.

Haymitch took my arm and walked me down the aisle. It was a pretty strange and awkward experience, but I figured he was the closest relation of my father's age that could do such a thing. When I arrived at the front of the stage, Peeta smiled, reached down, and took my hand. The cameras in the audience were clicking pictures and probably trying to get a close-up of my face, but I didn't care. The real Katniss was getting married, not a fake one.

The priest was rambling on and on and I knew I should pay attention, but I couldn't. I wasn't even thinking about Peeta, either...I was thinking about someone entirely different, who I knew was watching the wedding. Words I recognized brought me out of my dark thoughts.

"Do you, Peeta Mellark, take Katniss Everdeen to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do," he said warmly, squeezing my hand.

"Do you, Katniss Everdeen, take Peeta Mellark to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Pictures, alarming thoughts, and uninvited memories flashed through my head. I closed my eyes, my heart beating wildly. Somehow I felt that something wasn't right. My hand, in Peeta's, was now cold and clammy, and Peeta looked at me with worry.

Did I really want to do this? Give up the rest of my life and live with someone I didn't really love just to make him happy? Was I really that unselfish of a person, or was I just going to be Katniss Self-Centered Everdeen as usual? Gathering up my thoughts and taking a deep breath, I uttered a single word.

"No."

The audience gasped, and the hurt I saw on Peeta's face was unbearable.

"I mean...I mean, can't it wait?" My words were lost over news reporters' commotion. Everything that I said nowadays seemed to come out all wrong all the time.

I wrenched my hand out of Peeta's, threw off my six-inch heels, and ran down the aisle barefoot. I burst out of the church doors and collapsed on top of a bench outside. The audience was a wreck and the most important day of Peeta's life was a wreck. I'd damaged him severely, and I couldn't think of one thing to do that would make it up to him.

So...was that better? Please review and let me know if there's anything I could change for the next chapters!

Thank you thank you! -Gale (I'm a girl, it's just my nickname :P)