The Hunger Games - Through the Fire and Flames - Book 1

The story of my mother and father's duo victory for District 12 during the time of their generations games were part of our District history. In class every single year we learned about it and they even came in a gave a bit of a speech. This only became so because of the events that almost happened afterwards. Luckily for President Snow he was able to bring things back to order before they got too out of hand. Still then my mother and father were on his list, and a list is somewhere you didn't want to be. Three years after the games my mother and father got married in order to keep appearances. The only way they survived after thwarting the Capitol was by convincing all of Panem that they were madly in love. Though the way my mother and father looked at one another you wouldn't be able to to guess that they married first and fell in love later. My mother was a bit of a knuckle head when it came to love and romance because she feared that if she fell in love she would eventually have kids and she didn't want to have to see her kids twelve years down the road going into the reaping. When my parents went into the Hunger Games my father had one secret that it took my mother the longest time to comprehend even after he revealed it. After my parents were married it took six months for my mother to realize she loved my father and another six months for her to confess it. Nine months from that point my brother River was born. River resembles our grandmother from our dads side with her green eyes and dark hair. River is built like my father and has alot of his talent, one of them making cakes and painting. My older brother River shares the same birthday as myself just three years apart. This year he will be turning fifteen. I myself would be turning twelve. My brother and I were the best of friends. We were as close as my mother and aunt Prim. Recently though I haven't been getting much attention from my brother because he had been spending endless amounts of time with his girlfriend. Even though I have my infamous parents I am not popular at the slightest. At school I stick to myself and my best friend. When I am not at school I spend my time reading books about survival, hunting, building bows and arrows, and even some about plants and cooking. For some reason I took a great deal of interest in this sort of stuff and I believe it has to do with my mother and her skills that helped her to survive. I was young but I knew that the moment I turned twelve my name would be entered in with the others and at anytime I could be entering that arena. I spent alot more time with my mother because we had a lot of things in common. During the times we were together she taught me everything I couldn't learn from my books and more. How to cook without a kitchen was the most interesting because I learned how to use hot rocks as a source of heat if I had no matches, it also came with scavenging and identifying edible berries and roots. Apart from that I learned how to hunt and set traps then soon after how to skin and gut my game. Lastly she taught me how to find shelter and even make it out nothing. The time I spent with my father was when I wanted to cook with him which I enjoyed. He had started several business' over the last thirteen years. One of them were a few branches of art galleries that reside in the more richer districts for their amusment. That is where he sold his paintings that were images of his worst nightmares, his time in the Hunger Games. The fact that they were from his view made them all the more interesting. His other business was a bakery. During the weekdays my father would be baking and every now and then I helped. Weekends with my dad were the best since he sometimes took his time to teach me some of his skills, more interestingly his expertise in camofluage. Many would think that because my family had all these business' that we were rich, they would be right. Though we made alot of money that was kept in a savings. My parents also had funding for us for when we got older. In any District if you had the money you could buy yourself out and move to another District. In order to move from District 12 to District 1 it would cost one hundred grand a piece for those up to 18 years old and two hundred grand for those over 18. My parents had enough for my brother and I but for themselves they were still saving. My parents told us that if they didn't have enough by the time River turned 18 then both my father and River would go until we had enough money to join them. My father denied this at first but when my mother made him see reason that River's chances of being chosen were increasing in District 12 he gave in. My chances of being picked were slight, but not impossible so a few more years in 12 for me was okay. My father originally wanted my mother to go forth with my brother but I wouldn't leave her side. I was a momma's girl. When I was younger though I stuck to my fathers side like coal on a miner. Many of the towns people cooed over me attached at my fathers leg because I looked just like him. I have my fathers blonde hair and his blue eyes. My mother tells me all the time that she is happy I take after dad in my looks only because she doesn't think she is pretty, which she is. The only down side is that I am the tallest in my class by 5 inches and considered freakishly tall. This week was going to be a good one even though the annual Hunger Games was the day after my brother and I had our birthday. How unfortunate that is for my family, more so my brother and I. This year my brother will have been entered for his 4th time. For me it will be my first. Many people used to think you never got picked on your first reaping or even your second or third. The day my aunt Prim was chosen and my mother stepped forward proved anyone that thought that way wrong. I couldn't deny how nervous I was growing with each passing day, it showed clearly on my face everytime someone mentioned the upcoming Hunger Games. My mother and father were more nervous than I was and I knew why only because they never kept secrets from my brother and myself. My mother and father suspect that President Snow wants to rig the Reaping so my brother and I go against one another in the nearing Games. They think that he is going to also rig the game so that my brother and I have to fight each other at the end. They say he likes a good game. Just the fact alone that he is still holding a grudge against them for the riots and mayhem their defiance during the Games caused was enough to convince me. After all I am 11 years old not an i***t. Ever since the date for the Hunger Games was announced my mother and father had been putting aside as much time as they could to help us train and prepare for a possible fight in the Hunger Games. There was so much they had to teach my brother. For me though I was just perfecting my already known skills. Just like my father my brother was good at hand in hand combat, lifting weights, and camofluage. If we got picked or atleast one of us did we might have a chance. I stood in my large back yard located in the Victors Village with my bow pulled back and loaded with an arrow. Just like my mother taught me I had my hand touching my chin to use it as a anchor. I stared down the length of the yard at the apples that hung on their branches and let out a breath before I released the pull back. I froze to watch my arrow soar quickly down the length of the yard and penetrate an apple dead center before lodging it into the tree trunk. I smiled. "That is very good" My mother said to me. She turned to my brother and complimented him as well as he hit a apple as well. In our backyard we had a few plant trees but they weren't really ours. The food from it belonged to the Capitol so any picking of the fruit counted as stealing meaning it is punishable by death. Those fruits that we used for target practice were left on the ground at the end of the day. "What do you need to remember when creating your camofluage" father asked me. This was one of the many things my father and mother loved to do. Pop quizzes on our survival skills. My father had revealed the answer to this question just 4 1/2 days ago. I even remember what we were doing as he expressed his great knowledge to me. "Surrounding, weather, backdrop, colors" I said confidently as I launched my next arrow hitting a cherry from our cherry tree. When it came to survival you needed to know your surrounding. Its different if you are remaining in one place but if you were moving around you needed to make sure your camofluage blended in. Weather was the obvious as if you were in rain or humidity you could lose the color to your camofluage and your chances of being found would rise. Talking about back drops were my fathers favorite since he gets to talk about how he camofluaged himself during the games. If you are hurt or immobile your best bet would be to camofluage yourself to blend in with a still backdrop. Lastly the color scheme, it was pretty obvious that any bright colors in a neutral setting would raise red flags all across the board. Camofluage was used for several reasons, my father used it to hide himself when he was wounded to the point of almost dying and my mother used it to keep her brightly colored back pack from giving her position away. "Correct" My father said before he pulled my mother into his arms where they shared a kiss. I wanted to make sure that when I was picked - no doubt I wouldn't - that I would be able to survive. There was no way in hell that I would let them think they would get to watch me suffer and die. Just like my parents I would take control and show them I am a survivor.