Life of ease they said. Large amounts of good food for your district they said. But they meant Life of boredom where you can reflect on all the things they made you do, Larger amount of the same food we always got. People still starve, still tempted to poach, still risk death to feed their families. People still die every day and yet I always have more than enough good food to eat. I have this large house that could house a large family all to myself, no mother, no father, no siblings. I rose up against the odds and won, brought pride and honour to my district, District 11, for the Capitol's entertainment in the Hunger Games. 24 members of our country Panem, a boy and girl aged from 12 to 18, from each district in which there are 12, will be picked at random and placed in an outdoor area to fight to the death, to remind each district of the rebellion which took place in the dark days. I won the 72nd annual hunger games last year and I've returned home after the Victory tour, Where I travelled around the Country to the different districts so they can cheer, hiding that they secretly hate me. Being back in district 11 is nice, it makes me feel like I might never have been in the hunger games if I was only able to go to work in the fields and orchards with everyone else, I might be lucky in the harvest season they might call me into help, but I doubt it. I could go into the orchards and carry out with my hobby and draw what I see, but I don't want my friends and neighbors to think I've changed since I won the games.
As I stare at the white wall of my living room there's a soft knock at the front door that pulls me from my daze. I stand up slowly, stiff from sitting in the same place for a long period of time. I make my way slowly towards the door through my simple living room. I open the door to see a pale skinned, tall well build, light brown haired boy, The boy I call my closet friend in the world. Our families stand out here, pale skin isn't that common in District 11."Ethan! Hey How was school?" I ask happily reaching out to hug him. "Hey Amber. It was school what do you expect? How are you?"He laughs giving me a large hug. "I'm ok I guess. Do you want to come in?" I ask happily as we break apart. "Only you guess? No I came over to see if you wanted to go for a walk in the orchard?" He asks slightly flushed in the cheeks. "Oh I'd love to hold on, I'll grab my drawing kit." I grin spinning round on the balls of my feet and half run half skip to the kitchen table where I grab a canvas shoulder bag holding everything I need for a drawing outing. I turn to make my way back to the door, I see Ethan staring at my messy table covered in drawing and a few painting after following me. "What?" I ask worried looking at his confused expression. "Oh nothing, I just thought the Capitol took all your drawing on tour with you and presented them in a museum?" He asks walking over to the table picking a few of the stray drawing up. "Oh Yeah they took the majority of the ones I drew for the victory tour. These are my own personal drawing and the ones I've drawn since." I explain as I carefully tidy up a pile that I do not want Ethan to see. He doesn't notice he is staring at one of my parents. "You drew all these since you came back?" He asks stunned. "Yeah I have a lot of spare time." I explain. "How did you draw this?" He asks with a careful tone to his voice showing my most precious drawing. "Mostly memory it hasn't been that long so I remember them perfectly." I explain sadly staring at the drawing. "It's amazing, Real life like." He smiles walking over to hug me. "Thank you Ethan. Let's go for that walk." I Smile shaking off the sadness, the one thing I don't want him to see is me cry again, That will return later when I'm alone again. He leads the way out of my house and I follow, We talk about school being a few months older than Ethan means I finished school as soon as I turn 16 even though I'm older he is a good foot taller than me. The bond between us hasn't changed at all even though we see less of each other. He tells me how the girls keep falling at his feet as they all have crushes on him, trying to make me jealous knowing I value his friendship so much and I would not want to lose him. He knows it gets to me when I fall silent, He turns to face me and laughs at me expression." You know even if I fell for one of those girls it would never change what we have, you should know that by now." He explains smirking slightly putting his hands on my shoulders. " I know it wouldn't as none of them are me." I laugh as softly punch him in the stomach and duck under his arms and I run away from him laughing as I go. "Oh it's on!" He calls after me laughing, I hear his feet pounding on the ground as he runs after me and we enter the fields and orchards. When I know I'm within his reach, I speed away from him but he is expecting it and just as a get out of his reach his launches himself forward rugby tackling me to the floor. Laughing he rolls me over and pins me to the floor and starts tickling me. I laugh as I try to stop his hands, but nothing works. After a few minutes I'm breathless and at this point so is Ethan from running and tickling me, he stops and rolls on to the floor next to me. Chuckling still when he turns to face me. " I don't know what I'd do without you Amber, When your name was picked I thought I was going to lose my closest friend in the world." He explains seriously all of a sudden. Shocked by this random confession I stare into his eyes looking for some reason, and where this statement came from. "Sorry I just always wanted to tell you that since that moment I was pulled from that room in the justice building." He explains seeing the confusion register across my face. "But where did that come from? Why now?" I stutter still confused " I don't know just I thought that I was going to lose all of this, what we have, you. I'm just glad you're still here, alive." He explains sadly. " I understand that, I thought I was going to lose, lose you, you were the only thing that kept me going in the arena Ethan, I had no family to think of, but I won so I could come back to you." I confess blushing slightly as I sit up. " Now winning means I'll never have to worry about you getting called again." He explains as he sit up to pull me into a great hug. I hug him back until what he said registers in my brain. "but you have to worry about yourself!" I exclaim pushing him away so I can look him in the eye. "Because this time I won't just be worrying about losing you, I'll worry about losing you and I'll have to train you and prepare you for the arena!" I explain upset. " I know and I will." He states flatly as he know what I said is true. We sit in silence as we recover from that conversation. I always knew Ethan cared about me but I never how much he cared for me, I knew it upset him my name being called at the reaping but I never truly knew how much. Now I've won my name is pulled from the reaping but it doesn't mean that I won't be involved with the games, now I have to train every new tribute from district 11 all on my own as I never had a mentor last year.
Our last victor died a few years ago, so tributes since then had to go through the training alone without guidance, and then our escort would set up sponsors for us. After a while Ethan starts to chuckle quietly to himself." What's funny?" I ask softly slightly confused. In response to my question he points to the tree opposite us, I follow his hand to see a pair of dark eyes staring at us knowing whose they are immediately. "I can see you Rue." I call out happily. A little giggle comes from the tree as the eyes disappear and a small dark skinned girl jumps down effortlessly. "Hey Amber, Ethan." She smiles as she gracefully walks over to us. Rue technically shouldn't be here at her age but she's the eldest child in her family so she has to work, Her family doesn't have to worry about her name being pulled out at the reaping yet they have two years until her name is entered for the first time. "You getting an extra shift in before tomorrow?" Ethan asks her softly as she sits down next to us. "Yeah I get as many extra shifts as I'm allowed, are you working tomorrow Amber?" She asks so softly sending a pang of guilt into my stomach. "You know I would if I was allowed, They will only let me when the harvests are on, in a few weeks." I explain guiltily. "Oh ok, do you want to hang out after we've finished?" She asks happily. "Sure I'd love that." I smile. "Ok I best get back to work." She smiles as she hops back up and climbs her tree again.