The Love Games

The characters and main themes of this story don't belong to me but keep reading !

There will be some differences and as this is the first thing i am writing, I apologise for any mistakes and the overall quality !

Chapter 1 .

It is 1 in the morning yet i cannot sleep. Today my life changes forever, wether I like it or not but there is nothing I can possibly do to change the fact that I may never see my family again and have to spend the rest of my life feeling trapped.

That is life though. At least that is all we have ever known. The seam where I live with my sister and mother is a quiet yet social coal mining village. My mother and father were matched twenty years ago and because my father was a coal miner, my mother was to move here and later I was born. My father was my best friend and hero. After Prim, my thirteen year old sister was born my father died a few years later in a tragic mining accident. Along with my best friend Gales father. My mother wend mad for a while afterwards. I had to grow up very quickly.

I am worried that the person, whoever it is will live in a different district. If that is the case, Prim will be alone for mother is somewhat better but how do I know that she wont relapse. I cant be sad today. I have to stay strong for her. For them.

The sun has begun to come up now. I get up and get dressed, tripping over Prim's cat Buttercup as I grab my Fathers coat and silently head out of the door avoiding disturbing her as sh sleeps peacefully. It wasn't always like this. The elders in my district speak of a time when who you loved was free and un controlled. You could be who you wanted and say what you felt. Now, saying something like that and talking about those days is dangerous.

The district is full of "peacekeepers" white bodied men who work for the capitol. They keep the peace (they keep us contained and obedient so we can provide for the capitol).

That is all we are a piece in their game, a production line and to avoid complications they organise us too get the best out of the underdogs.

In Panem there are twelve districts, all supplying different necessities for these people. My district is poor, however I have heard that district one and two are richer in material. This doesn't change that we are all suffering the same process, in six hours.

I often go to the forest to think and gather food and hunt. Today there was no hunting. due to todays "celebrations" more peacekeepers had been sent in to watch us so it would be to risky to run the black market. This didn't stop me from climbing through the fence of district 12 and entering the forest. For dos, the forest was a scary place containing the unknown and wild animals capable of ripping you to shreds but to me it was where I was free. At the age of six my father began to teach me to shoot and gather. Because it was illegal to leave the fence we would sneak out in the early morning, leaving mother and Prim at home. My father would sing in the forest and occasionally tell me stories and about the future and what he wanted for us. That was the morning of his death.

The Mockingjay was singing in the trees as I clambered over the fence. I estimated around forty five minutes before people started to awaken, as it was today I am sure many people will, like me be restless. I breathed in a long fresh pine scented breath and made my way deeper in to the trees, clambering with ease and familiarity over every step. The further you went the better you felt and the greener it got. I sat down on a fallen tree and took out my water canteen. My nails had been painted a subtle pink the night before by my friend Madge. She was exited about the prospect, her father is the Mayor of district 12 so I am sure whoever she has been matched with will live close by or in good conditions.

My hair was washed and in a braid as usual. I am sure my mother will change it when I get home, If I go home. I have considered escaping and running off into the woods but Prim wouldn't last five days in these conditions. I could never leave her.

"Katnip" I was snapped out of my thought by Gale. He knew this place too " I bought some bread, you will need to eat today." He had been matched last year with a girl called Sasha in district 12. Her father and mother live in the upper class area near the mayors house. I am not sure they approve. Sasha is a quiet girl, but she is kind and sweet. If he was caught out here with me, he would be killed for adultery. They didn't need evidence for that sort of thing.

I don't think of Gale like that, yes i have thought about it as has he i am sure, but he is like a brother to me. After our fathers died I taught him to shoot and he helped my mother find a job. When his sister Posy fell ill last year, my mother stayed up all night for three days looking after her.

"Thanks" He threw it over at me and came to sit beside me.

"How are you feeling. About today I mean"

"I am terrified" of course he knew this. "but I cannot stress over what i cannot control".

I look up and smile at him " What was it like, meeting Sasha for the first time I mean"

"It was strange. We had been matched yet I could not seem to find a single thing we had in common" he stared distantly "she opened up after a while, and. I suppose she listened. It is very uncomfortable and awkward this situation. Other people fall in love with their matches but with her." I knew what he wanted to say. But he didn't . He couldn't love her and she couldn't love him. Gale loved someone else.