Mean

by Lysana

What does a Hunger Games look like through the eyes of a three-year-old? Little Cinna is just getting old enough to understand what he's seeing on TV. Bookverse. In case you can't tell, I am utterly, fangirlishly lost to Cinna. This will NOT be the only thing I write about him. What else can I say? Read it! Cinna is adorable and this little peek at his past will break your heart!

It was twenty years ago. I was very little, but proud of how fast I was getting bigger. That was the year I had turned three. It was the first Hunger Games I remember.

My mother and I were sitting in the living room, watching a show on TV. At first it was fun. Big, old kids were running around, jumping over stuff, dodging around bushes and rocks and things. It looked like they were playing tag, or maybe hide-and-seek. Some of them even found stuff to play with, like rocks and big sticks and bags of things.

But then some of the kids got to the middle of a big park with grass all over, and they started hitting each other with things! I knew that wasn't a nice way to play. Everybody always told me and my friends not to hit.

Sitting on the carpet, I turned around to look at my mother. "Why they fight?"

My mother beamed at me. "It's the Hunger Games, sweetie! They have to fight! It's fun!"

I watched the big kids on TV. They were still fighting. It wasn't fun. It was scary. "But hurt. Hurt!" I said, smacking myself in the arm to demonstrate. "Why nobody stop them?"

"Hush now, Cinna!" my mother said sharply. She looked scared. "That kind of talk will bring nothing but trouble!"

Now I was even more scared, because she was scared. Those big, big kids were still fighting, and that was really bad trouble. Then, to my instant relief, I saw the answer. Of course! The solution to all the world's problems was sitting right here on our sofa. Trusting and hopeful, I looked up at her. "You stop them, Mommy!"

Her face got so white I thought she was getting sick. She looked around like there might be someone scary there. I looked too, but I didn't see anybody.

"You're talking nonsense, child!" she said. "No one stops the Hunger Games!" I'd never heard her sound so scared, and I started to cry. Mommy was scared, I was scared, and those big almost grown up kids were still hurting each other.

I looked at the TV again. One kid fell down! He was cut! Nobody brought him a bandage. Nobody helped him or gave him a kiss. He just stayed on the ground with blood coming out.

The other kids kept hitting each other with things. They looked scared too, and sad, and mean. I started crying even harder. I crawled forward and put my hand on the screen, trying to reach through and pat them so it would be okay.

But I couldn't reach through. And it wasn't okay.