Hey, my first Hunger Games Fanfiction and my first oneshot! Let's see how this goes. :-)
All families have secrets
I know more than mum and dad think.
As far as they know, all I know about the Hunger Games is that there were seventy-six of them in total and that two people were chosen each year from each of the twelve districts. That's what they taught us at school, when I was ten.
When I was eleven, they added that it was a fight to the death, that it was created by the capitol as punishment for a rebellion. They told us that the youngest people in the arena were twelve and that district twelve had only four victors. The Hunger Games were never discussed again.
%*%*%
I'm thirteen now and we haven't learnt anything new about the Hunger Games. I thought they'd teach us more; teach us why they created the Hunger Games, why they stopped. But they never did. So I've had to fill in the gaps myself. I remember something that my teacher said when she told us that it was a death match.
"Those poor victors, the nightmares and scars they must have. I would not want to be in their position."
She unknowingly presented me with the pieces of the puzzle. I just had to put them together.
It was this that made me decide to go through the Hunger Games records in the library.
It was surprisingly easy. The librarian didn't care. You didn't even need permission to check the books out. But that didn't matter.
There's no way I would ever had brought those books home.
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It felt like the school wanted its students to learn about the Hunger Games. All the information about the Games themselves was in one book. Within an hour, I knew all about the destruction of North America and the creation of Panem. I knew about the Uprising and the destruction of district thirteen. I'd learnt about the mutations and how the mockingjays were created. When I left the library I knew exactly why they created the Hunger Games.
And I had a new secret hatred of Auntie Effie.
%*%*%
The next day I looked through the records. I think I was the first student ever to touch them. They were covered in a layer of dust an inch thick. The first big name I saw was Haymitch Abernathy for the fiftieth Hunger Games. It was a shock, to realise that people close to me were part of this.
Other names stood out to me, people that I knew personally. Johanna Mason, Annie Cresta. It explains a lot.
The scariest was the seventy-fourth games. There, in clear typed letters, were the words:
Female tribute- Everdeen, Primrose, aged twelve.
Volunteer- Everdeen, Katniss, aged sixteen.
Male tribute- Mellark, Peeta, aged sixteen.
Volunteer- N/A
My parents were part of the Hunger Games. It was mind-boggling, the thought that my parents were in a fight to the death.
In a way it made sense. Everything matched up. Mum wakes up screaming nearly every night. Dad sometimes has these flashbacks that only mum can get him out of. They've both got scars. This scared me. It still scares me.
Stupidly, I picked up the next record and flicked to the seventy-fourth games. I should never have just looked at some random thing without checking what it was. Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?
It was the death record.
It was horrifying. Three names stood out to me.
District eight, Woodworth, Sophia
Killed by Mellark, Peeta, district twelve
District one, Caimden, Marvel
Killed by Everdeen, Katniss, district twelve
District two, Stone, Cato
Killed by Everdeen, Katniss and Mellark, Peeta, district twelve
My parents killed people before they were legally adults.
They fell from their pedestals that day. I'll never think of them the same way again. I still flinch sometimes when mum picks up her bow and arrows.
I left the library with information that I didn't want.
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I fully intended to talk to mum and dad when I got home. I needed to tell them what I knew and ask a few questions.
Mum and dad were already talking in the living room when I got home. I stood outside the door, listening to what they were saying. I couldn't help it. I had to know.
"Why can't we tell her about us, about the Hunger Games?" Dad asked.
"She doesn't need to know. She's just a kid. She wouldn't understand," Mum snapped.
I walked away from the door, up to my room. It was then that I decided that if mum and dad didn't want me to know, I wouldn't tell them.
%*%*%
I quite like the feeling of knowing something my parents don't. Mum and dad don't think that I can handle this information. Well I can. I know even more now. I know about mum being the Mockingjay. I know about them being star-crossed lovers. But it doesn't matter. I won't ever tell them though.
They don't need to know.