Chapter 1: The Next Generation

My name is Tigris Mellark. I'm the daughter of Katniss and Peeta. I'm currently 18 years old, and yes. I am the daughter of the ex-mockingjay. Are you confused yet? If so I'm guessing you never heard of the 2nd Revolution. Probably because the capital has tried to keep it as far in the back of their minds as possible since it ended...I guess that means I should probably tell you what happened.

26 years ago, my parents were forced into a deathly game called "The Hunger Games". It's where they force 2 of the kids from each of the districts (there are 12) to fight to the death, then there is 1 winner...well normally 1 winner. The 74th Annual Hunger Games was sort of a lot different then normal. My mom and dad made it to the end, then threatened to kill themselves if they couldn't both win since they "loved" each other. I say "love" because they didn't actually love each other at that point. Maybe they liked each other, but definitely not love. After the games were over, Snow (our president) threatened them saying they better love each other as much as they said and blah blah blah. Yeah, anyway...moving on.

The 75th Annual Hunger Games was special, like every 25 years. In those games, each district had to send out 1 female ex-winner and 1 male ex-winner, no matter how old they were. So of course, my mom had to go. Then my dad wanted to go as well so he could protect them. Then during the games, my mom blew up the arena and they escaped then the 2nd Revolution happened and District 13 was found to have actual live people there still...yeah there's a lot to talk about which I ain't going deep into.

The 2nd Revolution ended with President Snow taking my aunt, my mom's friend, and a few other important people hostage. So my mom made a deal with him. A lot of people know the 1st part of the deal was she was to become the Gamemaker. The 2nd part, which only a few people know, is that after Snow dies, she is to become President and she can do whatever she pleases with the Games, meaning she can terminate them and allow everyone to live in peace, finally!

"Two people winning?" Haymitch says from the couch. "It's not like that never happened before." He takes a swig from his bottle and stares at the screen. He's talking about the 100th Annual Hunger Games. This year, two people, no matter the district, can win. And again, he isn't wrong. I mean, my mom and dad did win 26 years ago.

"Will you stop drinking?" I ask as I see him take another swig. "You're gonna get drunk and it's not even 9 in the morning yet!" I stand up from my place on the floor and walk over to him and stick out my hand. "Hand it over."

"Make me," he says. He glances at my hand and holds his bottle closer to him. "It's my medicine."

I sigh and swipe the bottle away from him. "Dad!" I yell. "Haymitch is drinking already!"

"Already?" I turn around and see my aunt Prim walking in with my dad right behind her. "I thought you quit?"

"You honestly thought that?" my dad asks, trying not to laugh. "Why would you..."

"Hey, I see the goodness in everybody. Sadly not everybody is that good." I look at the bottle in my hand and sneak a sip. I gag and hand it over to my dad. "Gross!"

"Did you just…?" my dad snatches it out of my hand and glares at me. I smile at him. "What? I wanted to try it...he likes it so much. I wanted to see what the big deal was."

Prim giggles and places her water on top of the fire place. "Tigris, do you mind running to the bakery in town and grab some bread?"

I see my dad frown and glance at my aunt. "Why not me?" Prim points at me. "You have issues with your parents you need to work out. They love Tigris."

I smile and bounce over to the door. "I shall be back!" I slam the door behind me. I glance over at the house where my dad's parents live and see their dog sitting on the porch. He notices me and jumps up to run over, then he gets pulled back by the chain they have tied to him. I walk over and pet him. "Hey there Milo." He licks my hand and I giggle. I pat his head then run off in the direction of town.

Once I run into the bakery, I head my grandma yell my name. "Tigris!" I look up at the counter and see her smiling. "How are you?"

"I'm good! I just need bread for my aunt."

"Oh yes! How is Prim doing?" she asks as she hands a costumer some bread.

"She's doing alright."

"It's such a shame what happened to Kel. He was such a great guy!"

I shrug and walk over. Kel was my uncle, he died from a rare disease last year. My aunt and Charl, her son, were pretty shaken up. We got to skip out on the games last year (immunity since our mom's the Gamemaker and such). Like both me and Charl's names are in the bowl only once, even though every year our name is suppose to go in one more time.

She hands me the bread and glances at the door. "Where's your father? He never visits us." She sighs and looks over at my grandpa who's decorating cakes. "Do you want a cupcake for your walk home?"

I smile and nod and she grabs one of the finished ones and hands it to me. "Tell everyone we say hello, and have fun. Good luck at the reaping tomorrow! 'May the odds be ever in your favor'." She says the last part with an accent, which makes me laugh. I wave as I walk out the door and run into Phil. Phil is over 6 feet tall and pretty buff. He's 18 as well, and we use to play as kids when I would visit. He smiles and catches the cupcake as it falls out of my hand.

"Careful there Tig," he says, "You're going to loose all that food before you can get it to your aunt!"

"How you know it's for my aunt?" I ask as I swipe away the cupcake and stuff it in my mouth. "This was for me." I try to say the last part, but it comes out all muffled due to the cupcake in my mouth.

He laughs and holds out his hands. "Want me to take the bread for you? I'll walk you back." I hand over the bread and continue chewing on the cupcake. It's very moist and really good. It's vanilla with chocolate frosting. Very good, and my favorite. "Good cupcake?"

I nod and finally swallow the rest of it. "Yeah, of course!" I laugh and we start to walk back to the house. "How's your parents and sister doing?"

"Awesome, we've been able to go hunt for our own food almost twice a week. The Peacekeepers are allowing us, too. They don't even care like they use to." He smiles up at the sky.

"That's good," I say. I glance up at him. "How many times is your name in the bowl?" I grimace as he answers. "Almost 25 now, since the first few years I could get more food, I wasn't able to hunt yet."

"I'm sorry..." I look at the ground.

"Oh, yeah that's right, your name is only in there once."

I look around and everyone around us. "I feel so bad."

"Don't be! At least I know you're safe from all this mess!" He smiles at me and we continue into the square in front of my aunt's house. "Well here we are!" He hands over the bread and kisses my cheek. "I'll talk to you later!"

I watch him run off. When he gets to the end of the street, he turns around and waves. I wave back and watch him disappear into the town. I turn to walk back into the house and see my dad standing on the porch. He smiles and walks inside and I follow him.