I wake to the sound of my mother cooking breakfast. I look to my watch that my mother got me for my eleventh birthday. It's a plain silver watch, decorated with shells. She originally bought it for for my father, but he refused, he said he didn't need one, he needed something more productive, like another trident (which my mother said, even for us, was fairly expensive) . So my mother gave it to me for my birthday, instead of getting me more clothes. Anyways I definitely had enough clothes, living in district four, one of the the three career districts (one, two and four), we are more fortunate than other districts, like for example 12, 11, and 10.

I don't understand why the capitol let's us be as fortunate as we are, after all, every year they throw us all into an arena to fight to the death.

My watch reads 4:30, most people think this is early, and so do I, but it's Saturday. On Saturday, me and my father go out to the lake near our house to go catch fish. Each family has a job, we fish. There are a lot of jobs, because in district four, there are a lot of us. Like my mother's friend Lily, and her daughter Annie, (she's in my year in school but I don't know her that well) make nets for us to fish. I always think of this job as easy. All you have to do is tie knots, which is easy. Everyone learns how to tie most knots in the fifth grade. I can't imagine my family tying knots, making nets all day, especially my father.

This is the first year I get to go out fishing with my father, since now I'm twelve. I change into a pair of shorts, (I don't bother putting on a shirt, it will most likely just get wet) and I run downstairs into the kitchen and grab a few clams, break them open and pop the insides in my mouth. I spill some on my chest, but I quickly pick it up with my finger and lick it. "Finn" my mother says. I just roll my eyes and grab one of of the rolls of bread my mother buys from the bakery near our house. There aren't very many bakeries where we live, living in district four and all. In district four basically all we eat is seafood, obviously.

I walk out the door and see my father waiting for me maybe, thirty yards from our house, "you're late" he says, I can't read the expression on his face, it doesn't read angry, or annoyed, but I just mumble, "sorry." In his hands, he holds 2 tridents and a net, one Trident is larger, being his and the other smaller, which will be mine for now, until I'm older and go out hunting myself. I follow him to the lake. He has a fast pace, so I have to run to keep up with him. "Wait up!" I call to him, he says nothing, he just keeps walking his fast pace to the lake just about fifty yards away.

He passes me the big Trident jokingly, I reach for it and he pulls away giving me the small one, "Not yet buddy."

I let out a small laugh and take the small Trident. He shows me how to not scare away the fish, like he does every day, because it is hard for me, because it means I have to stay still. I try to throw the trident directly at the fish in the water, but I miss and scare all the fish away. I look to my father to see if he is angry with me, but I'm surprised to see he's laughing at me. I don't like being laughed at so out of no where I jump and cling on to him. He is too strong, so he just flips me and grabs my feet, hanging me upside down, my hair nearly touching the water. We are both laughing so hard that he drops isn't so bad because I know how to swim, if you live in district four, finding someone who isn't a baby that can't swim, is pretty rare.

For the next hour or so me and my father catch fish to sell to the shop, or we'll sell it directly to someone, or ourselves. I see a crab walking across the beach about 10 yards away, I run, I run after it, this has to be a catch. It stops, and I jab my trident in the crab. I hear my father walking up slowly clapping, "Great job Finn," I hear sarcasm in his voice, "You caught a crab!"

"But who do you think is going to buy that?"

I shrug my shoulders

"There is more to the process than just killing the animal, you have to catch it in a net first." He holds up his net, Dang it, I forgot that step. I was so caught up in trying to kill the crab I completely forgot about catching it first. No one will buy a crab this messy looking.

"We can save this for our lunch, I bet your mother doesn't care about how messy it is," says my father "she can surely turn in in to some sort of soup, or stew."

I nod my head and we head back to the house.

"How'd it go?" says my mother, "Catch anything today Finn?"

"Sort of…" I say

"He killed something…" says my father "He just forgot to catch it first."

"Ugh," I slump down into one of our hard wooden chairs "Learning to catch takes forever." I say.

Then my mother speaks, "don't worry Finn, everything takes time and practice…"

And it's going to take a whole lot, I think to myself.

My father shows her the crab, "think you can make this into some sort of stew?" asks my father.

"Umm…" she says observing the crab "I can see what I can do…"