Chapter 1: Bad News
I wake up, and the first thing I notice is that the bed I share with my three other sisters is empty other than me. My first thought is, "I'm dead, I slept too late and now I'll be late for work." Then I realize that everyone else is awake in the other room. I scramble to get ready, wondering what on earth is going on.
I live with my five other siblings and my parents in our little house on the outskirts of District 11. I know it's not much, but I also know that a lot of the other kids that I see every day in the Orchards have it a lot worse. Even so, our life is pretty miserable. I don't know what I would do without my family. Every day I have to see all of them, including all my little siblings, work sunrise to sunset in the Orchards, just so that the Capital always can have way more than enough to eat. While we, who do all the harvesting, planting, and hard work get nothing.
I rush into the other room after getting dressed, combing my hair, and brushing my teeth. As soon as I walk into the room, I know something is wrong.
"Come here, Sweetie," my mom says.
"Mom? Why was I allowed to sleep in, and what's going on? Why is no one at work? Please tell me."
My mom looks at my dad with a should-I-tell-her look, and he nods. Now I'm starting to get really scared, and so I blurt out, "Will someone please just tell me what is going on?" My mom starts to explain that there's been a strike by some of the men who work in the Orchards. They've refused to keep working. My dad wasn't one of them, but everyone is being punished. No one is allowed to work for a whole month, which means no food for a whole month. As this starts to sink in, I realize what could happen to our family. "Mom, Dad, what are we going to do?"
Chapter 2: Staying Alive
My mother and sisters and I have started to work for the peacekeepers around town to earn as much as we can. For every week we work, doing jobs such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, babysitting, etc. we get a quarter of a loaf of rice bread. We're all so thankful that we have this job because otherwise we would have nothing at all to eat. Still, my stomach is so hungry, sometimes I think I'm going to faint or die right then. Sometimes I wish I could die, but then I remember my mom and dad all my siblings who need me, and I hang in there no matter how much it hurts. My brothers and father are busy trying to find work so that we won't starve, even though we're pretty close to it. I'm so worried about my little sister, Cora, she's only a year old, and she's getting really sick. They are working as hard and as fast as they can, though, and have to be extremely careful, because if the peacekeepers find them doing anything that they could use against them, they'll use it. Once one of our neighbors sold an old kettle at his house to earn some money or food, and he got whipped for selling illegal goods. For crying out loud, it was a kettle! But we could never say this out loud, of course, they've got cameras everywhere. I've heard that in some districts, the fences aren't electric, there are no cameras, and there are hardly any peacekeepers-can you imagine that?