The story of my mother and father's duo victory for District 12 during the time of their generations games were part of our District history. In class every single year we learned about it and they even came in to give a bit of a speech. The way my mother and father look at one another you wouldn't be able to guess that they married first and fell in love later. When they went into the Hunger Games my father had one secret that it took my mother the longest time to comprehend even after she revealed it. My father was in love with my mother from the moment he laid eyes on her as a child. Long after the Games had ended my father and mother married in order to keep family and friends from certain death. It took 6 months for my mother to realize she loved my father and another 6 months for her to confess it. 9 months from that point my brother River was born.

River resembles our grandmother from our dad's side with her green eyes and dark hair. River is built like my father and has a lot of his talent, one of them making cakes and painting. My older brother River shares the same birthday as myself just 3 years apart. This year he will be turning 15.

Though I have my infamous parents I am not popular at the slightest. I spend my time reading books about survival, hunting, building bows and arrows, and even some about plants and cooking. For some reason I took a great deal of interest in this sort of stuff and I believe it has to do with my mother and her skills that helped her to survive.

I spent a lot more time with my mother because we had a lot of things in common. She taught me everything I couldn't learn from my books. How to cook without a kitchen was the most interesting because it also came with scavenging and identifying edible berries and roots. Apart from that I learned how to hunt and set traps then soon after how to skin and gut my game. Lastly she taught me how to find shelter and even make it out nothing.

The time I spent with my father was when I wanted to cook with him which I enjoyed. He had started several businesses over the last 13 years. One of them was a few branches of art galleries that reside in the richer districts. That is where he sold his paintings that were images of his worst nightmares, his time in the Hunger Games. The fact that they were from his view made them all the more interesting, his other business was a bakery. During the weekdays my father would be baking and every now and then I helped. Weekends with my dad were the best since he sometimes takes his time to teach me some of his skills, more interestingly his expertise in camouflage.

Apart from those few things I have in common with my father I have a few more, though they are genetic. I have my father's blonde hair and his blue eyes. My mother tells me all the time that she is happy I take after dad in my looks only because she doesn't think she is pretty, which she is. The only down side is that I am the tallest in my class by 5 inches and considered freakishly tall.

This week was going to be a good one even though the annual Hunger Games was the day after my brother and I had our birthday. How unfortunate that is for my family, more so my brother and I. This year my brother will have been entered for his 4th time for me it will be my first. Many people used to think you never got picked on your first reaping or even you're second or third. The day my aunt Prim was chosen and my mother stepped forward proved anyone that thought that way wrong.

I couldn't deny how nervous I was growing with each passing day, it showed clearly on my face every time someone mentioned the upcoming Hunger Games. My mother and father were more nervous than I was and I knew why only because they never kept secrets from my brother and me.

My mother and father suspect that President Snow wants to rig the Reaping so my brother and I go against one another in the nearing Games. They think that he is going to also rig the game so that my brother and I have to fight each other at the end. They say he likes a good game. Just the fact alone that he is still holding a grudge against them for the riots and mayhem their defiance during the Games caused was enough to convince me. After all I am 11 years old not an idiot.

Ever since the date for the Hunger Games was announced my mother and father had been putting aside as much time as they could to help us train and prepare for a possible fight in the Hunger Games. There was so much they had to teach my brother. For me though I was just perfecting my already known skills. Just like my father my brother was good at hand in hand combat, lifting weights, and camouflage. If we got picked or at least one of us did we might have a chance.

I stood in my large back yard with my bow pulled back and loaded with an arrow. Just like my mother taught me I had my hand touching my chin to use it as a balance. I stared down the length of the yard at the apples that hung on their branches and let out a breath before I released the pull back. I froze to watch my arrow soar quickly down the length of the yard and penetrate an apple dead center before lodging it into the tree trunk. I smiled.

"That is very good" My mother said to me. She turned to my brother and complimented him as well as he hit an apple as well.

"What do you need to remember when creating your camouflage" father asked me.

This was one of the many things my father and mother loved to do. Pop quizzes on our survival skills. My father had revealed the answer to this question just 4 1/2 days ago. I even remember what we were doing as he expressed his great knowledge to me.

"Surrounding, weather, backdrop, colors" I said confidently as I launched my next arrow hitting a cherry from our cherry tree.

When it came to survival you needed to know your surrounding. Its different if you are remaining in one place but if you were moving around you needed to make sure your camouflage blended in. Weather was the obvious as if you were in rain or humidity you could lose the color to your camouflage and your chances of being found would rise. Talking about back drops were my fathers favorite since he gets to talk about how he camouflaged himself during the games. If you are hurt or immobile your best bet would be to camouflage yourself to blend in with a still backdrop. Lastly the color scheme, it was pretty obvious that any bright colors in a neutral setting would raise red flags all across the board. Camouflage was used for several reasons, my father used it to hide himself when he was wounded to the point of almost dying and my mother used it to keep her brightly colored back pack from giving her position away.

"Correct" My father said before he pulled my mother into his arms here they shared a kiss.

I wanted to make sure that when I was picked - no doubt I wouldn't - that I would be able to survive. There was no way in hell that I would let them think they would get to watch me suffer and die. Just like my parents I would take control and show them I am a survivor.