The 1st Hunger Games
Brin
I look at the bare blue walls of my bedroom with an aching feeling in my stomach. It's fear, I realize, and anxiety. The meeting is today. The one that will determine how we will cope with 13, and how we will deal with the future of our people. District 13's rebellion has only caused hardship on us, myself and my daughter. We've had little to eat since the rebellion started. The money that usually would have gone to the the districts, for food and survival, is now being given to the Peacekeepers, for weapons and defense. I cannot bear one more day of putting my daughter to bed nearly starving and scared. The thought nearly puts tears in my eyes. I need to make our lives better. Change must happen. Soon.
I get up from my bed, if you can call it that. A stack of hay can barely pass for a bed, but I had to sell the last one if I wanted to be able to eat. Slowly, I walk over to my daughters' bedroom to wake her for school. She sleeps so peacefully, and I hate to have to wake her when I know how much of a struggle it is to fall asleep. But she has to go to school, she must learn.
"Av," I whisper, "Avalon, wake up." I nudge her and she turns. She swats me away with her arm. "Avalon, get up it's time for school." She groans. Just to get her attention I add,"Av, if you don't get up I'll get the cold water."
"Alright, I'm up", she says with one eye open." Just give me a minute." She stretches out her arms and sighs. "What time is it?," she asks, now awake and changing out of her pajamas."Am I late?,"she questions with hope in her eyes.
"No," I tell her, and her disappointment is tangible, " You are one hundred percent on time."
She looks at me, annoyed. "So sorry," I tell her with mock pity. She's clearly not amused. "Okay, ready to go?", I ask, already out the door. Instead of following behind she walks over to the kitchen. She sits down in her chair, a dilapidated old thing I found on a curb, and looks at me. I wonder for a moment what she's waiting for, then I realize she hasn't eaten, neither have I. I was in such a hurry to get to work and to drop her off that I forgot. I grab what's left of the bread and some grape jelly that I made the day before and put them down in front of her. I hand her a knife and she starts making herself a sandwich. I pour her and myself each one cup of water, we can't afford to drink more, and sit the cups in front of us. "Only one sandwich," I warn, "or you'll have nothing to eat tonight."
She looks down at her almost-gone sandwich and asks, "When are we going to get to eat something other than bread? We've been eating bread and jam for over four months now. Why can't we buy something else?"
Avalon is not one to complain, so when she does, I know she thinks something's completely off. "Av, I'm going to try to see if we can find something else to eat and more to drink. Today, I have a very important meeting which might make a huge difference in our lives. So please, try to deal with this living situation for now, and understand that we might be like this for a while. Okay?" I ask, though I know it isn't.
She sighs her trademark sigh and gets up. "Alright," she says "I'll walk to school, it's a nice day out." And with that she walked out the door.
