I stared up at the cold, dark unfriendly sky. Why was everyone doomed to the same life unless they did something traumatic, changed the face of the planet or at least your own community. I knew that living in district twelve wasn't always the best, but if you're the only child of the two people who caused a rebellion in the country of Panem. I am Tenna and this is the story as how I found out about the hunger games and my own past.
As I got up from the meadow that was across the street from my house, I saw the faces of people who were destined to take in tesserae, and live there lives in mines, knowing the threat of death is in their face every morning they wake up. I know that the children in the village hate me because I have everything handed to me and they don't even have enough food. I started my way across the street to go start on my essay, but paused outside the door when I heard screaming.
"Katniss, please will you stop screaming for a few seconds so I can ex-" and a loud no echoed off the walls. I despised coming home during a battle. I always was sent to my room, dad to his study were he put his harsh emotions on paper and mom usually left to gale's house. I would go too, but she probably likes to be away from this life sometimes. So I slid out of my boots and trudged to my room.
When I got to my room I slid out of my coat and put my books on my bed and went to my computer. Of course I had a few friend invites to capitol faces, the website that all the capitols people went on, and I deleted them. I never wanted to join that. It would sign me up for the capitol games. Or something like guilty by association. When two soft knocks on the door startled me, I shut off the computer and started on my essay. When the door cracked open I heard a small "Tenna, darling, are you in there?"
"yes, mom, I am in my room. Are you okay?" I knew that my mom came in here if she needed to get something off her chest. "I am good. Do you need some help with your homework? I heard from gale that his son sheen had to write an essay on the hunger games. And I know you don't know much about that do you? Well, did you know that me and your dad were in the hunger games? Probably didn't and so I will willingly help you if you like." as I thought over her offer I thought of possible reasons why she didn't tell me about the hunger games. Because they were violent and gruesome to some people, cause great pain amongst families and if you survived and you're friends didn't you would suffer for the rest of your life.
"mom, will you please help me?" I asked, almost half done on why the hunger games even existed. "what do you need help with?", she asked moving towards me and my notebook. "ummm, why did the 13 districts want to overthrow the capitol?". I knew my question wasn't needed for my essay but I wanted to know as much as I could.
"the thirteen districts wanted to overthrow the capitol because they were tired of being told what to do and how to do it and not getting anything that they produce. They were all suffering for the sake of the people in the capitol and so they weren't very happy. So one day, after all of the planning, they had gone to lead attack. That resulted in district thirteen 'being demolished', while they just moved underground. Planning revenge." she explained as I let her chatter fade into the background as I thought, and wrote down the rest of my paragraph:
The thirteen districts tried to overthrow the capitol because the where suffering for the capitol's luxury, couldn't support themselves with whatever talent they had and didn't like being told what to do and when to do it. They found it unfair how they had to create the luxuries for the capitol but they didn't get anything in return except a few coins for each person. They needed the support, but when you suffer for the capitol, they seem to be ignorant of you're problems and concentrate on what color their skin is. Another reason why they had issues with the capitol is because the couldn't take what their district provided for themselves. So district eleven starved picking fruit and hauling grains while all the capitol people at it for them, and they couldn't have any of it, leaving some unhappy people who wanted revenge. The final reason they felt so strongly against the capitol is because they strongly enforced the peacekeepers to whip and torture people when even a minor law was broken. So they were told when to do there job and when and where to do it, and they didn't enjoy that much. Then, after much planning and deliberation in the chambers of district thirteen, they decided to rise up against the capitol, breaking out into war with many lives lost, and in the end they had demolished the district thirteen, but didn't know that it strived underground, and gave the suffering people of Panem another thing to worry about, the hunger games.
I showed my mom my paragraph and she asked me quietly if it was okay if she went to show dad. Then a few moments later I heard dad talk. "Katniss, I know that she can write but she cannot know all of the past. Think of the pictures you see when you close your eyes. Do you want her to sleep with dreams full of that? Think of what is good for your daughter. For the sake of keeping her brain clean of violence. Please, Katniss. Please." why was he begging for mom to not tell me about the history of Panem? I grabbed my notebook and ran to gales house, where I knew I was going to get answers.
I knocked on the door of the old brown hut that was gale's hut and his wife ester answered the door. She's from district eight, and escaped, but almost didn't make it. Ester is a kind, caring person who hates violence but committed some crimes to get to were she is today, happily in love with Gale in district twelve. She understood what I wanted, with out me even speaking and answered the question in my eyes. "gale is in the woods at the lake. You should see him in the trees." I thanked her and then went on my way, thinking of the questions I was going to ask him.
As the soft crunch of the dead twigs and the thud of my clumsy feet on the dirt paths announced my arrival, Gale jumped from the tree he was sitting in. "you know, if you keep doing that you are going to hurt yourself and then ester will have to support your family all alone." I scolded him and he jokingly replied, "I would hope that nothing would happen to me, but then your mom would feel guilty and take in my children and wife. Of course what would Peeta say? I missed you Tenna.'" as he came around to give me a hug.
"so you want to tell you about the hunger games. Why cant your parents do that? They were in the games and lived so they must know some dirty little secret about the games that no one else knew. Except for that quarter quell when more than one or two people got out of the arena, but barely alive.-" as I cut him off to explain that I had over heard them talking about the images from the arena and how they didn't want me to know about my own past and my country's too. I showed him my first paragraph for school and told me that his son's wasn't as good as that. Then, he promised me that tomorrow, if I go to his house after school, he would tell me his point of view from the hunger games. I said thank you and left for home.
I was resting in my bed, long asleep when I heard the siren. The siren that was in the middle of the town and was only to be rung if there was a message from the capitol. My dad came in to wake me up completely and told me to get my boots on and to be ready to run if it was something bad. You couldn't get out of going to the viewing in the town square unless you were dying or already dead . So if you were in the middle of giving birth you had to hurry up and finish to go to the meeting. And if you tried to skip it, you were killed.
"attention people of district twelve, there has been a problem. The capitol has gotten tired of playing stupid little games and not being able to live in luxury. They have decided to try and overthrow the districts. There will be transportation landing in a few minutes so, go gather what you need to survive a few days in the underground chambers of district thirteen." the echoes of the mayor's voice sounded through the town that had quieted down. As he dismissed us, my mom told me to stay with gale's family and something about pretending to be their child. "Tell gale the words mocking jay and get out of there. He will understand." those were the last words I heard from my mother before she ran into the woods.
"this way. You three there, go onto that hovercraft." and on went the gruff men that work in district thirteen. I had never been there before, so I didn't know what to expect but my parents, gale and the whole village had been there. As I was pushed onto the hovercraft I sat down on one of the cold, metal chairs as gale, ester and their two children sheen, who was in my class, and the little baby prim. Whenever mom spoke of prim though, she spoke of someone my age, more or less, that had been killed. She always got emotional when you spoke of gale's child prim. She said that it was short for primrose.
As we sat, gale was quiet when I said the words 'mocking jay' he knew what he needed to do though, so I hoped I was safe. I fell asleep in my fake fathers arms and prayed inside my head that my mother and father were okay, where ever they were.
The next day, we all were escorted to our own separate chambers, far underneath the ground at district thirteen. The capitol was going to overthrow us and we were being tucked away in cells, far underneath the ground, praying for life. So I decided to take out my notebook and pen and started to ask gale to tell me about the hunger games, hoping he would say yes.
"Katniss was in the hunger games because her younger sister, prim, had been selected as the girl victor. She went up to keep her little sister alive, and I will always admire her for that. I remember holding back her sister so that she could go ahead and volunteered. She knew that she might not make it back alive. In fact, the first few nights she couldn't sleep well enough. She was scared. I didn't like it because Peeta had some crush one her then and went around, making chaos. But if that didn't happen there wouldn't be you would there Tenna? Back on the story, Katniss had one of the best designers. He didn't do all the crazy tattoos and special things to his body. He was normal, almost to normal to be called a citizen of the capitol. So what he did was give your mom the name of 'Katniss the girl on fire' like when she was actually on fire at one of the showings. But they killed Cinna before the rebellion your mom and dad started with the help of some friends." in a quieter tone then, ester told gale and I to go to sleep because we had a big day coming up. And was she right? Very.
We woke up to thundering booms from the main land, shaking the ground. Of course, if you weren't sleeping you were awake panicking. Of course you are though. When the world is shaking over your head, you're parents ran into the woods and you don't know if they are alive and you have a threat from all the crazies from the capital, you know something is wrong. And gale wouldn't tell me any thing so I slept. Give or take an hour later, sheen gets up and walks to my bedside and I know he wants to tell me something. I don't need the power to read minds because I know what he is about to say. that's when he says it: "Tenna, you are so insanely beautiful and I would like it if you would date me."
I knew he was probably doing this to get gale off of his back about finding someone to love. To be honest I would rather not date him, because my mom and dad were forced together and I don't believe in that, even though that would mean that I might not exist.
The next few days dragged on as if they where being tested for an mental illness study, like how fast it takes to go insane. They could hear screaming from other rooms, were the people were tired of staring at other people. No one was enjoying this. So when the padding of four feet rang throughout the building, I was wondering if we all were going to die. Then the steps stopped in front of the door to our room I was panicking. No one has come to us in the last four days. We have eaten a few crackers, gone stale with age and have a mocking jay imprinted onto the cracker. Gale says that he knows how these came into being, but he refuses to tell the story. All I know on the hunger games and my own past are some select things.
Firstly, my parents were forced together, secondly, my mom had a designer that was a genius and thirdly, why the country of Panem decided to try and over take the capitol. When the door opened though, two faces I thought I would never see again had shown up. My mom and dad had came back. I wondered how they had gotten here. The last I had seen them was when they had slid underneath the fence surrounding the village and made their escape.
"Tenna, we would like to speak to you alone, please. And you should bring your notebook". I heard the words from my fathers lips. He hardly ever spoke and when he did it was inside his study, and when he was alone with mom. I got up, threw my notebook and pen into my small bag I had carried from the house, and followed them up the corridors, through the doors and in the elevators until it seemed that I was even deeper into the ground than I was before.
"Tenna, I had never thought that this day would come that we would have to tell you the history of the hunger games. If you had been there you would have understood why didn't tell you anything. Not until you are older. The images still haunt us. Sure your teachers expect the best essay from you about the hunger games because your parents were in them when they still existed. The just weren't in the arena, seeing the gory images every time you close your eyes." my mom did most of the talking for the telling of the games.
"the hunger games were created by the capital to remind the people of Panem that the government could flick a switch and kill us all and that we were loyal to them. The year Peeta and I were chosen, my younger sister prim was picked. I volunteered to go in her place, knowing that I would most likely die. Peeta was older than twelve and so everyone knew that he might live. His odds were as good as mine."
Then my dad started to tell the story "on the train ride there, we met Effie who hated having to represent district twelve and so we made her feel way too embarrassed. The first day of the games we tried to steer clear of the bloodbath at the cornucopia, but your mom needed her bow and arrow to win. After a few days things got a little steeper, we were attacked by tracker jackers, I was in the career alliance while Katniss was in the alliance with little rue from district eleven. The careers eventually kicked me out, nearly killing me. that's when your mom found me and took me to a cave, were she nursed me back to health. Then, we went to the last source of water and won, killing a few tributes. Haymitch, our mentor, loved us dearly."
"the next games were the quarter quell. They were held every 25 years, and they had something special happen for each one. This one, Katniss and I had to go back in. we had joined a few districts that had some unlikely helpfulness that helped us get out of there. Beetee wanted us all dead though so came up with a plan to kill us all. Before he could kill us off, he was stopped and district twelve was demolished and every one went to district thirteen. See, the games were full of blood and death and was the sick reminder that Panem is only to be loyal t o the capitol." my dad finished the sentence. I had a feeling he gave me the important stuff. But then my mom spoke,
"Cinna, my designer, had made me a wedding dress that turned into a mocking jay. He was killed for it. I became the mocking jay for the district thirteen. We planned on how to end the rebellions and we partially succeeded. I killed many people. Your father was brain washed by the capitol into hating me. I killed president coin, the district thirteen leader that killed my little sister. President snow died. Everyone was happy and now look were we are. Oh, Tenna. I just remembered something. Two things actually. We would like to welcome you to the HQ. this is the club for people who do military and other things. We are the defenders, would you like to join us?"
My mom and dad helped protect the districts. Wow. All my questions were answered. I knew my past. We were going to defeat the capitol. "count me in mom and dad. I think we have a country to fix". I was put in the position of bagels and toilet paper. It was better than nothing.
It was midday when the capitol sent us a message. They wanted to have their luxuries back. They started sending bombs in. the ground shook. We knew we were going to fail. that's when my mom yelled at me telling me to go to my real father, gale.
