I've always been teased for any number of things. My dad, my aunt, the things that interest me. Everyone knows, of course, that my father was killed in the Hunger Games years ago, before I was born. They say he went insane and killed my aunt, but I know that's not true. After all, my mom has showed me the tapes for years, so I would know exactly what actually happened to him. So I could be proud of him.
He wasn't a Career like most from our District. That's where some of the teasing comes from. They call him a traitor because he didn't side with One and Two. My aunt didn't either, so naturally that brings about more teasing and ridicule. Instead, they had an alliance early on with three other boys, but by the second night Dad and Mayla – that's my aunt's name – broke it off after she killed one of the boys to put him out of his misery. Nothing else happened for a few days, until their former allies came and attacked. The boy from Twelve killed my aunt, but my mom didn't hold it against him because of what happened later.
My dad stabbed the other boy, Dominic, in the thigh, and the two limped off. My dad blacked out, probably from the pain in his shoulder – he had fallen out of a tree days before. He never woke up again.
In the middle of the night, there were two more canons, but they couldn't wake Straph Ricca or Xander Hanslow. The two boys slumped against a tree, blood staining the snow around them. Try as he might, Xander had been unable to save my father, and they both died at the hands of the Career pack.
People tease me constantly about my father and what they think of him. I've been beat up on his behalf. But I am never angry with him, never embarrassed with him. Instead, I feel a pang of pity and thanks for the District Twelve boy who tried to save his life and not only failed, but gave up his own in the attempt.
Now, at ten years old, I no longer live in District Four. For some reason unbeknownst to me, my mother and I were not only permitted, but asked to leave District Four for the Capitol. As far as we know, that has never, ever happened before. My mother almost said no, anger about my father's end overcoming her. But in the end, she realized that I was never going to be fed, never going to have the chance to do anything, in Four. For me to have a shot at life how it's meant to be lived, we would have to move. For me to escape the reaping, the Games that killed my father, we would have to move. So we did.