My name is Lucy Gray Baird and I am 20 years old.

For those who know me, I was the winner of the 10th Hunger Games and the very first Hunger Games winner to hail from District 12, the coal mining district of Panem.

My district is not exactly known for producing winners. In the nine years prior to my win, none of the tributes from my district made it far; most of them died within days. In the four years that followed my victory, it was very much the same.

I was rather lucky. You see, the boy who was assigned as my mentor, Coriolanus Snow, is only two years my senior. During the course of the Games, he had worked behind the scenes to increase my chances of survival, including slipping a handkerchief of mine into a tank of snakes, familiarizing them with my scent. While the snakes attacked and killed off all my competitors, they behaved noticeably differently around me, presenting more of a relaxed demeanor.

After I returned home, I ended up meeting with Coriolanus again. This time, he was serving as a soldier in the Peacekeeping Force, which was responsible for policing the districts and enforcing the Capitol's laws. While I was grateful to him for having saved my life during the Games, it was during this period of time that I got to understand this young man much better.

He believed that the Games were necessary to ensure order in the districts, and betrayed a plot by a few district rebels, including one young man his age serving in the Peacekeeping Force. This resulted in quite a few executions, and long story short, our relationship ended up going bust, with our last meeting consisting of an assassination attempt in which he attempted to kill me with his rifle.

Since that moment, I never saw him again. My feelings towards him are mixed; while I am glad he helped me survive the Games, looking back, I realized that this young man is nothing but an egomaniac, viewing the districts as somewhat beneath the Capitol and willing to turn on those who try to resist.

Four years later, I met a young man named Blake Everdeen, a coal miner who was around my age. During the week, he would go to the coal mines and work 12-hour shifts, while on the weekends, he would take me out into the woods to go hunt. The meat we collected included turkey, deer, fish, squirrels, berries, and anything we could get our hands on. All this was technically illegal, but the Peacekeepers overlooked it.

Eventually, we decided to get married. Like me, Blake had lost his parents during his childhood; his father was killed for speaking out against the government.

It was not long after that I fell pregnant, and gave birth 9 months later. My baby came on a Friday morning in early summer. Blake was gone into the mines for a workshift, while I stayed home.

As usual, I wandered into the woods. However, as the day wore on, I became more and more uncomfortable. In the woods, I sat down on my favorite stone, waiting for my baby to come. I was feeling too uncomfortable to continue walking.

By early afternoon, I was feeling the urge to push. I took off everything, going naked. Yes, I was all naked in the woods, lying on my back in the dirt.

Tears flooded my eyes as I groaned in pain. I felt a terrible urge to push, and bore down into my bottom.

"UUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

"Oh my Lord," I groaned.

Another contraction came and I pushed once again.

"HUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!"

I gave another push, followed by two more. I rested my head back in the dirt, panting.

"I can't do this," I thought to myself. The pain was horrific; I was not going to do it.

Still, I clenched my teeth and tucked my chin to my chest, giving it another go.

"HUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" I roared at the top of my lungs.

I was pushing into my bottom with all my might, as directed by my own body. My body was in the process of expelling a child from its womb.

With another push, I laid my head back down in the dirt, looking up into the trees.

"This was harder than I thought," I mumbled to myself.

I gave another push, clenching my teeth and closing my eyes. I gave another one, feeling a terrible urge to keep pushing. My body was literally telling me what to do, I could not do anything but push.

With each contraction, I lifted my head and tucked my chin to my chest, focusing my energy into my bottom. I gave it another go. I clenched my teeth and pushed into my bottom with all my might.

I gave as hard of a push as I could into my bottom with the next contraction. And another. And another.

"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!"

It took me around half an hour before I finally felt something tear down there, and felt a terrible burning sensation down there.

"OWWWWWW!" I howled.

What was happening? Why did I suddenly feel a burn down there? I gave a few more pushes, as I felt something stretch. I then opened my eyes and looked down there.

Inside the opening of my vagina, I saw a dark brown spot. Reaching down, I touched it, and it felt sticky and warm. The dark brown stuff turned out to be human hair.

I gave a sigh of relief. "Not bad," I thought. For all that hard work I did, there was light at the end of the tunnel. I gave another push into my bottom, and I felt my vaginal opening stretch.

"UUUUGGGHHHH!" I growled.

Closing my eyes and clenching my teeth, I kept pushing into my bottom with all my strength. I was sweating profusely and my face was as red as a tomato, but I was determined to keep going.

Yes, I was determined to keep going. I, Lucy Gray Baird, was going to succeed. I was a spirited competitor and a fierce young woman from the beginning, and I was going to stay that way for the rest of my life. Nothing would stop me from naturally delivering my child here in the wild, all by myself.

I gave another push into my bottom and rested. A few pushes followed, and the baby's head was completely out. I felt the baby's face pass right through.

Opening my eyes, I gave a sigh of relief. I had done it. Well, almost. After so much hard work, I had delivered the head. All that remained were the shoulders and the rest of the body.

I laid my head down in the dirt, where I looked up into the sky. My view was blocked by several tall trees. This was it. I was on the verge of seeing my newborn child.

A contraction hit. I gave as hard of a push as I could, and felt something slide right out.

I opened my eyes. I found a baby between my legs; it was pink, tender, and warm, and had brown hair and brown eyes, just like its mother. Immediately, I realized that the baby was a boy.

"I did it!" I shouted.