The Hunger Games - Through the Fire and Flames - Book 1

Chapter 1

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 a gave a bit of a speech. This only became so because of the events that almost happened afterwards. Luckily for President Snow he was able to bring things back to order before they got too out of hand. Still then my mother and father were on his list, and a list is somewhere you didn't want to be.

Three years after the games my mother and father got married in order to keep appearances. The only way they survived after thwarting the Capitol was by convincing all of Panem that they were madly in love. Though the way my mother and father looked at one another you wouldn't be able to to guess that they married first and fell in love later. My mother was a bit of a knuckle head when it came to love and romance because she feared that if she fell in love she would eventually have kids and she didn't want to have to see her kids twelve years down the road going into the reaping.

When my parents went into the Hunger Games my father had one secret that it took my mother the longest time to comprehend even after he revealed it. After my parents were married it took six months for my mother to realize she loved my father and another six months for her to confess it. Nine months from that point my brother River was born.

River resembles our grandmother from our dads side with her green eyes and dark hair. River is built like my father and has alot of his talent, one of them making cakes and painting. My older brother River shares the same birthday as myself just three years apart. This year he will be turning fifteen. I myself would be turning twelve.

My brother and I were the best of friends. We were as close as my mother and aunt Prim. Recently though I haven't been getting much attention from my brother because he had been spending endless amounts of time with his girlfriend.

Even though I have my infamous parents I am not popular at the slightest. At school I stick to myself and my best friend. When I am not at school 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 was young but I knew that the moment I turned twelve my name would be entered in with the others and at anytime I could be entering that arena.

I spent alot more time with my mother because we had a lot of things in common. During the times we were together she taught me everything I couldn't learn from my books and more. How to cook without a kitchen was the most interesting because I learned how to use hot rocks as a source of heat if I had no matches, 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 business' over the last thirteen years. One of them were a few branches of art galleries that reside in the more richer districts for their amusment. 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 took his time to teach me some of his skills, more interestingly his expertise in camofluage.

Many would think that because my family had all these business' that we were rich, they would be right. Though we made alot of money that was kept in a savings. My parents also had funding for us for when we got older. In any District if you had the money you could buy yourself out and move to another District. In order to move from District 12 to District 1 it would cost one hundred grand a piece for those up to 18 years old and two hundred grand for those over 18. My parents had enough for my brother and I but for themselves they were still saving.