Hunger Games / Cake

Chapter 2

Cal's POV

It's been three months.

It's been three months since I moved to District 11 with my family.

It's been 3 months since I last saw Luke's perfect face.

My heart still aches at the thought of him.

Today was reaping day. All I wanted to do was to go to District 7 and curl up with Luke but I couldn't. I wondered how he was doing. Would he have moved on? Or would he hate the very thought of me?

I shifted in my bed to try and stop the springs from pressing into my back but my movement was in vain. Even more springs dug into back than before.

I hate this bed.

God, I hate this room.

It was cramped and always stunk like some animal had crawled into the wall and died, which was a high possibility because the room was full of holes.

'We'll have a better life in District 11 Calum, you'll see.'

Oh the irony.

We moved because my parents didn't have enough money to feed everyone the family so we were given two choices:
Slowly starve to death or move to a different District.

It was rare that people were allowed to move Districts. Usually you lived and died in the District you were born in, so if you were granted permission to move, it was a rather big deal.

Because District 11 was agriculture and farming, everyone linked it with having better food. That's probably why my parents chose to move, they thought we could have a better life here.

Oh were we wrong.

When we arrived we were given a tiny three roomed house that had a constant danger of collapsing to live in. Our old home was like a mansion in comparison. After a few days my parents, my sister Mali-Koa, and I were given work in the fields, harvesting crops under the heavy gaze of strict Peace-Keepers that would probably shoot us if we broke the rules.

It was exhausting, working under the hot sun with almost no breaks and the only thing that kept me from curling up and dying was that I was used to hard labour. Me, Luke and other teenagers used to cut down trees back in District 7. Dad would call it "Learning the trade early" while Mum would say, " It's child labour!"

I fucking hated this place.

I missed District 7, with it's sprawling forests and large trees you could stand under to stay out of the midday heat.

Whilst District 11 was full of fields growing crops, District 7 had acres of grass and wildlife.

There were also a lot of places where you could sneak of to for a quick kiss.

Suddenly someone knocked at my door.

"Calum? Are you ready?"
It was my mum.

I could picture her in my head. She was stood in her best clothes, her hands clasped in front of her with a worried expression on her face.

I almost scoffed at the thought. She didn't need to be worried for me, I wasn't some delicate flower that would burst into tears a any given moment. I was strong. At least that's what I told myself every morning.

"Cal?"
This time it was Mali-Koa.

With a sigh I got up from my stiff bed and opened the door. Mali-Koa had a shocked expression on her face but quickly masked it with a blank expression.

"Come on. Time to go."

I nodded at her words and was about to walk into the front room when she grabbed my arm and forced me to stop.