The Hunger Games : A change

Chapter 17

A year later...

Mine and Cato's kid was born seven months ago. A girl. Layla Sapphire Stone.
Layla because she looks like a 'Layla'.
And Sapphire because her eyes are like sapphires. But a dark sapphire colour. She has sapphire eyes, pale skin and dark blonde hair.

I put her down in her bed, she's sound asleep. She's only seven months old and has been on tv already. Layla has many sponsors, people that we don't know send us things for her and us. How will they feel when she's put in the arena in the 100th Hunger Games? There will be riots in the Capitol. I don't think Snow expected people to fall in love with her.

I go downstairs where Cato has left breakfast. He's now working in the mines with Gale. I don't want them both to go through what happened to my father, die in a mine explosion. My sister, Prim, walks inside and joins me for breakfast. She's now twenty years old, I'm twenty four and Cato is twenty eight.

Prim has a boyfriend and no friends, sadly, but she says that she doesn't need friends. She only wants Finn. But he's working with Greasy Sae at the Hob.
"How's Layla?" she asks.
"Good, how have you been?"
"Okay. Mom is worried about Gale and Cato though."

"I am too, but they insist that they need to make money for her," I say.
Cato hardly sees Prim, Finn and my mother. His only free day is Sunday and he works late in the mines.
"Same with Finn," she says.
"I can't believe that all three of them are making money for Layla."

"All of the Capitol and District 12 are looking over us," she says.
"We won't be here a lot when Layla is old enough to talk," I say.
"So many interviews."
"Might as well enjoy living in District 12 for a few more years."

"How nice is the Capitol?" Prim asks.
"Really nice, it's fancy. And when you're full, your plate makes it look like you ate hardly anything," I say.
"New food? New clothes?"
"Oh yeah. A lot of new and delicious food, far better than food here. The people in the Capitol talk differently though."

"Like 'we've missed you, darling'?" she asks.
"Yeah. 'Oh, no, no, she needs more work done'," I say.
We laugh. Then I hear Layla crying, so I go upstairs and pick her up.
I rock her until she falls asleep.