Most people in District 12 think my brother, Dean and I have lived a good life, but they have always had it wrong. Our story begins with our mum. She was crowned victor during one of the Hunger Games when she was eighteen. After that I guess she had a one night stand and ended up giving birth to my older brother Dean. According to rumors, she tried to kill him so he wouldn't be born into such a cruel world. We were lucky someone caught her but it also resulted in her being sent to an asylum run by people in the Captiol. Dean had to stay behind in the Victor's Village of District 12 and he was taken care of by several Avoxs. A couple of years later I was born in that mental asylum where my mother tried to make an attempt again at 'saving' me from life in Panem. Once I was born they sent me straight back off to District 12. My brother and I are lucky that we even get to stay in the Victor's Village. We have always wondered why the Captiol has been so kind to us by letting us keep our home and having us raised by Avoxs but no one has ever told us why. Dean thinks it's a privilege of being a Victor's child, but I think there's more to it than that. As the years passed Dean and I went to school with the other kids in our district. We were each others best friend because no one wanted to associate with us because we didn't share the same lives as them. We both knew that was true; we never knew what it was like having to nearly starve to death or live in rundown houses. The only time Dean and I ever felt equal with our classmates were the reaping days. It didn't matter who we were, all that mattered was that at least one of us could be sent to our deaths just on this day. I remember on my first reaping day someone squeezing my hand to calm me down because I was so nervous. I looked up and saw Katniss Everdeen. We were both lucky to not get chosen that day. And it's not like we became best friends after that but I still remember how comforted I felt when she did that. A couple more years passed and I wouldn't have expected that when we were both 16 she would volunteer and take her sister's place in the games. On that day I returned the favor and comforted her by giving her hand a tight squeeze when she walked up to the podium. She gave me a small smile as she bravely walked up. What shocked me the most was when Peeta Mellark was chosen. I had, had a crush on this boy for as long as I could remember. I never got up the courage to talk to him because I was afraid of him not liking me because of who I was. Dean never understood why my eyes were constantly glued to the TV once the games started, but eventually he started to catch on.
"You like him don't you?" Dean teased me. I glared at him.
"Ooooo you do like him" he smiled.
"Stop it Dean you shouldn't be laughing" I hit him on the leg as we watched Peeta get cut by that one boy from District 2. I winced for him.
"You do know he likes Katniss, right?"
"She doesn't like him back" I answered hopefully.
"Aurora and Peeta sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g" Dean started to sing.

"I will try and suffocate you with this pillow" I threatened grabbing the pillow next to me. He gave me a come at me bro look and I made an advance towards. Later that I smiled to myself as I remembered the one time I did actually talk to him sort of.

I skipped to the bakery in my new dress I had been given. I had to jump to look over the counter top a couple times to get Peeta's mothers attention considering at the age of 5 I was pretty short. I asked for one sweet roll and right as I was walking out I bumped into him and fell to the ground.
"I'm sorry" he said quickly grabbing my hand and helping me up. I immediately blushed and ran out.

I quickly ran back to my house from school. Most kids my age weren't in school anymore because they had to take care of their families. Dean and I obviously never had a problem with that so I had to stay in school like Dean had till I was eighteen. News was starting to spread fast of how the finale in the Hunger Games was going down right now; there was something about the use of mutts this year. I realized I probably wouldn't have enough time to get home from my school so I knew I would have to go to the main square where many people just viewed the games on the big screen in front of the Justice Building. Everything was silent as we watched in horror as Katniss shot down the boy from District 2 making him get eaten by the pack of wild mutts. Once he was finally pronounced dead, practically everyone in the square was rejoicing as we remembered about how the rules had changed this year allowing both tributes from the same district to be crowned winners if they lasted till the end. Our rejoicing was short lived though as an announcement came on saying:
"Attention, attention; the previous change of having two victors has now been revoked the rules are back to normal"
Everything didn't go just silent; it went deathly silent. We were all wondering who was going to be the winner. I felt small tears roll down my face at the thought of not only Peeta dying but also the thought that if Katniss lost, her family would have no one to take care of them. Maybe I could talk to Dean and let them stay with us. Just then, as if things couldn't get more intense Katniss pulled some berries out of her pocket. I had no clue what they were but the words
"Nightlock" and "Kill you in less than a minute" started circling around the group. Katniss talked to Peeta about them both taking it. Just as they were about to put the berries into their mouths:
"WAIT, STOP,STOP, ladies and gentleman, I now give you the victors of the 74th annual Hunger Games" the announcer said.
Now District 12 was able to rejoice. I ended up sprinting home without even having to catch my breath.
"Dean did you see it? Did you see it?" I asked hugging him now.
"Of course I saw it. I'm pretty sure everyone saw it" he smiled.
"Guess we'll be neighbors with Peeta then" he teased.
I pushed his comment aside but I did know that deep down inside my heart I was mainly rejoicing because of him.

Merely days after the victory Dean got a call. I froze in fear normally we never got calls on that phone. The only people who could call us where people from the Capitol or Haymitch. Usually when we got a call it was a status of how our mum was doing and we had told them to stop giving us updates long ago because they were always the same.
"I think she's getting better but she still wants to try and 'save' you and your brother but don't worry she'll be out soon" the usual Captiol doctor would say in their chirpy accent.
I used to have a lot of hope from those phone calls but then I realized it didn't matter. Dean was doing well all on his own when it came to raising me after the Avoxs left once we were old enough to take care of ourselves. I still felt all weird inside at the thought of how they had treated us like practically royalty. We weren't even allowed to dress ourselves. I also felt guilty whenever I thought of how I would ask them terrible questions like:
"Why can't you talk?" or "When's mummy coming home, I don't like you people?" when I was little.
Anyways it turned out they were sending a camera crew to District 12 to interview people who knew Peeta and Katniss and they wanted us to give our opinions on what we thought it would be like having new neighbors and on how proud we were of District 12's newest victors.
So the next day we got all dressed up and went down to the Justice Building to be interviewed. Dean went first so I had to sit outside next to this tall boy with dark hair and a handsome face. We both sat there awkwardly in silence. I mainly felt more awkward because my version of formal attire was much better than his. The boy looked at me.
"Hi, I'm Gale" he introduced himself. Someone's actually talking to me? I thought. I looked at him like he was crazy. No one talked to me because I kept to myself and no one wanted to be my friend.
"I work with your brother down in the mines" he explained.
Dean has a friend? I thought. Dean really didn't have to get a job but he wanted to because sitting at home all day just made him feel useless.
"Aurora" I introduced myself, shaking his hand.
"So you do have a voice" he tried to joke.
"Sorry" he apologized when I gave him a dirty look.
"So what are you getting interviewed for?" I asked to make conversation.
"They want to ask me how proud I am of my 'cousin' Katniss" he mocked.
I saw the look in his eyes and realized that was the same way mine looked whenever I thought or talked about Peeta. My brother had described that look to me and Gale was wearing it right now.
"You two aren't cousins though" I whispered.
"How do you know that?" he snapped back quickly.
"Because you love her" I snapped back just as quickly as he had.
"Well I have to be her cousin now because of the whole star crossed lovers' thing" he sighed leaning back in his chair.
"Believe me I know how you feel" I thought out loud.
"Let me guess you like Peeta?"
"Yes" I admitted.
I couldn't believe I had just said that out loud to someone I barely knew. But really was it that bad because we were both going through the same emotions right now; we were both watching someone we had strong feelings for fake a relationship, or at least that's what we hoped, with someone else.
"I didn't know he had a thing with any other girls around here"
"We didn't I just-"
"Same here" Gale said for me and I smiled at him.
Finally someone who understood. Whenever I talked to Dean about this he just joked and teased me about it thinking it was a silly crush. I was about to open up even more to Gale but Dean ruined the moment.
"You're up sis" he said smacking me on the shoulder.
I smoothed out my dress and Gale and I shared quick nods with each other before I walked in. There were only a few TV cameras and a big screen in the room.
"And now we are talking to the daughter of victor Ella Libertia who I hear is quite the beauty. So let's give a warm welcome to Aurora" Caesar Flickerman said on the screen suddenly it got all bright in the room as the lights and camera's finally turned on and I realized the interview had started.
I could hear what was going on, on the other side of the screen and heard loud applauses. I gave the screen a small wave making sure to look into the right camera.
"So now I hear that you are the same age as this year's victor's correct?" Caesar immediately started interviewing.
"Um yes we all went to school together" I answered.
"We're you friends or as kids these days say bff's with either of them" I heard the Captiol audience watching this interview laugh.
"No, Katniss and I were sort of acquaintances but Peeta and I only talked to each other once. I'm really shy" I answered.
"Really, a girl like you?"
"Sad but true"
"Well I'm sure you'll get know both of them a bit better once they move into the Victors Village. Now let's talk about you Aurora, any boyfriends?" "Nope"

"Ohhh, she's blushing everyone" I heard the audience do a bunch of OOOOOOooooo's
"No really there's no one"
"Well if you want to keep it a secret that's alright with me" I saw him shake his head while he said that making the audience laugh yet again.
God do these people find everything funny.
"Any other questions?" I asked hoping he would ask me some serious questions about growing up with my brother.
"Well we already asked your brother the sad serious ones and since there's so much love and relationship going around all these days we thought we might find something interesting" Caesar said rolling his eyes comically.
I tried to hold back the angry look on my face. Why didn't they split those questions in half for the both of us to answer? Was it because I was a girl and all the Capitol really wanted to see was an inside look on a teenage girl's life instead of the sad story of how our lives have been sort of hell? All these people want are a good show I scoffed in my mind.
"Well sorry"
"You have no need to apologize, darling. Thank you again for letting us interview you sweetie" Caesar thanked me.
"It was no problem at all Caesar" I said getting up.

"I feel awkward just standing out here" I said as I stood outside with Dean holding these ridiculously oversized baskets and having a Captiol camera crew behind us waiting to welcome the victors and their families into their new homes.
We saw a car pull up and out came Katniss with her family. Dean walked up to them and gladly welcomed them. Katniss' mother and sister were overjoyed and Katniss just smiled and waved at me. I returned it. Next arrived Peeta's family. Of course Dean would have me get stuck with the Mellark family's gift basket. I said hello to Peeta's mother, father, and siblings. I handed the basket to them and just like last time I bumped into Peeta and he caught me while I stumbled.
"Sorry" he apologized. Then he smiled.
"It's like déjà vu" he said. He still remembers I thought, trying to hide my excitement.
"Welcome to the Victor's Village" I shook his hand.
"Nice to finally say hello to you Aurora" he shook it back.

"Could you have been any more obvious?" Dean asked as we walked back home.
"Oh shut up" I smacked him on the shoulder.

So that's chapter one done what'd you think? I hope you liked it. Also thank you to all the people who helped me create this chapter I seriously think I wouldn't have been able to publish it had it not been for you guys so thank you so much :D.