The Celebrity Games

Chapter 3

I woke up bright and breezy on the day of the harvesting, only to be reminded what lay in store. Washing up and getting my hunting gear on, I decided to go to the forest again and try and get some last-minute training in.

Usually in region 12, the day starts at around 8am when the adults go off to work and drop their kids off at school; but today the harvesting starts at 1pm. You may as well relax and lie in if you can.

Running through the town centre, I could see people assembling a huge stage right in front of the town hall. I had only been in a harvesting once (two years ago for the prince, remember?) and it had been awful watching those poor girls get chosen. The looks of shock mingled with fear and horror.

People from our region never last long; they're usually get killed in the first ten minutes because they just don't know how to fight. Or they're just plain stupid. Either way, we never win.

"Hey, Fran! Where are you going at this early in the morning?" A friendly voice chirped behind me.

"Oh hey Jess, I was just going for a run in the forest. You know, train up my running skills." I laughed, turning around to face my closest cousin and partner-in-crime, Jessica Allit.

She's the same height as me, has dark brown curly hair, light green eyes and peachy skin. Everyone just calls her and I Jess and Fran; when everyone used our full names, it got really confusing because no one knew who they wanted.

"Yeah, good luck with that, we all know you hate running." She laughed, carrying on sweeping up the dirt from the pavement.

"Ha ha, Miss I-run-out-of-breath-in-two-seconds!"

"Well, at least you'll have that fittie you always hang out with to motivate you, you lucky little ginger!"

"Who, Matisse? Nah, he's just... A friend. Nothing else."

"If you say so..."

"I do! And anyway, its illegal to have a boyfriend until you're 18. If you have one then go in the games, what happens if you win? Or die?"

"Yeah yeah, but who said anything about him being your boyfriend?" She asked slyly

"Oh, shush. I'm going now, you have to sweep with the other slaves." I retorted, sticking my tounge out at her and turning to go.

"Tell your fit friend I said hi!" She yelled to me as I jogged away.

Shaking my head slightly, I continued on my way to Sherwood Forest, only stopping to get some food to share with Matisse then jogged on until I was right outside the entrance to the caves. Since it was the harvesting, the shop owner must have felt sorry for me because she gave me everything for half price.

"Hey, guess who!" I laughed, covering Matisse's eyes with my hands.

"Ah! Cold hands, cold hands!" He yelped, squirming a little. "Fran, you have something wrong with your ice cold hands. Seriously, they feel like ice cubes!"

"They feel fine to me..." I pouted, letting him turn around to face me. Drawing me closer to him, he held my face in his two, contrasting warm hands which were much bigger than my own and much more tanned. He planted a soft kiss on my lips, making me forget about the world for just a while.

But I couldn't forget that this was wrong. We couldn't be together, not until we were 19 and safely out of the 'danger zone' of the games. What if I got picked today? Either way, winning or dying, I wouldn't ever be able to be with him.

"What's the matter?" He asked, almost reading my mind.

"Its not fair..."

"What isn't fair?"