The Celebrity Hunger Games

Chapter 5: District 5

Ed Sheeran’s p.o.v

“I’ll hold your body in my hands, be as gentle as I can” I sang to myself. I liked to credit myself as a song writer, although I hadn’t sold any songs yet. I used songs to keep my mind off of each year’s reapings. Last year I wrote ‘Drunk’ and the year before that I wrote ‘The A team’. I usually played the new ones for my parents and older brother Matthew as well as my girlfriend Ellie on the day of the reapings, to keep their minds off of it. It was like a good luck charm, our family had never been picked. I wasn’t so naive to think that my songs were keeping my family from being picked, but it was nice to imagine.

“Are you Ready to go?” Ellie asked me. She had come over just before the reapings so that we could go together. “No” I said quickly. “Why?” she asked me. I hadn’t played my new song yet but it was too late to play it for them. “Nothing” I said, smiling and taking her hand as we made our way to where the reapings were being held.

Our host was a woman whose name I had never bothered to learn. The host and Ellie began speaking to me at the same time. “I have to tell you something” Ellie said as the host said: “This will be our year, this year, we will win!” “What’s up El?” I asked her. “Our male tribute is...” the host said, at the same time as Ellie said: “I’m pregnant”. I was stunned into silence. “Ed Sheeran!” the host said. Everything was happening too fast. I walked up onto the stage, tears filling my eyes. I would have a child, and I wouldn’t even be able to know their name.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s p.o.v

“Mum, run!” I screamed in my sleep. I always dreamed of my mum. Her face, her smell, and the way she spoke. To say I missed her was a serious understatement. She was killed in an explosion a week after my thirteenth birthday. A week before my second reaping. I took Tesserae that year, trying to do everything I could to get picked. I didn’t want to win in my mother’s honour; I wanted to die in her absence. I didn’t get picked that year. Or the next. Or the next. Now I was 16, and what terrified me most in the world was being stuck in District 5, with only my father as company. Having said that, I knew that I could never volunteer. I couldn’t bring myself to leave him alone. I couldn’t make him hate me.

“Your mother wouldn’t want you to keep taking Tesserae” my dad said to me. I ignored him. He never ate what I brought home; we were quite distanced, making my dream to compete in the Hunger Games even greater. “Don’t ignore me Carly” he said to me. “Why not?” I said in an innocent voice, messing with his head. “Look, I know you miss your mum, but you don’t need to punish me because she’s not here anymore” he said to me. I was shocked to hear him mention mum as we rarely spoke about her to each other. “I need to go, I have a reaping to get to” I said, running from the house to avoid showing him my tears.

The tears didn’t stop coming as the first name was announced. They made it hard for me to see what was happening. I didn’t even hear the name of the first tribute, I just looked at the floor, breathing heavily and trying to not appear weak. “The female tribute is...Carly Jepsen” the host called out. I fell to my knees. I wasn’t sure if I was pushed, if I fell in surprise at getting what I want, or shock that maybe what I wanted was not what my mother would want me to have. Because we both knew, that I had no chance of winning.

Someone pulled me up. I discovered that it was my dad. He began walking towards the stage. “I’m sorry daddy” I said to him, feeling vulnerable and stupid for not spending the time that I had left with him. “Don’t apologise to me, you got what you wanted” he said, making me sad. I didn’t know that he knew what I was hoping for. And now I couldn’t take that back. Once placing me onto the stage, he stepped back, leaving me alone, with only the host and the other tribute as company. I looked at the other tribute and noticed that he too, had tears in his eyes.