The Celebrity Hunger Games

Chapter 16: "Smile"

District 4

Conor Maynard’s p.o.v

I couldn’t stop thinking about my fellow tribute, Selena Gomez. She had volunteered. I had dreamt about her the night before the reapings, had that been a sign? I wanted to ask her why she had volunteered, but we were separated before we even left the stage, we were separated so that we could say goodbye to our families. These bits weren’t televised but I always thought that they should be. Most of the tributes were putting on an act for the cameras. At least it they were filmed with their families we’d get to see the real people. I wanted people to see the real me.

Soon enough, Jack and Anna were running into the room, followed by our mother. “Will you be gone for a long time?” Anna asked me. Jack rolled his eyes at her question. She still didn’t really understand what the Hunger Games was. She didn’t understand that I might not be coming back. “Yeah, I will” I said. “And then you’ll come back and everything will be as normal, right?” she asked. I didn’t know how to answer her, so my only answer was silence. “Of course he will honey, he’ll be back before you know it” our mother said, visibly trying hard to not let her tears spill. I didn’t want to lie to her. “Do you think that’s fair? Are you never going to tell her?” I asked our mum, keeping my voice low while Anna spoke to Jack. “It’s for the best” she said. “How is it for the best? She could easily be in this position!” I said, my voice rising and catching the attention of Jack. “Don’t get so upset, you’ll scare your sister” she said, ignoring my outburst. “Better to scare her than to lie to her until I die” I said. She shrugged. “What if I die? What are you going to tell her?” I ask anxiously. She doesn’t answer. “What, are you just going to wait and wait? She’s going to be eligible for 6 more years, she has to know what she may be up for” I said. “I don’t want her to know, it’s too much” she said. “Too much?” I questioned incredulously. She took a sharp breath. “I’ve lost one child to the Hunger Games, I’m not losing any more” she said, nearly crying. “You haven’t lost me, mum, I’m still here” I said, my voice quiet, trying to hold my tears in. She shook her head. “You might not be here for long. It’s bad enough for Jack and me to have to face that, I can’t let Anna go through that too. It will break me. You’re my strength. If you’re gone, I don’t know what I’m...” she trailed off, her body shaking with sobs. “I love you mum” I whispered as I hugged her. She hugged me back. “I love you too Conor, forever” she said. Then she walked out of the room with Jack. “Go with mum Anna” I said to her, not wanting her to see me upset. “Smile” she said simply. “What?” I asked her. She shrugged. “Mum says that if you smile, your body thinks that you’re happy and you feel happy. I want you to be happy” she said. I feigned a smile for her and she approved, walking towards the door. “I love you Anna” I said to her. She put her finger to her lips. “Tell me when you come home” she said. I promised her I would, hoping that I could.

Selena Gomez’s p.o.v

I’d never thought too much about how I would die. I figured that I would be well into old age and would die in my sleep. The Hunger Games had never been something that I thought I would have to compete in. Until I was 11 I thought it was just a myth, a scary story to convince young children to behave well towards the Capitol. My mother had never told me to volunteer before. In fact, we never talked about the Games. Whenever I got through a reaping neither of us would acknowledge it. This year was different. She figured that I was old enough to win the Games.

When she came to see me, she was all business, her voice void of any emotion. “Your best chance is to be a career tribute” she said as soon as she saw me. I frowned, confused. “But I’m not a career tribute” I said, immediately dismissing the idea of anyone believing that I volunteered because I actually wanted to. She rolled her eyes at me. “I’ve been training you for this for the whole of your life. You are a career tribute, even if you don’t know it” she said. I refused to listen to what she was saying. “What if I die?” I asked her, trying my best to echo her lack of emotion. She shrugged. “If you die, I’ll be sad. But shit happens honey, I’ll just have to get on with it” she said. I looked carefully at her face to see if she was telling the truth or not. How could a mother care so little about her only daughter? “I’m not trying to win” I said, mostly to hurt her. She looked shocked. “What do you mean?” she asked me. “I’m treating this as a suicide mission” I said, knowing that I could never say this when cameras were around. “You can’t” she said angrily. I shrugged. “Who’s going to stop me?” I asked her. Then a peacekeeper came to take her away, so I never got my answer.

I met up with Conor Maynard on the way to the train. “How was it? Seeing your family for, maybe, the last time?” I asked him. He shrugged, as if he didn’t want to talk about it. “I hate to tell you this, but I’m the only friend you’ve got. At least until the Games start” I reminded him, encouraging him to tell me more. He chuckled. “We’re friends?” he asked me. I nodded defiantly. As I wasn’t looking at the Hunger Games as a competition, I saw no reason to keep Conor at a distance. If anyone had to win, I’d have liked it to be him. “My little sister doesn’t really know what’s going on. She thinks I’m coming home soon” he said. “Did you tell her that you might not?” I asked him. He answered me honestly. “My mum told me not to. She said she doesn’t want my sister to have to deal with the loss of me as well as her and my brother” he said. “Doesn’t she have any faith in you?” I asked him, not knowing how his mother could assume that he would die. “She’s just worried” he said hastily. I sighed. “I’d still take your mother over mine anyway” I said honestly. “Why?” he asked me. “She wants me to be a Career tribute. She made me volunteer so that I could make her famous. She doesn’t care if I die” I said, trying to hold back tears as we got into the view of the cameras, almost at the train. “Smile” he said. I looked up at him, surprised. “For the cameras?” I asked him. He shook his head “Someone told me that if you smile, your body thinks you’re happy and you feel happy” he said, shrugging. So I smiled. But I wouldn’t let my body trick me, I wasn’t happy, and may never be again.

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