The Celebrity Hunger Games

Chapter 17: "You'll Never Know"

District 5

Ed Sheeran’s p.o.v

My parents and older brother were the first people to visit me. My mum hugged me straight away while my dad patted my back. “Don’t worry” my dad said to me. “How can I not worry?” I asked him. Was he assuming that I would win the Games? “You’re strong and you’re smart. You can outlast so many of the people that are competing this year” he said. I shook my head. I didn’t know anyone who was competing (other than my fellow tribute) but I was sure that there would be some Career tributes in the first 4 districts, there always are. “There’s no way I can beat a career tribute” I said, voicing my thoughts. “You don’t need to beat the Career tributes, you just need to last long enough for the Careers to beat each other” my brother Matthew said. This was true. If the Career tributes killed each other, I wouldn’t have to worry about killing them. However, this didn’t always happen. “They might form alliances” I said. In the Hunger Games, tributes can form alliances, which means that they stick together until the last possible moment. Sometimes the alliances ended up killing each other. Generally, the person who won the Games was someone whose alliance had been killed by someone else, or who had been alone from the beginning. The public didn’t like it if you killed your own partner. “Even if they form alliances, they can’t keep it up forever. Only one can win” he said, reminding me of how the Games could change. And how the Games could change the tributes.

Ellie was the next person to see me. She ran to me straight away and I held her tightly. We continued to hug for a few seconds before I gently pulled her off of me and led her to sit down. Her face was already covered in tears. “Don’t worry about me” I said to her. She looked shocked by what I had said. “How can I not be worried?” she asked me, still crying. “When I come back we can have a great life. Us and the baby” I said, rubbing her stomach. She smiled sadly. “That would be amazing” she said, both of us ignoring the fact that I may not be coming home. “I never thought it would end like this” she said, almost to herself. “Nothing’s ending” I said fiercely to her. She shook her head. “It is though” she said quietly. I hugged her and allowed her to cry into my shoulder. “You’ll never know” she said. I looked at her, confused. “I’ll never know what?” I asked her. “You’ll never know who our child will be” she said, her voice shaking. “I’m not going anywhere” I said. “Promise me you’ll try to win. I need you. I can’t do this without you” she said. I nodded my head vigorously. “I promise, with all my heart, that I’ll try my best” I said. She tried to smile. Then, as the peacekeepers came in she whispered in my ear: “Just make sure that your best is good enough” she said.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s p.o.v

I didn’t expect my dad to come and see me. The one thing I had never wanted to do was to make him hate me, but I could tell that he did. I had wanted this for so long, but as soon as I got it, the only thing that I wanted was to be free of it. It was ironic that for the past few years, all I’ve wanted was to be away from my father, yet now all I wanted was to be curled up in his arms. I wanted him to protect me, and to tell me that everything was going to be ok. But I doubted he would do that now.

He did come to visit me. We sat at a length from each other, not looking at each other or speaking. “I never wanted you to hate me” I said to him. “I don’t hate you. You’re my daughter, I could never hate you” he said to me, still refusing to look at me. “Then why can’t you look at me?” I asked him. He took a deep breath, and looked at me. Then he broke down with sobs. I moved to him immediately, holding him while he cried, the same way he had held me so many times since my mother had died. “I lost your mother, and now I might lose you too” he said. “I’m sorry” I said. And I was sorry. It had been my choice to take Tesserae. I did it because I wanted to get away from my father, and to get away from my district. I always thought I would have to make the choice between staying in the district and entering the Games. But now the choice had been taken away from me. I would have to leave my district.

When my father left, I sat in my room. My fellow tribute would have more people to say goodbye to than I did, so I had a bit of time to waste. I lay down and tried not to think about the Hunger Games. Then my mother appeared in front of me. “Mum?” I questioned. “This isn’t your fault baby” she said. “I got Tesserae to get away from dad” I said, but she shook her head. “You didn’t get it to be away from your father. You got it to get yourself away from the house. To escape from the memory of me” she said. “That doesn’t make sense, I don’t want to be away from you” I said, but she nodded sadly. “The nightmares are stopping you from living your life. I need to leave you” she said. “No, don’t go, I can’t do this without you” I said crying. “You already are doing it. I love you” she said. Then she began to drift away. “No, don’t leave me!” I shouted. Then I felt someone shaking me. I opened my eyes and saw my fellow tribute. “Are you ok?” he asked me. I looked around for signs of my mother, but she was nowhere in sight. “I’m fine” I said breathlessly. And I was. My mother had left me, and by doing that, she had given me the confidence to know that I could do this by myself. And if I failed, she would be waiting for me.