The Hunger Games has become one of my all time favorite books. I have latched onto Katniss' tale and I refuse to let go. I don't care if you shake me and punch me.

Ok…maybe I do care….but I still won't let go!

So to show how much I love the Hunger Games I wrote this story about Ellie, a boy who loves his friend Rue and is devastated when she dies in the games.

I hope you enjoy the story and come to love Ellie as Rue did!

P.S. Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own the hunger games.

Chapter 1

"Ellie! Ellie, I bet you can't catch me!" Rue ran away from me laughing.

"Wanna bet!?" I yelled running after her.

When she looked over her shoulder and saw me advancing on her she ran faster.

"Yes actually!" She giggled /said "Last one there picks!"

"You're on!" We ran at what felt like the speed of light, wind whooshing by as the summer sun beat down coating my body with sweat.

"This is where you lose Ellie!" and she was right for even though by this time I had caught up with her I knew it wouldn't last long. Rue was like a flying squirrel. Her hands grabbed at the branches, only pausing for a second to test the strength, and then she was off, flying across the branches like the beautiful bird she is.

I sighed and then climbed up the tree. I was slower then she but only by a few seconds.

Still that was enough for her to make it to the other side faster than me.

"You lost!" She hung upside down on a tree limb and looked up at me, smiling away. "You have to pick."
"Come on Rue! I'm tired of picking." I sat on the tree limb on the other side of the trunk and looked at her.

"Wimp! That's why you have a girl's name." It's true; I have a girl's name. But my parents didn't name me that…actually my parents didn't name me at all. They died when I was born, caught steeling food from the orchards the community home people say.

"So! Let's just sit here…"

"Come on Ellie! I'm hungry!"

"Fine." I jumped out of the tree onto the ground below. "What would like your highness?" I bowed my head low. "Roots or roots. Or…" I kneeled to the ground uncovering the rock I used last week to hide the hole I dug. "Roots."

She giggled even though we didn't find this particularly funny. Even though the trees and fields all around us were overflowing with food we weren't allowed to pick them until the harvest this fall and even then we couldn't eat what we picked. They gave out rations which were hardly enough to keep us alive throughout the year and it didn't for some… "Hmm…" She pretended to think hard about this. "Roots I guess."

"Roots it is!" Me digging roots was against the law but not as sever as picking from orchards. "Be sure to pick a lot Ellie. I want to bring some home." Rue was talking about her family. They were a prime example of the people who hardly got by on the rations.

"Ok Rouge." She rolled her eyes at the nick name I had given her over the years. It came from how red she usually got when we would pick during the harvest.

I picked a bunch and stuck it in the bag I brought along with me knowing I would be picking roots.

When I was done I went to stand up and saw…

"Ellie," Rue whispered, panicked "Peacekeepers Ellie!"

"Go Rue." I whispered not looking up but towards the Peacekeepers.

"No, I can't leave-"

"Rue, go. I'm just a troubled community child. The worst they can do is fine the city for what I have." The Peacekeepers were getting closer. "Go Rue!"

"Stop!" The Peacekeepers yelled as I begin to run away from the tree Rue was in and back towards the city.

Rue better not get caught. I thought knowing that I was sure to be caught and then beat. Rues sisters couldn't take knowing she was beat by Peacekeepers. They couldn't live with that fact.

"You will be severely punished!" The Peacekeeper said grabbing my arm and binding it back.

There was a crack and then I saw stars.

"Stop, we want him to feel this pain, not be unconscious of it."

I knew pain would come so I forced myself into blackness.

XxX

"Ellie! Oh Ellie wake up!" A voice with the softness of an angels kiss cried.

I forced my half swollen eye open and tried to focus on the blob of brown holding onto my broken arm for dear life.

MY BROKEN ARM!

"OW!" I tried to yell but found my throat was horse.

The blob focused just as she looked up to see my eyes on her. Rue smiled "Ellie! Oh Ellie I thought you were dead!"

"Rue…please…" Her eyes blinked in confusion.

"Please…?"

"Let go of my arm." I whispered.

"What?"

"My arm!" I yelled and then felt light headed.

"Oh… sorry." She let go and then motioned behind her "Someone help me. Please." But even I knew it was futile. No one would help after they saw the Peacekeepers publicly beat me. They would steer clear of me for days, if I had days. The reaping for the Hunger Games is in three days. If I was chosen…I wouldn't stand a chance. 1st, I was barley five foot. 2nd, the only weapon I could weald was a dagger, and that was to weed out the fields. 3rd…my arm would not be better for then and who knew if the doctors at the capital would take pity on me and heal it before the games. Me being hurt before the Games even started might make a better thing to watch. Make it more interesting.

"I've got it." I said attempting to get up but then falling back down again.

"Come on." Rue put my good arm around her small neck and helped me stand up. She was so small but she did help me balance a little better. I only fell down twice.

"Take me to the community home; it's a shorter distance for you."

"No." She said sternly "I will not cast another beating on you." She was right. The people at the community home beat us almost everyday and fed us scraps, keeping almost all the rations to themselves and letting us starve.

The only reason I was alive was because of Rues family. Rue found me when I was six and she was four steeling some of their rations. Instead of turning me into the Peacekeepers they fed me and gave me a place to sleep for a while until the community center demanded me back.

Rue and I have been best friends ever since.

"Rue…"

"No." I laughed at her serious face.

It took us two hours to make it to Rues house on the outskirts of the city.

"RUE! ELLIE!" Rues little sister, Isabel, ran to us. She looked exactly like Rue, big brown eyes with brown skin, only she was shorter.

"Isabel, don't-" Rue tried to stop her but she grabbed us in a hug, knocking us to the ground.

I landed on my arm; it sent pain traveling upward to my brain making me see black yet again.

XxX

"Eat up." Rues mom said with a small smile.

"Why bother?" Rue said playing with the half a quarter of the groosling leg on her plate. Rues dad had killed it last night in the fields and saved it for today. Reaping day.

"You have to be strong; today's going to be a long day Rue." It was her first reaping, my third. Going into she already had eight slips being as she was the only one old enough to sign up for the tessera, and with a family as big as hers…they needed it. I sometimes wondered why they fed and clothed me when they hardly had enough for themselves.

For a way to thank them I signed up for a tessera myself but was only allowed one because technically I am the only one in my family.

Rue sighed and continued playing with her food.

"How's your arm Ellie?" Rues mom said in an attempt to take our minds off the game.

"Better." I lied. After I had woken up after passing out again, I had found my arm in a sling and throbbing with pain.

Pain that only goes away with time our pills, which we don't have.

"That's good." She said even though she knew I was lying

After we finished up dinner we all sat around the TV screen to watch District 12 reaping.

It starts with the story of how the Hunger Games started and then the rules. After the rules is the reading of the past victors of District 12. There have only been two and only one is still alive.

At the moment they say the live victors' name, Haymitch Abernathy; he comes into the cameras view. He is clearly drunk and looks like he's trying to give Effie Trinket, the districts escort, a big kiss. The cameras dance off him but not in time for us to see Effie's wig slide a little.

Rue and I burst out laughing.

"Stop you two." Rues dad says trying to keep in his own laughter. "These games are nothing to laugh about."

We know he's right but this is how we relieve our stress.

After that Effie gets up and talks which send me and Rue into another fit of laughter. Her hair is still off center.

But then we stop when Rue's mom lets out a gasp.

"What mom? What's wrong?"

Rue and I look at her. Her hand is over her mouth and her eyes are filled with tears.

Rues father answers for her "They've chosen a twelve year old."

Rue and I both look towards the screen and see that she is right. The girl walks down the isle from the twelve year old section.

Rue takes in breath.

"It's not going to happen to you Rue." I say taking her hand. "There are thousands of girls."

But then I turn my head back to the screen in time to see a girl with dark brown hair step in front of the twelve year old girl "I volunteer! I volunteer as a tribute!" Rues hand is shaking in mine and I know what she's thinking.

She's the oldest one in her family; there would be no one to volunteer for her if she got chosen.

She won't get chosen though. She won't because there are thousands of slips.

But eight of those already say her name.

XxX

"To your place, boy." To emphasize his words the Peacekeeper pushed me with the butt of his gun.

"Good luck Rue." I called back as the Peacekeeper forced our hands apart.

"Good luck to you too Ellie." I heard her call. Her voice was full off worry.

The Peacekeeper forced me under the ropes that held the 14 year old under privilege boys and, with a spit in my direction, left me.

I looked around at all the community kids and the poor. This is how they separated us, the poor from the rich. Rich in the way back, poor in the front. That's why on the TV screen we look like we have the same population as the rest of the districts even though ours is much larger. They only show the poor kids.

Rue and I think they put only half the slips of the privilege in the bowl. How else would they fit us all in?

A few minutes passed and then the "festivities" start. The mayor reads the rules and the history, introduces the past victors, and then hands it over to Ginger Say, our escort.

"It is so nice to see all of you again this year!" She says in that stupid Capital accent I have come to hate "I have a feeling that this years Hunger Games will be a fantastic one!" She walked over to the girls' ball. "Happy Hunger Games!" She says looking over at the girls' side with a very creepy smile on her face.

I look back at Rue who is looking at me and I give her a reassuring smile that says "Don't worry, it's not you."

"The girl tribute of District 11 for the seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games is…" Rue closes her eyes and so do I, willing it to be anyone but "Rue Cider!"

My eyes snap open as I hear gasps from all around. Gasps that say 'two twelve year olds in one day?' and 'Poor girl'.

I try to find her but I have lost her through the sea of people. But then I see her. She's crying silent tears as she walks down the long path to the stage.

"Rue!" I yell running. I push boys out my way to make it to the edge of my rope. To Rue.

She sees me and walks faster, towards my outstretched hand. Just before she grabs it a Peacekeeper knocks me over and onto the ground. "Back up boy!" He says kicking me with his boot. But I ignore him and call "Rue! Rue!"

"I said get back!!" Another Peacekeeper has to drag me back to my place. He sticks his big hand around my throat and squeezes.

"Any volunteers?" Ginger chirps happily, oblivious of the disturbance.

The silence that follows her words almost kills me.

So there you go. Chapter 1 of Ellies story. I know it's going a little slow but i promise it will get more interesting as we go. Please write reviews!!!