Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to The Hunger Games or any characters and/or terms mentioned, I only own the characters I will invent.
This is my first fanfiction so please tell me if you like it!
"I sit by an open window and fasten a white flower into my long brown hair. Wispy strands falling loose from my tightly done plaits onto my face, blowing in the dusty wind, then resting just above my forehead. My specially done hair must look awful by now, for I have been watching out of the window for over an hour. Nothing has passed yet, only leaves from the oaks and stray berries from the carts. I shiver as I continue to stare into the cold, darkness of District Eleven as I spot a glimpse of a peacekeeper, his white suit and darkened helmet remind me of the dreadful occasions where people are dragged off every year, begging on there knees to be allowed to stay with their families. Even the older ones never fail to have tears streaming down their faces as they enter the Justice Building and I don't blame them for so far, there hasn't been a victor from our district for over thirty years. I would hate to be chosen for The Hunger Games and it would ruin my family after already having lost so much to The capitol, but there is hardly any chance that I can get chosen even though my name has gone in a vast number of times.
Mother assured me that there is no chance I will be chosen as I am only twelve and twelve year olds are barely ever chosen but she is reassuring herself more than me because I don't think she could survive without me. She is pale and too thin but living here doesn't really help, she can't go outside too often because it makes her cry to remember how she used to be.
They have always scared me, ever since elder my sister Tansy entered the games. I was only eight when it happened and couldn't bare to let her go, I cried for months and so did mother even though I didn't understand what was going on. It must have been even harder for mother after losing our father too- father
He would carry me on his shoulders above everything else and I would feel like queen of Panem, I loved his strong, caring face, his green eyes like mine and especially the way he never got angry, even when me and Tansy were naughty as children and would sneak berries for our selves and hide them in our pinafores before tucking in to the sweet fruits late at night. This was her room too and sometimes I can even smell her in the room, of course, if I ever told mother that she would burst in to tears and send me away in disgrace. At first I didn't understand why mother would send me away, but now I realise the pain afflicted upon her losing two loved ones must be unbearable, just as it is for me when I picture father's face on the front seat of the berry carts in the morning when I go to work on the fields, and when I find one of Tansy's hairpins or dresses stuffed behind a cupboard. Forgotten, just like Tansy was from the rest of Panem,"OHHHH! AND THERE GOES THE TRIBUTE FROM DISTRICT ELEVEN TO THE DISTRICT ONE CAREER AZURE, OH I'M TELLING YOU PANEM THAT REALLY WAS A SOFT KILL AND WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT FOR HER FAMILY AND-"
Mother had dragged me away from the public screen and into the house where she locked herself in her bedroom and cried her eyes out like a child. I would have done the same, but I couldn't quite grasp the fact that she was gone. My own sister whom I loved had just been torn to pieces by someone only a few years older than her. It still pains me to think of it, as much as it pains me to think of my father. He was shot in front of me at a public execution but I still do not know what for, all I know is that kneeling on his deathbed he shouted one thing and those words shall ever be engraved into my mind-
"THE MOCKINGJAY SHALL RISE AND THE HUNGER GAMES SHALL BE DESTROYED!"
He then whistled a short four note tune and the mockingjays circled him from above and sang the tune back. Later, I could not bare to go back to the house, and so I ran out onto the fields screaming and thrashing my arms in the air, but still, I did not cry. I was only six but already knew my way up and down the trees, so I scrambled up frantically and called out to the birds. And they replied.
I have climbed trees everyday since I was hardly able to toddle around the house. Father would out me on a branch a little way off the ground and I would reach my chubby arms up to the skies, laughing my head off and he would laugh too. I went today, up to the highest branches and picked berries for the local farmers to sell. They would take great pleasure in giving me small amounts of money for the juicy berries I'd have in my pockets, but that's not the reason that I do go up into the trees, I go up to hear the birds sing. I call to them and then they call back to me, always singing the same sweet melody they sang to my father that dreadful day.
A mirror is on the other side of the room, I turn to see the mirror and glance into its dusty, cracked glass at my reflection. As I see myself for the first time in years, I do not see a girl who turned twelve last winter, but a small, frail child in a huge, lumpy dress The sleeves are too long, the collar looks square and awkward and the skirt is itchy and uncomfortable. Tansy wore this dress at her reaping and my mother at hers, there is one faded photograph of my mother wearing it, she looks young and beautiful in it but now, her face has aged and is covered with wrinkles and permanent tear marks stain her skin. Her ocean blues eyes though, remind me of Tansy. She was the pretty one and I was the scrawny one who climbed the trees and got all muddy, Tansy was bad sometimes but never got into trouble like I did but still I can picture her loving face that I will never see again. Unless I am chosen for The Games.
I glance at myself a while longer, before slowly walking down the creaky stairs to see my mother, but when I reach for the door handle I hear desperate sobs,
"OH MY DEAR HUSBAND WHY DID WE HAVE CHILDREN WHEN WE KNEW THEY WOULD BE KILLED! I HATE THEM! I HATE THEM ALL AND YOU LEFT ME!"
She then falls back to quiet sobbing and I walk away from the door. But this time I do cry.
Hi everyone!
Thanks for reading I hope that you enjoyed the first chapter of Rue's story and I'll try to upload the next one in a day or two,Please review, it means so much to me as I am very new to writing fanfictions so I would really like to know what you think of my writing Rueflower7 xx