Follow the sun past the river and over the brambles, under the high metal fence. And once you see the orchards with their leaves reflecting the glittering light of dusk and the mockingjays that dance from tree to tree, then you are home…
A small girl with honey gold eyes and olive skin converses with a bird in song, repeating each other's notes beautiful and clear in a round until you could never tell where one voice began and the other ended. She sits on a thin branch at the top of the tree, clutching a straw woven basket in one arm, the other picking fruits at random. The bird perches on her shoulder, watching intently. When Rue stands to move on, the bird flaps away with an indignant chirp, but he'll be back.
Being careful not to drop anything, she stands on the edge of a limb and gracefully leaps into the air. For a moment she can feel the hot wind in her face, fresh with the smell of pears mingled with sweat. Then she lands precariously on one foot with no where to latch her hand to. The exhilaration ends far too quickly, but that's alright with her. As Rue balances herself, she can't help but think she has one of the best jobs in the district. Flitting across the branches like a little mockingjay, singing the signal for the end of work. True, it is difficult, and she often gets heat exhaustion in the summer time when the Overseers won't let her down to get a drink. But she loves it anyway.
Working gives her the chance to keep her mind off other things anyway. Tomorrow will be her first reaping day. Despite her mother's pleads, she took the tesserae for herself, her three sisters, two brothers, and her mother. She had her name in the pot seven times, but assured herself that there were thousands of other kids in the district. She would never be chosen.
Noticing the weight of her basket for the first time, she looks down to see it filled to the brim. Time to have it emptied. She hops down to the lowest branch and hangs herself upside-down from it, keeping her legs locked around the branch. One of the workers spots her. It's a boy, nearly a man actually, with shaggy brown hair and a tall brawny build. He comes over and shoulders the heavy load from her, then dumps its contents into a larger bin. She watches him, waiting. Just as he walks back towards her, one of the Overseers comes by, toting a gun in one arm. Rue and the other boy are both holding their breaths in fear and anticipation of what the man may do. He stops in front of Rue, cruel eyes appraising her sullenly. She fumbles with a good morning, then remembers its afternoon and tries to correct herself, but only ends up stumbling over her own words.
Without warning, he reaches out, and yanks her from the tree by her hair. She topples to the ground head-first, barely managing to put her arms out to keep her from snapping her neck. Her vision spins and she hears the Overseer say "Get back to work," as he walks away. Rue eventually realizes she's breathing in dirt when her lungs begin to burn and she coughs. She sits up slowly, eyes watering, her head throbbing and seeing double. The boy and his newly acquired twin move into her line of sight, blocking the sun. They merge into one person and he hands her the empty basket.
"Better get going." He says. He turns on his heel and picks up his own bin, then continues back to work. She'd seen him many a time before now, but struggles to remember his name. She pushes herself up and scales the tree in a flash, still thinking. Oh gosh, what is his name? Uh, Thrush? Thresh? Wait, yes, Thresh. That's it. He was never one for talking so she didn't know him very well, but she'd seen him out in the fields every day for the past two years. He's strong- stronger than most grown men- but not very sociable and he doesn't appear to be all that bright either. However, an orchard worker doesn't have to know anything.
Back at her branch, she picks a few more pears, trying hard not to think about how hungry she is. Her mother has been sick for the past year and a half, so Rue has to work overtime to make enough money to keep them alive. She only comes to school half the time, which is a shame really because she does adore reading; it's just not very practical in her position. She takes care of her five siblings as much as she can, and many times that means going hungry so that they will not. But she'll live. Rue is a survivor, just like the mockingjays.
oOo
The next day, Rue picks out her prettiest outfit (aka her only pair of clean work clothes) and ties pieces of fabric in her wavy brown pigtails that are meant to look like ribbons. They don't. Her siblings beg her to let them come to the reaping with her, and for a second, she thinks she might let them. What could be the harm? But the Overseers are particularly strict on reaping day, and she doesn't want the little ones to accidentally provoke their wrath, as small children so easily do. So she simply shakes her head, gives them all huge hugs and says, "I will love you till the end of forever." She holds out her hands and links her thumbs together to look like a bird, and puts the bird to her chest.
The children do the motion back, the younger three sniffling and sobbing as they do so. "For now and for always," They respond like they always do. Rue smiles, and with one last look, is gone.
The reaping always takes place in the square. The eligable girls stand on the left side of the stage, while the boys are on the right. The man in charge of District 11's tributes, Hugo, trudges up the stairs, clearly wanting to be anywhere but here. He has thick glasses, and graying hair slicked back against his mostly bald head. Rue does envy his robin egg blue eyes though. He clears his throat. The crowd is silent. He clears his throat again, which confuses everyone till the fourth throat clearing, when by then it just irks them that he won't hurry up.
After the sixth one he finally manages to get out in a thick raspy smoker's voice, "Welcome to the reaping day of the 74th annual Hunger Games." No one claps. He pauses for a round of cleansing his throat. "This year, due to the upcoming Quarter Quell, we have decided to change the rules a bit. In these Games, the two players from each district will be competing as partners instead of separately." The crowd is instantly abuzz; no one is quite sure what to make of this. Neither is Rue. She supposes this would be good for the players, but it would also make things more difficult. How much harder would it be to kill two Careers with a lasting bond, then just two who would turn on each other at any second?
"Of course," Hugo continues once the Peacekeepers have forced the people into silence, "You can win without a partner if they are killed, but it would be more difficult." He makes his way over to a pink glass ball with a small door on the side just large enough to fit someone's arm in. Rolling his eyes Hugo picks up the ball and shakes it once, obviously obligated to mix up the papers but not willing to do it wholeheartedly. He reaches down deep to the very bottom and lifts out a little scrap of paper.
"Rue Birch."
Everyone within a five foot radius of Rue stares at her with a mix of sympathy and relief that makes her sick to her stomach. The girls, all of them her age or older, clear a pathway to the stage while she steps through the crowd silent as a ghost.
Inside, she is making a desperate attempt at suppressing panic. No, no! This can't happen. My mother and siblings… they'll die without me! her thoughts scream. Even her sibling closest to her age is only nine, and not old enough to work in the fields for another year. How will they possibly get by after she is… Rue won't even let herself dwell on the fact that she herself will surely die. No one honestly believes she has a chance, do they? She is only twelve, and a small twelve year old at that; too easy a target to pass up.
Rue feels her hands shaking and forces herself to calm down. There would be no point in becoming a crybaby all of a sudden no matter how dire the current circumstances. She climbs the steps, focusing on her every movement. Just put one foot in front of the other, don't trip, don't cry, show no emotion or forever regret it.
"Will anyone take her place?" Hugo is most certainly required to ask this because they all know what the answer will be. Sure the whole District loves Rue with her sweet disposition; how could they not? But that was forgotten completely the second her name was drawn from that glass ball. Hence, the question is met with silence.
Hugo clears his throat several more times- Rue is too tense to count how many- then he shuffles to an equal sized blue ball. After giving it a half-hearted attempt at a shake, he digs around till he comes up with another scrap.
"Thresh Rainer."
What? That suddenly perks her interest. Thresh, broad shouldered and bulky, now wandering up the steps, shrinking back at the sight of so many eyes fixed on him, is now her partner. He is her lifeline, and she just might be his as well. Thresh just glares back at the audience with a deadly sort of intensity that makes Rue recoil a step, but it's also a look that barely manages to mask the panicked, caged-animal fear in his eyes . None volunteer to replace the teen, and he expects this; he just can't help but hate everyone there, though for different reasons that one might think.
For starters, he can't stand being stared at like he were some sort of zoo animal. He wishes they could find someone else to watch. He doesn't want to be noticed, just to blend into the backdrop and escape their piercing gazes. What about the fact that you're gonna be slaughtered? He ponders it then decides it doesn't really matter. Besides, he won't go down without a fight and that's all that matters. No, Thresh isn't suicidal. Far from it, he has quite a will to live. But he just knows there's nothing he can do about that little dilemma for a while, so why bother? The true subject of his anger is one small gold eyed girl watching him from just a few feet away.
He knows Rue is hardly to blame for this; that anvil fell completely on the Capitol. However… This sucks!, he thinks. It's bad enough I got dragged into these stupid Games, and even worse that it's a partner event which will make everyone twice as difficult to get rid of, but now I get a useless little kid for a teammate! I get Rue.
He and Rue shake hands and he gives her that look, the same one the crowd was graced with, minus the fear. It chills her to the bone. They've barely spoken before and already he's decided to hate her. She can't devote too much thought to it though, as they are herded off the stage and towards a long silver train. She'd always thought it awful that the tributes from her district never got to say goodbye to their families after what happened a few years ago when one tribute's brother brought a gun which the boy hid and used in an escape attempt. He ended up being shot himself but not without taking a few guards down with him.
Rue finds a friend in the onlookers and yells to her to keep Rue's family safe and send them her love. The friend shouts back an assent.
With only seconds before the Peacekeepers would force her on the train, she twines her thumbs and gives the crowd her bird signal. A few people return it.
oOo
Next time: Rue and Thresh have a problem...but it's sort of one-sided.
oOo
First chapter! Woot! Things may start off slow, but trust me it will get pretty epic later on.
So tell me what you think. Updates will go a lot faster if I get more feedback, just saying.
Love,
earth warrior
