This is Rue's story during the book The Hunger Games
I hop from limb to limb high up in the branches of the trees. Nobody can reach me. It's only me and the birds. We share pretty little songs with one another, teaching the other the tune. I trill out my four note song that signals the end of another working day and the Mocking Jays play it back to me in harmony.
It is not the end of the day, rather it is just morning and I have not been able to sleep easily. The sun is peeking up over the trees with a bright orange light, exposing the straight rows of tree's that have been plucked clean except for the apples high in the tree tops, ones that only I can reach. No, it is not the end of a working day but in another way it is the end. Two unlucky children will be sent to the Capitol to fight for their lives. I trill out my song as a respect to them.
I think idly of my own name, written neatly in the draw. Nine times. Nine times out of the possible thousands. I am only twelve but I had accepted tesserae seeing as I was the oldest out of the six kids and this would at least keep my family eating a while.
It scared me to have nine slips in the crystal bowl, but then I thought of some of the eighteen year olds who had their names in maybe fifty times or more.
I jump through the trees until its late morning and it's already quite warm. It's time to get ready. I hurry home, keeping to the dirt paths that lead through the town, rather than taking the faster route though the woods.
Not a soul is present, everyone is preparing for the reaping, the ceremony where the names are read. All of the little houses are boarded up and not a soul is on the street. Except for me.
My house is a little shack which isn't really big enough for the eight of us, but we manage. We had just finished the harvest season and had a decent amount of money. It wouldn't last, but it was there. My stomach growled just to remind me how little there was to eat in district eleven. One would think since we produce the food, we would have the most to eat perhaps. One would be wrong. We must never eat the food, only if it has been severely spoiled.
I enter the little house to find my family bustling about, my mother trying to get my squirming little siblings into their finest clothes.
My mother turns to me in the midst of pulling a dress over my little sister Purity's head. She giggled and squirmed away, not wanting to get dressed up. My mother was clearly frustrated but she never let it show. She was the kindest woman I knew.
"Rue, where have you been?" She asked me kindly.
"Out," I answered slowly. "I couldn't sleep."
Mother finally pulled the dress over Purity's head and she took off running.
"My little Rue," She said gently as she walked over to me. "Always with her head in the tree's." She placed her warm lips of my forehead and held me there for a while.
When she pulled away she eyed me for a moment. "Your dress is in the first bedroom. Fix yourself pretty."
She smiled and pulled a stray leaf from my hair. "None of these," She warned as she let the leaf drop.
"Yes mama," I assured her.
This was the first reaping my family was ever going to attend live, in the town center. We had always watched them on our beat up television, only because it was mandatory. Mama, Papa and my little brother Bryce, who was only one year younger than me, were terrified for me.
I slowly dressed in my best green dress, and tied my dark thick hair back with a matching ribbon. I picked out all of the loose twigs and leaves from my hair and I was satisfied. I traced my face in the small dirty mirror and let out a nervous laugh.
Mother appeared in the doorway and began to sing me my favourite song.
Baby don't worry because now I have your back. And every time you feel like crying, I'm going to try to make you laugh.
She continued to sing as she crossed the room and bent down beside me, her voice now in my ear. She sung with a voice as soft as the wind and as sweet as sugar.
And if I can't, if it just hurts too bad
Then we'll wait for it to pass
And I will keep you company
Through those days so long and black
My father then appeared in the doorway announcing that it was time to go. My mother paused a moment and touched the tip of her finger to the tip of her nose. I did the same. It was how we said we loved each other when we were high-up in the trees. I would simply touch my nose and she would look up at me from her lower position and she would know.
The walk took a little over ten minutes, though it would have only taken me five on my own. My little siblings slowed things down. The center was already crowded. I observed the square with awe. It was the only place in District 11 that was kept neatly besides the orchards. Beautiful flowers lined the stage and the ground was built expensive tile, rather than plain dirt.
I quickly said goodbye to my family and went to stand with the rest of the twelve year old girls. I knew a handful of them and they all wore nervous expressions.
District 11's escort, a small woman named Ivy Storm makes her way on stage. She wears a bright purple jacket with matching pants. Her hair matches also. I am not sure if it is a wig or if she has dyed it. Most people from the Capitol wear strange clothes. She takes her chair beside our Mayor, a large man with thick curly hair named Mayor Song. I used to think that he became mayor because everyone fancied his name. On the other side of Ivy Storm sit two women, both tiny with the same dark skin and dark eyes as me. These are the two girls who have won the Hunger Games in our district. The first is Jasmine Icechanter. She won by being quick and smart. Simple. The second is Victory Mourner. She had a talent with knives. Enough said.
At two o'clock exactly, the mayor steps up and delivers the speech I watch every year on the television. It is much more exciting live. The mayor then introduces our two previous winners, both of which are in their late twenties. We won the Games two years in a row, both thirteen year old girls. But that was around fourteen years ago.
Finally it's time to read the names. Ivy steps up to the front of the stage and drawls out the famous line from the Capitol.
"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!"
She then proceeds over to the clear bowl and reaches her hand in. An agonizing time later she pulls up a slip and my heartbeat goes wild.
Only nine.
I am trying desperately to assure myself that it won't be me.
"Rue Dire." Ivy's pleasant voice comes over the speakers and I am too shocked to move.
"Rue?" Ivy asked once more, and this time I somehow find the will to move my legs. Only a slight applause breaks out, nobody likes to see a twelve year old brought to the Games. I can't bear myself to look at my family, to see the looks of pure horror on their faces. There was no question I was going to die. I may as well be dead now.
I numbly shake Ivy's hand and stand on the stage beside her. I suddenly feel ten times smaller than I am. I can't seem to hear anything but my frantic heartbeat in my ears.
Ivy makes her way over to the boys bowl and reads off a name. I can't hear it so my eyes automatically search the crowd. In my searching my eyes come upon my mother's anguished face. I rip them away immediately. Back in my searching I notice movement in the seventeen year old boys section. Thresh Waller makes his way forward, only making things worse.
Thresh is one of the biggest men from or district. I had only spoken to him once and he seemed nice enough, but none of that mattered because now we would have to kill one another. Only one person can win the Hunger Games.
But then I remember that I am fast and I can climb the tallest parts of the tree's which no one else can. I have knowledge of plants. I am smart. I can survive.
I devoured this book in two days, it was so good. I was just attached to Rue and I really want to write about her and get into her world. I hope this is good so far.