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Birthdays
By:
GoddessoftheWaters
00.
On the day Rue was born, it rained.
01.
The weather on her first birthday more than made up for the lousy weather the year before. It was sunny and warm, and one year old Rue got to play in the irrigation sprinklers while her mother picked raspberries and watched from nearby.
02.
On her second birthday, Rue's little sister crawled for the first time. She crawled, laughing, into Rue's lap as Rue savored the last strawberry her father had stolen from the field for her.
03.
Mockingjays.
When Rue turned three she learned how to whistle, so she could sound just like the Mockingjays.
She loved the Mockingjays. They would whistle her song back, and she could use that to communicate with her mother and father while they worked.
04.
On her fourth birthday, Rue worked.
She worked all day picking berries in the fields. To pass the time, she pretended she was a princess like the ones in her mothers stories, with long flowing hair and ribbons. She pretended that her torn pants and juice stained shirt were a fancy dress made from the finest materials from the Capital.
She pretended it was the dress the District 11 tribute wore the previous year for her interview.
The dress was blue, like the blueberries Rue picked.
Rue decided she wanted a blueberry pie on her next birthday.
05.
Three days before her fifth birthday, Rue's mother stopped eating. Her father stopped eating too, but Rue did not notice that. She did not understand. There was plenty of food. She always had plenty of food.
On her birthday, Rue was presented with a Blueberry Pie.
06.
On her sixth birthday, Rue began to understand.
The reason why everyone was somber during the Reapings. The reason why they never got to eat any of the food they picked. Rue began to understand everything.
As she understood more and more, she cried.
07.
Rue began the morning of her seventh birthday picking peaches. She was an excellent peach picker, she discovered, since she was a natural at climbing trees. Since today was her birthday, she decided that she would take one peach and bring it home to her mother and father. They could eat it and celebrate, and she could not wait to take a bite of its juicy flesh.
She was nervous sneaking the fruit past the checkpoint of Peacekeepers. She tried to keep a straight face, and she thought she succeeded, but she was not sure. Perhaps the Peacekeepers did not notice; or perhaps they did not care.
She ran from the checkpoint home as fast as she could, yelling "MOM! MOM!" the whole way. She burst through the door at top speed, a huge smile on her face. "MOM! Mom, look what I got!"
Perhaps the Peacekeepers did not notice the peach. Or perhaps they knew what horrors were waiting for her when she arrived home and did not want to break her more.
08.
Rue forgot her eight birthday.
Or rather, forgot was the wrong word.
She ignored it.
There were more important things to tend to, like scavenging to try and get more food for her hungry siblings.
Getting older was no longer something she was interested in. It brought her one year one year closer to 12 years old when she could get Reaped.
09.
Rue ignored her ninth birthday as well.
She spent the day climbing teaching her siblings to climb trees in the orchard and showing them tricks for scavenging. They would have plenty of time to learn to sneak food back to the house this way.
When Rue and her three siblings came home to their mother and father and their two youngest children each with a piece of extra fruit, Rue received a long hard hug from her father and a kiss on the forehead from her mother.
10.
Rue watched the Reapings when she turned ten.
When the tributes were picked, she whistled a mourning song to the Mockingjays who repeated it all through District Eleven.
11.
Rue climbed the highest tree she could find on her eleventh birthday. It was her last safe Reaping. Next year she would be twelve and eligible to compete in the Hunger Games.
This was the one day she took for herself. The one time, the only time.
Rue worried about her family and what they would do if she was Reaped. What would happen if she was no longer there to provide food?
She perched up at the top for the majority of the day, dreading climbing down. Her punishment for missing a day of work would no doubt be severe.
12.
Rue followed the rest of the children in District 11 through the checkpoint and filed silently to her space.
"Now to pick the District Eleven tributes," the voice was shrill and rang through the dead silent square, "As always, ladies first."
Rue felt her heart flutter in her chest and her stomach sink.
For her twelfth birthday, Rue preferred to think her present was Katniss Everdeen.