Chapter 7: To Follow in her Sister's Shoes
Rosylin Ellison, District 11 Reaping Day
Nightmares haunted her dreams all night long. Morning came with relief until the truth dawned on her. It was reaping day. She had been dreading this day for months and it was finally upon her.
Her aunt Helena and her cousin Leanora were waiting for her in the small kitchen. They were chatting up a storm, and by that, they were arguing.
They had a very argumentative relationship, but at the end of the day, they still loved each other. Seeing them together always made Rose yearn for her own mother.
"Good morning Rosylin," Helena greeted her neice, "Would you like some coffee?"
"Who made it?" Rose asked, the answer would determine her decision.
"I did," Helena replied, Rose made a face. "Hey! My coffee skills aren't that bad."
"Ma, you're coffee skills are next to nothing," Leanora said as if she was breaking the news for the very first time. Yet all three of them knew that they had had that conversation before.
"Hmpf, see if I ever make coffee for you again."
"It wouldn't be a bad thing," Leanora uncrossed her legs and got up, "I think it's time for me to go, Erik's watching Rhea."
"I'll see you later then," Helena told her daughter. Rose said goodbye to her cousin and then headed for the backdoor herself.
"Don't forget the reapings are today," Helena called to Rose's retreating back.
"How could I forget?" Rose muttered to herself as she stumbled up the hill in the backyard. A tree stood tall and proud on the top, a small house had been built in the branches.
Rose swung herself up and climbed to the tree house, she settled on the roof of the house and tilted her face upwards. The sun shinned on her, she could feel freckles being made on her face.
"I miss you Casey," Rose said as she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She always felt closest to her sister when she was in or on the tree house. "I miss you too Dynami," she added as an afterthought. She didn't want her parents to feel left out so she said hello to them too. She was the only one left in her family, she had never felt so alone before.
Her aunt and cousin were great, but they weren't her mom and sister.
Leanora was in her twenties, she was safe from being chosen. She was married with a little daughter that she had named Rhea.
Rose would never had nieces and nephews, her siblings were dead. She was now an only child. An orphan.
Rose couldn't wait until she turned nineteen, when she no longer had to worry about being chosen at the reapings. But she was only fourteen, she still had several more years to go.
She was a year younger then Casey had been when she was marched off to her death. Casey would be sixteen today if she had survived, but she hadn't. Colten Henley from six had, much to everyone's surprise.
She knew that wherever Casey had ended up, she was ecstatic. Rose knew her sister, and Casey had wanted Colt to win if she couldn't. In the end, Casey had gotten her wish. But it came with consequences.
Rose headed into the tree house, she had built it with Dynami and Casey. Rather, Dynami had built it with Casey's help while Rose pointed out what they were doing wrong.
Forgotten toys were strewn about on the floor. A teddy bear with one eye missing and an ear chewed off was lying on a wooden chair. Rose picked it up and held it gently in her arms.
It had been hers, given to her by Casey. She had forgotten all about Mr. Bembleton. She lightly kissed his nose. A light wind blew through the window of the tree house. She sighed in contentment, it felt as if her siblings were with her, watching over her.
She thought she heard the wind say 'I miss you,' but she must have been imagining things. She hugged the bear close to her heart as she jumped down from the tree. She landed on all fours like the feral cats that ran rampage around the District. Rose had fondly named them, much to Aunt Helena's displeasure. Her aunt believed that once an animal was named, it was part of the family. And to be part of her family, they had to like her coffee. Even the cats were smart enough to stay away from that sludge.
Rose's favorite cat was an eight month old grey tabby that she had christened Cami. At the moment, Cami was rubbing her head on Rose's ankles.
Cami followed Rose to the square, she strutted through the crowd as if she owned them. She meowed at the residents, trying to get attention. Most of the time it worked. She only got kicked once.
"How'd you like it if I kicked you?" Rose asked the one guilty of the crime.
"How'd you like to whipped by the Peacekeepers?"
"Right, I'm sure you didn't mean to kick Cami," Rose said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. As much as she wanted to come up with a snappy comeback, she was rather afraid of the Peacekeepers. She had seen the finished product of their work, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Not like the wedding cakes in the bakery window display. She wanted to get married just for the cake.
Rose joined the other fourteen year old girls. Athena and Hera weren't there yet, but Rose wasn't worried, they believed in "the party doesn't start until we arrive" doctrine. Rose was more of the "the early bird gets the worm" variety.
She heard a familiar obnoxious laugh and turned to find her friends flirting with the boys in the fifteen section. She rolled her eyes as she headed over to drag her friends away.
"Excuse me," she said politely as she pushed her way through, "excuse me."
"Watch it," a boy growled at her, his voice low and menacing. They caught eyes, his were dark and hard, as if they had seen hell and survived. He looked familiar but she was certain that she had never seen him around before. She had to tear her eyes away and force her legs to move.
Athena beckoned her over.
"This is who I was telling you about, this is my other best friend, Rosylin," Hera said to the boys as she batted her eyes and playfully put her hand on the boy closest to her.
"Rose, this is Parquey," Athena introduced them. Rose wasn't as boy crazy as her two best friends were. She had seen what love had done to Casey and Colt. The death of her sister had devastated her, but it had been a whole lot worse for Colt. She never wanted to fall in love, for fear of watching him die like Colt had watched Casey.
Rose had wanted to meet him when he came to her District for the Victory tour, but she had never gotten a chance. Her District had been very welcoming towards him, and everyone had wanted to shake his hand. Not like District three, where they wanted to kill him on sight.
That Capitol girl What's-her-face was with him the whole time. Rose could tell that it was just an act, that he didn't really like her, even though she liked him. He would never love anyone like he had loved her sister.
They had locked eyes from across the stage, but that idiot Capitol girl distracted him before he connected the dots and figured out that Rose was Casey's younger sister.
"Rose," Athena hissed, tapping Rose.
"Huh?"
"Are you listening to me?"
"Of course I am."
"Liar. I've been calling your name for the past five minutes."
"I think it was only three," Hera put in. Athena glared at her, "okay, three and a half."
"Sorry Athena," Rose said lightly to her friend before turning to the boy that they were trying to hook her up with. "It was nice to meet you Parker, but we should get back to our section." She held out her hand for a shake. He ignored her.
"It's Parquey actually," he replied coldly, turning back to his own friends, leaving her hanging.
She shrugged but led her friends back to their proper section. And not a moment too soon.
They stood through the mayor's awful speech in the hot dreadful sun. She wasn't sure which was worse, the sun or the speech.
Before she knew it, it was time for two names to be picked. Rose gripped Athena's right hand and Hera's left.
"Rosylin Ellison."
"WHAT?" Athena and Hera burst out together, Rose personally agreed with them, but she was too shocked to say anything.
Rose was pushed up to the stage where she waited for the boy to be chosen.
"Berk Boyle."
The boy who had yelled at her early pushed his way forward. Boyle, as in Richard Boyle's brother. No wonder he had seemed so familiar. Casey had taken Richard under her wing, and he had died during the blood bath. Rose was pretty sure she wouldn't be taking Berk under her wing. At least she wasn't totally following in her sister's footsteps. As much as she loved her sister, she hated copying her.
A long time ago, Rose's favorite color had been blue, then Casey decided that blue was her favorite color, so Rose changed her favorite color to green.
But something fishy was going on. An Ellison and a Boyle had been chosen again. Rose had never been one to believe in coincidence. There were no volunteers to save either of them. She was not surprised.
She had been to the Justice building last year to say goodbye to Casey, now she was going there so others could say goodbye to her.
"Too bad you won't get another chance with Parquey, he's really hot," Athena chattered as if things were normal and Rose wasn't headed off to the slaughter house like a condemned pig. She always spewed out randomness when she was scared or nervous.
"Athena," Hera scolded, "stop that."
"It's fine," Rose tried to sound brave, she wasn't sure how well she had succeeded. She shouldn't be reassuring them, they should be comforting her, telling her that it would be okay. But she didn't want to be lied to. It wasn't going to be all okay.
"We'll miss you," Hera sniffed as if Rose was just going on a quick vacation and would be back in a week.
Aunt Helena didn't have much to say.
"Who's going to drink my coffee now?" she wondered aloud.
"No one drinks it anyway."
"The plants do," Leanora pointed out as she tried to pull Rhea's hands off of her hair.
"Can I hold her one last time?" Rose held out her hands for her baby cousin. Rhea squealed in delight.
"She's going to miss you so much," Leanora said with tears brimming in her eyes, "who's going to watch her now?"
"Athena?"
"I'd never see Rhea alive again," Leanora laughed, causing the tears to trickle down her face. Rose wanted to laugh as well, but she couldn't force herself to make the foreign sound. She hadn't really laughed in a year, not since Casey had been taken from her.
There was a round of hugs and Rose joined Berk on the train.
There was a succulent feast of roasted pork, apple scallop stuffing, warm lemon butter sauce, field greens with a bacon balsamic dressing and a casserole of many vegetables that Rose had never seen before.
"They don't make food like this in eleven," Rose said between bites of the delicious apple scallop stuffing. Now she knew why they called it stuffing, because that was exactly what she wanted to do to her stomach, stuff it up with the apple dish.
"My mom does," Berk shot back. Rose regretted trying to make conversation with him. He wasn't a pleasant person. Why did Casey get to go with Richard while Rose was stuck with Berk? Life had never been fair to Rose.
"Lucky, my aunt can't cook to save her life," Rose gave a small smile, "although, she can cook to end my life."
He didn't get the joke, she hadn't expected him to.
The television was turned on and the reapings were shown. Typical reapings with typical tributes. Strong and weak ones, pretty and ugly ones, mean and nice ones, excited and scared ones, tall and short ones. Tributes of all ages, sizes and personalities. They were a melting pot of children. Strangers soon forced to be enemies. Rose didn't know their names and yet she was already planning their deaths.
It was the tributes of twelve that caught her eye. Most of the time, twelve put out the weakest, the two most likely to die in the bloodbath. But not this time, not these two. Jewel and Tod would make it past the bloodbath.
Jewel was pretty, not as pretty as Belle from last year, but pretty enough to get at least a sponsor or two. Sponsors could make or break the tribute's time in the arena. Jewel looked to be about Rose's age, maybe younger, but she emerged from the eighteen year old section. She looked sweet and innocent, as if she had never even killed a spider before. Jewel looked to be the type of girl who would trap the spider and release it outside only to have the spider come back inside the next day and have to repeat the trap and release.
Rose sized the boy up. Nash Hadler had been called, but Tod Hadler had volunteered in his place. Tod was seventeen, very tall and sort of muscular.
He was cute for a Twelve.
There had been several volunteers this year, and it made her regret not volunteering for Casey last year. If Rose had been chosen first, Casey would have definitely volunteered. Casey had always been the better sister.
To follow in her sister's shoes, Rose had to fall in love, the one thing that she didn't want to do.
Trivia Question: Who said "Don't be such a Debbie Downer."
The answer to the previous trivia is: Leo said "how about we both jump" he said it in chapter 7
Review Please
~*Misty*~
