Ash Roark (D7)
Ash Roark almost hated cutting the lumber. It left the annoying scars on his hand that wouldn't go away, and caused the girls to sneer at his hands whenever he tried to talk to them, but it was a job, an honest job, and so he kept with it. But today he didn't really to worry about the lumber; it was a reaping day and everyone had off from work. But he wanted to make sure Holly Sornely and her son Oakly, better known as Okie, had plenty of firewood should he be reaped at the Quarter Quell. There would only be one more Quarter Quell after this one and he would no longer have to worry about such a thing. He could be like his older brother Alder, who, at twenty-three, had long since worried about the reaping and was now raising a small family nearer to the center, which the District Seven people had dubbed the square. Only the business people who ran the shops that kept the district going lived near and in the square, everyone else who worked in the lumber yards and paper mills lived outside, nearer to the woods, and closer to their jobs. Alder had made himself somewhat of a business man and had moved to the outside of the square very shortly after the brother's father Birch had died at work, by being crushed by logs. It was a common occurrence for District Seven to lose loved ones to accidents at the lumber yards, just as, Ash supposed, it was to District Twelve and the coal mines.
"Ash, Ash, ASH!" Came a call from the distance. Little Okie, as Ash called him, came running towards the older boy. Okie was a short boy of thirteen years who wore large wire rimmed glasses-which Ash wasn't so sure he needed- on his nose, and had brown hair that stood up at odd ends. Okie looked up to the older boy and had been following him around from a young age, after his mother Holly had started taking care of Ash when she found him wondering around on his own.
"Okie, how many times do I have to tell you, never yell or startle a person when they're chopping lumber? You never know what could happen." Ash scolded the younger boy gently. He could never yell at Okie, no matter what the boy did, partly because of his mother, and partly because he generally liked the young boy, although Okie had the tendency to become annoying. Ash's ability to stand the young boy could be the major reasoning behind Okie's hero worship to Ash, but with Okie you never knew. He was a lot like Ash's friend Juniper Cleff in the way that both of their personalities had the tendency to turn weird and were not accepted by the general public.
Okie shuffled his feet and hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry Ash, I forgot."
"It's alright. Now what did you want?"
Okie perked up and jumped up and down. "Mother said she had both of our reaping outfits ready, she said to come on to her house. Juniper is coming over to, after she's ready. She's gonna go with us to the reaping!"
Ash smiled. Sometimes he was sure the young boy had a crush on his friend, but the boy always denied such "accusations", and would shoo Ash away.
"She made me a reaping outfit?" It was tradition among all the districts for everyone to look their best on the Quarter Quells. After all, the reapings were broadcasted across Panem and everyone had to attend and watch the reapings. Everyone wanted to show the worth of their districts.
"Of course, she wanted to make sure her boys looked their best, that's what she said!"
Ash smiled. There was a lot he owed Ms. Holly Sornely, more than he could count.
Luna Ricci (D7)
Luna Ricci smiled as she left the bakery, her part time job, and dashed away to find her friends and her grandfather. They said they would meet her near the square, the center of the district, and would walk with her to the Quarter Quell. She hoped heavily that neither of her friends, Seamus and Damion, would be reaped, and she knew that her grandfather was heavily glad that this was the last year that she would have to have her name in the reaping.
Her grandfather was the only family she had, and as such, she was the only family he had. His wife had died when Luna was three, and although Luna could not remember her well, she knew from her grandfather's stories that Maybelline Ricci had been a great and strong woman who had never taken "no" for an answer, and had worked her bones to the ground for her family, making sure there was food to be had and that the house had always smelled like fresh bread.
"That", Adam Ricci, Luna's grandfather, would tell her, "is where you got your love of baking for. It sure as Hell wasn't from your mother, rest her soul, she couldn't bake a thing, but my son did right in picking her as a bride, never did trust her cookin' tho."
Luna's parents had died when she was ten, by an accident at the lumber yards, leaving her with no siblings and only an old grandfather to take care of her. Although Adam Ricci was old, he was sixty years old and had been working hard his entire life, to the point where most people died because their bodies could no longer take the strain any longer, he was by no means incapable of taking care of his young granddaughter. He worked hard, making sure she never had to take a tesserae, and made sure she was able to go to school and get the education he never had time for, and although she had taken a job at a bakery for extra money, it was not as if they could not get by on what he made, he was among the top at one of the lumbering company, but Luna could never feel right not helping her amazing grandfather out.
"There she is." Seamus said as she found them.
"Thought you fell asleep in a tree again." Damion laughed at her, in one of his good moods. Luna hoped it would last so that she wouldn't have to knock some more sense into him. He was hard headed that one, and made Luna feel like mother more than a few times in a week.
"I brought bread from the bakery for everyone!" Luna smiled at them, holding the pieces of apple butter bread out to everyone. Just because they had to attend the Quarter Quell, it didn't mean they couldn't go without smiles on their faces and good food in their stomachs.
Adam Ricci looked at the bread. "Did the O'Leary's let you have that?"
Luna nodded. "She said it was a thank you for working so hard."
"Are you sure it's not because Mrs. O'Leary is still sweet on Gramps here?" Damion said, biting into the delicious bread. Adam smacked the young boy across the back of his head, hating the nickname and the accusations coming from the boy.
"Mrs. O'Leary is a married woman. She don't have those thoughts in her head." And even if she did, and even if she was single, nothing would come of it. Adam Ricci had found and lived a life with his one love, and the only female that held a place in his heart now was his beautiful granddaughter, and one day he'd have to give her away to some boy who would never be good enough for her. He kissed Luna on the forehead. "I will see you later, honey bee. I have to go find a place in the crowd for the reaping. Boys, don't you let her be late. If the peacekeepers give her trouble, you two will be hearing from me." It was never clear whether or not Adam Ricci liked Luna's two friends, but he at least put up with their presence, and for that, no one asked many questions about his opinions on them. He was an old man who didn't censure himself in the thought of others. And Damion and Seamus were scared of what the man might say.
The trio started walking towards the center of the square where the reaping would take place. The bread was gone quickly and the boys thanked her.
"I want the Quarter Quell to end quickly. I can't stand the speeches they say every year." Damion said, twitch his nose. Seamus nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself as he often did. "I hope the Freeland twins get reaped this year. If they could both die in the games, that would be great. Then we wouldn't have to deal with any idiotic offspring the two would have."
Luna stopped in her tracks. "Don't say such things! You shouldn't want anyone to be reaped, that's horrible and you know it! What if someone wanted your sister reaped? You'd try to punch them out." Luna scolded him. Damion was one to say hateful things. He wasn't a hateful person in the strictest terms, but he was straightforward and honest, a lot like her grandfather, and sometimes he needed someone to censure, and more often than not, Luna was the one doing it.
"I know you can't stand Sycamore and Daisy Freeland either, he's a jerk and she's an idiot. If those two ever had children, we'd be doom!"
"Damion!"
Ash Roark (D7)
Ash fiddled with the tie Holly had gotten for him. She had gone crazy with what she had made and bout for Ash and Okie. She had made black pants and bought silk to make their shirts out of, an expensive material not many outside of the capital could afford, and bought silver colored ties for the two to wear. When Ash had complained about the expense she had cost herself, she had waved him away.
"You work so hard and do so much, you deserve to wear something nice at least once in your life. Just wait for the day you get married, I'm going to make sure it's the greatest wedding District Seven has seen." Ash worried sometimes that Holly forgot he was a boy, and not a girl, but she did so much, he could live with what she did. He could only hope that one day he could pay her back.
The door open and Juniper entered. She wasn't a beauty in any real sense of the word people usually thought of, but she wasn't ugly either. She often called herself plan, and said it was a wonderful thing to be, but Ash always believed her to be special in her own way. She didn't stand out with beauty, although her personality made her a far cry different from everyone else, but her auburn hair that hung low along her back, and dark green eyes glittered in the light. She had slight curves that many boys had made references to at school, none of which Ash had liked, and he made extra care to take care of her. She was like a sister after all, no matter what Holly tried to say.
"Here, let me help you." Juniper said, taking his tie in her hands. She started folding and twisting it in ways that Ash couldn't follow. "It's funny. Boys wear the ties, but girls always tie it. Why don't girls were the ties then, and the boys wear something they don't have to tie?" Juniper always asked weird questions that no one answered.
"Are you ready for the Quarter Quell?"
"No one's ever ready, Ash, but I ready to see the outcome."
"Just one more Quarter Quell and we won't have to worry about it."
"We'll always have to worry about it Ash. We'll worry about our friends like Okie who still must go through it, we'll worry about our children when they come. And then our children's children."
"It'll be a long time before any of us have to worry about our children."
Juniper stilled in the tying process, but it was so slight and quickly over, that Ash didn't notice. "Some of us sooner than we think."
Ash looked at her oddly. "Did you find someone Juniper?"
"You don't remember, that's fine. It won't matter for awhile longer."
"Juniper?"
"Guys, come on, let's go!" Okie said, throwing the door open.
Ash laughed. "Okay, okay, we're coming."
Luna Ricci (D7)
Luna was among the few people that listened to the speech made by the capital man. She always listened because it was their history, no matter how sad it might be. She listened close when names were called year after year because someone ought to remember them, more than just their family, and she thought she might as well do it. Maybe one day she could do something so that all the tributes of District Seven could be remembered by, but for now, she would remember them and hope that would be enough. The way they called names, boy or girl, would change year to year. This year the girls were called first.
"Luna Ricci!"
Luna felt herself weaken slightly. She was leaving. She was going to be in the Hunger Games. She walked to the stage, knowing she was walking towards what could just possibly be her death, and she wished it wasn't so, but looking back at the families in the crowd, she was glad some young girl wasn't going in her place. Damion and Seamus stared up at her from their place in the crowd and both had looks of worry. She wanted to tell them it would be okay, she would make them proud. She found her grandfather's eyes in the crowd and smiled. She would make him proud as well. She would. Die or survive, she would let them feel proud that they knew her, and she would make the district feel pride in themselves. No use in fearing her death; she should feel happy that she could do something for others.
Ash Roark (D7)
Ash waited for the boys to be called. After this they could go home and celebrate not being reaped and not losing a loved one. Just one name and they would be free this year.
"Oakly Sornely!" The capital person called.
Ash's face drained of color. He saw Okie gulp and start towards the stage. Okie was only thirteen, he had never trained for the games, and he was so small and weak. He wouldn't last long in the games. He thought of Holly and all she had done for him. She was like a mother to him; his own mother having died of an illness when he was younger. Holly had fed him when his father had died and his brother had left, she had let him sleep in her house when it was freezing outside. She had watched over him, gave him advice when he had needed it, and made him feel whole again after he felt abandoned by the world. She had given so much to him; it was time for him to give her something back.
He stepped forward and pushed Okie back into the crowd gently."I volunteer!"
Some chapters are bigger than others because of what I can do at that moment, so don't feel like I hate your tributes if their chapters are short.
xLostStar and ArdentheVampire, I hope you like your characters have started out. I really do!
