[Author's Notes: The story is about young Timotheus Sinterguth (background of the name to be explained later on in the story), member of a very rich and influential family, establishing a residence and research site in Panem's poor suburb 'District 12'. He is going to meet a very special girl called Rue, and her situation calls for his attention. Above and beyond that, I am mixing in aspects of modern real life, such as ecological farming, green energy and such. The "T" rating is not even required for the first few chapters, but there is a romance coming (much) later.
Some names and places are taken from the Hunger Games books, but the story is AU with an OC as the main male character. In this story, the districts are not so far from each other and more like suburbs of a big city called Panem.
There is a little bit of 'Everlark' going on, but only in the background. If you want to find a full Everlark romance/relation story, you'd better look elsewhere.
Disclaimer and acknowledgments: Some background and specifically some character names and traits are taken from the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Without the background and inspiration provided by the author, this story would not have been possible. In addition, I have also been inspired by some other fanfiction stories:
"When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun" by Mejhiren
"Alone in a Crowded Room" by wollaston
"The Bucket List" by Meadowlark27
and specifically: "Do Not Go Gentle" by Dracoisalooker76
ending Author's Notes]
Chapter 1: My new residence in District 12
The complex was probably the most modern and expansive one District 12 had ever seen. A large mansion with underground parking, an adjacent office and lab building, and a huge mixed forest and farming area had all been purchased and built over the last 12 months in record time, right at the end of the main road leading here from the center of Panem. Looking south, the city lights were visible in the distance, but looking north, one could almost believe to be 'in the middle of nowhere', with meadows and forests sloping up to the mountain range.
Well outside of the city, we had access to lots of nature, but we could get into the city within half an hour by car. This being District 12, long neglected and inhabited almost exclusively by poor people, there was a train stop further down, a single bus line and a few school bus stops, and most locals tried to make their living inside the district. The district had an area called the 'Merchant's quarter' with a butcher, a baker, some other shops, and most of the not quite that poor citizens living. There was also the 'Seam', with most of the really poor people living in small houses, huts, and shacks. Electricity was available in the Merchant's quarter, but only part of the Seam. Most Seam houses also did not have public water supply. Overall, the Seam looked not much better than some Slum area in other cities, although the residents there at least seemed to keep their area clean.
The Seam was one of the reasons I had settled here. My family was very rich and ran a huge set of companies, and part of the family riches were used for non-profit purposes via a foundation. The 'Sinterguth Foundation' aimed at supporting activities for the benefit of humanity as a whole (such as green energy) and for the poorer part of the population (like getting access to clean water for everybody). Recently, the company's board of directors, headed by my grandfather, had selected the Seam of district 12 as a place for a research site and support facility, and I had volunteered to lead the operation. Although I had only just passed my 21st birthday, my grandfather had entrusted the whole operation to me, and I was both proud of his confidence and determined to not disappoint him.
On this fine day end of April I could finally move in, being on my own. Since the day of my birth I had always had family around me, during kindergarten, school, and university time (all in the city of 'Seeburg' my family was headquartered in), and now I was directing activities here on my own. Of course, I had some support team. First there was the Miller family, who was going to run the house and garden; they were living in a separate apartment in the mansion itself. Second, there was my director of operations, who would help me to get things organized, and third I had an experienced farmer to govern the field and farming experiments. Later on I planned to hire a forester and/or hunter for further working the forest, and long term I wanted to provide work for some local residents as well.
While I was proudly watching my new mansion (grandfather insisted that I live in style) gleaming in the bright sunshine, the school bus had stopped a few hundred meters away down the road, at its final destination. From here, the Seam kids would have to walk to their homes mostly along unpaved roads, while the Merchant kids had been dropped one stop earlier. A small blonde girl, whom I had noticed before a few times, passed by the entrance to my property and stopped, looking like in awe. On a whim I decided to greet her, walked over and said hello. I almost expected her to move on and be shy, but far from it – she kind of jumped up and down and said very excitedly: "Oh, hi, my name is Primrose, but everybody calls me Prim."
I smiled and replied: "Pleasure to meet you, Prim – my name is Timotheus, and if you like, you can call me Tim". Normally, I did not like to be called 'Tim' but rather preferred my full name, but somehow I wouldn't mind if she called me 'Tim'. Also, most adults would have introduced themselves with their last names, but not me.
She beamed: "Is that where you're going to live, Tim? Isn't that a real huge house?"
I smiled back and told her: "Yes, this is where I am going to live, and it is indeed a huge place. But this is not just a place of residence, but also a research facility, and quite a few people are going to work here." And, as I liked her way, I added: "Prim, if you'd like to see the inside of the house, you can visit me sometime next week when I am settled; I'd be honored to show you around!"
She looked at me with her bright blue eyes like I was joking: "Are you serious about that? I can really come in?"
I nodded and confirmed, and she happily told me: "I will sure be looking forward to next week! But now I need to run home so that my sister is not getting worried – Bye!"
For a few minutes I watched her running uphill into the Seam area, with the tail of her blouse hanging out of her skirt, and I somehow felt happy – it looked like I had found a friend.
When I woke up in the next morning, I first wondered for a moment where I was, before I remembered that this had been the first night in my new house. I stretched and got up to open the curtains; some snow capped mountain tops were not far and greeted me, and I liked that view. The mountains were rich in coal, and I knew that a lot of Seam men worked in the coal mines owned by a Mr. Snow. I had heard rumors that safety standards were sometimes ignored there, but of course there wasn't any hard evidence. As a long term goal I envisioned to reduce the area's dependency on coal and have more people use green energy instead, but that also implied that we'd have to find other jobs for them. Well, I could not address all issues on the first day, and thus I decided to have breakfast first. After a shower, I dressed and went down to the ground floor, where Mrs. Miller already had my morning meal ready.
When my stomach was sufficiently filled, I moved out of the house and walked over to the main operations and research building, which housed the offices. At this time, only my director of operations, Mr. Haymitch Abernathy, was employed here. I had hired him against the recommendation of some people, knowing that he was frequently drunk. However, I also had been told that he was a brilliant organizer and knew the area and the local residents like almost nobody else. With that in mind, I had given him a contract and told him that he needed to be more or less sober at least during work hours. He had first hesitated, but when I had outlined some of the projects in had in mind here and he consequently realized to what extent the Seam population could benefit from it, his ambition was fueled and he promised to cut back on his alcohol consumption. He was supposed to hire a few locals to work here together with a few experts to come in from our family headquarters, and I was curious to see how that would work out. He confirmed that he was ready to work: "Boy, just give me a few days, and I'll find the right people to work for us." He had the habit of calling me 'boy', but as he could well be my uncle, I did not mind, and I was actually glad that we had been able to get adjusted to each other quickly, cooperating nicely over the last days and weeks at least.
Taking my leave from him, I moved out of the building again to check the farm area. Accessible via a narrow paved road, the main farmhouse was, together with car park and barns, located in the midst of some fields, about fifteen minutes of walking from my mansion. Most of the fields were not yet in use, and there was plenty of space between them for bushes, tress, and hedges. Walking along the road, one couldn't avoid to see various birds populating those bushes and hedges, and some larger birds (hawks I guessed) circling high up in the air. A professor of agriculture at my home town university had strongly advertised the bushes between fields, as the birds at home there would help immensely with fighting bugs, caterpillars, and insects threatening the harvest. This should allow to minimize the amount of pesticides which needed to be applied (I wanted to get it down to zero, but did not yet know if this was a realistic goal).
When I got to the farmhouse, I was greeted by Mrs. Brown and guided inside. Her family (Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown, and one daughter) had already settled in, and I discussed near term plans with them. They'd need a few farmhands and some more equipment, and I encouraged them to get things rolling and have Haymitch hire the help they needed. A few days ago we had already discussed some guidelines on what to grow on the fields. Emphasis was going to be on whatever was growing nicely in the climate here (cold winters, lots of precipitation) and what could help to nourish people who could not afford to spend a lot of money on fancy food. Wheat and rye was on the table, together with some vegetables like zucchini or beans and also herbs and spices. Mr. and Mrs. Miller had done similar experiments before in another area, and their daughter Camilla, who had just started to attend university, actually wanted to major in modern agriculture. I had promised her right away that she'd have a job here after graduation and could even work in between.
On another side of the farming area there was an open field which was not supposed to used for farming, but rather for windmills and wind generators. The wind turbines had not yet arrived, though, but there were plans to experiment with different kinds of turbines and rotor blade systems plus with methods of energy storage. Finally, the farm also bordered an expansive forest, which was also part of my property. At some later time, I planned to have some experts find out which trees were best suited for this climate zone, resistant enough against bugs, and which plants growing in the forest might be able to assist in nurturing people. I would get back to that part at a later time, as I first needed to get the main facility started. I might have to think about building a fence around the forest once I wanted to get specific operations started in there; right now it was open to everybody, and Haymitch had told me that some Seam residents probably went in there for hunting and picking berries and such. There even were a few lakes in the forest, and I wanted to find out later if there were some fish in them.
Thus, all together, we had four main areas: Mansion and main facility close to the main road, the farming area behind, an open area on some kind of plateau for later use (wind energy and such), and finally the big forest, bordering on the Seam area. The unpaved road into the Seam branched off the main road not far from my mansion, whereas the Merchants's Quarter was adjacent to the main road further down, a little closer to the city center.