Eleven
Rue was awakened by five pairs of small hands shaking her, "RUE! RUE! RUE!" Her younger brothers and sisters squealed jumping on her small form covered by a threadbare blanket.
"Wha -" Rue sat up sleepily shaking her dark curls out of her face. "Oh - Merry Christmas, stinkers!" She giggled.
"YEAH, IT'S CHRISTMAS!" They cheered.
"KIDS! C'mon! I got breakfast for y'all!" Rue's mother called. "Gram cooked the grits already!" All six kids ran out of their room into the main room of their three room house. They gathered around the long wooden table as their grandmother ladled grits made out of the tesserae grain into bowls. Just then their father walked in carrying a burlap sack.
"I got a surprise for my babies!" He chuckled, his low laugh filling the small house. All six kids squeezed their eyes shut. When they opened them, they each had one whole orange next to their bowls.
"DADDY!" Rue squealed. "Thank you so much!" She hugged him around his middle as he patted her head. His mother served him some grits and he sat down with his family for their Christmas meal. They heard a knock on the door. Rue's father got up and opened it before someone whistled something resembling Rue's four note whistle.
"Thresh!" Rue squealed running to the door. "That wasn't even close!" She yelped playfully thumping him on the elbow. He chuckled and picked her up.
"I brought something for everyone." He said lifting up an enormous cloth bag. Rue and her siblings peered into the bag and gasped in awe.
"BLANKETS!" They cheered.
"The one on top is Rue's." Thresh announced. Rue pulled out a lavender blanket with a mockingjay stitched on it.
"Oh - Thresh - that's beautiful!"
"Ma stitched that for you." He said smiling. "My auntie had extra fabric." he explained. Rue hugged him. "Merry Christmas."
"Thresh, thank you so much, young man! You have a Merry Christmas!" Rue's mother said hugging him. He felt something being pressed into the palm of his hand.
"Rue?" He asked looking at the small carved bird on a leather strap.
"Wear it for me, ok?" She asked. Thresh nodded.
"Anything for you, little Rue." He said patting her gently on the head. Rue ran outside and whistled an old Christmas hymn that would be sung by the mockingjays throughout District Eleven as they shared their meager belongings and basked in each other's company and love.