Chapter 3

Ruby and Haymitch became friends. Soon after they met, he started finding things out about her that no one really knew. Things that made her so amazing, but since no one knew, it didn't ever count in her favor. Every week she took a portion of her dad's victory money and dropped it off at the orphanage. Every Sunday she went to the bakery and ordered pies and cakes to be delivered to what they called the old age home. It was just like an orphanage for old people. Each month she helped a different family in the Seam who desperately needed some or other help. Saturdays she disappeared, but Haymitch figured she spent all that time with her dad.

Haymitch eventually started walking with her to school, and went back to walk home with her in the afternoon. This forced him to get up in the mornings and make himself presentable. She made him a cake for his seventeenth birthday and started prepping him for his victory tour. Her dad was supposed to do it, but she's witnessed it enough times to know it too.

One Saturday, Rupert showed up on Haymitch's doorstep.

"So, I guess it's time to prep you for your victory tour."

Something confused Haymitch. "It's Saturday. Don't you spend Saturdays with Ruby… your daughter…?"

"I know Ruby is my daughter. I didn't know you were on first name basis with her."

"She didn't tell you that we're friends?" Haymitch asked.

"She doesn't really talk much. As a friend you should know that." Rupert spoke with subtle hostility.

"She talks to me." Haymitch said and showed Rupert into his house.

"Well, she's not at home. She's always out on Saturdays. She does some charity things."

"She does that on Sundays."

"Whatever. Do you want help?"

That Sunday, Haymitch asked Ruby about her whereabouts on Saturdays. She laughed it off and said she was just running home errands.

"What are you going to pose as your talent?" She asked, dismissing the conversation quickly.

"I have this idea to make a game." Haymitch said as he stared at his own bag of coins.

"A game?" Ruby was cautious about his idea.

"A money game. The only thing I'm good at is strategy. So I figured I could make something fun out of it. I figured this out, okay. I want to make a stack of similar looking cards of a range of ascending numbers. Not sure how many yet. Then people can get together, put money on a table, the cards will be handed out and each player ends up with five cards in their hands. The rest go in a neat pile in the middle. They have to take turns to pick up a card, and drop a card, in order to get better cards. The one with the first match of running numbers or similar numbers wins the money." Haymitch explained.

"Gambling's illegal." Ruby mentioned.

"Not in the Capitol."

A couple weeks later Ruby's disappearance on Saturday's really started bugging Haymitch. So he followed her. She got up in the morning, checked on her dad, who mostly slept during the day, and walked into town. She walked behind the school and snuck in a window. Haymitch waited for her to return but after a long time, he crawled into the same space and started looking for her.

He heard soft music and followed that until he ended up in the school hall, where he saw Ruby dancing. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen before. It was unlike any dance they'd ever done in 12. Or even things he'd seen in the Capitol or on TV. The music was a fusion of instruments and fun beats. He watched her dance and wondered even how any person was able to move and twist her body like that. He wondered where she had learned in the first place. It finally made sense how she could move so fast or jump over the rooftops.

Haymitch slowly stepped away and decided that she would tell him about her dancing once she's comfortable. He figured it was her way of venting. He decided that day that he was going to do everything in his power to help her with her dad. And to never be the cause of her stress and anger. She was too beautiful to break.