Chapter 30:

Haruka Ruyle, District One, Age 16

Victor of the 105th Hunger Games

Haruka knows everyone has been waiting to hear just why she volunteered this year when One's victors couldn't get their act together and pick two volunteers they were happy condemning to death. And frankly? It's none of their damn business why she volunteered for the Games, none except for the siblings she's fought time and time again for. In the end, she's just doing what she's always been doing: making sure her family doesn't starve.

But oh, does she want to see the waves her proclamation would cause. To have the Capitol realize their beloved District One has its nasty ugly sides to it. It has its filth and crime and people it tries to hide underneath the gleaming beauty. Well guess what? No matter how hard they try to hide it from the world with their new training academy, they made a fatal mistake.

Haruka is here now and she's going to make sure they know exactly what District One has done to her family.

Luckily for her, she gets to be the very first interview. No waiting around, hoping the crowd will still be sober enough to remember her. She's the one being brought out first by whichever Flickerman the Capitol has managed to find. The poor other saps after her don't stand a chance at being remembered.

Standing in the wings of the stage, Haruka has never felt so unlike herself. She hasn't been this clean in years. She's never had makeup on her face – which she could really do without, she can't stand the feeling of not being able to rub her eyes. And the awful dress they put her in… She could almost vomit in disgust just thinking about it. This one dress probably cost more than her parents have made in an entire year. And yet, the Capitol made it for a single use to just get tossed away if she's one of the 21 that die, or kept in some basement of a museum if – no, when – she becomes victor.

It's sickening, all of it. Yet she willingly took part in this. No one made her volunteer. Well…not if you don't count the crushing poverty her family faces.

"It's time to hear from the girl that has kept us all mystified! Give it up for…Haruka Ruyle!"

Haruka doesn't smile or wave at the crowd cheering for her as she stomps out onto the stage. She has long lost the ability to pretend that everything is going to be alright if she just smiles. She just takes her seat without accepting the host's outstretched hand and puts a scowl on her face to hide the fact that having so many people staring and analyzing her is making her a little nervous. Put her in an alleyway trying to sell her body to eat that night? No problem. Put her on stage in front of the nation? No thanks.

"So Haruka, we've all been wanting to know more about you. Now, unlike the past couple of years, you're not a trained volun-"

"Doesn't mean I don't know how to defend myself," Haruka cuts them off, crossing her arms in an attempt to protect herself from their judgement. "In fact, I'd wager I know how to fight better than those rich bitches training."

Her comment gets some gasps of shock from the crowd, but the host doesn't let her comment effect their perfectly plastered on smile and botox filled face. "And how would one manage that? You're from District One, perhaps the safest District outside of the Capitol – well, barring Two but they have an unfair advantage with the Peacekeepers there!" Their aside gets the crowd laughing and Haruka's scowl deepens at the focus getting put on glorifying the Districts.

"Sure, it's safe," Haruka starts, her tone light despite the dark reality of her life in One. "If you're not living in the poorest part of the District like my family does where not even the Peacekeepers want to come through."

The crowd grows unsettlingly quiet at her comment, so she just keeps going. "Where you have to do whatever you possibly can just to keep your family alive for another day. You want to know how I learned to fight? It was to protect my twin brother as he was forced to go out every evening, looking for wealthier people he could sell his body to so we'd be able to eat that night. It was to protect myself when I had to do the same thing after our mother lost her job."

The crowd starts murmuring uncomfortably at this and the host's smile has begun to falter the slightest bit, letting Haruka know her plan is working. She hates begging for sympathy – which she's not doing. She's just conning those wealthier than her to give her money. She doesn't need their pity. She lost the ability to feel pity for herself years ago. This is simply the life she's been dealt and she's taking a shot at a different life. "I…wow, I'm sorry you have experienced that."

"Hey, it could be worse," Haruka says with a shrug, even though she knows she has experienced worse. "I could be one of the addicts selling dope to the wealthiest of the District, forced into addiction by those wanting to know for sure the dope was safe before they took it themselves." Thank whatever higher power there might be that she hadn't been forced into that. "Oh wait, that happened to my older sister who got started trying to get medicine when our father caught pneumonia. It took months to get her clean and it's why my brother got started."

The Flickerman's smile is completely gone at this point and they flounder for words. Haruka might have actually made a Flickerman speechless, that has to be some sort of accomplishment. In their silence, she keeps going, knowing she has limited time to make sure they want her to win. "You want to know why I volunteered and here's the reason. My family would starve every day with my parents both working if me and my siblings didn't go out there and work dangerous jobs, selling ourselves to the wealthy, all for a little bit of money. You learn to fight or you get taken advantage of. I'm tired of that life. All I want is a life of security for my family. That is why I'm here and going to win the Games."

Haruka stands up and leaves the stage before the buzzer goes off, done saying everything she has to say. The crowd is uncomfortably silent as she takes her seat and a few jump when the buzzer does go off and they start to give obligatory applause. Her eyes skim the crowd and she finds the mentors sitting there and for the first time since she stepped forward to that stage, she finds something other than distrust and contempt in the eyes of her supposed mentors. There's now pride and a fire there.

If she hasn't earned the Capitol's support, she at least has earned the support of the mentors and that has to mean something.

Whoops nearly forgot it was Wednesday again lol. Anyways, there's our rogue volunteer, Haruka Ruyle! I wanted to explore some of the darker sides of the Districts that are still there, even in the wealthiest, years after the second rebellion happened. And so we have Haruka! And I know, a chapter where I willingly wrote an interview, quite shocking XD But hey, it spices things up a bit with this and keeps it from getting monotonous lol.

Not much else I gotta say. Next week, we round out the trio of badass women that led the return of the careers!