The Running Games

2.

Thomas recognized him immediately as the boy from this morning. The boy from the bakery that carried the flour on his shoulder, the one with the dusty blond hair and lean muscular build. And suddenly, that wasn't the only thing that he remembered about the blond. His stomach rumbled at the memory. 

It was engraved deep in his mind and would be something that he would never forget. It was winter one year and hadn't stopped raining for a week causing the prey to scurry and hide deep in their nests. Hunting was hard and prey was scarce which inevitably had led their family into total starvation. The mint tea that their mother had made for them to live on was slowly becoming a grotesque taste in his mouth and could only tie them over for so much longer. What he had worried about most was Kay, the young girl had always been thin, but the lack of food was slowly eating away at whatever body fat that she had left.

He had found himself rummaging through the trash in the market section of 12, hoping for any scraps that may have been tossed that morning but had found nothing. The baker's wife had just shooed him from their trash before returning inside muttering about the children of the Seam. He was so close to giving up when he was hunched over only yards away from the shop. He was so sure that he could feel his organs shutting down, too tired from the going weeks with only scraps of food, just enough to keep his body moving.

Then his eyes were immediately directed to the door over the bakery when the boy he now knew as Newt had stumbled out. He had three loaves of burnt bread in his hands and ripped one in half, tossing them into the pit that held the pigs. Thomas couldn't keep his eyes off of the bread, that much could keep his family going through the winter and his greedy eyes were giving him away. The blond head looked up toward him, then down to the bread. He took a quick look over his shoulder and tossed the loaves in Thomas's direction, the bread landed rain-soaked mud before Thomas scooped them up in his jacket.

He would never be able to explain where he got the warm bread from, they would be able to eat around the blackened edges and when he got home, or how the bread was actually warm and fresh. Not days old stale and cold. Though, it was something he would never forget. 

He couldn't find himself able to take his eyes off of Newt. Something else that he would never forget was the look of fear on Newt's face as he approached. He was rubbing what he could only assume were sweaty hands on the front of his jeans. What Effie said next, Thomas would never know, his ears were ringing in anticipation and the next thing he knew, he was being pushed into the capital building of 12. 

He was shoved into a room by himself, only containing a single chair and a small table which could only be described as a student's desk. Thomas just stared at the room, the only thing he could comprehend was the fact that his heart was beating out of his chest. What had just happened to him? What was he going to do? What about Kay? His mother? His hands were shaking as the door was thrust open again, and he spun around to see his mother and Kay walking in.

He bent down immediately, welcoming his sister into his embrace. He held her close, he was so sure that this was the last time that he would ever see her, hold her. 

"Thomas," she gasped desperately, pulling away from his hug. She had tears glistening in her eyes as she looked at him and he frantically wiped them off of her cheeks.

"You're going to be fine. Teresa will help you, Kay. Use your goat for milk and sell it in the Hob, but don't put your name in the tesserae for extra food, okay? It's not worth it." he tucked her hair behind her ear and held her chin up high. He knew he sounded like a broken record, but he had to make sure she knew that she could not risk her getting reaped in the next Hunger Games. 

"Promise me you'll try to win." she said quietly, and Thomas nodded, pulling her into another hug.

"Of course." he whispered into her ear, though he really had no idea how he would even manage to pull it off. He would try. He stood to meet his mother next and pulled her into a hug.