Rosemary

Bread and circuses.

Rosemary was fascinated by etymology. Words had meaning, they had weight, and they had emotion. They had the power to unite, to destroy, to inspire, and to harm. Words, language, human communication; it was one thing that every single person in Panem had in common.

Most importantly, words created knowledge and Rosemary had always, always had a thirst for knowledge.

She was three when her father taught her how to read. Sage Mellark always liked to brag on his daughter, how his middle child had begun to read before anyone else in her age group. She was three and all of a sudden, she knew the letters of the alphabet, knew how to string together the words she had picked up from her family's vocabulary, and knew how to keep going. She was three and she could read better than her brother, two years older, and was soon helping him stumble through short storybooks that they loaned from the small library on the square.

Rosemary was five when it was discovered by her first teacher that she could remember almost everything that she had ever read. She could remember a recipe from one of her father's cookbooks, she could remember how to subtract and add like her brother's textbook told her, she could remember every single word of her favorite book, The Discovery of Stars. She was five when her parents realized that Rosemary couldn't just hear something and remember it, but she had to physically read it in order for that information to stay permanently. She could forget where she set her toothbrush the night before (where it always was, settled next to her brothers' in the bathroom), but she couldn't forget the hundredth number of pi.

Throughout the years, she read her way through hundreds of books on various topics, even the boring manuals in the library that had to be at least a thousand years old. In fact, she had to slow down her reading by the time she was eligible for the Reaping, as it seemed that the modest amount of forbidden books kept in the basement under the family bakery had run out, and so had the library's selection of non-banned books. So, she focused on other things, other hobbies.

Rosemary was ten when she found the book in her basement that told her all about etymology, about how language was created and how it changed throughout time. Mostly, she loved the meaning behind names. Onomatology. Her name, her neighbor's name, one of the Victors from District 5's name, and even President Snow's name.

Coriolanus–A victorious battle named after an ancient general across the ocean.

This curiosity, her hobby, led her to the meaning of Panem's name. Bread and circuses.

She always thought the name fit, especially if one studied the last few decades that the Capitol called their "peaceful era". Each year, for the past seventy years, there would be Panem's circus, the Hunger Games. And each year, the Capitolites gorged themselves on the food that the Districts provided them, watching as Tributes (that the Districts provided them) became murderers or the murdered. Bread and circuses were certainly something that was familiar.

Rosemary had never been to a circus, nor had she ever heard of such a spectacle outside of the Hunger Games during each summer. Bread, however, took up a huge place in her life.

-

With all her strength, Rosemary heaved the heavy pan of pastries out of the cooling rack. The pan was still warm but it didn't bother her, her hands were very much used to the heat that came with living and working in a bakery. She inched around Rye, who was busy pulling another huge tray out of the oven, and carefully set the tray on her station, taking up the only empty spot amongst the loaves of bread that were waiting to be cut.

"Peeta?"

"Coming, coming!" Peeta, four years younger and a head shorter than her, easily picked up the tray and swept through the swing door that separated the kitchen from the front counter where their mother was waiting very impatiently.

Rosemary paused for a second as the door swung in the frame, picking up her mother's harsh tones aimed at her brother. After Capri Mellark's voice reached a certain decibel, Rosemary usually had to step in. She heard Peeta say something but it didn't seem to cause any reaction that had their mother's voice getting any louder.

She picked up her favorite bread knife (the handle was a pretty blue color and worn around her grasp) and started slicing cautiously, keeping an eye on the door, watching to see if Peeta lingered any longer. She had finished the wheat loaf, cutting it in perfect, precise slices, when Peeta came in, empty tray in hand, and an annoyed scowl on his face.

"We're not allowed to leave until everything's done," he stomped over to his table, where he had previously been decorating one of the case cakes, and slumped onto his stool.

"Well, these are done," Rye tried to cheer him up, gesturing to the last tray of pastries. "You and I can help Rosie finish up and we can nip out of here. Maybe we won't be late for morning announcements."

Rosemary rolled her eyes and started cutting another loaf, separating the last few evenly so her brothers could help her out. They hardly ever got to hear the morning announcements; the only reason they didn't get in trouble was because of the muffin they would present to the principal when they checked in.

Peeta sighed and pulled up a stool next to Rosemary's station, taking another knife in hand. "I hate missing morning announcements."

Rosemary hid her smile, recalling the reason Peeta loved getting to school early enough for announcements. "Here," she took the knife from him, set it down carefully, and took the loaves from him. "Go get Dad. He'll reason with her."

Peeta perked up with a smile and stumbled off the stool. "I'll be back!"

Rye took his place and picked up the knife. "I'll talk to Mom this afternoon and tell her that I'll stay in the morning and you guys can get to school on time."

"You've tried that before," Rosemary pointed out, methodically slicing through the bread. It was rather relaxing, keeping her anxiety at bay whilst talking about Capri.

"The school year's almost done and then I'll be working here full time anyway," Rye stated. "I'll convince her this time. I promise."

Rosemary smiled slightly at her brother; he never broke his promises. "All right, then."

-

The three Mellark children were late again for school, but thanks to their father's interference, they caught some of the morning announcements. There wasn't much to know anyway, just a few reminders for students as the year started coming to an end.

Each class at school, which usually consisted of the same twenty kids Rosemary had been in class with since their first year when they were originally split up into five groups, kept in the same classroom with the same teacher the whole day. In between each subject, the students would have a few minutes break to go to the bathroom or get water from the tap and then they'd move on.

It was during the break between math and history that Rosemary heard whispers of her name. It came from behind her, where she shared a desk with her best friend, and knew just from the giggles that followed the comment that Aggy Newton was trying to make her cry again.

"I'm surprised she's actually here today," Aggy whispered to her two desk friends as Rosemary clenched her fists, her blunt nails digging into the newly-healed skin of her palm. "She's got flour in her hair again. Can you imagine? The poor baker girl, she can't even wash her hair–"

From beside her, Kline Cartwright spun around in her seat and hissed, "Would you just shut up? Not that it's any of your business, Saggy, but Rosemary already knows all this shit anyway. You, on the other hand, couldn't solve the area of a fucking triangle."

Rosemary had to try her absolute best not to laugh, but unfortunately, her shaking body and huffing breaths couldn't hide her amusement. "Kline."

She didn't want Kline to have to write lines again for cussing. Their teacher really didn't like Kline and disciplined her daily for small things that their peers got away with.

"Listen to your girlfriend, Cartwright," Aggy sneered, her glittering eyes letting Kline know that her insult caused something within her. She spat a slur at Kline that had most of their peers around them gasping in offense.

"Wow, homophobia in this day and age? What are you, two centuries old?" Kline snapped back at her as their teacher started walking over, having heard the conversation. "Didn't know sexuality bothered you so much."

Rosemary, who had whipped around to face the confrontation with everyone else, glared at Aggy. Aggy, a fairly popular girl who had many friends, was not used to such hostile glares thrown at her from every which way.

Homophobia, or any judgment about sexuality was a very old, very conservative point of view that mostly died out. Even most of the rich Capitolites didn't give any care to such things and were free of the taboo that was taught about in history books. Rosemary, personally, didn't care or think about sex too much, at least not in the way her peers did, and she certainly didn't care about who was having sex with who. In the Capitol, she did think that sex mattered a little too much and not in particularly good ways;  the way they dressed and lusted after underage Tributes during the Hunger Games and let sexual crimes go without punishment throughout Panem was indication enough.

"That's enough, Miss Newton," their teacher shut down the conversation with a firm tone. Shockingly, he was taking Kline's side. "I want you to go down the hall and enter in-school detention. You'll be getting zeroes for all assignments today."

Aggy gasped wetly and gathered her stuff. The students, including Rosemary and Kline, watched her silently as she left the room in a huff. Sure, Aggy was popular and she had a lot of friends, but most of the people in District 12, especially their generation, were morally sound citizens who cared about one another.

Their teacher turned around and stomped over to his desk, looking much grumpier than he ever did with Kline's usual classroom antics. He picked up his notebook and almost ripped the page as he turned to his next lesson plan.

"It's May, so we're going to go over the Hunger Games. Get your pencils and paper out."

This had been a lesson that, at her age (she was the youngest of her class, only two weeks younger than Kline) , Rosemary knew by heart. Not only did they have a unit over it every year, but she had read all the books she had access to on the subject.

The creation of Panem. The Dark Days. The Treaty of Treason. The Hunger Games. The Tributes. The Victors.

They all knew. But it didn't matter; each year, the Capitol made them painstakingly cover the violent history of Panem, paying particular attention to the Hunger Games.

With a silent sigh, Rosemary put the dull tip of her pencil against her paper and waited for their teacher to start the lesson.

The Hunger Games were only enjoyed by certain types of people. The people who lived in the Capitol (Capitolites, government officials, Peacekeepers, and Gamemakers), and some of the volunteer Tributes coming out of the career districts, Districts 1, 2, and 4. Otherwise there was talk, from whispered conversations Rosemary sometimes overheard from her father, Mr. Cartwright, and Mayor Undersee, that the other districts were just as unimpressed with sending two of their own children out for slaughter every year as their own district.

No one could speak aloud about their distaste. There were cameras and microphones everywhere, with Peacekeepers ready to storm in and execute traitors of the Capitol within a blink of an eye. People like her father or Mayor Undersee took great lengths to not be overheard by the spyware tech provided to the Capitol and the districts from District 3, but sometimes, some of them were caught. Rosemary's aunt, on her father's side, had been executed for this crime when Sage was Rye's age.

When you turn twelve before the cut-off date of July 3rd, one's name is put into the lottery of all the other children in the district. The older you are, the more your name is in the running. The poorer you were, the more your name was in the running. In 70 ATT (after the Treaty of Treason), at the age of sixteen, Rosemary's name was in the lottery five times. The situation was different for her brothers. Peeta, who was turning twelve in June, would become eligible for the Reaping and have his name entered once. For Rye, who was eighteen and in his last year of eligibility, his name would be written seven times.

They were more fortunate than most in District 12, however, and did not have to engage their odds for basic rations to survive on. Most of the children their age in the district had to sign up for Tesserae, especially after the mining incident only months before, where twenty-five families lost their sole providers. The Mellark family did everything they could to help the survivors and their families, along with most of the local businesses around the square, but soon their hands were tied when the Capitol stepped in and forbade the donation of "unusable goods" within districts. Another way for the government to kick their wounded while they were down.

Either way, parents and children alike dreaded July 4th, the day of the Reaping. Two families would always lose their children, as would twenty-three other families throughout Panem. There was only one Victor for each Hunger Games, and very rarely did they come from District 12.

Rosemary continued to think about the Hunger Games long after her teacher had finished his lesson. This year would be different; Peeta was eligible and that multiplied her worries five times over. She was terrified that he'd be called. Her baby brother was the goodest, purest soul that she had ever met and though he was smart like her, he couldn't be a killer. He was too young, they were all too young.

She waited outside Peeta's classroom door after school let out for the afternoon, smiling at his classmates as they piled out of the room, to collect her brother. Peeta was one of the last to leave, lagging behind Katniss Everdeen, unnoticed.

"Sorry," he grimaced at her as they walked side by side out of the school to the courtyard where Rye, Kline, and Delly were waiting for them so they could walk home together. "I was helping Miss Marxi with the chalkboard."

"Learn anything fun today?" Rosemary asked quietly, taking his arm and sidestepping one of their peers who had absentmindedly crossed the hallway and almost ran straight into them.

"Not really. We went over the Hunger Games again," Peeta told her. "They scare me."

Well, she could certainly relate to that. Slipping a reassuring arm around his shoulders to bring him in tighter, she murmured. "They scare me too."

When they got to the courtyard, Rye's smile fell when he noticed their grim expressions. He turned from Kline and Delly, where they had been talking about their afternoon activities, to speak to them with a curious look.

"And what happened to you two?"

"The Hunger Games," Rosemary and Peeta said together, with the latter adding, "I think I'm going to be picked!"

"There's no way you'll be picked, Peet," Rye dragged his knuckles across Peeta's blonde head. He was shoved away immediately. "And if you did, I would just volunteer for ya."

"None of that's going to happen," Kline spoke up, nudging Rye in the ribs with her elbow. He grunted and pushed back at her, causing her to smile brightly. "Come on, maybe we have time to play a little if we get home with time to spare."

The activity in which they would play was called Parchment Pike, and it was a game that Rye, Kline, and Rosemary made up before they were teenagers. The bakery would order huge rolls of parchment paper for their goods, and with the parchment paper came the sturdy tubes they'd be wrapped around. The three of them, thick as thieves back then before Rye gained some of his own friends, decided that jousting with the tubes or even using them as a staff would serve them limitless entertainment. They were proved right, and when Peeta and Delly (Kline's little sister who was the same age as Peeta) got old enough, they were taught how to play. It gave them an outlet for their energy, good or bad, and made it so Rosemary could complete the mile run at school within the twenty minute limitations and successfully fight the urge to shout at her mother anytime she even looked at Peeta with ill intentions.

"Maybe."

As they started walking home, Rosemary studied Kline and Rye and the easy way they conversed, swaying and bumping into each other absentmindedly. She wondered if they liked each other more than friends, if maybe they had more chemistry that veered more toward romance. Kline had had a few significant others before and so had Rye, but they never lasted long.

Really, it was none of her business but she loved both of them and couldn't bear to think of the change that a failed relationship could bring to their group.

Kline and Delly Cartwright lived down the street, on one of the corners of town square. Their family owned the local shoe shop and were pretty successful when it came to Capitol business. Rosemary and Kline had been best friends since they were watched together by Kline's older cousin as babies and had never really been apart since. Rye was quickly absorbed into their friendship and when Delly and Peeta were born, they made room without question. Rye, Peeta, and Delly had friendships outside of their little family, but Rosemary and Kline mostly stuck together, making acquaintanceships here and there, but never fully forming other friendships.

Luckily, the two girls complimented each other. They had squabbles but generally got along. Kline was loud and outspoken where Rosemary was quiet and preferred to keep her opinions to herself. Kline hated her family business and Rosemary genuinely enjoyed baking. Rosemary liked blue, Kline liked red. They were obsessed with the stars and space, they both loved learning, even if it was about different things, they could share a loaf of old bread between the two of them, and they consistently dreamed about what life would be like outside of Panem.  They were soul mates, their friendship literally written in the stars.

Rosemary's eyes caught Kline's as she glanced back to see where she had gone, as she fell behind her and Rye on the sidewalk. Kline rolled her eyes goodnaturedly and paused, letting Rosemary catch up to her while Rye kept his pace with Peeta and Delly, who led the group to the court square.

"Did you hear about Tish?"

Rosemary grimaced, embarrassed for one of their classmates. Being quiet a lot of the time meant that she overheard a lot of conversations and events that weren't meant for everyone to hear. "Yes, I feel bad for her."

Kline laughed. "I don't! I mean, it was brave of her to ask him, but I'm pretty sure he has a boyfriend right now."

"Who are you talking about?" Rye butted in, interested in the conversation topic.

"Baylor Undersee," Rosemary told him briefly before adding onto Kline's comment, "He's with Otis right now, but I've heard that he's been exchanging steamy looks with Katya on the down low."

"The hottest guy in Class Sixteen, of course he's a player," Kline scoffed. "Anyway, Tish needs to move on. She's worth way more than that douche."

"Is Tish the one with the buzzcut?" Rye grinned. "Because yeah, she's hot."

Kline grinned at him. "Why don't you ask her out then?" when Rye placed the palm of his hand on her forehead and pushed her playfully, she swatted at him and went on. "Anyway, I think I'm going to ask my mom to do my hair this weekend."

Rosemary smiled; she loved when Kline switched up her hair. "Braids for the summer?"

"Yes, exactly."

"It's going to look amazing."

As they stopped on the corner of the street just outside the square, making sure that they wouldn't get in anyone's way, Rosemary took Peeta's hand. She let go as they stepped into the square; he wasn't thrilled with her worrying, but she held his hand as they entered the square everyday for the past few years after he almost got run over by a vehicle full of Peacekeepers.

"Give us a whistle if the Warden sets you free," Kline waved at them as she and Delly kept on walking once they got to the bakery.

"See ya tomorrow," Delly added as they got further away.

The Mellark siblings inhaled simultaneously, sharing a look of dread before they entered the shop.