everybody wants to rule the world - finnick odair

(one)

God, Aspen hated the snow. Her boots squeaked more than ever, and she could feel the damp soaking into her outer layer of socks. The girl wrapped her jacket tighter around her as she shivered. 

Her red hair shone against the pure white of her surroundings. Although, they wouldn't be this colour for long. Everything in District 12 had a layer of grimy coal dust. It was the mining district, after all. She made her way past the gates of Victor's Village and a chill went through her again, but not from the cold. 

The Victor's Village was a designated area for winners of The Hunger Games. In Aspen's head, she was calculating the months until The Reaping. The rest of January, February, March..until July. Inside her pockets, she counted the months off on her fingers. If there was one thing Aspen couldn't do, it was math. 

'Five?'  she thought. Something like that. Before she reached the end of the wall around Victor's Village, she paused. Pulling the silver pocketwatch from her jacket, she registered it was around 5:45. The night-shift Peacekeepers would be swapping over in 15 minutes. But it was safe to say most of them were asleep at the moment. 

Aspen risked a glance around the corner. For the regular District 12 citizen, it would be difficult to see through the morning mist and light snow. But Aspen was foxlike, with acute vision, and a slim, flexible body, although gracefulness was a weak point, along with math. She had no luck. Despite the Peacekeepers being half-asleep, they were still conscious. That was even riskier. It would probably end in a dazed firing of gunshots, and a dead Aspen. 

5:50. 

She was losing her patience, along with the feeling in her fingers, and it had only been 5 minutes. 

Trembling, Aspen popped the pocketwatch back inside her jacket. It was a beautiful thing; leather, lined with lamb's wool. Someone in the Capitol could afford it, and maybe Mayor Undersee's family, but the sort of thing was rare in Aspen's household on the Seam. They were dirt poor, and could only afford the poultry that Gale Hawthorne sold at the Hub. She owed Gale her life, and she knew it. If it weren't for him, their whole family would be on death's door, let alone starved. Gale and Kalum were good school friends, so Gale had given her family a discount on his game. Aspen wasn't sure that his hunting partner, Katniss, approved of her though. She seemed like a wary girl, from the times Aspen had seen her glancing around cautiously at the Seam. 

'Or maybe it was because she lives in constant peril, what with being a hunter and all' Aspen reasoned with herself.

With her fingers tingling, the feeling finally creeping back into them, the redhead plucked the pocketwatch out once again. 

5:57. 

Her eyes flitted from the clock face to the wall beside her. She crouched down, and stabilised herself with one hand, placing it on the cold, gray brick. Precariously, Aspen tilted her head around the corner. There was movement. The set of Peacekeepers lining the entrance to the district centre propped their guns up. With wide strides, they began making their way in Aspen's direction.

The girl cursed beneath her breath, and shuffled backwards, guiding herself with her hand on the wall. Lightly, she got to her feet and eyed her surroundings. There was nowhere to go. The open street to her right, the dilapidated storefronts across the street. And to her left, a wall. 

Aspen's brain raced with thoughts. She could excuse herself, saying she was going for an early morning walk. With a huge bag? No, they'd think she were going hunting. That would result in a whipping. She was stuck.

Suddenly, she realised. To her left, a wall, and further down that wall, a gate. The Peacekeepers were still at least seventy yards from her hiding place. Gripping onto the strap of the bag, Aspen hopped her way over the snow, edging close to the wall. She really, really hated the snow. It made every noise louder. Not only her footsteps, but the Peacekeepers'. 

'But,' she realised, 'that's probably just because they're getting closer.'

Finally, she had reached the corner of Victor's Village. She turned sharply right, risking a glance behind her. The Peacekeepers still weren't in sight. 

The gate! Aspen had made it to the wrought iron, and clasped the curves of the icy metal. Where had the Peacekeepers gone? She could no longer hear their marching, boot-clad footsteps, and she knew it wasn't because they were too far away. Then, from the silence, came a sudden fire of gunshots

Then a screech.

It sounded like a child.

A girl.

Aspen's heart lurched.