Avowing Ruth

"You make it sound like I’m the boogey monster and they caught me scaring children or something!"
“No, you scare people as old as me...”
“Children scare people like you.”
“I mean you scare people like Rivers…”
“Rivers isn’t scared of me!” Ruth shouted, her voice getting high and weak. He was one of the few friends she had and she didn’t want to think of him actually feeling like he had a reason to fear her like all the younger people she knew did.
“He’s got to be a little bit scared; not running away scared but more like respect. Your other more serious war buddies; I bet you scare them.”
“Stop calling them war buddies!"

ruth, noun,
pity or compassion
sorrow or grief

For the first time in her life, Ruth is going to a real school. Her life up until now had been nothing but training in the arena and fighting when her dad needed her to but now she's being introduced to a whole new side of the world; a side that happens to think that everyone in the arena is a dangerous criminal.