I Can Tell that We are Gonna be Friends(C&M)

Aronia squinted out of the window, trying to prise the trees from the people in her tangled mind.
Of course, it wasn't actually a window, just a hole cut neatly into the wall.
Sighing softly and wishing that there was a thin pane of glass between her and the outside world, Aronia pulled her blankets more tightly around herself.
Obviously, they weren't actual blankets - just dusty potato sacks donated to her by her elest brother.
Frowning, the tiny girl pulled herself up from her place on the cold stone floor. The doorframe held the battered remains of a door, and it blew open with a cold gush of wind. Aronia shivered violently, looking around the room. Scattered about the small floor-space, clothed in raggs and with their bones protruding their bodies in a sickly mannor, her siblings slept. Seven bodies, all belonging to her brothers, where sprawled about, some lying on sacks and others with their backs to the cold stone floor.
The eldest of them opened his eyes to look up at his young sister. He smiled brightly and told her good morning before closing his eyes again in an attempt to fight of the bitter cold. The winter had haunted them ever since the beginning of November, when the soft autumn had turned cruel and harsh. The snow that fell outside had come through the open window-frame and scattered the children with a soft layer of snow.
Aronia beamed at her brother lovingly, then weaved her way through the bodies and out of the door. The night was coming to and end - it was almost early morning now. It would take the girl half and hour at least to get to the orchard - but if she could manage to sneak a few apples for her family it would be worth every minute of walking alone through the darkness and snow. She blinked around herself, noting the way the trees blew in the rough wind and the delicacy of the deathly snowflakes - it was a hard winter that year and the family had only just made it this far. The young girl slipped her petite hands into the pockets of her rags and bit her lip. Inside she was smiling.
The beauty of the birds in the sky and the swirling of the sky awed her, and Aronia felt bubbly and awake despite the bitter cold.
It was within minutes that she was reaching the edge of the orchards, and the girl gripped and basket and set to work. She loved work - the trees and the bright smell of apples and the familiarity and solidity of the orchards. The way that no matter what, the trees would be waiting for her every morning when she came to pick the sweet apples that clung to their branches.
Now she knew there where people watching her, positioned around the boundaries of the colossal orchard, watching her every move. Peacekeepers. Guards.
Aronia was afraid of them, yet she would never dare cross them. Her family has taught her to abide by the Capitols rules whatever the personal cost. Yet that was what had got her father, her mother, and three of her brothers killed. Letting her smile falter for a fraction of a second, she wondered what her mother had looked like.
Did she have Aronia's dark eyes, tanned skin, tiny features? Was she tall, like Aronia's eldest brother Galen, or only a little over four feet, like Aronia herself? Did she have corkscrew curls like the girls father, or sleek waves like Ari?
Smiling at the thought of her imaginary mother, with soft lips and calming eyes, the girl moved to the tree. Other people where here already - perhaps people who lived more locally.
Hooking her arm into her basket, Aronia clambered into the branches of the nearest tree like a tiny monkey - silent and without so much as the rustling of a branch. Her tiny, weightless body had reached the up-most branches before she noticed the boy that was climbing below her. Silently and softly, so as not to disturb the boy, Aronia picked an apple and placed it in her basket.
Then, intrigued by the large boy, Aronia dropped instantly to where her face would be in view and beamed at him expectantly.