On The Upside {Drake/Rosemary}

Every child has a precious, fragile soul, Rosemary likes to believe. Some individuals are more easily damaged than others at a young age, and it can change the way their lives play out, she thinks. That's part of why she feels that a positive influence in a child's life is very important. When she was growing up, she didn't have my parents for most of her teenage years. Rosemary and her sister, Thyme, raised themselves with a bit of help from their older cousin, Parsley, and her younger brother, Sage. The four of them were all very close, and Rosemary attributes her happy life to having had such strong family bonds with those three.

When Sage volunteered for the Seventy-Fifth Annual Hunger Games, however, Rosemary briefly questioned what she possibly could have done wrong in the assistance of raising her cousin that would have caused him to go so willingly to fight in the death match that was the Games. He'd made the conscious choice to do so with no one convincing him or telling him that he had to do it 'or else'. The boy had chosen that he wanted to do it, and, before visiting Sage in the Justice Building, Rosemary thought that she may have even been the reason why. When he explained to her what his motives were, however, she no longer felt guilt. Instead, a feeling of concern bubbled up in its place.

Sage had told Rosemary that he'd volunteered to either win and bring home the wealth of victory to the Scarborough family, or lose, die and no longer be 'a burden on the Scarborough's finances'. The boy genuinely felt that if he died in the Games, he would make things better for the Scarboroughs. He was ever so wrong, but there was nothing that could be done about it at that point. There was no turning back once he'd shouted out to volunteer, his protective dear boyfriend, Affron Williams, following his lead, only to be the first to die in the Games out of fifty-two individual tributes.

On the day of Sage Scarborough's death, his family fell silent, mourning him. He had a small funeral, held by his sister and two cousins, but there weren't many attendees aside from them, as not many people had known the boy. He'd very much been an outcast, thrown to the side by society due to his supposed 'bad luck' that he always had that seemed to deter people. It would never deter his family, though, as they cared too much about him to let his 'flaws' or decisions change that. Even though he'd volunteered, leaving his family, they wouldn't let that tarnish his reputation in their minds.

Sage Scarborough was still precious, and that's why Rosemary plays his song to this day.

Having started working a second job after her final reaping, Rosemary managed to save up enough extra money that the family didn't need in order to purchase a cheap, old guitar for herself to play. Sage had always loved music, and one song in particular, so she'd been practicing playing that song to perfect it to the best of her ability. Many days when Rosemary didn't have to work, she'd spend the entirety of her free time practicing that song, hoping that it would bring Sage some happiness, should there happen to be a way he was watching what she was doing from an afterlife of some sort. As a believer in Ripred, Rosemary felt that Sage knew everything that she did after he died, and that's why she knew she shouldn't mourn him too visibly. He would want her to be happy and stay positive, so that's what she tried her very best to always do, even since he'd died.

Since Rosemary had always believed in bringing a positive influence into the life of children, she'd recently been letting a couple of children sit and listen to her play the song that she'd been practicing, singing it to them as they listened so attentively. Today was another one of those days, and she sang along to her music, having gotten better at playing it, as well as singing it, since the last time that she'd done so in front of the children. Although she was unsure of whose children these were, Rosemary still played for them as if they were her own. She wanted to be kind, bringing some sort of joy into their lives, as it could often be difficult to find in District Twelve, and she didn't know what these particular children had experienced in their lives.

When Rosemary was playing her usual music for the children, she spotted someone nearby who appeared as if he could be their guardian of some sort. He was a handsome young man, likely not too much older than Rosemary herself. When she concluded her song, she gave a smile and a wave to him, deciding to throw in a friendly shout as well.

"Hello over there!" she said with a cheery tone. "You're welcome to join us, if you'd like!"

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838 words
lyrics: "Scarborough Fair" by Simon & Garfunkel