{{Monotony}} (GreenBeads, Thundy, Morgana)

"Time to wake up!" An earth-shaking cry sounded loudly in Antimony's ear, but she could owe the words to her imagination rather than the voice of her mother. Tired blue eyes opened slightly to see nothing but darkness, but there was no mistaking that a noise had shaken her awake. She flipped herself around and brought her arm below the cool side of the pillow to ignore whatever interrupted her sleep, but the bed beneath her began to shake wildly as a furry being leaped on top of her and licked her face ferociously. The dog was relentless in its attempt to wake her up, but the overzealous greeting only aggravated her some. A morning person Antimony was not, even if she did adore her favorite pet. She shoved the animal off of the bed with a grunt and pulled the covers over her face, but only seconds later her mother hurriedly walked into the room, breathless and grumpy as she always was in the morning.

"Come help me feed the animals, darling." Her mother's voice was raspy and blunt from a cold that she was developing, but her movements were fast and careful. Everything that she always accomplished was done in a hurry; she liked to have extra time to rest in the morning after feeding the animals before she was forced to start her other work. District 10 was no simple place to earn a living - one could leave most of the animals to graze in the fields day in and day out, but when it was time to give them away, they had to be in perfect health. Mining coal or picking fruit is one thing, but keeping herds of animals alive is another problem entirely. For the Kohle family, cows were their main resource. They bred them, they milked them, they raised them for meat. The bulls had to be kept strong for breeding, the cows had to be milked daily, and the calves had to be watched constantly.

Antimony wasn't exactly sure why the animals had to be fed so early in the morning - couldn't they just eat at a reasonable time for her to wake up? - but she pulled herself out of bed and itched her dandruff-covered scalp. She reached for a match and slid it across the side of the box to light it, but ended up snapping it instead. She furrowed her brow in concentration and took another match, but with the same unlucky result. She tried once again, but gave up when another cracked into two misshapen halves. She could feel her mother's careful gaze resting on her, so she smiled and raised her head away from her task.

"Is something wrong, Mom?" she questioned, her voice groggy and slow compared to her usually cheery tone of joy.

"Well.. yes, darling. You were trying to light the wrong side of the match."

"Oh.. will you do it for me, Mom? I always have trouble."

The sigh that escaped through her mother's lips didn't register in the silly girl's mind, but the woman reached forward and lit the match for her daughter anyways. A tiny fire danced in front of Antimony's eyes, lighting the room slightly and highlighting the exhaustion in the lines of her mother's face. The blonde-haired teen took the tiny fire and brought it to the oil lamp, illuminating the room in a slight light. She then ambled to her dresser and pulled on one of her only pairs of jeans. The filthy things were faded and torn, but they fit perfectly over Antimony's hungry figure. She searched the room for her sneakers, but found one in the mouth of her yearling dog.

"Hey! Let go of that, Sparkles!" Antimony yelled with a giggle, only to scare the dog out of the room. Slow reflexes and tired limbs slowed her reaction down considerably, and by the time that she was able to do something the dog was already out of the house. In a rush, she picked up her other sneaker and bolted (was she actually running for once in her life?) out of her room and out of the door, but not without tripping ever-so-slightly over the porch step and almost landing clear on her face.

"Oww.." A moan escaped her as she scraped her palms on the rough dirt, but she was up and moving again with the sight of Sparkles in the distance. Any idea of helping out her mother was gone from her mind, and the worried yells from the woman didn't reach her daughter's ears as she jogged (although very slowly) after her pet.

"Sparkles! Sparkles! Sparkles!" Antimony exclaimed anxiously, her speed picking up a bit. She grasped her left shoe tightly in her hand, running barefoot down that dirt road that led to the inner workings of the District.

Whether it was from exhaustion or simply because he was tired of playing that game of tag, Sparkles slowed several minutes later and trotted back to Antimony, who by that time had begun to walk. She was holding her empty hand tightly above her head to allow more air into her lungs, as she was gasping desperately. Running was on the top of the list of things that she never wanted to do, but there she was..

Where was she? She had failed to realize her surroundings during her mad dash for the partner of her left shoe. Giving Sparkles a pat, she took the right shoe out of his mouth and slipped them both onto her feet without tying them. She was sweaty and weak, but she didn't head back the way that she had come. People were everywhere around her, even at that time of the morning. The sun was beginning to rise out of the sky, purple and red shading the background in an odd way that attracted Antimony's attention for several minutes.

A small booth caught her off guard - it wasn't often that people gave hair cuts on the street. A dark-haired girl was standing there with a pair of scissors in front of her. An idea crossed Antimony's mind suddenly, and a wide smile spread across her face as she skipped over with Sparkles trotting by her side with his head low to the ground.

"HI! I'm Antimony. Will you give my dog a hair cut?" She asked excitedly, bending down and sniffing the animal.

"Sorry, he kind of smells bad. I think he was out eating the cow poop again."