Abri Ballo, 12

Abri is pretty, but not abnormally so. She has dirty blonde hair that gets frizzy in the rain. I falls to her shoulders, parted down the center with no bangs. District Twelve is one of the hottest districts in the summer, and Abri usually wears her hair pulled back in a bun to keep the strands off her neck.

Abri has a heart shaped face, brown almond-shaped eyes and pale eyebrows. Her straight nose is slightly pointed, like her chin. Her cheek bones are undefined, giving her face an innocent roundness. On the rare occasions that she smiles, you can see two matching dimples on her round cheeks. Her eyes are a little too far apart to be traditionally beautiful, and her thin lips are usually pursed so tightly that they lose their soft pinkness.

Abri is slight, and flat as a board, most of her curves lost to muscle. She stands at 5'7 and usually, like a man. She wears nondescript clothes, and clunky boots that she steals from the Mens workstation in the mines.

He limbs are long and thin, including her fingers, making things like working with tools and machinery, or climbing tools up and down the mine shafts. Her fair skin is prone to burns, but the parts of her body that are usually exposed to the sun, like her arms and neck, are lightly tanned, and don't burn quite as quickly.

Abri moves like an adult, mostly to make up for the fact that she looks so sweet and young facially. She stands like a prison-guard and swears like a sailor. She hates that she looks vulnerable and works hard to keep a mask of 'bad-ass-ness' to her.

Abri and her mother have to take care of her in special ways to allow for her issues. Her nails are always short and dull, so she can't scratch herself, her hair can never be too long, and her clothes can't have zippers or pins.

Abri has several rather severe mental illnesses. She has Savant Syndrome, mild OCD, and a Borderline Personality Disorder. She has a few small ticks, most noticeable a constant nod. She has the amazing ability to repeat any sound she hears almost identically, and play many of the most advanced pieces of music in the world. The combination of her diseases makes her paranoid, moody and scared of people. She has trouble communicating, and prefers to observe and learn.

Outside of her problems, Abri is a sweet girl, kind and prone to self-deprecating humor. She has a sweet laugh, and a melodic singing voice. She loves the feel of holding hands, and is a naturally giggly person. Abri is affectionate, enthusiastic, generous, forgiving and extremely loyal to those she cares about.

Everyone has some negative traits, and Abri is no exception, they are small and magnified mostly by her mental issues, but they're there none the less. Abri is fearful, and insecure, unable to stand up for herself, despite her strong muscles. She puts on a mask of strength and grittiness to protect her from caring too deeply about something.

To truly understand who Abri is, we need to go back before she was born. Her mother lived in a richer part of District Twelve, a party animal, and someone who liked to get around. One night at a 'rich kid' party, a guy got Abri's mother pregnant. When they found out she was pregnant, her parents kicked her out and told her never to come home. She turned next to the father, sure he wouldn't be able to turn away his own child, but he did, and left Abri's mother to fend for herself. Abri's mother then turned to the only thing she could think of, alcohol. She drank through her entire pregnancy, and it seemed like a miracle when Abri was born, pink and seemingly perfect.

It wasn't until Abri was about six that it became clear she wasn't a normal little girl. Her OCD tendencies started to emerge, things like washing her hands five times in a row, or always twisting the doorknob to the right. As she got older, her problems grew, until one night when she was fourteen she had a full blown breakdown.

She snapped, and threw things, and screamed and scratched herself. Her mother was so terrified that she locked Abri in her closet. Abri was never claustrophobic, but no teenager in the middle of a psychotic break would appreciate being shoved into a tiny black space and left there. She screamed and sobbed, and scratched the door until her fingers bled. Her mother trapped her in the closet for three days, and when she finally let her out, a doctor was hovering over her shoulder, ready to take her to the orphanage.

The orphanage in Twelve, sort of doubles as a rehabilitation center for troubled children. Abri was only there a year before they deemed her safe to return home, but it did many bad things for her paranoia and ticks.

The last few years, Abri has been living at home, mostly happily, with a mostly sober mother. Just this past year, Abri's grandmother decided she wanted to meet her granddaughter and has been pivotal in Abri's growing happiness. Another factor has been her music, she often plays for the patients and orphans still living in the orphanage, and it makes her happy to help give people like her an escape.

This was hard because it was hard to make someone with so many problems, and still give them positive traits and make them relate-able... let me know if I need to fix anything.
Also, first D12 WOOT!