Rose Waters // D4 // FINISHED

If you saw me, you’d see me as just a teenage girl, as scared and as frail as any other. Well, that’s when most people see me; in the Reaping. Otherwise, I remain hidden. I have ginger hair, resembling my sister, Irene Waters. Whilst most girls at my school who are my age put their hair up in bunches or braids or buns, I keep mine down because I don't see the point in prissying up for school. Everybody in the older years refer to me as ‘Irene’s sister’ because they don’t care for my name.

I don't know what the original look for people in District 4 is, though recently I have seen a handful of gingers such as myself and my sister Irene. The family of Libertines, the ones who were unfortunate enough to have 2 of their family members reaped, had ginger hair. My mother has ginger hair, my father has it too. I'm pretty sure it runs in the family, and therefore if I survive the reapings till I'm 18, get married then have kids, they'll most likely be ginger unless they take after their father.

My mother always told me I was the treasured child. Irene was the first one, so they were still grasping onto their knowledge of looking after children, but when I was born it was my ginger locks that reminded me of the first offspring of my mother. Everything they learned about newborn babies from Irene was used to look after me, so I grew up healthy, well-fed and with rosy cheeks. I wasn't a fussy eater, so I ate vegetables which has given me a nice figure and beautiful cheeks. Perhaps this is why some boys in my year 'ask me out'. They're morons, everyone in my class at school is. I wish I had proper friends, not those I-fancy-this-boy-and-this-boy-oh-my-god-he's-so-hot friends. That's all they talk about nowadays. I only befriend them to take my mind off the Reaping.

The Reaping. There's some kind of pattern to my choice of clothing. At the reaping, I always wear a dress. Last time it was a checked summer dress, but next year my mother is already working hard on a dress for. She wants me to look gorgeous now that the odds have been raised up for me being reaped. On average days I wear casual clothes, but for school there's a certain uniform. My mother stamped a little crest onto a pinafore and I wore it to school; the teachers aren't fussy as long as we're being educated. On special days I wear my older sister Irene's old dress. It's still a little big for me, but I can adjust.

Sometimes I ask people in the district what they think of me. I don't want a fake sweet answer, saying I'm perfect the way I am, I always ask for an outright answer. But none come. Nobody is brave enough to just tell me exactly what they think of me, when that is, in actual fact, what I want. Why can't they understand that? Oh, yeah, they're afraid I'll rant at them forever at the slightest flaw they point out of me. I don't mind flaws. There's always room for improvement in my personality, of course, nobody's perfect. I accept the fact that people dislike me, some people like me, the boys in my class only think of me as pretty. Irene is the only one who has delved deepest into my personality, she has all the flaws, all the strong points, and she knows them all. But nobody else does.

First, let's start off with what I think of myself. Accepting, loving to some, hateful to some too. I face the fact, I hate some people, and when I'm around someone I hate, I just can't help being cold and calculating towards them. I'm unforgiving; I prefer not to forgive people after they've committed some serious sin towards me. I guess I can say, I have trust issues and I'm not afraid to let people know. You have to make a good first impression on me in order for me to like you all the way. That's the thing; I am forgiving to those I liked from the start, but when I meet someone I dislike, it kinda sticks.

My sister's attitude towards her friends is great, she's kind and friendly, chirpy, and forgiving. I'm probably the opposite towards strangers. I'm unforgiving, cautious, wary, and any other word to describe cautious. I just don't feel nice and warm around strangers, I feel uncomfortable, nervous and wondering who they are, if they're friendly or not. Sometimes they're just friendly people who want to get to know me, sometimes they're horrible gits who don't care about anything or anyone and just want to dispose of me.

I hate those kinds of people. I may not give off good first impressions, but I don't hate people completely to the point I just want their name to be drawn from the glass ball at the reaping. I want to ensure everyone's safety, and I would hate it if even the bullies in our school were reaped, because I know they'd die. Unless they had so much talent they pulled through and won - but the bullies only have talents for mocking people, not actual fighting with weapons, slaughtering in cold blood for their own survival. They wouldn't last five minutes in the arena with their attitudes. Oh, sure, they'd humiliate their opponents, one could maybe get away with hand-to-hand combat. But otherwise? Completely useless, the lot of 'em.