Courtney Persimmon // [District Eleven / CB]

Remember when we was little, the teacher would ask us to draw our families? Which is pretty messed up in a district like Eleven since half of us don't have any family. I didn't mind so much when I was still living with my Mama but she eventually drank herself into a stupor right around the time I entered kindergarten. Since then - wow, guess it's already been twelve years - I've lived in six different homes and two different orphanages. I don't mean to cause trouble but I do aim to speak my mind. Mama always said I got that from my Daddy. I guess his name's Calvin. I barely remember meeting him when I was still drawing those stupid pictures. He got himself estranged from his family which I didn't think nothin' of until this girl named Katelyn Persimmon won the Games. Even then, Persimmon is a common name 'round here.

I've been more like the boys in my class than the girls. I talk too much, I'd rather wrestle than listen and I've only just started to look like my real self, instead of my kid self. I always wanted to grow up faster, to be an adult so I could do my own thing. But now, I hate it. Every time I look in a mirror I just see myself, Court Persimmon. But everyone else sees someone different.

Everyone else sees her.

It's gotten so bad I can hardly go to school any more. Not that I'm any good at it but I miss my friends before they started calling me The Victor.

I ain't sure that Katelyn Persimmon can help me but it's time she knew that she looks like someone else in Eleven, and that someone deserves to tell her own story.