nora beniko . district four | wip

She is one of those kids — the ones who spent their childhoods in the training center, wasting away to blood and sweat at their parents' command. But she isn't like the others, the ones in the hallways of her prestigious private school. Nora Beniko is not Career material like them. Perhaps she should be, but she isn't. She's a bookworm, one of those girls who's in the library until after dark and stays up all night reading instead of doing her homework.

There are not many of her kind at the Academy. It is a place where the most promising children go to school in hopes to later become Peacekeepers — that is, if they fail to enter the Games. The hallways and classrooms are full of ruthless, ambitious Careers with big dreams and sharp minds.

No, there are not many of her kind here.

Nora is here for her parents, just to make them happy so they won't chastise her for not being like her siblings, who have assimilated into Career culture as normal. She is not a bad Career, however — she is keen and can throw punches better than most, but she doesn't have the passion for it that everyone else seems to have.

"You're brilliant in school, and you're a brilliant Career, too, Nora. You shouldn't be so standoffish towards the other students — you're better than them, anyhow," Senya Ferrier, a friend of hers at the Academy, once told her at one of their sleepovers. She was hanging up a new Victor poster on her wall while Nora watched, laying back into the pillows on Senya's bed.

"I know that I'm smart," Nora replied too hastily, and then caught her sharp tone. "Sorry — I didn't mean to sound arrogant."

"Confidence isn't arrogance. But really, Nora, you should try to stand out more at school." Senya stood up on her bed to hang a gigantic poster of a shirtless Justice Fray, and was sticking tacks into each corner.

"It's fine, I like being invisible," she grumbled in response, but she didn't think that Senya heard her, because she was already admiring her new poster.

"Isn't he dreamy?" she gushed, and put her hands over her chest as if she were clutching her heart. "Look at those abs, Nora!

She rolled her eyes playfully and glanced up at the — admittedly gorgeous — face of Justice Fray. "I guess I have to agree there."