Lil Cignus //d5// {fin}

Lil kept elegance in every step when she walked around the district. Carefully measured. Lady-like. The light brown hair on her head wouldn’t have a single strand out of place. Their family may not have been the richest, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have a reputation to maintain. It was disgraceful, the amount of times they’d been on the way to school when her younger sister had gone hurtling down the street, arms and legs akimbo, only to rocket back with her forgotten sweater like nothing had happened.

***
Lee was always the light-hearted one. The one who shrugged away their arguments and was so easily distracted. At two years younger she should have been listening to Lil as a mentor, as a boss but she rarely did. Lil would try to look out for her, warn her against doing something dumb, but she’d jst prance away without a care, sticking out her tongue and leaving Lil to stew in her thoughts, cheeks flushed in annoyance. When she got older, it only got worse. The cold shoulder, blatant disregard for anything Lil said. It was infuriating, and often let to slapping the back of her head. Which only led to laughter, and honestly that was worse.

If that wasn’t enough, Lil often had to shoulder some indignity for her sister’s antics. Who was wasting the electricity? Who left the front door unlocked? Who ate more cake than they were supposed to? Who tracked mud in the house? Thankfully, their parents wouldn’t fall for it all the time, but it was stressful when they did. Lil often demanded that Lee know her place and act like a proper young lady for once. Be a good daughter like her. Lee’s response was usually an infuriatingly stuck out tongue.
***
Lil read constantly, spending hours upon hours in the library, drowning in a sea of ink, surrounded by a whirlwind of words. She took the poetry to heart, found adventure and romance between the pages of fiction, places where the sun rose in the west and set in the east. In the books she could soar with the eagles, swim in the deep blue of the ocean. There were detectives that needed her help to solve the crime. There were star-crossed lovers whom she could shed a tear for. Worlds upon worlds that could take her away from the dreary grey sky of district five.

***
If Lee was a willow, than Lil would be considered svelte. It was an old word from the old world that had survived the dark days. It meant slender and elegant. That was her to a tee. Tall, but graceful. Stick straight brown hair that fell around her shoulders when she wasn’t keeping it in a neat bun. Her sister’s skin was the paler between the two of them, but Lil still sunburned easily. Not that it seemed like the sun shone all that often in their district.

One thing that she had in common with her sister was her frame. The two of them, slender and tall. But that was the only similarity. Lil took care of her hair and did her best to dress nice and proper. The same couldn’t be said for Lee. Lil often thought about learning to dance, about being like the Capitolites in those musical productions that she saw on television.

***
Mother did her best to balance the books. She was smart, smarter than some people gave her credit for, and Lil adore her. While they wouldn’t be invited to any ritzy events anytime soon, they weren’t poor either. Lil had fond memories of playing quietly with a doll as a child while mother talked with shop owners about numbers and spreadsheets. It pulled in a little extra money whenever Father needed the help.

The air in the district had a life of its own. It stuck to her skin. Left her throat and sinus’s feeling raw on the really bad days. Lil never missed a beat when it came to seeing the world around her and all the various terrible things that were in it. There were a few bushes outside their house that she liked to tend to, attempting to keep them alive when the district was intent on making the leaves wilt.

Lil had never been one for friends or gatherings. People could be so messy, so loud, so inefficient. She was a wallflower and not made dancing in the sun. She could count the people that knew her on one hand. Even then, there was only one person that she could share her hopes and dreams with. One friend that she could vent to about her sister’s antics without feeling judged. A best friend. Having more than that was impossible. It seemed frenetic and tiresome.