nadine croft | two; fin

N A D I N E

Rules to live by: Don't fuck with an angel because you'll regret it, and don't fuck with this angel because she shoots to kill.

You wouldn't expect it from the looks of her— just a run-of-the-mill privileged career with pretty blonde hair and deceivingly soft eyes— but she is a weapon as easily as any blade. Five feet of destruction, tiny and lethal like the hornet that has become her namesake; she likes the challenge of being under estimated. Or, more accurately, likes the satisfaction of proving people wrong.

A smile on her face and a skip in her step, she exudes confidence and calm. She'd take a bullet for her girls, but she'd rather cut the hands off of the shooter before it ever became necessary: sisterhood is for life, and though she was not born with them, the two girls she was assigned to during her first year at the academy have become a second family. She buys them gifts for the holidays, gets annoyed when they use her things without asking, confides in them her deepest and darkest secrets. They know enough about her to ruin her if they ever wanted, but she knows better than to think they ever would.

The truth behind Townsend's School for Girls is a well-known secret and one that there is no solid enough evidence to do anything about. They walk around with their maroon pleated skirts and those tacky gray sweaters and bags full of books. Some of the girls smoke cigarettes in the old bathroom that was closed down decades ago because of mold, some show up to class ten minutes early to win brownie points with the instructors. It is, by all accounts, still a school. The surface is only a part of the greater whole, of course, but no one can deny what they see.

As for what happens in the below ground levels, well, call it Career Training. It's close enough. Hand-to-hand, weaponry, general survival... and then, you know, there's the espionage and the secret missions coordinated to cause the eventual downfall of the Capitol. Yes, okay, fine. Technically the Angels are more like anti-career mercenary trios. But, really, how different are they in the grande scheme of things? Both capable of killing, both trained to fulfill their duty, both ridiculously prideful of their work. The only difference is that the Angels have more purpose than banking their entire lives on entering and winning a death contest as a child so that they can travel to the capitol and be blamed when other kids do not win said contest.

And why all girls? Easy. They're slept on. Overlooked in favor of boys, and why? Because they're taller? Certainly not because they're smarter— that's just blatantly untrue. No, it's because in those primitive little minds, they still live in the stone age. And it's not completely untrue. They do still live in a world where it is easy to assume physical prowess is a person's golden ticket to everything they could ever want, but that's the thing. Put an angel up against anyone, any age, any height, any weight class. See what happens.

Put them up against Nadine, Agent Hornet with the quickest sprint time in her grade, and the most accurate with a throwing knife. Sting like a bee— she'll make even the big boys cry, beg for their mommies. Run home with their tails tucked between their legs, then she'll lock arms with her girls and skip off into the sunset like it was nothing.

It's a good thing she has her friends; her family doesn't understand. An older brother who was always everything a career should be, right down to the mindlessness required to be a good little citizen, a father who washed out the day he turned 19, and a mother who has unfortunately let society tell her what she should become. She visits when she can, mostly for birthdays and the like, but the fundamental differences between her and her relatives has created a rift between them. Started as a tiny little chink in the armor, and has grown to a gaping cavern separating them from her. She misses them at times, when she sees the other girls' parents doting on them, walking them to school and sending them off with a pat on the back, yanking them out of classes for a day of hiking in the mountains. There are moments when she yearns for that, wishes it were possible for someone like her to have. But she makes due, and she's happy with the life she's choosing. Besides, it's probably better to distance herself from them now. She knows the job comes first, and she knows how dangerous it is. Perhaps, if the Capitol believes she does not care for her family, they won't ever use them as leverage to hurt her.

And that's her goal, at the end of it all. To become unbeatable. To have no weakness despite the fact that perfection is unobtainable. She wants to be the downfall of a corrupt nation, and it takes commitment and fire. If it means burning herself up, then she's willing to set everything ablaze.