Penny Cromwell [District 4]

Penny is a sixteen year old girl who stands at a meager five foot five and weighs around one hundred and nine pounds. Her body is both taut and fit; those around her consider her to be in good physical shape - a little skinny perhaps. She has olive colored skin that tans warmly under the sun giving her the allure of confusion and wonder. This is most likely due to the fact that she is half Caucasian and half Asian, a decent that fools many. While her body remains worked and in shape she finds that no matter what food her body intakes her stomach refuses to fill out leaving her naturally skinny - a gift or a curse, one can never be certain of.

Penny's hair is styled simply yet elegantly at shoulder length with sweeping black bangs that cover most of her forehead and dip down over her eyes. Brown almost hazel colored eyes illuminate her innocent features, her button nose, lovingly white smile and concealed tiny ears all but make up her soft sixteen year old face. Young and youthful Penny derives her strength from her arms and her eyes both constructed and built upon through many years of intense fishing and boat work. She seems frail and fragile and even considers herself to be so yet in sixteen years of life she has never managed to break or fracture a bone - something must be said about that.

Like all District boys and girl flaws are rampant and few between and this can be said about Penny Cromwell as well. At birth she had to under go minor surgery to amputate excess skin that had grown on the sides of both of her hands. It is unclear what was the cause of this or if it was just a case of bad living conditions at the time but to this day she has two little single lined scars no bigger than an eyelash a fingertips length below each pinky. Her hands however are riddled with subtle imperfections from years of fishing with her father, a hook scar here, an aquatic bite there, a knife slice that has healed over. For the casual observer nothing will be seen nor noticed but for those who garner the trust and closeness to be hand and hand along side her it won't take too long before a mark is noticed.

Miss Cromwell has a style all to her own. She is usually seen sporting hooded jackets or sweatshirts, loosely fitted beanies, dark tank tops with mesh covered shirts over them, light blue jeans and of course a pair of boots if the Games have come and past. Once the seasons change she tries to wear similar clothing but finds herself usually bearing a lot more skin - wearing skirts, thigh length shorts, tank tops, v necks and anything else to keep cool during the blazing pre-summer to summer months that plague district four. If she were ever forced to enter into the games her token would be her circular metal necklace littered with ancient symbols and chevrons.

Penny Cromwell is a kindhearted anomaly who thinks very little of herself in public and very highly of herself in private. This sort of thinking confuses her and often leads to biting her words back before she can speak them. Her mind is a mess of things she would kill to say but can't seem to find the strength to actually open up and say them. For this reason she is a semi loner only having a modicum of friends. If she could be diagnosed with an illness it would be a lack of self esteem that stems from thinking she isn't good enough thus making her feel like her words won't matter or impact others around her. As stated however she does think of herself as a good person full of ambition, compassion, kindness and a respect for others. Hatred has almost been washed out of her by the sea and what little remains is usually directed back at herself and her inability to make new acquaintances.

Not considered shy, Penny is more thought of as the girl who would hold the door open for you at the bakery or the hooded fisherman's daughter who would sell you a few fish below the market price if she new you were starving. Quiet and well kempt Penny often allows herself to loose these qualities and open up when around people she is familiar with, like her family and close friends. Taming the ocean blue is where she finds her somber peace while battling the harsh conditions that crop up or the wily fish that won't break to anyone's will but her own. She loves the water and the fish especially the ones that aren't edible or don't sell very well that she doesn't have to kill.

Penny is selfless and selfish. Both of which reside side by side in her heart at all times constantly trying to dupe the other into submission. Miss Cromwell is selfless in that she would help anyone regardless of who they were if she found them injured or getting attacked by those more powerful. She does things for others knowing that they will smile and benefit from her small contributions in some way. She would volunteer for the Games in a heartbeat if they tried to claim her little sister, thankfully by the time she is of age Penny would already be nineteen. She would also not hesitate to act in a questionable or risky manner for those she cares deeply about. But with that selfless nature comes why she is selfish as well. She does things for others because deep down she believes it will benefit herself in some way - someone thinking of her kindly, someone doing something nice for her in the future, etc. etc. Penny just assumes when she wants someone to do something for her that they will do it, right when she needs it done. She makes plans upon plans in her head about what she wants, how to get it and when she will achieve them nearly all banking on the help of another in some small way. And while she would gladly enter the games for her younger sibling she knows that she will never have to so that thought is a lie. She believes wholeheartedly that something is special inside of her and that she will never be chosen for the games and if she was to be she would surely be called victor.

Penny Cromwell tries her best in all situations and works with what she is given. Being a schemer and a thinker she is never one to not be planning something. Whether that something is the never going to happen "Hello there my name is Penny..." to the cute boy or girl in class or the ever present catching so many fish that she rises to riches and moves to the capital to live happily ever after. Sadly she rarely acts on her plans but usually tries to in one way or another. She isn't happy, or she is but always wants something over the horizon. Penny is working on herself, she knows she has these problems and knows how she can be sometimes after all that is the first step - recognizing their is a problem. All of that being said if you need help and you could have your choice of sixteen year old's you'd be foolish not to choose her. Hardworking, loving to a fault, and always up for a challenge - that can do attitude of a winner is pumping deep within her veins.

Penny was born to Eric and Malese Cromwell in District Four where they lived in a considerably large home for most of Penny's life. Backing up a few decade's - Penny's grandfather had been career tribute who managed to win his year of the Hunger Games assuring his family both wealth and comfort. Sadly when he was thirty years of age he committed suicide leaving his only son much of his wealth and forcing him to move back out of the Victor's Village to find a home of his own. Eric would eventually start up his own fishing business and marry Malese who would later give birth to Penny and her story would begin to unfold. Growing up in a wealthy part of District Four, probably the only wealthy part shy of the Victor's Village Penny was accustomed to eating properly, good schooling, long hot showers, lots of friends and a medium of comfort. She happily accepted her little sister Tiffy into her life when she was eight years old - looking after and caring for her whenever she was home.

Much of the Cromwell's hardships fall upon Penny's shoulders - never blamed, never mentioned, never yelled at, but that feeling of knowing all of this is your fault stays with her with each passing day. To explain we would have to go back to when Penny was a little girl no older than four. That is when she met Krista her best friend for life. Together the two of them would get into everything, nothing was out of bounds for their minds or their spirits. They took the same classes, loved the same clothes, talked about the same things and loved each others company. Almost inseparable - I say almost because they did separate through gripped fingers and sweaty palms as they stood side by side in each others arms as Krista's name was called on her twelfth birthday. No one volunteered for her that day, not even Penny who loved her with all of her heart if not with all of her being. She was carted off to the capital tears strewn down her cheeks and the marks of Penny's fingernails deep in her bloody palm from the trembling, broken goodbye. Penny begged her father to help, to donate anything and everything that they had to help Krista in anyway possible but her father didn't need begging he loved his little girl and knew what this meant to her. But no matter how much they gave and how much they loosed Krista's score of a 3 left her little to survive on. Not even a week after Penny's best friend's name had been called had her cannon went off and with it Penny's home.

Blameless yet marked with a darkness that was too sad to speak of Penny tried to bury her emotions as they moved from one sector of town to the next shedding away any semblance of luxury that they once had been so accustomed to. Penny started working with her father after school, sometimes even during it on the boats fishing up whatever would bite and sell for a profit. It was a hard job but it kept on the hot water and always managed to put food on the table for them even if it meant rebuilding their savings piece by piece. She'd never let you see it but some nights when Penny is feeling down she'll cry herself to sleep missing the soft embrace of her best-friend's arms and questioning whether or not it should have been her name to be called instead of her friends. Time heals all wounds but never fully. Now at the tender age of sixteen Penny still fights to push herself to make new friends, terrified of loosing them to the reaping yet strangely grasping onto the ones she does have with dear life too afraid of loosing everyone in her life. The only good thing to come out of these last four years have been her appreciation for hard work, her love of the ocean and her ability to tame it.