Charlotte McAfee; District Eight

Charlotte has dark red hair that falls three inches below her shoulders. Her bangs used to match her sisters and sit at the top of her eyebrows. But she lost the time to care for them and her bangs now reach down to her chin. Though she tries her hardest to seem put together, Charlotte’s hair is the one thing that always seems to be a mess. Naturally wavy, damaged from being dyed too often, and with a lack of hair trims, Charlotte’s hair has become somewhat of a nest of split ends.

Charlotte’s pale skin emphasizes her tired face and allows for prominent dark circles under her almond shaped eyes. Her square jaw and thin lips give Charlotte a harsh look that people often mistake for anger or sadness. When a genuine smile does cross Charlotte’s face, though, it brightens up every aspect of it. Her cheeks flood with a rosy pink color, her green eyes seem to have a sparkle in them, and her chin becomes more pointed, matching her pointed nose and ears.

Charlotte, being the same exact height as her twin sister, stands at 5’5. Her long neck leads into a petite body with few curves. She has a flat stomach, a small waist, and thighs that don’t touch. Her arms are firm with muscle, but appear weak. Her wrists are tiny and Charlotte’s thumb and middle finger overlap when she wraps them around her wrist. She has delicate hands with long fingers and perfectly manicured nails. A few scars were left scattered about her body from one of Gabriella’s fits.

When Charlotte is at home, she always looks upset, tired, and weak. She is usually in sweats and a tee shirt. As soon as Charlotte even thinks about leaving the house, she straightens up. She wears simple and neat clothing: an ironed skirt, a buttoned up cardigan, high-waisted shorts, or a floral dress. She puts on simple make-up to cover up the bags under her eyes and the scars on her body. She tries to cover up any appearance flaw. Much to Charlotte’s dismay, the only thing that doesn’t look put together is Charlotte’s frizzy, damaged hair.

Charlotte has always been a very determined girl; she knows what she wants and she makes sure it happens. She also cares a lot about what people think about her and how others perceive her. She refuses to let her feelings, her past, her grieving show on her face when she’s with others. She made it impossible for her friends to know about the inner demons that she was battling with.

Charlotte has never been one for sharing. Since she was one of triplets, she felt like she never had much to herself. She didn’t have a room to herself, she didn’t have clothes to herself, she couldn’t even have her looks to herself. And most of the time Charlotte is okay with that. She loves her sisters more than anything else it the world. But when she gets the chance to have something just to herself, no one can take that away from her.

Once while she was sewing up the seam of a floral skirt at the factory, she was left with an extra piece of fabric. Though the workers are instructed to put all of the scraps in a bucket to be reused, Charlotte pocketed the yellow fabric. Something that she could keep for herself. Just herself. She didn’t have to share this secret piece a fabric with her sisters like she had to share everything else. As time went one, Charlotte would snag a small piece of fabric here and there and keep them in a box under her bed. Her very own box.

Being a perfectionist, Charlotte gets flustered over the littlest things. She likes to keep everything as orderly as possible, keep things neat and controlled. Ever since Valerie died, Charlotte feels her control slipping away. She can’t control her sister’s tantrums, she can’t control her nightmares, she can’t even control her stupid, frizzy, red hair. So, instead, she does everything in her power to control the inanimate objects around her. She makes sure that there is always an even number of pencils in her desk and that the few books she has are in alphabetical order.

Her sister, Gabriella, brings out the best in Charlotte. Gabriella is the only person that can make Charlotte genuinely smile on a daily basis. And in return, Charlotte watches over Gabriella. Even though Gabriella’s messy clothes and sloppy look mess up Charlotte’s neat appearance, Charlotte doesn’t mind taking Gabriella out on walks. They can’t go very many places, since Gabriella can’t even go back into the square without having a fit, but Charlotte makes it a point to make Gabriella smile back at her.

Charlotte grew up in a stable home with a mother, a father, and two perfect sisters. The middle child of triplets, she always felt needed by her slightly younger sister and taken care of by her slightly older sister. Being in middle class, Charlotte’s parents didn’t have trouble putting food on the table like the lower class. Most winters were tough, but the girls helped each other through it.

The trio was inseparable. Best friends. They finished each other’s sentences, they held each other when they cried, they laughed with each other when one of them tripped and fell, and then they picked each other back up again. There was always someone to help. Always someone to care. To listen. To laugh with. To cry with. To hug. To hold. The girls were identical in more than just looks, it’s as if they shared one brain.

On the triplets’ twelfth birthday, their parents brought them to the square and gave them a few coins to buy something they had never had the chance to before. Charlotte and Valerie went straight for the chocolate. Chocolate was a delicacy even for those considered middle class. Unfortunately, when Charlotte and Valerie got to the candy rack, though, they saw that chocolate was still too expensive. While Valerie just moved on to the lollipop section, Charlotte wouldn’t let it go. She had her heart set on a chocolate bar.

She searched the section for a cheaper piece of chocolate. Anything, it didn’t even have to be a bar of chocolate. Just a kiss, just a piece, that’s all she wanted. And then she saw it. One of the Peacekeepers had a chocolate bar in his hand, a bottle of alcohol in the other. The Peacekeeper put both items on the counter as he flirted drunkenly with the clerk behind the counter. Perhaps Charlotte could just quickly grab the chocolate. He would never notice. How could he notice? He was drunk. He would have forgotten that he even had the chocolate in the first place.

Charlotte snatched the half eaten chocolate bar from the counter and ran out of the store. Her escape wasn’t as clean as she hoped it would have been and she heard the Peacekeeper yell after her. She ran down the street, looking for Gabriella or her parents. Hoping she could find them and eat the chocolate bar in peace. She had only twenty feet when she heard the first gunshot. She turned around, put her hands up in the air, and dropped the chocolate, but no one was there. Then there was a second shot. A third. The shots rang in her ears as she started to run back to the shop.

When she reached the crowd around the commotion, she knew something happened to one of her sisters. She could feel it. She could feel that part of her was gone. The tears started to run down her cheeks as she pushed through the crowd that was now leaving the scene. Charlotte heard people whispering things like “She was so young,” and “He must have been really drunk.” Charlotte found Gabriella splattered in blood, holding a mangled body. Charlotte couldn’t tell who it was by looking at it, but she knew.

Charlotte felt her father’s arms wrap around her and pull her away from Gabriella and Valerie. Gabriella screamed as her father also pulled her up and pushed them both out of the shop. Screams of Charlotte’s mother and Gabriella filled the now empty shop. Everyone left the scene because nothing else could be done. They couldn’t stand up to the Peacekeeper, no matter how drunk. They couldn’t be seen supporting an alleged thief. They had to turn a blind eye.

Charlotte has never told anyone why Valerie was shot. Everyone just assumed it was just because the Peacekeeper was drunk. That he was crazy. That he was just sick and tired of all the recent theft. She never told anyone that he only made a mistake. That Valerie was gone because she selfishly stole a piece of chocolate.

Charlotte spends most of her time taking care of Gabriella. Their parents try to put on a strong face and watch over Gabriella, but Charlotte knows it’s too hard for them. With each laugh, each cry, each spoken word, they see Valerie. Charlotte can’t escape it either. Valerie would have looked exactly like both Charlotte and Gabriella. It brings Charlotte just as many nightmares as it brings Gabriella. Charlotte has even taken to compulsively dying her hair a dark red just to get the image of Valerie’s brown locks out of her mind.

But Charlotte doesn’t have the luxury of planting all her feelings into an emotional disorder. No, every morning she pushes through her guilt and her loss in order to care for Gabriella. She has to; she can’t let down another sister. When Gabriella couldn’t have mirrors in the house, Charlotte helped put them in storage. When Gabriella breaks out into a fit, Charlotte risks getting bruised and scarred to hold down Gabriella and calm her down. Every now and then, when the girls have separate shifts at the clothing factory, Charlotte takes Gabriella’s place despite being exhausted. Thankfully, no one ever takes the time to look at Charlotte and notice the subtle things the differentiate her from Gabriella.

roleplay: #439C94
speaking: #8CCEC7
thinking: #CFEBE8
face claim: Kathryn Prescott