Piper Welby District 9

Piper is a young girl with a slim frame. Standing straight she's about 4 foot 11 inches, but she's made a habit of slouching. She's very skinny, and her ribs are quite prominent. Her pin-straight hair falls to about her shoulders and is a golden brown color. She has big, dark brown eyes, and most people tell her that it's her best feature. The freckles on her small nose and cheekbones make her look especially young. She has very pale skin that burns easily in the sun, and she bites her nails when she's nervous (which is often), so they've become short and chipped. Much to her chagrin, she hasn't begun puberty yet and her chest is still completely flat.

Piper's very quick on her feet and hardly ever acts clumsy. Even when she's frightened or nervous she's still quite coordinated. She never took the time to grow out her bangs when she was young, so now they rest on her forehead and often fall into her eyes. She frequently has to push her bangs out of her way to see. She's a bit awkward and disproportioned, but she's convinced herself she'll grow out of it eventually. Her hands and feet both have many calluses, and one of her biggest insecurities is the scar running up her left forearm from being careless with a knife.

Piper is very shy and quiet. She doesn't talk to anybody very often, since she has very few friends. She only particapates in classes when she has to, and even at home she doesn't say much to her aunt. She writes down a lot of her thoughts instead, or sometimes she'll even walk around and talk to herself. Kids have tried to reach out and become friends when she was younger, but she never trusted them enough for them to be anything more then acquaitances. Even though she feels lonely sometimes, she isn't desperate for friends by any means. She's become used to spending time alone, and her lack of interaction with people has left her with only basic social skills. She's very awkward around people, particularly in big groups. She's always very kind to others, and she doesn't let her lack of enthusiasm for friends show, and her classmates wonder why she doesn't talk more.

One of Piper's best qualities, however, is that she chooses what she says. Since she doesn't talk very often, she has a strong filter. She never comes across as whiny or bratty because she would never say anything of that sort to people. Most of her neighbors and teachers would say that Piper is sweet and thoughtful, and she is very polite. She's also very creative, and she occasionally suggests a new game she's come up with to play with the other kids. She usually is very imaginative and comes up with great ideas. She very rarely actually takes part in playing the game, though. She would rather sit out and observe than actually be a part of the action.

Piper has plenty of other good qualities, like being smart, helpful, coorperative, and when she wants to talk, she's even funny. However, she has a number of flaws as well. She is very self concious, and she is always fiddling with her hair or her outfit trying to make herself look better. She isn't shallow, and she knows there is more to a person then looks, but she knows better then to think that everybody thinks like that, so she puts a good ammount of effort into her appearance. She is also easily intimidated by others, which a huge contributor to why she doesn't have many friends. She gets too scared to talk to them, and convinces herself that they won't like her or won't want to talk to her. One of her biggest problems though, is jealousy. Piper gets jealous of others very very easily. Although she never voices these thoughts, it's easy for her to get caught up in what other people have that she doesn't. She hates that most kids take their parents for granted and she is left with none. She can't stand it when she works hard for something and then someone else always beats her out. She doesn't really want everything, but she still envies the kids who DO have everything. She's also quite talented at holding a grudge, and if someone has something that she wants, she may secretly hold it against them for years.

Piper has been an orphan for most of her life. Before she was born, her father had been diagnosed with a fatal disease, and he died about a month after she was born. Her mother came down with pneumonia when she was 3. They hadn't had much money since her father died, since he was the main source of income, and they couldn't afford the medication for her. She died several weeks later. Piper's great aunt lived on the other side of the district, and being the only family she had left, Piper was sent to live with her. Her aunt was not unkind to her, but she had never had kids before and she didn't want any. She did everything that needed to be done for Piper to be properly raised, but nothing more. It was not in her nature to be extraordinarily generous, and Piper was expected to make do with what they had.

Piper always did well in school, but was not top of the class. She was stronger than she appeared to be, but still not the strongest. She loved to run but she wasn't fastest. She could carry a tune well, but she was no singer. Piper was always rather... average. She had heard of parents telling their children that they're special and unique, but she never believed it. She was just like everyone else. Which was plenty fine by her, actually. She never wanted to stand out or do something amazing. She never wanted to venture outside of the gates of District 9 and visit the Capitol, or do something amazing there. She never wanted to go to the Hunger Games and bring home glory for her district (or die trying). She was quiet and reserved, and being average was what she was good at.

She did have dreams, of course. She always imagined what it would be like to have a real family. She had had imaginary siblings when she was younger, and she would wander through the main part of the district, pretending to talk and play with her brothers and sisters. She had decided that when she grew up, she wanted to get married, not stay alone like her aunt, and she would have many kids so they would never be lonely. She realized that they would have to be in the running for the Hunger Games, but who cares? What are the chances that they'll be picked? She was willing to risk it.

She found that she was lonely more often then not, since she had no friends and no siblings to keep her company. She used to have a group of about 5 girls who she hung around with when she was 8 or 9, but they all got into a fight with one another and Piper refused to take sides, and so they ALL stopped talking to her. When that happened, she barely ate anything for a week, until her aunt yelled at her for making perfectly good food and then having it wasted because she was stubborn. Since then, Piper always eats supper, even if she isn't hungry at all. She used to have a sort of pet rabbit that lived right outside the district fence. Their district's electric fence was always on, but some days the electricity was stronger than others. She never dared try to touch the rabbit through the fence, but it was their every day, and Piper used to talk to it as if it could respond back to her. She told it everything that happened to her (which admittedly wasn't much), and she was glad she had time to talk to someone who could listen. But after time, the rabbit stopped going to the fence, and some time after that Piper stopped expecting it to. But still, sometimes she jsut sits at the fence, staring through it, waiting for the rabbit to come back. She knows that it's stupid, really, she thinks about how stupid it is every time she waits. But it's the one thing that she's lost that there's still hope it could come back for her. So why wouldn't she hold onto that hope and wait for it?