Hazel Morgan - District Four

So, as you obviously have noticed, her name is Hazel. Since she lives in District Four, close to the ocean, this name isn’t picked because of the beautiful hazel bushes that grow all the way around her house or because that was the first thing that caught her mothers eye when she was born. There are no hazel bushes in District Four. No, she was named Hazel, because of her, and this is quoting her mom, „beautiful, hazel colored eyes“. Honestly, imagine her mom standing there, holding her hand in front of her mouth and saying that in her squeaky, high pitched voice and you get the picture of what she is like.
So what other things stand out when talking about Hazels looks? I guess the most prominent thing that catches your eye when you stumble across her is her long, red hair. Yes, in the middle ages, they would have called her a witch and burnt her for having red hair, but thankfully, these times are over and today it’s just a thing that makes her stand out in a large crowd. Her hair falls down to about her shoulder blades and is dead straight. No curls whatsoever. People tend to always want what they can’t have and Hazel always wanted to have curls. But even though she doesn’t like her hair being straight, she really likes the color. Hazel usually wears her hair hanging loose around her shoulders.

Hazel only measures 5ft 2, which makes her one of the shortest kids in her class. She inherited that from her mom, who herself is even one inch shorter than Hazel is. She weighs around 110lb, which makes her thin, but not anorectic. Hazel doesn’t especially care about her weight, as swimming and diving doesn’t allow extra pounds to accumulate. Because of swimming a lot, her body shows well-trained muscles, especially on her arms and her back. She’s not strong in terms of weight lifting of extremely fast when it comes to running, but she is a fast swimmer and enduring once it comes to long distance runs or long distance swimming. Her skin is fair, even though she spends most of her time outside and in the sun. Somehow, her skin just doesn’t turn tan, which makes her stand out in between most of the other inhabitants of District Four, who’s skin generally is a lot darker than hers is. Because of her fair skin, she gets sunburnt quite easily, which is why she often wears long sleeved shirts or long pants even during the summertime, since sunscreen is quite expensive and a luxury item her family can’t afford.
Hazel has two toes that are grown together on both her left and her right foot. As a kid, her dad always told her, that that was great for living by the ocean, because it kind of resembled the webbing of water animals and allowed her to swim faster than all the other kids. Hazel always smiled and giggled when her dad told her stories like that.

Good Traits:
Hazel is a very outgoing person. She never had problems getting in touch with other people. She is not afraid to talk to other people and is usually the one to take the first step when meeting someone new. Hazel likes to laugh and has a winning smile, which helps her wrap others around her little finger, even though she usually doesn’t use this ability against others on purpose. While it is easy for others to get to know her a little bit, it’s quite an effort for them to become one of her real and close friends. Those few lucky people she calls her true friends can count on Hazel in every possible way.
She is smart and usually has an idea to solve the problems she’s confronted with. She loves to try new things even if others try to convince her, that they are dangerous and that she should better stay the hell away from them.


Bad Traits:
Hazel could be called stubborn, since she sticks with her ideas and once she’s made up her mind, it’s not easy to argue her out of it again. Even though sticking to an idea and not letting got at the first sight of trouble might be a good thing, this personality trait has gotten Hazel into trouble more than once in her life.
Hazel is naïve in many different ways. She believes in the good in other people and doesn’t listen to other people’s warnings. She trusts other people even though they have not proven to be trustworthy. Her naivety makes her vulnerable and even though she’s a likable person, every once in a while someone uses her naivety to trick her.
Hazel is extremely impatient and impulsive. She usually acts before she really thinks about it. This, same as her willingness to stick to her plans and ideas, has gotten her in trouble more than once, since she speaks her mind without thinking about the consequences.

Likes:
Hazel loves to be in the water and especially under water. She loves the feeling when the water surface closes over her head and the water muffles her ears and all the sounds around her. She adores the feeling of weightlessness underneath the water. Since she always wanted to fly and because that is not possible, the weightlessness underwater is somewhat of a trade for flying.
She also loves the ocean. It seems so endless to her and in her mind resembles freedom. She often sits on a rock on the shore watching the sunrise in the morning or the sunset in the evening and thinks of what might be across the ocean and behind the horizon.
Hazel likes chocolate, even though that’s a treat her family cannot afford on a regular basis. Usually one of her birthday presents is a small piece of chocolate, which she savors, as this is something she can only have once a year.

Dislikes:
Hazel doesn’t like people that tell her what to do and what not to do. She has her own mind and sticks to that, even though sometimes it would definitely be better, if she listened to the suggestions other people make.
She absolutely hates spiders and other animals crawling around. While she doesn’t have any problems with animals living under water (and yes, this does include jellyfish), she absolutely freaks out when a spider moves across the walls of her room.
Hazel doesn’t like her fair skin. Even though her mom is thrilled, that she doesn’t tan, since that is considered beautiful and a sign that someone doesn’t have to work outside in District One and the Capitol, it drives Hazel nuts. Not only does it makes her stand out, but also she has to deal with sunburns whenever the sun shows.

Hazel grew up in District Four in a small house right at the coastline. Her parents, well actually just her dad, works as a pearl diver. He’s lived in District Four his whole life and learned diving from his dad. So the whole pearl hunting business is kind of a family business. Because of his job, he got to travel to District One a few times during his life, for showing the jewelry craftsmen the pearls he harvested. That is where he met and fell in love with Hazel’s Mom. She was born in District One as the daughter of two jewelry designers and fell so madly in love with the pearl diver from District Four, so she left District One to live with him. Hazel still thinks his defined muscles were the thing that won her. She still is all crazy about looks, even though that makes her somehow stand out in District Four. The pearl diving pays their bills and the family has not to suffer from not having enough to eat (and that means also, Hazel doesn’t have to sign up for tesserae), but they don’t have enough to pay for special things such as chocolate or sunscreen, at least not on a regular basis.

Hazel is the oldest of three children. Even though the pearl diving offers her family a decent live, they can’t afford separate rooms for all her children, so Hazel shares a room with her younger sister Kara (11). Her younger brother Mitch (5) has the honor of having a room all to himself, even though he still gets scared a lot during the nights, walks into the girls room and cuddles close to Hazel. She loves her younger siblings dearly and would pretty much do everything she can to protect them. Even though she never trained to be a Career, she would definitely volunteer if either of their names get drawn during the reaping. She thinks the Hunger Games are a cruel and crazy way of the Capitol to suppress everyone in Panem and keep them under control and in constant fear. But same as most other citizens of Panem, she is glued to the TV screens during the games, hoping for her districts tributes to win. She just got lucky, that it never was one of her friends that got selected to play for their lives inside the arena.

Being a pearl divers daughter, Hazel learned to swim when she was a little kid and started diving at the same time. She doesn’t need any diving equipment besides a mask, since after years and years of training and diving for shells, she can hold her breath for close to five minutes and is good when it comes to endurance sports, such as long distance runs or long distance swimming. She has always liked the water and even though her mom can’t understand why a girl would dive for pearls in the ocean with her hand getting all cut up and having bruises all over the body from when a wave catches her and throws her against a rock, she always joined her dad when he went out to dive. Hazel is decent in school. She doesn’t show too much effort in her classes since she thinks that’s something she won’t need for her future life, which is continuing the family business.

Ok, so here’s the catch to my whole application here: I’m from Germany, speaking German as my first language, and even though I lived in the States for a whole year, I know my English (especially the grammar) is not as picture perfect as that of pretty much every one around here. I’ve been RPGing for the past two years in various RPGs in Germany but this is my first try to write in English. So yes, this is kind of an experiment for me, but if you are willing to cope with my mistakes (and hopefully there only will be few!!!), I would be glad to join your board! ¬~Mara
Oh, and one more thing: I know District 4 is known for fishing, so I wonder if the whole pearl hunting thing is ok or if that’s extending the whole story too much. Just let me know if it’s not ok and I’ll alter the story.