Pettissa Arnold, District One

Pettissa has golden blonde hair that reaches the middle of her back. She usally has it pulled back into a severe pony. Her eyes are the light blue of a sun-washed sky. On anyone else, her eyes would be considered beautiful. But on her, they are cold, calculating, and cruel. She is 5' 4", but her prescence makes her seem taller than that. When she walks into a room, she has a way of making people notice her. Maybe it's because she radiates confidence. Or maybe it's because she makes a point to glare at everyone in a room before she does anything else.

Her features are all in perfect proportion. Not too big, not too small. She holds herself with grace and dignity.

She has been deaf in her right ear for as long as she can remember. For this reason, she often tilts her head to the side so she can hear better. She doesn't like to tell people about her ear, because she doesn't like others to know her weaknesses. She is missing the tip of her pinky finger on her right hand. It got cut off during training, and they could never find the tip, so they couldn't sew it back on. She wears gloves a lot to hide this.

Pettissa is very confident in herself. She knows she can do anything she sets her mind to. Her greatest desire is to be in the Hunger Games. All her life she's trained to be a tribute. She belives she could win and bring honor to her district. At times, Pettissa can be too confident in herself. She believes she is better than other people. If she thinks they are weaker than she is, she is better than them. If she sees someone that seems stronger than her, she needs to work to be stronger than them.

She tends to judge people heavily on their outward appearances. She chooses her friends based on what they can do for her. And when they aren't useful anymore, she drops them. She can be arrogant at times. If there is someone she doesn't like or doesn't want to be associated with, she will refuse to even look at them.

She is a very good teacher. She helps out with the training of the younger careers. She is very good with children, and that is when he soft side comes out. She smiles at them, encourages them, and most of them like her a lot. Most younger children find her very easy to talk to and call her "big sister." Older careers think this is all an act, but it isn't. Pettissa actually really likes children, and would like some of her own one day.

She does not believe in love. It only gets in the way. She learned that the hard way. She had a boyfriend once named Roland Capshaw. She thought she was happy with him. She thought she loved him. Around Roland, she could take down her guard. She didn't have to be perfect, and she didn't have to be the cold, calculating person other people assumed she was. She could be the same person she was when she was with the children. She didn't have to impress him like she did others. But they had a disagreement, a falling-out of sorts. After everytyhing Pettissa had done, after all she'd put into the relationship, it had ended. She'd wasted so much time. Time she could have spent getting ready for the next Hunger Games. So love just wasn't worth it. It only held her back from what she wanted.

Pettissa has trained for the Hunger Games since she was five years old. Her parents urged her to do it, so she did. When you're that young, you tend not to question your parents' wishes. You just obey. But as time went on, Pettissa realized that she really did want to be a part of the Hunger Games. She could picture all the glory and honor she'd get when she won. The idea of failure never crossed her mind.

Her parents didn't want her to volunteer until she was sixteen. They told her if she waited, she'd have a better advantage. She'd be older, she'd be stronger. She would win. But Pettissa argued with them, saying she'd be ready by the time she was fourteen. It took a lot of convincing, but they finally agreed. When she was fourteen and the Reaping rolled around, someone else beat her to volunteering. It was soon after that that she met Roland.

She loved Roland right from the start. She could be free around him. She didn't have to be careful of how she acted and how she presented herself. She could just be herself, whoever that was. They were togrther for two years before the fighting began.

Pettissa turned seventeen that year, and so did Roland. This year she would volunteer, and this year, she would be first. She said so to Roland. He was opposed to her going into the games. He said it was murder. But the Hunger Games were Pettissa's whole life. From the beginning, she was meant to go into the games. And now here was Roland, telling her it was wrong.

She gave him a choice. Stay with her until she left for the Games, or leave her now. Roland said he'd rather say goodbye to her face than to a corpse.

And in the end, it didn't matter. Topaz Ross had beat her in volunteering. Now she only had one chance left. All the other years she'd been distracted in some way or another by Roland.

One last chance for the Hunger Games. Zero chances for love.