Rumor Hale District 2
Apr 10, 2011 13:34:02 GMT -5
Post by Lydie on Apr 10, 2011 13:34:02 GMT -5
Envy's at the dinner table with a notebook and pencil. Starting at the top of a clean page she writes:
Name: Rumor Hale
Age: 17
Gender: Female
District: District 2
At-trac-tive
[uh-trak-tiv]
Definition: providing pleasure or delight, especially in appearance or manner; pleasing; charming; alluring
Attractive is one word that could be used to describe Rumor's appearance. Her hair falls in natural curls around her face, not the wild ones that red heads tend to have but soft dark brown curls with natural highlights. Her face is heart shaped with a straight nose. Her eyes are hard and usually icy cold when she's mad at someone. They are dark brown with a shade of reddish brown around her pupil. Fanning around her almond shaped eyes are dark long eyelashes, and above them are two dark arches that enhance her intimidating expression.
Her full height is five foot seven, the tallest out of the four of us, though Splendor is catching up. Her skin is clear and fair, though if she sits out in the sun she tans easily. She also has a tattoo on her left wrist, words written in flowing script that read: Stronger Than Ever. I'm not sure why she has it, but my guess is she's trying to make Mom upset.
Just last year Rumor broke her right leg, I guess it didn't quite heal right because ever once in a while I see her wince with pain and then when she walks she'll limp. She tries to hide it but when it's really bad it's not that hard to miss.
Though her expression is often cold many people find my sister very attractive, more than once I've seen the eyes of men on the street follow my sister as she walks with confidence, unknowing of their attention. Her looks also attract glances from other girls, though their glances usually turn to glares and then a rumor or two ensue.
"What are you doing?" Envy looks up to find her sister, Rumor, standing by the table. She covers the paper with her arm.
"Nothing," She replies, afraid Rumor will get mad at her.
Rumor is suspicious, "Why was my name on that paper?"
"Um," Envy bites her bottom lip. When Rumor raises her eyebrow expectantly Envy caves, "I was just writing your biography."
Rumor snorts, "Why?"
"I don't know, I just felt like it." Envy replies.
Rumor sighs and pulls out a chair across from her, "Fine, I'll help you."
"You'll what?" Envy asks.
"I'll help you, come on, what do you have so far?" Rumor says, leaning forward.
"Um, just your appearance," Envy says hesitantly, moving her arm.
Rumor raises an eyebrow, "You think I'm attractive?"
"Uh," Envy doesn't know how to reply.
Rumor takes out a pack of cigarettes from her back pocket and says, "Anyway you're missing things." She lights a cigarette and puffs out some smoke.
"Since when did you smoke?"
"What do you care?" Rumor asks, then she points to some words on the paper, "This isn't even right, I have two tattoos."
"You do?" Envy asks, her pencil ready to write.
"Yep, it's right here." She says pointing to the spot above her right hip.
"Oh," Envy says then hesitates to say something.
"What?" Rumor asks as she takes a drag from the cigarette.
"You know Mom would kill you if she saw you smoking in here, she's having a dinner party tonight."
Rumor holds up the hem of her shirt and reveals the tattoo. It says 'Fuck it' in elegant script like the one on her wrist.
"Okay, so what you flash that at everyone when they say you'll get in trouble?" Envy asks.
"Just for you." Rumor replies blowing smoke, Envy coughs a little.
"Gee, thanks." Envy says sarcastically. "So what else do I need to add?"
"Just this." Rumor says through the cigarette in her mouth as she pulls her shirt up once again only this time she reveals her toned stomach, a jewel shines from her pierced naval.
"You got your belly button pierced too?" Envy says, disbelieving. "And I'm guessing Mom knows nothing."
"Not a peep." She replies holding the cigarette in place with her teeth. Envy shakes her head but says nothing, then Rumor asks, "So what's next?"
"Personality," Envy replies, "How about I write and then you tell me if there's anything you want to add?"
Rumor shrugs, "Sure."
Envy starts with this:
Ru-mor
[roo-mer]
Definition: a story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts.
The second of Mom's crazy names, the only thing it's good for is describing what usually happens to Rumor. Which is girls get jealous of her because all the guys are looking at her and not them so they spread rumors about her. Though since Rumor became a wild child she's had rumors spread about what she's done. Like she jumps off buildings, or she sleeps with everyone. Rumors that only add to her bad ass reputation. Though she's never denied any of the rumors about her.
For about a year now Rumor has been like this. She skips school, smokes, argues with Mom, never goes to her dinner parties, but if she does she's usually drunk and embarrasses Mom, she's hardly ever home, and she's bitchy to everyone that pisses her off. Which is just about all of us. I think she's trying to get back at Mom for something, though I'm not sure what. Before this she used to do well in school and at least tolerated all of us.
Rumor and I used to be close, I guess you could say. When Mom had dinner parties she was the one I clung to, because she disliked them just as much as I did. We would find a place to hide during the party and eat appetizers there, giggling at the funny things people would talk about. But then Rumor started distancing herself from all of us, and now I'm just another person she ignores. To her I'm just another one of her immature younger sisters.
She never got along with Luxe or Splendor, she thought that they were fake, that all they were is their appearance and nothing more. She hates being compared to Luxe, and never talks to her. And Rumors always ignored Splendor, I guess she doesn't like to put up with her because she's the youngest and because she's always kissing up to mom. At least she respects Luxe, while any respect she could have had for Splendor was lost long ago.
I've never met her friends before, it's not like she ever brings them over. But I know she has them, ones that do the same bad things that she does. I see them sneaking away from school together. She hangs out with a lot of people that are older than her, a lot of guys. I don't know where they all go or what they do but I know it's nothing good. My sister has the reputation of a rebel.
"Is this okay?" Envy asks Rumor, pushing the notebook toward her. "Anything to add or refute?"
Rumor puffs out some smoke while she looks down at it, her face revealing no emotion, just her usual I-Don't-Give-A-Shit look. "No," She says after a couple minutes, her voice strangely quiet. "This is fine."
Envy watches her sister for a moment, noticing a tiredness she's never seen before. "Okay," She says, clearing her throat, "Then next is history." She starts to pull the notebook back toward her but Rumor's hand weighs down it down.
"Let me write this part." She says, "I know more about it than you do."
Envy would have said no, but the look that she had seen on her sister's face moments before stuck in her mind. So she let go of the notebook and handed her the pencil. Rumor took it then burnt her cigarette out by pressing it against the polished oak table. It left a dark ring on the surface and Rumor smiled darkly at it. This was a Rumor Envy had only seen once before, one that always scared her. She swallowed nervously while Rumor started writing:
Reb-el
[reb-uhl
Definition: a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.
I have three sisters, Luxe, Envy, and Splendor. Luxe is three years older than me, Envy is two years younger, and Splendor is three. We are all the daughter's of Rachelle Kendricks, though her current last name is Hale. My father's last name. He's never really been a father to me. Luxe is from my mother's first marriage, Envy is the result of an affair and Splendor is the only sister who shares the same parents as me. Lucky, lucky me.
I've always considered my mother to be a slut, she can't be without a man for a single day. And even when she does have one she can't stay faithful to them. Envy's father wasn't the first of her affairs. There have been others, but I'm the only one who knows about them. I was lucky enough to walk in on her one day when no one else was home with a man who wasn't my father. I was ten then, and ever since I've been the one who has to help cover up for her. I'm the one who knows all about the men in her life.
But I don't cover for her anymore, because I'm tired of putting up with her shit. I'm not going to make up stories for her about where she really is or about where she's been. I'm not going to help her sneak back into the house through my open window. She can find a new bitch to do her bidding, because I'm not doing it anymore.
Ever since I was a child I've been forced to look pretty at my mother's stupid dinner parties, to pretend that we have the perfect life, that she didn't tell Envy how worthless she was because she was illegitimate. The only one who has a perfect life out of the four of us is Luxe. But that's just because Mom loved her.
I used to think that if I did whatever my mother wanted me to do things would change. That she'd somehow wake up from the cloud she's been living on and realize what she's put us all through. I thought it had been working when she went without another lover for a whole year. I'd been naive then, weak, and stupid. Mother's never going to change, I realized that when she came to me one day as I was doing my homework and said, "Honey, I'll be out visiting a friend, I won't be home till late." Her perfectly manicured nails running through my hair as she did. My stomach twisted and fell at her words, at these familiar words that only we knew the true meaning to. Of course my response came automatically, I had been trained well, "Okay Mom, have fun." And then she would smile with humor in her eyes and say, "Oh you know I will." She'd kiss me on my forehead and walk out the door.
That night I didn't leave my window open, I kept it locked and slept in Envy's room. While I lied awake that night I wondered how long Mom would knock on my windowsill, thinking I'd come to her rescue.
I started hanging out with different people then, we'd skip school and hang out at an abandoned mine smoking and drinking. I lost my innocence there, the child who had believed anything was possible and that there was a rainbow somewhere out there waiting for me. I didn't look back, just felt the thrill of defying my mother, of being a rebel.
One night we were drinking, walking around the district, and somehow we ended up on a roof, looking over the edge and losing our balance when the wind picked up. I was the only one to jump, the only one to feel my hair rise on the back of my neck and the smile that curled my lips. The only one to feel the exhiliration of putting my life in my own hands, not my mothers or anyone elses.
I went to the emergency room that night, broke my right leg and got a concussion from the fall. Envy was the one who brought me there. My so called friends went running the minute I hit the ground and didn't move. I'll always owe Envy for being there that night. She was the one person I had ever been able to count on, and I'm sure she was confused that night. Because she didn't know why I had done what I'd done. After all those nights talking and giggling we had never talked about our dark secrets, about mother's string of lovers and why I hated her.
She was the closest thing I had to a real sister, a real friend and I had put a wedge between us. There were only so many things I could confide in her, and I didn't want her to become tainted through me, through my hate. I didn't want her to save me.
I've been with a lot of guys, in some ways I guess I take after my mom. Though I didn't really remember who any of them are, those nights are always a blur thanks to lots of alcohol. In fact I don't remember much of what happens in the abandoned mine.
A lot of my 'friends' are morphling addicts and I guess tend to get sucked into their world, like you can be affected by the drug just by being around a user. I've only used it once, and I didn't like that I wasn't the one in control. So I never used it again.
These days I don't come home much, and you'll never see me at mother's dinner parties. Because I'm done with her, I can't put up with her any more than I have to. And even then all I do is piss her off, on purpose of course, sometimes I even hint to Father that she's cheating on him. Though I know even if he found out he's still forgive her because he has no backbone. He's just a spineless idiot who lets Mom use his money for parties and dresses.
Rumor puts the pencil down and flexes her hand. Envy straightens and says, "Done?" Rumor nods, another cigarette clamped between her lips. "Great let's see it." Envy says, reaching for the notebook. But Rumor got to it first and rips out the pages of her sister's biography, folding them in half. "What are you doing?"
Rumor gets up from her chair and blows out smoke, "Did you really think I was going to let you keep it?" Envy's mouth just hangs open, shocked. Rumor starts walking out of the room, towards the front door.
"Are you coming to the dinner party?" Envy asks, trying to hide the annoyance she feels.
Rumor glances back and answers through the cigarette in her mouth, "What do you think?" Then she walks out the door leaving Envy sitting at the dinner table, alone.
Later, early in the morning when her mother's dinner party is long over Rumor slips inside, using he window. She's half drunk but when she sits on the edge of her bed she pulls a couple sheaths of paper from her back pocket and unfolds them, looking at the writing there that's all about her. "Sorry Envy, but you just can't understand." She says into the darkness. Rumor knew she should burn them so that no one but her will know her mother's secrets as well as her own, but there's some comfort in having your history written out. As if maybe what's there could be erased and changed into something new, something better than the truth. So she folds them up again and stuffs them under her matress. Her dirty little secret, still hers to keep.
Codeword: Odair
Comments/Other:
Color Codes-
Title=FF0000
Present=F62817
Memory=F76541
Thought=F9A7B0
Speaking=F88158
