Zadie Cicero - District 2

Zadie can be compared to a doll: quite pretty, but fragile and soft. She tops out at five feet, three inches, and doesn't weight more than one hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. Her round face is framed by long, chocolate brown locks, stretching down her petite torso. Her skin is porcelain pale and baby soft, proof that she has never had to work very hard a day in her life. What most people notice first about Zadie, however, is her eyes. They're quite large and a surreal shade of emerald green. A button nose and full cherry lips complete the picture.

Because she's still carrying around some of her baby fat, Zadie struggles in many areas physically. In close quarters, it wouldn't take much to overpower the tiny girl. To her advantage, she is incredibly light on her feet, a breeze on legs. Someone who's weighed down by muscle would never be able to catch up to her. Zadie's style is minimalistic at best. She's a big fan of trousers, loose tops, and pulling her hair back into a side ponytail. She wouldn't be caught dead wearing makeup. Unless, of course, her father insists for some sort of special occasion.

Most people who know her would describe Zadie as a giant goofball. She's a laid back, open minded, fun loving girl, who firmly believes that laughter is the answer to everything. Well, almost everything. If you see her with straws up her nose or chips between her lips, don't be alarmed; it's just Zadie being Zadie. She doesn't take anything seriously unless she absolutely has to, and even then she'll probably be fighting back a smile. As a result, she can sometimes come off as immature or even insensitive, but as with anyone the truth is a lot more complicated.

Growing up in an unstable environment, Zadie's ability to make her father laugh and lighten the mood was often the only thing that made life bearable. Even today, she falls back on her sense of humor anytime there's trouble. She's surprisingly intuitive, very good at figuring out what someone is feeling based solely on body language and facial expressions. But she's still learning that, unlike her father, not everyone falls into a rage when they're a little upset. Strong emotions make her nervous, and if they're strong enough she'll retreat back into her old shell.

Underneath all the jokes and her anxiety, Zadie is quite mature. She's hard working and responsible, someone who never makes a promise unless she knows she can keep it. She has one of those faces that people just seem to trust, and she tries not to take that truest for granted by doing anything stupid. Although she sometimes entertains fantasies of running away of fighting back, she doesn't have the courage to act on them in reality. For now she's stuck playing the role of the good girl, even though what her heart really thirsts for is adventure.

Zadie was born and raised in District Two, the first child to Ruff and Portia Cicero. Her twin brother, Atticus, who was seventeen minutes younger, was born with a congenital heart defect. At only three days old, he passed away from complications. Whatever course Zadie's life was supposed to take was changed forever that day. Her parents sank into a depression so deep that they couldn't see anything but their grief, not even the daughter who had survived. Screaming was the soundtrack to Zadie's childhood and tears were her constant lullaby.

Although they lived in one of the Upper Districts, the Ciceros were a modest family who valued hard work above almost everything else. In addition to his immovable pride, Ruff was also a violent man, but he knew how to hone his temper in a way that made him untouchable. He never once raised a hand to his wife or daughter, but he often demeaned and belittled them into submission. There were days when Zadie would have preferred a bruise to the endless stream of verbal abuse. She was never smart enough, athletic enough, pretty enough.

The only she she ever did right, it would seem, was make her father laugh. Her sense of humor developed at a young age, and she relied on it a lot to survive the bad days. School became a refuge to the young girl, even though she didn't she didn't excel in much of anything. Her grades were painfully average and her coordination was nonexistence. But she did have a knack for making even the most critical patients laugh, so at twelve years old she began training as a nurse. Because her family is fairly well-off, tesserae has never an issue for Zadie, and the Hunger Games still seem like a tragedy that happens to other people, not to her.