Diethelm, D. 10

A gangly boy with freckles and light blue eyes. His curly reddish-brown hair is cut just slightly longer than conventional, with his bangs falling just below his forehead and flaring out around his ears and the back of his neck. He's one of the tallest students in his class and always holds himself straight and proper thanks to constant reminders from his father. However, he can be rather clumsy at times, tripping over shoelaces, running into doors or walls, dropping a pencil (or dropping everything altogether). Consequently, he's not a very athletic person, with a rather thin build and not a lot of strength.

On most days he prefers to dress casual and basic: simple jeans and a hoodie. To add flavor to his otherwise bland wardrobe of red sweaters and khakis, he likes to carry a pair of sunglasses around. This "odd" taste in fashion along with his perpetual clumsiness makes him something of a stereotypically awkward/geek guy. It used to be worse when he wore glasses, but he was at least able to resolve that issue when he saved enough money to buy contact lenses.

To strangers he is a very proper, business-like, and polite young man with perfect manner. To friends, he can go between being the one who starts a deep conversation to being a total goofball. He can take jokes and pranks very well, with the right amount of expression at just the right time. Mostly, he's a very compassionate person able to come up with a defense for any point of view (whether he agrees with it or not), and has a strong interest in politics. He firmly believes that, even with the Games, society will eventually right itself without another destructive war, no matter how impossible it may seem.

Despite his love of acting and drama acts, he has trouble maintaining a "facade". Although he has learned to choose his words carefully, he is never afraid to speak out. His strong sense of morals and "right" for justice and his willingness to protest anything he finds unjust often gets in the way; there has yet to be a week when he won't have a run-in with the Peacekeepers for doing something"against the rules". Some call him fearless; others call him stupid.

When not getting into trouble, he is carefree and optimistic about life. He's not very updated on the very everyday things (gossip, fashion, rumors; anything that isn't unjust or out of the ordinary), which gives his mind more room on other things. Aside from politics and drama (which, as his friends pointed out, were potentially very dangerous careers for him), he puts lots of his spare time into music and mathematics. Add in his already awkward appearance and geeky attitude, people perceive him to be the epitome of a nerd. He doesn't seem to care much for practicality as much as theoreticality (his new word for the dictionary), which seems to explain his klutzy tendencies and haphazard daydreams (which could occur anywhere, from the usual history class to the middle of the sidewalk).

He was born into one of the more wealthier families in D. 10. His parents own a small coffee shop and bookstore, where wealthier students like himself would congregate after school to eat and talk. His parents were aware of the monetary corruption of richer districts, so they insisted not to spoil him and raise him the same as a child in the middle-class ranks. Growing up, he has always had a strong sense for doing "right", but only until recently did it dawn on him how horrible the Games really are. He realizes a rebellion would not be a very good solution to stop it, but he's always waiting for the right chance to seize and speak out against these atrocities. This sets him apart from his other friends, who are much more cynical and pessimistic and have simply accepted the current situation.

Quite recently, he's dived head-first into politics and acting, which turned out to be strong areas for him. This worries his parents some, as his firm belief in justice and skill with words could draw unwanted attention from the authorities. More than once he has gotten into messy trouble with Peacekeepers, even beaten a few times, but he continues to be resilient in his views that what the Capitol does is just WRONG. Since then he has learned to know when to keep his mouth shut, speaking his true thoughts and feelings only in the presence of his friends.

In an earlier attempt to keep him mind off of "things" his parents encouraged him to pick up music. This plan succeeded to some extent, as he's not quite a delinquent or rebel. Most of his spare was devoted to reading and learning his instrument of choice (the trombone). From an early age he showed much promise, and his parents never hesitated to spend money to further his music education. In the past year he began to express interest in expanding his knowledge beyond his current instrument, asking one of his friends to teach him piano and another friend to show him French horn. Since entering the Algebra class, he has dreamed of joining the older students in Calculus (which make people label him "geek/nerd" even more so). He has only two more years remaining before he can do that, and jokes that he would be sad to die in the Games not because he would be dead, but because he would never have taken Calculus.