"Tessa" || D4

Tessa usually has a rather fair complexion covering her mere 5'3" frame, though inevitably it's been brushed with a faint tan from the kiss of the sun that many in district four seem to sport to a greater or lesser extent - though in Tessa's case it's "the lesser extent". Her tans fade quickly though, and when they do she turns what appears to be a death shade of white with dark rings around even darker brown eyes.

When she was younger dark brown hair used to reach just past her shoulders. As she grew she left it chopped just past her shoulder blades, and due to the salt water mixed with the sun's harsh rays that came as part of the district four package once dark brown hair started to sun bleach. Tessa is now left with uneven, partly sun bleached and partly medium brown hair.

Her frame isn't all that impressive, 5'3" with very little muscle, or fat. Of course this is rather convenient for swimming as she seems rather seam-lined, though on the downfall it also makes her seem like a rather undesirable career choice. Despite all this, she is a rather decent shot with throwing knives and spears, which are her favoured choices when training, though she tends to throw with her right arm despite being left-handed. She can still throw with her left, and for close combat prefers her left hand. Though when long distances and precision are required she favours her right - this is due to a permanent muscle injury cause during a training session, where (what's there) of her biceps were severed with a knife. Though recovered it left scar tissue, resulting in limited mobility with throwing.

Tessa is a very social, bubbly, polite girl - she get's rather depressed by herself as it "allows her too much time to think", and she gets overwhelmed by the sorrow of loneliness. As a result of this she usually surrounds herself with others, friends or not, to keep the chatter around her flowing.

Generally Tessa is rather laid back, and probably best described as a bit of a push-over, though she has an extreme stubborn streak and won't give up untill she's proved her point. That being said, never tell her she is too small or can't do something for whatever other reason. She will push herself to ridiculous extremes, ending up in healer's arms a few times, including near exhaustion just to prove she can. When she comes around again, whoever challenged her is best advised to clear out, as she'll probably round on them.

Tessa's stubborn streak and need to be acknowledge and accepted make her very vulnerable to manipulation. This weakness is usually played upon by her trainers, as when she doesn't pull 100% effort out of her sleeve the hardest blow anyone could say to her is "Oh well, what did we expect from a girl like you... You just don't have it in you". Not only does that piss her off, but it also drives her to train harder.

Tessa's life has been a rather boring one to date. She was born into a stable enough family, her parent's weren't overly rich but at the same time they weren't dirt poor - they were able to support themselves.

Her parents are still together, and despite their attempts Tessa has remained an only child. After her parents started fighting about not being able to conceive a younger sibling {which they insisted was for their precious daughter} they had decided Tessa would be happier and thrive a lot more in a single child house with happy parents than in a house with parents who were constantly on edge about not having a sibling for their child.

Tessa had never allowed her parents into her thoughts, but quietly she was relieved they had failed to have another child, many of the others at school or her friends had siblings and though there were positives to having siblings, the main reoccurring complaint she heard was of the terrors one faced when a sibling got chosen as a career, and they had to sit and watch as they killed or got killed. Quietly she was thankful she never had to endure this.

At the age of eight her parents had already started her training, as they were concerned about their daughter's light on frame and fearful of how little the odds were with her if she was chosen at the reaping in three years time they started training her, mainly trying to build up her muscle. For one reason or another this seemed to fail, so even though they kept up with the never wining battle of putting muscle onto the girl, they also started shaping her into the molding of what the higher districts were known for - their terrifying careers.

She could remember her first training day, walking into the training canter at eight - she looked like little more than an overly large doll. Large dark eyes surrounded by dark rings had stared at everyone closely, watching as they scoffed at the doll like child. Many were much, much older. Probably ditching school to train. She had gone straight to the knives, picking one up - her mother had always told her not to play with them in the kitchen so the young girl couldn't comprehend why they were sitting on a bench, for anyone to grasp hold of and play with.
She could feel her father's eyes staring at the back of her head, watching his only daughter intently as he waited patiently for her next action, which didn't take long to reveal.
One tiny arm was drawn back, to launch a knife at the target. It wasn't a brilliant hit, but it hit.

From that first day her father started drilling into her attacking and defending with knives, she was their precious only daughter and if this was her best way home in the unfortunate and disastrous case of being picked as a career, they had to nurture that talent.

Other than that her life is like most others of district four. Her father like many others sells and trades in fish and other seafood, cleaning crustacean and bringing home pearls and pretty bits of coral and sea glass he finds for Tessa to make jewelry out of to sell, occasionally sending that to the capitol with shipments of seafood.