Airam Toulouse - District 11 (WIP)

It's a foreign lookin' name, is'nit? Never knew where it came from, they never taught it in school, but it sure ain't Panemic. 'M sure of it. They all would've loved it, but they got rid of m'.

I 'member once, back home, we had two mirrors. We weren't allowed to look in 'em much, 'cause Mama and Papa said that it'd make us selfish, that we'd worry too much about is my hair the right way and this shirt doesn't look right! I never obeyed much, though. Every once in a while -- actually, more than every once in a while -- I'd sneak on up outta my room and hold m' breath as I walked down the stairs, I'm not sure why because it's not like it'd stop the boards from creakin'. And I remember thinkin', feelin' special because I knew somethin' that my kin didn't. I knew where one of the mirrors were because I saw 'em hide it once, behind the painting on one of those walls. I don't miss them walls. I'd much rather have this windmill and m' Val. They'd angered me and so I'd stayed up late, at the top of the stairs. The next day was a day that they'd let us look at ourselves, but I didn't get to, 'cause I was too busy dirtyin' up my shorts and rippin' a sleeve (I'd climbed a tree and fell out, so what? They never let m' be a kid.) I liked to look at m'self. It ain't that I'm selfish or that I'm greedy or vain, but it felt good to know that I actually had a face and that I was a person. I remember that I almost got caught once. I didn't though, I scrambled and jumped out of the window (they'd kept it open, it was during the summer. There wasn't no way to cool us off.

There was times, though, that Mom and Dad had worked so hard that they just didn't care. They'd get home and take off their clothes and go to sleep, no supper or nothin'! The rest of us would all stay up and talk about boys and girls in a hushhush voice so we wouldn't wake 'em up. They told us to go to sleep as soon as they'd get home, so we'd listen and put on our nightgowns or pajama pants and act like we were asleep. As soon as we heard Dad snorin' though, we were up and shufflin' across the floor for at least another 2 hours