Maddox Hightower (District 7)

Let me introduce myself. My name is Maddox Hightower. I am 14 years old, with a height of about 5' 10" and growing. I also weigh about 175 pounds. So, I'm pretty well your average woodworker-class District 7 boy. The main difference is that I am slightly more stronger due to the work I do in helping my mother chopping wood.

As for my looks, I have a look which I mostly got from my mother, who is part of the cutter-class of District 7. I've got their shiny black hair (usually spiky), and their angular black eyes. A long-held tradition says that the cutters are descended from refugees from a war in some place called "Vietnam". I'm not sure if its true, but the cutters do look Asian to me. However, I have far lighter skin than most of them, and my nose looks quite different also.

I'm not the one to brag, but I am considered the most handsomest boy in District 7. I've had many cutters (and some woodworkers) just come out and proclaim my love to me. I love to flirt with them, but I never really had a girlfriend. I just don't think I have found the person right enough for me. I believe that dating is a rather slow process.

I've got two younger siblings, a brother named Mark and a sister named Patricia. They are the people I care about the most in the world. I'd jump into a bottomless chasm for them. They are the reason why I work with my mother in the forest. They re my lifeblood.

However, nobody's perfect, and I have to admit that I have a major flaw: I can get easily enraged. For example, one day, at school, an woodworker classmate gave me the slanty eyes and said to me "ling long ding dong". I was so enraged that I tackled her to the ground almost immediately. I almost was going to elbow her unconscious, but then the principal saw it, and I got suspended for a day. Ever since that time, I have tried to control my anger, but to no avail.

I was born in the hut my mother was raised about 14 years ago. My father was the main overseer of the forest (who is always a woodworker), and he fell in love with one of the cutter women and married her. This isn't unusual; in fact, the current forest overseer, Mr. Mason, has a cutter wife. I was born within a year after the wedding, and two years before he was upgraded as head foreman of papermaking. I have lived in the square of District 7 ever since.

As a member of the woodworker class, we start working at the age of 7 in a certain trade. I was assigned to fix the papermaking machinery, for obvious reasons. However, as my mother still works as a cutter, I volunteer to help her cut wood. It is a very arduous task, but it is very satisfying work. At times, I even give Mr. Mason some things from the square in order to cure his homesickness.

However, when I turned 12, my life changed. That was the first time I signed up for tesserae. Even though we really don't need the tesserae, my mother urged me to sign for it (for all of my family) so that she can give some of if to her parents and friends. I, being the obedient son, complied, and because of that I now have 15 slots in the reaping, which I recently just survived. However, last week, my mother announced to us that she was pregnant. The good news is that I'm going to have another younger sibling to protect. The bad news is that next year, I'm going to have another tesserae. I just don't want to go to the Hunger Games and die or turn out like Blight, who won a few years ago and is now a complete imbecile.