EVANDER HALT / d12

COMING OUT OF MY CAGE, I'VE BEEN DOING JUST FINE;
Evander could be considered a looker, in Seam terms anyway – straight ebony hair often greasy from not being washed, delicate features that of a boy, not a man, and shockingly blue eyes only a couple shades off the traditional grey. The only thing that differs from the norm is his pasty complexion, suggesting perhaps a lack of some sort of nutrition in his infancy. Nothing more than a young adolescent boy stands before you, simple and ungainly in stature. It’s hard to look menacing when you’re skinny and five foot four, especially in the brutal grasp of District Twelve. There’s a noticeable lack of muscle in his arms and legs, and as a young child he often fell ill when it was cold. But, despite his non-imposing build, there is hardiness about this boy that gives off the impression that he is a survivor. Having played near the hazardly mines often, there are those childhood scars healed over on the predicted places. This child was not designed for the mines, or for the office, but the money from Arbour’s victory is slowly running out, and Evander knows he will have to work; his vision problem was not deemed severe enough to prevent serving his adulthood down in the shafts.

There are some perks to being related to a victor. The money supplied from the Capitol was channelled into a visit to the merchant doctor who diagnosed Evander with severe myopia and gave him a sturdy pair of glasses. Though he disliked the pandering things at first, he now feels blind without them. Short-sightedness may not sound like a big deal, but he can barely catch a ball without those precious glasses. He, like most of District Twelve’s residents, has plain, rugged clothes that are quickly becoming too small for him. His adult teeth have grown in crooked and yellow, so he rarely grins, and when he does it’s around those close to him, never to the outside world. Still, he bears the established Halt traits almost to the extreme; lanky build, dark hair and pale eyes.

Though his body resembles a 12-year old, teenage arrogance has introduced itself to his features. He walks with his head high, eyes filled with daring. To an acquaintance his voice has a hostile edge to it and to those he doesn’t like he doesn’t hold his words from contempt. Every so often there are bruises and cuts on his body from pushing someone just a little too far. In his spare time he might go home and be on the old wooden piano more kept as an antique in his house rather than an usable instrument. Either that, or wherever a gang of children are hanging about after school; the slag heap, the Seam, maybe even causing trouble around the town centre. He is indeed a strange case in District 12, but that never stopped him from trying to fit in.

GOTTA GOTTA BE DOWN, BECAUSE I WANT IT ALL;

Was there ever much difference between what’s “normal” and what is called “weird”? Evander is a mixture of both, having a teenager’s attitude while stuck in a child’s body. It seems his frail physique is too small for the personality that comes out of it. He is a hostile and untrusting stranger, which often makes it hard for anyone to befriend him. Most of his friends are relatives, simply because he has been stuck with them for more time than anyone. Perhaps if he actually tried to make his friends by being charismatic and pleasant it would make life easier, but what most of his friendships come down to is time and patience. On the outside he keeps a tough face, even if he’s the only one that falls for it. However, there’s some sort of desperation about it – something that begs for camaraderie that makes it seem all the more pathetic. Evander desires to be well-known outside his family ties, but it’s hard to escape your uncle’s shadow, especially when he survived the Hunger Games. So what is a sure-fire way of being noticed, when nothing else will work? Being tiresomely obnoxious! He’s not like this to everyone, but he usually annoys all the wrong people, which gets him a few cuts and bruises every now and then. It’s not always, but sometimes he just pushes it too far. He too is easily provoked, and despite the fact he can’t fight to save his life he will never turn down an offer.

To his younger sibling Calvin and their cousins, he is the nanny when the parents aren’t around, which is virtually all the time. Sometimes he hates having to care for Calvin, Cain and Brennan, but he is ultra defensive of them and has earned the name “Nanna Halt” for the time he spends taking care of his younger relative. He despises the name and only allows the use of it occasionally. Being the main caretaker has given him some responsibility, and thank goodness for that, without it he would probably be a juvenile delinquent. Well, he is, if truancy counts as a crime. School, in his opinion, is a tiresome and pointless activity, more like mature day care than an actual education. Why waste your time at school when all you’re going to be is a workaday coal miner anyway? So he ditches it whenever he can, careful to avoid Peacekeepers or any other adults that might turn him in with a couple of other kids who also don’t bother with the struggle of school. Sometimes, when all the Halt kids aren’t feeling too enthusiastic about their classes, they’ll all stay at his house and he’ll let them run wild while he practises on the piano.

Music is his talent and his escape, and though there isn’t much means for such a hobby in District Twelve, he gets by with the old piano, his own voice and the old folk tunes he persuades others to teach him. When the piano is broken which is quite often these days he makes sure it is fixed, no matter the cost. He sometimes dreams he’s performing in the Capitol, having won the Games and revealed his surprising talent. That he was the one that had survived the carnage and was living a life of fame and riches. No trick, he doe admire his uncle immensely, but since he became the victor all Evander and his relatives are known as are the “Arbour Kids” or perhaps the “Little Halts”. He immensely dislikes people’s half-hearted attentions when they come from his connections, but it’s better than not being known at all.

IT STARTED OUT WITH A KISS, HOW DID IT END UP LIKE THIS?
Ilan Halt was always the the quiet one out of his brothers. When Cade and Tamar were fighting, he would be the one to solve it. He was the one that, despite being pretty average in school, shut up and did his work. He was viewed as the subdued older sibling, not the sharpest, not the smartest or the most attractive of the Halts, but no one went out of their way to abuse him or make him feel unwelcome. Perhaps it was because he was what was expected out of a District 12 resident; someone who did the dirty work without complaining, someone who never asked questions, someone who never expected more than he had.

Evie and him were the normal couple; they met, they bonded, they both accepted the fact that though their relationship was not the romance of the century, they were both happy with it. She was the fragile girl from deep within the Seam, all porcelain skin and blue eyes. Despite being in the same school the two never really had much to do with each other until their mid-teens. Ilan proposed shortly before Evie admitted she was pregnant, to the mild surprise of the public; this sensible, down-to-earth couple were the last ones they thought to bring a bastard child into the world. At seventeen Evie moved into the Halt house until she and her fiancee could marry and afford their own place. There was no problems in the early pregnancy, in fact, she was pleased as punch to have a kick-start in their family.

However, as they reached the third trimester of the pregnancy, complications arose. Evie's health - which was average at best - plummeted. She could barely walk outside the house without becoming exhausted, and she would often get high fevers and refuse any food offered to her. Ilan tried his best to support his love during these testing times, and brought her herbs and medicines when he could. But she only lived a few days after her son's birth before she succumbed to illness, leaving Ilan with a frail son and a meagre inheritance. Ilan did his best to restart his life, and succeeded. Recovering from his fiancee's death, he bought a rickety old house which his parents helped filling by giving him a crib, a bookcase and an antique piano that, once upon a time, someone used to play. He struggled, that was for sure, but an easier life was soon to come.

Calvin's mother came into Ilan's life when Evander wasn't even a year old; she agreed to marry him and take care of the boy, if they might have another child. Again, they were not starstruck lovers, but unlike Ilan's first relationship it lasts to this day. Before Evander's fifth birthday his half-brother was born, along with the new generation of Halt boys. When the adults had to pick up extra hours in the mines to support their kids, responsibility was hesitantly given to Evander to take care of the children only a couple years younger than him. Sometimes he had to skip school to take care of the toddlers at the time, and tragedy struck when he was seven. Uncle Arbor, around a decade younger than his siblings and a decade older than his nephews, was chosen for the Reaping. Sorrow turned to delight when he won, and their struggling family rejoiced when the victor returned and District 12 was showered with gifts. With his new pair of glasses Evander found that the wooden piano he used to tinker on as something he could properly learn, something that would distinct him from the others in his family. School became too much of an effort to keep up with, so most of the time he sits at the back not bothering to listen, staring out the window thinking about the things that school could never teach him; how to live his life without interference, how to like and be liked by others, and what new music pieces he might be able to extract from others for a minimal price.