Lila Hendricks District 9

Lila Hendrix, age 14, stands just a few inches above five feet tall with a slight frame. Unlike most in her district, she is well fed as her father taught her to trap at a young age. She seems weak to outsiders and unable to hold her own, but those closest to her know better. She is fast, feeling the need to run everyday no matter what the weather is like. This allows her to keep her slender shape and maintain the strength to haul an assortment of prey home after a long day. She is strong, both physically and mentally, and steady under pressure.

Blonde ringlets frame her structured jaw line ending just below her shoulder blades. With sun kissed skin, deep emerald green eyes, and a petite nose, she is envied by everyone she knows. She stands out among her peers and is looked up to by those younger than her, although she would rather spend her days alone. This kind of attention forces her to work twice as hard in order to evade the attention of the peacekeepers. To the naked eye, she seems quite sociable. She smiles and greets everyone as she bears them no ill will. However she is much happier spending her afternoons alone in the solitude of the outskirts of the forest she once learned to hunt in as a child, finding herself anxiously waiting as the clock counts down to the end of the school day. Fashioning and setting traps and snares beyond dusk, she often finds herself staring longingly into the trees, but she doesn’t dare to venture outside the legal limits of the district.

Lila is a down to earth type of girl. Knowing exactly what her family needs, she is careful not to put herself in the same position her father did. The role she plays is too vital to her family’s survival for such impulsiveness. Although she loves everyone in her district as family, she is cold hearted to anyone on the outside. This allows her to be able to kill without so much as a second thought.

She attends school as all children are required to, but she ignores the curriculum. The idea of being confined to a factory for the rest of her life suffocates her. Stubborn like her father, her heart remains in the forest, refusing to relinquish the memories she cherishes the most. Her patience is key to her trappings and snares as the prey is crafty and is not caught easily. She has a determination that most others her age rarely acquire.

Her quietness is sometimes mistaken as depression, however in her mind, being observant is one of the greatest virtues she learned from her mother. By keeping herself bound in her thoughts she avoids the pain of becoming too attached to anyone. Being the eldest of her siblings she takes her role very seriously, allowing almost no time in her busy schedule for friends and neighbors. Looking after her sister and brother while her mother is away is hard, but making sure they do not starve is harder. There are times that the game is scarce and with the forest being forbidden to hunt in she has had to sign up for the tesserae several times. This year her name will be in the drawing 15 times.

Leon, Lila’s father, was taken away 2 years ago. The district was in the middle of a famine, and the children were starving. Her brother Dalton, age 6 at the time, was in the market with their mother Sira one day, when he reached out and took a loaf of bread without thinking. They had not eaten in days. He was so hungry he could not help himself. When the peacekeepers came, their father stepped in to intervene on his son’s behalf, which was seen as an even greater offence. He was carted away that afternoon, never to be seen again by his family. Unbeknownst to them, he became an avox.

Micah, Lila’s best friend, who happened to be the son of her father’s best friend Aaron, stepped in when Leon was taken. Micah had always been there in the worst of times for her and her family. They grew up together and lived side by side ever since she could remember. Both had been taught at a very young age to hunt, and although the forests were forbidden, Micah and his father still hunted discretely in them, providing both food and clothing where it was needed despite the possibility of being caught. A portion of the prey was given every couple of days to her family. Her mother had to begin working in the factory, and was very rarely home, in turn Lila had to take on the responsibility to care for her brother Dalton and her sister Kayla, age 7.

Times had been hard for her family. A year after her father was taken, her sister became very ill, forcing her mother to take time off from work. Shortly after that, her grandmother, for whom Lila was named, died. In turn it left a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of a 13 year old girl. They had never been very wealthy but they had always had what they needed. It took all the strength she had to provide for her family as her father had done at one point in time. Her daily run is the only thing that allows her to clear her mind of the burdens that have been laid upon her.