Korey Jondrow D2

Korey is the type of person who can trap you with handsome good looks and a winning, crooked smile. He likes to think of himself as one of those exotic plants or spiders that attracts their prey only to devour them. The smile itself is a cultivated thing, something he's worked hard to develop over the past few years, the perfect combination of a smirk and a smile. The goal, of course, is to keep people guessing, making them attempt to figure him out instead of giving them everything they could ever dream of knowing about him all at once.

Beyond that, Korey has a rough look for a fifteen year old. Unlike many of his peers in the upper districts, Korey's appearance is always slightly "mussed." His hair is untidy and though he's begun to grow hair on his face, he doesn't always shave as often as he should in order to keep his skin smooth, and his clothing is frayed in some places, quite intentionally. Korey would tell you that's his "style," and it is. There's no financial reason why he shouldn't have the best of everything, but he likes to look just a bit rough since he thinks it gives him a tough appearance, and that's the kind of appearance that he thinks he should have if he's going to ever make it in the Hunger Games. Scare them into submission. That's Korey's philosophy.

When it comes to clothing, Korey very much prefers rougher styles of the type that can usually be seen worn by simpler folk than the people of district 2. Anything flannel is his style, along with blue jeans rough a the cuffs from too much walking on them. Although he cleans up well when he wants to dress in more stylish attire, Korey generally looks "scruffy" or "bummy." He likes it that way and thinks it gives him an edginess that other boys his age and in his district don't have. As best he can imagine (and from what he's seen on television), Korey tries to dress the way that he sees the lower district residents dressing, but without the constant layer of grime that most of them have.

Korey also wears two pieces of jewelry, both of them given to him by his mother. The first is a small pedant of a cobra that he wears on a long cord around his neck. The pendant is generally tucked inside his shirt and therefore invisible to those who don't know that it's there. The necklace itself isn't worth very much as it is a simple wooden thing carved by an uncle that he never met, but the sentimental value is incredible, and he always keeps the piece close to his chest. The other piece is a welded metal ring that Korey wears on the ring finger of his right hand. The ring was made by his father and given to him by his mother, and he never ever takes it off.

Thanks to having been born in one of the upper districts, Korey doesn't especially live up to his name (which means "hollow"). Like most residents of District 2, Korey is well built, particularly for his age. Although he doesn't have the athletic build that one might expect from one of the career districts, he is sizable enough to certainly hold his own in a fight. his chest and legs are especially strong, though his arms are by no means weak. He's spent a good amount of time with his father, a mason, working on building and tearing down walls, which has helped to build up several of his major muscle groups. Daily running has helped to improve his legs and buttocks. His muscles, however, are of the long and lean type rather than the short and bunchy type, and his actual shape may be deceptive at first glance. Do not underestimate Korey Jondrow!

Korey's brown hair is a bit on the long side and almost always worn spikey. He despises short hair cuts and the typical buzz cut makes him wrinkles his nose in disdain. His hair is one of his greatest prides and he enjoys it the way that he imagines the Capitol residents enjoy their upkeep, though he'd never dream of decorating it with some of the fancy dyes that they have. His eyes are a deep, piercing blue that either seem to look right into you or right through you, depending on whether or not Korey is especially bored with you (which he often is). His skin is pale thanks to his use of sun screen during the summers when he's working outside with his father. Because of the medical history of the district, something that his father swears he can still remember, health is important in the Jondrow family, and Korey has always been expected to protect his skin from the sun's rays.

One thing to note about Korey is that his hands are almost always unusually rough. Though he'd love to keep them neat and manicured like some others in the upper districts and certainly in the Capitol, he doesn't have that luxury. His work is mostly done outdoors, and though his family is far from poor, sometimes he feels as though they are some of the poorest in their district. The outdoor work doesn't especially suit Korey and he's determined that if he can get away from the masonry, he'd be happier mining for precious metals and stoes than he would building walls alongside his father. At least then he could run his hands over his own skin without feeling as though he was brushing at himself with sandpaper!

Popularity. It means everything. To know that everyone in all of District Two knows your name and respects it. To know that you have a reputation that spans generations. When your mother's friends know who you are, and your father's friends stop to say hello in the streets, that's when you've earned your popularity, your right to call yourself famous, well known. Korey isn't really sure that it matters how he makes his name, as long as he makes his name, and because it has proven to be the easiest way to get there, he has made his name through fear and intimidation. In short, Korey Jondrow is a bully. He's known in the district for pushing other kids around and being loud and obnoxious. He gets what he wants, one way or another, and he's made a point out of making sure that other people not only know it, but talk about it. A lot. That's one way to build a reputation.

A great deal of Korey's desire for reputation and popularity comes down to his own deep insecurities. One of the most important things in his life is to be able to hide those insecurities and vulnerabilities from other people. There's no way that he would ever feel comfortable allowing others to see his weaknesses. In a world where only the truly strong survive at the end of the day, Korey is very aware that he must always allow others to only see the strengths in him and to never see his Achilles heel. And what weakness could be more embarrassing to a teenaged boy than an unnatural attachment to his mother? No, that is definitely something that he wants to overcome, or at least cover up, or hide under the rug. Who would ever fear the boy whose mother still kissed him square on the mouth the first day of school every year? And everybody knew that fear was important in the arena, if he was to be picked for the reaping. In District Two, who didn't want to be picked for the Reaping?

Well, Korey Jondrow for one. Although he's spent his entire life training for the Hunger Games the way that most District Two children did, he isn't eager to head off into the games the way that some look forward to bringing honor home to their district. Korey would be quite content to continue living his life in District Two without worrying about fighting for his life against twenty-three other tributes, one he might know from his own home district. More than anything else, Korey fiercely values his life, and he knows that he doesn't want to die. Amongst other things, he's not sure that his mother would be able to survive seeing her only son killed in front of an audience across Panem, and he doesn't want to put her through that kind of hell.

In large part because it protects his reputation, Korey has made a point of training for the Hunger Games the way that many young people of his district have always done. He has no real hunger for the Games, but learning the necessary survival skills has become an all-consuming task for Korey. One of his most prized possessions is a small compass that he has learned to use, though there are very few places for him to become truly lost in District Two. Orienteering has become a hobby of his, but his main training has been with the pickaxe and the hammer.

Because Korey's father works as a mason, the hammer is the primary tool that Korey has learned to use through his work, and he very much prefers its heaviness over that of the pickaxe which is used in the mines and the quarries. He's see the way that blunt force trauma works while watching the Games on the television over the years and he has no doubt in his mind that if it were necessary he could be deadly with the implement. His father, however, has always insisted that he learn to use the pickaxe, and he has become fond of it as a backup weapon. Besides, if nothing else it makes him look more deadly than the hammer. People fear an implement that has a point. And, in Korey's mind, there is no greater respect than fear.

But Korey has fears of his own. He fears death. He fears leaving his mother behind. He fears his father's incapability of looking after his mother and protecting her from everything that she would have to face if he was to die in the Games or even in the district. He fears hunger pangs he's never personally felt. He fears the passage of time, because each year takes him closer to the reaping and the feeling that even though he's prepared and prepared for the Games, that he won't measure up, that he'll be much, much too afraid to survive. Fear is stupid and useless and although Korey knows it, he's always struggled to release that fear. He'd never admit it, but he envies the other careers their ability to brush off the danger and their willingness to give their own lives to the Capitol and the games.

If he could only have that courage, he could really be somebody, couldn't he? He could bring home glory for District Two, make his parents proud. He could earn respect for himself and for his simple family, relatively poor by the standards of their district, a family that worked more with their hands than many others did. He could mean something. He could earn the reputation that he'd spent so much time building, instead of fearing himself just a bully, though a bully was something he didn't want to be. Tough? Sure. But not a bully. Bullies are pathetic and even Korey knows it. His mother has drilled it into his head virtually from birth, but this was one area that he can't be what she wanted him to be, and that frightens him a great deal.

You don't have to tell Korey how lucky he is to have been born in District Two. Coming from a working family in the district, he knows what it means to work hard for every morsel of food that you get to eat, and although his family has luxuries, they work for them, unlike the Capitol residents his father so very much admires and who Korey thinks are extravagant and just slightly stupid (though in public he's careful to use the word "silly" instead of "stupid"). Hard work has defined the Jondrow family, and Korey can only imagine what it's like in the lower districts where the residents not only work for every bite of food that they have, but only receive limited supplies from the districts that produce them. He, at least, is warm in the winters with the coal from District Twelve, and has good clothes from District Eight.

With a hard working father, Korey was brought up learning a trade. Although his family never had to do manual labor, it was a lifestyle choice that his parents had made, and out of respect for his father and his love for his mother, Korey chose to follow in his father's footsteps. Besides, masonry work allowed him to work on building up his muscles while also teaching him how to wield a weapon, a skill that could come in really handy later on if he was ever chosen for the Games or if he needed the hammer for other types of survival. And at least he knew a good trade, something that he felt would come in useful wherever he went. After all, every district and even the Capitol required walls, didn't they? Mining was something that could only be done in Districts Two and Twelve, while walls? They were a staple, weren't they? Especially in a world that meant to keep people where they were meant to be.

The evenings, in Korey's mind, were always the best. It was in the evenings that he gathered together with his parents around a table spread with food that his mother prepared. The food wasn't rich, as he believed it to be in the Capitol, but it was hearty and good, country food that his mother's family had passed down for generations. And of course Estelle Jondrow was one of the best cooks in all of District Two. Maybe all of Panem as far as Korey was concerned. They were simple foods, foods taken from the earth that still had the taste of the land on them. Korey loved that, and he loved his mother and admired her. Above all else, Korey always esteemed his mother.

While Korey's father has been a mason for as long as he can remember (and probably from before as well), his mother serves food. Though there are several restaurants all around District Two, Estelle prefers to serve food out of her own home, or to take it to those who desire it. She gathers her supplies, often in trade, and then prepares and serves the food throughout her district. Korey likes to think that she is very well known, possibly because popularity is such a big issue for him. If she is popular, then isn't it likely that he'll be popular by extension? People who like his mother generally like him, because he is always so close to her and so respectful of her. It's odd, isn't it, how different generations can have a different opinion of different people.

The Jondrows are a close and loving family, and in spite of the district in which they live, they live for the day when Korey's eighteenth year reaping occurs and he is spared from the Games, so that he can go on throughout his life without having to submit to the cruelties of the Capitol. After that, they will be free. This is part of the reason why Korey's mother has tried to encourage him to train as a peacekeeper, so that he has some hope of a better life in Panem, the chance of moving throughout the districts, maybe even visiting the Capitol. But when she saw Korey's devotion to his father's masonry and his dedication to remaining at home with his parents, she gave in and gave up, giving him the time and the space that he needed to make his own decisions that would lead him into adulthood.

There are no dark skeletons in the Jondrow's family closet, at least not as far as Korey knows. He's always had a happy life with his parents, and he's been in the dark for as long as he's been alive, with no idea at all that he once had a younger sister.

During the year before her marriage to Carroll Jondrow, Estelle Marleane became pregnant in her seventeeth year. That was the year that she was called up in the Reaping, belly swollen with child. As she stood on the stage, however, the volunteers were called, and one by one her replacements stood in to take her place so that one had to be chosen over several others. Although she made it out of the Games that year, the year before her eighteenth birthday, Estelle's life had been forever changed. The fear of the reality of the Games was strong after that, and the stress sent her into an early labor. According to the doctors, her baby had been born dead, and there was nothing that they could do.

The grief lasted for several years, and Korey was born nearly ten years after the still birth happened. His mother never spoke again about the miscarriage, and neither of his parents did anything to break the illusion of the happy family that they had together. Nobody in the family has any idea that the "baby" is still alive and well in District Two, having been sold by the corrupt midwife to the highest bidder. Korey may very well have passed his sister on the street and never so much as known that she existed.

Now Estelle in particular is very protective over her son, and she guards him with everything that she has. Korey believes that it's normal, or at least relatively normal, for mothers to have such a crushing closeness with their children, because he's never experienced anything else, but that doesn't stop it from being embarrassing when she dotes on him in front of his friends at school.

FC - Dylan Patton