Kai Yondall - District 4

Introduction

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Hi, there. My name is Kai Yondall. My life has been a little… Different, I suppose. I plan to tell you everything I can about myself, so that hopefully by the end, you will have no more questions to ask me. To start off, I am a girl, although that should be pretty obvious. I sincerely hope I don’t look like a guy! I live in District Four. It’s an alright place to live, if you like fishing. It's no District Nine, but I'm not complaining. There are plenty of people worse off than I am. I'm thirteen, and I live here with my dad and my brother.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

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Appearance

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Well, I guess I should tell you what I look like. Some people may say looks aren't important, but I disagree. After all, looks are the first impression you make on people, before you even open your mouth. So, let's begin. I am an average height for my age, at five feet and two inches, but weigh in at a petite ninety pounds. Despite my small stature, I am strong. I was already pretty tough from my days of hunting, but have gained quite a bit of muscle since I began work here, in this district. Hauling in nets full of fish is hard work, after all. I have long arms and quick, nimble fingers, which help me to work with nets. I’ve actually become quite good at untying knots and tangles quickly.

Let’s move on. While my arms and legs are toned and strong from the work I do, I actually have a round baby face. My skin is smooth and pale, and in the summer you can see a smattering of freckles across my cheeks. I have deep set, stormy gray eyes, and a smile that nearly always reaches them. I love to smile and laugh, and I already have small laugh lines around my mouth. Above my eyes are my slightly too dark eyebrows, and a high forehead. I have long, sandy blonde hair which I pride myself on. I try to keep it soft and shiny, which proves difficult sometimes due to swimming in salt water nearly every day. I love the ocean, but sometimes it makes my hair so unmanageable. My hair falls slightly past my shoulders, and while it is naturally straight, can generally see whipped around by the wind and pulled into a messy bun. I don’t really care for the way I look. I just want to fit in, so I am always trying to change something about my appearance.

Now that you know about my physical looks, let me tell you more about the type of clothes I wear. I do hard work with my father and brother during the day, so I tend to dress in clothes suitable for such activities. Faded T-shirts stiff from salt water, shorts, and sturdy boots for me during the day. Although when I’m not working, I like to dress up. I am girl, and I’m proud of it! I like to feel pretty in frilly dresses and cute skirts, although I don’t get many opportunities to dress up like that. One thing that you can always see me wearing is my pin, though. It’s a single pearl that my dad got for me the day we moved to District 4. I always wear it, even when I’m sleeping. I haven’t taken it off since the day I got it. The pearl is my most prized possession.

What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone

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Personality

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Now that you know about my appearance, I’ll tell you a little bit about the way I act. I tend to be outgoing. As I’m sure you can tell by now, I love to talk, to anyone and everyone. I will never understand how some people can get so nervous talking to others. I have no qualms about speaking my mind, even to a complete stranger. While I do love to talk, I despise talking about myself, which is why telling you all this is so difficult for me. That’s why I’m hoping to get everything out now, so I don’t have to talk about myself anymore. My past and my life is my own business, and no one else’s. I tend to get defensive when people keep pressing the topic and try to get me to talk about myself. That’s why most of my friends don’t even know that much about me.

I love to try new things, and I want to do as much as I can during my life. That’s why coming to District 4 was actually a blessing in disguise. Some people pitied my family and I for the things we’ve had to go through, but I think it has been a good opportunity for me. Most people never step outside the boundaries of their own district, and being able to do so has taught me so much about life outside the fences. Also due to my curiosity for new experiences, I have been able to adapt well to my new life and surroundings. I have retained that skill, and can quickly adapt to most situations that come my way.

I am also very competitive. I love to be the best at everything I do. That doesn't make me a bad person, though. Who doesn't want to be the best? When someone is better than me at something, it doesn’t make me upset like it might with some people. It just pushes me to try harder and I strive to excel at whatever it is. I will admit that I get frustrated when things become difficult for me, though. I have generally been good at the things I try to do, so not being good at something is hard for me to deal with. Sometimes I have trouble finishing things because when it is difficult, it's hard to see it through.

I also tend to be rash. I usually act first, and think second. I almost never think things through. I know what I want, and I go for it. Due to this attitude, I often regret decisions I have made in the heat of the moment. Of course, I’ll never admit to anyone that I was wrong. Like I have stated, I’m the best.

I am generally optimistic about life, or at least, I try to be. I want to enjoy my life, not focus on the bad things that could happen. Overall, I just want people to like me. I didn’t like being the new kid when I came here. I was strange, and everything was done differently. District Four and District Nine were worlds apart. I didn’t like to be the odd one out, and I will do anything to fit in.

Thanks to you I got a new thing started
Thanks to you I'm not the broken hearted
Thanks to you I'm finally thinking 'bout me

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History

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I was born in District 9, the third of five children, to Julie and Nicholas Yondall. My sister Zynna was three years older than me, and my brother Brendan was one year older. I was the youngest for only a year before my little sister Fara came along. Four years later, the youngest of us, baby Nina, was born. We had a big family and Mom and Dad had to work hard to take care us, but we were happy. There were things we wanted, times when we wished our lives were different, of course, but when you really thought about it, we were lucky. Our lives were perfect. Of course, nothing can stay perfect forever.

When I was eleven, Zynna and Nina were involved in a hunting accident. I never cared to find out the specifics, I was too scared, too young; but I was old enough to understand the basics of what happened. Nina wandered off, and was attacked by a wild animal. She was only seven, she was helpless. Zynna tried to protect her, but it was too late. Nina was killed that day. I knew it was an accident, but no one else seemed to remember that. They all wanted someone to blame.

My parents couldn’t blame Zynna, she was injured in the fray, too, and it was obvious she fought her hardest to save her sister. There was so much pent up anger, frustration, and grief. They had to take it out on someone, and they aimed their aggression at each other. Zynna and I grew closer as we tried to deal with our loss. The guilt was eating her alive, and I comforted her. She let me stay in her room when I got scared because our parents were screaming late into the night. Even though there was a three year age difference, we became best friends. We were inseparable.

Only two months after Nina died, our parents decided that they couldn’t deal with the pain anymore. My father had connections, and he was able to get permission to leave the district. He didn’t want to be alone, though. He was taking Brendan and me away and there was nothing we could do about it. That was how I wound up standing at the train station trying to figure out a way to get out of this mess. Dad got me on the train, and with every second I was taken farther away from Zynna, my sister and best friend in the whole world.

I adjusted quickly to life in District 4. I learned how to fish and swim, and while I missed the other half of my family, I was relatively happy again. That is, until last year, the year of the 59th Hunger Games. I hadn’t been in contact with my family in District Nine since we moved, and I had pretty much given up hope that I would see them again by this point. Imagine my surprise when I saw Zynna. The only problem? I saw her on TV, when her name was drawn at the reaping. She was killed in the Bloodbath of those games. It tore me up inside to have to watch her die like that. I never even got to say goodbye to her after she was reaped. Since then, my father has made my brother and I train as careers. We never saw what a real threat the games were until someone close to us was taken away because of them.

While I have come to love District Four, I regret not fighting my father on the decision to leave our home in the first place. After Zynna’s death, I decided I needed to be with my mother and sister again. While running away from problems works for my dad, I really want to return to my home someday. I just don’t know how I’m going to do it.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just Me, Myself, and I

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