Nate Mantreh, District 4

Hello, my name is Nate Mantreh. If you switch the e and the a in my first name, you get the word Net A. This is my father’s work. He makes fisherman nets and harvests fish for his shop called Nets Aplenty. The Mantreh is pronounced Mahn-treh. Which sounds like a “Manta Ray” which are large oceanic creatures from long ago. I’m fourteen years old and live in district four as my name suggests.

I am 5’ 5’’ and still growing. I have brown hair with brown eyes, but my hair gets lighter in the summer months due to the large amounts of my time I spend in the sunlight and in the water. My face isn’t particularly round, but I have a larger nose, mouth, and ears than most. However, my eyes are small compared to the average. I weigh 120 pounds, not too heavy, but not light either. I have a decent amount of muscle as I help my father work all day pulling loads of fish in from the sea, but by no means would I consider myself extremely muscly. I can easily lift fifty or sixty pounds, but with lots of effort, one hundred shouldn’t be a problem.

I prefer a more natural look, and am not into all of the tattoos or hair dyes that some people in my district have. I’m not drop dead gorgeous, but when your in shorts all day without a shirt in the water... whose head wouldn’t turn? I do try to... enhance my smell a bit on school days, but who wants to smell fish and salt water? I’m really fast short distances, but I tire very easily. Flexibility comes rather naturally to me than the average male. I just wear normal clothing I guess. T-shirts, pants, it all depends on the weather really.

I get work done when I need to and am rather smart compared to the “normal”. Trust is something simple when it comes to me. I give trust to those who deserve it, and assume that the feeling is reciprocated. It happens a little too often when I trust someone who wasn’t worthy of it. This tends to make me rather gullible with the people I trust. People tend to look at me like I’m supposed to be their leader, or to tell them what to do. I really have no courage though, and hate to be the center of attention.

I’m friendly to everyone, unless they give me a reason not to be. I’m a huge blabber mouth unless the secret directly involves me in some way, other’s find it quite annoying. My energy level is pretty high on the outside but on the inside I always feel like I’m about to collapse. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m weak so I keep pressing on to the point of exhaustion. I don’t mind giving to others, but I guess in some cases I could be considered selfish or lazy.

The reason why people can consider me “lazy” is actually because I am all about everyone doing equal parts of work. For example, if I pulled in 75 pounds of fish in from the sea, and my friend only got 15 pounds, would we be expected to have done the same amount of work just because we worked the same amount of hours? In my opinion no, but to others, that just makes me lazy. I’m a sucker for love. Wether or not its mine, I can’t help but sigh when I see two people that are in love. It warms my heart to know that, no matter what troubles Panem goes through, there is always ways to find happiness.

When I was 5, my little sister Marinna was born. My mother passed away during her labor of Marinna, leaving my father with my older brother, Titus, Marinna, and I. We grew in up in a tiny sea side village of the district, far away from the heart of the district. By the time I was 10 my fathers business became to large for the village, and moved closer to the central of district four.

By the time I was twelve, my older brother Titus had taken ten tesserae for the entire family and was worried he would be called for the reaping. He has not been called fortunately and this is his last year to be reaped as he is eighteen, but has nineteen slips of paper in the pot. I’ve only had to take two tesserae putting my running total at 6. My sister is 9 so she has not ever participated in the reaping. What a lucky girl. My fathers friend was in the 29th Annual Hunger Games, and did not come out alive. He still speaks about him to this day, but not as much as mom.

They met at the local market, my mother being the shopkeeper, him being the fish salesman, and really hit it off. Within seven months, they were engaged. By the time their three year anniversary came, I was just being born. The eighth was the killer. I don’t blame my sister, I never would. Without my mom though... I just feel empty. I go to school like everyone else, and do pretty decent. I don’t have to many friends but I have my eye on this one particular girl, Aqua. She has hardly ever even glanced my way, but I always tend to find my thoughts being penetrated by her. With the reaping just days away, besides my family and I of course, I pray that her name doesn’t get called.