Andorra Glendower - District 1 [DONE]

Andorra is not the friendliest looking soul in all of District 1. Towering over most girls at 6'1", she is very dancer-like in her physique and is very physically fit from dancing from a young age and being trained for the Games. Though she is slender, everything in her from her long legs to her tight shoulders is dense with muscle. She weighs a reasonable 158 and, while she isn't good with brute force or heavy lifting, she knows how to throw her weight around. Andorra may be a fighter, but she has a true weakness in her lack of strength in her arms. They are thin, and her left arm is severely weaker than her right one after breaking it roughly once while training for the Games. While she is strong enough and skilled enough to take someone down, especially with the element of surprise on her side, she can't hold up very well in hand-to-hand combat for longer than a few minutes. However, she fares well with nearly any sort of weaponry, even at close range, and her muscular legs, particularly her thighs, make her fast, flexible, and agile.

Her hair is a dark mix of deep browns and dark reds with full, blunt bangs hanging just above her eyebrows. It brushes just past her shoulders in thick locks and has natural waves in it's texture. Her eyes are a dark brown, framed by heavy eyelashes, nearly always darting and anxious. Her eyes have no happy light to them and no magical, sparkling qualities - instead, they are dull, nervous looking, and always convey a sense of tension. Most girls seem to get complimented on their beautiful eyes, but her eyes are always tired looking, always nervous, and always uninviting. Eye contact with her during conversation is almost always uncomfortable - her eyebrows always furrowed in concentration or frustration. Her mouth also seems to get her into a bit of trouble. She has soft, full lips, and when she smiles, she only smiles with the slightest turn of the corner of her mouth. Even that small gesture seems insincere and uncomfortable. This is all set on a long, slender face with high cheekbones and a feminine, pointed chin, which softens out her otherwise harsh features.

She has no excessive super model type beauty around her, and one would not consider her 'cute' or 'pretty'. She does have a serious type of attractiveness about her, however, keeping with the professional sense about everything that she does. Clear from a healthy, strict diet, Andorra's skin is tanned to an even olive tone. Her family is well off, and she is able to dress very nicely, though very conservatively. It keeps her from sending off any sort of playful or friendly tone, she believes. And that sits just fine with her.

Jaw clenched, fists tightened, and eyes darting, Andorra always conveys a sense of tension. It's difficult to decide if Andorra is unfriendly and unwelcoming, or simply paranoid about everything around her. She always seems nervous, anxious, and unhappy. While she's an intimidating young lass, she isn't the most charming thing.

Everything about her is shut off. From body movements to facial expressions, Andorra is intimidating and unwelcoming. She builds up walls to place herself as far away from other people as possible. Andorra is careful and calculating - so she thinks. It really translates to more of a strong paranoia. She analyzes anything said to her and every action made around her. While she's very good at studying people, she's not so great at actual communication with them. She tries to keep everything in a manner that makes it all seem professional; a way that makes everything seem like a business deal. It keeps her separated and unconnected.

She doesn't speak much. She's been mistaken as mute a time or two by people, and to be honest, that's what she would prefer to have people thinking. It's not that she can't speak - it's that she clearly doesn't want to. She isn't good with conversation. If forced into a situation that calls for conversation, the things she says usually come off as rude and egotistic. She's terse and blunt, completely unsure of how to filter the things she says from her stream of consciousness to acceptable conversational language. Andorra doesn't necessarily mean to come off as conceited or hurtful, but she knows her strengths and talents and she can't understand why some of the things she says offend people.

Despite her cautious nature, Andorra is strong-willed and determined with a little stubborn streak thrown in for good measure. She's so sure of herself that it's almost detrimental. Andorra seems to have a bad habit of trying to make sense out of everyone and everything. She doesn't understand irrational behavior or things that are radical. She doesn't see any use in it either. This may contribute to her very sensible, very serious, well thought out actions.

When Andorra was young, and very young, she was happy. She was an awkward, chubby young girl with a few friends and she conveyed emotions that weren't fear and anxiety and nervousness and she didn't approach everything she saw with caution. She was sweet and excitable and she collected rocks. Pretty rocks. Being raised around jewels and expensive things, she grew to have a liking for similar items. But as a small child, she wasn't allowed around her mother's broaches and pins and expensive jewelery. So instead, she collected pretty rocks.

From early on, she had one very best friend that would walk around with her nearly every day, finding colorful, shiny stones to add to her collection. It was a young boy named Caius who lived near her and came to her dances and went to her school. Even though he was two years older than her, they got along well. He was sweet and sometimes made fun of her for being so young. As an only child, Andorra enjoyed the company, and the way the little boy treated her like a younger sister. As they grew older, they only grew closer, and very few things separated them. Growing up in similar homes with busy fathers and coddling mothers, they understood one another. She looked up to him and admired him like an older brother, even at such a young age. There were few people she idolized more. Caius was the only one who talked to her outside of school in her group of friends. Her father was always too busy for her, and her mother - though sweet - didn't understand a thing. Caius was the only one that really affected her life.

At the age of 10, Andorra had stopped her rock collection. It seemed almost useless at that point; she was almost sure she had at least one of every pretty rock that could be found in all of District 1. But one day - and she can recall every detail of this day - Caius brought her a small, smooth stone, prettier than anything she had seen before - including all the jewelery her mother had ever bought. It looked more like a real jewel than a rock. It was a striking sky blue with deep navy lines running through it like veins and she treasured it. It was on that same day that the reaping for the 53rd Hunger Games happened.

She wasn't eligible for the Hunger Games, but she wanted to watch. Being chosen to be in the games was such an honor in their district, and so celebrated, that nearly everyone watched. They usually had trained 18-year-olds to volunteer, anyway, so no one ever really worried about the reaping.

But on that day, they called his name. What 12-year-old gets his name called? When does that ever actually happen?

She still didn't worry. 'We have volunteers. He won't have to fight...'

It seemed that year, no 18-year-olds wanted to take the place of tribute. No trained fighters wanted to go in the arena. Not for this child that no one knew. No one wanted to bring honor to the district this year. Was it because they were defeated last year and the year before by District 2? Was it because they were rebuilding and reevaluating their training system?

She still didn't worry. 'Caius is strong and smart and he'll win...'

But Caius was 12 and Caius was scared. His mother, though, was terrified. Andorra spent the time watching the games at his house, with his mother. She was over enough that it still felt like Caius' mother still had a child at home. Andorra watched carefully as he was on TV, going through the process and all the motions of being a tribute and she liked how glamorous it seemed.

She still didn't worry. 'Well, this doesn't seem too bad. I bet the Capitol is really nice...'

Then he was actually thrown into the arena. She watched the 60 second count down on television. She watched him dive off the platform and run. She saw every ounce of his energy spent on fear.

It was then, and only then, that she began to worry. She saw a small, frail, horrified young boy against tributes that were larger than him, stronger than him, smarter than him.

Andorra held her breath when the games began and she counted...

52 seconds.

It only took 52 seconds for him to die.

There was nothing dramatic. There was nothing spectacular about his death. The moment another tribute had grabbed a knife and Caius was with range, he was taken down, sputtering sticky blood onto the ground, and life went on and the games continued, fast paced. It was as if nothing even happened. From behind, she heard a gasp that turned into a cry. Caius' mother dashed off to another room and Andorra doesn't remember anything past that. She can't even recall the moment she decided to start breathing again. The only detail she remembers after that moment is that she didn't cry. She felt everything in her break and she had an ache that reached into her bones and shook her until she thought she was going to die. At that moment, Andorra stood up, dizzy from holding her breath, and walked back to her house. She walked away, only looking back once she could no longer hear Caius' mother crying. There was no sorrow and no hurt. Andorra shut off everything she even thought about feeling. At 10, this little girl was a shell.

She began training for the games and training intensely. She had the pretty blue rock made into a necklace when she turned 14. She never tried to make anymore friends. From that point on, Andorra was always nervous about everything, and shut away from anything that could possibly affect her. She was horrible at dealing with the loss of her first friend and it seemed to almost ruin her social development.

Andorra's mother, bless her heart, has all the best intentions in the world. She wants to and will give Andorra anything she wants, but she doesn't understand a thing about her daughter. After that event, when Andorra trained or danced nearly every day, was hardly ever home, and forgot to care for herself, her mother tried to help. "Andy, please put on some makeup. Andy, why don't you fix your hair? You have such pretty hair. Andy, I bought you a pretty dress that I'd like you to wear. Andy, stay home tonight and let me make you a nice dinner." But nothing helped. If anything, her mother's pushing towards a 'normal' life forced Andorra further away from caring, though she always tried to seem grateful. Her mother was the only thing left that she even tried to care for. And her father...well, her father furthered himself even more from his home life after his daughter had become so withdrawn. He cared for his family, but how was he supposed to be associated with such a weird young girl as his daughter? He had business to attend to nearly 24/7 anyway, and Andorra never really saw the difference.

As she grew older, she grew stricter. She became quiet and as isolated as she could possibly be. This certainly wasn't helped by the fact that her father's business-oriented personality came out in her even more. She developed into the cold, angry, calculating, paranoid young woman that she is today. She's sometimes struck by replays of those awful 52 seconds in her mind, and she sometimes freezes up with shock, even 7 years later.

Most of her time now is spent dancing or training, if she isn't at school. She tries to keep up being as physically fit as possible - completely prepared to volunteer at the age of 18, not to bring honor to her district and not for personal glory, but to fight the way Caius would've fought, and to follow in his footsteps.