Wesley Ellis District 12

I am Wesley. I wear old clothes like the rest of us, and keep my hair short, like the other guys my age. There are things about me that aren't really all that great. For instance, my skin is kind of tan, but nothing to flaunt in front of the others. Or the scar that I have under my lip because I fell to hard as a youngen and bit through my lip. I'm fairly unnoticed.

My body is very slender. Not skinny. Not slim. Slender. My body has curves and my skin conforms to my ribs and hips. Some people say it's the lack of food. I think it's the genes. My eyes are a hazel color and my eyelashes are long. The girls go nuts over those two things. I'm 5'9 which I think may also contribute to my body build, but then again, many boys are taller then me and have more meat or muscle on them.

Maybe it's just me.

I smile a lot, though they are not real. I tend to fake that. There is always a glint of happiness in my eyes, though that usually isn't very real either. In this world, who can be genuinely happy? I know I can't. But I smile for them and wave for them. Always.

I'm mature. I think that's one thing a lot of people who know me can agree on. I know a lot of things that most people don't, like what America used to really be like before it became Panem. Or what really happens to people in the mines.

Or about district 13.

But that's between us. Okay?
There are people who my mum knows who go keep forbidden books and documents. Someone once mentioned a constitution where people had rights. They called it the "Bill of Rights." . It's risky business for them now with all the upped security.

Again, between us? Okay?

I wear a mask. I hide my pain so others won't see it and feel bad because they don't know how to help. Some people will call me a doormat. Others a people pleaser. I can agree, I am one. I don't like upsetting people like my mum or siblings, which is why, though I am harshly against them, I buy tesserea. Often. To often for my own good. I want to maybe win so I can keep them fed. And healthy.

I'm also very passionate. I've always had a feel for the music the Capitol plays on the TV. I wish I could play some, though I don't think I could ever had the chance unless I ruthlessly killed 23 children and lived with myself. I also really like writing. It's something I do in school when the teachers tell me to study or something like that. I just pull out some paper, which I'm glad we still have, and my knub of a pencil, and write. I don't know what I would do without that source of venting. The only person who can't ridicule or feel sorry for me when I tell them how I feel...

I was born during the year of the 50th Hunger Games. People tell me that I was born in a lucky year, that my birth month is very lucky. I don't think so. I'm not very popular. There aren't many things I do that could make a difference. But one thing that really changed my life was this; the death of my father

My father taught me how to hunt when I was younger, maybe 10 or so. He always took me out. Taught me how to make bows and arrows and knifes from rocks and all that good stuff. I don't hunt now. For my family and their safety. I hardly eat what I bring in from trading, which I can hardly ever do because I don't have much. I can just cook at the Hob. My Family come first. Always. Especially John. My younger sibling. 12. He's getting skinnier and I'm so terrified I can't do anything to stop him from dying. That's also why I put tesserea in. For him.

My father died when I was 12. He was caught by the Officials and charged with poaching. I hid when the took him to the City Center to be executed, right in front of the mayors mansion. Bastards... I will never let him down. I will keep my family alive for him.

A few months after he died I began to make trades at the hob. It was scary at first, but I began to open up to it. I sometimes could even trade for things to make arrows or knifes out of, like flint. I could trade arrows with the poachers for food. Though usually I tried to trade for coal and food since I wasn't old enough to work the Mines yet.

As time went on things got easier for me. A lot easier. Now I am 14 and constantly going between the Hob and my hometown, where there is no such thing as a safe haven. This is District 12. And this is me.