Ivy Grey - D11 - Finished

 Sixteen - Female - District 11

Each morning, I wake up to the sound of my father leaving the house before the sun has even woken up yet. My father is a hardworking man. Each and every day, from before the sun rises, to when it’s gone back to sleep he works. His body is thorn, his hands are worn-out. He walks as if he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and his wrinkles arrived much too early. He never complains and he never cries. He still stubbornly provides for our family, even if he’s sick and old. He is my hero.

I’m the third sibling in a troop of five. I have two older brother, which has both gotten married and flown out of the nest. Now, it’s just us girls left. Me and my two little sisters, Laurel and Bryony. We live in a small cottage next to the fields. We share a room, me and my sisters. My parents live in the room on the other side of the wall, but I barely ever see them. My father is working all day, and my mother has some sort of mental disease. She mostly sits in her chair, rocking back and forth. She hasn’t said anything for years, not a single word. My father still loves her, he bathes her, feeds her and comforts her. I never even waste a look on her.

I know I shouldn’t be mad. After all, she’s sick. I can’t keep myself from being mad though. She just abandoned us kids. Now, my father has to work until he can barely stand, each and every day. I honestly resent her for being this way. I help my father out whenever I can, but it still isn’t enough. One salary doesn’t nearly feed all of our mouths. My sisters are starting to look as malnourished and unhealthy as I’ve been looking for years. With their cheekbones and ribs standing out, the lack of fat is starting to show. I never wanted to see this happen, my sisters starving. I always tried my best to protect them from the world’s injustices. It seems like an impossible task at times.
It’s so unfair, how we here in District 11 have to work our entire life and tear every single piece of our body out just to provide for the capitol. We never get the reward we been working for, every day is just another day of hard work. We scramble our last coins together, to get one piece of bread. Every night, we still go to bed with empty stomachs.
I am rather miss-pleased with our life situation. I don’t enjoy watching my sisters starve, but who would. I wish I could be as strong minded as my father though. Whenever life gets though, he just deals with it. I don’t, I complain and feel mistreated. I can be sort of like that, whiney. I wish I was a positive person, and maybe I can be. That’s one of my better characteristics though, that I’m tough. I never let anybody walk all over me and I always take the space I need. I’m a fighter, I never give up without a fight.

I also consider myself to be a loyal person. I would die for the ones I care about, and I never let anybody hurt them. Partly, that’s why I distance my sister from my mother. They were so small, they barely remember her as her usual self. A part of me died when she turned into this soulless monster, and I mourned her for years. I don’t want my sisters to feel the pain I did. Honestly, it would have been better if she just died. I know that a horrible thing to say, but now she’s just an emotionless shell. She’s almost there you know, and I always kept getting my hopes up, just to be crushed all over again. Whenever she made eye contact, maybe mumbled something I’d feel so hopeful and fantastic, and when I realized nothing was changing, it broke my heart. Time, after time, after time.

My sisters are practically two younger copies of me. We are all kind of tall, they’re shorter since they’re younger of course. We all got hazel colored eyes with long, black eyelashes. We all got this curly beautiful brown hair. One of my sisters, Laurel, she cut hers short. Me and Briony both got wavy long hair. We all got a dark sun kissed skin tone.

Our cheeks are all skinny and flat, my guess is this is due to starvation more than genes. Exactly like the fact that we are all very skinny. It’s horrible what a marks this does to you. Not only we, but many other lower district kids don’t even developed the way we’re meant to. I entered puberty much too late, because my body couldn’t handle it without nutrition. This same situation was applied to both of my sisters. Laurel, who’s about to turn 14 has barely even developed yet. Briony just turned 12, so for her it’s not that surprising.