Ash Peirce/ District 7/ Finished

Like most other people in the District, I have the features of a tree, my eyes are a deep green, the colour of leaves from a ash tree (what a surprise.) and my skin is slightly tanned from working out in the sun all day.
The only thing different about my head is my hair, it's quite dark and spiky, and oddly enough, has streaks of blonde at the front. However, if I cover this up with my prized beanie ( I bought with a lot of money as a 'birthday present') I hardly look out of place with my fellow districtians...is that even a word?
I don't know, who cares anyway. My body itself however is a whole different story.

Most lumberjacks in my district are chunky and muscular, built to hit, not to run. Now I'm not the weediest but I'm definitely the tallest (standing at 6'3) and the most athletically built. I'm the fastest runner in the school I'm built to be more agile then strong, my old man used to say if my arms were as strong as my legs, I could slice through trees with a single swing, my dad was a funny guy.

Hey there, you should probably know me as one of the brighter people in district seven, if they did a general quiz in his grade, I would probably be either the top or close to one of the highest graded students. Then again it's not like District Seven's industry is centered around intelligent people. It's just chopping down tree's everyday. I'm quite annoyed at this, and because of it, I kinda get...'aggravated' by people I don't like. Yet still, like every other person, I'll still gotta chop down tree's and take no enjoyment in talking with these people whilst doing so.

Ah tree's...my namesake (like everyone else in District 7) and my lifeblood. I could do so much more then chop wood, I've felt that forever, and that's why I took to carving as a hobby.
Whenever anyone asks me why though, I just joke that I'm training for the Hunger Games.
I'd like to say I'm skilled with the knife, that's not true, I'm amazing with it.
I don't know why or how, but the carvings always calm's me, forces me to concentrate on it and nothing else.

However, over the year's since my Dad's death, I've become more and more sarcastic, I've lost most friends and only the few that have stuck side me I truly like these days, if you knew someone and liked them before, you need to stick with them till their back at that stage, that's what my friends now realise.

In the year of the 51st hunger games, little old me was born into this world....why you ask?
Don't ask me, I wouldn't have a clue.
Anyway, I was born to a typical District 7 family, my mum was a lumberjack and my dad a carpenter, I'll like say we got off OK, but the truth was...we did. What, did you think I had an amazingly sad life-story, no way my life is perfectly normal is District 7, well apart from my old man's execution but more on that later.

So here I am having my normal life, until one day when I was eight my Dad decided to take me up to his workshop,
I tell you what, I did not come quietly, I was kicking and screaming from having my weekend taken away from me
still, I was forced there and sulkily started to carve a toy boat, after my dad finally noticed me again (knowing I obviously hadn't wanted to come) he stared at my boat and took it from me, in the afternoon I was sent to my room whilst my dad and mum had a chat, being a eight year old, I sneaked out and listened in. It turned out I an
amazing carver and my dad wanted me in his workshop every weekend, well that was it, I came out and screamed
at my parents, and for the next four weekends I refused to carve anything, until finally I absent-mindlessly started to carve a wooden axe, and soon found I enjoyed carving, I began to look forward to heading to my dad's workshop and often asked to come after school. Soon I was carving every available hour and, best of all, had a bit
of money for myself.

This all went along well for a whilst, until the year of the 63rd hunger games, smalls signs of rebellion began to show in District 6 and the peacekeepers finally decided to do their job. My dad was out lumber-jacking for extra money and started to hum the song 'the hanging tree' a known illegal song, to the mocking-jays, not out of rebellion but just because he felt like it.
But because of the fact that most of District Seven are stupid, they started humming as well, an soon everyone in
my Dad's whole bloody lumber-jacking group was humming 'the hanging tree.' just because they felt like it.
The peacekeepers reported it and the chief peacekeeper decided to show what happened to 'rebels', he executed
my Dad and the rest of his lumberjacks on camera, which the president decided to show in District 6 also.
Lets just say there was no rebels reports after it was shown.

Dad was the main breadwinner of the household and even then we struggled like everyone else, when he died it all just...toppled. Soon we only got breakfast and dinner and my mum worked the extra hours, she would come home just lie there until morning, and then get up to work again. One time, she didn't talk for 3 days straight and I thought she was about to die, but then 'the silver lining' came along.
Not only did we lose of lot of money, people didn't want to be associated with the families of the 'rebel's', the silver lining I was talking about is that all the families of the dead lumberjack's grew very close, and we sustained each other, we were like family and jokily called ourselves 'The singing rebels.' we didn't say that out loud though.

So that's my boring life story, now if you excuse me, I'm about to finish carving this chair.