ollistora ludlow | capitol | fin

"what's it like to be a princess?"

she always wondered if people thought of things like that when they looked at her. she was born with luck by her side, there was no doubt about it. her parents were wealthy by blood, which meant she, too would one day be able to live her life to the fullest extent of district one's allowance.

but as she grew older, she noticed that "allowance" was not something her family paid much attention to. more specifically, they didn't mind breaking rules. it went unsaid, a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" situation that was widely agreed upon from everyone her parents did business with. frankly, she couldn't care less as long as she was still given the newest clothes, the prettiest jewels, and the best career training.

people envied her. they envied her family. and she knew it, and she didn't mind using it to her advantage. she gained leverage in all of the social circles and could talk her way out of trouble just as quickly as it seemed to find her. and in her own words: "i have lots of boyfriends for lots of reasons, but i'm not a slut. i just find different things interesting about different people." which was really her way of saying she had to problem using people to gain power in different neighborhoods of the district.

kellan fray, sable faulkner, the list would have gone on and on. but she never stopped with boys, no, she treated her friends just the same-- she kept them close, but never let them get close enough to see the gaping holes in her armor. she was cracked. she was insecure and scared and she surrounded herself with all of the nice things to distract herself from the fact that, at the end of each day, she went to sleep alone, with no friends and no real love: not even from herself.

but when she looked into the mirror, she could only see the pretty mask she wore so often, with it's shimmering, curly blonde hair and eyes like a kaleidoscope that could change from green to gold in a split second, with clear skin and a long neck and a proud smile. she was average height, though she appeared much taller from her posture, and her fingernails were almost always painted. she liked to prove she came from money through her wardrobe with furs and laces and shiny black leathers, whatever was in at the given moment. when she walked, it was more like gliding. her stride was a trick taught to her by her mother. "walk with confidence," she said, "and no one will ever question you."

she was not perfect by any means, merely better at hiding her flaws than others. admittedly, there weren't many. her ears were pointed and large-- easily concealed by her hair. her eyebrows were thick and burly-- handled with tweezers and a mirror each morning. her palms were almost always sweaty, which was tricky to handle. mostly, it involved carrying a lot of tissues around in her purse and wearing absorbent clothes.


still, it was no wonder boys fell to their knees for her.

and it was no wonder so many people hated her.

so many people hated her, in fact, that one family that often traded with the ludlow family had a daughter around ollie's age, and the two of course had always been "close", or as close as plastic could get to a flame without melting. and the girl was just as much aware of the ludlows fighting dirty for what they got because her family did it as well, but she decided that in order to get rid of such large competition, and to get rid of ollie, she would rat them out to law enforcement.

"she told me at a sleepover," she explained, "she asked me not to tell but... it just seemed so wrong!" then to seal the deal and add the cherry to her spotless performance, she added: "please just... just go easy on them. i know this is a very big crime, but she is my friend. and she trusted me." peacekeepers, as she knew, didn't care one bit about the friendship of two teenage girls when something as serious as selling counterfeit jewels to the capitol had surfaced.

her parents were executed publicly after very short interrogations. they didn't give up any names. after all, as far as they knew, they were caught by chance. they died never knowing they were betrayed. and ollie never knew her parents were even dead. she had been taken in with her parents since she knew about the illegal activity and hadn't come forward, but since she was not actually participating, she got to keep her life, at least for the time being. she was kept in the detention center for what felt like months before anything substantial came about.

and so it was decreed that she would be taking part in some sick sort of hunger games, a form of a death contest that no one-- not even most capitolites-- knew about. it was said she, and others, would be used to test new mutts and new climates for actual hunger games. she was a data collection, a sample that would be left alone to die for the sake of an already glamorous contest. she knew it wasn't right, and she knew there was nothing she could do to get out of it.

except, of course, survive.