Natalie Shettleworth D6 {fin}

Name: Natalie Shettleworth

Age: 12 13 14

Gender: F

District: 6



Natalie Shettleworth was not like other girls her age. While they liked to play around in their dresses and talk about boys, Natalie, or Nat, acted and dressed more like the boys they discussed. She avoided skirts and dresses as much as possible. In fact, she hated them. Instead, she opted for a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. When it got colder, she’d don a sweatshirt, hood up.

Nobody would have minded seeing her with the hood down, however. Even at the young age of 12, Natalie’s looks were already beginning to develop. She was slender at 4’10” and was expected to hit her growth spurt soon, when her body would really start changing. Her face had always been round, though it wasn’t too easy to tell. Her brown locks would cover the sides, making her look more oblong, as she preferred. Soon, it would start to really angle, which would bring out those dark brown eyes of hers, the ones that went so well with her tan.

That tan was a result of hours outside in the sun. Not tanning or basking in its light, of course. There was no time for that. No, Nat spent her days observing the animals of District 6. Nat knew from her readings that there were tons of different animals in existence, most of them exotic and thus only available to Capitol citizens’ viewing. So sure, there weren’t many of them in the district itself. But one could learn so much from observing even the smallest ant. After all, those tiny little critters were able to lift so many times their own weight, and when they came together as a colony, the feats they accomplished were beyond words. And so Nat observed the creatures day in and day out, honing her skills of perception.

Any speck of information about creatures was important for Nat to gleam. After all, she wanted to follow in her mother’s, Diana’s, footsteps and enter one of the district’s research centers. Her mother was such an accomplished woman, thought Nat, a real inspiration for her. Nat knew the story behind her birth, Diana’s violent encounter with an animal of a man, Nat’s “father,” which would have left the average person feeling broken, powerless. Moreover, most women would seek to get rid of any memory of the experience, especially the child that resulted from it. Not Nat’s mother. She wasn’t broken; if anything, she grew stronger from it, realizing she could live her life without a man to dictate any portion of it. This attitude allowed her to focus on her chemical research, pushing her to the forefront of her field. More importantly, though, Diana didn’t hold her daughter in any contempt. If anything, she loved her more than one might think possible. She always pushed her to be independent, a free thinker who could draw her own conclusions.

That had certainly caused some troubles in school. Early on, Nat had often contradicted her teacher. She tried to interject with her own views, which were not well-received. When Nat would defend her views, the teacher would refuse to listen, shutting down the little girl. The teacher’s patronizing attitude and inability to understand would frustrate Nat, leading her classmates and teacher to believe she had a temper. That wasn’t exactly right, Nat could explain; she just didn’t have any patience for willful ignorance or for having her opinions shot down because of her age.

More importantly, Diana’s guidance had led Nat to the conclusion that she did not want to pursue chemistry, but biology, particularly animal genetics and behavior. She made the decision at a strange time, while watching the 66th Hunger Games. Nat had been absolutely fascinated with the various muttations, especially the glorious appas, the cute little pigmy cattle, and the omnipresent kodama. With every passing Games, her wonder continued to grow. She started to view every problem in the world as one that could be solved by engineering a new type of mutt. Hunger in the Districts? Create a cow the size of an elephant that breeds like a rabbit, and soon that would be a distant memory. Faster transportation? Mix a cheetah with a horse to create the perfect method for getting around. In addition, Peacekeepers could use such a creation to better catch criminals.

Every animal had a quality that made it interesting to study, but there was one that captivated Nat more than the rest. Humans. They were such an interesting species, so unpredictable. No one trait could apply equally to everyone, as opposed to the case with the rest of the animal world. So Nat wondered, how could they be incorporated into useful muttations? There was only one way to reach such a conclusion, to observe humans just as she did the other animals. Every conversation Nat with her friends, with her mother, with anyone she encountered was secretly an experiment. Nat was always collecting data about her subjects, even when nobody realized taking mental notes on everything from their appearance and mannerisms to their reactions to particular stimuli and situations. Luckily, she was gifted with a good memory, so she gave no indication of her thinking while in public, allowing her to maintain a close group of friends. Still, she developed a reputation as being unpredictable, a byproduct of her research Nat was willing to live with.

The one thing Nat wouldn’t be able to live with was having a muttation she created be used to create nothing but harm. She genuinely wanted to help the world with her creations. Of course every experiment takes trial and error, some test subjects that might have to undergo experiences they’d rather avoid, to put it lightly, but as long as the ends justified the means, Nat would be alright with it. If, on the other hand, she created something as brutal as the Hellhound or the 69th Games’ Charon, creatures that served no purpose but to give viewers nightmares and slaughter unfortunate tributes in the games, she wouldn’t know how to deal with herself.

Luckily, Nat wouldn’t have to deal with that issue for a long time, perhaps the only reason she was glad to still be twelve. Other than that, she was ready to grow up. But until then, the only place her ideas and observations went was the little notebook in her room, hidden from the outside view. There they would remain, ready and waiting, until Nat grew old enough to put them to good use.