Cobey Lesell [12] [finished]

Name: Cobey Lesell      
Age: 12 
Gender: Female
District/Area: District Twelve

Appearance:

Cobey is a tiny young girl, standing at four feet and eight inches and weighing in at a meager 65 pounds. She has a very willowy, narrow build with many exposed bones.  She has thin, fiery red hair that falls in loose curls just past her shoulders. Freckles form constellations across her small face.  Cobey boasts rather large blue eyes under her thin, straight eyebrows.  She has a tiny, almost diamond shaped nose and well-proportioned lips.  She bears the signs of fatigue under her eyes as small bags or shadows.  

She wears old, ragged clothing, mostly comprised of hand-me-downs from her parents.  The outfit she wears most often is a white blouse with tan, trousers, both articles of clothing badly torn and dirty.  Her nicest outfit is a heavy, sleeveless white dress, which may or may not be an old sack with arm holes cut out, and a long string of twine.  Her hair is usually left alone, unless a formal event calls for it to be fixed up.  

Personality:

Cobey doesn't talk a lot.  In fact, if she doesn't need to, she prefers not to talk at all.  She struggles with communication, due to the fact that she is a very visual thinker.  Her brain works in pictures, but obviously, she cannot speak in pictures.  Because of this, she feels people barely understand her, and the idea of trying to talk to people makes her nervous. When she finds someone who she can talk to--a development that takes several weeks, if not months--she holds onto them.  

Cobey is widely regarded as a kind, gentle young girl.  She is easily excited and generally rather happy-go-lucky.  She learns quickly and has a very mature understanding of the world around her.  In spite of this, she is still a child, and still can be quite immature.  She enjoys playing games and goofing off with other kids.  Cobey can only be called an optimist, and holds onto a small glimmer of hope that the world could change.

Cobey has a tendency to be reckless and impulsive.  She can't stand still and hates waiting for anything. She is very forgetful and lacks a filter, resulting in her saying some odd-at-best things.  She is incredibly stubborn and short-sighted.  Once she has an idea, nothing will stop her from carrying it out.  She has no concept of personal space, which can be a bit off-putting to some.  

History:

Cobey Teagan Lesell was born on the twenty-second of January to a harshly impoverished young couple.  Right away, they knew something was up.  See, Cobey wasn't due until February tenth.  She had a dangerously low birth weight, and had to spend her first few days at the hospital.  Her mother was only sixteen years old, and her father was seventeen.  They lived in the seam, in a tiny "duplex" (which was more like two rooms with a tiny stove and some mats on the floor.) Their neighbors were kind, and they often shared their space with each other.  Cobey's father worked in the coal mines, just like any other man, and was usually too tired to spend a lot of time with her.  She had a very close relationship with her mother right from the get go.

Fast forward about five years, and Cobey is going to school for the first time.  She attended a very run-down nursery school, as it was all her parents could afford.  Even the school was without lunch  sometimes, which would mean missing a day or two of food.  As she grew older, she learned how to pickpocket in her desperation.  When she was seven, she lost a close friend to organ failure, as a result of malnutrition.  This devastated Cobey.  In addition to the grief, she was also afraid that someone in her family or herself would be next.  

When Cobey was eleven, her father was disabled in a mining accident.  He was the only survivor, and left paralyzed from the waist down.  Even though he couldn't do much with her, he became much more present in her life.  They poured their funds into a wheelchair for him, and Cobey became close with her father.  If she had a bad day, she would curl up on the wheelchair with him, and he'd hold her until she felt better.  They were a mostly happy family, even if they were struggling.

Other: Cobey enjoys playing the piano, and though she doesn't have one of her own, will play any she finds.