Lia Renden ~ District Two

Name: Lia Renden
Age: 15
Gender: Female
District/Area: District 2
Appearance:

Lia is a petite girl who stands at a fierce 5 foot 4. Her oval-shaped face holds sharp features, with deep blue eyes, a sharp nose, and a frequently tight-lipped mouth. Although her stature is rather small, she isn’t afraid to make up for her size with her wit. Her golden brown hair is regularly kept just barely past her shoulders, sometimes a bit longer if she doesn’t think about it. Although her expression typically defines her as serious, she isn’t afraid to smile, changing her harsh features into something a little more pleasant. She still has that glare to her eyes, no matter her mood. Lia has rather pale skin but only due to the fact that she prefers being inside than out.

Lia likes to believe she looks more like her mother but after not seeing her for 10 years, she’s not entirely sure. Her blue eyes are inherited from her father’s side, though, guaranteeing that she has one biological parent with her. However, since no one else in her family has the same golden brown color hair as she does, she can only guess that it came from her rebel mother.

As a girl who prefers comfort over appearance, Lia dresses in whatever she feels is best for her. Usually her parents would disapprove of her choice, believing that she’s only being more rebellious. The clothes also solidify Lia’s reputation for being a bit harsh to others. She also carries a dagger with her, her excuse being that it’s meant for defence. She finds comfort in that dagger after being told that it used to be her mother’s, keeping it by her side all the time and under the pillow when she’s sleeping.

Personality:

Because of her hardened appearance, everyone assumes that Lia is a tough bully who would be more than willing to pick on you even if she’s a head shorter than you. However, Lia is actually a big softie. To many people’s surprise, the last time she threw a punch was when she was 13 and a boy was annoying her to no end. However, as a young child, she did have a reason to earn the reputation as the bully. Being more of the defensive person, Lia was frequently annoyed by all of the children who constantly bugged her about meaningless things, and was a bit free with her punches. Only to shut them up, though.

Lia is intelligent but only because of “her smart parents” and the hours of studying she logs in every day. Because of her aspiration to be one of the top doctors in the district, she centers herself on studying, making her even more distant from the rest of the District 2 children. At school, she’s the quiet student who will dutifully answer the question but only if she’s asked to answer. Otherwise, she shows her intelligence only through writing. For this reason, some of her teachers believe that she is below average, even after they see her test scores. Many encourage her to speak up but she refuses to do so.

After finally learning how her mother was gone, Lia became suspicious of everyone, thinking they all had their own agenda. For this reason, she has her dagger everywhere. There are only so many people she feel she can trust, her step-mother being not one of them. However, just an offering of friendship usually softens the girl up, becoming a bit closer to that person. They still need the courage, though, to approach her first.

History:

Lia Renden was born to Greg and Dara Renden. She was supposedly named after Greg’s great-aunt, the one who inspired him to move forward with his studies. Both of Lia’s parents were intellectuals, but they had opposing views on how to serve the Capitol. Greg believed that serving the Capitol with their practice would be a better way to provide for their family and friends. Dara thought the Capitol as corrupt and using their practice only for their benefit. The two often argued about this topic, causing Lia to keep to herself. As a young child, she liked to sing and laugh, but both of her parents discouraged her from having fun and frequently told her to focus on her studies.

When Lia turned the wonderful age of 5, her mother disappeared after a long night of shouting. For years, Lia blamed her father for the disappearance of her mother, and her father would take the blame. It wasn’t until after he remarried that Lia learned that the Capitol had taken her mother away after she stormed out of the house. For that reason, Lia currently has a hatred of the Capitol, using her studies to find ways to thwart the Capitol. However, like her father, she still believed that the Capitol would be the one who supported the family. For that reason, Lia remained as studious as ever, aiming to be one of the top doctors in her district.

Her father remarried when Lia was 7 to a young woman 5 years his junior who shared his own views on the idea of medicinal practice for the Capitol. The happy union produced two boys (one 8 years junior to Lia, the other 10 years) and an adopted child of Stacie’s from before the marriage. Although Lia never showed any affection to her half-brothers, they still looked up to her for a reason Lia could not fathom. Family life for Lia was never the most pleasant, causing her to join as many extra studies as she could. The only thing that managed to bring Lia home every night was the adopted son of Stacie who was one year senior to her. Despite the distance she placed between her and Stacie’s adopted son, she still enjoyed talking to him whenever she found the time to. Not enough to confide in him about everything, but enough that she wasn’t continuously suspicious of him.

Lia never took too much into consideration when it came to the Hunger Games but she still trained, partly because she knew that there was a relatively good chance that she would be chosen and partly because she found it as another excuse to be away from home. Because she only spent the necessary amount of time training, she managed to only develop her dagger training to a point of efficiency. Ever since her father gave her the dagger her mother kept possession of, Lia held on to that dagger everywhere she went, using it for more advanced training and for personal protection.

One thing that piqued Lia’s interest in the matter of her mother’s disappearance was the change in financial status from when her mother was living there to when her father remarried. Although it was no huge jump, as Lia’s father’s business went smoothly throughout the years, Lia could tell that the financial status increased a bit when her step-mother joined the family. For years, it confused Lia until her father admitted that although her mother was one of the most intelligent doctors, she didn’t do so well in terms of customer levels.

Another thing was her mother’s personal library that her father had created in an obscure place. When Lia reached the age of 9, she found a tiny room that held books that she was sure the Capitol would not approve of. Although her father never mentioned it, Lia had a good guess that it was her mother’s after looking at many of the covers and seeing her mother’s name scribbled in on the rough inside. Ever since, Lia would sneak in during her free time to read through the books. She never disclosed the location of the books, knowing her father would be in trouble for retaining possession over them. She also wanted to keep the books her secret. Under the pretense that she was doing extra studying, Lia would duck into the small room and attempt to devour a book every night. Because of this, she has a fairly good knowledge about things the Capitol condemned, but she was unable to process all of the information as there was no one there to explain the little things to her.

Codeword: <img src="http://i41.tinypic.com/16h2ibt.png">
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