diamond in the rough || one-shot series

    

Silence is Diamond's single companion as she walks the length of her office late into the night. She had tried to sleep earlier in the evening, but her mind wouldn't merge with exhaustion. Instead she paces now trying to make sense of the tumbling thoughts trailing through her head. Her speech is only in a couple of days and it is her chance to really connect to the District beyond the archways of their homes. She has to place policy at the heart of her voice, but she knows that will bring on a blight of questions and concerns. All policies do. She needs to make a case not for herself, but for people who are being punished under the factories' feet. Health is the heart of her campaign, but she has to start its pulse before the beat can spread.

She finally sits letting out a long sigh before putting her pen to the page. For now she will just write whatever comes to her mind. Maybe from her rampant ramblings she can make sense of something clearer, whichever currents are the strongest to pull her attention. She remembers undergoing a similar process in the days leading up to her Father's funeral. How was she supposed to find the right words to say about a man she never learned love from? In the end, poetry had been her escape into an essence that was hard for anyone to truly follow. Too bad this speech can't fall into the same ease of aversion. 

  

    

The piano plays in soft tendrils sweeping over mild melodic myriads of notes. Duke's skill behind the ivory keys has continued to manifest beyond what even Diamond could have expected. Perhaps he gets that from his Father, a man who's song was what first drew Diamond's attention. His soul was surrounded by sweetness and sang of sympathy for others. The days Diamond spent with him were like hues of pink mixing in a beautiful sunrise. She would laugh as her stomach swelled with the life of her son. She would have married the man if he had asked her, if he had taken the time to get down on one knee. However, shortly after Duke arrived both the man and his music were gone. Phantoms of some lost chapter in Diamond's history. Alas, all these years later his music returns beneath the fingers of his son.

"You sound lovely."

Diamond says passing by her once so little boy on her way to the front door. Her blonde hair is fastened fashionably while she wears a nice creme colored shirt and black pants. Her make up is light but glimmers beneath a spotlight and she has set a soft smile permanently onto her face. As much as she would like to stand and silently listen to the playings of her past, she has a meeting with the press tonight. Diamond's blue eyes fall over the frame of her son just as she passes through the doorway and for a second... just a second... she swears the shape of his shadow is the exact replica of his Father's.

  

    

"Yes print these please, thank you Penelope."

Diamond says to her assistant as she looks over her most recent draft of the proposed program with District Seven. The idea is imaginative and has taken a lot of time to fine tune in the middle of an election season, but Diamond likes the strength it gives to her platform's policies. In her newest version, she has even added an additional level for creating not only more opportunities for jobs, but for technical education. With the training program she is planning to implement with the re-allocation of funds, it will allow citizens not only job opportunities in District Seven, but hands of job experience to add to their resumes when returning to District Three. With more finely skilled laborers, more citizens can reach for higher paying positions. Not to mention, Diamond likes the funding figures she has recently been working with. As far as she is concerned, they are very appropriate levels for the companies to come to terms with.

Standing from her desk, Diamond makes her way over to what she calls her Pillar of Policies. On a board of papers, Diamond adds the most recent refinings to the section under Economy, Sub-section Jobs, sub-sub section D-7. Slowly she can see it taking shape, the direction she is hoping to help people begin walking in. If she can garner enough support in this election from both people and companies alike, real change is possible for life here in District Three. Plus, with the economic side of things shaping out, it generates more possibilities for Diamond's primary platform of Health. 

  

    

Diamond finds herself biting at the edge of one of her nails while looking over the color coded map of the District. Penelope had brought up an important point at their most recent meeting. Gang activity in the District has only been increasing over the last five years, especially in regards to the rise of the Theft Twins and the Theft Territory. Diamond has seen the shops with the double T insignia in their windows as a sign of cooperation to the twins. Diamond knows it is a touchy subject since they have become almost the source of legends in the District. Providing opportunities through illegal routes. They offer lives of "safety" and rank. Their message is definently appealing to those who are down on their luck and to anyone anti-Capitol.

Ever since the twins took over for their Father, the gang has clearly become a rebel-focus. Diamond can't help but sympathize with them in that regard. Who wouldn't want to make the Capitol pay for killing them and then trying to reap them over and over again? So much lose and sadness would sway anyone to the side of action. However, none of that is the point. What matters is how to handle them. The more Diamond tries to think of a solution the more her head starts to hurt. Unless... yes, that has to be it. There really only seems to be one way to handle the situation.

Should she win the Mayorship, Diamond will have to meet with the Theft Twins.