Current- Finnick Odair X OC

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏- 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭

Arielle Cohn was one of two, a year younger than her older sister Sera. Arielle liked to think that she was relatively normal, as her whole life she had been taught to never stand out. This ideology had probably stemmed from her mother's constant warnings because at the age of eight, her dad was killed by a peacekeeper. When she had asked her mother why her dad was no longer there, she replied in the only way she knew how to;

"He...swam against the current."

Leanna Cohn didn't want to explain to her eight-year-old daughter that her father had died because he refused to conform to the Capitol's way of life. He refused to be shackled by the force fields and confined by the demarcation lines of District Four. Arielle had found this out through a friend, whose parents had told them. Not the most ideal way. So it was no surprise that a small part of Arielle grew up resenting her mother since she didn't understand why she would lie to her. On the other hand, Leanna thought that she was doing her youngest daughter a favor, since Sera hadn't reacted well to the truth. She didn't want to put Arielle through the same emotional rollercoaster.

The Cohn sisters had grown up quite humbly, as their wardrobes consisted of the same two dresses and three shirts and three pairs of pants on rotation. In District Four, the community was divided. There was a portion of people who were well off, and who sent their children to private schools and training camps, fearing the worst. What could she judge-- everyone feared the Games. The rest of the people were further down on the social-ladder, the ones who put their kids in public schools, and prayed that their child would pick up a stick one day and magically learn how to kill a man. That was why District Four had less victors compared to it's cousins in Three, Two, and One. It was easier to be poor than to be rich, especially since the Capitol seemed to love the fact that most of the Districts' citizens lived well below the poverty line. 

Arielle's earliest memory was of her at five years old doing the family's laundry, as her parents were always busy with their jobs. It was interesting how someone could spend so much time at work but have nothing to show for it. The only time Arielle saw her mother was(except for Sundays,) at night after ten o'clock, and in the mornings before seven o'clock. Leanna worked on a tight schedule, and only had one day a week off. It killed her to be away from her two daughters for so long, but she knew that her family wouldn't survive without her long work days. Arielle and Sera knew that, which eased some of her pain.

And, as pretty much all kids did, Arielle hated reaping day. (Though, the girl wondered whether  she or her mother dreaded it more). Even thinking about it sent uncontrollable shivers down her spine, and triggered her fight-or-flight instincts. And even though the statistics of her name being the one pulled out of that dreaded glass bowl were relatively slim, Arielle still had a sinking feeling every time the Capitol woman put one of her snow-white hands in it. 

And today just so happened to be that day.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

Arielle woke up with the salty air of District Four breezing through her room's open window. Her sister stirred in the bed next to her, pulling the thin blankets closer to her side.

"Sera, wake up!" Arielle whispered to her sister, who merely grunted 'no' in response. Arielle sighed, and lightly hit her arm to wake her up, before standing up making her way over to the wooden wardrobe. She pulled it open, and took out a medium-length white dress. It had little short puffed sleeves and light lace detailing-- it was the nicest thing she owned. And the most expensive, at that. Arielle had saved all the money she had made cutting open mollusks at the local pearl outlet to buy the dress. It was her first real purchase, which meant that she had never felt as satisfied as she did when she got to walk back home holding the large bag containing her dress, tightly in her hand. Well, not as satisfied as when she found a 17milemter golden south sea pearl. It had sold for nearly six-hundred dollars. (see chapter photo for inspo !)