Hi. Lavinia here. I decided to start writing this journal for so many reasons. Some I can't even really explain. The main reason is because I need something to do from 6 am to 9 pm while I wait for my mother and older siblings to get home from work around 9. Also, my boss, Duke (also a close frind to my family), gave me some paper for my sixteenth birthday and i need to use it up before my brothers take it and use it for some ridiculous reason. I doubt you've already guessed, but I live in District 7. The lumber District.
I have an okay life here in the Rid. That is the name of my home; the place where I live. From 6 in the morning to 6 at night I work out in the Lumber field. So basically what I do: cut down trees. At the age of 14 you are put to work in the fenced-off part of the woods. Unless of course you're special. Or your family was. Just like mine.
Several years ago my father, Asreol DaMilan, was the victor of one of the hunger games. He passed away when I was a mere child, and I did not get to inherit much of his wealth. Back then all I understood was that my father was rich and famous for some reason that he would not explain to me. My mother still won't tell me to this day. She won't even tell me which hunger games my father was in, for fear I would watch it with my classmates at school and have horrid nightmares. Speaking of nightmares, I hope don't get any tonight. I must go to bed now, for my mother wil check on me and I will get punished. I've run out of paper anyway. So much for a journal. THE END.
~~~
I walked down the rocky path towards the Lumber Field. It was 5:54 am and I was going to be late to work. Again. I still had a ten minute walk ahead of me. Thankfully, our district isn't super strict on all those rules and stuff, or I would have been shot a long time ago. It's not a big deal to me anyway. Duke was my father's best friend. He takes pity on me all the time, especially since he knew how it felt to lose my dad. He understood it was harder for me. So he just kinda shrugs off my tardiness.
There was one other reason. Daniel. Danny was Duke's son. Also my boyfriend. We grew up together, and it just kind of went uphill from there. I never expected it to go that far, but Danny did. He wa smart and handsome. He was also marvelous with the axe. On the other hand, I wasn't. Danny knew that. He would often help me cut down my trees. Everyone who worked had a manditory number of trees they had to cut down, depending on your strength, age, height, and so on.
Danny always finished his atleast an hour or two before closing time. Since I was so small and weak, I had a lot less trees than him. One time, I remember sitting on a gigantic log that he had cut earlier. I was sipping down cold water from his canteen. He was working on my trees now, and his beautiful face, strong and healthy, had a very persistent look on it. He was so caught up in his work he almost didn't hear me yelling at him.
"Keep up the good work! You're almost done there!" He glanced over his shoulder with a somewhat annoyed look. A drip of sweat fell off of his brow. He grinned, then resumed to his chopping. Instead of going faster, he went twice as slow. I watched him.He looked amazing in that tank top. After about thirty seconds I yelled, "Hurry up alrady! God, you're slow! I could go faster than you! Hurry up, I'm freezing!" This time he stopped entirely and turned towards me. He raised both his hands in exasperation and said, " I could warm you up! I have plenty of sweat labored from YOUR tree to go 'round!" I remember getting up and running away, but just like that he caught up and encircled me in his arms. He was so warm, and he smelled like pine needles and cinnamon.
All this went through my head as I was walking. I was so distracted that I walked right into Vince. He was a strong, muscular boy. Alot like Daniel. His hair was different than Danny's, though. Bright green eyes with what looked like little flecks of gold. He had dirty blonde hair with natural light-brown highlights. Very handsome as well, and he could get any girl easily. He even told me, probably to impress me, that Johanna Mason favored him over many of her lovers. He said he turned her down because he was waiting for some other girl. I changed the subject after that.
It's not that I never thought about Vince. He was indeed sweet and charming, but I guess it just never worked out. It almost did, once...
"Having trouble walking, there? " Vince said with a pearly white smile.
"shut up." I said. "Aren't you gonna be late for work?'
"I should ask the same question to you."
"I asked you first."
"shut up," he said. I giggled and he grinned back at me. We had just reached the gate when he commented on how cute my laugh was. I was about to reply when I saw Danny watching us from behind the gate. My cheerful smile droppd immediately. Vince looked in the direction I gazed at and caught sight of Dannny. We stopped talking. Little did I know that that was the last talking conversation we would ever have.
~~~
When we walked through the door, I was going to walk over to Danny, but he had a huge look of concern on his face. He shook his head and mouthed "No". I wondered what the problem was, but then I saw it. A big burly man with a peacekeeper uniform was talking to Duke. He had almost no hair, like a buzz-cut, and the words R. THREAD stitched into the back of the uniform. He was now raising his voice at Duke, and I glanced at Vince. He looked just as confused as I was. We rushed over to Mr. Thread and Duke.
Danny was mouthing "NO. LEAVE." repeatedly, but I saw him too late. Thread noticed us and said in a deep voice, "Hey! you two! Why aren't you working!?" Duke tried to cover for us. "Uuummm..they were doing something for me..."
"Let them speak. Children need to learn to speak up for themselves."
"First things first." I blurted out. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" clearly the man had never been disrespected in his life -probably a capitol brat- and looked about ready to slap me. Or shoot me. Or both. "Children!" Duke exclaimed. "This is Sir Romulus Thread. He is a head peacekeeper picked especially by President Snow for District 12. He is just passing through the Rid."
" Not before I whip this place into shape!" I didn't like how he exaggerated the word "whip". He glared at Vince and I. "Now get to work, kids!" Duke said with a bit of worry in his voice. I didn't like him calling us kids, but I guess it was the most he could do to remind Thread we were still "kids". "I'll deal with you two after work," He said sternly. "I need to talk to you about your"... he trailed off."Your behavior." I didn't like the sound of that at all, but I looked to Vince for advice and he nodded. So I did. Thread formed his thick, black eyebrows so that it looked like a V and brought up the right upper corner of his mouth. He looked evil. I hated him.
~~~
