Cotè Fuller (13) D5M

Bookstores were a wonderful place. Used bookstores were the best, partially because they were common but mostly because the oldest books were the best. None of the books I could get my hands on were very old, since books past a certain point were usually banned, but the older books were still nice. They had that lovely old book smell and they were often lined with dust from lack of use. When I opened one of them up, I could tell that I was in a world from the past, one that no one else had entered in a long time.

The book I was reading that day was the oldest I had ever managed to find. Homer's Odyssey, an epic tale of adventure, seemed to be pre-Capitol. It seemed to be from before most of the Dark Days, actually. Each page was coated with dust that I got to blow off of each page, and there were a lot of pages in that book. It was a very easy read, and that made me happy. While a reading challenge could be nice now and then, it was wonderful just to sit down and read something while I could relax. Relaxation was something that had to be valued, even as a thirteen-year old from Five. I didn't necessarily have the most stressful life possible; I got food and shelter, but it could still be hard to find time to calm down.

My favorite book of them all was a book full of Greek legends. It was a pretty iffy book when it came to being legal, but the Capitol seemed to like anything Greek, so they let me read it. I liked to read the story of Theseus and his epic battle with the Minotaur. He got sent off to something where he was totally supposed to die, and even though he was a normal dude, he beat everything and came back. While he volunteered, which I never intended to do, it was still nice to know that normal dudes could win. Some people probably trained to beat the mighty minotaur, but they all lost, just like some Careers lost. However, normal kids could sometimes manage to come back.

Books were nice because they offered a whole new world. A thirteen-year-old boy was supposed to be rowdy, make friends with everyone, and constantly get in trouble. While my older brother, the utter jerk, was good at that, I wasn't. While some people liked other people, loved parties, and wanted to make as many friends as possible, I liked books, loved staying home, and wanted to see how many books I could read by the time I became an adult. My brother said I was a "girly bookworm," but I didn't mind. Being feminine was far better than being an idiot.

Alix Hessia-Rhine (14) D5F

"Are you sure these are real?" the teenager asked me as I handed him a case. "I'm not willing to risk my neck for anything fake.

"Of course they're real! Just look at the date." The box of books I was offering the teen was dated 2036 A.D. Nothing from around our time was dated anything like that, and nobody was going to risk dating a book that badly in Five. Owning a book that said it was that old was one hundred percent illegal, even if it wasn't actually from that year. The Peacekeepers would definitely say that it was an "attempted act of treason," even if it wasn't treason and even on the off-chance that the owner didn't realize how old they supposedly were. Peacekeepers were jerks.

"All right. Just let me look for a book that seems interesting." That comment I didn't understand completely. All books were interesting. Even if they were books that were information without any plot-line they were interesting. Simply learning that much was an amazing feeling, even if it was useless knowledge that I probably couldn't speak about without getting myself killed. Talking about the fact that George Washington actually rejected being king and was later considered one of the best rulers the previous country had had, or that almost every dictator was despised during his time, inside and outside of his country, wasn't something that the Capitol wanted me doing.

A small crowd gathered as the dude looked for a good book. Most of the people around me were teenagers, dumb kids who didn't realize the full extent of what was being offered to them. Even I likely didn't fully understand what I had, but that didn't matter. I read the books, memorized all I could, and then sold them. It kept my house bought and food in the fridge. Finding the books could be a difficult task, since they were in completely random places around the District, but it was worth the effort. A fourteen-year-old wasn't going to find any work that payed nearly that well outside of the black market.

As the people started choosing some books, a group of Peacekeepers noticed what was going on and headed over. "I think I hear the Reaping bells ringing," I exclaimed, quickly shutting down my little stand. The Peacekeepers definitely noticed what I was selling, judging by their clearly annoyed faces and the fact that they were getting out their weapons. However, as long as I was heading to the Reaping, they couldn't hurt me. I could plan out how to avoid them during the Reaping.

Alix is of African American descent, with bright hazel eyes, and light sandy brown hair. Pretty tall for her age, 5'4".

Cotè is small and stocky,and could be described as broad shouldered. He wears glasses and has thick dirty blond hair.

Fun fact time! It was in Alix's form for her to find books around the District. Can confirm, in at least one country (Russia), there are books hidden in various places (around the Gulag Archipelago).

Also, to all those people that don't like Gadeloth because he's an outer District volunteer, he had the best possible reason: He was on death row. He was dead for sure if he didn't volunteer.