I am leaving for Sierra Leone to begin construction on a school in four days. Updates will probably not happen during that period (I'll be gone from the 15th-30th) but you never know...

Zara Tovar- District Twelve female (15)

The grossly sweet smell of infection and sickness had changed. I never imagined I could miss it. I wanted that smell back because the scent in the air now was of death. Once a person knew that smell it was with them forever. My mother's death had been relatively peaceful. The tuberculosis was slow enough that she had time to make peace with it and say her goodbyes. But the second she died that smell colored every memory I had of her. Now I sat by my father, one of us smelling it again.

My father was gone. At some point I'd known it was going to happen. Alcohol and the mines had worn him away so he couldn't fight off so much as a cold. Once the infection got into his lungs it was just a matter of hearing his cough get more and more labored until he sounded like my mother and then he sounded like nothing at all. I knew the death-rattle when I heard it. It wasn't a breath. It was life leaving his body.

In a few minutes the Peacekeepers would come. Things were dirty enough in Twelve without dead bodies spreading plague. I must have called them, since I knew they were coming, but I didn't remember doing it. I sat by my father's body and took my last looks at what was left of him. As ghastly as he looked I knew it wasn't how I would remember him. The body had none of his presence. It was just a waxy cold thing.

A car came to a stop outside the open door. I got up and stood stone-faced as three Peacekeepers came in, one with a medical insignia on his armband. The medic bent over my father with some medical thing that seemed to be checking for vital signs. After a moment the medic straightened back up and shook his head.

"Next of kin?" he asked.

"Me," I said, raising a hand slightly and noticing I was still holding the baby powder I'd brought for my father's sores. "Me and my brother. I don't know where he is."

"Any funeral arrangements?" one of the other Peacekeepers asked.

"No, we don't have money for that," I said. One of the Peacekeepers set out a body bag and started to load my father into it. I watched in a daze as the zipper slid shut over his face.

It's all over, I thought as I sat on the stoop of our hovel and watched the Peacekeepers drive my father way. I didn't have a father anymore. I'd spent years caring for him and I didn't know who I even was without that role. I was just a teenaged girl with no job and nowhere to go.

The only thing I could think to do was find my brother Zander. I hadn't seen him for two years, not since he'd run away when dad yelled at him one too many times. He was so distant I didn't know if he'd recognize me. And if he asked me who I was I didn't even know what to tell him.

Denton Paine- District Twelve male (12)

Three of clubs. Jack of spades. Eight of clubs. Five of hearts. Two of diamonds. Ten of diamonds. Nine of spades. Ace of clubs.

I didn't want to get out of bed because my body hurt. I was hot and my body hurt all over and my skin itched. I had been sitting in bed all day sorting through my cards. I liked my cards. They were the same every day. I could put them in different orders and every time it was an order I had never seen before. There were only so many ways they could be arranged. Someday I'd see every single order. I'd keep going then since I wanted to see them again.

The front door slammed shut and I frowned, drawing my arms close in to my sides and hunching my shoulders. I looked up angrily and waited to make sure no more loud noises were coming.

"Denton." I heard a noise in the distance. I was looking too closely at my cards to notice. I liked to spread them out and sort them into the four suits all in order from ace to king. Then I scrambled them all back up and did it again. I liked it how they went from all wrong to more and more right until everything was right in its place. I could do it over and over and over. There wasn't much in the world I needed outside of my cards.

"Denton."

The cards felt good in my hand. I liked how thin they were and how straight their edges were.

"Denton!"

I looked up and the cards slid around on the blankets piled on top of me. Mom's head appeared in the doorway to my room.

"Do you want some water?"

When Mom came in with a glass of water Dad came in after her. I took the water and watched as Dad sat on the edge of the bed to make sure he didn't get to close and brush against me.

"Feeling better yet, Den?" Dad asked. Sometimes Dad called me Den even though my name was Denton.

"I am okay," I said.

"That's good. You look as tired as I feel," Dad said. Dad often talked about being tired. He also talked about working in the mines. They were outside the house somewhere. I didn't often go outside the house. It was very upsetting when I had to. It was very bright outside and there was a lot of noise. When I did go it was almost always to go the to hospital. The hospital smelled like the stuff Mom used to scrub the floors. People there always touched me and most times they poked me with needles. I didn't like the hospital at all.

"What a day, kiddo. We hit a new vein, which is great in theory but it meant we all had to stay late." I wasn't really listening to Dad. Most of what he was talking about had nothing to do with me and I didn't really know what it meant. For me the world was my house and really the world was my room. There was a bed, a nightstand, a set of drawers with my clothes in it, some books, a window with blue curtains, and seven stuffed animals my mother bought me.

I sat up and grabbed one of my cards when Dad paused.

"I found a new card game in the book today," I said, looking at the book Mom brought me yesterday. "It's called 'whist'. Four people play." I laid out all the cards where they should be even though I didn't want to play because I didn't want to have to play with three other people. I just wanted to show Dad how it was played.

"That's pretty neat," Dad said. I kept looking at the cards as I went through the rules without interruption.

"Whist is a game of trump cards and teamwork. Four players sit at a table in two partnerships. The dealer deals cards one at a time until all the cards in the deck are dealt. The last card dealt becomes the trump card. The turn to play is in clockwise rotation. The player on the dealer's left goes first and may play any card. Each player in turn plays a card, following suit if possible. If you cannot follow suit a player may play any card. A trick is won by the person with the highest trump. Four cards played constitute a trick..."

Denton: Light olive skin, brownish gray eyes, and thin black hair. Small, skinny, and sickly, with a full-body rash.

Zara: Zara is around 5'6". She is a little heavier set, but most of that is natural muscle. She is clearly suffering from a lack of nutrients. She has stringy black hair and is Afro-Latina descent, specifically Nicaraguan.