Audra Zimanski, 16
District Five Female

When she sits down in the goodbye rooms, sighing in relief as the doors close on her and she finally has some time to put her thoughts together and figure out how she'll get out of this mess…

When she remembers how she walked up to the stage, feeling the heat of the nation's eyes on her as she stood next to a small boy, barely a teen, named Nubis Skylar…

When she finds a pillow to hide the knives under, sighing in relief because she hated the fact that one had almost slipped out of her dress as she walked alongside the peacekeepers to the Justice Building and she had to clutch her side to make sure they wouldn't see them…

That's when it finally hits her that she's going into the Hunger Games.

Audra fights back the urge to swear in the goodbye rooms, for she knows how easy it is to hide some bugged device to record her every action for Capitolites to watch and she doesn't want to be seen bemoaning her fate. She's in the Games now, she's been in it ever since their escort drew out the slip from the girl's bowl and called her name. Did the woman even pronounce it correctly? She said it strangely, like the z was an s and as if the k in Zimanski never existed.

Of course, Audra hadn't bothered to correct her. She was too busy trying to keep her head down and not lose her lunch. Sure, she had managed to smile for the cameras just how any decent Capitolite would like her to, but there's something about what the announcement that a girl is going to the Hunger Games does to the stomach.

She looks up at the door, then chides herself for thinking that someone would come to visit. All of her uncles love her, but even they know that visiting Audra in a government building when their names are logged as wanted criminals throughout the district is a bad idea. Perhaps if only one visited they could get away with it, but Audra always assured them that she wouldn't be picked. Even if she was, she wouldn't need to say goodbye. It's not as if she needs them to be here, does she? She's all good on her own, she's been on her own every time she entered a mission or stole yet another piece of information for her uncles.

It would be nice to have someone to talk to, though. She always thought that the hard part of the Hunger Games would be surviving in the wild, using her limited knowledge to find food and fight against desperate teenagers. But for the first time, she's realized that the difficult part is the loneliness.

But she shouldn't think like that now, not when she's beginning the Game of her life. After all, now she has time to prepare herself for the cameras that will greet her just before she gets to the train. Audra smooths her hair into a manageable tangle of brown curls, humming a little tune to calm her racing mind down. When she looks up in the glass, her fingers trace the mess of scars that travel down her face and her body. It's a reminder of a past that she'll never remember, of the deadly current that took away her parents and almost her… almost.

What her uncles - well, not uncles, but she calls all seven of them that anyway - had told her was that they found her wailing in the corner, only a few months old and with burns all over her body while the bodies of her mother and father lay in the corner. They didn't know how Audra's mother had been tangled up in the wire or why her father was lying just a few feet away from Audra, his arms outstretched, but they did know that they had found a little baby girl that they didn't know the name of who needed help. So they took her.

Nile told her that when he had brought her back to the apartment where they were hiding out in that week and talked with the other men, they named her after his aunt.

But Audra bites her own lip and stands up. Now's not the time to dwell on the past, it's time to take action. She can see that the peacekeepers are ready to escort her to the train, and she sure isn't going to be one of the people who has to be dragged all the way to the Capitol. With a wink and a smile, she walks past the guards and in the direction of what she assumes to be the way to the train. The faint sound of jostling and equipment hitting the ground only assures her that she is right.

"It's her! It's her! Get good pictures, quickly!" are the first words she hears as she steps out into the open. But Audra doesn't hesitate - she hardens her face into a mask of stone and walks through the crowd like she wishes she had to the stage. She's untouchable like this. Nothing can hurt her when she puts herself on top of the world.

Still, she's relieved when she steps into the train car, decorated with green and gold upholstery with a gorgeous red carpet under her feet, and closes the door. It's going to be hard to keep a tough persona for the cameras, especially when she knows that it's going to make others keep an eye on her. Perhaps she should tone it down, be the scared girl from Five that most expect her to be. After all, they remember the monster from last year who clawed her way into the final eight. She doesn't want to be seen like that to some eager career pack.

An older woman looks up from a seat in the green-and-gold car, her blue eyes widening at the sight of Audra. "Oh! You're early! Did Skyla bring you in early with Nubis, or did the peacekeepers?"

"I needed to get here early - I'm sorry, ma'am, I really am," says Audra to the only victor of District Five. "Please, Ms. Gould. I need to prepare for the fight of my life."

Almost forgot to update today but since I casually remembered that I had an intro to share with y'all (read: almost spat out my water when I realized it was almost 3 pm EST) here we are!

Thoughts on Audra? How will she fare? Any predictions? Only two intros to go!

Enjoy. Until our next intro, TheAmazingJAJ