Rigel Aspen- District Seven male

There was a new group of faces in the forest today. People came and went as they got burned out or injured. We looped back and forth from the rigors and openness of the tree-felling grounds to the easier but insanely monotonous work in the lumberyards cutting the trunks down into planks. There were a few people I'd never seen before, or at least couldn't remember seeing, which was nice. It's always nice to meet new people.

One of the biggest draws of the felling grounds was there was less supervision and more talk. Workers could chat as they used manual axes to work through the massive trunks of still-standing trees. We were all the same social class and educational background, so we tended to fall into the same topics. One of which was a bet.

"How tall you think this tree is?" Jack asked his friend Carver.

"A hundred and twenty feet," Carver guessed, looking up the tree to gauge it.

"Nah, it's gotta be a hundred fifty," Leif judged.

"No way. This tree? A hundred, tops," Jack said.

"Oh, really?" Carver asked. "Loser buys lunch?"

"Pfft, I'd be a fool not to take that bet," Jack said.

I looked up at the tree, setting my axe down by my feet. I was alone on my side of the thick trunk, since I tended to work faster than the others. That was what happened when you were six and a half feet tall and built like Babe the Blue Ox. The others stood clear of me. I didn't have much to say usually, and they didn't want my wood chips getting in their eyes. A twig fell down from near the top of the tree, which was covered in deceptively fluffy greenery, making it hard to gauge the tree's height. I checked my watch.

"What about you?" Leif turned to me after the arguing had gone on for a moment. He had a jokey smile. "How tall is it?"

"Two hundred and forty feet," I said. The others cracked up laughing.

"Trust Rigel to come up with an answer like that," Carver said, wheezing. The argument went on without me until the tree finally fell. We shouted the warnings, scattered in the pattern we'd learned in orientation, and watched the tree come thundering to the ground. Leif ran over to measure it.

"Well?" Carver asked.

"I'll be darned," Leif said when he was done. "Two hundred and twenty-seven feet. How'd you come up with that number anyway?" he asked, turning to me.

I shrugged. "That branch took about seven seconds to hit the ground from pretty near the top. H equals one-half 9.8 meters/second squared times the time it takes to fall squared. I didn't do all the adding right, though. I'm not very smart."


Katrina Moonshadow- District Seven female

Four years ago

I hated it when my dad had to go.

"Why do you have to go?" I asked, even though I knew. I just wanted to keep saying things because then he had to answer and he couldn't leave.

Dad hefted his gun on his hip and stopped by the door. When I'd first seen the rifle I freaked out. Guns were super duper illegal and I only even knew what one looked like from the Peacekeepers. Turned out it wasn't exactly a gun. That was how Dad described it. It was an air rifle. It fired little pellets that were so small and slow they couldn't hurt a person. They were just big enough to hunt the mutts the Capitol paid Dad to get rid of. They'd taken care of all the big ones, but some of the little pesty ones were so small there were a few left. That was Dad shot.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. You want to do some target practice when I get back? You're getting so good," Dad said. It didn't really distract me, but I pretended it did. I knew Dad hated leaving me and felt bad about it. I didn't really want to make him feel worse. I just wanted him to stay. I waved at him as he walked into the woods.

I knew it was coming. I knew he was coming. I'd never told Dad about him, since Mom told me not to. She said Julius was a friend who just liked coming by to see us. If Julius was a friend, why was Mom never happy right after Dad left? Why did Julius never come see us when Dad was here so he could meet Dad? And why had Mom been sending me to my room when he was around more and more as I got older? It hadn't escaped my notice that I'd never heard my mother invite Julius over. He just kept showing up.

Julius was Mom's and my secret. I didn't know much about why he kept coming here but I knew it would be really bad if Dad ever found out. Julius was a Peacekeeper and they could do whatever they wanted. A lot of them liked to kill people. Otherwise they wouldn't arrest people for stupid little things all the time. Dad wouldn't like that he kept bothering Mom. He would try to stop it, but you can't stop a Peacekeeper.

I knew Dad had a job, but I couldn't think of any reason it would be so important he had to leave all the time. He used the money he got to buy food and things, but I wouldn't mind eating less or living with another family in our house if it meant he could be home more often. Dad only worked so hard because he wanted to take care of us. But when he left to take care of us, that was when something came to hurt us.


Rigel: Very tall. 6'6. Heavily muscled arms, and rest of body very toned from working as a lumberjack. Sandy blonde hair and grey eyes. Tanned skin from working outdoors

Katrina: Kat is of Turkish descent and complexion, with short-cropped red hair. At 5'3" in height, she's slimly built and beautiful.