I skipped Ten for sUsPeNsE. I think I actually have both forms, I was just too lazy to update the list.
Rachel "Switch" Larson- District Eleven female
Deserted alleyways are cool. We don't have many in Eleven, but what passes for our main street has a few. They always seem so mysterious and full of possibilities. What's down there? Cool garbage that's probably still useful? A raccoon? Giant junkyard dog? I always walked by and did the sensible thing. I was pretty sure if anything was down there I could fight it, but I'd feel like an idiot if my dumb self got rabies because I was trying to fight a dog.
"Someone help!"
That changed things. I ran to the edge of the alley and peeked in. A little kid maybe eleven years old was trying to pull away from a much larger boy my age. I didn't know what was going down but it couldn't have been good. I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one else was waiting, then started to move in.
The pair didn't see me at first. As I walked past the garbage cans that helped obscure the view, I picked up an empty bottle from one of them. Better to hit someone with a breakable wine bottle than a breakable hand.
The older kid looked over and saw me. I hefted the wine bottle and drew myself up purposefully.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" I said. The boy's eyes flickered as he ran some internal calculations and decided a street fight with two people wasn't worth whatever he came here to do, especially after we all heard footsteps behind me as other people heard the kid screaming. He let go of the littler boy's arm. The little boy ran toward me. He was crying, and I believed him until he was just a few steps away, when I saw the knife glitter by his side.
"What was that?!"
What was what? The thought went through my head and then I snapped back to attention. Kid running toward me! Knife! I looked around and my face screwed up in confusion when I saw both the boys on the ground clutching at their arms.
"What happened?" I asked. And why did my face hurt?
"You kicked their asses!" said the same kid who asked what that was.
"No way," I said. I always liked to imagine getting in fights with people way bigger than me and totally owning them, but that wasn't real life. For some unsettling reason I didn't remember the last minute or so, but I wasn't some ninja assassin.
I looked down at the two kids I'd apparently beaten up. I tasted blood on my lip, so I guessed they got in some hits, too. If I really had beaten them up. Adrenaline rush, maybe? Is that how those work?
"Kid, you're not messing with me?" I asked the boy. "You're telling me I did that?"
"Yeah!" he said.
Well that's weird.
Pikney "Pik" Reynolds- District Eleven male
The tiller jammed, its circular wire rings clanging back and forth as they tried to jerk free. The smell of grinding and burning parts wafted into the air. Sparro vaulted over from behind it and shut it off.
I sat leaned against it with the rest of the workers while we waited for the mechanic to check it out. We didn't get breaks very often. It almost made up for how much later we'd stay out to make up for it.
"Serves him right," Neo said. He was talking about Arthur, the man who owned the equipment and more or less owned us as well. He was going to be furious about paying for repairs, but none of us had any sympathy for him. "Speak of the devil," Neo said as he appeared walking toward us, mopping sweat off his pink forehead with a rag.
"Go to the repair shop," he said. He shoved a list of parts at me and made a show of counting each bill as he peeled them off. Like I was brave enough or stupid enough to run away. "Make it quick."
That was how I came to be speedwalking past an alley when I heard the commotion. I poked my head in and saw a bottle-wielding girl standing guard while a little boy fled toward her as a bigger boy lurked beyond them. Then I looked down and saw the boy's knife.
I shrank back against the wall and clenched my hands to my sides. The girl couldn't see the knife from her angle. I should warn her. But what if they got mad and came after me? Should I run in and try to help? What if I got stabbed? The seconds spiraled out endlessly as I wavered, leaning out slightly and then losing my nerve and ducking back. I heard other people coming up behind me at the noise. I shouldn't, then. One of them will help.
Then the girl exploded into action. She stepped sideways as the boy stuck out his arm to stab her. She grabbed him arm and sort of belly-flopped onto it. I heard it snap as they hit the ground. She jumped off him as the bigger boy ran at her. He got in a punch to her face that knocked her down. She kicked the side of his knee from the ground and he fell, too. She grabbed his arm and kind of folded herself over it. She arched her back, stretching it across her until it snapped with the same noise.
Shame crept up in me as the other onlookers gathered around the girl. I should have helped, but I hadn't. That girl didn't hesitate, and I didn't jump in even after she already had. I took a step forward to see if I could do anything now, but there was no need. It was too late. I slipped away. No one had even noticed I was there.
Rachel: 5'6, sinewy type body from living on streets and working in the trees,pixy cut hair, tan
Pik: Pik is tall and muscular, about 6'1. His skin is tan from working in the sun and is covered in freckles from head-to-toe. His eyes are a dark, warm brown. His hair is shaggy and curly, and he is pushing it out of his face. He has several long scars down his back.
