Writer Games | Masquerade of Martyrs & Family Ties

Task One: Moments - Females

District One - Jamilla Argentaria

The girl seemed small  in the large chair when she first sat in it. Her stiletto-clad feet  didn't reach the ground and she swung them lazily like the whole  situation bored her. Compared to most Careers, she looked pathetically  tiny and childlike. It was clear that her stylist had tried to make her  look older, a little more dangerous than she first appeared to be. Her  face was painted with a pallet of smoky grays and sensual reds and the  dress hugging her body didn't leave much to the imagination.

"So I grew up in  District One, which you should know if you've been paying attention to  the Games at all. I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that I've been  preparing for this moment for my entire life. You think of me as another  Career, like you know anything about my life." She spoke in a cool  voice, flirty and lazy and sultry. When she straightened up in her  chair, it was clear that she wasn't as young as the audience had first  thought. Her eyes glittered with amusement and her dark red lips were  turned up in a smirk.

"But what nobody ever  seems to get is that none of us are born Careers. We have to be made  that way. I was born to be a jeweler, that's what my dad wanted from me.  Yet here I am, Jace Argentaria the youngest District One tribute in...  fifteen years, was it? I had to get here somehow and today I'll tell you  about that." Her laugh was sweet and innocent despite her mature,  overly-sexualized looks. The sound left the viewers wondering just how  much of what they'd seen was just the part she was instructed to play  on-screen.

"It all started when I  was almost seven. My friend Orion was over and my dad was making  pancakes for us because he liked to impress us. Of course, we were  little so it wasn't that hard. Anyways, my dad made these really good  pancakes for Orion and I and we were eating with my sister, Belladonna,  who was eight at the time. Pretty normal stuff, yeah?" The intriguing  thing about the girl was how she kept up her amused smirk the entire  time. She didn't appear too nervous but the way her scarlet fingernails  tapped on the arm of the chair hinted otherwise.

"So we're eating  these pancakes and Orion is pulling on my hair and I'm trying to stab  him with my fork when my mom and my other sister, Callista, walk into  the kitchen. She was twelve at the time. They were yelling and I  remember looking down at my breakfast then. I drew stuff in the syrup  for a while." She gave a small chuckle and started tapping on her bare  knee instead of the chair. The corners of her mouth started to fall a  little and her smirk was more of a grimace. She seemed to realize this  and let out another laugh to cover up what had happened.

"They were arguing  about how my sister didn't want to train for the Games. Callie had  always wanted to make jewelry, she was actually pretty good at it. My  dad was really proud of her but my mom wasn't. She'd always told us that  women should be allowed to be strong too, that confining us to making  jewelry would be a waste of our strength." There was pride in her voice  when she spoke of her mother. A fierce kind of strength that sparked a  fire behind her pale eyes. She stopped tapping her fingers and focused  her intense gaze on the camera.

"So she was furious  when Callie said that she wanted to be a jeweler like Dad. I couldn't  see him, but I'm pretty sure my father was grinning. He was always proud  that she'd turned out like him instead. Anyways, my mom was shouting  and Bella had already left the room. She tended to do that when my mom  yelled. But I stayed because Orion was still eating and it would've been  rude to leave him in there alone." Her voice was more affectionate when  she talked about her sisters and softer whenever she mentioned her  friend. A bit of red had crept into her cheeks but it was unclear if it  was due to embarrassment or the blush that had been applied to her face. 

"I sat there and  poked at my pancakes and listened to my mom give Callie this big, long  speech about being honorable and showing strength and not letting  yourself be dominated by chauvinism. Orion and I giggled at all the big  words she was using and I remember she told me that I wouldn't be  laughing when I was getting stepped on by the boys." There was a subtle  shift in her tone of voice, going from gleeful to strangely snarky. She  rolled her eyes and pursed her dark lips before flashing a shiny grin  and continuing.