Branden Osborne, District 10<finished>

When ever I see chemicals boiling inside flasks and beakers, waiting to become too hot to spur out and destroy the expensive mahogany that table, I am reminded on how unstable life is, how to much heat would cause the flask to shatter and make a big mess on the table. Just as how one mistake could completely destroy the beautiful lies that I thought was my life.

Unless you save it from destruction first.

Taking out the beaker from the flame would be the wisest thing to do first, it would cool down and beaker and save myself from cleaning what so ever mess it would cause and save me from begging another table from Elijah. That's just what the orchard did to me, it saved me from becoming broken and wounded by my parents actions. It became my stable shield from everything life has to offer to me, every storm and rocks thrown at me the orchard would be my safe house. In here I know I am protected by my friends, friends imagine that. I never had friends back when I was with my parents, no one wanted to come 5 feet from because they wouldn't want to be seen with a nerd. I was all alone with no one to hold onto but my books and science. Science was the only thing that kept me sane, it protected me from myself. The time my brother left for the hunger games was the time my life was placed on the very thin and very breakable line, just as the heated beaker close to destruction.

A month before the reaping my father ran away. No one knew where he went, not even my grandparents. People say he ran away with another woman, others say he became a wanderer because he couldn't bare to see his sons in the reaping much more get into the hunger games. But all I knew was that my mom didn't take it well, I could hear her crying from her room every night, I could feel the sadness that radiates off of her every time she is standing in front of us smiling. Her eyes would betray her smile every time we ask her if she's okay. But that wasn't the end of her trials because my brother was reaped.

But when my brother died in the bloodbath my mom started to loose her mind. She became mad into thinking she could some how bring my brother back, she started to whisper things like "I should have died not him. Maybe I could bring him back but I need something..." sh would sometimes say with poison in her voice, her eyes would look around as if searching for an answer to her unanswerable question. No one could bring back the dead, it was just against the laws of science, it was very imaginative and childish, but my mom believed it. She would sometimes do rituals inside the living room, there was even one time she almost burned down the house, she said something about human sacrifice would bring the dead back, and that it would bring her dearest son to her loving hands. A perfect family was what she dreamed of, being reunited with her son, my father and her back together. The only problem was I wasn't in her ideal family.

After the bloodbath and my brothers death my mother started to forget about me, their wouldn't be delicious breakfast waiting for me, no lunch and dinner too. I had to learn how to cook, but honestly it was no harder than mixing a few chemicals together.

After the time she did the ritual in the living room she locked herself in side her bed room. She wouldn't come out even for food, so I just left them out her door hoping she would eat it and not starve herself to death because that is another thing I couldn't bare another family member gone. If this was hard on her, she didn't know how hard this was on me. She didn't think on all of this effects on her son, she became selfish and left me, and that is why I hated her. When everything in my life is a mess she goes into her delusional world and left me here to die on my own.

But I never gave up, I was nothing like her, I knew how to survive. I am a survivor. For days I was the only one doing all the house chores. I went to markets to buy ingredients for cooking, now and then I would get curious or suspicious stares because no one my age would go grocery shopping. I had to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner but during.the weekdays I mix both breakfast and lunch for her to eat, to top all that I didn't stop schooling. I continued to study hard especially on science since it was my only escape from this world. I became the top of my class, which made me more of an outcast. In every achievement I get life would throw people in to make me more miserable. I was bullied.everyday to and from school, they made fun of my height and said that I should do their homework or else they would punch me. So I did I let myself get turned into a slave for morons who couldn't even solve 5x2.

But all that soon changed because I fought back, never did I dream getting into fights but I couldn't handle it anymore. The thought of my mok going crazy, my dad abandoning us for god knows what business he has. Finally my brothers death, I didn't handle all this as I said I did I lied, inside I was still a small child sulking in the corner while my lies bent around me as I try to create a strong and willful person, but that wasn't me. So I absorbed all those and punched him, I hit him until it became second nature. My vission blurred in that moment and I started to pass out, but I swear I remeber seeing 3 fully grown, macho teachers trying to pull me away from the helpless boy.

I remembered waking up in the school clinic and saw that my hands were wrapped in a bandage, I asked the school nurse what happened. She smiled and said "You punched out most of the boys front teeth." and left me alone to reflect on what I had done. I knew I had to to feel sad, I just had to, I just had to, but I didn't. I felt no remorse for what I had, not even a single atom in my body felt ashamed of what I did. In fact I felt relief, like I escaped the chains that were holding me back; my brother dying, my father leaving, and finally my mom escaping the real world.

That same day the school principal called me to her office, she said something about how my actions would make the school look like and that their name would be ruined, but I didn't care. But the only statement I remember was "and now I will be calling your mother.", but I knew no one would answer it, she never left her room for how many years, so why should she start now right? But then I was wrong. Someone picked up the phone and talked to the principal, and there was only one person in the house and that was my mom. I was happy a first because I realized that maybe, just maybe she was cured from depression, but when the principal finished talking she told me that my mom wanted me to go home right away, and that was when I felt regret for what I had done.

The day she finally becomes better was met by my bad attitude, so I was nervous going home, the relief I felt all gone and was replaced by questions about how would I justify the action I have taken. I arrived home but what happens next was really unexpected.

"Your brother died in the bloodbath," she started. "you could clearly see his strive to win, but he was killed. But now I know a way to get him back." she looks straight at me, and pulled up my shirt.

"And that is through human sacrifice."

She shoves me into the basement under the stairs and locked the door. I yelled, screamed, beg, I did everything a normal person would do until I lost all my strength. I was tired so I looked around me, the basemen was full of books, old and dusty books most or all of them were about science so I was happy for that, there was also a little bed in the middle, basically it was a very small, damp, and very old dusty room. The only thing it lacked was food. Exhaustion started to creep into my body, so I crawled up on the bed and slept. My dream was me falling of the top of a mountain the ground slowly getting larger and larger, my mom whispers "human sacrifice" and splat! I woke up with beads of sweat trickling down from my forehead. I was still locked in the basement, with no food or water all I did was read. Day and night that's all what I did read read read read. That was my routine for the whole week, I finished reading everything about science, every theory, law and principal was swirling around my brain planting its seed in the soils of my mind for me to always remember. My body grew thin and weak, so I had to try to get out. I used my knowledge on energy to get out, I created some kind of pulley from rope, a small brick that fell of the wall, and a chair. It all worked magnificently because the window broke in a snap, but I know people would ask why I couldn't brake the windows with my strength it was because I was out of it I couldn't hit the window with the brick hard enough.

I ran outside, gasping for air already, Fear controlled my body and before I knew it I was running like hell. My hunger and thirst all disappeared, adrenaline coursed through my veins and it made me run much faster than I normally would, but it all soon faded, my vision started to blur the roads looked as if they were floating and the buildings were slowly changing to nothingness. My strength was also fading and the last thing I saw was "Julia's Orchard".

And that was how I found my shield.

People used to tell me that I looked a lot like my father.

With my blonde hair and evenly spaced forehead, they say I'm a clone, the perfect copy of him, I used to take pride at that but know it was nothing more than a curse. I even thought that was the reason why my mom tried to kill me because I looked like him. My high nose they say was what I inherited from my mom, but I really hated that comment because it meant that I had a funny nose. Now the only part I like about myself is my murky mud colored eyes, they say it shines like the valleys of the old world, but I only saw it in pictures so I couldn't know for sure if it really did.

The months I spent in the indoors has clearly affected my skin tone, from slightly tan to ghostly pale. The time that I also spent studying affected me with dark circles under my eyes. I'm also not that tall but who needs height when you have got the brains.Just like Zariah, she isn't that tall but she's got star potential. I have big beefy man hands which for me is a good thing since I would get a good grip on thee testube and the less mess it would cause, but the bad part is that it's hard to find gloves that would fit. Well luckily my feet are normal size in other words I could get normal shoes.

I am a realist.

I do not like anything that is made up by our imagination, in fact I hate it. Sometimes people say that I am annoying sometimes, because I say everything that is on my mind and not hold back, which I hate to admit is true, but sometimes the truth hurts right, but we've got no choice but to accept it humbly. But people don't see it the same way as I do, so they take everything I comment about the wrong way. I'm usually quiet around strangers, I could sit in the corner for hours reading a book or something. But if I'm with friends I'm loose and wild, I'm like the life of the party with my friends.

I'm very cheerful at times, with my signature smile plastered on my face. I love dawn and dusk which means I'm a very secretive person. I could be happy at times but inside I'm really angry, in lay mans term I'm a con. But all I'm trying to do is prevent people from feeling bad emotions such as sadness and anger, I just really want to see everyone happy inside and out.

Even if it means I would be the one hurting.

But that's the only thing I could do Sacrifice. I'm more of the giver than the receiver, some would hate doing this but actually I love doing it, it makes me feel that I am doing something important in this god forsaken world. One more thing, I get frustrated real easy, in which case I loose my temper and go on rage mode, so if you see me angry just stay away and just wait for me to calm down. I also hate getting embarrassed in front of people.

Just to clear this out his brother died before the 54th hunger games in case some are wondering.