Electric Heart (Coriolanus Snow)

3

Over the weekend, Sally's father had taken ill, waking her up at midnight with a coughing fit.

She had hoped it would go away in a matter of days, but that was not turning out to be the case.

As Sally was getting ready for school come Monday, her father could hardly sit up in bed. She knew she couldn't go to school knowing he was at home alone and in such a bad state.

Sally knew that Coriolanus Snow and the other classmates who saw her as threat would use this as an opportunity to get ahead. At the moment, she didn't care.

Her father's constant cough chased her academic thoughts away and her mind was consumed only of making him feel better.

She put her school bag on the sofa and hurried to the kitchen, eager to make him some warm soup, it was the same thing he would make for her everytime she was feeling ill.

Sally cooked it thoroughly, and about thirty minutes later it had cooled down enough to be served. She still had on her red school uniform, which itched her neck with its frilly collar.

Her shoes were scuffed and old. She preferred them to the new ones she had sitting in her closet.

When Sally entered her father's room with a tray, he coughed before nodding at her. "Thank you Sally." He smiled warmly at her. "I don't know what I would do without you."

Sally sighed, feeling his forehead, which was blazing hot.

"Father we need to get you on antibiotics."

He huffed in response. "Dear it's just a cold. This soup will do just fine."

"But Father-"

"No buts Sally. Now what time is it?" He scrunched his eyebrows and reached for his glasses which sat on the bedside table. After watching his fingers scratch around the surface, Sally grabbed them and placed them in his palm.

"It's 10:30 am Father. You've been in bed quite some time."

Her fathers' cold demeanor depleted and was replaced with a frantic expression. "Sally! You should've been off to school two hours ago!"

"Father it's fine. It's only one day."

"One day! Sally I've taught you better than to-"

"I won't leave you here. You're sick and you need to rest. I can take care of you. Besides, I doubt we're learning anything of importance today."

Lucien sighed. He was still angry, she could tell by the tension in his eyes. "Those kids at school will use every opportunity to cross you Sally, don't forget."

Sally looked at him, and he knew she understood. "I haven't forgotten. Not in the slightest. Father I don't have one person besides Sejanus Plinth that treats me like a person. They think I'm a joke."

"We fought our way to be here Sally. We don't have the birthright." Lucien sat up further in his bed. "But those kids in that school, they don't know a damn thing about what it is to work for something. With the exception of your friend Sejanus, the rest of them were raised in ivory towers. They don't know what it's like out there in the districts. We do. Sally that's where you can make a difference. Being here," Lucien gestured to the window. "Being here, being enrolled in that school, will set you up for a greatness. We can help the districts Sally. We can make a difference here. We can let them know we didn't abandon them."

Sally felt a tear rolling down her cheek as visions of her mother flashed before her eyes, her beautiful raven-haired mother. Clarissa. She had died in District five at the hands of Peacekeepers. Not long after they had killed her older brother, Henry, too.
Lucien and Sally were all that was left to show for the Davenport family, and she wanted nothing more than to make him proud.