Electric Heart (Coriolanus Snow)

11

Coriolanus
——————-

Dean Highbottom waited for the chatter to die down, before again, going into further detail about their roles in the Hunger games.

"As most of you already know, The Plinth Prize will not be determined by grades this year, but by who is the best Mentor in the Hunger Games." He dragged his words on like he was bored.

Coriolanus was still thinking of how a girl who had once competed with him in class, a girl with excellent grades and a rich father, would now fight to the death with the district animals for all of Panem to watch.

He didn't like how guilty it made him feel. If he hadn't provoked her in the office, if he'd just kept quiet....

Coriolanus shook those thoughts from his head, focusing on the present.
Sally Davenport was a tribute in the Hunger Games, that's all she was now. And he was faced with a very annoying problem:
Sally disliked him, like she did all the other students of the capital, well besides Sejanus. After the events that lead her to District five in the first place, it was likely that she now hated him.

How was Coriolanus supposed to mentor a girl that probably wanted him dead?

"I know this sounds daunting." Highbottom continued. "This is a brand new role to us all...but as the tributes are introduced over the next few weeks, their mentors," he gestured to the students, "will persuade them, to preform for the cameras."

Felix Ravinstill cleared his throat, preparing to interrupt. "Obviously the best mentor will be the one whose tribute wins the games."

"That's not fair." A voice from the back complained. "I got the pathetic runt girl from 8. She's just going to die in the first two minutes like last year and the year before!"

Highbottom shook his head with a tsk. "Your role as mentors is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors. Victory in the games is only one of our considerations. Your entire future rests on this last project."

Nervous whispered escaped through the room, and despite Coriolanus's impossible situation, he sat tall and proud.

"Oh and I must tell you, anyone caught cheating to give their tributes an unfair advantage...will just have no future at all." Highbottom looked directly at Coriolanus as he said it, like he was just baiting him to try.

Once the students were dismissed, they all huddled in groups excitedly, discussing each of their tributes. Coriolanus looked around for Sejanus, to find that he had vanished. Probably due to the fact that he would have to watch his former friend die in the next few weeks.

All he wanted to do now was escape the suddenly-very-tight feeling room.
Arachne stopped him as he was passing, looking at him with pity. "Poor little Davenport am I right?" She was smirking.

He wasn't sure why he felt a small tug of anger in his chest, but forced it down with a shrug. "She's a tribute now."

Felix came up behind him, patting him on the back. "If I were you, I'd just let her die in there, screw the Plinth Prize." He laughed.
Others agreed, including another boy who had no tribute.
He chuckled along with Felix. "Yeah that district scum really got what was coming for her."

"I mean-I always knew she wasn't cut out of the capital." Clemensia nodded, looking to Coriolanus for approval, who didn't even glance at her.

"Well now she's going to die. And we all get to watch." Felix grinned.
Coriolanus said nothing but excused himself from them, escaping into the empty hallway.

One positive thing about the ceremony, was the food they'd been offered in the hall beforehand. Coriolanus had quickly stuffed bread into his bag, which he could now scarf down hungrily.

As he was eating, someone cleared their throat behind him.
Coriolanus quickly cleaned the crumbs off his shirt, stuffing the bread back into the napkin in his bag.

Casca Highbottom. The last person he wanted to see at the moment.

"Proud I see." He said. "Like your father."
Coriolanus looked up, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes- he and I were best friends. Once. Enlighten me Mr. Snow, what are your plans after these games?"

Coriolanus stood taller. "I hope to go onto the university sir. Naturally."

"And if you fail to win the Plinth Prize?" Highbottom was looking at him like he was fraud.

"We'd pay the tuition of course." Coriolanus lied, knowing there was not a way in the world that would allow him and Tigris to afford the university tuition like the other privileged academy students.

"Look at you. Your makeshift shirt and your too-tight shoes, trying desperately to fit in. When I know that the Snow's don't have a pot to piss in. Good luck with Davenport. I doubt she'll give you so much as a word."

"I'm her mentor, I'll do as you said. Persuade her."

Highbottom sighed, suddenly looking pained. "Does it even trouble you that a girl who was once an academy student like yourself has been belittled to just a tribute Mr. Snow? Davenport was smart, smarter than you. She was kinder too. She actually cared about people, something most of these students seem to lack. Does it guilt you?"

Snow swallowed. "No." It didn't feel like the truth, but he wasn't sure anymore. "Her actions put her there, and now I'm her mentor. I'm not her classmate anymore."

Casca nodded, seeming disappointed.

Snow returned home in an anger, hoping to consult with Tigris for advice. She always knew what to do, how to help him. Coriolanus trusted her above anyone.

"Sally Davenport?! In the games?!" Tigris exclaimed. "Coryo that's awful!" Her hand was touching her heart, and she looked like she might cry.

"Yes, awful. Highbottom's sabotaging us. That girls' not gonna win these Games. She may have been smart in school but the Hunger Games aren't about intelligence. It's about instinct. And you saw her, she must've lost at least fifteen pounds living in five. She's weak. She's impulsive, and in a bad way." He paced the floor as he spoke.

"Coryo! Have you even thought about her at all? She's probably terrified, I mean her life was turned upside-down! She was one of you! One of us! She went to school with you! The Davenports were respected, well for the most part. Her father died, she was shipped off to a place she hadn't seen for years, and now she's being picked up again to come back to the Capital, only this time to fight to the death in the Hunger Games!"

"She's a Tribute now Tigris, we can't do anything about that!"

"Well, the Dean said it wasn't all about winning."

"Everything is about Winning." Coriolanus scoffed. "Sally Davenport won't survive a minute inside that arena. So that means we have to make every second before then count. I have to get her to talk. Maybe use her backstory. It's interesting, a once academy student turned tribute. It'll get people's attention."

"I wouldn't say a word for you if I were her." Tigris said softly. "I wouldn't do anything at all, unless I could trust you."

"Yes, she was in the capital for a number of years, but Sally's district Tigris. She's always been district. And not only that, but she hates me. Honestly, I'm not too fond of her either. How am I supposed to get her to trust me?"
Coriolanus asked, his frustration rising.

Tigris sighed, turning her body fully towards him. "Coryo, just imagine that was your name that they pulled, and had been ripped from your home again! I would just wanna know that somebody still cared about me out here."

Coriolanus crossed his arms. Tigris had always seen things out of a more sympathetic and emotional lens than he had. "I doubt she'll ever believe that I care for her."

"Then maybe you should start." Tigris snapped. "Don't discount her just because she's district now, or because you two weren't the best of friends in school! You might have more in common with her than you think."

Coriolanus nodded, looking down at the rose that had been stitched to his shirt. Sally Davenport was the furthest thing from a friend, but their fates were now interlinked.

Her survival, and his future.