hope | c. snow

2

"ENJOYED THE SHOW, MUCH?" asked Gahel, approaching him as soon as the Reaping was over.

Coriolanus forced out a smile.

After Lucy Gray Baird—yes, that was his tribute's name—burst out in a song all of a sudden and caused a commotion, he had been in a terrible mood.

First was no prize, then Gahel Moon rubbing it in his face, and they just had to end everything with an uncontrollable singer, or "songbird," as everyone liked to call her, from 12.

Of course, everything had to turn out like this.

This was just his luck, wasn't it?

"Well, what's done is done, and I will make do with what I have," said Coriolanus, keeping a calm face as usual.

"Of course, you will," said Gahel with a twisted smile. Although his lips were smiling, his eyes didn't move at all. "Let me ask you a simple question, Coriolanus. When you don't win the Plinth Prize, and you don't have the money to cover your tuition for the University, how are you going to get there?"

Coriolanus' vein on his hand popped out as he answered. "I would pay the tuition, of course."

"Yet, how did I hear that your family is about to be out in the streets?"

Coriolanus couldn't believe what he heard. "I'm sorry?"

Gahel laughed. "Good luck, Snow. I would really like to see how you get out of this one."

The tall boy waved his hand, and within seconds, was out of sight.

And of course, when Coriolanus left the room to eat a sandwich, the same thing happened. None other than the great maker of the Hunger Games himself, Highbottom had to come and ask the same question as Gahel Moon about his tuition, although he was more rough with his words about what he knew about his family, saying that he knew that "the Snows don't have a pot to piss in," and talking about his makeshift shirt and shoes he knew he'd outgrown ages ago.

"Damn it!" Coriolanus cursed and kicked the pillar he was standing by.

But he regretted immediately when he noticed a dent on his shoes, and wondered what he needed to do to fix it and make it not look like it was temporarily fixed.

Coriolanus hated himself for having to think about that.

-

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT IDIOT DOING IN THERE?" Gahel cursed.

Gahel Moon stopped in his tracks as soon as a familiar blonde appeared on the screen.

He knew that the Snows were low on money and that Coriolanus needed the Plinth Prize badly, but to this extent?

Gahel hadn't imagined anything like this.

He was about to head to the Academy, watching the cover of the "Tribute Zoo," as they had named it instead of its original name, the "Capitol Zoo"—which Gahel thought was disgusting—on his TV when he saw a familiar blond hair and the blood-red Academy uniform.

It was Coriolanus Snow.

The reporter seemed to notice the same thing because he was calling out to him. "Who are you and why are you in there with them? We're live. The Capitol is watching!"

"Fuck it," Gahel muttered.

He knew where the Zoo was. He had been there before the Dark Days, and since it was merely three minutes' walk from his house, it was hard to not know where it was.

Although he should be going to class if he didn't want to be late, he knew that this would be more important. If Coriolanus was left there alone, he knew that Highbottom would go on to make his life harder because of what he did.