HEART OF GOLD | CORIOLANUS SNOW

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 1

Lilith allowed herself to be lugged up the marble stairs of the University Science Center by a hyperactive Athena, who had Olympia on her other arm.

"Come on, you guys!" whined Athena. "We're going to be late!"

"We're going to be an hour early, at this rate," groaned Olympia, and you could hear her eye-roll.

An hour was obviously a stretch, but half an hour was quite probable, Lilith thought, and she couldn't help shaking her head as she laughed. Despite their antics, which were sometimes unbearable, her heart swelled with love and gratefulness as she glanced over at the pair. These were her two best friends—have been since she was ten. Truly, she was lucky to have them.

As part of the Golden Generation—a term coined by the city for Capitol babies welcomed in the year following the Treaty of Treason's enactment, thereby symbolizing rebirth and promising hope as the country marched toward a new era of prosperity and greatness—Lilith was due to celebrate her twentieth birthday come December. Athena and Olympia, on the other hand, had already commemorated theirs two years ago.

Exceptionally bright, Lilith had been identified as a gifted child when she was first enrolled in primary school, her aptitude test results suggesting she was well-equipped to skip the first two grades. The age gap she thus had with her peers was daunting at merely six. Not to mention that by the third grade, cliques had more or less been solidified.

Soft-spoken by nature, she stuck to her lane and hadn't more than acquaintances then. When she joined the Academy, however, when ten and twelve didn't feel all that different, things began to change. As old Capitol money and the sole heiress to none other than a gold empire, Lilith was recognized for her status. People—teens who could now grasp social standings, the all-important knowledge ingrained by their parents—deemed her a worthy associate, if not to befriend then at least not to make an enemy of.

The Golds had much more stakes than just the gold mines in the Rockies surrounding the Capitol. Diversifying their wealth had been her great-grandfather's strategy to grow and preserve it, and it had undoubtedly served them well. At present, the family boasted deep investments across various industries related to but not fully dependent on the precious metal. Everything from raw material refinery to electronics manufacturing to consumer jewelry, the Golds had a hand in.

Not that any of it crossed little Lilith's mind when she had reported to homeroom that very first day. All she could think about was one of the vows she had made on her mother's deathbed:

To go out there, to make friends—to not be alone.

There had only been two other occupants in the classroom: a green-eyed boy who gave her an assessing look as she hesitated in the doorway, and a girl who wore an electric blue headband bearing large white polkadots in her buttery blonde mane, which cascaded down one side of her shoulders in a ponytail of silky waves (it was secured by a matching-colored hair tie).

Erring on the side of safety, Lilith drifted towards her fellow female and lowered herself gingerly into the seat next to her.

"I like your headband," whispered Lilith.

The older girl appeared slightly surprised by the remark, but she eventually beamed and replied, "Thanks. I like yours too. Are those real flowers?"

"Baby's breaths," said Lilith, nodding.

Mae, her mother's personal maid—and now hers—had done up the crown braid, but it was Lilith who had handpicked the blooms and laced them together the way her mother had taught her. While the Academy required uniforms and a certain standard of grooming, there were no restrictions on hair accessories, and girls often sought this avenue through which to express their personalities.