Light the Way

Chapter Four

Coriolanus sat in the very first official Game Maker's course at the University, alone. His meeting with Dr. Gaul had left his mind spinning. He got to the classroom early and decided to scope out a seat, saving one for Festus, and took the rest of the time to decipher the theme for the next Hunger Games.

Every hour the waters shall rise until a Victor is crowned.

What the hell did that even mean? His father had always been a smart man, but perhaps this was a product of a drunken university. A joke of the sorts, between him and Dean Highbottom, meant to confuse the Game Makers. It had something to do with water most obviously, but how in the hell were they going to fill the arena up and maintain the water level every hour? They'd have to have a continuous inflow of water running throughout the games. The old arena had so many cracks and crevices it would be impossible to seal all of the leaks.

Maybe he was taking it too literally. It's meant to be vague, Dr. Gaul's words rang out in his head. Open to interpretation I guess. 

Students began to fill into the classroom, some shooting him a courteous nod in hello if they knew him, and others a salute of sorts if they didn't. Festus made his way in shortly after, waving at Coriolanus and taking the seat next to him.

"Welcome back, sir!" Festus joked, doing a mock army salute. 

"They'd totally stick you with bathroom duty for that one." Coriolanus joked back. He had missed him, he'd never admit to it out loud, but Festus had always been a friend of his growing up. Now that he didn't have to worry about everyone thinking he was poor, he was able to put forth more of a conscious effort towards their friendship. Offering to study together, going to Capitol parties, giving advice on girls.

Speaking of girls, Livia Cardew had just walked in, followed by her flock of friends who always seemed to be giggling about something. She was beaming once she laid eyes on him and turned to her friends to giggle. He gave her a small wave, one that offered an acknowledgment but also said please don't come and sit over here.

"Oh how'd she make it into this one? She must have had her daddy pull some strings so she could be in the same class as her lover." Festus whispered to him, and they both tried to hold in their laughter. Festus was the only other person who knew of their little romance and he gave Coriolanus a hard time about it. It was good though, someone needed to bring him back to the reality that it was a bad idea.

"I'm guessing by that smile you haven't ended things with her yet?" Festus asked. Coriolanus shook his head in response, no he had not.

"You are playing with fire Coryo... A girl like that tends to get attached quickly. The longer it goes on the worse it's going to be. Better hope her parents don't freeze your bank accounts. The Corso wouldn't be too happy." Festus joked. He stifled another laugh and held back his response.

Festus liked to throw jabs at him when it came to girls, but in reality, Festus was the easiest to make fun of. He'd been pining over Olivia Lumen since the second grade and hasn't stopped since. He even tried to kiss her at the first Academy school dance, but she had turned away just in time to dodge it. They had all reasoned with him that it was probably just a case of young Festus having bad breath. To this day, he still carried around and exorbitant amount of breath mints, offering them out to everyone like candy.

And just at the thought of her, she entered the room next. There weren't too many seat options left, his row being one of them. Both him and Festus shot her a friendly wave, Festus' more in the "please sit next to me" way, and she made her way over. Coriolanus couldn't help but notice Livia's scowl as she took the empty seat next to Festus, and he relished in it.