Star and Flame ( livia x Arachne)

The district boy: part 1

——————Persephone POV————————

8 year old Persephone was scared
She shouldn't be scared the war was over there were no more bombs she didn't have to live in fear of the districts storming the capitol and killing them all and yet she was still afraid because her family like lots of other families
Had lost most of their wealth and her father had to burn most of there stuff just to keep warm and when it had seemed that they were about to starve her father had started making this meat stew that got them through the war , she had asked her father where he got the food from he told her that she didn't have to worry about it and do Persephone didn't question

But they didn't just lose most of their things she also lost her mother and her father blamed himself for her death but Persephone didn't and she would hug her dad and tell him just that , that it wasn't his fault.

The academy had reopened a couple weeks after the war ended and because her father always left early for work Persephone would have to walk to to school, the first week at the academy wasn't good for her because nobody wanted to talk to her or be around her, her classmates made fun of the fact that her uniform didn't fit her and she had to wear her fathers belt just to keep her skirt from falling down her waist because she was so skinny.

she tried to make friends so she first approached arachne and livia but they never paid attention to her because they spent all their time with each other, the she tried to approach Coriolanus but he wouldn't even look at her and when he did she saw disgust in his eyes and he just avoided her
And the other kids clemensia, Festus, and Felix because they hung out with him would avoid her as well, Lysistrata was nice but she was friends with clemensia. The ring twins were nice but Persephone didn't want to intrude

After the first week Persephone was scared and upset because she thought that she would never make a friend.

That would change on Monday when she made her way to the first class of the day she had ran into Diana who told her that there was going to be a new student but what she said next raiser Persephone's interest

"Apparently he's from the districts" Diana had told her with a hint of disgust in her voice but Persephone was wondering what was the student going to be like was he going to be like the animals she was told?

When she first saw Sejanus plinth , he didn't look like an animal in fact he looked as scared as Persephone felt he was shy, timid and trembling as he held out a bag of gumdrops that he wanted to give to everyone but that idea was smashed immediately when arachne shouted that district food probably has diseases and that they would never touch it and the class laughs she hears one of her classmates Plinny say that the districts are filthy and then livia yells at the boy saying that he had no right to be here and everyone laughs and agrees ... everyone except Persephone because Persephone doesn't find this funny at all she wants to speak up but she's scared that the others will make fun of her

So she stays silent.

At lunch she finds him by himself sitting on a swing and she approached him And when she stood in front of him she  spoke

"Hi "

Sejanus looked up  his eyes were red from crying he hesitated before eventually saying in a weak voice
"Hi I'm Sejanus plinth"

" I'm persephone price" she introduced herself

She waited awhile before saying regretfully that she was sorry for not speaking up for him and that she did a mean thing by not defending him
She bowed her head and waited for him to scoff and to make fun of her

But he doesn't instead he thanks her, forgives her and even asks her if she's alright, she stared in shock at him , he was the one who was being bullied, mocked, insulted and he was asking her if she was alright And a part of her wants to answer him but she asks him if he's alright and he answers that he's fine and then he asks her if she wants to be friends with him

And Persephone with tears threatening to fall down her face says yes and so they hang out talking about all kinds of things , they hang out with each other the rest of the day earning herself strange looks but she doesn't care because she has a friend now

and she's not afraid anymore