As Pure As The Driven Snow - Coriolanus Snow

chapter one

Kara Fedora Breen's point of view.
———————————————————————————————
The mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training
Dune, Franck Herbert.
———————————————————————————————

      When she woke up on this morning, Kara Fedora Breen was feeling dizzier than ever. She knew that the day was all about newness and the Hunger Games, that her professors had told them all - the 24 chosen to be the first ever mentors in the Games - that there was no possibility for them to prepare themselves to what they were going to have to do and that they all were on the same level, but she couldn't help her sore stomach and her hurting head because of anxiety. She indeed was an anxious girly, thank you very much. She let her feet touch the confortable and warm carpet of her messy bedroom, and stood up. The alarm clock on her bedside table was displaying 6:30 a.m., which basically was letting her just enough time to get ready.

      She hurried in the shower while she heard her mother making breakfast in the kitchen of their apartment, which showed that it really was a holiday, and set the water temperature to the highest possible. A lot of people needed cold water to wake up, but it was not Kara's case, and she loved to feel the hot sensation, almost pain, on her skin. It helped her focus, and god knew how much she needed focus today. She tried to remember her friends Caecilia and Meliae's words, that they kindly whispers to her when they see she's losing ground "Inspire, block... count to three... and expire. Breathe. Go on." Kara does it, one, two, three times... and she feels a little relieved. She got out her shower, her skin all red, and brushed her teeth wrapped in her towel. She couldn't see herself in the mirror because it was full of steam, and while putting on her black dress on top of her white shirt in order to be beautiful but classy for the Reaping ceremony, she whipped the mirror.

"Kara!" Atea, her mom, shouted. "Come on! Hurry up or you won't have time to eat before heading to the Academy!"
"I won't be long, I am almost done. I won't be late."

      She sighed and put her makeup on her face, now that she's brushed her teeth, her breakfast will taste like those this they used to eat during the war, that she hated more than anything. Kara was not a picky eater, but if there was one thing she couldn't eat anymore, it really was can food or everything that had a similar taste. It held too many awful memories from this time were she didn't know if her dad was dead or not, if they will starve or not, and Eris, her sister, was not helping the matter as when they were lucky enough to have some fresh food, she always ate hers. Now, Kara did not have to worry about all of that anymore. Her father was alive, despite being absent; and their tended finances recovered as quickly as all of the biggest and oldest Capitol's families' finances, offering them the pleasure to chose what to eat and in no limited quantities. As for Eris... she still was a problem but Kara couldn't care less for the moment.

"Hurry up, I need to get ready too! You are not the only one on Earth and it does not matter what you do, you still will look awful on camera!"

      Talking about Eris, here she was knocking violently on the bathroom door. Kara rolled her eyes and slipped her lipgloss in her dress' pocket, before opening the door.

"At least I will be on camera." She answered, coldly.

      She knew she will be in troubles when the Reaping will be over, but she couldn't resist stinging her sister's jealousy. It has always been like that. Eris was born a year before Kara, and even if she was Atea and Pius' favorite, the smell of her jealousy could be sniffed from kilometres and kilometres away, although Kara really did not know why because Eris always have had all she was begging for since their childhood. Maybe she was just bad, after all. Eris did not answer to her sister and proceeded to push her before slamming the door shut at Kara's nose. The young black haired woman ignored her sister's behaviour and joined her mother in the huge dining room.