• Athena Spring has spent her entire life carefully curating the perfect image. Perfect grades, a proud family, and the Plinth Prize nearly within her grasp, Athena has it all. However, when her plans are derailed by an unexpected twist of events, s...
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Athena feels a surge of adrenaline as she enters the auditorium with the other twenty-three academy students. They have all been waiting for this moment, the announcement of the winner of the Plinth Prize, the most prestigious award for academic excellence in the Capitol. It's comprised of a large cash sum sponsored by Strabo Plinth, the District-born father of her classmate Sejanus Plinth. While Athena does not like to accept money from someone so... District... she feels as if she has some form of entitlement to that prize. Athena had worked hard for it, studying relentlessly, acing every test and outsmarting her competitors. She had received top marks for nearly every exam and is not about to end that streak now. However confident she feels in herself, she knows that there's one person who could ruin it all for her: Coriolanus Snow.
Coriolanus is her nemesis, her rival, her enemy. He's the only one who matches her in intelligence and cunning, and he never misses an opportunity to remind her of that fact. Like her, he aced every test and exam and enters the auditorium today with just as much confidence as she. He comes from an old and wealthy family, but Athena knows that his fortune is dwindling and his reputation is tarnished, albeit not the full story. She despises him for his arrogance, his entitlement, his stupid smug little face. She wants to beat him more than anything and winning the Plinth Prize would be the perfect revenge.
She scans the room for him (silently hoping he had conveniently contracted a terrible flu) and finds him standing with Festus Creed, an acquaintance of Athena's, alongside President Ravinstill's son, Felix, and the very personification of irritating, Arachne Crane. He has a smug look on his face as if he already knows that he's won. Athena feels a surge of anger and contempt, yet she maintains pleasantries and approaches the group anyway. She had just heard Felix describe the lamb as 'scandalous' when Arachne notices her.
"Ah, here comes the other StarStudent," Arachne drawls, her voice practically dripping with envy. Athena would be lying if she didn't feel a pang of smugness in seeing her classmate's scowl.
She simply nods and raises her eyebrows in response, ignoring Arachne and turning to Coriolanus to greet him with a dry, "Snow".
"Spring," Coriolanus replies with an even drier tone, looking her up and down in a search for something to pick at before adding, "Interesting choice of outfit".
Athena looks down at her ivory dress, raising her eyebrows slightly once more and retorting with a blunt, "Didn't feel like wearing tesserae today," before poking slightly at one of Coriolanus' buttons.
Coriolanus swats her hand away slightly before turning back to Arachne. Athena doesn't bother to stick around for their conversation, she can already feel the disinterest creeping in. Heading over to the buffet to grab a plate of that so-called 'scandalous' lamb, she soon feels a tap on her shoulder and a presence beside her. Turning around, Athena sees the brightly smiling face of Persephone Price, perhaps the only person in the world that she considers a friend.
