• 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, with her vision blurred by tears, clutches the fabric of Treech's jacket and hat tightly against her chest. The coarse material, still carrying the scent of the pine and earth of his district, seems to be the only tangible thing left of a bond she fears is irreparably broken. Her heart aches with the thought of Treech thinking she's been using him, all because she was too scared to tell her parents what she really thinks. The cold steps offer no comfort to her trembling form, the marble chilling her skin through her thin dress.
Athena's tears carve silent paths down her cheeks as she clutches the jacket tighter, the fabric a poor substitute for the warmth of understanding she yearns for. The Academy, once a place of prestige and promise, now feel like the cold bars of a gilded cage.
Her family's approach is heralded by the click of her mother's heels, a sound that once signified comfort, now a metronome to Athena's distress. Her father's shadow looms over her, his voice a tempest of rage and disappointment.
"Athena, explain yourself! Do you think it's acceptable to be storming out like that?" he demands, his words sharp as the shards of her broken aspirations.
"Leave me alone," Athena mumbles, her voice a mere whisper against the storm of her father's fury.
"The Plinth Prize, Athena! It's almost yours," her father continues, blind to the turmoil within her, "What could possibly have you so upset when your entire future is nearly secured?"
Athena stands, her grief igniting into a blaze of defiance as she spits, "The prize? I stopped caring about the prize as soon as I realised what a complete mess this place is! Seriously, how can you justify starving, murdering children, huh? What sick and twisted excuse can you come up with for that!"
Her father's face contorts with anger, "Is this ridiculous attitude because of that District boy?" he snaps, each word a venomous dart aimed at her heart.
"And so what if it is?" Athena shouts back, her voice cracking under the weight of her conviction, "I just don't understand why you only seem to love me when I'm making you look good, Dad! My entire life I've been working my ass off trying to keep you happy, yet it's still not good enough!"
Her mother reaches out, a gesture meant to bridge the chasm between them, but Athena recoils, slapping her hand away.
"Don't," she warns, her eyes ablaze with a fierce independence, "Don't pretend you're any better".
"You are my daughter!" her father roars, his voice echoing off the marble, "You will remember your place in this family!"
Athena's response is an explosion of anguish and anger.
"If this is my place, then I want no part in it! I'm done!"
With those final words, she storms away, leaving her family in stunned silence, taking Treech's belongings with her.
