𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 || 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒔 𝑺𝒏𝒐𝒘

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

"𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒊'𝒎 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌
𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒆𝒅,
𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒎𝒆."

-𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂

_______________________________________

Ismene was sitting at her dressing table and was combing her hair with a hairbrush when the phone rang.

"Hello? Ismene Charmion speaking."

"Hey. I just wanted to tell you that Dr. Gaul absolutely loved your ideas and welcomes you to work with us." Coriolanus, who's voice she recognized immideately said.

"Really? That's great." Ismene said, excited. She was happy to finally find something she was outstandingly good at.

"Yes. So do you accept the offer?" He asked, waiting for an answer.

"Of course, I will. It's a great oppurtunity. You know I've always wanted a high position and helping with the games is one of those."

"It is, yes. I'll leave you to sleep now
Night, Isme."

"Good night, Coryo." She barely finished her sentence when he hung up.

She could sense from his short sentences that he had something on his mind. But know, she had to think about this new oppurtunity to work for the Head Gamemaker.

A lot of her classmates didn't care about their grades because they'll marry a rich man and be their perfect wife, but Ismene thought differently. She had her ambitions. She wanted to make a change.
She didn't want to be Head Gamemaker or work on the Games but it was a good start to her career.

There were mostly man who were responsible for politics but she wasn't going to let that stop her. She wanted to be a minister of some sort. She had enough of being his parent's perfect daughter who only had good looks and manners. Her mother's stay-at-home and having tea with other wives never interested her. Altough, she was always told that she will have to choose a wealthy husband, she was never interested in marriage at all.

-✦✦✦-

Coriolanus put down the phone a little too early. He didn't like being in second place and was afraid, that Ismene might turn out to have better ideas than him. He never thought as the girl as competition, but now he felt like she might even endanger his plan to be the President.

He pictured Isme by his side, in the future but he had to be the leader, she could be his First Lady. He knew that she had potential and if she wanted to work in a high position, so be it but she couldn't be more succesful than him. It had always to made him feel small when she useed to bring him and his family food back when they were poor. He had decided then, that one day he will be the one to give her everything. He would do anything she asked him to do.
Even if it was murder.

-✦✦✦-

The next day Coriolanus arrived to the University and found Clemensia and Ismene in the hall with an envelope in their hands.

"Good morning, ladies." He greeted them, polietly. "What have you got there?" He asked and glanced over Isme's shoulder, putting a hand on her waist while doing so.

Ismene was hyper-aware of his hand on her and felt herself blush at the contact.

"Party invitations from Festus. It's his birthday next week. I'm sure he invited you too." Clemmie answered instead of her friend.

"Great. I'll have to tolerate him outside of school now." Coriolanus rolled his eyes and moved away from Isme, who laughed lightly at his comment.

"And there he comes." Ismene announced, when she saw Festus walking towards them.

"Good morning girls. Coriolanus." He greeted and nodded towards each of them. "Here's your invitation. You probably already know, but my birthday is next week. A lot of people will be there." He said smugly and gave an envelope to Coriolanus.

"I can't wait." Coriolanus said in a bored tone.

Festus was too occupied with the envelopes he was still holding, that he failed to recognize the sarcasm dripping from his words. He quickly said goodbye and ran across the hall to hand out more invitations.

"Are you going?" He turned to the girls when Festus left.

"I must. It's a social duty." Ismene nodded.

"Same goes for me."Clemensia said.

Both of the girls families wanted their daughter to appear in public to make a good impression on importaint people.

"I should go too, but I really don't want to listen to Festus all night." He complained. It wasn't a secret that the boy's behaviour annoyed him very much.

The bell rang shortly, so they all headed to their classroom and took their seats.