From her seat in her father's private hovercar, Faina Snow could see the rows of maids and butlers, of kitchen staff and gardners, all lined up on the front lawn to see her off to school. They were all anxious to get back to work, she knew, but none quite as much as the house's head chef, who stood near the front of the group. He was a handsome man, tall and slender, with dark features and harsh eyes that immediately warned any unsuspecting onlookers that he had quite the temper. Fai had glanced at him once, and she couldn't bear to look at him for a second longer. He was sacrificing the most by being there and for as much as she wanted to, she couldn't do a thing to help him. She sighed lightly and stared down at her Idris Lux Zenotti shoes, which she shuffled nervously against the floor of the car, just as it began to take off. "Is it going to take very long?" She said quietly, as if to herself. She didn't look at her father.
"Not very long at all, I should think," replied her father, Corianlus Snow. On his lap was an expensive looking leatherbound notebook, which he scribbled in for a moment before finally looking up to greet Faina's eyes. His lips, rosy red and very full, seemed to stretch from ear to ear as he smiled. "Why? Are you excited to get rid of me?" Fai shook her head no. She took a few moments to observe her father, with his thin frame, his white beard. Those lips. They were the only parts of his body that were enhanced, perfected by the highly advanced cosmetic technolgy that the Capitol posessed. And she was glad of that. It seemed to her that nowadays, everybody was walking around with dyed skin or rabbit ears, with whiskers or fangs. These parts were added to them, colors injected inside of them, to the point where they almot stopped looking human. The more they pinched, tucked, and plucked themselves, the less real they became. They ceased being people and instead they existed as huge masses of skin, synthetic hair, and plastic. Her father may have many flaws, Fai thought, but at least he was still skin, flesh, and blood.
"It's not that at all," she said finally. "It's just that I'm nervous. All of the other students there, they're all so amazing. And I'm just-"
"Faina."
"I'm sorry, Father." She knew what he was going to say, and this is what prompted her to apologize. He expected her to be flawless, perfect, successful in every single thing that she pursued. She knew that he would accept no less and that as much as she yearned for him to gently encourage her, to tell her he was sure everything was going to turn out just fine, those words were never going to cross his fat, red lips. Instead, her father said the exact thing that she knew he was going to, as he took her hand and gave it a tug, forcing her to meet his eyes.
"Faina, I have no illusions as to your intelligence or your capabilities and I am well aware that your tutors have been going easy on you up to this point. But when you get to the Academy, you will focus on nothing but your studies in order to earn the grades and the standing that are befitting of you and your name." He paused for a moment. To catch his breath after that ridiculously long-winded lecture, Fai thought to herself. She wondered how her father came up with these speeches; both the ones that he gave at official Capitol events and the ones like these, which he reserved for his own family. Had he known that she would slip up, thus allowing him to launch into this one? Had he thought it up before they even left the manor, or months before, when she told him that she wished to enroll into the Academy? Did he even write these things himself? Faina imagined a large room in the basement of their home, where she was not allowed to go, and small elven creatures working their tiny fingers to the bone, frantically clicking away on typewriters. Then Coriolanus Snow cleared his throat, and she realized that she was daydreaming. Then he smiled, cheerfully, as though he hadn't just used all of his fancy words to call his own daughter stupid. "You won't disappoint me, Fai, I know you won't."
She could have screamed. Opened her mouth and let loose a high-pitched, window-shattering, horror-movie scream. The sort of scream that her favorite actress, Lola Majesty Temple, might produce if she were being chased by a hoard of feral beasts from the untamed wilderness surrounding the Capitol and all of the disticts. In high heels, no less. She hated that she had to put forth so much effort to gain just one tiny ounce of her father's approval, and that it seemed like everyone defined her by her last name, and not her first. Everything was always "because you're a Snow" and not "because you're Faina." She even caught Lara doing it from time to time, and she hated that most of all.
Lara. She had almost completely forgotten about Lara. The whole reason she'd decided to go to the Academy in the first place was to be with her, and she'd been so preoccupied with her father and the pressure he was putting on her that she neglected to think of all of the wonderful, glorious hours that she could now spend with Lara, without any onlookers to frown on them and get them into trouble. She half smiled at the thought of meeting her in the room that they were going to share, thanks to some craftiness when it came time to do the paperwork. She knew that as soon as she was in her arms again, everything would look better. She would feel safer, and smarter, and she would feel sure that the years she spent at school wouldn't end in complete failure. And maybe, just maybe, she would find that she excelled at something her father and the Capitol could be proud of. Something useful, something that would serve a bigger purpose than looking great for magazine shoots and television appearances. Maybe she would finally be known as Faina, and not President Snow's daughter.
Before she knew it the hovercar had touched down on the beautiful green lawn of the Academy, and Faina smiled as she took in the sight of the majestic building, the lush gardens with the beautiful flowers and fountains and statues, the smartly dressed students and staff. A crowd was forming nearby, made up mostly of students trying to catch a glimpse of their beloved president and his beloved princess. She opened her mouth to say something about this, but her father beat her to it as he leaned forward, signaling the driver. "Can we get any closer to the school? I want to be able to give my daughter a proper sendoff without these vultures around. You know what happened last time."
"I'm sorry, Mr. President," the driver replied, "I can't-"
"It's all right, Daddy." Faina turned to them both. "It doesn't matter to me. I'm just happy that you were able to ride here with me. I'll be all right, I'm a Snow, after all." She gave her father the most charming smile she could muster. It was one that she'd been practicing her entire life, perfecting it to the point that it had become a specially crafted weapon, able to be used on him only.
It did major damage. President Snow nodded after a moment's hesitation, and he leaned forward, planting a kiss on Faina's forehead with those ruby red lips. "That's my girl," he said, sounding very much like a proud father, though he still couldn't hide that small twinge of disapproval. "You go on ahead, and be good. Don't disappont."
Faina nodded and gave a wave, and soon she was standing in the doorway of the huge main building of the Academy. She watched the older students leaning casually against walls or chatting with friends, and the younger ones running about, trying to find their room assignments. As her eyes picked up on all this activity she flashed back to that morning, and the man she'd seen in the crowd of servants and maids. The man with cruel, saddened eyes. Then there was a tap on her shoulder, and when she turned around she saw those same eyes, except happier now. Jubilant, even. Lara. "I've been waiting for you all day," she said. And then she kissed her, wrinkling her nose some when the two finally parted. "Blood, and roses," she said. "You rode with your father?"
"Yes," Faina nodded. "It's going to take me forever to get rid of the smell."