Disclaimer: I only own my OC's.

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long to get up! It was really hard to right for some reason. It felt like it was a filler, but it isn't. I suffered major writer's block halfway through, though. But now it's written, so yay me! Enjoy, and possibly review?


Rambling Beauty

Chapter Three

The next morning, Colletta woke up in a highly compromising position. Finnick's escort, whose name Colletta remembered was Tisa, had opened the door, expecting to find her Victor sound asleep, but instead found him curled up with the President's granddaughter. Her resulting scream was one that could wake the dead.

"What is going on in here?" She screeched, causing to two teenagers to jump out of their skin.

"It wasn't me!" Colletta mumbled, whipping the sleep from her eyes. "The nargles did it!"

Finnick, upon seeing that he was still safe on the train and not still in the Games, relaxed back against his pillows, pulling the blankets up around him. "What's a nargles?" He asked, stretching.

"Tisa." Colonel Escort was on the scene, in an olive green suit that reminded Colletta vaguely of the military of the old times. "Would you like to explain why you are screaming like a banshee?"

"Look at them!" She threw her hands in their direction. "Shaking up like common-"

"Hey!" Colletta jumped out of the bed, throwing Finnick an apologetic smile. "I'm not common! And we both still have our clothes on, so clearly nothing happened. Stop with your douche-baggery!"

The woman bristled, but Colonel Escort put her talon-like hand on Tisa's arm. "What are you doing in here?" Her escort asked, sounding tired.

"He was having nightmares so I came in to talk. That's all we did."

"And you decided to sleep in his bed as well?" She was being surprisingly judicious, Colletta thought. Maybe she had misjudged her.

But it was Finnick who answered, throwing his blankets aside to stand by Colletta. "We fell asleep talking."

Colonel Escort relaxed her grip on Tisa's arm and sighed. "Very well," she said, massaging her temple. "Come, Colletta, you must be dressed soon. We will be in District Twelve within the next few hours. And please, lock the door next time this happens. The last thing your parents need is a scandal of this magnitude."

Colletta blinked, momentarily stunned, before following the usually militant woman back to her quarters.

"I had a talk with your grandfather last night." Colonel Escort said as soon as they were out of ear-shot of the others. Colletta blanched, know what was coming next. First she would be lectured on how she besmirched the Snow name yet again, and then she would have to carry out some arduous punishment that would give her a major kink her neck (last time she had to scrub the entire floor of the main ballroom with a tooth brush). No doubt her family would think of something even more horrible for her to do in the Districts.

Colletta ran her fingers over the wall as she walked just behind the woman, anticipation knotting her stomach. "And?"

"And he says that you will not be making any more trips to the Districts if you cannot behave yourself." Colletta relaxed. Knowing her grandfather, he would consider that enough of a punishment for her. "Furthermore," she continued, eliciting a groan from Colletta, "your mother said we are to force feed you if you do not eat. Her exact words were that, valiant as your deeds may be, you will do no one any good by wasting away."

That surprised Colletta enough to shut her up for the entire rest of the morning. Her mother was possibly the coldest of the Snows and she was only one by marriage. All the woman ever cared about was her image and how her children effected it. Not once had she ever said anything to make Colletta think she might care about the people of Panem. And there she was, calling Colletta valiant and, in her own way, encouraging her to care. Colletta was so shocked that she barely noticed that she had eaten her entire breakfast. She didn't even notice that it was snowing until she was out in the open, off the train.

"You okay?" Finnick asked after she had bumped into him. He held her away at arm's length to steady her and gave her a good, hard look. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"What would you do if someone said something that was completely opposite of who they usually are?" She asked, looking up at him. "It might be the tumor, or she might actually care."

"Who?" He asked, looking over his shoulder as their entourage left them behind. "Are you okay?"

Colletta nodded, wrapping her fingers around one of his wrists. She didn't want him to pull away, and that thought scared her. "I just received an interesting piece of advice from my mother this morning."

"And do you believe that she doesn't care?" He looked her in the eye and for a second, her heart stopped. But then her mind went back to the problem at hand.

"I don't know." She bit her lip, thinking. "Sometimes she acts like we are her world. But most of the time she just… It's like we are a way for her to better her image in society."

Finnick chuckled, letting go of her and looping one arm around her shoulders so they could catch up to the rest of their group. "I don't see how anyone could view you as a way to get ahead in life."

"Well, it depends on the kind of life you want." She said, leaning into him. He was so warm and comforting. "If you want to get arrested by the time you're sixteen, then I'm a great way to get ahead in life."

He laughed again and ruffled her head in a brotherly way. Colletta frowned. She was coming to terms with the fact that she did not want him in a sibling-friend way. He looked so handsome in the large wool coat he wore, with his hair perfectly ruffled by the wind. When he laughed, she noticed, his eyes lit up like the stars. Now she was just getting cheesy, she thought, shaking her head. These feelings were pointless; even if he ever did like her back that way, nothing could ever happen between them. He had to be single to lead the supposed life of a playboy, which he would have no choice but to do.

"Where have you two been?" Tisa hissed at them when they reached the end of the platform. The reporters were going crazy around them. Colletta ducked out from under his arm and joined her escort before anyone got the wrong idea. They were just friends, if even that. She pouted, thinking hard again. She had never had a friend before and had no idea how to tell if someone was more than a mere acquaintance. She figured she would just have to be blunt and ask him when they got back to the train. In the meantime, she had cameras to woo and fake smiles to give. Not to mentions the thousands of bills sitting in her bag, just waiting to be handed out.


She was drunk. It was only ten and she had already drunk her weight in wine at the banquet. This one, she noticed, was way different than anything the Capitol would consider a banquet. For starters, there was barely any food. And they actually had to sit down and eat it. There was no music, no dancing, no pickpocketing. It was beyond dull. And to make it worse, she had been sat next to Pompous Pius Pemperbee and Juliet Comb, both being major kiss-asses and scavengers of the Capitol's high society.

"So, miss Snow," Juliet was saying, oblivious to how she was only just paying enough attention to grunt at the appropriate times. "Is it true that your brother plans to follow in Granddaddy's footsteps?"

Colletta, who was past her limit for this bureaucratic bull, snorted into her wine glass. Everyone stopped—even the music stopped—as she started cackling wildly. "You people are pathetic!" She spat, shaking her head. "Who bloody cares what my brother does? My grandfather is still the president. As long as he is, your loyalties should be to him. And for the record, no one in my family calls him 'Granddaddy.'" She went on cackling while everyone looked away embarrassed for the poor soul who had been on the receiving end of her tirade. Juliet was scarlet and stammering an apology, to which Colletta only laughed harder. She loved to watch people squirm.

"I think I'm going to excuse myself." She said in no one in particular and scooted back her chair. She stumbled outside and sat down on the front steps of the mayor's house.

Someone sat down next to her. Finnick, she realized. He looked dashing in the suit they had him in. The heavy wool coat he had did little to distract from that. Her head was spinning too much to concentrate on forming a coherent sentence, so she laid her head against his shoulder instead. At first he stiffened, but then he relaxed into her touch, his am going around her exposed shoulders.

"Aren't you cold?" He asked, his fingers tracing designs into her bare arm.

She shook her head. She felt like she was on fire, especially with him touching her. But she didn't dare admit that to him. "Aren't you hot?" She countered, leaning her entire body against him.

"It's snowing, Colletta." He picked up a handful of snow and sprinkled in over her. It was black from the coal dust that stuck to everything in Twelve. "I think it's physically impossible to be hot right now."

"It's Cole," she told him. "Only people I don't like call me Colletta."

He chuckled and shook his head. "So people you like call you Cole?"

She shrugged and looked up at him. "Only people I trust. And my mom."

"So you trust me?" There was a teasing edge to his voice. She barely registered the shiver it sent down her spine.

"I don't trust anyone." She went back to leaning against him and watched the snow fall all around them.

Neither one of them said anything after that until their escorts came out to get them. Tisa brushed the snow off of Finnick, chattering about how it was ruining his hair and that he shouldn't have left the banquet that was being held in his honor. Colonel Escort, meanwhile, only fixed Colletta with a stern glare. We will talk later, it said. After your family finds out about tonight. Colletta swallowed and nodded, wishing or all the world that she hadn't drank so much as she tried to maneuver the frozen path that lead to their waiting car.


So, can you tell how much trouble I had getting this out? Sorry it sucks so much and that it's so short. I promise the next chapter will be better!