THE GOLDEN AGE, sejanus plinth

005. family

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CHAPTER FIVE
FAMILY
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ON THE WAY to the high biology lab, Aurora listened to the others complain about their tributes. She walked next to Coriolanus, who stayed quiet like she did.

"Mine spoke! I wish she hadn't!" Arachne exclaimed.

"Why? What did she say?" Clemensia asked, well knowingly that Arachne would continue talking anyway.

"Oh, it seems she spends most of her time in District Ten butchering hogs," she answered.

Aurora fell back, still being able to listen to everything her cousin said, and walked next to Sejanus, who was alone like usual.

"How did it go for you?" She asked, although already noticing his pained facial expression.

"He wouldn't talk to me. He didn't even touch the food I brought him. He'd rather starve than take anything from me," he replied.

Aurora gave him a sad smile in return.
"I'm sorry, but you know that's not your fault, right?"

He nodded with a sigh.

"Maybe he just needs a little while to get comfortable talking to you, who knows," she tried to cheer him up as they walked through the lab's entrance.

"Yeah, maybe," he mumbled, not really convinced.

After handing in her questionnaire, the girl sat down next to Sejanus, to the boy's surprise.

An unfamiliar woman stood next to the dean, looking at each of them.
"Hippity, hoppity, how did you fare? Did they greet you like friends or just sit there and stare?"

The girl exchanged a confused glance with the boy next to her when the woman flipped through the questionnaires.

"For those of you who don't know, I'm Dr. Gaul, the Head Gamemaker, and I will be mentoring your mentorships. Let's see what I have to work with, shall we?" She frowned at the papers until she found one that she obviously approved of.

"Thank you, Mr. Snow. Now, what happened to the rest of you?" She held Coryo's paper in the air, every question was answered in great detail.

The blonde boy cleared his throat.
"I had good luck with my tribute. She's a talker. But most of the kids wouldn't communicate. And even my girl can't see the point of making an effort at the interview."

Sejanus turned around to Coriolanus to his left.
"Why should they? What does it get them? No matter what they do, they'll be thrown into the arena and left to fend for themselves."

The others started murmuring at his words, but the woman only stared at the boy.

Aurora opened her notebook and was about to doodle again, having her pencil raised in mid air.

"You're the boy with the sandwiches. Why did you do it?" She asked him.

Sejanus looked down on his notebook, picking at one of the pages.
"They were starving. We're going to kill them; do we have to torture them ahead of time as well?"

Aurora could see in the way the woman was looking at him, that she didn't approve of his answer. But he was right.

Quiet murmur came from the other side of the room, it was probably Livia.

"Huh," Dr. Gaul let out. "A rebel sympathizer."

The girl turned her head around to Sejanus, her eyes wide. Not because she thought him to be a rebel sympathizer, but because that was what the woman assumed. He was just compassionate. Was that all someone needed to be seen as a rebel sympathizer?