this stall is for crying —「snowspire.」

꧁  pippa   ꧂

It's nice to feel included.

Trailing just behind Farrah, Lovie and Erras at your heels, it's as close to belonging as you've felt in a long while. Often, you occupy your time with wonderful and exciting things, but more often still, there's always been an invisible string connecting you to a place you can't quite see. All you know is that as much as you love your castle in the snow, deeply and truly and obediently — you've always been comfortable with the idea of being elsewhere.

You're not even picky! You'll happily trade the tundra for a warmer climate, maybe somewhere with an ocean view. There are so many pictures in your schoolbooks that you've traced drawings of, doodled prettily on a list of sights you want to see before you're old and gray and gone. The sea is one, of course, but so are mountains, and deserts, and even the Capitol, too. Just not as a tribute! To this day, you still cover your eyes during all the scary parts. Lamb's wool obscuring your vision from the terrors, but doesn't that only make the wolves hungrier? Hmm.

When you hear Erras gushing the praise of a victor, admittedly to Lovie and obviously not to you, it's on instinct that you wince. Nobody asks, but you'll always tell. "The thing I like most about Cricket is her pet tiger, but yeah, the murdering children part is also a big no for me." You smile sweetly over your shoulder, a little guiltily, still keeping pace with the rebel at their front. People are always so weirdly tense around Farrah, like a finger trembling against a hair trigger, but you don't feel that way at all!

She knows a lot of things, and even if she doesn't really care about the topics you like, she always listens to your questions and answers patiently. Eighteen years has made your skin just tough enough, and you've already heard all the worst jokes. Even the rare original one only makes you cry for a couple hours. You always dry your eyes and get back up on your feet at the end of the day. It's all you've ever been able to do. Farrah doesn't need to worry about watching her tone around you; you wholeheartedly appreciate all the different facets of a person.

Even if he used to say awful things about you, and even if sometimes you believed those things were true — finger snap, try to disappear — you also enjoy Erras' company. His outfits are always the prettiest colors, and he can tell you the name of them right down to the shade. Around him, you have learned to see more than just the rainbow, so really, how could you stay angry? Scars heal, and one day soon, you'll be living in a mansion with parents who have been dreaming of you, and only you. You've never been picked first during group projects, or for the occasional team sport. But it's coming! Right around the corner, like Joyce always says.

As sad as it is to hear someone else is getting their golden ticket out of the academy, the energy in the halls is palpable. All around you, voices chat excitedly and quietly about the festivities being planned. Erras even speaks to you directly, and you twirl on your heels and stop in your tracks to make sure you hold eye contact with him, grinning brightly. "Pip, where the fuck is Hanna? I asked her to see if she'd try out a few fits tomorrow and she, like, totally ghosted."

"Probably practicing, if we're talking logical? Ooh, or maybe she's found a secret door and now she's asking fairies for directions home! But, um, if you need someone, I'd actually love to try your cloth—" / "I hope she's—"

Erras breaks your sentence only to be cut off himself. The bathroom door swings open, and the musically gifted culprit reveals herself on the other side. "Not dead." You smile a little awkwardly, but still warmly, stepping out of the way to allow Lovie and Erras to pass you by. "Just one second, sorry, and then I'm so ready to hang with you guys! I need to ask Alain a favor first." Turning away and rushing back down the hallway, it's not long before you run into the lionhearted boy who has always looked over your class of students so graciously.

Sometimes fate is like that; where you need to be is exactly where you'll end up.

"Hi, Alain, sorry to bug you! Do you have a moment?" You beam at him, hands clasped behind your back. Today, and always, you want to manifest bigger and better things for yourself. And you'd like to be able to keep and cherish all of the memories you'll make along the way, so who better to turn to than the friend standing in front of you? "I'm gonna get drunk for the first time tonight, would you please take a picture of me having my first sip? I made a bet that I'm not gonna make a funny face or anything. I mean, is it really all that sour?"