It had been presented as an invitation, but even Lucy Gray Baird knew that it was much more than that. The Capitol was changing up the Games, again. Her year had, seemingly, been a sort of test, and she had hoped to put all of it behind her. Well, almost all of it. There was still the flickering feelings and thoughts of Coriolanus Snow, even with the whispered warning from the Dean as she had departed, a purse of money in hand, enough to keep the Covey in grain for a year or more, even without being frugal as they were made to be. Her hope of leaving all of it behind, even Coriolanus if it meant she could move passed everything that had happened in the Arena, was dashed the moment the news came, a couple of months before the Reaping, so as to prepare her for what was to come. Other changes had been made as well - the District had set to work on construction about a mile outside of the town square, a neat row of houses from the look of it, and she had been told, in the informative letter, that once construction was complete, she and her family would be free to leave their designated residence, and move into one of those houses, to then be deemed the Victor's Village. All the Districts were getting similar treatment. If she had hoped to put it in the past, and keep the Covey from knowing everything that had happened in the Capitol, that had all come crashing down the day the Peacekeeper had delivered the notice.
The day of the Reaping came, and as ill-prepared as she was to now be a Mentor (taking the place of the Academy students, another new addition to the Games), the shock of the train, an actual transport car, not the cattle car they'd rounded up the previous years Tributes in, was enough to let her know things had changed. What could have caused such a shift in less than a year? It couldn't have been her, singing on stage and in the Arena for her life, even cheating would be frowned upon, though she wasn't above suggesting it to her tributes, now that she was responsible for them. Two young ilk from the seam, miners' kids who hadn't had enough food a day in their life, now were seated on the nicest train she could imagine, with food and water and all kinds of treats before them. Even she was unused to such treatment, but it had to be a trap.
She wasn't in her mama's dress this year, not the same rainbow ruffles, but in a colorful dress of lilac trim. Going to the Capitol in the dress from the previous year, which had been untouched other than a wash since her time in the Arena, would have just been inviting trouble she suspected. Exiting the train, her hands on the shoulders of the boy and girl tributes from Twelve, smaller even than she was, though the boy had to be at least 16 - she was determined to get them as far as she could. After all, hadn't Coriolanus placed his faith in her, against all odds?
And where was he? While she was careful not to get her hopes up, knowing how much any of them could change in a year, and still not knowing what was real or not real before her time in the Arena, and the parting words from the Academy's Dean still somewhere in the back of her mind, she couldn't imagine he wouldn't just be there, like the year before, at the train station, ready to greet them upon their arrival. Whether or not he was a mentor. And with the Peacekeepers, not quite as aggressive as the previous year, herded them forward, she spotted him in the distance, towards where they were headed, and the smile on her face was quite real, if a little subdued. Not knowing what to expect, especially after the previous year, had her more nervous than she'd been the first time she'd come here.
Was she able to just approach him? Her hands gripped on the shoulders of the two tributes, her eyes darted around glancing as other tribute pairs arrived, some with other bewildered District folk, some who she must have guessed didn't come from a District with a winner, escorted by someone clearly from the Capitol. There was no telling what the instructions to the Peacekeepers were - these were not the ones in Twelve who, while they followed the law to the letter, they were indulgent of the Covey and of a few other endearing townsfolk.
If it was just her to think of, she might have called out to him, but with the lives of the two Tributes under her hands, quite literally at the moment, she waited until he was caught scanning the crowd, eyes locked on his, making sure to guide them the direction the Peacekeepers enforced, while slowly moving them towards her ---- what had he been? Former Mentor? Something more would have come, surely, if there had been a chance for it, right? She'd had no flames since, heart thinking of the Capitol boy who she'd called a rebel for bringing her a rose, and who had saved her life multiple times in the arena, she could only assume. The words the Dean said to her rattle in her eardrums as she approached, smile unfaltering, still wondering what they were even doing here.
