The last day of training, there was less talk. Even Slate stuck with Lark until lunch. I went with Xavier. Of all the people, he would be the one who needed a sense of comfort. He was too young to be in this alone, with no one to trust.

Last night, Slate and I stayed up until midnight. Avoxes appeared just to offer us food for dinner, which we gladly took. No one bothered to tell us that we better head up for some rest. I had been very tempted to have Slate stay in my room for the night, but I resisted the words that were on the tip of my tongue. Of course he would have stayed. I don’t think he would keep anything from me at this point.

We never talked strategies. It would just spark an argument, and this was my only source of gladness ever since the Games, so I never brought it up. He did the same. I had expected my time here at the Center to be focused on training and assessing my allies. I didn’t think that I would find someone here, of all places, whom I would care about. It might have been a trick, but while I was safe in the Center, I would allow it.

After lunch, it was time for the Gamemakers to rate our skills. Our private sessions came as we were called individually. None of the tributes who went in came out the same way, so we didn’t know what was happening.

I was the eighth to go in, right after Xavier, who went in right after the girl from District 3. I glanced at the other tributes that were waiting, probably thinking what they were going to do. Most of them have never held weapons before three days ago.

After about fifteen minutes, my name was called. I stood up, walking into the room with as much grace as I could muster. My image had to come back sometime.

The Gamemakers were on an elevated platform, lounging around and still having their meals. They gave me the attention that I wanted because I was from District 4. I was bound to be good at something.

The beautiful trident was next to the weapons available. I took it and spun it around my head and around my body, just to show off. I tossed it lightly into the air, caught it and threw it swiftly across the room and into the neck of one of the dummies. With a few knives, I hit different targets in the room at different ranges.

When I got back to the dummy with the trident, I pulled it off and started slicing off dummies ones by one in less than five seconds. I spun around for dramatic effect, before flinging the trident onto one of the targets that were on ceiling. It clung on, which meant that I had a pretty strong throw.

The whole time, I hadn’t glanced at the Gamemakers. I wanted to show them that I was capable with almost every weapon though, so I went ahead and tried my chances with archery, right after throwing a few spears around.

During archery, I reminded myself of what Slate told me. I hit all of my three desired targets perfectly.

My minutes were up and I looked up at the Gamemakers platform. They nodded in approval and I felt like I did pretty well. They dismissed me and I exited through the other door.

I went toward the elevator and pressed L. It had become a sort of sanctuary for me. I barely even stayed on the District 4 floor unless I was sleeping or talking about strategy.

To my surprise, Slate was out on the balcony as well. I paused before going there. The victors who were in the lounge were probably watching me. I bet they couldn’t wait to hear how my session with the Gamemakers went.

One of the victors was Mags, the victor that won after Yoro. She was in her 40’s or 50’s, but I really couldn’t tell, what with her kind smile and the laugh lines on her face. She approached me before I could go out to the balcony.

“How was it?” Mags asked, sitting me down on one of the poufy stools. She sat across me and waited for my answer.

“I think it went all right. They were nodding and some were smiling when it was over,” I muttered, glancing at Slate, who had his back to us as he looked at the sky.

Mags followed where my eyes looked. There was a small, but sad smile when I looked back at her face. “I heard about that from your brother. It’s a strategy that I haven’t seen before. There’s not much time to develop any romance among different districts here, and even more difficult knowing that it will end up as a tragedy.”

I remained silent. Mags could read my feelings easily.

“It isn’t just pretend for you, is it?” she said, putting her hand over mine. I nodded my head. I didn’t know what to tell her. I would only sound foolish. She would tell me to find a nice boy. Just get home. Instead she continued with, “We can’t choose who to love, Serena. I don’t know how that boy feels about you or if he’s just looking at it as strategy, but there’s no mistake with your feelings.”

“You don’t think that I’m a fool for not stopping myself from liking him?”

“Given a different situation, and with more time, I think you would end up loving him and he would probably as well. Like I said, you can’t stop what your heart tells you, no matter what you do to stop it.”

“Everyone just thinks it’s harmless flirting.”

“Not everyone knows that you two have been spending time out at that balcony for two nights in a row,” she pointed out. “You could have just acted for the cameras outside of this Training Center, but even during your spare time, you two are together. That’s saying something, since there’s hardly enough time left.”

“It’s been such a short time to love someone. I feel silly.”

Mags said something that made me respect her even more, and made my confusion and ridiculousness make sense.

“When you are faced with imminent death, what is important truly surfaces. Reality seems to be far away, and it’s who you’re with that seems most important.”

She kissed my forehead and stood up, but not before she said, “Enjoy it while you can, Serena. Even if you end up betrayed, just remember that not everyone had the chance of a few moments of happiness before their deaths in the arena. If you can, come home, Serena.”

Mags went back to the chairs where her other victor friends were. I ignored them glancing at me as I went out.

Slate opened his eyes as he heard the door sliding open. His face broke out in a huge grin and he scooted over so that I could fit beside him. I took my place by his side and he wrapped his arm around me.

“How did yours go?” he asked.

“Okay, but I feel more sorry for the ones after. They already seemed distracted when I went in. I think the only reason they paid attention to me was because I was a Career. How was yours?”

“I was the third one to go in, so they were still pretty interested when I started using the sword-fighting stuff.”

We talked about different things, things that weren’t related to the Games. We talked about our lives in our districts and how different mine was from his. We talked about our families and their different quirks. He had been brought up in luxury ever since birth, with his dad being a victor, so he mostly listened to my accounts of my life when I used to live by the water village.

“Come up with me?” I asked, holding his hand.

He nodded and we both stood up. He brought me to my room, as usual, but this time, I held onto his hand and pulled him in with me. I closed the door behind him and kissed him before he could react.

I knew what mattered: the things that I had deprived myself of in District 4. I deprived myself of plenty of feelings, and these might be the last few days living. I understood now what Mags had meant and what Slate had said a few nights ago.

I was going to make these next few days count.