Coleene had told me about the private session. All I had to do was to stand in there in front of the gamemakers and get the lowest score possible. But why did I feel so anxious? It was just like an exam! And I'd been to plenty of them without problems. Actually, I'd never received less than an O. I paused. Maybe that was the problem! Doing bad on purpose was against my entire being. I sighed and entered the room.

"You can start, Jessica." A neutral voice said. I looked around and my eyes fixed on a sword. That couldn't get worse, I thought with a smug smile and headed towards it. The sword was heavy and uncontrollable and the grip was too big for my hand. Still, I swung it against the training doll. The next second, I jumped backwards as I'd dropped it on my foot. There was a dispersed giggling, as I left the sword and grabbed a bow. This couldn't be too hard. Carefully, I took an arrow and placed it on the string. It flew an entire feet. I was a bit proud, but this time I heard a genuine laughter from the gamemakers. This was starting to tick me off.

"We don't need to see any more. You can go," the head gamemaker said. I stomped towards the door, my head red with humiliation and anger. A cough sounded behind me, and I turned.

"It's the other door," a gamemaker giggled and pointed. I got a strong urge to run over and hit him, but what I actually did was much worse. I smiled, said "thanks", turned around on the spot, apparated to the other end of the room and walked out.

Coleene was waiting for me in the apartment.

"So?"

"So what?"

"Are they convinced?" I grimaced.

"I'm not sure."

"Not sure? What did you do?!" She didn't even look worried. "Throw up at them?"

"Cut it out!" I said. "When will they publish the score?" She sighed and led me to the dinner room, where lunch waited.

We had been sitting watching Capitol TV for at least twenty minutes before it started. My eyes were glued to the screen as they started by giving Yilo 11. We clapped a little at Kim's 7, and finally my face appeared with the number 10. Silence fell around me.

"It's settled, then," Coleene said with a cold voice. "You're going to die." She left without another word.

The next morning she woke me up early.

"Time to learn to walk!" she said triumphantly, not looking me in the eyes.

"What?" She answered by placing a pair of stilettos in front of my face. I sat up groggily, put on the shoes, walked to the other end of the room and back again without any problems, took them off and went back to bed again. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor wrapped in my bed blankets.

"You seriously thought I'd let you go that easy?"

"No, that would depend on you being capable of mercy," I groaned tiredly. "Never thought that of you."

"I'll be back in twenty. You better be ready by then, or I'll let you practise these in the hall down there in that," she said and pointed at my T-shirt and trousers.

"As if I care," I mumbled, but when she came back, I was dressed and ready for whatever torture, she was planning to inflict on me.

"You haven't told me, why we are doing this?" I said while walking back and forth wearing an awful long, pink dress and matching high heels.

"Because of the interview of course," she answered.

"The interview?!" I hissed and stumbled. "What am I going to do?"

"Just answer the guy. It can't be that hard, now can it?"

"Well, I guess not..."

"By the way, where did you learn to walk around in high heels?"

"They're just shoes," I answered deviantly.