That same day at dinner, Eliza struggled with whether or not she should tell Mindy about what Gale had done. On one hand, she did not know Mindy that well, it could be an over share, and have her tell the whole army of other friends she had. Friends that were also in the military and would get to know Gale, eventually.

But on the other hand, Eliza was dying to talk to someone about it. Erica had already too much to worry about, and other than her… there was no one.

All that train of thought proved pointless because she didn't see Mindy at dinner. And soon it was time to use Gale's key, even if she still wasn't sure it was a good idea. At nine o'clock, she planted herself in front of his door, looking at both her sides several times, to make sure she wasn't spotted. Once no one responded to her knock on the door, she dared to unlock it.

The room was ever so slightly smaller than the one she shared with Sabrina. It had a bed standing near the furthest wall from the door. On the opposite side from it, there was the desk, and on it, the glorious lamp Gale had told her about.

Eliza dropped the books she brought on the top of the desk, trying to keep herself from prying on the rest of the room, even if she really wanted to.

She sat on the chair and adjusted the angle of the lamp, took her notebook and a pencil out, laying them next to the book, and resumed the chapter on the History of Panem she had started just before dinner. She allowed herself a few seconds to notice how much more comfortable to the eyes that one yellow light was, and dived into her reading.

Not much more than an hour had gone by, when she heard something on the door, it opening immediately after. Eliza quickly got up, tidying her things as Gale let himself in.

"Hey, you came." He said.

"Hey, sorry, I'll be gone in a minute. I didn't really notice the time." She piled her books on top of each other, noticing just how ambitious she had been by bringing them all at once.

Gale must have noticed it too, since he said, "So… is speed reading your superpower?"

"Yeah...I mean, no! I guess...I thought you would be here later, I'm sorry."

"Me too, but it turns out we'll have a mission early tomorrow morning, so they sent us back a bit earlier today."

He sat on the bed, while peaking at the top of her pile of books, and asked:

"Were you reading history? Also, you can stay a bit longer if you want, I can sleep with the light on." He said as he took off his boots.

"A—ah, are you sure? I really don't want to disturb you. You must be tired."

He shook his head. "I told you not to worry. It's fine."

Eliza hesitated, seeing the dark marks under his eyes and the yawn he let out once he finished his sentence. "Hum okay, but promise me if I'm ever annoying you, you'll just tell me alright? Don't sit there trying to be nice, and secretly wishing I was out of here."

"Oh trust me, I'll tell you if you're ever annoying me."

Eliza smiled shyly, and let herself back on the chair, her back turned to him and her things set as before.

"What chapter were you reading? I haven't opened that thing ever since the first class."

"Hum..." She started, turning the chair to look at him as she spoke. Gale, on the other hand, had his shirtless back turned to her. He was just changing into his pajamas, but Eliza could barely hold in a gasp at the sight of the scarred tissue completely bare.

A rush of heat rose up to her head as she quickly changed to face her book again, pretending nothing had happened.

"I was—ah...I was, reading the...the one on the separation of the Districts."

Eliza heard the thud as he sat on the bed again, and tried to focus. She passed the eyes across the page, in the beginning, having to read several sentences more than once to try to make sense of them.

"I've been thinking about what you told me, the other day." He said, taking her out of the text again.

"What'd you mean?"

"About your roommate doing a report on you. There're some things about this place that I don't quite..."

"Trust." Eliza completed, turning again to face him. He laid on his back staring into the ceiling and his hands behind his head.

"Exactly. I don't know who I should trust here. Some people seem okay, and like they want to accept us here but... How will we know for sure? If they can just be going behind our backs, taking everything we say to a higher up?"

Eliza pondered for a bit before speaking, "I thought about that, you know? Do you remember Mindy, the blonde girl I was with yesterday?"

He nodded. "I saw her later in training. They say she is one of the best pilots here but they won't let her fly."

Eliza nodded. "Yeah, well... I thought she could be hiding something from me as well. She started to talk to me out of nowhere, and we both know there are far more interesting people out there to get to know. And she also kept asking about 12, how it was there and all..."

"And you thought it strange."

"Yeah, especially after Sabrina told me about the report... So I asked her directly."

Gale grinned, "You just straight up asked her if she was spying on you?"

"Well, yeah, kind of."

"Why wouldn't she just lie to you?"

"Of course she could." Eliza said, as if it was obvious. "But she didn't. She actually... Well, like you said, she can't fly anymore. Do you know why?"

He shook his head.

"She and her crew took a ship out of its mission course once, to explore. Now she is on a five year piloting ban until they assess her again and make sure she will be compliant with her orders." Eliza smiled while saying because she liked the story. Mindy also laughed when telling it, seemingly unbothered, and a bit proud.

Gale had raised his eyebrows, "So they're not all puppets of the system here?"

"Apparently not. But she is also not that popular, if you notice. Most of the people from her sector just started to ignore her after the incident."

"That's actually..." He seemed to think about it for a while. "Maybe I could ask her about some stuff, but then again... What if she is now trying to collect info just to get her pardon faster?"

Eliza shrugged, "I guess that's the definition of trust. You never know for sure, but you believe it nonetheless."

Gale laughed, "Look at you, so full of wisdom." The end of his sentence got punctuated by a loud yawn.

"I'm sorry, it's getting late and I should be going." Eliza got up in a jump, realizing she had just been blabbering about random things while Gale, most likely, just wanted to get some sleep.

"You don't have to run like that. But yeah, I should probably go to bed. I have a big day tomorrow."

Eliza thought about all the meetings he said he'd been attending, as well as training and spending time with his family.

"More than usual?"

"Yeah. We're taking Katniss to District 12. Or whatever's left of it."

Her mouth fell open, and Gale explained before she had to ask. "She asked them to. It's kind of a bribe to get her to comply with the rebellion and... Well, I'm not sure it'll work, but she really wants to see it."

"And you have to go too? It sounds like a dreadful idea." she noted.

He shrugged, or at least as far as a person laying down can shrug.

"I wouldn't mind seeing what remains of it."

Eliza made her way back to her room, thinking to herself he didn't really sound so sure of it.