TWO MORE MONTHS flew by in a blink of an eye - Gwyneth Anderson had gotten reacquainted to her long lost best friends Laine Whitlock and Charlotte Levine - yet she couldn't help but feel a faint sense of despair at the fact that Rylie Ashton still hadn't been able to open up to her.

November arrived so quickly they couldn't seem to process it - with school, tests and all that stuff, Gwyneth finally felt her life was back on track again. And also that she had just turned fourteen.

Maybe she was going to be able to truly leave the Games behind? The things that happened in that first arena more than half a year ago still haunted her - when she looked at Charlotte's smiling face next to her, she still felt a sense of guilt and wrong - but Charlotte Levine had forgiven her. She could tell from the sincereness her deep black eyes held - like it was withstanding all the things that she wanted to tell, but didn't have time to. And now she would get the chance.

Eunice Seyfield, on the other hand, had seemed to take a liking to spending her time with Cadence, Aiden and Rylie - she felt the dire need to make things right because she knew apologising wouldn't do a thing to the severed connection between them. 

And with that, the best friends hardly saw each other every day- in the hallways, in the classrooms, or even in the 'hoverhouse' they shared. They didn't see each other much - only at meal times - and even then, Eunice avoided Gwyneth's gaze. 

December turned the corner, and November waved a sad goodbye. Christmas was approaching, yet the festive season had hardly set in before Gwyneth wasn't able to take it anymore. The sight of Eunice pained her - unlike when she died in the first arena, the sacrifice that Eunice had made for her - but like she had been cut with her own knives. Not deep enough to kill, but definitely deep enough to hurt. 

"What is wrong with Eunice," she wondered to herself. Why had she suddenly become so distant? It wasn't like Gwyneth didn't want to make things right herself - but Cadence and she had already formed an unmistakable bond through Mission Thirty-Nine, and they talked often these days, entering each other's rooms before bed. Aiden and Gwyneth always joked and laughed with each other - reminiscing about the olden days - but maybe it wasn't worth reminiscing at all - at least their times together. 

"Maybe what I have to reminiscence is Eunice and me," she murmured. The invisible knives cut deeper into her skin. She was hurt, she realised. Her bonds with Cadence and Aiden were closer than ever. Zoey, Kunboss, and Gwyneth often still hung out, almost every day.

But the person she cared the most about had been ignoring her. And Gwyneth felt the need to figure out why.

They sat across from each other at the table in their hoverhouse - Eunice Seyfield stared blankly at her best friend as she spoke - "I really don't know what has happened here, but do you understand-"

Eunice cuts her off with a "I don't think you understand - everything is just so... it changed so much, Gwyneth," speaking softly but loud enough to be heard. 

Her eyes travelled up to meet Gwyneth's gaze - this was the first time they had spoken in what felt like an eternity. She had this feeling that they'd never be as close as they were before - yet she didn't know what had caused it. Was it her, she wondered. Had she been too caught up in trying to get closer to Cadence and change everything the younger girl had ever thought about her - so much that she had ignored her best friend?

No, impossible. But when Eunice's eyes met Gwyneth's, she was greeted with a waterfall - something different than the slow river of emotions that flowed inside those deep brown eyes. From her gaze she knew Gwyneth was hurt, yet she smiled on. 

And on that day, the friends embraced. Tears of diamonds ran down their cheeks together, and Eunice truly felt like a knot in the bottom of her stomach had been untied, and she was free again, to fly like a bird in any way she wanted, without that guilt, that piece of unsureness, weighing her down.

- GWYNETH -

Since we returned to the Adelaide Woods, life has maybe..  gotten a bit back to normal? 'It won't be normal, it never will be,' I know, because after all we've gone through in the arena together, we can only forgive, but not forget. I myself understand forgetting the horrors we had done, gone through in the arena, would be impossible to forget.

Perhaps that was something to think about. We had already gone through this together, and we are stronger, better, than we were before. What's stopping us from continuing on, because there are surely more obstacles to come in the future. And we will face it better, stronger, than we have ever been. 

The Games.. they're part of us now. And let them lead us into a better stage of life. Because there might not be a rainbow, but let us believe so. And the rainbow always comes after the rain.