The Second Quarter Quell

Prologue

Everything in the streets is frozen. Summer never lasts long.

Those gruesome images from last year's Hunger Games still haunt me.

It's 6am and my twin sister Marley and I are the only people in the streets right now. We have to be careful no one sees us wondering around town so early, they might think we're stealing. We're not though, we did that yesterday, today we're going to see our best friend Marciline Osmer like we do most mornings.

She lives at the orphanage and we're not actually allowed to see her, so we sneak in through the window.

Marci's parents died when she was three. They were executed after they were caught hunting outside district 12's barrier.

Next year when Marci turns 18 she'll be kicked out of the orphanage. She's not allowed to stay at our home because it's full up.
Our parents own a sweet shop, but they don't have a house, so we stay with our Aunt and Uncle. We live in the Seam, which is possibly the poorest and most miserable part of district 12, and district 12 is the poorest part of Panem. Their house is tiny but our Grandpa, our cousins Lila, Jack and Tarissa, our other Aunt and her baby Levy, and our Uncle's father, all live with us and not to mention my pet canary, named Melody.
Our Aunt and Uncle are really nice people, well actually they're too nice. They let half the family stay in their house out of kindness, and now they're even poorer than they were when it was just Marley and me living there.

We both try to stay out of the house as much as possible. We sometimes pick pocket in the streets because the food is scarce at home, but also for Marci, since all the orphanage can afford to feed her is half a bowl of rice each day.

We squeezed under the wire fence surrounding the orphanage, making sure we didn't cut ourselves on the sharp bits. Marci's window is several metres away from the ground, so Marley has to lift me up so I can open it.

'I can't get it to open, maybe it's frozen shut,' I said

'Let me try.'

Marley's a lot heavier than me, so boosting to the window isn't easy. She kept trying to force the window open, but it wouldn't budge.

'Stop Marley, your gonna break it!' I shouted,

but it was too late, the window opened with a bang and Marley tumbled down the wall. We both lay bruised on the cold, hard ground.

'Nice going Marley, you've probably woke the whole town!' I hissed. We paused for a moment, then looked around. Nothing.

'Relax Maysi, the window isn't broken, and not even Marci is awake.'

I hate it when my sister talks to me like that.
We climbed through the window to where Marci was sleeping. I crept over to her and tried to wake her up.

'Marci, wake up, it's us, wake up,' I whispered.

Her eyes opened a tiny bit and she smiled.

'Marley, was that you who was messing around with the window?' She giggled.

'No silly, it's me, Maysilee, but yeah, Marley did nearly break your bedroom window.'

'Sorry,' whispered Marley.

'Maysi, how much money did you bring?' Asked Marci.