District Two always went crazy when a victor came home, but this was even more cause to celebrate, because the odds had decided not to give Two a victor for ten long years. The streets were full when Selkie came home, and four security guards had to blaze a trail to the newly-occupied house in the Victors' Village.

Penny was practically glued to the window, watching her twin move down the road at a snail's pace. The swarming crowds drowned out every sound. It seemed like almost all of District Two had turned out to see Selkie Katling come home.

But when she got in the door, the girl who ran approximately three tributes through in the Games and strangled two more was pale, thin, and panting. The poison gas released on the last day of the Games had all but destroyed her formerly excellent health.

Shara Katling was at the door the minute Selkie came in, ready to shepherd her winning daughter inside and out of the way. Penny watched from the table as Selkie sat down on the bright new couch, closing her eyes.

'Are you alright, sweetie?' Shara hovered anxiously over her daughter, clasping her hands together. 'Do you need water?'

'I'm fine, Mom,' Selkie said quietly. It was the first time they had heard her voice since her interviews on TV.

'Give her some space,' advised Penny, who was debating whether to speak directly to Selkie or not. Her brain wasn't quite used to the fact that Selkie was here and intact. She got up from her seat, sat down, then got up again.

'Penny, darling, get Selkie a drink.' Shara waved Penny away with one hand, reaching out to Selkie with the other. 'Selk, sweetie, you're pale. Are you cold?'

Selkie raised her voice, causing her mother and Penny to start. 'Mom, leave me alone! I can deal with it!'

'Well, I was only trying—

'Well, stop it!' This time, Penny turned and stared at her sister. Selkie acknowledged her with a cold glare and continued. 'My gosh! You're all a bunch of kiss-asses! Just leave me the hell alone!'

'Watch your language!' Shara exclaimed, finding her footing once again. 'Selkie, I'm sorry that you're angry, but—

'Don't be sorry,' Selkie muttered. At a loss for words, Shara backed out of the room. 'Well, I'll leave you alone, then,' she said, voice trembling slightly. The troubled victor and her twin sister were left alone in the living room.

'You know,' said Penny when there had been a substantially awkward silence, 'you should go easy on Mom. Do you know how worried she was when you were in—when you were away?'

'Well, that's nice,' Selkie said acerbically, 'but what about me? Does anyone care what happened to me when I was "away"?' She smirked at Penny's inability to find words. 'Thought not. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to be alone where no one can suck up to me.' With that, she stormed out.

Penny sat down, staring vacantly at the slamming door. That was the moment when she became quite sure that nothing would ever be the same again.

The Katling twins had always been identical in pretty much every way. Their pert, freckled faces, wheat-blond hair and big blue eyes had been a familiar sight around their neighbourhood in Two. They would have been almost impossible to tell apart if not for the fact that Selkie preferred a neat bob cut and Penny's hair flowed rebelliously loose around her waist.

They had been similar in personality, too, even though Selkie worked out almost obsessively while Penny neglected her training in favour of the oh-so-shiny performing arts and an antique violin. They had been close, too. That is, until Selkie won the Hunger Games.

She had volunteered for the Eighty-fifth Games after winning a draw at the Training Centre, and never looked back. Penny had been so proud of the way she blazed through her week's training and interviews, and solidified her alliances with the tributes from One and Four, as well as her own partner. She had been a credit to the district.

The powerful Selkie Katling would take the glory of the Hunger Games in her stride, right? That was what everyone expected when she rolled into Two on a ridiculously slow train. But she settled gradually into life as a victor, and one by one, everyone was disappointed.

'Selk?' Penny stood nervously outside her sister's room in their big new house, wondering if things would be closer to normal today. It was Week Four of the new Selkie, and so far things had been pretty crazy. She had refused to speak to any of her old friends, and spent roughly ninety per cent of her time in her new room, writing something. Whenever someone called to give congratulations or catch up with her, she clammed up and gave as few details as possible. Shara Katling wasn't home much, having thrown herself into a demanding job.

Penny had tried to keep out of the way as much as possible. She had a new job playing at Sekoe's Bar and Restaurant down the road, and a bunch of new friends as a result, including Rayne, a sweet and friendly dancer, Terra, the talkative head waitress, and Ryan, her devastatingly charming accompanist. They never talked about Selkie, but the victor remained a prominent subject in Penny's thoughts.

Now, Selkie replied to her sister's call in a relatively normal fashion. 'Yeah?' The wheels of her desk chair could be heard rolling across the floor.

Penny opened the door a crack. 'Selk, Evanna's here, and she wants to talk to you, like, right now. You know how it is.'

'I know.' Could it be…a hint of humour in Selkie's voice? She rolled her chair over to the door, and Penny was mildly surprised to see that her face was abnormally pale. 'On a scale of one to ten, how neurotic is she?'

Penny allowed herself to grin. That was more like the old Selkie. 'Let's see…probably a five.'

'I don't have to go down yet, then.' Selkie beckoned with one hand, drawing back from the doorway. 'Come in. I haven't seen you properly for ages.'

Penny entered the room, slightly taken aback at the clothes and items scattered on the floor. Out of the two of them, she was usually the messiest, while Selkie liked everything in its place. She stood, unsure of where to sit, while Selkie surveyed her wild hair, lazy mascara and casual clothes.

'So,' said Selkie, 'how have you been? Coping with everything?'

'Um, I'm fine, I guess.' Penny tried to make eye contact with her twin, but it was like trying to keep a laser point in place with sheer willpower. In other words, impossible.

'Sorry I haven't gotten out much,' Selkie said, smiling hollowly. That alone sent a chill down Penny's spine—Selkie never smiled like that. When she was happy, her eyes practically spilled joy and optimism, and when she was sad, the whole world knew about it.

'That's fine.' Her reply bounced around the room, persistently missing its target. Selkie continued to smile with empty eyes. One corner of her mouth was starting to twitch with the effort.

Penny glanced around for inspiration to lighten the mood. Her eyes fell on the open pages of Selkie's notebook, splayed across the desk. 'So, um, been writing much?'

'Yeah.' Selkie stopped smiling—if you could call it that—and her eyes hardened ever so slightly. 'Why?'

'Just wondering.' Penny tried to chuckle lightly, but choked instead. 'What do you write in there, anyway?'

'None of your business.' Eyes that had once been warm and bright turned to blue stone. 'Don't worry about it.'

'I was just curious,' Penny said weakly, trying to cover up her error. 'Sorry if I offended you.'

'Don't be. Everyone does it.'

'Oh, Selkie.' Sympathy took over, and Penny moved closer to her sister, reaching out. Her hand connected with Selkie's shoulder in the same instant that the victor grabbed her arm and twisted it cruelly, drawing a cry of pain from her.

Selkie's eyes widened when she realized what she had done, and she drew back in alarm. 'Gosh, Penny, I'm sorry. Force of habit.'

Penny massaged her shoulder, blinking away tears. 'Force of habit? What kind of habits are you picking up, Selk?'

'Look, Penn, just forget it.' Selkie's eyes became stone once more, and she turned away. 'Go and tell Evanna she can come up here if she wants to talk to me. I'm not going down.'

Something inside Penny snapped. Anger fuelled by the pain in her arm welled up inside her. 'What do you think you're doing, Selkie? You can't hide up here forever!'

'Watch me.'

'Fine, I'll watch you!' Penny stamped her foot, and there was a sharp crack as her shoe broke some forgotten item lying on the floor. 'You're not the same person who left here all that time ago! It's like you're not even my sister anymore. What, did they replace your brain too when they fixed you up in the Capitol?'

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. Selkie rose up from her chair and took hold of Penny with furious hands, pushing her right out the door. Penny squealed indignantly, but Selkie's voice drowned her out. 'You have no idea what happened in the Capitol!' she shrieked. 'Get out of my room and don't come back, you stupid bitch! I don't need your sympathy!' Her sickly face was ever so slightly green-tinged, but she had no troubling raising her hand and slapping her twin squarely across the face, leaving a red mark and a long, stinging scratch across Penny's pale cheek. Then she whirled around and slammed the door.

Penny sat down hard, holding her face and staring at the closed door. It took a few minutes for tears to start sliding down her face. She stayed like that until Evanna, alerted by the noise, tripped up the stairs and found her. 'Penny!' cried the escort. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing,' muttered Penny, getting up and shambling off to her own room. Then she thought again and headed for the back door, unwilling to be like Selkie in any way. She curled up under the large tree in the backyard and cried into the sleeves of her oversized jumper, going over the memory of her sister's distressing actions with every sob.

'Hey.'

Penny started, looking up in a panic. She calmed down slightly when she saw the figure standing in front of her. 'Hey, Ryan.'

Her partner in music knelt down, touching her arm lightly. 'Are you okay, Penn? What's happened?' He hesitated before continuing. 'Is it…Selkie?'

'Yeah, it's Selkie,' Penny admitted, unwilling to hide anything at the moment. 'I don't even know her anymore.'

Ryan made a sympathetic noise and sat down next to her. After a silence, he spoke again. 'Your mom let me in. I came by to see if you wanted music for tonight.'

'Tonight?' Penny looked up in surprise.

'Yeah, tonight. We're playing a set for the evening shift, remember?'

'Oh, I remember. Sorry, Ryan.'

'You can bail if you want,' he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. 'I'll fix something with Cassius.'

'No, I'm coming.' Anything was better than staying at home with the weight of Selkie's new persona holding everyone down. 'Sorry for being like this. I'm just pretty stressed.' Her voice trembled as she remembered her sister's razor-sharp words.

'It'll be fine.' Ryan took gentle hold of her shoulders and caught her gaze. 'We're here for you, okay? You don't have to put up with anyone's crap when you've got us.'

'I won't,' Penny promised, grinning. 'And yes, I do want some music. Thanks for offering. I don't know many people who would brave the Katlings' infamous house for some measly notes.'

'Anything for you,' Ryan said, winking. 'I'd better go now. Your mom looked a little bit edgy about letting me in.'

'Where're you off to? I'll come.' Penny got up, and Ryan followed. 'I'd rather clear out of here for a bit.'

'I'm just off to do some cleaning up at Sekoe's,' he said. 'I'm sure Cassius won't mind another set of hands. That is, if you like disposing of carrot peelings.'

'I'll try,' Penny joked, following him out the side gate.

She returned home at half past ten that night, toting violin, music and spare change, and went to bed mildly happy. As she drifted off, she vowed not to talk to Selkie again unless the victor apologized first.

This vow turned out to be easy to keep. Selkie never came out of her room when Penny was around, despite protests from Evanna about how it was bad for her public image. Pretty soon, all the fuss died down, and life was pretty much normal for the Katlings. Well, except for the fact that there was a gaping hole where Selkie had previously taken her place.

Weeks passed. Winter came and went, with Selkie taking medication after medication to ease her severe coughing fits and asthma. Penny spent more and more time out with Ryan and the other musicians, and less and less time at home, and the weight gradually lifted off her shoulders.

She carried on, trying not to think about the upcoming Victory Tour, when Selkie Katling would once again be a household name, with Penny Katling as her tagalong twin. But on the other hand, she never even thought that this Victory Tour might not occur. That is, until she was found at the bar by a frantic Evanna, who had called to discuss plans and found that Selkie had gone to sleep some hours ago and, despite everyone's best efforts, could not be woken up.

Well, I can already see that this story is going to be super depressing. Don't worry, I'll lighten it up a bit. I know I can always improve, but I want to know what you guys think.

*whispers* I heard it's really, really cool to review. *clears throat* But in all seriousness, I'd like to know what you guys think.