Chapter 1

I awaken to the sound of voices. My mother and younger sister, Rouge, are talking in the kitchen. By the sound of it, Rouge is crying. I only have to hear a few words from my mother to know why.

'Darling! It will be okay! Your name is only in there once.' I should have known. It's Rouge's first reaping. Our family is well off, and have no need to apply for tesserae, so Rouge has hardly anything to worry about. But I know that if she does get chosen, I will have to volunteer. Not because everyone is expecting me to, but because I know that Rouge would not last a minute in the Games, and I could never let her enter that arena. Still, I dread the reaping. I have watched the Games every year since I was eight, the year my mother told me about them.

I get up and walk into the kitchen. Sure enough, Rouge is there, sniffling into a tissue. 'Morning Marina honey!' My mother greets me. She silently indicates Rouge and mouths the word 'Reaping'. I nod and kneel down in front of the chair that Rouge is sitting on. My mother gets up and briskly walks out of the room, saying she is going to wake up father.

'Rouge.' I whisper. She doesn't look up.

'Rouge!' I say more loudly. She looks into my eyes.

'Marina, what if I get chosen? For the reaping?' She asks.

'You won't get chosen Rouge, you won't.'

'Yes, but what if I do Marina? What then?' She insists. I look through the doorway to make sure no one but Rouge is in ear shot. I tell her something she was only going to find out if she got chosen.

'Then I will volunteer for you.'

The effect is immediate.

'No!' Rouge shouts! 'Marina you can't!'

'Ssshhhhh! Quiet down Rouge! Mother and father can't find out!' I whisper.

'I will not quiet down; in fact I will go and tell mother and father, unless you promise not to!' I'm trapped. If mother and father find out, well, I'm not sure what they'd do. Something horrible, definitely. But if I say I won't, and then Rouge gets chosen… I finally decide what I'm going to do. Something I have never done to Rouge in her life. Lie to her. 'Fine Rouge! Fine! I promise I won't volunteer for you!' Rouge stops screaming and again begins to shake with silent tears. She buries her face in my shoulder and sobs and sobs, until she seems to have no more tears left. She then asks me a question.

'Marina, what will you do if you get chosen?' The question takes me by surprise, and I realise that she has a fair point. I've been so preoccupied with thinking about if Rouge gets chosen, that I've forgotten that there is more chance of my name getting drawn. My name is in there 4 times, because I'm fifteen, so it is still highly unlikely for my name to get drawn, but there is still a chance. My stomach is filled with butterflies at the thought of Harold Barber, the man who draws out the names for our district each year, pulling out a slip of paper from the reaping ball and saying "Marina Trenche!" The truth is, I don't know what I'd do. I would just think "Goodbye life, I am going to the 74th Hunger Games where I will be slaughtered for the Capitol's entertainment". Just thinking of how the Capitol puts 12 girls and 12 boys in an outdoor arena and watches them kill each other for their own personal entertainment makes my face grow hot.

'Marina?' Rouge interrupts me from my thoughts. 'You never answered my question. What will you do if you get chosen?' I decide not to tell Rouge about how I truly feel, and act calm.

'Well, if I get chosen, I will just accept it and try my hardest to win, so I could come back home.'

Mother and father walk in. Mother rushes over to the stove, where a pot of porridge has been cooking. Father sits down at the table and reads his book, which happens to be titled "The Hunger Within". I think it's about how the Hunger Games started. Mother scoops the porridge evenly into 4 bowls, and sets them down on the table.

'Eat up while it's still hot.' Mother beckons us to the table. We take our places at the table, Rouge and I on one side, Mother and Father on the other. I feel too nervous to eat anything really, but when I realise that Rouge is not eating either, I pick up my spoon and shovel the mixture into my mouth, hoping that Rouge will follow. It has a dry, burnt taste to it, and all I really want to do is spit it out, but I see that Rouge is watching me, so I force myself to swallow. After a few mouthfuls, I see that Rouge is still not eating, so I let my spoon clatter noisily into my bowl, and push it away from the edge of the table.

'Rouge and I ought to go and get ready for the reaping,' I say. 'We've only got an hour and a half until we have to be in the square.'

'Goodness! Is it ten thirty already?' My Mother cries. 'Yes! Go and get ready! I'll come in and help you soon.'

Rouge and I walk to the bedroom we share in silence. When we get there, without hesitation, I open up the cupboard door, and pull out the outfit mother bought for Rouge. It's a pretty orange frock, with a ribbon to tie around her back. I lay it on the bed and then pull out her shiny orange ballerina shoes that are lined with silk on the outside. Even for us this is worth a lot of money, but my mother wants us to look our best, so she buys us each a new reaping dress every 2 years, starting when we are 12, and ending when we are 18. So of course this year, I will have to wear the same dress as last year, seeing as I am 15. I take Rouge to the bathroom and fill the bath with lukewarm water. It doesn't take long, since we have an extremely shallow bath, but we have very limited hot water so our baths are usually quite cold, which is why we only ever bath in warm weather.

'You don't have to stay while I bath, Marina,' says Rouge.

'Okay.' I respond. So I just help her undress, pull out a towel for her to dry herself with when she's done, and hand her a hairbrush to get the knots out of her hair.

'If you need anything, just call out.' I tell her. I then hurry back to our room, where I open the cupboard, and delve deep into the basket of reaping clothes, until I find the one from last year. It's a lovely velvet green dress, and when you look at it, it reminds you of rolling summer hills like the ones on the outskirts of District 5. I have black leather boots which go all the way to my knees, but are mostly covered by the dress. I lay it down next to Rouge's reaping dress and shoes, and walk back to the bathroom.

On the way, I think about how different Rouge and I are. Rouge is a natural beauty, with her wavy light brown hair and dark complexion. I, on the other hand, have straight, blunt, carrot-coloured hair and pale skin. Some kids at school call me Foxy or Fox girl because my face looks a bit like a sly fox's. The only thing Rouge and I have in common is our bright green eyes. Most people say they look stunning and flawless, which pleases me because it's the only time anyone ever says anything nice about my looks. The thing is, most people, including me, think that our names should be swapped. Marina suits Rouge's beautiful hair that sways down her back like a mermaid, and Rouge suits my orange hair and pale skin.

I am halfway to the bathroom when I bump into Rouge walking back to the bedroom wrapped in a towel.

'I was just about to come and look for you!' I say and poke her in the ribs. She giggles and squirms.

'That tickles!' We walk back to the bedroom together trying to tickle each other, and when we get there, Mother is standing in the doorway.

'Come on girls! No time for games today!' I start helping Rouge get dressed, but Mother waves me out the door.

'Don't worry, I'll sort out Rouge, you go and get yourself washed.' Mother orders me. I walk to the bathroom and feel happy that Rouge hasn't drained it yet, so I don't have to run a whole new bath. I undress and slip into the water. It's so cold that I just want to get out, but I make myself lie down and submerge myself completely before sitting back up and brushing the knots out of my hair.

I walk, hand in hand with Rouge, to the square. The sun is fully up and shines in our faces as we kiss Mother and Father goodbye and enter the roped off area for all girls between the ages of 12 and 18. Younger girls, like Rouge, go to the back, and older girls to the front. I am smack dead in the middle, next to a girl who I think is named Abigail who goes to school with me, and another girl who also goes to my school named Phillipa. I look behind me to see if I can see Rouge, but even in her bright dress she is hidden by the crowd of girls standing in front of her. Harold Barber stands up the front, looking even more funny than last year, with bright green hair and matching lipstick. Sitting on the chairs next to him is Mayor Tobey, Josephine Summers, who won the Hunger Games about 20 years ago and will be mentoring the girl tribute from District 5 this year, Savannah Han, who also won the Hunger Games 14 years ago, and will be helping mentor the girl tribute, plus Dean Selma, Seth Oprah and Yvan Mitchells, who all won the Hunger Games at some point during their life and would be mentoring the boy tribute from District 5 this year. These are the only victors from district 5. The first time we won the games was the 42nd Games and that was Seth Oprah. Harold stands up and says into the microphone

'Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the District 5 reaping for the 74th annual Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favour!' There is lots of applause, but the only people that really clap as though they mean it is the ones we call "Betters" because they take bets on which kids will be chosen, whether they will win or die, how they will die and so on. The audience becomes silent as Harold begins to speak again.

'Let's do ladies first.' My heart hammered inside my chest for Rouge and for me.

'The female tribute to represent District 5 for the 74th annual Hunger Games is...' He takes some time to grab on to a slip of paper in the reaping ball. By this time I feel as though I could vomit. Harold takes a breath about to say the name…

'Marina Trenche!' The world suddenly starts to spin and I feel myself tilting forward towards the ground.