Author's Note:

For the people out there that haven't been paying attention, yes, I skipped the Reaping for District 4. That's because the Reaping for District 4 is already in my story, TWINS. If you haven't read it yet, check out KatnissTheGirlWhoWasOnFire19 's profile page, because that's where it is.

-ArianaWeasly

p.s. is it just me or is the font size bigger than it should be? maybe it's just because I'm using a tiny computer that I don't usually use...

Kerri's POV

-District 5-

"Wake up, Kerri."

"But I don't waaaaaant to," I grumbled into my pillow.

A hand flashed in front of my face, and all of a sudden my cheek was stinging.

"What did you slap me for?" I said angrily.

"You need to get up!"

I moaned and opened my eyes. My twin sister, Karen, was looming over me. We both had identical black hair, the same pointed chin, and the same sharp, serious look in our identical black eyes. Just because we looked the same, didn't mean we acted the same though. Karen had always been a morning person; I was the night owl. I had always been more athletic than Karen, and she had always been the super girly makeup lover. She was pretty good at slapping though.

I rubbed my cheek, which was probably bright red by now.

"It's Reaping day. Get up," Karen said miserably.

I sighed. Today was the day of the Reaping. It was a Quarter Quell. I wonder what the Capitol had in store for us this time. I know that at the last Quarter Quell, the tributes that were Reaped were people that had already won the Games. I know it's horrible, but I wished for something like that to happen this year, so I wouldn't have to be Reaped.

"I'll go make breakfast," Karen said, getting me out of my stupor.

I loved eating; especially healthy food. It made you strong, and I needed that.

The floor was really cold, I noticed as I stepped onto the floor. Our house, if you could call it that, had no heating or cooling in it. It was a 2 bedroom house, with the only other rooms being a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room. I liked to call it our "shack".

Karen and I lived by ourselves. This was our 2nd year in this house. Our parents had been killed in a factory explosion when we were 8. It was the same factory explosion that had killed hundreds of other kids' parents. After the explosion, Karen and I had lived with our aunt. Once we were 16, we were allowed to get our own house, and get away from our aunt. It wasn't that we didn't love her; it was just that she had 6 kids, and we were always babysitting them. She probably also got fed up with us herself.

I thought about all of this as I walked into the kitchen.

"What's for breakfast?" I asked, yawning.

"Omelets," Karen said with a smile.

"Yum!" I said, smiling back.

We only got to have omelets twice a year, and they were my favorite.

"One or two?" Karen asked as she shook two omelets on to my plate. She always asked that as a joke; I never ate just one omelet.

I smiled and dug in to my omelet, which was filled with gooey cheese.

"So, this is our last year," I said to Karen.

"Yes," she said smiling. "If either of us isn't picked, then we'll be safe!"

We fell silent as we both daydreamed about our possible safety. We continued to stay silent as we gobbled down our omelets. We finished eating at the exact same time, as usual. I looked at Karen and laughed. Even after years of us doing things the exact same way, it was still amazing to see what could happen.

"So," I said, pushing my plate away from me. "What are you wearing for the Reaping this year?"

"I was thinking of wearing my gold dress, with matching gold eye liner. I don't want to go too overboard on the makeup this year," she answered.

I laughed, remembering last year. On that Reaping day, Karen had worn so much makeup you couldn't even see her face!

"What about lip gloss? You can't have an outfit without lip gloss," I joked.

"Hmm…" Karen said, pursing her lips. I couldn't believe she had actually taken me seriously. "I might wear a little bit of pink gloss."

I laughed again, getting me a glare from Karen.

"And what will you be wearing?" she challenged.

"I was thinking about wearing the silvery dress," I said.

Karen gave me a surprised look. "You're actually going to look…girly?" she asked.

"Yes, I can be girly if I want to," I retorted.

I could tell Karen was silently celebrating.

"Well let's get ready!" she squealed, grabbing my hand and pulling me into her room.

I had to sit there and watch her get ready. The gold dress she was wearing was a very shimmery, metallic, gold. It had thin straps, and flowed all the way down to her ankles. She put on a pair of matching gold flats to go with it. She left her hair down, as she usually did. After putting on her makeup, she dragged me into my room.

"Your turn!" she said, way too excited.

I rolled my eyes and went into my closet. As I pulled out the silver dress, Karen squealed a little. Rolling my eyes again, I put it on. The dress was the exact same as Karen's, except it was silver. I didn't say so, but I thought it looked a little better on me than it did on her, because of my athletic build.

To Karen's disappointment, I put on a pair of silver sandals instead of flats.

"I thought we were going to be twinsies!" she said, with a fake pout.

Laughing, I replied, "Aren't we already?"

Karen laughed with me and spun me around, to do my hair. Even though she hated having her own hair done up, she loved to do up other peoples' hair up. She ended up doing a French braid on me, which looked really pretty with my hair. It also shrunk my butt-length hair by a few inches, which I was grateful for. I hadn't gotten around to cutting my hair in a while.

"You look great!" she said, spinning me back around to face her. "Makeup?"

"No," I said. I didn't want to get that girly.

"Just an eensie weensie bit of lip gloss?" she asked.

"Fine," I grumbled.

I sat there as Karen brushed some shimmery gloss on to my lips.

"Pucker up!" she told me.

I put my lips together, and struck a pose.

"Wonderful," she said, laughing.

"What time is it?" I asked suddenly.

"10:30," Karen replied after glancing at her watch.

"We'd better hurry up," I said.

"I want to give you a token first, just in case you're reaped," she said shyly.

Karen went into her room, and came back out with two silver lockets.

"Turn around," she said.

She put the necklace on me, and I put hers on her neck.

I looked down at it. It was a heart locket, engraved with the letter "K". Inside were two pictures; a picture of our parents on one side, and a picture of us on the other side.

"I love it," I said, softly.

I gave her a hug. We were still hugging 5 minutes later, imagining the horrors of what might happen this year. We finally broke apart.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," we both said at the same time. We laughed in surprise. No one could ever argue that we weren't twins.

"We should go now," I said softly.

Silently, we walked out of the door and to the Justice Building. We stood in line, and waited for our fingers to get pricked. When it was my turn, the Peacekeeper said "Karen Zitkus?"

"No," I snapped, "She is. Can't you tell the difference?"

The Peacekeeper glared at me and pricked Karen's finger first, then mine.

We walked away sucking on our fingers, like half the other people here did. Silently, we walked up in front of the stage and stood in the 18 year old girls section.

The Reaping began with a video. It was the one they played every year that explained about the US, how it had crumbled, and how Panem had started. It also explained about why we had the Hunger Games.

The second the film finished, Hewlett Crowne trotted on to the stage. Hewlett Crowne was our escort, and she was definitely a Capitol person. This year, she had yellow skin, thank god. Last year it was rainbow. And sparkly.

"Hello everyone! This year is a Quarter Quell, a very special year!" She said with an overly large smile on her face. "Let's see what it is going to be!"

She pulled an envelope out of the sleeve of her dress. I wonder what other tricks she has up her sleeve, I thought. I silently giggled at my pun. I looked over at Karen and noticed that she had the same expression on her face that I did. She must've had the same thought. We were so weird.

I must've missed Hewlett reading the contents of the envelope, for she suddenly announced, "This year we'll all have ladies as our tributes!"

I looked over at Karen again, and I noticed that we had the same horrified expression on our face. It was possible that we could both be Reaped. Even if that didn't happen, it increased the chances of one of us being Reaped.

Before I could bat an eye, Hewlett was over at the glass bowl that contained the girls' names. She reached into the bowl and mixed up the slips. She finally pulled one out.

"Kerri Zitkus!"

My heart stopped beating for a few seconds. It was me. I was about to walk up on stage when I noticed Karen trying to walk up there. She was trying to pretend to be me. She was about to go the Games for me. I couldn't let her do that.

I ran to her, and shoved her back to where she had been standing.

"Stay there," I hissed. "I'll be fine. You don't need to go for me. Don't even think about trying to volunteer for me. I love you," I finished, my voice softening.

Karen nodded, as her eyes filled with tears.

I threw back my shoulders and walked up on to the stage.

"Any volunteers?" Hewlett asked.

I threw Karen a warning glance. She and the rest of the crowd stayed silent.

Hewlett walked back over to the bowl, mixed up the names again, and drew out the second slip.

"Scarlett Silvers!"

The crowd parted and a girl from the 16 year old section walked up on to the stage. She had reddish hair, brown eyes, and was about my height. She looked very sly. She also looked stunned that she was chosen.

"Come on dear!" Hewlett said impatiently, wanting Scarlett to get on stage faster.

Scarlett came on to the stage and shook hands with me. I made sure to grip her hand tightly. I had to show her I wasn't scared. Weirdly enough, I actually wasn't. Scarlett herself looked a little scared though.

"Any volunteers?"

Nobody moved or said a word.

"District 5 Quarter Quell representatives, Kerri Zitkus and Scarlett Silvers!" Hewlett announced.

I stood there, staring out into the crowd. I was going into the Games. I was going to win, for Karen, and for my dead parents. I was going to win for District 5. I was going to win…if I could.