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APRIL was a cold time of year. Not for the weather, but for the upcoming Reaping. Especially in District 2, where the Academy began to conduct its exams and performances to select the most likely winner for the upcoming games. They were announced a week before the Reaping, their faces on every poster and screen on campus, and some even in town.
Years ago, Jupiter had been bestowed the honour. She still remembered sitting with her class when they had announced it at an assembly, and she had risen to her feet with applause. The boy she had been chosen with had met her at the front of the hall and taken his hand in hers and held them up together as a symbol of unity. She had cheered herself, glorified and hungry for a chance to prove herself. If only she had known.
She knew things would be different this year– a Quarter Quell of all things. The announcement would be coming sooner, each day of April the Capitol growing more and more excited over the challenge for that quarter.
Jupiter tried to avoid the 'hype' which was quite easy, as she had stopped being invited into the Capitol. Snow had not sent her any letters or made any more attempts at contact, and so she was left in the dark. The mailbox was painfully empty these days, nothing from the Capitol and certainly nothing from the Academy, except its newsletter celebrating exams beginning three months before the Reaping.
The wounds from the night she struck Mars healed over and turned pale, and the glass framing her victory knife was not rebuilt. The empty frame had sat there for a month, its once glorified knife discarded in the bin somewhere. Jupiter couldn't even remember throwing it out amidst the cleanup, but she remembered being surprised her brother hadn't taken it for himself.
She was surprised by a lot of things her brother did now. His conscription had placed him in the barracks for training, and he scarcely came to the house anymore. The times he did in the month gone past, he and Jupiter did not acknowledge each other. They did not speak, he did not look at her, and she did not look at him. It was cold, but better than before.
Jupiter hated that it had taken her raising her hand to get what she wanted from him.
Cassia had gone back to her usual ways, and Jupiter had not tried to restart their conversation from when she had been stitching her hand. She was anxiously waiting for the Quarter Quell announcement as well. Life, as it always did, went on.
But time was passing in a way Jupiter did not like. Her days were spent in the Academy or her room, she no longer got mail from anyone she wanted, and it felt as if everything her mother watched on the TV was not a reflection of what the Districts actually were. District 2 had become a bustling centre for Peacekeeper activity, and there was a curfew now where once there had been none.
Shipments and deliveries were still delayed, and more and more shops were shutting down or limiting their hours. Julius only survived because Jupiter had overpaid him twice in the last month when she had been by. She wasn't buying bread anymore– in fact she hadn't gone to see her dad since Mars and her had fought.
