Power to the People: The Thirty-ninth Hunger Games

Chapter 19

Alinta Fintan

Almost everyone was sitting with someone else. The Careers were sitting together, three of the boys were gathered around a table, and Delilah was with the deaf boy. Only a few were by themselves. There were two of the Careers, which was weird. Then there was the girl from Three. She was tall and skinny, and she was sitting right in the middle of the room. Whenever people walked by she looked up and scootched over, but they never sat down. I felt bad for her all by herself, so I took my tray to her table.

"Can I sit with you?" I asked.

"Yeah!" she said. She moved her tray over and smiled at me as I sat down. The Games were a long way off, and I loved the Capitol food. You could get anything you wanted at any time of the day. I had a huge cinnamon roll with tons of frosting and chocolate milk. I was extra excited when I saw my favorite food in the world: oranges. Back home I got oranges once a year in the winter, but here there was a big bowl filled with them. I was so excited I squealed, and the lunch lady laughed.

"Thanks for sitting with me," the girl said. "I'm Moddi, from Three."

"I'm Alinta from Twelve," I said as I peeled my orange. "Have you ever had an orange? You can have half of mine." I passed her some slices.

"Thanks," she said. She ate one and her eyes got big. "That's so good," she said.

"I know, right?" I said. I split one in half and nibbled the tiny pieces of orange.

"I can sit with you more often if you want. You looked lonely," I said.

"That would be so cool! I was hoping someone would come with me. Everyone else was busy," she said.

"You should hang out with me and Silver. We're allying. She's really nice. You can come ally with us if you want. She'll like you. She's getting food now but she'll be here soon." I said. I'd never seen someone smile as big as Moddi.

"I can be your ally?" she said. "Thanks! We can be like best friends." I would have answered, but I had a mouth full of cinnamon roll. It was a spicy and sweet as the orange was tart and tangy. I took another slice of orange and suddenly it was a hundred times sourer, so sour it puckered my mouth. Maybe that wasn't a good idea.

Moddi Pex

It was like a party when Silver came to join us. We could all talk about girl things and get to know each other. I wasn't very good at making friends back home, but we didn't have much time here so we got right to it.

"That's such a pretty necklace," I said to Alinta. "My token is this hairpiece. It's from my friend Tella."

"Thanks. Yours is cool too," Alinta said. I stopped to eat some more of my lunch. I'd picked some tiny breaded nuggets, which turned out to be shrimp. I'd never had shrimp before, but it was super good. They were crunchy on the outside and soft inside.

"Are you like really good at electronics, since you're from Three?" Alinta asked.

"I don't know. It's all so complex. I was good at putting the machines together, but I never really knew how they worked," I said. I didn't want to admit it, but they'd find out eventually. By Three standards, I was sort of dumb. Sometimes I wished I'd been born in one of the farming Districts.

"But you can put things together. That's good too," Silver said. "Maybe we'll be in an arena with no electric stuff and we'll have to build a shelter."

"I'd be good at that," I said. Maybe I wasn't useless after all.

"That would be weird, no electric stuff around. But I guess that's what the other Districts are like. Do you guys have lots of grass and trees and stuff?" I asked.

"There are lots of woods near my house. I like to climb them and see how far I can see," Alinta said.

"I can see pretty far from the top of our residential building, but all I see are more buildings," I said.

"Eight is sort of a mix. There are big factories, but they're all clustered together. The rest is mostly grass," Silver said.

"That must be nice. It would be nice to be able to run around in a big grassy field. I spend most of my time inside," I said.

"It is nice. I get bored when I'm stuck inside," Alinta said. It seemed so normal, talking to my friends about our lives. It was like we weren't in the Capitol at all. I wished it could be like that all the time- just people all over Panem talking and making friends.

Silver Flower

I could feel the sword hanging over my head. Things were so perfect now, but the Games were getting closer every second. I really liked Alinta and Moddi. We could have been friends forever, but only one of us was possibly going to live another year.

I felt so responsible and so unprepared. I had to care for Alinta, but I couldn't even care for myself. She seemed more prepared than me in so many ways. I was just a kid. I shouldn't have had to worry about whether my friend would be dead because I didn't help her. What was I going to do in the Bloodbath? What if someone attacked Moddi and someone else attacked Alinta? What if they attacked me and my allies got killed trying to help me?

I felt a hundred years old and I felt like a tiny child. I wanted to push it all away and play tag with Alinta and Moddi. I wanted to read a million books and learn everything I needed to keep us safe. I wanted to beg Tillo to take care of that and make sure we'd be okay. I wanted the Games to just start already so I didn't have to wait anymore. There were thousands of things to do and see in the Capitol. The beds were like clouds and the food was delicious. I couldn't enjoy any of it. I couldn't relax for a second knowing that each second floated away and brought me closer to the Games.

Outwardly, I was happy. I liked talking with my allies and all the wonderful things in the Capitol. It was just that in the back of my head, I heard death coming for me. I'd watch a chef pour fizzing rainbow liquid into a glass and hand it to me. It's pouring like your blood, I'd hear. I'd wake up on feather mattresses and silk sheets. Soon when you close your eyes they'll be hunting you. I'd drift into sleep thinking of home. Six days left until the night before the Games. How could I be in both Heaven and Hell?

There were three girls in this alliance and there are three Powerpuff Girls, so naturally I called this alliance Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. My guess is Moddi's the sugar, Alinta's the spice, and Silver's the everything nice, but Moddi and Silver make as much sense switched.