Chapters 19-27 -By Katlyn

Summary
Katniss cursed herself for yelling out Peeta’s name, but she was thrilled to go out and find him. She wondered about the motivation to change the rules but she figured the story of the star-crossed lovers was feeding the audience and sponsors. Katniss settled to sleep so she would have the strength to look for Peeta in the morning. In the morning, she ate a big breakfast and gathered her supplies. She had a feeling that Peeta would be near water so she made a decision to look by the stream since the lake was too dangerous even for him. She made a fire by where she stayed to hopefully draw the others and then headed to the stream. She walked up and down the stream until she saw a boulder that had blood smears on it. She followed the trail but did not see Peeta. She heard a voice calling her name. She finds Peeta fully camouflaged on the ground. She brings his weak body to the stream to clean him off and patch his wounds. The wound on his leg is bad and Katniss holds back her breakfast from resurfacing. After cleaning him up the best she can, Katniss takes Peeta to a small cavelike structure and lay him down to rest. Peeta tries to tell Katniss what to do if he dies but she silences him with a kiss. She goes outside the cave to retrieve a parachute with a pot of hot broth. She smiled thinking of Haymitch and how he wants their ‘romance’ to succeed to bring them sponsors. She gives in and goes back inside the cave and kisses Peeta again and gives him the broth.

After freeing Peeta, Katniss took watch. She rotated being outside and inside with Peeta due to the cold. She thinks about how Peeta now makes her vulnerable but sticks with it. The next morning, Peeta’s fever broke. Katniss took a nap while Peeta was on guard. Once Katniss awakes, she checks out Peeta’s leg wound. It got worse overnight. Katniss just told Peeta they have to outlast the others so they could fix him. Katniss makes soup for Peeta using just the heat from outside and feeds it to him. Peeta asks her to recall her happiest memory. She tells Peeta how she got Prim a goat, leaving out the illegal details for the audience.The trumpets sound again and there will be a feast at the Cornucopia that will give each playing something they need in designated backpacks. Katniss sees this as a chance to save Peeta but he does not want her to risk it. They are at a stalemate so Katniss goes outside to gather. She sees a parachute and attached is sleeping syrup. She mashes up berries with the syrup and feeds it to Peeta.

Katniss prepared for the feast and stayed with Peeta until dawn. She went to the Cornucopia and waited. The backpacks did appear and Foxface ran and got hers and ran back into the woods. Katniss cursed herself for not thinking of doing that herself. She decided to just go for it and ran after her backpack. A knife missed her, and she shoots an arrow at Clove’s heart, it misses and hits her in the arm. Once Katniss grabs the backpack and turns to shoot Clove again, a knife sliced her above the eye. Clove jumped on Katniss and held her down. When Clove was about to cut up Katniss’s face, Clove was pulled off by Thresh. He was asking questions about Rue and Clove stumbled on her words, he smashed a rock into her head. He asked Katniss about Rue and she was honest. He gave her a favor and told her to run. She ran thinking Cato would follow her but there was no sign of him. When Katniss returned to the cave she jammed the syringe with medicine from the backpack into Peeta’s arm.

Katniss was dreaming of home when Peeta awoke her. He fed her and took care of her head wound. They spoke about what happened in the Cornucopia. And also talked about Thresh and where he has been hiding in the field of grains. Peeta wants to get there to get supplies for bread but Katniss says is too dangerous. They are both very hungry and Katniss tries to up the romance so they could get food from their sponsors. She feels she is unsuccessful when Peeta tells her they need to rest. The rain continues to fall outside dampening their plan of hunting so Katniss asks Peeta about his ‘crush’ on her since forever. He recalls a moment when they were younger when he first noticed her and ever since then he has liked her. Katniss felt he was doing a great job feeding the audience, but she also felt that he was being sincere. Outside there was a noise and Peeta ran out and came back in with a feast of food for them.

Both Katniss and Peeta wanted to gorge themselves on the food but they were practical and rationed it. They talked about living in the victor houses in District 12 and how horrible a neighbor Haymitch would be. They figured that Haymitch won his Game by outsmarting all the others and that he sobered up for them because he saw some promise. The anthem started playing and Peeta looked outside and told Katniss that Thresh was dead. Katniss was sad because she wanted Thresh to live over any of the other ones because of Rue. Peeta took the next watch, then they ate, and Katniss took the next watch. The rain stopped so they figured it was time to hunt. Once outside Katniss noticed with Peeta’s leg being injured he was making a lot of noise and scaring the game. They decided to split up so she could hunt and he could gather. While hunting, Katniss heard a cannon go off and went running to find Peeta. She saw the hovercraft taking Foxface away. Once she found Peeta gathering by the water, she noticed that some of the cheese was gone along with some berries that he collected. These berries could kill you if eaten. Katniss informed Peeta that Foxface’s death was his kill.

Katniss explained to Peeta what the berries were and they quickly got rid of them. They cooked the meat in the wide open thinking Cato wouldn’t come to get them anyways. Peeta suggested they spend the night in the cave again. They shared the watches that night. When they left the next morning, Katniss felt that they would not make it back to their caves again. They went to the stream and realized it was dry. They knew that they were being pushed to the lake so they went. They scouted the Cornucopia and stayed at the lake. Just when they were going to make camp, Cato came running out of the woods. Katniss shot at him but the arrow bounced off. He was wearing some protection on his body. He ran past them and Katniss turned to see creatures coming after them.

READ THE REST OF THE CHAPTER QUESTIONS AND PARTICIPATE IN THE DISCUSSION HERE

This ends our Book Club on ‘The Hunger Games” By Suzanne Collins – we hope you enjoyed it, and thank you to xXDreamWriterXx for suggesting it to us!

Quotes
“Well, don’t step on me.” I jump back. His voice was right under my feet. Still there’s nothing. Then his eyes open, unmistakably blue in the brown mud and green leaves. I gasp and am rewarded with a hint of white teeth as he laughs.

“Pretty awful, huh?” says Peeta. He’s watching me closely. “So-so.” I shrug like it’s no big deal. “You should see some of the people they bring my mother from the mines.” I refrain from saying how I usually clear out of the house whenever she’s treating anything worse than a cold. Come to think of it, I don’t even much like to be around coughing.

“Katniss?” Peeta says. I meet his eyes, knowing my face must be some shade of green. He mouths the words. “How about that kiss?” I burst out laughing because the whole thing is so revolting I can’t stand it.

“Peeta, you were supposed to wake me after a couple of hours,” I say. “For what? Nothing’s going on here,” he says. “Besides I like watching you sleep. You don’t scowl. Improves your looks a lot.”

“Peeta, you were supposed to wake me after a couple of hours,” I say. “For what? Nothing’s going on here,” he says. “Besides I like watching you sleep. You don’t scowl. Improves your looks a lot.”

Conflicting emotions cross Thresh’s face. He lowers the rock and points at me, almost accusingly. “Just this one time, I let you go. For the little girl. You and me, we’re even then. No more owed. You understand?”

Peeta wriggles back inside, his face lit up like the sun. “I guess Haymitch finally got tired of watching us starve.” “I guess so,” I answer. But in my head I can hear Haymitch’s smug, if slightly exasperated, words, “Yes, that’s what I’m looking lot, sweetheart.”

The music swells and I recognize the brilliance of it. As the notes overlap, they compliment one another, forming a lovely, unearthly harmony. It was this sound then, thanks to Rue, that sent the orchard workers of District 11 home each night. Does someone start it at quitting time, I wonder, now that she is dead?

I give Peeta’s hand one last squeeze as a signal, as a goodbye, and we begin counting. “One.” Maybe I’m wrong. “Two.” Maybe they don’t care if we both die. “Three!” It’s too late to change my mind. I lift my hand to my mouth, taking one last look at the world. The berries have just passed my lips when the trumpets begin to blare.

“Your only defense can be you were so madly in love you weren’t responsible for your actions.” Haymitch pulls back and adjusts my hairband. “Got it, sweetheart?” He could be talking about anything now. “Got it,” I say. “Did you tell Peeta this?” “Don’t have to,” says Haymitch. “He’s already there.”

I can feel Peeta press his forehead into my temple and he asks, “So now that you’ve got me, what are you going to do with me?” I turn in to him. “Put you somewhere you can’t get hurt.” And when he kisses me, people in the room actually sigh.

Questions
Do you think Peeta’s survival skills will come in handy later in the Huger Games?

Do you think he is playing the game or has true feelings for Katniss?

Do you think Peeta’s wound will hinder their team? Will others try to hurt him to make Katniss fight and die?

Do you think the medicine for Peeta is at the feast? Or was it just a trick to get the game moving again?

What do you think will come next in terms of getting the people together in the arena?

Do you think there will be a moment where they have to travel into the meadow and face Thresh?

Now that there is only three left, do you think both Peeta and Katniss will make it home?

The Capitol has stepped up the game by adding outside creatures, how do you think this will affect the remaining tributes?

How will the fact that there are two winners affect District 12 and future Hunger Games?

What repercussions do you think the Capitol will put on Peeta and Katniss for their actions?

Do you think Katniss and Peeta will stay together when they return home? How do you think Gale will factor into their relationship?