Girl on Fire

Chapter 15

Somehow, River had managed to keep his watch safe and sound from the point when we had left the school. God knows how he did it. But it was that simple act that told us what day it was, and that it was Ali's birthday. 16th July.

I was sharing a tent with Kathryn, Juliet, and another girl who didn't have many friends it seemed and who's name I'd forgotten. I think her power was invisibility, which suited her fine. She didn't have any symbol on her suit, which made sense.

Kathryn had broken the news to Juliet that her sister was not coming back, since I hadn't proved myself to be someone who was very sensitive, and she had cried every night for a whole week. But she seemed to be coming to her senses after a month, and weirdly, she seemed to benefit in not having Jemma around, because she didn't have anyone to hide behind anymore and we could see her real personality shining through.

"Wake up!" Jules hissed at us, we need to get the birthday celebrations going!"

Kathryn and I sat up and got out of the tent quietly, so as not to wake anyone else. There were birthday celebrations pretty much every day, since there was so many of us, but we were determined to make this one the best. Everyone loved Ali, and many had got attached to her before we got here, so it wasn't very hard to recruit volunteers to help with the surprise party.

The people who had agreed to do it met us at the mess tent, where we ate our food. We didn't have any proper materials, so we had made use of what jungle materials we cod find, and what we already had. We had ripped down huge leaves from trees and stuck them together with sap, along with a big stretch of tent material where one of the tents got mauled by an air spiritus, and the owners agreed to donate the scraps to our cause.

A couple of shapeshifter a who could turn into birds flew the banner up to the wall in their beaks and tied it on with their feet.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALI!

The banner said, written in fruit juices. Looking at it, I realised that what we had done was so unbelievably better than anything we could have bought in a shop. It had heart, and you could tell that real love had gone into making it.

On Ali's place, we laid out a huge fruit sundae, consisting of an arrangement of exotic foods that we had found a little way out in the jungle. We had checked with the seniors and found that none of them were poisonous. Usually, all we would have for food was a plain, yucky, leafy, soupy thing that no-one liked, so this would be a treat for Ali.

Usually when there was a birthday, only the friends of the person would sing happy birthday, but we reckoned that we could manage to get the whole of the mess hall singing it to Ali.

We put up a fighting ring for duels that could happen as part of the celebration, and I wrapped the birthday present that I had managed to get for her. It was a ring, but I had managed to get one of the magic spirit uses to put a charm on it. When Ali used her power, it would often be random and just go all around her, like she couldn't control it. This ring was able to harness the energy so that she could fire short bursts in a specific direction. It would make her much more effective in a fight, since she wouldn't go flying her team mates away as well.

Slowly, people started to filter in through the huge tent flaps. Everyone looked up and gaped at the banner, pointing and chatting to one another about it. I just hoped that none of the practical jokers would try to ruin it.

Suddenly, I noticed one of Ali's little friends run in, stare at the banner, and then run back out, a grin plastered on her face.

"Hey, guys!" I called. "When Ali comes in here, we all need to sing happy birthday, okay? It is her sixth and it will mean so much to her."