The next two months were a nightmare. Sure, Nannoc went to visit Lily every day, and that part was great. Orchestrating Lily's escape from the People, on the other hand, wasn't as easy as Nannoc had thought it was going to be. First of all, Lily didn't look like the People; she was much tanner and had long, bright red hair. The People were all pale with dark-colored hair. Of course, the way she looked could be covered up by disguising her in the black robes and trousers of the People. The problem with that plan was that she would never be able to move in the graceful, smooth gait that the People used. That was something developed from years of practice in hunting, not to mention the fact that Lily had been tied up for so long. The other problem was that Lily could never sound like one of the People, for they rarely spoke English amongst themselves. Their language was so complex that even Nannoc was still learning the intricacies. Though all their plans remained thwarted, they still refused to give up hope.
For all of that two months, Nannoc finished his chores as quickly as he could in the morning and then headed straight to the nursery. He loved to listen to Lily's descriptions of how the Outsiders lived; their lives were so different! Lily seemed fascinated by his accounts of the People's way of life, though it didn't seem all that interesting to him. Oh well. As long as she liked listening, he would keep telling. They had both made an unspoken agreement that talking about what was soon to come was an unacceptable topic unless there was some even remote possibility of making an idea work. So they didn't talk about it much at all.
The People were becoming more and more excited as time went by. Soon the date would come when the Elder would make the announcement as to who the Cutter would be, and everyone had already pegged Nannoc as winning that honor. The day after that, the actual Inititation Ceremony would be held. Ten days away. Ten days to finialize a hopeless escape plan.
For now Nannoc had realized that he didn't belong with the People. All it took was another talk with Elliott. With one pompous reply after another, Nannoc knew that he and Elliott would never again be friends, if they ever had been in the first place. He had even tried talking to Aaron and his other roommates, but that had been just as fruitless, with just as much cockiness. How could he ever have been one of these people? They were so shallow, so superficial. He required something much deeper; Nannoc craved relationships and the freedom to express emotions besides anger. He wanted to live out his life like the Outsiders did, though he would never admit this to anyone but Lily. She was the only one he could stand anymore. He just hoped that no one would ever figure out that he spent most of his time in the nursery.
That was where he was now. He was lying on his back, with his eyes closed, listening to Lily tell a fairy tale that she remembered from her childhood. Nannoc had only recently discovered fairy tales and was addicted. At first he had been completely confused; he had thought they were true, that people had actually done that stuff. It wasn't until Lily explained it that he realized it was all make-believe. Which was different for him. The People never told stories, let alone make them up for entertainment.
The fairy tale she was in the middle of right now was about a naughty yet clever little boy who was apparently only the size of Nannoc's thumb. He had been dubious at first, but then remembered that, yes, this was pretending. It was going to take him a while to get used to that concept. Listening to Lily tell the story was very entertaining, because she changed her voice depending on which character she was supposed to be. He smiled. She was really funny, and, now that he thought about it, she was actually really pretty too.
"What are you smiling at?" He could hear the smile through the fake indignance in her voice.
He rolled over and propped his face on his hands so he could see her. "You," he answered.
"That's not very nice! Now I'm gonna cry." She hid her face in her hands and started to fake cry. If he hadn't known it was fake, he would have been convinced.
"Awww, did I make you cry?" He crawled over to where she was sitting. "How can I make it better?"
"I don't know. I don't know if I can ever forgive you." She pulled her hands away from her face, revealing her fake pout.
"There must be something I can do to make you forgive me!"
"Well, I suppose there is one thing. You could give me a kiss." Nannoc looked at her, perplexed. He had never heard of such a thing. What did it mean?
"You don't know what a kiss is?!" Lily seemed very surprised.
"No. Should I have?"
"Actually, no, now that I think about it. It's an action that supposed to show affection between a boy and girl. Since you don't have those kind of relationships, I guess it makes sense."
"Okay. But I still don't know what it is." He still didn't completely understand. Was it like the hand squeeze thing?
"I guess I'll just have to show you."
"Huh?" But before Nannoc could ask what she meant by that, she had flung her arms around him. He wasn't particularly sure he liked having someone so close to him, but he supposed Lily was okay. Then she pressed her lips to his. He was so surprised, he fell over backwards, pulling Lily over with him. She ended up on her back, lying next to him.
"That's a kiss?" He turned to look at her.
"Yup."
"Well," he said, shifting onto his stomach, "I think I liked it." This time, he kissed her.
(Yeah, still not sure I like it, but here it is)
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