I was so mad at Octavia Blake. So mad. It didn't stop me from talking to her, but still. I was mad.

Ever since our last sleepover, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about stupid, stupid Bellamy Blake. What if I did like him? Did I? No. No, I did not like Bellamy. I was only considering that I might like Bellamy because Octavia was making me think that I liked Bellamy because she wanted me to like Bellamy. I just had to stop thinking about Bellamy.

But that didn't turn out to be easy. It was hard to not think about someone that you saw pretty much every day of your life. Every time I saw Bellamy, I had to fight to keep from blushing. No matter how focused I was, Octavia's words kept worming their way back into my head.

"Not as much as you love Bellamy."

Of course I loved Bellamy. He was as much my brother as Octavia was my sister. My dad had helped raised him. He'd practically helped raise me. It was a necessary, loving support system that in no way meant that I liked him. Not like that anyway.

But that didn't stop what Octavia had said from being true. Not the love part, obviously. But Bellamy was protective, and funny, and sometimes nice. He also seemed to have this level of confidence that caught everyone's attention. I'd never really thought about what he did when he wasn't in the room with Octavia and I, but I'd heard girls in my classes talking about him more than once. That mysterious, cute older boy named Bellamy Blake. I'd always wondered what they'd say if I told them he was my best friend, and that I knew him better than they every would. Of course, I never did. I didn't need that kind of attention, and without bringing up Octavia I didn't have much of a case. So I just had to sit back and listen to their daydreams and encounters with him. Whatever he was doing, it sounded like he wasn't exactly shy.

"Nylah? Are you alright?"

I blinked hard, ending the staring contest I was having with the wall across from me and looking down at Aurora. She was still kneeling in front of the chair I was standing on, but had paused her sewing to look up at me in concern.

I quickly smoothed out the skirt of the dress she was fitting on me, and shrugged my shoulders. "Yeah. Why?"

"If I didn't know any better I'd say that the wall insulted you. If you keep glaring like that, you'll get wrinkles."

"Sorry," I said quietly, hanging my head and forcing myself to calm down. Stupid Bellamy again.

"Are you almost done, Mom?" Octavia asked. She was bouncing up and down in her chair at the table, watching the two of us with a sharp eye. "Nylah was gonna show me her Earth Skills homework."

Her mother sighed, passing her needle through the fabric again so she could finish the hem of the skirt. "Just a few more minutes, Octavia. Be patient. And stop bouncing."

I grinned, waiting for Octavia to come up with a snappy reply, but it was cut off by a low whistle. My cheeks seared as Bellamy walked into the room, his bag thrown over his shoulder and his eyebrows raised. "Wow, looking good, Lala. What's the occasion?"

"Unity Day," I said quickly, trying my best not to look at him.

"Are you seriously gonna be in the pageant again?" he asked with a grin. "I mean, you made a great Venezuela when you were a kid, but I didn't think they'd let you back after you forgot all your lines."

"I did not!"

"Nylah, stop moving," Aurora scolded. "And Bellamy, stop teasing her. It's for the masquerade."

"Wait, you're going to the masquerade?" The humor had dropped completely from his voice, leaving blank surprise in its wake. "Aren't you a little young for that?"

"Shut up, Bellamy."

"She's not too young for anything!" Octavia defended, crossing her arms over her chest. "And neither am I."

"Octavia, you're not going," her mother said. She tried to keep her voice neutral, but every time her daughter asked, her voice got a little louder. It'd only take a few more jabs until she was screaming.

"Why not?! No one will see me!"

"A mask isn't enough to hide you, Octavia. If no one there recognizes you, people will get suspicious. And if there were any kind of emergency…"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," she grumbled. Her bouncing finally stopped, and she slouched down in her seat with a glare I thought must have been ten times as worse as mine.

As usual, it was Bellamy who broke the tension. "It's okay, O. It's not all it's cracked up to be. And I'm sure Nylah will tell you about all the crazy adventures she has sitting in a corner by herself."

"Float yourself, Bellamy."

"Nylah!" Aurora exclaimed, but Bell waved her off.

"Okay, no, I deserved that one. I'm sorry, Ny. It'll be cool to have you there. Dress looks good, Mom."

"Thank you, Bella—wait, hold on! Where do you think you're going?"

Her question caught him halfway to the door, and he slowly turned around with a grimace. "I'm supposed to study with Megara. Physics exam coming up."

"Study?" Aurora asked, and her tone made my stomach curl up into a knot.

Bellamy tried to keep his face blank, but the self-satisfied smirk would not be defeated. "Uh…yes?"

Octavia let out an indelicate snort, and earned herself a pointed look from her mother. She rolled her eyes, and sank even further down in her chair.

"Alright, just—don't be too long, okay?"

"Uh-huh. Thanks, Mom."

"And be careful!"

"Got it!" he called, but he was already out in the hallway.

The door swung shut behind him, and Aurora shook her head. "What am I going to do with him?"

"Ground him for being a jerk," I suggested, and she chuckled.

"It's not the jerk I'm worried about as much as the girl."

"Then tell him he can't see her," Octavia said.

"That'd only make him more determined. Teenage boys are not that simple, Octavia."

"Fine. What would I know? I've never met one."

Aurora cast her a warning glance, and I quickly cleared my throat. "The dress really does look nice. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, Nylah," she said with a nod. She sent me a weak smile, returning to her sewing with a furrowed brow. "I just wish there was a way to make it more practical. There isn't much else you can do on the Ark in a dress, and you'll probably grow out of it in no time."

I wanted to comment that I didn't feel like I was growing at all, but I didn't want to disagree with her when tensions were already so high. Instead, I chose to think about the dress. It was true that they weren't really in fashion anymore. They were rather impractical, even for children and the portions of the population that didn't do as much demanding work. They also used a lot of fabric, which I knew was something the Ark didn't have a lot of. I was incredibly thankful to Aurora for making it, and just wished there were a way I could give her back something.

The idea was sudden, and I nearly snapped my neck as my head popped up. "Does this have lining?"

Aurora didn't even bother looking up at me, but I could hear the incredulity in her voice. "Of course not. I don't have enough fabric for that, and you don't need it, Nylah."

"But what if I did?"

Now she lifted her head, squinting her eyes with a mixture of anger and confusion. "Nylah…"

"If we put lining in the dress, it can have pockets on the inside of the skirt that no one will see. Pockets big enough for rations."

There were a few seconds of silence as the idea sank into everyone's heads. I'd be aiding my father in a capital crime, but my help would make it much easier to commit. Dad couldn't take too much at a time because he was subjected to searches. If he could just get something home, or if I could visit him at work, I could take the supplies and go on my merry way. Even if there were an emergency on the Ark and I was forced to concede to a random search, no one would be checking up my dress. I could traffic the goods from my father's hands to the Blake's table, and no one would be the wiser.

"My smart guardian angel," Aurora said softly as she looked up at me. She quickly got to her feet, kissing me on the cheek before turning to the table. "I know I have enough thread. I just have to check how much fabric I…"

The sentence fell away as she moved her sewing kit to the side, revealing the two small squares of fabric she had left. They were much too small for pockets, let alone to start the lining we'd need to keep the compartments hidden. I saw the small, rare smile on Aurora's face flicker and die, and my stomach went cold.

"Wh-What if we did a pattern?" I suggested quickly. "If I helped you sew squares into the skirt, then maybe we could…"

"No, you're right. We need the lining," she cut me off, glaring down at the table. She glanced up at the clock on the wall, and her face turned to a stone. Without a word, she grabbed her jacket off one of the chairs, pulling it on and patting down her hair.

"Mom, where are you going?"

"We need more fabric. I just need to go…talk to someone…" She kissed Octavia on the head, then turned back to me. "Nylah, can you finish the hem of the skirt? Like I showed you?"

"Yeah. Are you sure you don't…?"

"It's okay, Nylah. I'll be back soon. The pockets are a very good idea."

She helped me down from the chair, handing me the needle and thread I'd need to finish the skirt and seating me across from Octavia. Her eyes flicked between the two of us for a few moments, both staring up at her in confusion and worry, before she finally seemed to steel herself for the walk to the door.

She turned on her heel, but paused before she got to the hall. "Remember what we talked about. There shouldn't be an inspection, but if anyone knocks on this door, you get down beneath the floor, Octavia. I don't care if it's Benedict or Bellamy or me. You know what to do." She looked at me and then her daughter, waiting to hear the promised phrases we'd been practicing since we were children, before she walked out the door.

"Stay quiet."

"Stay safe."

"That's my girls," Aurora said with a sad smile. "I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise." And then she was gone.

I glanced over at Octavia, noticing the longing gaze that lingered on the door as the small glimpse of the hallway disappeared. I wanted to console her, to tell her that everything would be okay, but how could I say that to my best friend if I didn't believe it? Octavia would never get to speak to anyone she hadn't known her whole life. She couldn't meet new people or go to school or see the Ark. She couldn't look out a window and look at space. She'd be stuck sitting in this room or hiding under the floor for her whole life, and I couldn't think of a single way to change it.

Octavia glanced up, catching my look and grinning at me bitterly. "I guess we're really growing up now, if she thinks she can leave us alone."

"I guess…"

She narrowed her eyes at the door, her arms crossed firmly over her chest. "I don't even hear anyone walking by most days. I have no idea what the Ark looks like, or where we are in it. But we have to be near the edge, right?"

"Kind of. I guess it's hard to explain."

"Can you try? Please?"

I looked up at her again, her wide, innocent eyes an almost painful sight. It was barely a second before I put the needle aside, and rested my elbows on the table to face her. "Well, the Ark is made up of a lot of different stations. They used to be countries, but…"

"But now they're sectors, I know," she cut me off. "I don't need to know how the Ark was made, Ny. I need to know what it looks like, what it feels like. What's on the other side of my front door?"

I looked at the door, avoiding her pleading gaze and trying to visualize the path I walked to get home every day. "Well, there's a hallway. The walls look just like this, but with arches and lights and wires. There's a few other doors, where other people live, and they're painted yellow with their sector numbers on them. They go uh…up on the left and down on the right. And the hallway wraps around, so if you go right it takes you toward where I live, and left is communal services. And…there's a window…"

Octavia had closed her eyes, her chin resting on her hands as she tried to see what I was describing. "What…what can you see?"

"Usually it's just space. A lot of black, with star clusters in the distance. The constellations look a little different than they do in books, how people saw them on the ground, but…they're beautiful."

"I wanna hear about Earth."

"It's not that far away. If you look out the window at the right time you can see it, and the moon rises up on the other side. It's white and gray and full of craters. Dad used to say that it stays close to the Earth because it hopes that some day it can be just as beautiful."

Octavia's lips pulled up into a small smile. "What does it look like?"

"Even with all the radiation, it's incredible. All the oceans are bright blue, and the atmosphere sort of makes it glow. The land is all green and brown, and depending on when you see it, you can see all the different countries. And the clouds, they—sometimes they cover everything, just a blanket of white that hides the ground from us. And they swirl and move, and…"

I cut myself off abruptly, looking over at Octavia again. She was still smiling, but her cheeks were glistening with tears. She didn't seem to notice until I stopped speaking, and her eyes fluttered open with water-webbed lashes. For a moment, she tried to hide it, wiping her face and attempting a chuckle. But then the chuckle turned into a sob, and she openly started crying.

I dropped the sewing supplies, ignoring the thread that trailed behind my dress as I ran around the table, hugging Octavia for all I was worth as she slid to the ground. We sat like that for a long time, her shoulders shaking under my arm as I held her to my chest. I rubbed her shoulder until the cries subsided into sniffling, and she finally managed to compose herself.

"Sorry. I just—I want to see it, Nylah. I want to see it so bad."

"I know, O. You will. I'll make sure you get to see Earth some day. I promise."


A/N: I should really work on something else now. I've been really caught up in this, and there will be a lot of prologues because I'm over excited. So forget what I said about "a few." I might just change these all to chapters instead of prologues. We'll see. Thank you all for reading, and to MsKnives19, Iwannabelikeme, Valkyrie101, LovelyFandomLover, RoseRedGurl, lieselmax, ChasingWolves, kg, Blondie23, 1Embrace the Crazy, xxBethJoyxx, gleerox, x XRoweenaJAugustineX x, and LionHeartMisfit for your reviews. I love you all!

-Brittney