This chapter is kind of short, but I'll update in a couple days. If anyone is reading this, could you please leave a review? I fell like there's nobody reading my story.

Chapter Ten

"So let me get this straight…you went off into the jungle with a complete stranger, and almost got eaten by a carnotaurus?" My mother asked me, her voice stabbing me with sharp icicles of anger. She had overheard me telling Ally about my adventure when I had got home, and had been chewing me out about it for the past half hour.

"You make it sound worse than it really is…" I mumbled under my breath.

"What?" she asked, walking up to me, her face just inches from mine. She was small, nearly a half foot shorter than me and forty pounds lighter, but when she got angry, I felt microscopic next to her. Her grey-green eyes were filled with white-hot fury. It was times like these that I could actually imagine my mother swatting me across the face with the back of her hand, though I knew she could never bring herself to hurt her own child, no matter how angry she was.

"Nothing," I muttered.

"Right, that's what I thought...go to your room, and stay there." She ordered me. Climbing out of the chair, I walked to my room with my tail between my legs, so to speak. I shut the door behind myself and plopped down on my bed. Ally was nowhere to be found, having left the house when the yelling started. I figured she had gone to meet up with Ryan. Not wanting to sit there in boredom for the rest of the night, I decided to take a nap. Settling my head down on my squishy pillow, I pulled a blanket up around my body, and felt asleep almost instantly, letting the warm cushiness of slumber overtake my exhausted body.

I was woken up to someone sitting down on the bed. Opening my eyes, I could sense I had been asleep for a solid four or five hours, as the sunlight coming in the window bathed the room in a golden-orange light. Looking down at the person sitting there, I was more than surprised to find my mother watching me. Her presence made me flinch away for a moment.

"Oh, uh, hey?" I asked, my voice groggy. My mother smiled.

"Hello, dear," she replied. I sat up next to her, my head spinning.

"What are you doing here? …aren't I still in trouble?" I questioned, looking at her. She shrugged.

"I was thinking about it, and realized that I overreacted. I mean, of course, you shouldn't be going outside the gates, really, but at the same time, what you did is something that I probably would've done at your age, so I can't blame you." She confessed. "I just want to apologize for how I yelled at you…I do feel kind of bad about that." I was dumbfounded, but not surprised. She wasn't one to normally anger quickly, but when she did, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and she usually felt bad about it afterwards.

"Thanks, I appreciate it, mom." I told her.

"Hug?" she asked. I nodded.

"Hug," I leaned over and gave her a hug. When she let me go, she stood up.

"Come eat some dinner now," she told me. I followed her into the main room, where Ally and Jacob were seated at the table. Spread out on the table was the remaining fruit, along with two plump loaves of bread and a large carafe of the green smoothie.

"Eat up, everyone," my mom told us as we joined them at the table. We each began digging into the food, starting with the smoothies.

"Let's just chug them all at once," Jacob suggested. Ally looked at him like he was absolutely crazy.

"Are you kidding me? You'd choke on the grossness." She told him.

"Is 'grossness' even a word?" I asked, laughing.

"It is now," she replied, smirking. I shrugged.

"Why not? On the count of three," I told Jacob.

"You kids are crazy," my mother told us, laughing.

"One,"

"Two,"

"Three!" we all yelled, raising the cups to our lips. I opened my mouth as wide as I could and drank it all down in ten seconds flat.

"Blech!" I said, coughing as the last of the stuff went down my throat. Looking at Ally and Jacob, I saw I wasn't alone; both were coughing down the last of their own drinks.

"Now for the good stuff," Jacob said, using a serrated knife to slice a thick piece of bread off of one loaf. I followed his actions with the other loaf, slicing off a piece of the fluffy stuff. I picked up a slice of dragon fruit along with a couple pieces of orange, gingerly setting them on my plate. I ripped off a piece of bread from my slice and chewed it slowly, enjoying the grainy flavor. I took a bite of dragon fruit. This time when I ate it, it didn't taste as sweet as before. My body's finally beginning to adjust to the food. When I finished that, I ate my oranges, and then finished my slice of bread, going back for a second, and then a third. We ate in silence for the rest of the meal. While cleaning up the dishes right after dinner, I decided to ask my mom the golden question.

"So…" I began, drying off the carafe while Ally rinsed dishes, Jacob put them away, and my mom did the scrubbing, "am I still in trouble?" I asked, looked at her. She looked at me.

"Nah, it seems kind of pointless now that I think about it." She told me. I nodded and finished drying the carafe. After the dishes were done, everyone dispersed to attend to their own agendas. The sun had managed to dip behind the hills, leaving the air in a pale golden stupor as darkness descended around us, nixing looking for Henry off my list. Sighing, I flopped down on my bed. Ally had come in behind me, closing the door behind her. She sat on her bed and began brushing out her braid.

"What were you and your mom talking about?" she asked, pulling at a snared tangle in her hair.

"Oh, she was saying that I'm not in trouble any more," I told her.

"Mhm…well, I'm going to sleep," she replied, pulling her blanket over her body. She hovered her hand over her bedside lamp to turn it off, leaving my own light the only light on in the rom.

"'Night," I said quietly. She waved her hand as sign that she heard me. I moved my Plex off my bed and sat it on the floor. I turned my own light off and laid down in the encroaching darkness. Well, time to sleep.

Wait, the Plex!

I snatched it off the floor and turned it on. Going into the colony chat center icon, I was shown a complete list of everyone who was on their Plex at that moment. There were around forty or fifty, though that wasn't much in a colony of close to one thousand. There was a search engine that sorted through the list of those present, giving me the idea to just search his name instead of combing through the unorganized list for his name. I typed in Henry's last name, Rost, into the engine and clicked the search button. After thinking for a few seconds, it showed up with three results.

Cheryl Rost. No, not her.

Tyler Rost. Maybe his brother?

Henry Rost. Bingo. Tapping on his name, it brought up a small menu of options. I clicked on the instant chat option. The Plex brought up a chat screen. I brought up the on-screen keyboard and tapped out a greeting.

[A.P] Hey.

[H.R] Oh, hi. Good to see you didn't get skinned alive.

[A.P] Likewise. I got chewed out for a good half hour and then took a nap

[H.R] Lucky. I swear, my dad almost popped a gasket. He was pissed.

[A.P] That sucks. Did you get grounded or anything?

[H.R] Naw. My dad was the one who allowed me to build that shelter out there. He was more angry that I 'put you in danger'…said that that wasn't a very good idea for a first date. His reply made my cheeks burn.

[A.P] Hahahaha omg. That's awkward. It wasn't even really a date…right?

[H.R] Yeah I guess not. My dad was saying that if I really want to impress 'that girl' (as in you), then I should join the military.

[A.P] The whole idea of being in the military freaks me out. Would you ever join?

[H.R] Hell no. Hell no. Hell no.

[A.P] Why not? You seem so tough, like you'd be perfect for it.

[H.R] idk. Everyone tells me that, but do you think thats just cause of how I look? Everyone says I look really tough.

[A.P] You do. Maybe that's why I thought you were a lot older when we met.

[H.R] im definitely not, though…lol. I would never want to be in the military.

[A.P] then what do you want to do?

[H.R] …I want to be a chef

[A.P] you don't even seem like the chef-y type lol

[H.R] and if my dad got his way, I'd never be a chef

[A.P] huh?

[H.R] ok, so here's how it is… in my family, everyone kind of expects us boys to all go into the military when we r old enough. My older brother Tyler is already on the security team with my dad and he's only a few years older than me, and everyone kind of expects me to join when I turn 18 since im the next oldest after Tyler. My little brother Nick is all into sports and shit and is probably gonna join security just because he's too spineless to do anything else. My whole family is super athletic and strong so we're all perfect fits for a very physical job like that. In my dad's mind, having a son that is something other than an army dog would mean he failed as a parent.

[A.P] wow…just, wow. I think we should change the subject…so…uh…how's the weather? All this sun is weird.

[H.R] LOLOLOLOLOL. Seriously just made me laugh out loud. The classic "how's the weather?" awkward subject change.

[A.P] haha seriously. But anyways, do you want to hang out tomorrow?

[H.R] yeah, sure. Have you seen the fields and the orchards yet?

[A.P] no, but I really want to. Can anyone go there?

[H.R] technically, yes, though most people kind of assume an unspoken rule; unless you have trees or work in agriculture or have some other reason, then you generally tend to stay out of the way, seeing as they're usually busy as hell there in the orchard or the fields.

[A.P] can we do that tomorrow? Go see the orchard and the fields, that is.

[H.R] sure. Meet me at the learning center tomorrow around ten, ok?

[A.P] sounds great. I'm gonna sign off and get some shuteye for tomorrow. Plus im super tired.

[H.R] no problem. I think I'm gonna do the same thing. Night OH! And if you want to, bring a couple terras in case we end up buying anything.

[A.P] lol, ok. Good night

With that, I closed the chat window and powered off my Plex, getting out of bed quickly to set it on top of my dresser. Climbing back into bed, I adjusted my pillow to a comfortable position and pulled my blanket up to my chin. The blanket was an ideal blanket; it was soft and warm, but also long enough to allow me to curl it around my toes to keep them warm. As my body relaxed, I could feel the slight pain as my spine decompressed, letting all the day's stress out of my body. I closed my eyes, and drifted off into dreamland.