Lost and Found

Tally drew a sharp breath, then started to quickly look around. Everything looked familiar, so why wasn't her backpack and everything else there? She felt the panic starting to rise in her.

Their rings.

How could she have let Peris talk her into leaving them? He didn't seem to notice her panic, rummaging around in the bushes, thinking his interface ring, backpack, and everything else was just stashed in the trees. Talking a calming breath, Tally tried to believe that maybe Peris had the right idea. Maybe everything was right where they left it. Maybe they just weren't in the right spot. Or maybe everything was gone.

She shook that thought from her mind and kept looking. Peris was murmuring to himself, something about misplacing things. Her mind seemed dizzy, already thinking of excuses of why her things were gone. The food would be simple enough to explain away, and she could hide that fact that she lost her clothes and backpack. But interface rings weren't supposed to even be taken off except when you were sleeping...

"Hey Tally" She could her an underlying note of dread in Peris's voice. "Do you see our stuff anywhere over there? I can't find it..."

Keeping her voice even and calm, trying her best to avoid sounding panicked, she replied "It's gone! Everything's gone Peris! We lost it all"

So much for calm and un-panicked.

Peris's brown eyes were wide as he came over to Tally. "Are you serious? This isn't something to joke about. Do you have any idea what our parents will say when we tell them we lost our rings?"

"No," Tally shook her head. This was all her fault. If she had tried to talk Peris out of going, instead of getting caught up in the moment. Instead of not wanting to disagree. Her eyes welled up with tears "Peris, what are we going to do? We've never been in this much trouble before!" Sighing, she thought of how she was going to be spending her last weeks as a littlie; in major trouble with Sol and Ellie instead of enjoying life.

"It's okay Tally." She felt the comforting weight of Peris's arm over her shoulders. "Think about it. If Sol and Ellie don't notice that your ring is missing this morning, we can just come back here and look when it's lighter out." He pulled her into a gentle hug. "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

She squeezed him tight. In his arms, Tally always felt safe. "Okay," she quietly replied. "Let's come back here at noon. I want a few hours of sleep tonight." She felt the worry slowly slipping away, being replaced by exhaustion.

As the late summer sky brightened, the pair headed back to their homes. It would be hardly any trouble for Tally to sneak in and tell her parents she got home early from the "sleepover" she had been at. Quietly sneaking in the back door of her suburbian home, Tally got into bed and let much-needed sleep wash over her worries.

---

A few short hours later, Tally woke to the sound of several voices in the front room talking. She listened sleepily to the conversation, and realized there was someone talking to her parents. Before she could completely wake up and comprehend their murmurings, though, a door shut and all she could hear were Sol and Ellie mumbling. Something about the now missing voice clicked, it sounded like a teacher. Authoritive and firm, not unlike the voice of a middle-pretty warden she had heard once. That couldn't be good, a warden talking to her parents. Tally clung to one thread of hope that this was all unrelated to the night before.

Two pairs of footsteps were coming towards her door.

It was clear that her parents were going to her room. Her heart was pounding madly as explanations and excuses for everything that happened tumbled into her brain. As the footsteps stopped outside her door, her breath caught and she decided that her best defense was to just feign sleep.

She knew she was in trouble. Big time.

"Sweetie, are you awake yet?" The soothing voice of her mother floated into her room.

After Tally said nothing, the door quietly opened and her parents walked in. She felt herself holding her breath, and tired to fake breathing like she was asleep. As she realized pretending was pointless, she rolled over slowly and squinted up at her parents.

"Yes Ellie, I'm up," she said in a quiet voice.

"That's good sweetheart, because your father and I have something to talk to you about," her mother said in a gentle tone. Through her squinted eyes, Tally saw sunlight glint off her lost ring held in her fathers hand. All her excuses and explanations feebly made their way into her head again, but she knew none of them would save her this time.

Tally sighed at the expectant looks on her parents face. She knew that they wanted an answer, and that they were sure she knew why they were there. Tally gave the only appropriate phrase that came to mind; "I'm sorry." Her voice was hushed in shame.

"Well, I'd certainly hope so!" Her fathers voice was less calm then Ellie's. "We were scared to death when a warden showed up at our door, asking if we knew where our daughter was. I told her 'yes, Tally's just gotten home from her friends house', and imagine my surprise when she gave me your interface ring and said 'it doesn't look that way sir'. Your poor mother was so worried that something had happened to you!" Sol was getting a little more frantic and loud in her recollections of the warden, as if Tally might suddenly not be okay.

"But you're alright, and that's all that matters," Ellie's still calm and relieved voice cut in. "But please, don't ever take your ring off again! The warden said she had found yours and Peris's rings just laying on the ground. You should know better Tally! You're nearly 12, almost an ugly, loosing your ring is something that should only happen to tiny littlies." She pulled Tally into a tight hug, and stopped her rant about being responsible.

"I promise I won't ever do it again"

"We know you won't," her parents replied with confident voices. "You're very lucky nothing happened to you while you were not wearing your ring. Now, you can have some more sleep, but I want you up in an hour. We're taking a trip out to the park today – this might be our last chance before you go off to ugly school." Each of her parents hugged her, and with that, they left, leaving a stunned Tally sitting in her bed, trying to figure out why she wasn't in trouble. Her parents hadn't even asked about what happened. They really though she had just left her ring by accident?

A ping interrupted her thoughts. Peris apparently had just gotten his ring back too, with minimal trouble from his parents. Thinking of how clueless Sol and Ellie were also, Tally laughed and sent him a ping inviting him to the park with her. She signed off of the ping with a simple phrase,

"Best friends forever, no matter what my happen"

Tally smiled and sank back into her pillow. No matter what may happen...