"When trouble comes, it's your family that supports you." -Guy Lafleur

The next few hours are spent in torment as I wait anxiously for Jamie to get back, but Carrie doesn't seem worried at all. I approach her.

"Carrie..." I start. "Aren't you worried about your cousin?"

"Why of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" She says, flashing a white smile that makes me raise an eyebrow. "Oh, the smile. It's because I've spent hours and hours meditating so that my inner emotions don't display too darn obviously."

"Well, wherever Jamie is, shouldn't we be out there helping her?" I ask. In all honesty, I'm scared. The big guards scare me and Gorgol terrifies me, but family sticks together. And that's what Jamie is to me. So I need to back her up.

"It's dangerous-"

"All the more reason to help!" I say.

"You have got some spirit in you, girl." Carrie says, and I smile a bit. "But spirit doesn't protect you from danger."

"It could if you had enough of it." I say. She laughs, but I don't. I was serious. Carrie doesn't take me seriously at all, does she?

"Just understand that with family, when they ask for space, you need to take a step back and consider things before moving forward." She says. I nod and head for the door. "Wait wait wait, where are you going?"

"To talk to Melvin!"

I've never lied to Carrie. Ever. Until now. Because I'm not going to talk to Melvin, I'm going to talk to Jeb. I get the feeling that he's involved in this somehow, with the way he and Jamie talk so much, when usually merchants and slave owners, who are mostly farmers, dislike each other.

I guess it's not completely a lie, since I probably will end up talking to Melvin while there. But still, my intent isn't to talk to Melvin, it's to talk to Jeb, but I said otherwise.

Ugh, lying is too complicated for my brain.

When I reach the orchards, it's late afternoon. Melvin is, of course, working the hardest. With winter approaching, all the slaves are working to collect the harvest, and not a year has gone by where Melvin doesn't get his work done above and beyond, yet Jeb still hates him.

"Norma." Melvin says as I walk up to him. The overseer is sleeping, and Jeb spends most of his time...actually, I don't know what he does in his little house at the edge of his land. Maybe just drinks tea.

"Hi, I'm actually here to talk to Jeb, where is he?" I ask. He looks surprised.

"Really?" He asks. I nod. "Well, you're outta luck. He just left on a trip to the mountains for something. No idea what, and he wouldn't say."

"Okay but have you seen Jamie?" I say.

"No." Melvin says. "Why, is she in trouble?" I sigh, unsure of how much to reveal. Then he gives me an easy way out without any awkwardness; "Well, you might wanna leave. The overseer sleeps a lot, but not deeply. Might wake up any second." I nod and hurry back to the city.

I've noticed I've been spending a lot of time there, despite the fact that it's my least favorite place in the world. Of course it was unintentional; I guess fate doesn't like me right now. Sometimes I wonder what life is like beyond this area. This city is the Capitol, but what else is there in Metal "Town"? It's so much bigger than a town. The farthest I've been is the forest, but I've seen mountains beyond that. And apparently if you go for miles and miles beyond the courthouse, there's a beach. A long beach that stretches along one side of the entire country!

I stop dead in my tracks, wondering how I know all that. I mean, I remember a couple stories Howard told me from when he was a kid about a place called Big Bear Lake, and that he'd go to their camps in the summers, but it was boring because there wasn't a television, something that used to be everywhere, so he couldn't watch something called the news. Howard Newsman, I suppose it makes sense.

But just the idea of miles of land in the place called California that is now Metal Town, that I haven't seen, makes me realize how powerful Gorgol is. And that scares me.

I approach the door, and walk into Carrie and Jamie's house, which now seems smaller than ever.

A/N: A couple things: 1, completely forgot about the quote last chapter, but i, just missed one, and i...i...*breaks down hysterically sobbing*

jk

2, I am starting to get better at writing Melvin/Intern 2, in my opinion. and 3, this chapter kinda makes me wanna let Norma explore, see California, as she hasn't seen much of it in her lifetime. I feel bad about how much she doesn't know because-

*Indie duct tapes my mouth* shut up, Muffin! Scene: yeah, don't wanna give away spoilers, silly.

4, this A/N is too long, I have a tendency to do that.

5, about the location, i'm thinking that the Capitol is around Los Angeles. Wanna know where Big Bear Lake is? google it.

Okay? Review please!