Work
- Tally gets to learn more about the Smoke. For instance, Shay's friends—Croy, Ryde, Astrix—have only been here for five months and they're already as self-assured as pretties, just like David. (It's almost like David doesn't realize how ugly he is.)
- They go to lunch and, as usual in cafeterias, everyone wants to hear all the newest gossip. That is, the runaways want to hear about what's going on in the city (several of them are from the same city as Tally); and they want to hear all about Tally's trip here.
- Which means that Tally has to lie a bit: she says she left the night before her birthday instead of several days after.
- But she does use lots of true statements, like saying that she was hiding in the flowers from the rangers. Only she lets the other runaways think that she was hiding for a while instead of one night.
- Tally really enjoys the attention she's getting from the runaways. But lunch ends and they need to get back to work.
- Shay teaches Tally to use a powerjack tool to pull up some tree roots and get at the railroad tracks that are underneath.
- Apparently, this was once railroad, but then the forest took it over. And the runaways need this railroad metal to lay out a grid for their hoverboards. It's enough to make you miss the city's nice hoverboard grid.
- So Tally starts doing useful work, which everyone likes doing, right?