“Busted is right,” her father said, leaning forward with his hands pressed onto the counter. “I can’t believe you did this, Shi. You’re not a child anymore. Why do you insist on doing childish things?”

Normally her dad wasn’t so stern. As a matter of fact, he rarely scolded Shilo no matter what she did wrong. And she certainly did a bit of wrong... So for him to be so serious with her was so surprising. The sudden change in her father caught Caleb’s attention, and so he decided to try and come to her aid.

“It’s okay, Mr. Boneahmi,” Caleb chimed in, a small smile on his face. “I already gave her an earful. She knows what she did was wrong.”

“Well, thank you, Caleb. Still, I must stress to her how reckless she behaved today.” Despite the heavy topic, her dad just didn’t sound convincing no matter how much he tried. “Don’t you know who’s coming to town?”

“What are you talking about?” Shilo sat up straight, the conversation finally going somewhere interesting.

“There’s been a lot of chatter around town,” he began, his tone no longer as serious. “The Council is coming to make a statement tomorrow.”

“Wait, a statement? Here? About what?”

“Well, don’t you remember the explosion down in The Snow Fields a few days ago? Maybe they’re coming to talk about that and make an official statement.”

“But why here,” Caleb asked. “Why not make a statement in the other sectors? Why this town?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe they’re traveling to each city and each town one by one to make an announcement about the explosion. Though I don’t see why. They made it seem like such a small thing when it happened.”

Shilo began drumming her fingertips against the counter, her eyes not even making contact with her father anymore. The Council… Here. They were going to be here tomorrow. The very suggestion that they would be addressing this town made her heart flutter. Caleb noticed that Shilo was pretty much no longer present, watching her fingers pitter patter against the countertop. He placed his hand over hers in an attempt to bring her back into the conversation.

“You see now why you being reckless is… Reckless? Shi, you can’t let them see you act like that.” Caleb knew that their attention meant a lot to Shilo.

“Yeah…” Shilo looked at Caleb’s hand over hers, wondering about their day tomorrow. She wondered what time The Council would make their statement. Were they really going to talk about the explosion they tried to downplay? The explosion that left all the sectors uneasy…

“Caleb, I hate to rush you out of here, but Shilo has some chores to do.” Her father interrupted her thoughts, reminding her that her day was far from over.

“Oh, right. No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow. Shi.” Caleb smiled, then nodded to her father before letting himself out. Shilo and her father remained in silence, even after they heard the sound of the door closing. Eventually it was her father who broke the silence, a smile on his face.

“No more serious talk! Now you need to help me harvest some herbs today and there’s no getting out of it.” As he spoke he walked towards her, tugging at her hand and prying her off of the stool.

“Okay, okay! Let’s get it over with.” Shilo laughed and followed him out back, though her mind was far from the herb garden…