*sings* I call her Lollipop, Lollipop, Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli...

Stephanie: His own language? I was curious so I handed him the notepad and pen with no hiesitation. Zach peered over as well, interested like I was.

(Nah, it's fine. I don't care as long as you reply sometime.)

Cricket: He thought a moment, then carefully printed something on the paper. He turned it around with a proud smile. "See? Luna Nuovan Lowlander speak, only used an' taught in my own home area." There were three strange-looking symbols on the notepad.

Stephanie: I tilted my head to the side slightly as I studied the symbols. They were strange-looking, but they captivated me for some reason. I always wanted to know more about other cultures and such.
I think Zach knew what I was thinking because he asked, "So, where is your home area?" I wanted to know if there was a symbol for every letter, but I guess I could wait to ask that.

Cricket: "I doubt you've heard of it, but it's called Luna Nuova. An old fishing city off in it's own end o' the world." He handed back the notepad.

Annaleah: "It's a nice place," she said, smiling slightly. That was only a half truth. Luna Nuova could be heaven or hell, depending on who you were.

Stephanie: I took back the notepad and wrote down my question about his language, Is there a symbol for every letter? Zach read it for me once again.
I paused, I wanted to ask if he could teach it to me, but that probably wouldn't happen, or at least I thought it wouldn't. I was kind of confused on how Annaleah said 'It's a nice place.', but Cricket said before not many people liked him there. Hm...maybe it was just the place was nice, but not some of the people living in it.

Cricket: He shook his head. "It's more like hyroglyphics. Each key word has a symbol."

Stephanie: Ah, okay... I paused then wrote, Is it hard to learn? I thought that was a rather sly way of implying that I wanted to learn it. Zach read what I wrote once again.

Cricket: He smiled, getting the hint. "That depends on how much you learn."

Annaleah perked up, listening. She'd been wanting to learn more of the language.

Stephanie: I returned a smile, and wrote, Well, I'd like to learn a lot of it if that's possible. Zach read it aloud, and then his green eyes flicked from the page to me. He was probably wondering if I was absolutely serious about this or not. The former was correct. This was interesting, different, and I wanted to understand it completely.

Annaleah looked at Cricket, who raised an eyebrow slightly. "A'right," he said, and took the notepad. "It's not something t' learn in a day, but I can teach you th' basics." He flipped to a fresh page and set it down. "Each key word has a symbol, and any symbol's meaning can be altered. For example." He drew a symbol that looked slightly similar to a backwards 'f'. "This means safe, friendly, ally. But if you add this to it," he drew a straight line down the center of it, "It means danger."

Stephanie: I nodded my head in understandment as I leaned over slightly so I could see the page better, but not entering anyone's personal space, of course. I was a little uptight about my personal space, so I wouldn't intrude in anyone elses. This seemed simple enough now, but I wasn't going to assume it was all going to be easy.

Cricket: He drew another symbol. "In th' same sense, this means rendezvous. But if you strike it through, it means scatter. Easy enough?" He drew the same symbol again. "There isn't much to understanding the key words. That's jus' memorization. It's understanding the symbols that alter them, or you get th' wrong message. If you add this symbol to a key word," he drew an oval through the center of the symbol, "It means 'a rendezvous I'm hosting'. The oval means something you posess. If you have an oval and a slash, it means 'I'm making you leave.' "

Stephanie: I thought I was getting it. I went through what he said in my head, and concluded that I was getting it. I reached into my pocket, and pulled out a pen. Oh...I always carried my pen and notepad with me.
I made sure the pen wasn't water-clogged or anything before taking the notepad from him for a second, and writing,
So, am I understanding this right? A slash means the opposite of the keyword, and an oval means the keyword is involving you directly? And so then both would mean the keyword is opposite and it involves you, right?
I had Zach read it for me before I gave the notepad back to Cricket. I wanted to make sure I was getting this correct.

Cricket: He nodded. "That's th' basic idea, until you get to the point where the slash and other 'small' symbols can be altered, but tha's another lesson."

Stephanie: I mouthed, Okay, instead of writing it down, a small smile playing on my lips as I did so. This was pretty cool. My wrist was starting to cramp a little, and Zach must've been getting sick of having to read outloud by now. I set down my pen, and rubbing my wrist tenderly. Zach glanced at me with a concerned look on his face, and I just gave him a reassuring smile, hoping he wouldn't make much of it. Luckily, he didn't.
I looked up at both Annaleah and Cricket for a moment, and Zach was thinking the same thing because he asked, "How old are you guys anyway?" I didn't notice it until now, because well, they were both shorter than me and Zach...well, everyone was shorter than Zach, he being 6' 2", but still.

The waiter stopped at the table with three drinks on a tray. "Three milkshakes...and a Coke," she said, dolling each out, and eyed the group, lingering on Cricket before walking away.

Cricket: "I didn't do anything..." He muttered, placing his chin in a fist and sipped his chocolate shake.

Annaleah: "I'm fourteen, and he's fouteen." She said with a smile.

Stephanie: Zach and I looked both a bit surprised. They didn't even look 14, they looked about our age, except their height.
"Oh." Zach muttered to himself, but it was barely audible, and his lips didn't move that much.
He talked normally though when he said our ages though, it seemed polite to, I mean, if they said their's, it would kind of weird if we didn't say our's, "I'm 16, and Steph's 15." I took a sip from my chocolate milkshake, which was pretty good actually.

Annaleah: "Ah." Cricket and Annaleah glanced at each other, and she took a sip of her strawberry shake. "Oi my my, this is good!" She jumped a little. "Did I just say that? I think you're rubbing off on me, Cricket."

Stephanie: Zach and I both got a smile out of that. I didn't think that would be a bad thing, Cricket seemed like a nice, smart guy. He was smarter than me about some things, so that counted. I wouldn't-correction, couldn't-say that outloud though. Without me noticing it until it was too late, Zach took a drink of my milkshake. I gaped at him as I slid it closer to me.
Couldn't you get your own? I mouthed. "I just wanted a sip..." He explained, pretending that he didn't think that was a bad thing.
That wasn't a sip, that was a chug. I corrected him, pursing my lips, and narrowing my eyes at him, but he knew I wasn't really mad at him. Now I have to get a new straw...which I did. I grabbed a straw from the small basket on the table, and took the one that Zach had...ruined, and placed it on a paper napkin as I replaced it with the new one.
You ruined it with your man germs... I mouthed as I fake-glared at him, moving my milkshake over so he couldn't reach it.

They both chuckled at that, and Annaleah glanced at Cricket's shake. "Ooh, chocolate," she said, and Cricket scooted his shake away. She giggled and looked across the table. "Now you know where we're from. What about you?"

Stephanie: Zach answered for the both of us, "Well, I'm from The Big Apple, and Steph's from Ohio." He made another move for my shake, but I moved it out of the way in time, and flashed him a smug smirk. He frowned slightly, but backed off. I knew him though, he'd try to get it when I was off guard, so I made sure I wasn't.

Annaleah: She could see the thought on Cricket's face: big apple? "New York," she said with a half-laugh. CRICKET: he quickly kissed her on the cheek. "Right." ANNALEAH: She turned back to the other couple excitedly. "Oh, what's it like there? I don't get the chance to travel much, but I've always wanted to see a big city for myself."

Zachery: I shrugged, "Lots of buildings, people. A whole bunch of shops, but it's expensive compared to the places here. You never get bored there, because things continually change."
I glanced at Stephanie from the corner of my eye. I chuckled mentally because I could tell she was guarding her milkshake from me. I liked it when she could loosen up, and be herself, because she was a nice, sweet, funny, weird person, and that made me love her more.

Cricket listened thoughtfully, trying to picture it for himself. He didn't travel much, but Annaleah was always talking about seeing the world, and he could only smile when she got stars in her eyes doing so. "Sounds exciting," he said. (sorry my computer is being dumb, I had to retype this like 3 times :/)