Snippet #2259574

Callen turned he corners of her mouth down, and squinted her eyes. "You're too young to be rich. You don't look smart enough to pass off as a prodigy-kid. The key to not being seen is to find the perfect balance of completely ordinary, but not too ordinary. We should get big boots. Hiking boots. Shorts, or those roll-up pants," she paused, looking at him quizzically, "You know those right with the strap and the zip and then BAM! Shorts. Brown hats. We mustn't look like we've got money. Everything must look like we've been on the road for some time. Nothing can be individual." In the end, her words were nothing more than mutters and memos, mostly directed at herself.

"I need makeup. For Anna. Can't make it go away, but if we just keep her from talking up front to people, they probably won't notice her skin looks weird." She smiled at him, and for a moment glanced up as the robot brought their drinks. Callen was just about to open her mouth again, to tell Viktor just how brilliant he was for giving her all those ideas, when the robot put down a plate of cookies between them.

"Happy date." It said, perhaps sounding like it was enjoying itself.

Callen's eyes widened, and she looked at it first, then Viktor. She flicked a finger between herself and the boy, shaking her head much too fast to hide that she was not embarrassed by this. "No! Not like that, we're not togeth..." she started, only to have the machine interrupt.

"Happy cookie time, then." It told her, before turning around and wheeling back into the kitchen before she could say anything more.

---

For a moment, she wondered if this boy had some deep psychological problems. He acted like he was afraid that she would seriously injure him, or something akin to that. It was halfway surrealistic to experience a person like him, but she couldn't say that she found him too odd. She had stopped on her way out, and watched him now.

"Are you afraid of dogs? There's a litter of puppies in the stable, they're very adorable." one of her rare big smiles moved over her face, for a moment softening her look. Right then, she didn't seem hostile in the least. "Don't worry about time. Mine i no so important after all."