Lullaby: Ray x OC (The Promised Neverland)

Build a Boat Out of Mud

Once again, during free time, Penny, Norman, and Emma hurried into the forest and grabbed something from underneath their shirts. Emma grinned. "You know, this is a great idea, Norman." the eleven year old said, lifting her shirt to reveal table cloths wrapped around her waist, tied up to act as rope.

"Yeah!" Penny grinned, releasing her batch of ropes. "Great idea, Norman! Grabbing spare table cloths!"

Norman grinned, holding up a rope. "These could be tied up and used as rope!"

The night before, the trio had snuck into the room that wasn't used the most...the storage room. Thanks to Norman's skillful lock picking, the three managed to quietly grab the rope and wrapped it around their torsos, underneath the white shirts. Penny was silently thankful that the table cloths were white, too, that way they wouldn't get caught.

They grabbed the rest of the table cloths that weren't tied up and began working. When they were finished, Penny did the job of bagging the rope, and she handed it to Emma, who climbed up a tree and hid the bag in a hole. She glanced at them with a grin. "Now we have a way to climb over the wall!"

She hopped down.

"Yeah!" Penny said again.

Norman turned to the wall, frowning. "But we still have to figure out the hard part..."

"How to deal with the tracking devices..." Emma muttered, lowering her head.

"And how to take everyone else, our precious siblings..." Penny muttered, shaking her head.

"Hey, Norman, Penny and I talked about it, and we thought it was a good idea." Emma suddenly said. Penny jumped, quickly turning to Emma. "You really think we should tell him this? What if it's not the right time..."

"It'll be fine." Emma said reassuringly. "It's Norman, he'll agree to the idea."

Norman raised his eyes at the girls. "What do you have in mind?"

Emma narrowed her eyes. "Penny thought it would be a good idea to tell Ray and get his opinion."

"I was thinking the very same thing." Norman said, turning to the girls completely. "I also think Ray would be the least likely to panic. And because he knows a lot, he's good at working with machines. He would be an asset to our plan. But..." Norman paused, frowning.

"But what?" Penny and Emma asked.

Norman quickly smiled. "Tell you what, I'll talk to Ray myself, why don't you head back to the house for now...."

"Why not now?"

Penny squeaked in surprise, and she, Norman, and Emma turned to see Ray trudging through the bushes towards them.

"Ray!" Emma said.

Ray raised his hand. "Yo."

"Dude, don't scare me like that!" Penny grumbled at him.

"Sorry, I followed you." Ray said with a shrug. "It's been bugging me all day, so I thought I should just come out and ask you." He walked up and showed them the book he was reading. Penny hesitantly took it, staring at its cover. She squeaked again as Ray wrapped both arms on Norman and Emma, and reached down so he could grasp Penny's shoulder with his hand. He stared at them. "Tell me what happened at the gate the other night!"

"Wh-wh-wh-" Penny stuttered, frightened.

"You know, when you tried to take Little Bunny to Connie." Ray continued. "You three were acting a lot weirder than usual, and came back empty handed even though you didn't see her. And you looked more terrified than usual." Ray shot a suspicious look at Penny, and she gulped, not knowing what to say.