Chapter 7:
As Mary continues to learn the values of being part of the Sisterhood; worshipping God, she starts to realize that maybe this will be a way to bring her closer to her parents. But even though she starts to accept it all, Mary still feels trapped inside the hands of the Sisters. She is no longer able to see Travis, her secret "love", or anyone else in the village unless they come to the cathedral themselves. Not only that, Mary feels the instense jealousy with her bestfriend,Cass, and Travis, taking over her. Although she knows that envy is a sick feeling, she just can't help but wonder why Travis had chosen her own bestfriend over herself.
Later in the Chapter, Mary disobeys Sister Tabitha's orders and finds her way sneaking into Travis room to check on him every night. The first night she visits him, it was as if he knew she was coming; he was propped up on his bed wide awake ready to hear he stories of the ocean.
Then just like any other night she visits him, she sneaks in and continues her stories of the great waters, when suddenly they have their first kiss. Right after their lips touch, Mary thinks of Cass, her brother and the rest of the village; what would they think if they found out she was trying to steal away Travis from her own bestfriend. She pulls away as soon as she hears Sister Tabitha coming down the hall and Travis pulls her underneath the sheets to try and hide her. When the coast is clear, Mary successfully escapes through Travis's window and runs through the snow back to the cathedral. But while in the snow, she finds something so peculiar near the gate of the village, footprints from the oustide. To Mary's surprise, she finds out that the Sisters had known that there was an Outsider in the village and that they have already kept him locked up in a room next to Travis's. Mary keeps quiet while she enters the doors of the cathedral knowing that the Sisters still think that she doesn't know about the mysterious person they were hiding from her.
She stares at the flames in her bedroom, thinking of what a joy it would be to enter the world that that person had come from. She then realizes that this Oustider is her and the village's ticket to the world of oceans and other forests. She can know see the real ocean that her mother has told her stories of. Knowing this now, she is determined to be the first one to step out of that gate into the Oustide world.