Knock, Knock

Sixty-one

Casey

We've been here for 3 days and the weather has been constantly kicking my ass. I thought Texas' weather was dramatic, obviously, I hadn't been to Florida. But here I am. Completely and utterly annoyed with the bipolar weather. 

Luckily, we were heading inside The Florida Aquarium, which meant A/C. My luck with avoiding Mrs. Evans was slowly running thin. She almost caught me this morning, luckily Jasmine had just exited the room and was rushing me to bring her snacks. If she hadn't come out at the time she had, Emily definitely would've had my ass.

I sigh as we enter the aquarium. Once everyone has what is needed we're allowed to roam around with our designated teachers. A few of us agree to go see the sharks first. Not one of my favorite animals to ever see, but would beat looking at octopuses. 

We get to the section and almost immediately my eyes meet green eyes. The woman smiles, greeting us. "Good afternoon, I see you all are interested in sharks this fine afternoon."

I notice a small circle in the middle of the shark exhibit. My eyes widen as I walk closer to it. "Be careful, these sharks are trained but they might react to your beauty" the woman flirts openly. I smirk and glance at her, appreciating the compliment.

Jasmine and Desire roll their eyes, not impressed by the woman's flirting. We all gather around the circle, a few baby sharks swimming up to the surface. A boy jumps and moves away, "Baby sharks I can do. But that one is too big. He might eat me."

"Rest assured, the only thing these cuties crave is love and affection. Here I can show you."

She grabs my hand causing me to blush. She reaches our hands out and a shark comes up causing me to pull away slightly. Her green eyes land on me reassuringly causing me to relax a bit. My hand meets the rough skin. I cringe, "It feels like..." I trail wondering what it resembled. 

"Sandpaper" the woman smiles. She releases my hand and I smile, petting the baby sharks. "They're actually kind of cute" Duke agrees reaching out to pet the baby shark as well. Pretty soon every teenager around the circle was petting the sharks, enjoying not being eaten.

The woman moves away, "I can show you guys more if you're not bored so far."

I raise my brows and turn to face her, ready to move on. My eyes land on Emily, who looks displeased with the two of us. She rolls her eyes and glances away, allowing the woman to guide us.

We discover a lot of things about sharks we didn't know. Stereotypes about these creatures really make us think so illy of them. They're honestly kind of cute once you look past all the teeth they can puncture your flesh with.

"I'm Catherine by the way," the woman says and my flirtatious smile immediately drops. I glance at the woman. Life sure has a fucked up way of making you remember things. She didn't look anything like the name I was associating her with. Her eyes were a different color from what I was used to staring at for hours on end. 

Her smile was different from what I had fallen in love with and loved to see at any hour of the day.

She wasn't Kathryn, she's Catherine. A totally different name and spelling. Different environment. A different life. A different heart. Noticing I was just staring, I offer her a kind smile. "That's a pretty name. I'm uh..."

"Hey, let go to the Octopuses. They look cool" a kid interrupts us. The woman smiles at me, knowing I had to part ways from her. I nod my head and walk away with my group, not bothering to give her my name. It wasn't necessary. I wouldn't see her again anyway.