Not As It Seems - We Bought A Zoo Fanfic

Ch 15

Avery's Pov: 

Ferris was coming today. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I didn't get any sleep the last couple nights which was quite obvious. Kelly was peeved and kept ordering me to go take a break and get some rest but I couldn't. 

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Kelly questioned me as we set up the food for the foxes. The babies had been born and we had 4 girls and one boy so they were named Harley, Scarlett, Abby, Willow, and Vixen. 

"Yea a bit." I lied. She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything further about the topic. 

"Nervous?" I shrugged with a small yawn. 

"I guess you could call it that." I muttered, sprinkling rabbit meat chunks around the pen for the foxes to eat. 

Kelly tried to comfort me, "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll be able to open the zoo." It didn't really help, because I wasn't really worried about that. 

"Y-yea." I mumbled with a head nod. I heard a small noise come over the walkie that Kelly was holding. 

"We gotta go meet up with the others. Ferris is gonna be here any minute now." Kelly called out to me making me momentarily freeze. "You good?" Kelly asked after seeing my reaction. 

I smiled and nodded, "Yeah of course." 

"Mkay. Let's go then." She held her hand out as I ran up to her and when I got there she intertwined her fingers with my own. 

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"Okay. Well, this is it." My dad muttered. Ferris just arrived making my nervousness spike even higher. "I want everyone to stay off their walkies. If anybody has any problem, I don't want to hear about it until after Walter Ferris is gone. Got it?" We all nodded as Ferris got out of his car and approached us. "All right, here we go. Here's to us."

"Mr. Ferris. Welcome back to the Rosemoor Animal Park Adventure." Dad greeted the old man with a smile. 

Ferris raised an eye brow while glancing past my father and straight at me. "It's an adventure now?"

My dad smiled, "Well, to be precise, sir, it always was." 

"Hello, MacCready." Ferris greeted Peter. 

"Hello." 

"How are you?" Ferris asked as they shook hands. 

Peter replied softly, "On my best behavior."

"I like the jumpsuit." Ferris complimented him. Walter's gaze was still focused on me and internally I was disgusted but thankfully no one seemed to notice the way I shrunk whenever he looked my way. They were all to surprised by the interaction happening before their eyes. 

"Love the tie." 

"Thank you." With one final look in my direction Ferris walked away to start his inspection. 

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We had been going at it for hours now and so far everything with the zoo had been running smoothly. Ferris was being a lot more creepy then last time but I couldn't really leave. My dad told us all this morning that we had to stay with him for the whole inspection. Kelly left halfway through which made things even worse because she wasn't holding my hand anymore. 

"Hey baby girl." Ferris whispered seductively in my ear with a harsh slap to my ass. We had just arrived at Buster's cage and since both of us were in the back it was the perfect time for him to get a quick one in there. That made me even more tense and caused my eyes to start watering, but no one really notices that stuff except for Kelly so no one caught on to anything. 

"MacCready, I would love it if you could come and meet me by Solomon's enclosure. Bye." I heard Kelly's voice over dad's walkie talkie. 

Ferris gave a half amused have curious look. "Let's go see Solomon's enclosure." 

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"Afternoon Solomon." My dad greeted the lion as we got to the enclosure. Whatever the problem was it seemed to be fixed. Ferris pulled out his tape measure device and measured it quickly before inspecting the rest and walking away. After that Kelly and Peter joined us and kelly planted herself by my side which made me feel a lot better.

~

"Hey Mister, Everybody says you're dick. I don't know what that means, but I don't believe it." Rosie yelled as we waited patiently for Ferris to decide if our zoo was good enough to open. 

He quickly scribbled on the paper and handed it to my father. "I don't think it's gonna work. But good luck." 

"Yes!" My dad shouted and we all simultaneously repeated his shout. Kelly removed her arm from my side and picked me up slightly while spinning us around. 

"Hey listen I want to see you here on opening day." My dad offered Ferris over the sounds of our celebrations. I internally panicked once I heard and froze in Kelly's arms. She set my down softly once she noticed and followed my gaze which was frozen on Ferris. He sent a smirk my way, not seeing that Kelly was watching him, as he replied to my father and turned to leave and we both stood there staring at him as he left while the others cheered around us. 

"Avery..." Kelly whispered in my ear once he was at his car. I heard the car door slam shut and it caused me to finally snap out of it. I turned to Kelly with a frightened look on my face, she knew. She knew. Now Ferris was gonna kill us. 

"I-umm." I stuttered not knowing what to say before my breathing picked up. She frowned and hoisted me into her arms again. At this point the celebrations had stopped and all eyes were on us, but neither of us noticed as she jogged to the Jaguar carrying me bridal style. 

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A/n: I've wanted to write this chapter for a while now.