"Emilee! C'mon! Were going to meet the Mee's!" My Mom yells up the loft where i'm sitting. I put the bookmark in my book and close it, and head down the ladder, book in hand.
I walk quietly beside Mom to the front gates where the gang is waiting. I go to stand by Robin. He squeezes my shoulder, knowing how hard this is for me.
A tall man and his two children, an older boy and a little girl, come walking over to us to get introduced. Mom steps out of line and shakes Mr. Mee's hand.
"Hi. Kelly Foster, Head zookeeper." She introduces herself then moves onto us. "This is Robin Jones," She motions toward Robin, "And Peter MacCready" She motions toward MacCready. "Robin is our, uh, craftsman and thats our Capuchin, Crystal. MacCready is our Visionary. He built the enclosures and set the standard for modern zoos all across America"
"And the World" MacCready corrects.
"Yes and the world. Peter and Robin do, well pretty much everything" She chuckles, "Except the telephones, thats, uh, Rhonda over there" She points toward Rhonda, who gives a little flirtatious wave and I pretend to gag. The boy looks over to me and gives a small smile and breathy laugh.
Then Kelly moves onto Lilly and I. "And my cousin Lilly," She motions toward Lil. "She's 13. She legally can't work here so we pay her cash under the table out of my salary. She's home schooled and lives on the property. Works at the jaguar." She finishes with Lil and moves onto me, "And that's my daughter, Emilee. She's also too young to work here so we pay her and she's home schooled and lives on the property too." I think she's done, a nice simple intro, I like it. "She tries to help out her best to help out but gets caught up in her fictional worlds" She adds with a teasing smile. I smile back and feel my cheeks start to burn. The boy tries to hide his smile when he looks toward me. "thats it. Its just us, Mr. Mee" Mom finishes.
"Well its great to meet all of you. I'm Benjamin. This is Rosie, my daughter." Rosie smiles and waves at us. "And my big boy, Dylan. and our dog, Leon." hmm.. Dylan. Thats a nice name I guess.
"And this is our new zoo, I guess" He says and I feel a pang of hurt. You may have bought it Mr.mee but these animals are still mine. "And.. We love the house, Smells and all, Right?" He looks down to Rosie and Looks back to us. "And... I'd like to declare us all modern day adventurers! And sponsors of Animals greatness!" Crystal makes noise and puts her paws on her head. Even Crystal can tell how bad he is at speeches!
We stare at him like he's an exotic animal we've never seen before for a moment.
"Okay, Terrific. Lets go!" He turns and starts to walk away. We turn and head the opposite way.
"Dad!" Dylan says, "Yep, got it!" Benjamin says and starts following us.
~~~~~~~~~~~
As we are walking Rosie walks beside me. Behind us, Lilly walks alongside Dylan.
"Can we see the otters? I'd love to see the otters and the-" I cut her off. "We will. Just be patient, Rosie." I quietly say.
"So, How old are you?" I hear Lilly ask Dylan. "Uh, 14, I guess" he answers. He guesses? What does that mean?
"How old are you?" Rosie asks me. "14. I guess" I add. I look a back at Dylan and hes smirking while he quickly looks away from me. "How old are you?" I ask Rosie.
YOU ARE READING
𝕋𝕨𝕠 𝕃𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕝𝕪 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕤♡
FanfictionEmilee Hart has lived at the Rosemoor Zoo her entire life. There aren't really any other children on the property to hang out with so at a young age Emilee learned to read. She reads ALL of the time. When she's not helping out with the animals that...
