"SKY!" I hear from the bottom of the stairs, watching as the small figure comes running up the stairs. "Can we have a adventure today, please?" The six year old says with a big smile spread across her face. I can't help but let out a small laugh at her excitement before responding. "Yes, Isabella." I start, making her eyes light up before continuing,"I have a few choices for our adventure today, but before we do anything you have to go back downstairs and eat breakfast with mama so that I can get ready for the day. Okay?" I finish with a question. Nodding very excitedly, she bounces back down the stairs towards the kitchen where I can hear the pan sizzling as my mother makes her favorite breakfast, pancakes. Isabella is my little sister, and since it's summer break and I have weekends off of work, I try to take her on an 'adventure' every chance I can get. Technically you could say that I baby sit her every weekend, but I enjoy our adventures as much as her so it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I shake the small smile off of my face, turning to go back into my room so that I can get my outfit together for the day. After a few minutes, I've pulled together an outfit fit for the hot weather outside, and now Im looking into the mirror, making sure it looks presentable enough for whatever we decide to do today. My short black hair is peeking out at the front of the beanie that I chose to wear, alongside my white tee shirt and ripped black skinny jeans. I pull on my shoes and head down the stairs, meeting my mothers eye with a smile as Isabella eats her pancakes. My mother hands me over a plate with pancakes as well, and I sit at the table to eat breakfast with the two of them.
After all of our pancakes are gone, my mother is leaning over the sink, washing the three plates and glasses that we had used. I speak up, directing my words at Isabella who is sitting at the counter playing on my moms phone. "So Isabella, I'm going to give you three choices to choose from, and we can do whichever you decide on, yeah?" Her eyes look up from the phone, giving me her full attention. "Okay," I start, leaning down to the counter giving her a goofy smile before continuing, "we can go to the movies and watch a movie, we can go to the park and walk the trails and play on the playground, or..." I pause, watching her furrow her eyebrows a bit before speaking up at me, "sky, that is two. What is number three? I want to choose right." I laugh softly and pull my phone out of my pocket, pulling up the webpage for the zoo about an hour away, showing it to her while saying "well this is number three, but I didn't know if you would be interested in somet..." I'm cut off by a squeal from her and she smiles really big, jumping down from her seat at the counter and running past me towards the living room. "Sounds like option three may be the winner." My mom laughs out and turns around to see what I had shown the small girl. After a moment my mom gives me a smile and an approving nod of her head. "You're so good with her, are you two going to continue your adventures when school starts back next week?" She asks me, reminding me that I only had a few more days until the first day of my senior year. "Don't look so sad, it's your last year honey, and then you get all the free time in the world." She says, squeezing my arm softly and turning at the sound of footsteps coming back into the room. I turn as well, and smile as I see Isabella with shoes on, her backpack ready, and a big smile on her face. "I'm so ready for this!" She squeals out, making me and my mom laugh as I grab her hand, "let's do this then." I grab my keys from the hook by the door, get Isabella into the car, and we're off to the zoo.
After driving for around forty five minutes, we finally arrive at the zoo. I make sure that Isabella has everything out of the car, and lock it up. "Sky?" I hear Isabella ask from my side, and turn to look at her with a small smile. "what's up buttercup?" I say, making her giggle a bit before noticing that she is squirming around a little bit. I change our direction from going towards the gates, to going towards the restrooms. We get to the entrance of the girls restroom and I take Isabella's things from her as she rushes inside to make use of the place. Once she's inside the restroom, I walk over and take a seat at the bench to the left side of the door and pull my phone out to check my bank account. After seeing that I had more than enough in my checking account, I slip it back into my pocket, glancing at my surroundings. A few more minutes go by and I see Isabella walk out of the bathroom and look around for me, causing me to stand in an instant, and walk over to grab her hand, softly pulling her towards the entrance. We get our tickets and make it through the line quickly. "So where shall we go first?" I ask Isabella, giving her the option to lead us throughout the large area, and once she pulls me to the left, I walk alongside her until we come up to the first area of animals, the monkeys. The monkeys are Isabella's favorites, and this is the first time that she has seen one in person and not on a digital screen. Her smile is as wide as I have ever seen it, and she has her hands wrapped so tightly around the bars of the gate that her knuckles are solid white. I laugh a little, and stand back so that she can enjoy the animals running around in their habitat. When my shoulder bumps into something, I turn to see what I hit, and then with a bit of embarrassment, realize that it's a who, and that she is looking in my direction as well. "I-I'm so sorry." I force out, unintentionally making eye contact with the woman. the corners of her mouth turn upwards and she slightly shakes her head as she lets out a soft laugh and responds, "It's quite alright, can't help it when you're in such a crowded place." I nod softly, giving her a small smile, as I direct my attention back towards Isabella. She's still standing by the bars, but now shes glancing back and forth between the monkeys, and another young girl that is standing beside her. They're laughing together and my heart gets warm as I realize that this is one of her friends from school. Once she notices that I am looking over at her, she rushes over to me with a big smile and her friend follows behind her. "Sky, can we hang out with Trinity too?" she asks softly, and I start to object due to not knowing who was watching this trinity, but before I could intervene Trinity turns to the woman beside me and gives a small pout, "Hailey, can we? please?" I glance back up at the womans face, watching a flash of hesitation come over her green eyes before she looks back over to me with a small smile, "if that's alright with you, then we would be happy to tag along." With a soft smile, I once again nod and within minutes, the four of us are headed towards another part of the zoo together.
We've been to each of the animal enclosures twice or more, and the girls are getting tired at this point. Hailey and I have made a bit of small talk, but nothing much considering as soon as we would start talking the girls would be ready to move on. I didn't mind though, the woman beside me was very beautiful and even though she seemed sweet, I was intimidated. She has long blond hair that's kind of wavy, and her green eyes are so bright. I never knew eyes could be so bright honestly. Right now we're all in the air conditioned area that has a glass between us and the gorillas, trying to escape the summer heat for a moment. Isabella and Trinity are sitting by the glass watching baby gorillas interact with their mother, and Hailey and I are sitting at a bench a little further back just watching the girls. "They seem like such good friends" I hear from beside me and turn to face her with a smile. "Yeah, they get along really well." I say quietly. Hailey looks at me for a moment, looking as if she'd like to say something but she doesn't say anything. "What's your favorite ice cream?" I ask and she raises an eyebrow in amusement since this is probably the most personal thing I've asked her in the three hours we've been walking around. "Um, definitely gotta say strawberry, how about you?" She smiles, pushing a strand of blond hair out of her face. I meet her eyes again, answering confidently,"that's so gross, vanilla is the only good flavor of ice cream". Her smile turns into a fake look of disgust, "that's really plain though, strawberry at least has flavor, and a good flavor too." I shrug my shoulders, and avert my eyes to the young girls, calling out their names. They rush over to see what I want, looking awfully tired. "You girls want some ice cream?" I ask them, their tired faces turning into faces full of excitement and we all stand and return to the heat.
Finally after 30 minutes we all have our ice cream and we're sitting by the playground. Well, let me rephrase that. Hailey and I are sitting by the playground, the two younger girls are running around the playground, having already finished their ice cream. I spoon out some ice cream and swallow it, turning to look at Hailey. Her eyes are on Trinity, but when we notices I'm looking she averts her gaze to me. "Have you enjoyed your zoo trip?" I ask with a small laugh, noticing how tired she looks. As I stand up, walking towards the closest garbage can she returns the laugh, "actually I have, I figured I'd be chasing after her the whole time. Thankfully not though." I watch her eyes trail over my face and then down and back up to my eyes, as soon as our eyes meet each other her cheeks go a little pink and she breaks eye contact. As I sit back down across from her I smirk a little, "so what you mean is," she looks up and gives me her attention, "you're glad Isabella and her attractive sister were here. Right?" I ask in a cocky way, and she seems to think for a moment before smiling, "I guess that's what I mean. Speaking of her "attractive" sister. You seem pretty cool. We should get together again sometime with them." With a glance over at the two girls, I can see that they've sat down and are just chatting. I turn back to Hailey and smile, "of course, they seem to get along great, and you're okay," I fake a pout before continuing "even if you think I'm plain." She reaches over and places her hand on mine, leaning forward a little before speaking, "I think your taste in ice cream is plain, but I think your beautiful face makes up for it." I look up meeting her eyes, she smiles before continuing, "now could I put my number in your phone, sadly Trinity and I have a few things to do once we leave here." I hand her my phone letting her put in her contact, and watch as she and Trinity walk away, leaving Isabella and i sitting at a picnic table. Isabella seems tired and I know I'm a little tired and hungry, so I take her by one of the restaurants inside the zoo before we leave to go home.
