Meadow Valley book series- Everything's changed

Chapter 69: The Carnival

     After the parade, the group of them went walking over by the entrance of the mini-carnival where they were supposed to meet up with Zach and Robbie again. Ana saw Zach walking over towards her with a couple of his football friends and her cousin Robbie. Zach walked up to Ana and asked how she was doing as he grabbed her hand. Ana was a little shy to hold his hand in front of people so she quickly pulled it away from him. Zach noticed that she was acting a little shy and different around his group of friends so he didn't try to force her to do anything she wasn't comfortable with.

     Ana had slipped her arm in between her brother's arm and walked closely by him as if he was her security blanket. Zach just walked on the other side of Ana and tried to make her feel comfortable and joked around. David knew that his sister Ana was acting shy so he just went along with her and held her by the arm.

     Zach asked Ana if she would ride the Ferris wheel alone with him and she was hesitant until her brother David pushed her and told her to go with Zach. As they sat down in the seat Zach scooted as close as he could to Ana and wrapped his arm around her when they went upward. Ana apologized to Zach for feeling so shy and tried to explain that she wasn't good in large crowds of people.

     Zach understood and tried to be patient with Ana because he knew that she's never dated before. It was difficult for Zach because he wanted to show Ana off to his friends and have her meet and hang out with all of them. She wasn't comfortable with that yet. He could also tell that she wasn't comfortable with public displays of affection either but he wanted to be as close as he could to her.

     Zach flirted with Ana and showed her the town as they went around and around on the Ferris wheel. Ana just giggled at all of his jokes and felt so comfortable when they were alone. When they got off of the Ferris Wheel David had took Zach to the side without anyone noticing.

"Look man. You're going to have to take things really slow with my sister. She's not like other girls. She's innocent and pure if you know what I mean. Don't take advantage of that either." He wanted to make sure that Zach understood him.

"Stop trying to show boat my sister off with all your little friends. You're making her feel uncomfortable. She's shy around large groups of people."

"I know. I promise I'll protect her."

     Even though Zach knew Ana was shy, it was difficult for him because his friends expected him to be a certain way with girls. Ana was making him look too soft. David could tell Zach was trying to impress his friends. He understood how guys act and think. He tried to remind Zach that if he wanted to be with Ana then he needed to treat her differently.

     Zach got the point, David was starting to become very protective of his little sister. Zach was starting to think that dating Ana was going to be a little more difficult than he originally thought. Zach shook David's hand and promised to show respect to his sister and take it easy with her.

     For the next few hours, Zach was acting a little more distant with Ana and didn't try to hold her hand or anything. He joked around with his friends and would occasionally look over and wink at Ana. Zach was a little nervous to be around Ana, especially after talking with her brother David.

     Ana had looked at Zach and told him that she wanted to go inside the fun house with him so she grabbed his hand as he followed after her. While they were inside the fun house Ana was being flirtatious and begging for Zach to chase her and find her in the maze of mirrors. Zach caught Ana and tickled her as he grabbed her waist. She screamed and tried to get away but he pulled her closer towards him. Then she tripped over his foot and fell to the ground. Zach had stumbled on top of her back as she fell down and they both laughed really hard. Zach got up off of her and then reached down his hand to help Ana up. They walked through the rest of the maze very close to one another holding hands until they came out the other side.

     Amanda saw them coming out of the maze laughing and flirting with each other and she whispered something about Ana and Zach to the posse of girls around her. Ana didn't even notice her because she was so focused on looking at Zach as he led her over to a booth to win her a stuffed animal.

     As they walked over to the booth, Ana and Zach kept bumping into each other and touching their fingers and then he would stomp on her feet and she would push or slap him. Amanda was disgusted with great envy because Zach never acted like that with her before.