The Troubles of Growing Up

Chapter 8

"I'm going to go sit outside." she told me.
"Alright." I replied. She left the room. Paige burst out of the bathroom. Her hair was wet and she seemed in a hurry. I looked at the clock. 28 minutes had gone by.
"Oh yeah you are right. Mom you get in the shower I will go grab Hayl, and then we will clean up. Make it fast." I left the room. I went down to the main entrance. Hayl wasn't there. I ran to the car. Then I saw her. She was sitting with her arms around her legs and her knees to her chest, crying. I sat down next to her and put my arms around her. She pushed me then looked into my eyes and realised that it was me. She grabbed me and pulled me back to her. Her tears were soaking my shirt. We sat there for ten minutes before Paige ran out to us. She put her hand on Hayl's back.
"What's going on?" she asked me.
"I don't know exactly it's probably personal issues." I kissed Hayl's head. Paige smiled at me. I gave her a look.
"Hey Haylee, we are going to an aquarium in about twenty minutes, do you need to shower?"
"No." Hayl said without lifting her head. I had showered the night before so I was good.
"Why don't you go back into the hotel and help mom get everything ready?" I told Paige. She pointed at Hayl and then at me and said "you good?"
"Yeah just bring me another shirt please." I responded. She left and I sat with Hayl until she stopped crying. We talked about other things for the rest of the time we were waiting for my mom and Paige.
"Do you know where we're going?" I asked her.
"An aquarium." she responded.
"Not just any aquarium." I smiled.
"What aquarium?" she asked with a shy tone.
"What city are we in?" I asked with a hopeful tone.
"Clearwater. Why?"
"You know what that means right? We're going to CMA." I told her in excitement. She looked confused.
"We're going to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium." she still looked confused.
"We're going to see Winter." I smiled at her. She looked at the ground for a second. Suddenly she looked at me with the most excited face I have ever seen. She grabbed me and screamed into my shoulder. She got up and ran inside. She came out moments later pulling Paige by the arm. My mom followed. We all got into the car and we drove out of the parking lot. We drove from our hotel to the aquarium. It was amazing.
"oh my god it's beautiful." Hayl said. She looked at it in astonishment.
"Yeah." I said. As we rounded the building Hayl kept getting more and more excited. We came to the front door. Hayl opened her door and got out just as the car stopped. The rest of us got out just as she hit the door. She was inside before we were 10 feet from the car. She came back out moments later.
"Sorry. I got a little bit too excited." she said with a chuckle. We all entered the building. A volunteer approached us.
"HI welcome to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium! Would you like to donate to help with the animals?" She seemed so happy but I knew she was faking it. Paige pulled a ten out of her pocket and handed it to the girl.
"Thank you. Are you here to see Winter?" she asked.
"Yes!" Hayl said. Paige pulled the volunteer aside.
"Is there any way that we can get these two up close to them?" she whispered.
"I'm not sure, but I can ask, i've only been here for three days." she said with a hopeful smile. She directed us up to the main pool. We walked around to the side of it. Paige came up to me.
"Having fun?" she asked.
"You bet." I responded, looking at her with a smile. "It just occurred to me that during this entire trip you have actually been nicer to me." I told her.
"I know." she responded. "Because your only friend died."
"He did?" I asked. I hadn't heard anything from the Mclarens recently so I didn't know if she was serious.
"Well considering how he was three days ago I would assume he died by now. I'll text Steph." she pulled out her phone and texted her.

"That was very blunt and insensitive you know.." I scolded her. "He is alive but they are assuming not for long." she said after about a minute."Why have you always been so mean?" I asked her."Because you're a spoiled little brat." she replied. That set me off."Well maybe if my sister wasn't such a bitch then I might be happier." that set her way too far off the edge. She grabbed me and slapped me before pushing me towards the railing. She pointed her finger at me just as I hit it. The momentum of my body was too high and I began to lose balance as I started to fall backwards. Over the railing. I splashed down into the main pool and felt a sharp pain against the back of my head. Then everything went black.