Zoo

The Invitation

Lily walked towards her lion poster. "And this, this here is the male African lion." She extended her pointer and tapped on the lion. The children sitting in front of her gasped in awe of the king of the jungle. "He has a mane to protect him and also a signal, like a peacock's tail." Lily pointed the stick and traced the lion's mane. Then she walked across the room to her female African lion poster. "And this is the female African lion, the girl. She has no mane, because that is something only grown male lions have."

The teacher, Mrs. Wicker, stopped looking at Lily and turned to the class in her office chair behind her desk. "Okay, class, any questions?" Mrs. Wicker then looked back at her computer monitor, where Lily saw that she was secretly on a dating website.

Five or so kids raised their hand in the air, most raising there right. Lily pointed to a kid with thin glasses and a white shirt with black jeans. "Um, I have a question. Why do lions only live in Africa? Why don't they live... here?"

Lily almost laughed in her head at the question. "Well, a long time ago, some types of lions that are now extinct used to live in places like North America."

Then, Lily pointed to a girl with black pigtails and tan skin. "If I ever met a lion, what would do?" she asked. Other kids nodded and started muttering to each other, though no one was listening to another.

"Freeze, don't move an inch. Also, when a lion is threatened, angry, it will move its tail from side to side. If the lion is hunting, its tail will be stiff but twitch sometimes. If it is hunting you, put your arms above your head and shout loudly. Freeze if it is moving at you, as I said before. Do all of those things to survive a lion attack, or if you encounter a lion."

All of the kids looked confused. Then Mrs. Wicker helped me by explaining things. "If the tail moves back and forth, it is mad. If it is hunting, it'll be stiff but sometimes move. If it is hunting you, put up your hands and shout loudly. Remember to freeze." Then, she coughed and went back to her dating website.

Suddenly, the lunch bell rang. Mrs. Wicker stood up and told the kids to line up and grab their lunch boxes. Lily walked up to her and shook her hand. "Thanks, Terri. I'm glad I could come."

As Lily left the classroom, the kids all said their thanks. Lily walked outside back to her car, a roofless Modern. She drove away back to her apartment. When she walked up to the door, Lily found that it was unlocked. She knew who it was-her boyfriend, Bryan, who had a key to her apartment. When she opened the door partly, she saw Bryan sitting in her pretty yellow chair. When she opened the door even more, she yelped and jumped backwards.

An aging man with brown hair and a brown mustache was sitting in her pretty sky blue chair. Lily stormed in the apartment, angry. "Bryan, how could you let a strange man in here?!" Then she turned to the other man. "And listen, Mr. Teddy Roosevelt, what are you even doing?! Bryan, I told you not to let anyone I didn't know into my apartment!"

The odd man stood and chuckled, walking over to me. "Bryan let me in because I wanted to speak with both of you." He then offered me to the chair he had been sitting in, and I gladly took it. He stood in front of both of us. "I'm opening a new zoo and I'd like you to come see it, make sure everything is right."

Bryan looked confused. "What kind of a zoo is this?"

The man introduced himself. "Call me Ted. I will be managing the new zoo I have made, Wild World. I want you, Lily, to come because you are a Zoologist and Bryan because he's a businessman, and I think you'd want him to go on the trip with you."

Lily had her mouth hanging open. "Where is this place?" she asked.

Ted smiled and smoothed his caramel khaki shorts. "We built the place in New York City, around the Central Park area."

Bryan laughed and turned to Lily. "When do weleave?" p = $.f.getPos(el); if (p.left && p.top) { marginTop = $.f.getMargin(el, 'top');