Falling For Hadley

Chapter 3

HADLEY'S POV

"Okay, I'll just be in the back room while you guys get rid of these snotty investors," I say pointing back towards where the fish are held. Doctor Harriot waves me away and I run away before anyone changes their mind. Thank God. I did not want to meet the man that would be shutting us down at the end of the summer. I dash through the doorway and into the back room. My vision is immediately filled with all the colorful fish that we held.

We had mandarin fish, clown fish, a few jellyfish, and lots more. I check the logs to find that the jellyfish hadn't been fed yet. I walk over to the counter and grab the container full of pellet food and walk back over to the jellyfish tank. I slide open the lid and watch as they slowly float and sting each other. I sprinkle in a few fingerfuls of pellets and then close the lid. I mark the jellyfish as fed and then put the pellet container back where I found it. I sneak over to a broken cabinet in the very corner of the room and pull off the broken lid. I reach in to find my camera bag and slowly pull it out.

I hid this in the back room so no one would figure out that I did photography in my free time, and so it wouldn't get wet or damaged. This was the only camera I had and it was pretty expensive to get one replaced or even a part fixed. I open up the bag and produce my camera from it. I slip the strap around my neck and turn it on. Walking in circles around all the tanks, I finally come up with a few ideas for pictures. I take different angles of different fish and promise myself that I would upload these to a computer and mess with the lighting and clarity. As I'm snapping my final shot, I hear a clatter and then someone curses outside. I quickly hide my camera and then sneak over to the doorway.

"Hi there," a young man's face peeks around the corner of the doorway and I jump. Wide blue eyes meet mine, and he smirks.

"Who are you and why are you back here?" I ask him defensively.

"I'm back here because we were visiting and as we passed by, I heard the click of a camera. So I decided to investigate," he leans against the door frame and then nonchalantly picks up the empty container he knocked off the table next to him.

"You're not allowed to be back here," I state coldly.

"Well, I can't find my way in this inferior place," he looks at his fingernails and then at all the brightly colored fish. Anger boils in my veins to how ignorant he was.

"This place is not inferior. It's valuable," I hiss at him, he just smirks in return.

"It is. It needs a paint coat updating and maybe some new decor. The animals are----nice," he states, spotting the jellyfish in the center of the room.

"Do you realize that this place saves more wildlife than you ever could?" I glare at him and I realize that he was wearing a fancy gold watch and nice clothes. So he was a rich boy, huh?

"That doesn't matter. What matters is how much money it makes," he points at me, probably agreeing with himself inside his head. I roll my eyes in annoyance.

"You're wrong," I almost growl at him.

"No, I'm not," he doesn't budge.

"Yes, you are," I don't budge either.

"Okay, I know a way we can settle this. You take me on a tour of this place while doing so, you point out all the things that make me wrong. And I point out all the things that make me right. Whoever points out the most, wins. Sound like a deal, fish girl?" he gives me a nickname that was unwatned and I feel like punching him.

"Don't ever call me fish girl again. And yes it is. But you're going down," I jab my finger into his chest to get my point across and he laughs.

"You are terrible at being threatening," he grins at me and I felt butterflies stir in my stomach. Stop that, I order my stomach as I step out of the back room and close the door behind me. We begin to walk around the Center, each of us pointing out things that make us right.

"You see, we get around fifty dollars in donations every day," I say pointing to the overflowing tip jars that were all over the building.

"How often do you check these jars?" he asks me his first question and I scoff.

"Everyday of course. Why else would I say fifty dollars in donation a day? I guess you're all looks and no brains," I reply and the boy looks at me with one eyebrow raised and his all to common smirk.

"So you're saying I'm handsome," he infers and I make a gagging noise in response.

"In your dreams, ego boy," I give him a nickname too and he scowls.

"I don't like that nickname," he states the obvious, his dislike towards the nickname was plastered all over his face.

"Why wouldn't you? It captures you perfectly," I say smiling.

"You have only known me for five minutes. You have no way of saying if I have an ego or not," he tries to argue but it wasn't going anywhere for him.

"Nice try ego boy. I could tell you have an ego from the first sentence that came out of your arrogant little mouth," I say snidely.

"Whatever. Let's get back to the game. What's your name, anyways?" he suddenly asks me and I answer.

"Hadley," I reply calmly. He raises his eyebrows in surprise and then grins.

"Like Hadley's Turtle? The drawing?" he asks me and I nod.

"No big deal. Now what's your name?" I fire back.

"Dylan," he answers with ease and I couldn't find anyway to make fun on that.

"Got nothing huh hadles?" he gives me another nickname and this time I growl out loud. He just laughs at my irritation towards his ridiculous nicknames.