Hot 'n' Cold

13

Jack handed me a green shirt, with the sanctuary logo on the back and on the left breast.

"Boys, turn around." Adam and Jack rolled their eyes, as we turned away from each other. I pulled off my t-shirt and replaced it with the green one. Adam was looking at me as I turned around. He sent me a flirty wink and hopped into the driver's side. I sat in the middle, sandwiched between the boys.

We parked the truck in front of the first school. Adam went inside to sign us in, while Jack and I pulled out two boxes and strapped them to the hand truck, as we were handed out visitors pass. The kids at recess looked at us, some with confusion, others with excitement. We walked into the office and waited.

"The Principal will be out in a moment to escort you to Mrs. Smith's class."

"Good afternoon, I'm principal Morris." We shock hands and followed her into a classroom where the teacher was putting books away.

"Mrs. Smith, Its time to set up a home for your new friend!"

"Oh good, nice to meet you." We took the lighter box and placed it on the ground. I watched as the boys worked quickly to set up the terrarium, Adam placed decorations and dishes into the damp shavings, while Jack got the light working.

"Cleo, inside the box is a folder of things for the kids. Can you put one on each desk, and one on Mrs. Smith? And a fancy pen for everyone." I nodded and distributed everything out. When I was done I looked inside a folder, it was filled with crafts fact booklets on reptiles and coupons for pet supplies.

"I'm leaving to get the kids from lunch." We cleaned up all of our garbage, while Jack went to get their geckos.

"This is the best part, watch." All the kids filled the room and sat in front of Adam and me.

"Do you remember your trip to the sanctuary?" All the kids screamed.

"Well my team and I came here, to set up your very own gecko tank!" At that very moment Jack walked in with two geckos on his shirt. He handed them to us, so we could get them inside their new home.

Adam engaged the kids with pictures, and facts while Jack explained how to care for, and feed them. We said our goodbyes, after a class picture.

"Ready to do that a million more times???" I groaned, the three of us were in and out of each school, and by 4pm, I was exhausted. Adam parked the truck in our garage, we walked into our office.

"You don't need to wear the shirt all the time, only when we do deliveries or school things. We each keep spare shirts in our desks and wash them here." I laid my head down at my desk and closed my eyes, as I started to doze off my phone rang obnoxiously loud.

"Is that the other girl from the beach?"

"Montana, yeah." He shot up and grinned, "answer it and put it on speaker!"

"I really don't think that's a good idea." He answered my phone.

"HElllooooo....?" He shrieked in a girly voice. Montana instantly hung up. The two of us laughed and got to know each other.

The two of us walked around feeding some of the reptiles, I made it my mission to name each one.

"Spike, softy, spot, noodle, dusty, Dustin..."

"Are you naming them?"

"Of course, everyone deserves a name." Adam started blankly at me.

"If you say so..." I smiled and walked around the room, I looked inside each of the enclosures. Inside a large terrarium was a big broken egg and running out and about was a strange lizard. One that I didn't recognize right away.

"Adam, you need to see this!" I called out, my eyes were trained on the little guy. He was maybe a foot long, out of the egg.

"He shouldn't be in here."

"I'm keeping him, he's my baby."

"Cleo, since I worry for your safety, this is a rock iguana. They can get aggressive..."

"I don't care, I love him."

"Fine let's set up the pen for him," We put the iguana in a small tub and collected the supplies for his pen.

We walked into our office and placed the bedding down. We had dishes, and the heat lamps set up. I placed rocky inside and watched as he ran around happily.

We tossed in a salad for him to eat and got ready to got home.

"Wait Cleo, do you want to go roller skating with me sometime?" He grabbed my hand, and the butterflies attacked my stomach.