Skinny

One Excursion After Another

Chapter Twenty-Five:

After everyone was introduced we had to part ways, but we planned on hanging out together in our spare time.

We spent the first week with our family mostly doing the usually touristy things. We went swimming with dolphins and got pictures taken with them. Never having had a pet myself, I was pretty timid about swimming with them, but after the twins had coaxed me into it, I got to ride with them and it was so fun.

We also visited a sea turtle farm and got to hold baby sea turtles. It was a unique experience as I held that little flapping yearling and rubbed under his chin to calm him down. Ashton seemed to have the most trouble with his because he kept on flapping as Ash tried to find the spot under his chin to rub. I think he got smack with a flipper too!

Then one of the employees pulled out a 150 pound sea turtle and rubbed under his chin like one would do to a big dog. He told us that they can get up to 600 pounds outside of captivity. The turtle there was pretty big and it was only like one fourth of the size it could be. Then we went snorkling in the water that circled the farm. We got to swim with many colorful fish and got lots of underwater pictures. We bought some sea turtle souvenirs and I saw the cutest one that I knew that Mason would love.

We went snuba diving. We didn't know what it was at first, but apparently it is a combination of scuba diving and snorkling. You're hooked to a floating tank of air, so basically, it's scuba diving without all of the gear. We took an underwater tour after our snuba lesson and the instructor took an underwater picture of us all with my camera.

We also went to a place that had been dubbed Hell. It was a place that was covered in spiky black lava looking rocks. There were lots of iguanas living there and it was a very barren, interesting place. I got a couple of key chains and mugs for the boys back home.

We went shopping for souvenirs to take home and I got a bunch of cute trinkets for the boys back home. I bought some of the rum cake that they sell there, it's called Tortuga Carribean Rum Cake. I bought some shot glasses and more mugs and several bottles filled with sand and tiny sea shells. I thought of grandma when I saw a large sea shell and decided to buy that for her. I knew she would enjoy hearing about our trip, even though she couldn't come with us. She loved to hear my stories, since I was her only living granddaughter.

After we hung out with our families, we were free to do our own thing. The girls had taken to the twins and the guys had kept my mind off the troubles of home. My mind would wander and I would think about everything that happened back home because I wanted to tell Mia about everything, but she wasn't there anymore. Or I would see something that I thought she would like, but then sigh in sadness. Like when we were hanging together, as we walked through a shop.

"Hey, Rave? You okay?" Henry asked. I had finally told them to call me Raven.

"Thinking about Mia," Zane asked knowingly.

One night, I had told them all what had happened. It was the one night when the twins were stuck with their parents for the full day, they wanted the boys to tell them how things were going with school and at my house. The story had just came out, the WHOLE story starting with Mick and everything with Mia and Caleb. Now they all knew what I had done and gone through and they all understood. I had made four wonderful friends in a week, but I was still hurting for the loss of my one best friend.

"It'll be okay. We're here for you, all of us." Henry was always so comforting and optimistic. I liked that about him.

"Yeah, I know, I'm just not looking forward to going back." I sighed.

"Well, at least you get to go back home. We have to go back and stay with one of our cousins. This vacation is our parents way of apologized for sending us away. They're off on some adventure or something without us."