Another Hairy Tail

by Campbell, Jamie

  ANOTHER HAIRY TAIL

  Also by the Author:

  A Hairy Tail

  Cinderella is Evil

  Saving Rapunzel

  Killing Snow White

  Ugly Sleeping Beauty

  Ashes to Ashes

  A World Without Angels

  Angel’s Uprising

  Gifted

  Ignite

  Unite

  Divide

  Conquer

  Dark Eyes: Cursed

  Liar

  Songbird

  The Star Kissed Series

  Through a Tangled Woods

  Trouble

  Another Hairy Tail

  JAMIE CAMPBELL

  Copyright © 2014 Jamie Campbell

  Smashwords Edition

  Jamie Campbell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

  CHAPTER 1

  Another summer. Another eight weeks of endless days stretched ahead. Except this time, Hannah was prepared.

  Even before her high school graduation, she knew exactly what she wanted to do for the summer before starting college. It was her last chance to goof around, the last summer before she went off to live in the real world.

  Thanks to her efforts over the last three years, the Mapleton Animal Shelter was running like a well oiled machine. With so many volunteers that they had to start a waiting list, Hannah wasn’t required there anymore. No, she was ready to move on to bigger things.

  Standing outside the Mapleton Regional Zoo, the archway promised of all kinds of adventures and animals that awaited her on the other side. It was the first day of her internship and she was equal parts nervous and excited.

  Taking a deep breath, Hannah crossed the threshold, there was no turning back now. She headed for the staff entrance and waited patiently for the intern coordinator to collect her. It was one minute to nine, she was right on time.

  Unfortunately, the coordinator wasn’t. While standing there, Hannah peered into the enclosure that lined the entrance. A gorilla was staring right back at her. She couldn’t be sure, but she could have sworn his eyes were narrowed at her.

  Suddenly, and without any warning, the gorilla charged. He crossed the enclosure and headed directly for her. Hannah jumped back, desperately searching for somewhere to run or hide. Could she outrun a two hundred pound gorilla? She seriously doubted it.

  The gorilla made it all the way to stand directly in front of her. With Hannah backed up against the enclosure on the other side, she had nowhere to go. Her heart raced with fear, her mind slowly shutting down with panic.

  And then she realized the gorilla was behind glass so thick it was practically impenetrable. He banged on the wall, grunting with the effort. Clearly he wasn’t a fan in the Hannah club.

  She took a few deep breaths, feeling just as stupid as she probably looked. If she wanted to be a veterinarian and survive the summer at the zoo, she was going to have to toughen up.

  As the gorilla made his retreat back to the center of his enclosure, Hannah laughed to herself. If anyone had witnessed her little freak out, she would have died of embarrassment.

  In another moment of panic, she quickly surveyed the pathway for security cameras. She couldn’t see any, that was a small relief. She tried to calm down and wait patiently, hoping she wouldn’t make herself look any more foolish.

  “You must be Hannah Wilson.” The male voice came from behind, scaring the living daylights out of her once again as she spun around.

  She opened her mouth but was momentarily struck dumb. The guy wasn’t just a guy, he was a mouth-dropping gorgeous male specimen. With his tousled black hair and deep green eyes, he could have been a model.

  She tried to gather her thoughts again. “Um, yeah, I’m Hannah. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Great. I’m Logan and I’ll be looking after you during your internship. Have you had your shots?” He asked, expectantly awaiting an answer.

  Shots? She was supposed to have shots? “Um, no. I didn’t know I had to get any. Why would I need shots?”

  “Because you will most likely get bitten by something. I mean, it could be anything – snakes, monkeys, spiders, meerkats, even the koalas will give you a swipe if they wake up on the wrong side of the tree.”

  A true, real panic was starting to set in. What on earth had she signed up for? “I, uh, can get them?”

  A wide smile beamed from Logan, enhancing his already beautiful face. “Nah, I’m just kidding. A bit of zoo humor. You’ll be fine… probably. A bite would probably kill you instantly anyway. Come on through, welcome to the Mapleton Regional Zoo.”

  CHAPTER 2

  After a quick tour of the zoo’s back area where she would be spending most of her time, Logan was ready to assign Hannah her first task.

  He handed her a giant shovel, one that could only mean one thing. “Go into the elephants’ enclosure and scoop up their poop. Be careful not to get too close to them, no matter how nicely they speak to you.”

  She took the shovel, it weighed almost as much as she did. In the two hours since she had arrived, she couldn’t work out whether Logan was joking or serious about anything he said. She also suspected he might be a little nuts. Still, his jet black hair and sparkling eyes were mesmerizing, no matter how much she tried not to notice.

  Logan nodded toward a heavy bolted door with a picture of an elephant stuck on it. He opened it for her, holding it wide and leaving her no choice except to go through it – alone.

  “You signed the wavers and legal papers, right?” He asked, almost as an afterthought. Hannah nodded. “Great. Good luck.”

  The door thudded closed behind her ominously. She wondered whether there was any other way of escaping from the enclosure.

  The elephants’ area was a vast expanse of wide open plains. Three of the gigantic animals wandered around, swaying their trunks as they went. They didn’t look scary, but she knew one little push could kill her. So that was what all those legal papers for were. She hoped her mother wouldn’t be getting a phone call later on as her emergency contact.

  Hauling the shovel along, Hannah headed for the first piece of poop she spotted. It happened to be by the fence, as far away from the elephants as possible. She got to work, managing to maneuver the shovel as best she could.

  It took six trips to the compost to remove one patch of poop. Already, she knew it was going to be a long day. Still, her enthusiasm couldn’t be quelled. There she was, in a real zoo, with real animals, learning about the creatures and how to care for them. It was a dream come true.

  As she scooped up another shovel full, Hannah stopped as she heard voices that were very un-animalistic. It was a guy talking somewhere, she just couldn’t see where. She stopped as she strained to hear.

  “If you don’t eat your food, I’m going to assume it’s my cooking. I know I’m not exactly a chef, but I thought I was pretty good at cutting up fruit.”

  Hannah smiled to herself. At least there appeared to be someone a little crazier than Logan in the zoo. She wondered what animal the guy was talking to.

  “Come on, please eat? I don’t really have anything to bribe you with, but I thought you could do this for me, you know, as a friend? We’re buddies, right?”

  An animal screeched, ma
king Hannah jump. She looked around quickly, the elephants were nowhere near her. She tried to calm her nerves, she was going to have to get used to the wild animals and their noises.

  “Okay, I’m going to level with you. Fruit might not be that exciting when you eat it for every meal. But I’ll speak with Logan and see if there is something better I could make for you tomorrow. How does that sound? Huh?”

  Hannah had to see who was trying to negotiate with an animal. And she just had to see if it was working. She headed toward the voice, it sounded like it was coming from the fence to her left.

  In front of the fence were a series of trees and brush. She had to fight her way through them all and stand on one of the low branches in order to get a look through the fence. What she saw there made her gasp.

  The animal was a small monkey, sitting forlornly on a tree branch. It was eating a piece of apple, so the guy had been somewhat successful in his negotiations. But that wasn’t the surprising part.

  The guy doing all the talking, the one that had made Hannah’s smile a mile wide, was none other than Harry Shephard. She blinked a few times just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.

  Hannah hadn’t seen Harry for almost three years. That summer all those years ago had been magical, a time she often thought about and blushed all over again when reliving the memories.

  But it hadn’t lasted. When school started back, they had tried to keep up their relationship. They managed it for another seven weeks before it fizzled out. With school schedules packed and the Mapleton Animal Shelter not needing them so much, they drifted apart.

  Puppy love hadn’t been enough to keep them together and they hadn’t spoken again since. Living in different parts of Mapleton, their paths rarely crossed. Hannah doubted whether she would ever see him again.

  But there he was, right in front of her eyes, talking to a monkey. And he looked good. He was taller than she remembered, and rounded out. He wasn’t the skinny kid he was before, but a solid man. His muscles bulged under the standard zoo polo shirt, his brown hair shone under the sun. He had only improved with age.

  Without warning, the branch Hannah was perched on snapped and her foot slid. She let out a yelp as she fell against the fence. She was sandwiched between the chain link and the tree. And to make it worse, Harry was now staring right at her.

  CHAPTER 3

  “Hey, are you okay?” Harry asked with concern. He hurried over to the fence, the monkey watching every move.

  “Fine, just a little squished,” Hannah replied. She pushed herself back off the fence, trying to make room in the tree branches for herself. She managed to hop over it backwards so she could breathe again.

  “Hannah?” Harry stared at her intently as recognition crossed his face. “Is that you?”

  Instantly, she felt like that same fifteen year old again. Her face blushed with embarrassment. A thousand times she had played out the scenario in her head, the moment when she would be reunited with Harry. It had never involved being a pancake against a fence with a monkey watching – and judging.

  “Harry, right?” Hannah tried to play it cool, like she wasn’t just checking him out while he was unaware.

  He took a step closer to the fence. “I can’t believe it’s you, what are you doing here?”

  “Interning for the summer. I take it you’re doing the same?”

  He nodded happily. “Yeah, all summer. I’m starting college in the fall.”

  “Me too. I’m going to be a vet, just like I said I would.”

  “I never doubted it.”

  They stared at each other as the minutes ticked by, neither willing to move but neither having the words they wanted to voice either. Overall, it was a bit… awkward.

  Finally, Hannah couldn’t take it any longer. “Well, I’d better get back to it. The poop isn’t going to shovel itself.”

  “No, but it would be nice if it did, right?”

  She smiled, that same smile Harry always managed to put on her face. “It was nice seeing you again. I guess I’ll see you around.”

  “Yeah. I mean, we’ve got all summer here. I’m sure we’ll run into each other sometime,” he replied, at risk of rambling.

  With as much grace as she could muster, Hannah extracted herself from the tree branches and returned to her own animal enclosure. At least all the shoveling gave her some thinking time.

  Unfortunately, all she could think of was Harry. She relived that summer over and over again in her mind. The first date at the beach when they got drenched, the first kiss that freaked her out but was so nice, the circus performance that had almost given her a heart attack.

  She wondered who he would be giving grand romantic gestures to now. A tiny part of her, one she would never acknowledge out loud, wondered if Jessie was on the receiving end of Harry’s romance. She was perfect for him, after all.

  The thoughts were depressing, she tried to push them away. It was ridiculous to be thinking about Harry. They were older now, grownups. The last thing she needed was to revert back to her fifteen year old self and repeat all the mistakes she should have learned from.

  She stole a glance back at the monkey enclosure. Instantly, she regretted it. Harry had chosen that same moment to cast a glance her way, catching her watching him. Her face flushed with embarrassment again.

  “Good one, Hannah,” she muttered to herself before moving as far away from the fence as she could. There was no way she was going to be caught staring again.

  She managed to stay resilient for the rest of the day as Logan gave her job after job. As it turned out, scooping poop was the highlight of the day. Her other tasks of cleaning out the snake cages, refilling the insect food, and thoroughly cleaning the offices were each as icky as they were boring.

  “Hey, you going to the intern party tonight?” Logan asked as she was collecting her things.

  “What party?”

  “The party to welcome all the interns. You’re one of them so I assume someone should have invited you.”

  “They didn’t,” Hannah replied. She had probably been too busy for anyone to speak to her about anything. Let alone something so trivial like a party.

  Logan seemed a little surprised. “Oh, well, they should have. It’s in the zoo food court at seven o’clock. Be there or be square.”

  He left her alone. She didn’t waste any time in scurrying out of there. Not when she had to get home and change. Apparently she had a party to attend.

  Her mother wasn’t home when she arrived. That was a relief. She didn’t need an interrogation about her first day at the zoo. Billy followed her around until she took the time to bend down and pet the dog. He wagged his tail happily at the attention.

  She quickly changed and grabbed a snack to eat before heading back out again, much to Billy’s disappointment. He watched her leave through the window, giving her his best sad puppy expression.

  It was weird seeing the zoo at night after all the guests had gone home and the place was closed. Hannah imagined all the animals talking to each other like in some movie she had seen. They could have had a completely secret life and nobody would ever know about it.

  She shook her head, it was a stupid thought. Animals were animals. They didn’t talk and they certainly didn’t dance together. She believed in science, what was tangible, not silly things.

  The food court had been decorated with lights strung from every pole and the main overhead lamps had been turned off. Combined with the music, it had a distinctive fiesta feel to it.

  Hannah wasn’t exactly a party girl. Mainly because she was too busy studying or being sensible to care. But as she got older, especially over the last few years, she was beginning to enjoy festivities more. Her best friend had dragged her to enough to get the feel for them by now anyway.

  “Hey, you made it,” Logan greeted her. “Punch?” He held out a glass of orange liquid.

  Hannah took it, hoping it wasn’t as spiked as the last punch she had tried. “Thanks. It looks really coo
l in here tonight.”

  “Oh, totally. The birds helped to string the lights so it was a cinch to put together. We just attached one end around their waist, told them to fly, and then caught them on the other side. Easy.” He said it so seriously that Hannah couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not.

  “Okay,” was all she managed to reply. What did you say to that? Be outraged about using animals to decorate a party? Or laugh because it was so obviously a joke? She had no idea. She rarely did around Logan Barry.

  They stood side by side as they watched the party. People had started dancing to the music, enjoying themselves after a long day.

  “Have you lived in Mapleton forever?” Logan asked.

  “I’ve lived here my whole life, yes. What about you?”

  “Moved here about three years ago to join the zoo. There weren’t many wild animals in the city. Unless you count the people.” He smiled, and for the first time, Hannah noticed how nice his grin was. It was a little cheeky, perfectly aligned, and it gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling. The thought came completely out of nowhere.

  She giggled nervously because she didn’t know what to say. She desperately wished she could be one of those girls that always said and did the right thing. It would have made her life so much easier.

  “So you wanna be a vet?” Logan continued in the silence. At least that was a safe topic, something she could actually form a sentence on.

  “Yes, I start college after the summer.”

  “Let me guess, it’s because you love animals.”

  Hannah shook her head a little. “Actually, it’s because I want to be able to help animals. I’ve seen enough of them to know someone has to protect them. It was either be an animal rights advocate or veterinarian. And I didn’t want to be stuck in an office all day so I chose the latter.”

  Logan looked her up and down in a way that made her feel like she was wearing far more revealing clothes than she actually was. “I knew there was something different about you.”