It had been almost an hour since the movie, if she left now, that wouldn’t be rude, right? Hannah thought that was a sufficient amount of time. “I have to go, guys,” she said as she stood. “I’ve got a shift at the shelter.”
Veronica tore her eyes away from Lucas. “Do they need you anymore? All the animals have been adopted.”
“New animals keep coming in, I have to go.”
“Okay, have fun.” They waved her away and she hurried through the bodies in the mall. It seemed like the entire town was there.
Hannah found her bicycle and unlocked the chain. Jumping on, she headed for home. She didn’t have a shift at the shelter, she had barely been there at all in the last week. There was a certain someone she was avoiding and she hadn’t seen him since they broke up.
It wasn’t like she had abandoned her duties altogether though. After the fundraising concert a week ago, all the animals had been adopted out. The only creatures they now had to look after were any new ones that came in. Hannah had checked in with the manager, Cory, several times to make sure she wasn’t needed.
Breaking up with Harry had been the hardest thing Hannah had ever had to do. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she didn’t like the way she couldn’t rely on him to have her back either. Everything she had learned about relationships said that couples were supposed to be a united front, not two separate units.
As a result of the breakup, Hannah had been at a loss with what to do with the rest of the summer. Her mother, Coco, didn’t let her mope around the house so that only left hanging out with Veronica. Unfortunately, she was still stuck to Lucas like a rash. At least her summer romance was still simmering away.
A text message sounded in Hannah’s pocket. She pulled her bicycle over to a stop to check her phone. The message was from Cory, asking her to drop by the shelter.
With a groan, Hannah texted back that she was on her way. At least she wasn’t lying to Veronica now. With great trepidation, she cycled toward the shelter. She just prayed Harry and Jessie weren’t on the roster to work today.
She didn’t get her wish. Two other bikes were chained to the front gate when she arrived. She added her bicycle to the stack and went inside.
The Mapleton Animal Shelter was much quieter than it usually was. Instead of the constant yapping of dogs and meowing of cats, the only noises filling the air were decidedly human.
Hannah went directly to Cory’s office. “You asked to see me?”
“Oh, you made it, that was quick,” Cory said happily. “I wanted to check in with you and make sure you’re okay. You haven’t been around much lately. We’re starting to get busy again so I need to know if you’re still going to be volunteering here.”
“I’m fine. I’m definitely still volunteering. I love the animals here.”
“Good.” Like she always did, Cory avoided getting involved in her volunteer’s teenage problems and changed the subject. “Would you have some time now to help us out?”
“Of course.” If she was being completely honest, Hannah would have to admit she was about to die of boredom if she had to go home. Doing some manual labor at the shelter was welcome, even if all the cute little kittens had been adopted.
She left Cory and ventured into the animals’ room. Most of the cages were completely empty, it made a nice change from the crowded conditions they normally had there.
Seeing Harry half-in a cage made Hannah stop in her tracks. What was she supposed to say to him? How was she supposed to act? She had never had an ex-boyfriend before. It was impossible to know what she should do in the situation.
He pulled himself out too quickly, seeing her standing there frozen before she could move. “Oh, hey Hannah. You back?”
“Yeah, the animals are returning,” she said awkwardly. Harry looked just as cute as he always did, it was difficult not racing over to him for a hug. “Cory said she needs another set of hands. That’s why I wasn’t here last week, she didn’t need me.”
“I thought it might be because of something else.”
The break up sat in the middle of the room like a white elephant. Hannah wondered how long they would have to dance around it before it was directly mentioned. She certainly wasn’t going to be the first one to do it anyway. “No, just wasn’t needed.”
Jessie appeared at the doorway. One look at Hannah and she retreated back outside again, not wanting to interrupt. She went completely unnoticed by the pair.
Hannah’s eyes searched around the room, trying to focus anywhere except on Harry. He just stared at her expectantly, like she was supposed to say something. Her eyes fell on a cage unlike any of the others. She had never even seen it before.
“What’s in that cage?” She asked, pointing. A whole new sense of dread filled her.
Chapter 2
“An iguana,” Harry replied casually, like it wasn’t weird to have an exotic lizard in the shelter.
“What’s it doing here?”
“Someone found it on the road with an injured foot. They dropped it off here and the vet tended to it.”
Hannah slowly approached the cage like the lizard might jump out and attack her at any moment. She expected it to, with its beady eyes and flickering tongue.
She made it to the cage, a piece of plastic lining the wire mesh. So far, it hadn’t eaten her. So far, so good. She got a little closer. Close enough to touch it if she wanted to. And Hannah really didn’t want to.
“Do you think he’s someone’s pet or did he come from the wild?” She asked, happy to have something else to focus on.
“Cory thinks he’s tame so she suspects he’s a pet,” Harry explained, joining her at the cage. He was standing so close she could feel his breath on her shoulder. She moved a step away.
“How do you lose a pet iguana?”
“I guess he just walks out the door.”
Somehow, Hannah thought there would be more to it. It took a special kind of person to have a pet iguana and she figured they wouldn’t let it go so easily. “Aren’t these things expensive?”
“They can be.” Harry wrinkled his brow as he stared at the creature. For the lizard’s part, he just stared into space and slid his tongue in and out. “Do you want to touch it?”
“I really don’t.”
“He’s not slimy or anything.”
“I’m good,” Hannah said, taking another step back to reinforce her words. Touching a lizard was definitely not in her job description – if one existed anyway. “I think I’ll go say hi to the dogs or something.”
Before she could leave, Harry gently touched her on the arm. “Can we talk… privately, somewhere? Maybe after my shift?”
“I don’t think there’s any point in that,” Hannah said, needing to use all her resolve. “I think we should just both move on.”
Disappointment crossed Harry’s face. It saddened her like nothing else. Over the summer she had grown used to seeing all the sad looks on the lost animals. Seeing it on the boy she still cared for was most difficult of them all.
He turned his eyes up to meet hers, staring with intensity. “That’s fine. But I’m going to win you back, Hannah. I still have two weeks left of summer and I am going to use every one of those days to make you mine again.”
With his words lingering in the air, Harry left in the opposite direction and closed the door behind him. Hannah was left alone, her mouth hanging open in surprise.
As she processed what he said, her lips curled into a smile. Perhaps everything wasn’t lost after all. She doubted Harry would be able to do anything to convince her to take him back. That door was closed. Yet it didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun trying.
Just as she was about to leave, the door opened again. Harry poked his head back in. “And the iguana needs feeding. It’s your turn.” The door closed just as abruptly.
Hannah stared at the lizard, her smile now gone. What was she going to do with the thing? She was going to need to do some serious research.
The office
was a good distance away from the googly-eyed creature. She fired up the computer and did a web search on ‘iguanas’. If she was going to be a veterinarian one day, she was going to have to get used to dealing with more exotic animals.
According to Love of Lizards, the online superstore of everything lizard related, Iguanas ate crickets. Hannah imagined feeding him those jumpy little things and almost gagged right then and there.
Surely Cory would have been feeding him something else? Hannah went on a mission in the animal room, searching through all the cupboards to find the iguana’s food. It would have been easier to ask Harry, but that was going to be the very last resort. It was also exactly what he expected her to do. She wouldn’t make it so easy for him.
The cupboards had lots of supplies, thanks to the fundraising concert. However it didn’t appear to have anything for a hungry iguana. At least, nothing was labeled iguana food, anyway.
As she was still searching, the door swung open and both Cory and Harry hurried in. She stood up, wondering what all the fuss was about.
Then she saw it. The most horrible, slimy thing that was a hundred times worse than the lizard. Hanging between their arms was a giant green snake.
“Oh my God,” Jessie screamed, standing at the back door. “What’s that doing here?” If Hannah wasn’t frozen in fear, she would probably have screeched the same thing.
“It’s just a snake,” Harry said calmly. “Someone found it on the road, it’s been attacked by something.”
Hannah saw the gash on its tail, red and angry. Which probably meant the snake was also angry. As they came further into the room, Hannah retreated backwards until her back was firmly against the wall.
Jessie wasn’t sticking around to learn more. All of a sudden she ran across the room, squealing as she hurried toward the office. Hannah couldn’t take it any longer, she followed, running as fast as her legs could take her.
“It’s just a snake, it’s not going to hurt you,” Harry called out after them. They were too hysterical to reply. The girls barricaded themselves in the office, locking the door behind them.
“Since when do snakes come in here?” Jessie asked, still shaking with fear.
“That’s the first I’ve seen,” Hannah replied. She was trying to calm down, make her heart stop racing in her chest. “First a lizard and now a snake? It’s like a madhouse in here. Give me a hundred kittens any day.”
“Those things would eat a kitten.”
Hannah wasn’t going to argue. She had heard stories of giant snakes being able to unlock their jaws and swallow whole animals with one bite. Just the thought of it made her shudder and her skin crawl. The pets she liked were definitely of the hairy variety.
Jessie pulled her cell phone from her pocket. “I’m going to call my mom, I think we’re having a family emergency so I can go home early.”
While Hannah didn’t exactly agree with lying, she wanted to get out of there just as much. “Make sure your mom needs me too.”
Chapter 3
Veronica could talk like no-one else Hannah knew. Once she found a topic she liked, her lips moved incessantly until it was out of her system. But that was half her charm. They lazed around her bedroom, enjoying the sun as it streamed in through the windows.
“So Lucas is already talking about going back to school?” Hannah asked. She had just been subjected to almost an hour of Lucas news. Apparently their relationship had only grown stronger over the summer.
Veronica nodded her head eagerly. “We’re going to be the hottest new couple in the grade. We can share lunches in the cafeteria, act impossibly cute in front of other couples that aren’t as cool, and hold hands between classes.”
Hannah resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She disliked couples like that, especially when it wasn’t her and Harry. “That’s great. I guess the semester will start before we know it.”
Sensing a touch of sadness in her best friend, Veronica grew serious. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be flaunting my wonderful relationship in front of you.”
“It’s okay, really. It’s nice that you’ve found someone. I like Lucas, he’s nice.”
“How was seeing Harry the hottie again after you, you know, broke up?”
Hannah could still feel the knot in her stomach that she got every time she thought of him. “Terrible. I didn’t know what to say to him.”
“Awkward with a capital A?”
She nodded. “But then he went and made it even worse.”
Sensing a piece of juicy scandal, Veronica replied eagerly. “What did he do? Tell me he didn’t hook up with Jessie the boyfriend stealer.”
That would have been more awkward, Hannah considered. Thankfully that didn’t happen, otherwise she would be out for blood. “No, nothing like that. He said he was going to win me back.”
Veronica cocked her head to the side, looking very much like a poodle. “Win you back? Do you even want him back?” She hesitated, just enough to answer her friend’s question. “Oh my gosh, you want him back!”
“No, I don’t,” Hannah insisted. “He upset me and I don’t want to give him another chance to do it again. I don’t think he even knows what he did wrong.”
“He sided with Jessie, I thought that was clear.”
“He’s a boy, he’s not as observant as us.”
“I wonder what he’s going to do to win you back,” Veronica mused. “It could be just like the movies. If he stands outside your house with a boom box, please call me so I can come over and watch. I’ll record it and put it on YouTube. People eat that kind of stuff up.”
“It’s not the eighty’s,” Hannah giggled. “He’s not going to even know what a boom box is.”
“Fine then, iPod, whatever.” She rolled her eyes, unable to remove the cheeky grin from her face before changing the subject. “The bonfire party is coming up next week. I told Lucas you’re coming, don’t make me a liar.”
“I don’t want to go by myself.”
“You won’t be by yourself, you’ll have me.”
Somehow, that didn’t seem as much fun as it would have been to go with Harry. “I’ll think about it.”
Veronica threw a cushion at her, catching her on the shoulder. “You’ve been thinking about it for two weeks already. You need to think less and do more.”
Hannah threw the cushion back, Veronica caught it. “My shift is going to start soon, I have to go.” She got up to leave.
“That’s convenient,” Veronica called after her.
Hannah was on her bike and peddling to the shelter in no time. The peace of cycling through the streets was welcome after the talk fest.
By the time she walked into the shelter, she was prepared for whatever the animals had in store for her. Well, almost. She had no idea that the place would be overrun with creatures she had never seen before.
“What’s going on?” Hannah asked as she walked through the back room. Harry and Cory were working hard trying to fix cages and glass tanks. It was like an exotic pet store had exploded in the room.
“We keep getting more animals dropped off,” Cory replied, a green lizard the size of a small cat in her arms. “It’s plague proportion now.”
Hannah tried to avoid getting too close to any of the cages. She was still worried about where they had put the giant snake from the other day. “Where are they all coming from? Ugh, what is that?”
Harry held up a reptile that looked like a cross between an angry dragon and a baby crocodile. “This is Gus, he’s our newest guest here.”
“Give me a hand, Hannah,” Cory urged. She nodded towards a cage door that needed opening. Trying desperately to stay out of reach, she extended her arm as far as it would go to open the door. She jumped back as Cory pushed the lizard inside. When the door was closed, she was slightly relieved.
“Can I come out now?” Jessie’s muffled voice asked from somewhere.
“Yeah, it’s in a cage,” Cory called back. The door to her office opened and a freaked out looking Jes
sie joined Hannah by the wall.
“You’re such girls,” Harry teased as he stroked Gus like he was a dog. There was nothing cute and furry about the creature.
“Where did they all come from?” Hannah asked again, now she was slightly more composed. Her nerves were still on edge, expecting something to jump out at her at any moment.
“People keep bringing them in,” Cory explained as she poured what appeared to be worms into a bowl. “Some are injured, others are just weird.”
“Is this normal?” Jessie shrieked from her side, her voice way higher than it usually was. Soon, only the dogs would be able to hear her.
Cory laughed. “No, it’s not normal. It’s anything but. Something weird is going on in Mapleton. I’ve never seen this many reptiles in one place before.”
“You want a pat?” Harry asked, teasing the girls with Gus. They screamed in response, his desired reaction. He laughed away to himself.
Chapter 4
Harry, Hannah, and Jessie sat around the back of the shelter, eating lunch away from the chaos of the animals inside.
“You know,” Hannah started. “There could be something big going on with all these weird creatures.”
“They’re not creatures, they’re just animals,” Harry corrected her. He earned a grimace for his troubles. “Some people prefer to keep lizards and snakes over cats and dogs.”
“Kooks,” Jessie snorted. For once, Hannah agreed with the girl. She definitely didn’t agree with Harry.
“Fine, there could be something big going on with all these wonderfully cute alternative pets,” Hannah continued, adding some sarcasm to the mix.
“Like what?” Harry asked, taking a bite out of his sandwich.
“What about if someone is illegally importing them? They could have gotten loose and they can’t report it to the police because it’s illegal.”
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