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Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:03 pm
Stephan gave a nervous laugh, trying to keep his eyes on the road, "Well, anything that could risk us all getting expelled. One of them, Jacob, we've been friends since preschool, brought a keg to our senior prom. And here's the funny part, he got away with it. He got caught, but he managed to talk the school board out of expelling him." And he had a strong feeling that had it been anyone else, they wouldn't have been so lucky.
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Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:09 pm
Remi laughed at the thought of someone trying to talk themselves out of expulsion over a keg. She wondered how this Jacob person was able to not get expelled. He must be extremely charismatic in order to pull that off.
"Sounds like fun," she said, before adding. "I guess I'll have to meet all these friends of yours eventually?"
There was no sign of apprehension or nervousness in her voice at the possibility of meeting his friends. Truthfully, she was curious. From the way Stephan talked about them, they sounded like an interesting group of people.
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Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:17 pm
"Probably," Stephan laughed, merging easily onto the highway, "Some of them are kind of jerks, but they're the jerks I hang out with." It was true, some of his friends had changed over the years, but even if they didn't always get along they'd stood by each other.
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:49 am
"Well, I'm sure if you can deal with them I can too," she said with a sort of wistful sigh, shifting to get more comfortable in her seat. It'd been a while since she'd sat in a car for longer than five or ten minutes. She wasn't uncomfortable, just a tiny bit restless. "A few of my old friends were borderline jerks."
Well, maybe not jerks. More like manipulative masterminds. She never could figure out how they could sleep at night knowing they just screwed someone over for their own personal gain.
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:30 am
"At least they're old friends then huh?" He asked, turning the radio up to an audible level. He had a few tapes of kids music, but he was hoping he wouldn't need to turn them on. Kids music was ok, for kids, but it would drive him right up the wall. "Any music you want to listen to?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:17 pm
"Yeah," Remi agreed. Old friends. Even if she had met most of them in her last two years of college, she felt like she'd known them forever. Maybe that's why she felt so bad about never having contacted them since she graduated.
"I can listen to whatever you like," she said, not really having a preference at the moment. Just so long as it wasn't rap, or anything that would mentally scar Gavin if he heard it. No need to expose him to such things just yet.
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:53 pm
"Rock it is then," he laughed, keeping the volume at a level where it wouldn't be quite so annoying if she didn't like it. Glancing up, he noticed a sign bearing a pride of lions and a single zebra on a safari background. Underneath the image, it said simply, "Metro Zoo, next right". "Almost there," he remarked, carefully merging off the road when the turn came up. The parking lot was coming into view, and it wasn't very full since it was still early.
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:04 pm
Remi didn't mind the music. Gavin even seemed to like it, slightly bobbing his head to the beat as he continued to stare out the window. Remi vaguely thought about investing in a radio. It certainly would liven up things in the apartment, seeing as it was usually so quiet during the day provided that Gavin wasn't creating chaos.
She noticed the parking lot coming up. Because it was so early she expected it to be a bit empty, but she hadn't expected it on being this big. It wasn't huge, but definitely larger than she thought.
"Any idea how big this place is?" she asked curiously, seeing the admission gate coming into view. This might turn out to be a full-day trip after all.
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:46 pm
"Ahm... About your average zoo size? Not a clue. They've aparently got really good Savannah and Reptile exhibits, natural habitat ones, you know?" He answered, nodding as he pulled into a parking spot near the entrance. Natural habitats made zoos like this fun. You sort of had to track the animals to see them, what with the trees and everything. Much better than a pit or a cage in his opinion.
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:53 pm
"That should definitely be interesting," Remi said thoughfully.
Now she was intrigued. Her parents had taken her to the zoo when she was a child, but it had been your standard 'animals in cages or behind windows' type place. She'd never seen the natural habitat exhibits before. When the car stopped, she undid her seatbelt before stepping out. She made her way to the other side of the car to pick up Gavin from his seat. Then another thought hit her.
"Er...do you think they have strollers here?" she asked, lifting Gavin into her arms. "I can only carry Gavin for so long, and I don't think he can walk that far yet."
She had strong arms, but not enough to tote a toddler around for more than 10-15 minutes. One of these days she was going to get one of those things that were like backpacks for carrying toddlers. At least that way she'd be straining her back instead of her arms.
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:27 pm
"Probably, they usually have some for rent. We'll see, and if they don't I could carry him for you," he offered, stopping at the first ticket booth. "Two adults and one toddler," he told the rather bored looking woman sitting there, "Do you have stroller rentals?" She nodded, gesturing to a row of animal faced strollers on a coin secured rack. He paid and got their tickets, plus a petting zoo bracelet for Gavin, and turned back to Remi, "Guess neither of us will have to carry him." The first stroller on the rack was themed after a lion, complete with a big ruff of golden faux fur as a mane sunshade. "This one okay Gavin?" he asked, wanting to make sure now so that they wouldn't have to come back and change it later.
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:13 pm
Gavin's eyes widened in gleeful surprise when he saw the stroller. Usually he hated those type of things, but this looked plain awesome. He'd seen lions before on those educational shows that Haki loved to watch (something about being smarter would make her a better world leader), but they were almost as cool as the hawks.
He didn't even answer, but rather showed them his delight by promptly jumping into the seat with a loud "Yay!"
Remi couldn't help but smile. The gold fur even matched well with his orange wings, which Gavin spread out wide to show his excitement. Fortunately not too many people seemed to notice.
"Well I think that settles that," Remi commented as Gavin gave them a look of, Why aren't we going yet?
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:20 pm
"I'll push him for a while," Stephan offered, though it was more of a statement, and he grabbed a map off of a nearby rack as he pushed Gavin past it. "Where to first?" He asked, wanting either's opinion, "We've got all day so we don't really need to rush." That and he wasn't much of a rushing person. There seemed to be enough stands around that walking for a while wouldn't be a problem. They could always stop for a drink or something cool.
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:33 pm
Remi followed next to Stephan, trying to also look on the map as they walked. It seemed like this place had everything. Elephant exhibits, reptile house, large cats,...birds of prey? Oh, Gavin would love that, but it would probably be better to save that for later in the day.
"How about this one? It's nearby," she pointed at the area on the map showing where the leopards were held. Though she was horrible at reading maps, from what she could see it should be right around the corner.
Gavin was busy looking all around, trying to make sense of what he saw. Due to the sunshade and being much lower to the ground than everyone else, he felt all alone in this new place. Not that he minded, considering he saw animal paraphenelia all around him. Maybe he'd actually see the animals he'd seen on TV in person. Haki sure would be jealous, that's for sure.
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Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:44 pm
"Leopards, sounds like a plan," he agreed, looking around for a sign. Unfortunately for them, he wasn't too great with maps himself. He frowned, not seeing a sign at first, but quickly cheered up when he found one proclaiming, "Leopards, Africa", exactly what he was looking for. It lead over a bridge to a fenced platform looking down over an open African setting, complete with several trees and a watering hole. A sign with a lot of information stood in the middle of the platform, but he figured that Gavin might be more interested in the animals themselves. Three leopards were visible at the time, two on the ground and one up in a low tree.
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