Monday mornings were always the worst. Especially after a fun weekend. I woke up Monday morning to a text from River, which brightened my mood the minute his name popped up on my screen.

River: Zoo after school?

I perked up even more at the thought of going to the zoo.

Alani: Yes, please

Groaning since it was still early, I rolled out of bed and got ready for the day. I had an English class at 9:00 am that I had to be prepared for. I saw Nadia sleeping. She was lucky since she didn't have any classes until this afternoon. As I scurried around our dorm, I did my best not to wake her up.

The rest of the day was boring. I went through the motions, went to my classes, and talked to Daniel a little. Our project was due tomorrow, so we had time to work on it during class.

I was overjoyed when I got back to my dorm. Once I got the text telling me that River was here, I headed downstairs.

"Ready?" He asked as I got into the car.

"Yep," I said.

"What are you most excited about seeing?" He asked.

"The penguins," I said after thinking for a minute.

"Wrong," He said.

"River, there is no wrong answer to the question you asked," I said, rolling my eyes.

"The penguins are tiny and boring. The gorillas or elephants are better answers."

"I'll stick with penguins," I said, to which River refuted. We spent most of the ride arguing about what animal was best. River brought up points like size and strength, while I mentioned cuteness and sweetness.

When we got to the zoo, I could feel myself bouncing up and down with excitement. I had never gotten to see a lot of the animals here in person, so I was excited about the opportunity.

"What do you want to see first?" River asked as we stood looking at our map like idiots.

"Let's just walk and see what we come across."

"No plan. I like it," River said, putting away our map.

The first animal that we stumbled upon was the flamingos. They were bright pink, standing on one leg, and honking like crazy.

"I never knew flamingos were so loud," I said, plugging an ear with my finger.

"That's how they communicate," River said.

"Are they fighting?" I asked, looking at the flamingos that were honking in each other's faces.

"I don't know, maybe. Let's move on," River said, ushering us away from the honking.

Next, we found the penguins, which made me thrilled.

"They're adorable!" I said, studying the tiny creatures. Most of them were standing on the land, but some of them were swimming in the water. We watched as they played with some mat that had been left in the pool.

"Which one's your favorite?" River asked.

"I like the one that's standing in the corner by himself," I said.

"He's molting and is embarrassed," One of the workers told us when they overheard me.

"I think he's cute, even if he's molting," I said, more to the penguin than to the worker, even though he couldn't hear or understand me.

River and explored all the animal exhibits that the zoo had to offer for the rest of the afternoon. We saw manatees, otters, tigers, elephants, lions, gorillas, monkeys, and many more. Thanks to some of the workers, we even learned a little about each animal.

"Do you want to get a caricature?" River asked as we walked by a booth.

"What the hell is a caricature?" I asked.

"It's a cartoon drawing of people with big heads."

"Okay," I said, curious as to see what this would look like. "let's do it."

We walked over to the booth that didn't have a line and sat down in the chairs before paying the artist.

"What kind of caricature would you like?" The man asked.

"Just a normal one?" I said.

"I can do a couple's caricature with a heart around you?" The artist asked.

"Oh, no, we're not a couple!" I said.

"Oh, my bad."

"It's fine," River said, "We'll have a regular drawing of the two of us."

River wasn't fazed by the artist thinking we were a couple, but I was. Is that how we looked to other people?

We sat still as the artist got to work. Only five minutes later, he was done and showing us the drawing.

"Oh, God," I said.

"Your eyes are enormous!" River exclaimed as we looked at the drawing. He looked good even in the drawing, which didn't make any sense.

"Thank you," We said as we grabbed the drawing, rolled it up, and stuffed it in our bag.

I noticed River was staring at something. One glance in the direction he was looking, and I realized what he was seeing. It was Harper holding hands with a guy.

"I thought you were over her?" I asked.

"I am. It just surprises me is all."

"Should we say hi?" I didn't want to say hi, but I also didn't want to spend the rest of the day avoiding them.

"Definitely not."

"Come on, let's go," I said, pulling his hand. As we got closer, we overheard their conversation.

"I love animals, but I haven't had one in seven years," Harper said, causing River to raise an eyebrow.

"I thought you said your dog died a few weeks ago?" River asked.

"River, Hi," Harper said, turning around.

"Hi."

"This is my new boyfriend, Chett."

"Hey," River said.

"He's the captain of the volleyball team."

"Nice. Why did you say that you haven't had a dog in seven years?"

"Because I haven't," She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You told me you needed to cuddle and hold my hand because your dog died a few weeks ago?" River said, and I didn't like the thought of them doing that.

"Oh, I lied," She said.

"You lied?"

"Yeah, we're not hooking up anymore. I can tell you that I lied."

"That's not something you should be proud of."

"Whatever. You lied too."

"How? When?" River asked.

"You said that you didn't want a relationship, and now you're spending all your time with this girl," Harper said, motioning toward me.

"We're not in a relationship," I said for the second time that day.

"Yeah, right. Have a nice day," She said before walking away, pulling poor Chett along with her.

"What a terrible person," River said.

"Yeah, I know. Let's forget about her. Can we see the giraffes?" I asked as we walked.

"Yeah, we can even feed them," River said, forgetting about Harper.

"Really?"

"Really," River said as we traveled to the giraffe habitat. Zebras and ostriches were also in there with them.

We paid for the leaves for the giraffes to eat and walked up near the edge of the habitat. A giraffe immediately came up to us and waited for a leaf to be placed in their mouth. I reached my hand out, and the giraffe stuck out their tongue. They gulped the leaf right up. I smiled at what I had done.

"Can I do another one?" I asked.

"Yeah," River said, handing me the bucket of leaves.

We fed the giraffes until we were out of their food. I hadn't noticed, but the sun was setting, which meant the zoo would close soon.

"That was really interesting. I liked learning about the animals from the employees," I said to River as we walked to the car.

"Which animal was your favorite?"

"Probably the gorillas."

"Ha! I knew they were going to be your favorite animal!"

"Yeah, yeah. What did you like?"

"I liked the otters."

"The otters were weird."

"Don't insult otters like that," River laughed as we got into the car.

It was another successful day.