“Congratulations, Maddie! I wasn’t sure you’d be here today,” Carol said when I arrived at work and found her sitting at a metal table outside the café.
“Oh.” For some reason I hadn’t thought about the fact that zoo people would know about my win, too. How many people still watched the news? “Um … can you not tell everyone about it?”
“You don’t think they’ll all know?” Carol asked, frowning.
I shrugged. “I’d just like to do the telling when I can.”
She did the locking motion on her lips. “Consider my lips sealed.”
“And yes, I still want to stay on, if that’s okay,” I added. I liked working. Especially at the zoo. “Maybe I can switch over to volunteer status or something.” I knew my measly paycheck wouldn’t make the zoo suddenly flush with cash, but anything would help them out, and I didn’t need the money anymore.
“Come to my office after your shift and we’ll discuss. I’m happy to still have you.” Carol paused for a minute. “Well, unless you become a distraction. If guests start recognizing you and causing commotion, we’ll have to figure something out.”
“Causing commotion?”
“You know how people get around celebrities.”
“I’m not a celebrity.”
She referred to her clipboard again. “I have you in meal prep today.”
“Okay, sounds good.” I toed a crack in the pavement by my foot. “Is Seth here yet?” I wondered if he saw the news. If he was mad that I hadn’t told him myself. I hoped not.
“No. He hasn’t checked in. I’m putting him with Lance, who will be showing the macaw.”
“Right. Okay.”
“Congratulations again,” Carol said. “It’s good to be eighteen, isn’t it?”
I laughed. “Yes.” I pivoted and headed for my station.
A few minutes later, I heard feet slapping concrete and turned to see Seth catching up with me.
“Was Carol congratulating you for turning eighteen?” he asked.
“Yes. Wait, what?”
“Carol.”
There was something about his easy smile, his unassuming question, the lack of the starstruck eyes I’d seen on so many people lately that led me to realize he didn’t know. He still had no idea I’d won the lottery. He must not have had access to a phone or television still. That would be the only logical explanation. “Um … sure.”
“Did you ask her to give you a raise?”
“Yep. She’s doubling my salary.”
“Lucky. Speaking of turning eighteen, how did the rest of your birthday go? I forgot to ask the other day. Did you and your friends finish the night out strong?”
“I have no idea what that means,” I said.
He laughed. “Me neither. You weren’t supposed to call me out on it.”
I smiled. “My birthday was fine.” I closed my eyes. “Okay, no it wasn’t.”
“Now who’s being confusing?”
“My friends never showed up.” After winning the lottery, I felt like I couldn’t complain about this to anyone else.
Seth’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me that night?”
“I felt stupid. They all had reasons, but at the time, I didn’t know those reasons, and, long story short, I spent the night by myself.”
“That really sucks. I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be. It’s not a big deal. Besides, seeing you that night was nice. And thanks for the candy. It made me feel a lot better.”
He slowed his walk. “My seventy-five-cent bag of candy was the highlight of your night?”
“I know, pathetic, right?”
“I should’ve invited you over for the movie marathon. We could’ve added E.T. to the list.” He smirked at me.
“You were grounded.”
“After hearing your story, even my mom would’ve relaxed the rules for that night.”
I laughed. “So you’re saying, even your mom would’ve found me pathetic?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
Lance was off to the left holding the macaw on his gloved hands. Rachel was there as well, and I wondered if she had requested Seth to be at her station. She waved at us and we both waved back. I waited for Seth to peel off and head that way but he stayed by my side. Was he walking me?
We stepped over a roped-off area that said Staff Only and continued on to the building behind it.
“Well,” I said, but I realized Seth was coming in after me, and the door shut behind us. It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim lighting in the hall.
“This should be fun,” Seth said. “It’s been a while since I’ve recorded meal plans.”
“You’re in here today?” I asked.
“I am now.” He winked.
I shook my head. “Seth, I’m fine. Please don’t change your station just because you feel sorry for me.”
“I’m going to make it up to you.”
“What?”
“Your crappy birthday.”
“By coming with me to food prep?”
“Yes, my presence makes everything better, right?” he said, then gave a single laugh. “Of course not. My makeup birthday event will be something way better.”
“You don’t have to make anything up to me. Believe me when I say that the wrong has been more than righted.”
“How?”
“Oh … uh … ” I won the lottery. I won the lottery. Why couldn’t I just say that out loud to him? What was still holding me back? Was this still about Rachel and how I thought Seth and I weren’t good enough friends? Or was it about my friends and how I couldn’t get attached to a boy no matter how sweet he was because we had a pact? And college, think about college, Maddie, not how cute this boy is. I shook off all those very unhelpful thoughts. “My friends took me bowling.”
“That’s more than righted?”
“Bowling,” I said.
Seth laughed. “For a girl as smart as you, I think you need a lesson on what righting a wrong means. This is one subject I seem to know more about than you. So prepare to learn.”
I leaned against the door. “I’m prepared.”
He shook his head. “Not now. Righting wrongs takes time and preparation. You’ll see.”
“Really, Seth, please don’t think another second about it.” I was the last person anyone should feel sorry for.
“Too late.” He held open the interior door, the one that led to a big kitchen. There were refrigerators that held meat and fruit. Canisters of bird feed lined the walls. And there was a big prep station in the middle where a zookeeper was preparing the meals that would be fed to the animals. I sighed, and walked through.
In front of the zookeeper was a cage with live mice. We had one snake on site in the zoo. A six-foot python. He didn’t eat every day and I didn’t have to work food prep too often, so it had been a long time since I’d had to think about his meals. But there they scurried in their white fluffy cuteness.
“Why are mice so much cuter than rats?” I frowned and watched the mice run around the cage, oblivious to their fate. I looked away and grabbed the binder off the cupboard to record the meals the zookeeper was preparing. I didn’t want to think about the fate of those mice. I needed to get my mind off of it. I looked over at Seth, who had his own binder and was pulling down a few canisters of birdseed.
“Outside of school and the zoo and moviemaking, what’s your favorite thing to do?” I asked Seth suddenly.
He gave me a half smile. “I like to surf and play beach volleyball.”
“You’re a beach bum?” I asked. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
“I also like to read and watch movies. What about you, Maddie? What are your hobbies?”
I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out. There was nothing to say. Was learning a hobby? “Not bowling, that’s for sure.”
He raised his eyebrows as the zookeeper dropped some insects into a container that I assumed were for the resident spider.
“We need more spiders at this zoo,” I said. “We only have the one, right?”
The zookeeper perked up at this question. “Only? It is the largest species of spider in the world.”
“So it counts as five?” Seth asked, straight-faced.
“A house of spiders would be amazing,” the zookeeper said. “We could bring them in from all over the world. I don’t know that any other zoo has anything like that.” He seemed to shake off that thought. “If only we had an unlimited budget, right?”
“It would be nice. But wait, I thought the giant huntsman was the biggest species of spider,” I said.
“It depends on if you mean by weight or diameter. The giant huntsman takes the largest diameter award.”
Seth bumped my elbow and said quietly, “You need to find some hobbies, live a little.”