Selena Flores said it was not okay; she was already almost fourteen years old and not a little girl anymore.
Zack Allen didn't get angry. Instead, he just smiled and asked her if she needed anything. When she said she didn't, he left.
It wasn't until later that Selena understood why Zack Allen had adopted her at this age. The age of fourteen was just old enough to exploit legal loopholes.
"Selena Flores."
"Hmm?"
Selena was pruning branches, responding absently.
Yale Allen, with his backpack in tow and the cast on his left hand already removed, now covered in bandages with doodles on them, stood in front of her. Behind him rose the early morning sun—he was the impassioned youth amidst the rising sun, "Some friends and I are going to the aquarium this weekend. Do you want to come?"
Selena had a great fondness for dolphins; many of her belongings were decorated with dolphin patterns.
