Chapter 4
"HI!"
I stared at that one sheet of paper for about an hour or two. Hi?? From?? I tried to look around the envelope but there was no name in it and the way he/she wrote my name in calligraphy it looked like it was from a very skilled person and the details were just so… precise. I have never seen anything like it. I don't really know much about calligraphy but it really looked nice.
It made me wonder, who could this be? I was startled with a knock on the door.
"Jade? I'm going, Little John is in the playroom and as soon as you are done, text me okay?" Mom said looking at the note I had on my hands.
"What is that?" she asked.
"A note, I guess? I just noticed it now when I was getting my notebook and it fell to the ground." I replied.
"Calligraphy? It is pretty detailed." She nodded while examining it.
"Who's it from?" She asked.
"I don't know. But I'm gonna find out." I said with so much determination.
"Hmmm.. Let me know if you find HIM." She smirked at me.
"Oh Mother!! I know that look. Please no." I said while shaking my face.
"Ok , ok , ok " She said defensively. "I'm heading out now, Bye. See you at dinner." She said while giving me a kiss.
"Yes, mom." I said while waving my hands.
Hmm.. Who could this be? I shook that thought away and immediately went back to studying. Few hours past and I was finally finish with everything. It was probably 3:35 on my watch so I stretched a little and went to look for Little John.
"Little John??" I said while going to the playroom.
I noticed that he dozed off. My little brother is so cute, so I took a few photos of him and he suddenly woke up.
" Jade?? What are you doing?" he said while rubbing his eyes.
"Nothing." I said while I kissed him in the cheeks.
"Are you done??" he said while yawning.
"Yes, I'm ready when you are." I said with a smile.
His eyes suddenly were wide open with so much excitement.
"Jade, can we go to the zoo instead? PWWWEEEAASEEE?" he said with those puppy dog eyes.
"Fiiiiinnnneeee.. I miss the zoo anyway."
"YEYY!!! To the ZOO!!" he said while marching to his closet to find some clothes.
"Wait downstairs ok? I have to change too." I said with a big smile on my face.
Seeing my little brother happy like that makes me really happy. No matter how busy I get I always make sure that I have time for him. He will always be my little ray of sunshine.
I quickly changed into a white shirt and a jumper shorts while wearing my Dad's baseball cap that says 73. When I went down, I saw little John waiting for me at the couch with his big blue elephant stuff toy.
"Little John, let's go?" I asked.
"YES!!" he said happily.
We went to my car that is parked in our front porch, Little John sat in the front seat and put on his seat belt and I did the same. We drove to the zoo and it was packed, well it is a weekend after all. After looking for a minute or two I finally found a place to park in between two cars. We went inside and paid the entrance fee which was $20 each. I missed this place, the music, the people, the smell of cotton candy and popcorn. When I was a kid my dad and I always go here whenever he arrives home early from work and we would just walk around the zoo and have fun making faces at the monkeys and looking at the elephant and the giraffe. It didn't change much though.
"Jade!" Little John pulling my hand towards the tiger which was located at the middle of the zoo.
"Yes, I'm coming." I said while walking towards him.
Little John was astonished when the tiger roared at the crowd and he turned to smile at me. I could see it in his face that he was happy. I smiled back and held his hand and we walked towards the panda that was eating a bamboo and the zoo keeper asked Little John if he wanted to feed him and he said "YES!" without hesitation. The zoo keeper gave me a few bamboos as well and I hesitated a little but eventually gave in to the offer. The next thing we went to was the koala eating eucalyptus from its tree. Then Little John dragged me to the other end of the zoo to see the lion. We watched as the lion roared at the crowd and then the zoo keeper went inside the cage to feed the lion. WAIT! That guy looked familiar. When he finished feeding the lion he turned and caught my eye and smiled and I smiled awkwardly.
"Hey!" he said while walking towards us.
"Uhmm.. Hi."
"You were at Jennette's party?" He asked while smiling.
"Uhm.. Yeah."
"You were talking to Jason, weren't you?" He asked with those suspicious eyes.
"Uhmm.. Yeah." I replied shyly.
"Hmmmm…. Are you sure you weren't kissing him?" He said with a smirk.
"N-N-NO! That's ridiculous! I just said my thanks to him for catching me." I said while blushing.
"HAHHHA!! I'm just kidding, you don't have to act to defensive." He laughed and I pouted.
"HAHA! Anyway, I'm Zack, Jason's bestfriend." He said while putting his hand in front of me for a shake.
"Jade." I said with a smile and shook his hand.
"Jaaadddeeeee. Let's get some ice cream." Little John said while tugging my shorts.
"Hey there, little fella" Zack said while bending down to face Little John.
"Hi." Little John replied while going near me.
"Are you having fun?" Zack asked curiously.
"YES!!" Little John replied.
"How 'bout I get you that ice cream?" Zack asked Little John
"N-No.. We wouldn't want to impose." I said while shaking both of my hands in front of me
"No, I insist." Zack said.
"Don't you have duties to attend to?"
"Yup, and this is one of it." Zack smiled and I acted confused.
"C'mon, let's go get that ice cream." Zack dragged Little John to the ice cream stand around the corner of the zoo.
"So, what'll you have?" Zack asked Little John
"CHOCOLATE!!!" Little John said with so much enthusiasm.
"And you Jade?" Zack asked.
"I'll have the Strawberry please." I replied
"And I'll have the Cookie Crumble." Zack told the vendor
"Here you go pal." Zack handed Little John his ice cream
"And for you." Zack handed me my ice cream.
"That'll be 15 dollars, sir." the vendor informed us.
"I got this." Zack said while I was about to open my bag.
"Thank you." I said shyly.
"Thank you." Little John said with a big smile.
"You're welcome. I believe I haven't introduced myself to you little fella. I'm Zack, your sister's school mate." Zack said while bending down to get a better look at Little John who was eating his ice cream happily.
"I'm John but my parents usually call me Little John." Little John replied.
"John it is. Where to next? " Zack asked Little John.
"To the PENGUINS!!" Little John pointed while marching towards the other end of the zoo.
"Penguins it is!!" Zack mimicked Little John's gesture and turned to smile at me.
"HAHHA!! You guys look so hilarious!!" I laughed.
"C'mon Jade." Little John called me.
There was a huge crowd and they were cheering on the penguins as they do tricks to entertain the crowd and Little John had so much fun looking at them. We walked around the zoo and looked at other animals and Zack was with us all throughout. I didn't notice the time until the sky grew dark and the lights were lit. I looked for the clock at the zoo and it was past 6 already. I quickly called Little John who was looking at the monkey with Zack.
"Little John, we have to go."
"Ok." Little John replied and ran towards me and Zack was behind him.
"Thank you Zack. We had fun today, and for the ice cream." I smiled.
"No problem Jade. See you at school." Zack said.
"See you."
"Bye, Zack!!" Little John waved goodbye and so did I.
"Bye!! 'Till we meet again little fella." Zack waved goodbye.
We reached my car and I drove back to our house and when we arrived mom was already home and was cooking dinner.
"Hey, mom." I greeted her.
"Oh. Hello there. Did you have fun?" Mom asked as Little John was hugging her.
"YESS!! The zoo was so fun and Jade's guy friend bought us ice cream." Little John answered.
"OHH.. GUY FRIEND you say." Mom looked at me with such suspicion.
I just looked at her with innocence in my eyes and smiled.
"Hmm… There's something here. I can feel it." Mom said
Little John and I helped her fix the table, when we heard a car in our front porch. Little John hurried to the door and shouted "DADDYY!!!!"
Dad got off the car and hugged Little John and went to kiss my mom who was waiting at the door.
"Hey, dad!" I said while hugging him.
"What's for dinner?" He asked mom.
"Your favourite, of course." Mom replied.
"STEAK?" Dad asked with his eyes wide open.
"Just the way you like it." Mom smiled.
"Let's dig in!" Dad said as we walked towards the dinner table and ate.
"Soooo, anything interesting today?" Dad asked mom.
"Well, Little John told me that Jade's 'GUY FRIEND' bought ice cream for them in the zoo." Mom told dad.
"Oh really, Tell us more about this 'GUY FRIEND' of yours." Dad said to me while rising on eyebrow.
"Dad, It was just nothing. He's just a friend." I wined.
"Hmmm. I believe not." Dad insisted.
"Dad, just believe it, ok? Can we move on to the next topic already?" I replied
"If you say so, my dear. BUT! We will continue talking about this at the right time." Dad said while pointing his finger at the ceiling.
"Ohhhhhhhhhh Daaaddddd…" I said while giving out a sigh.
"So, what happened today at work 'hon?" Dad asked mom.
"Oh, you know the usual stuffs. How did work go? " Mom asked Dad.
"You know, work." Dad said.
As the night goes by and the time has come for me to go to sleep, suddenly Zack popped in my head and I didn't realize earlier but he has such lean body and his eyes were coloured hazelnut under the dark sky, I thought that he would be a stranger knowing that I am not the most popular girl in school but he didn't and that shocked me the most. He must be a really good friend to Jason and . . . . I dozed off to sleep.