Sawyer smiled as he stroked Winter's head. Hazel sat nearby, stroking Hope.
"I know you don't like this part of the day, girls, but it is time for us to get going," Sawyer whispered.
Winter responded with her tweety bird sound.
"Sometimes I feel like they understand us." Hazel joked. Sawyer chuckled. It had been a month since he returned from the SEA Semester. Hope's training was coming along great, despite being new. "You know," Hazel continued. "It's nice of your mom to invite us over to dinner." By "us" she meant herself, Clay, and her grandfather.
"Yea," Sawyer replied. "It'll be great. No to mention the fact you'll be spending the night."
"Yea."
"Hey, guys. You ready?" Sawyer and Hazel spun around to see Clay.
"Yeah. We'll be right with you, Dad," Hazel responded.
The two teens bade their goodbyes to the dolphins and crawled out of the pool. A few minutes went by and there was some clicking sounds, indicated they turned off the live webcams for the night. Then the CMA was dark and quiet. Winter swam over to the submerged platform and laid there as if waiting for something. Hope swam to the edge of the platform.
"You've been doing that for the past few days. Every day, at the same time. What is it you are even doing?" Hope asked.
"Waiting," Winter responded, not taking her gaze away from the ceiling.
"For what?"
"You'll see," Hopefully she added silently to herself. Where IS that pelican? I haven't seen him for quite some ti-
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of flapping wings. Rufus flew over the edge of the pool where Winter sat. "Well, you took your time!" she snapped.
"A thousand apologies, boss," the pelican responded. "I was checking in on the turtle in Rehab,"
"How many times do we have to go through this? Don't. Call. Me. BOSS!" Winter yelled.
"Whatever you say, boss,"
Winter sighed. Crazy bird. She decided to get straight to the point. "What's the staff report?"
"All of them are gone, except for Kat, who has the night shift at Rehab," Rufus happily reported.
"Okay. And you talked to Special K and Waldo?"
"Yes,"
Special K was the name of the turtle and Waldo was the name of the stingray. They were both in Rehab.
"They are aware of the plan?"
"What plan?" Hope asked.
Winter and Rufus ignored her. "Yes, and they figured out how to get Kat to leave them," Rufus explained.
"Good. Did you have a word with Cooper and Walle?"
Cooper and Walle were the names of the Otters that lived at Otter Oasis.
"Not yet but I will in a sec,"
"Did you drag those adorable otters into this 'plan' of yours? What's going on?"
Winter and Rufus continued to ignore her. The pelican stretched his wings and flew over to Otter Oasis. Then he bent over and started murmuring to the otters.
"Hey," Hope called."Do you want to tell me what this is all about?"
"Patience, Hope. You'll see,"
"Why are you being so secretive?"
Winter sighed, but it wasn't out of annoyance, Hope noticed. It was out of grief. "Back when I first came to the Winter Zone, it was just me and Panama and she did this sort of thing to me as well. Talking secretly with Rufus, talking about the otters. It was just Cooper back then. But he did his job efficiently, despite being paralyzed in his hind legs,"
"What was his job?" Hope asked.
"If the plan is a success, you will see. If I tell you it would ruin the surprise," Winter explained, as Cooper and Walle scampered down to the gift shop with Rufus at their tails.
"How'd they get out?!" Hope gasped.
"Rufus,"
"Oh,"
"Anyway, when Panama acted all secretly the first time, the plan was a success. And boy, was I surprised," Winter smiled, but her eyes were clouded with grief. "I miss her," Winter sighed.
"If Panama really was as awesome as you make her sound, then yes, I'd miss her, too,"
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of flapping wings. Rufus was back. Winter whispered something to him that Hope couldn't here. Rufus was slowly nodding and saying "Sounds good" and "Okay, cool." Hope wished she was in on the conversation. Then Rufus whispered something to Winter and it was her turn to nod. When they finished, Rufus flew off again.
"What was that about?" Hope asked.
"Rufus has another assignment for the otters. Also, Kat left her post because Special K and Waldo 'went to sleep' for the night," Winter explained. "Out plan can swing into action now,"
As if on cue, Cooper and Walle showed up, holding some buckets with bottles of fish shakes in them. They set them on the feeding platform and scuttled off. Rufus showed up carrying a turtle on his back. Rufus carefully set the turtle into the pool, then flew off again. Winter and Hope swam over to greet it.
"You must be Special K," Winter said.
"Is that what the humans call me? I've heard them say that quite a few times while tending to my cuts from the net, but I didn't know that's what they call me," the turtle said.
"Well, you'll only be here temporarily. If you were a permanent resident, then you'd learn some English," Hope explained.
"Then you must be the famous Winter and Hope!" Special K cried.
"Yep, that's us," Winter confirmed.
Rufus flapped back over. This time, he was holding a stingray. Once again, Rufus landed in the pool to let his passenger down. Once the ray was in the water, Rufus flapped to the side of the pool.
"Next time," the ray said. "I do NOT want to come here by bird!"
"Well, it's either travel by bird or not come at all," Winter pointed out.
"True," the ray said.
Hope tried to change the subject. "Waldo, right?"
"That's what the humans have been calling me," Waldo responded.
At that moment, Walle and Cooper came back. Walle was holding a little disco ball and Cooper was holding a cassette. On his back, sat a radio. They raced to the walls and plugged in the disco ball and radio. Copper slid in the cassette. Catchy disco music filled the air. Beams of light shone everywhere. Cooper and Walle slid into the pool.
"We all ready?" Cooper asked.
"Let's see," Winter said, looking around. "Music, beverages, and food, Disco ball, everyone attending, enough room to get our groove on, yep! That's everything! Let's party while we still have moonlight!"
They didn't need to be told twice. Everyone got into the middle of the pool and started dancing in their own way. Every now and then, someone went to the side of the pool to get a fish or fish shake. Hope swan over to Winter.
"Is this the 'surprise' you told me about earlier?" she asked.
"Yep! We don't do it often because we can almost never get away with it. So it's fun to do it when given the chance! And tonight was a good night to do so," Winter explained.
They partied all night like it was their very first time.
The next morning everyone was back in their pools where they belong. Rufus was at his usual perch by Rehab. All the stuff was put away. Everyone pretended like nothing had happened. The aquarium was going to open in two hours and the employees were starting to arrive.
"Hey, Winter. Hope," Sawyer said when he showed up. "Did you have a good night?"
"Hey..." said Hazel. "Don't they look kind of tired?"
It was true. They were both floating around aimlessly in the pool, eyes droopy.
"Yeah. Maybe they should get more sleep? I don't see what they would do that would make them so tired, though," Sawyer commented.
Winter and Hope smiled at each other and winked.
The End