It was a beautiful Monday morning in Central Park. Fred was enjoying the taste of his breakfast nut, when he heard someone was calling him.
He went up to the hole of his tree and looked outside. Down there was Antonio.
"Hey Fred!" he said. "What's up?"
"Up? The sky. And…" He looked up. "Leaves"
Antonio smiled. Fred had such a sense of humour. "Have you done anything recently?"
"Eat my breakfast."
Antonio chuckled. "I meant something like going out somewhere… different"
"No, not really"
"Me neither. Sometimes I get tired of playing my Spanish guitar and wish I could meet someone new. I'm not as lucky as you, amigo"
"What do you mean?"
"You met a girl once, remember?"
"Oh" Fred said, "that squirrel. She wasn't great. She only laughed at everything I said"
"Can you describe her anyway?"
"She had very big brown eyes, and her fur was like yours"
"Like mine?" Antonio's heart started beating fast. "Did she have a tail like yours?"
"Mmm, let me think… no, she didn't. That's weird."
"Then she wasn't a squirrel!" Antonio cried happily. "She was an otter, like me! Was she from the zoo?"
"Umm, I think she was"
"Then I must go and meet her! Ahora! Adios, amigo!"
"Bye" said Fred.
Antonio picked up his Spanish guitar and hurried to the zoo. "Espero tener suerte", he thought to himself. "I hope she's still there and she likes Spanish guitar".
Meanwhile, at the otter habitat…
Marlene was happily hanging some flowers in her habitat. It was spring, and they were beautiful.
She finished decoration around her bed and looked up at the flowers. They were roses, her favourite. The kind of flower she'd like to be given by a boy…
Unconsciously, her mind went back to her date with Fred months ago. It had been a total failure. From the beginning she hadn't liked the idea. When Private took her blindfolded to the penguin's HQ telling her they had a surprise for her, she didn't know what to think. But after Kowalski explained what they were planning to do, she felt it wasn't quite right.
At first, Fred seemed to be a very funny guy, always telling jokes. She had begun to think he may actually be her dream date, and when the lemurs kidnapped him, she felt such anger she could have killed Julien. However, after she and the penguins rescued him, Marlene realized that he had never been joking when he spoke. He really was… well… stupid. So she dumped him.
Her mind went back to the present. Forget it, she told herself. You'll find the right guy one day. Then she realized she had run out of tulips, and she wanted to put some outside. Tulips grew just next to the entrance, so after checking no humans were around, she headed there.
She was so concentrated in picking up the best flowers she didn't see the figure that passed by her side. When she started walking towards her habitat, she wasn't looking forward; she was looking at the tulips. Suddenly she crashed against something dark and furry.
