Hi everyone it's Maddy here! I hope you guys enjoy my first story on this account, if you haven't read my other stories on my second account then just search Artemis's Daughter 01 or click the link in my bio. If you read my bio then it'll explain why I have two accounts and why this story is on my top priority.

I hope you enjoy the first chapter of Love Unexpected!

"Mason hurry up!" Kelly shouted from her car which she had parked at the curb of the school. I just huffed as I picked up my books that had dropped on the ground before running towards where she was parked and jumping in the back seat. "What took you so long, I told you that you had to come to the zoo with me today." She said and I just shrugged as I looked out the window. There was no way in hell that I was going to tell her why I had spent more time than normal in that horrid place called school.

You see, I had caught a glimpse of the new boy in my homeroom and I had instantly became curious as to who he was. I mean he was basically perfect in my book, he had messy brown hair that fell just over his eyes and he had the warmest brown eyes that I had seen in my entire life. He had that whole bad boy appearance to him but for some reason I knew that he wasn't really like that even though that's the vibe he radiated.

Kelly had told me about him, apparently her new boyfriend was his dad, and her new boyfriend was the owner of the zoo that she worked at. I knew that they had moved into the house at the zoo in the beginning of summer, but today was the first day of school and it was the first I had seen of the elusive Mee family that Kelly talked so much about.

"You're gonna love these guys." She told me as we pulled into the driveway of the zoo. I had come here all the time before the Mee's moved in, but after they had taken residance at the zoo Kelly had gotten busier and I found myself sitting at home for basically the entire summer. Wishing that my cousin had the time to just take me to the zoo with her. "Dylan's your age by the way." She said, even though it was information that I had received about twenty times before.

"Kelly you've told me this a million times." I muttered as I stepped out of the car and looked around at the familiar landscape of the zoo that I loved so much, "I missed this place so much." I muttered and Kelly smiled as she reached into a bag that was sitting on the passenger seat and pulled out a khaki colored shirt.

"Here, you've basically grown up here, I think you'll be fine showing a few people around the place." She said and a huge smile spread across my face as I gently took the shirt from her hands and looked at it. Right on the name tag was my name stitched into the patch, this was real, and it was a dream come true. "Come on, put it on quick and I'll introduce you to Benjamin and his kids." She said and I smiled as I shrugged the shirt on over my grey t-shirt and ran with her towards the actual zoo part of the property.

"Hey it's the mini Foster!" I heard Robin shout and I smirked as I saw him and his monkey Crystal standing with Peter MacCreedy and a man that I didn't recognize. I assumed that was Benjamin considering his shirt had his name on it, but beside him as a little girl with curly red hair and the cutest smile int he world. "We were wondering when you would be back." Robin said as I stopped beside him and I smiled as I looked around at the others.

"Hey it's not my fault Kelly wouldn't let me come this summer." I said, "I'm Mason Foster, Kelly's cousin." I said as I saw Benjamin looking pretty confused as to who I was and he smiled as I finally gave him the information as to who I was.

"Nice to meet you, this is Rosie." He said and I smiled as I gave the little girl a wave.

"You wanna go see the peacocks?" She asked excitedly and I laughed as I nodded and a huge smile spread across her adorable little face before she grabbed my hand and started running back towards the house where I saw a small pen set up. I thought I heard chirping coming from over there.

"I'll need you by the front gates in twenty minutes Mase!" Kelly shouted and I gave her a thumbs up behind my back before running after Rosie. She was really excited about these peacocks wasn't she?

"This is peaches." Rosie said while leaning down and scooping up a tiny bird before showing her to me and I smiled as I gently ran a finger down the little birds head. I was so happy that the animals finally had someone to make their lives better, when there wasn't an owner to the zoo we barely got by on what we had.

"You're doing a great job taking care of them." I said as she sat down on the grass and let the little birds scurry around her. She sent me a smile before going back to laughing at the little birds who were running around her legs.

"You should meet my brother, he looks like he's your age." She said without looking up at me and I smiled before nodding, "You would like him, he likes to draw to." she said and I raised an eyebrow at her as I wondered how she knew that I liked to draw, "It's all over your arms, I thought it was really pretty." She said and I smiled as I looked down at my inked skin.

Over the course of the day I had taken my sharpie that I had with me everywhere I went and started drawing this design that came to my mind. It was a design that looked like branches spreading from my wrist and up my forearm. I loved the look of it considering it was done in all black sharpie and had a tiny bird drawn in the branches.

Kellly didn't like that I drew on myself all the time, but I always took a quick picture of it if I liked it and then scrubbed it off so there was no evidence of ink design that was on my skin. This one I was planning on keeping for a few days though, I loved it and it was some of my best work.

"Well then Rosie, would you like to introduce me to your brother?" I asked and her eyes lit up as she nodded rapidly and hopped up on her feet, scaring the peacock chicks half to death, before stepping over the little wire fence and running off towards the zoo again. I couldn't help but laugh as I ran after her and towards the entrance to the zoo.

"Dylan!" She shouted and I felt my stomach erupt in butterflies as she stopped in front of her brother who had a smile on his face as he saw his little sister, "This is Kelly's cousin." She said excitedly and I smiled shyly as I stopped beside her and in front of Dylan who looked like he recognized me.

"You're in my grade aren't you?" He asked and I nodded with a smile on my face, but instead of seeming disgusted that I was here, I don't know why I thought he would do that, he smiled, "Cool, I'm Dylan." He said and I smiled as I shook his hand.

"I'm Mason."

So there it is, I hope you guys like the first chapter and don't forget to REVIEW! and leave me your comments and your opinions because it helps me so much when you do tell me what you're thinking while reading these stories.

New chapter will hopefully be up soon, thanks for reading!