Author's Note:
Okay… for those of you who think I am dead… I am very much alive! I am aware that I haven't updated in FOREVER and I feel so guilty about that. School really took its toll on me, and I apologize for keeping you all waiting. From now on I will try to keep up with my stories and I promise that updates will be more frequent from now on. I love you all!
I'm not exactly sure what encouraged Skipper to let me go on a mission with them, but it was probably the most fun I've had since I've been in New York. I couldn't exactly help myself when Skipper, Kowalski and Private invited me. The look on Skipper's face was comical! You could really see my excitement just by looking at his expression.
What really bums me out, though, it that Skipper is incredibly hard to read sometimes. I couldn't really tell if he was glad to have me on the team or not. But then again, if he didn't want me to go on the mission, why would he have turned to me in the first place?
I was just thrilled overall whether Skipper liked it or not. I didn't really pay attention to his thoughts about it until it was time to go on the mission. Seeing the penguins in action… it really gave me a good idea of what they do in their free time. I knew that they were all about military and stuff, but who knew they were so flexible?
It sounded pretty simple when they went over the plans. I was really nervous when Skipper mentioned going outside of the zoo. Last time I went outside of the zoo walls, it didn't exactly go so well… but that's a different story. After he said that he and I were going to help out the animals safe inside the zoo, my nervousness evaporated, but my excitement stayed linked to me like a second shadow.
As Skipper showed me the list of animals we were going to help out that day, we were both surprised to see that Joey was the first on the list. Skipper muttered something about batteries and Julien, but I didn't exactly catch the rest.
As it turned out, his gate was jammed up in the wheels that made the belt turn. Neither Skipper nor Joey had the correct tools, but I happened to have some stored in my habitat. After a little tweaking, the gate was good as new again.
I knew that Joey was one of the most violent animals in the zoo, and when he literally kicked Skipper out of the habitat, I was scared he would do the same to me. But when he led me to the door that we just fixed, I was pretty relieved. I guess even a tough guy like Joey had rules about not hitting women.
One thing that I learned today is that elephants are wimps… and they can be extremely dangerous to be around. I really don't know how the humans do it. How can such a huge animal be afraid of a little mouse? While Skipper was chasing the mouse around the habitat, Burt went psycho and started to trample right toward me. For a moment I was frozen in fear, with my entire body on lockdown.
Thankfully, Skipper saw just in time. He yanked me out of the way before I could become an otter pancake. And here's the embarrassing part… instead of landing beside me, he ending up on top of me. Even though I was immensely grateful he saved me, I still couldn't help but be frightened by Burt. What if he got freaked out again and trampled us both? But that thought could hardly compare to how I felt when I looked into Skipper's ice-blue eyes. It almost took my attention away from the blush that overtook his face.
By the time he helped me get back to my feet, I was so overjoyed to be alive. I leapt at him without thinking and embraced him… rather tightly. I don't know what he thought about my hug, but I knew how I felt about it.
After I finally let him go, he stuffed a rock into the mouse's hole so that he couldn't bother Burt anymore. I was so thankful when we finally got out of that deathtrap.
While I tried to mutter an apology to Skipper, Julien interrupted us. He always manages to get in the way somehow. Apparently, he actually needed help. While the lemurs were bouncing on their Bouncy, the air cap came off. While we were completely stunned on how to fix it, I remembered I had an air pump in my habitat that could take care of the job. As it turned out I was a really big help to the mission. I think Skipper was a little suspicious of why I had all of those tools in the first place, though.
While I watched Skipper mark off the last of the animals, it became harder and harder to keep a smile on my face. I really wanted to spend more time with Skipper to get to know him more, but he said that he had some business to take care of at the HQ. Not to mention Kowalski and Private were back. I think my salute to him and the fact that I ran covered up my disappointment.
I was thrilled that he entrusted me enough to let me come on the mission, and I really hope we can spend more time together soon, but next time I hope it'll be just because he wants to be with me.
