Alright, here is part two. Thanks for being so patient with me!


Everyone laughed at Caitlyn as they grabbed the food and sat down at some nearby tables. When they were done eating, Nate left to throw everything away. He looked at watch and saw that it was almost 1:30 in the afternoon. Up ahead, he saw the bathroom, and decided to make a quick stop before returning.

Nate walked inside the stall, and sat down, taking care of business. As he did, he realized someone was in the stall next to him. Nate looked down and saw Mark's big feet and black shoes. He immediately started to get nervous. It was still early; they still had a lot more they wanted to do at the zoo. He didn't want to leave yet. Nate then heard Mark mutter, "Damn kids," and leave the bathroom. Nate finished up and left the stall, then stood next to the bathroom door where he heard Mark and someone else talking.

"Yes, sir. I will be glad to help you look for them. Do you want me to notify all security guards?" a voice asked.

"No, no," Mark answered. "I was given clear orders not to cause a scene or anything. It may come to that later, but for now, I'm sure you and I can find them. They're just a group of teenagers dressed up in ridculous costumes. How hard can they be to find?"

The two voices walked away. Nate whipped out his walkie-talkie and urgently commanded, "Run! Everybody run! Now! Meet at kids' play area!" He opened the door to see which way the security guard and Mark were heading. However, they were no where in sight. Nate decided to start making his way to the children's play area, which was on the other side of the park. He was afraid of running into one of the two people looking for them, so he took the path which ran through the jungle area to stay hidden. He stopped running as he saw a kid holding a bunch of maps of the zoo. "Hey, kid. I'll give you twenty bucks for all the maps," Nate offered.

"They're free at the front," the kid said.

"Which makes twenty bucks a pretty good offer, huh?" Nate asked. The kid handed him the maps, and Nate gave him the money. He took a quick look at one of the maps too see where he was going. When Nate finally arrived at the kids play area, he couldn't see his friends anywhere.

"Psssst, Nate!" he heard. "Down here!"

Nate bent down to the play igloo where the voices were coming from. He crawled through the opening and saw all four people inside. He crammed himself in, too. Luckily, the igloo was pretty big.

"That was really close," Nate said, catching his breath. "Mark was right by where we were. He was in the bathroom stall next to me."

"Yeah, we saw him," Mitchie said.

Nate took a deep breath. "He was talking to some guy. Only Mark and one security guard know to look for us, no one else does. So we only have to avoid two people in this huge place."

"That was kind of fun," Caitlyn commented.

"Hey the fun doesn't have to end," Jason pointed out. "There's still this whole play area."

"I call swings!" Mitchie yelled, scrambling out of the igloo. "Jason, hold my purse?'

"Yeah, Jason, can you hold these maps?" Nate asked, handing the maps to him.

"While you're at it…" Caitlyn smiled and took of her heels, handing them to Jason.

Jason laughed and walked over to the shaded bench where he could watch his friends, setting everyone's things down. Mitchie was swinging, and Shane was pushing her. Caitlyn was sliding down the slide, and Nate was playing "peek-a-boo" with some kids in a log. He enjoyed seeing Nate act his age for once, and having so much fun. Normally Nate was so sensible, and today it seemed that he was just acting like a normal teenager. Jason's attention turned, however, to a little girl crying by the alligator structure. He walked over a knelt down next to her.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I… hurt… my… knee…" the little girl sniffed, starting to cry.

"Awww, poor thing, let me see," Jason said sympathetically, looking at the girl's bloody knee. "That must hurt, huh? Do you want a band-aid?"

The girl's tear stained face nodded. Jason ran over to Mitchie's bag and grabbed some water and a green band-aid which he saw her put in earlier. Jason walked back over to the girl, smiling, and said, "I'm just going to pour some water on it, okay?" He opened the water bottled and washed the blood off her knee, drying it with a napkin. He then showed the girl the band-aid. "Do you like it? It's green. Do you like green?"

The little girl nodded.

"Me too," Jason said, putting the band aid on. "There you go. Does it still hurt?"

The girl meekly sniffed, "Yeah," and pouted.

"Okay, we are going to do something to make it magically feel better, ok? Do exactly what I do. Clap"—he clapped and the little girl followed—"put your hands in the air"—they both lifted up their hands—"touch your nose"—the little girl started to smile a bit as she did this—"give me a high five"—she touched her little hand to his—"and now give me a funny face!" The little girl stuck her tongue out at Jason as he squished his lips together in a fishy face.

"Feel better?" Jason asked. The little girl nodded. "Okay, go play."

Jason got up, turning around to see Caitlyn standing behind him. He tried to hide that he was blushing a little. "How did you do that?" she asked hm.

Jason realized what she was talking about and replied, "Oh, well, you just sort of have to get their mind off where it hurts, I guess."

"You seem so… natural with them. I wish I had that," Caitlyn admitted. "It's kind of why I don't think I could ever be a mother. I don't think I have that ability to be like a big teddy bear for them."

"I'm sure if you did ever have a kid, you'd be a great mother," Jason offered. The two them smiled at each other and walked off to the slides.

Nate, Mitchie, and Shane all joined them soon. The sun was almost about to go down when Nate said, "I really am surprised we haven't been caught yet. I think one of us should go try and find where they are."

"How?" Shane asked.

"The cell phones," Mitchie realized. "We can go find one and see where it says Mark is."

"I hid mine in the arctic place by the polar bears. Let's go check that one. It's right over there," Nate suggested.

Everybody grabbed their things and ran over to the circular arctic center. As they entered, Mitchie noticed the penguins and ran over to them.

"I'll go get the cell, you guys can look at penguins," Nate said, rolling his eyes. He ran to the other side of the center and bent down to get the cell phone. He pressed the button to see where Mark was. He looked around the zoo map. His heart stopped when he realized that Mark was… Nate suddenly felt a rough pair of hands on his shoulders.

"I have been looking for you goddamn kids all day. We are leaving, now!" Mark yelled.

"No, wait, I…" Nate stammered.

"Where are your little friends?" Mark asked, looking around.

"They… I… uhh... you se—" his words were cut off by the sound of his walkie-talkie saying, "Hey, Nate, we just saw Mark coming. Better run. Meet us at the end of the park, by the flamingos."

"Ah, well that worked out well, didn't it?" Mark asked.

"Hey, you can't do this!" Nate yelled, struggling to break free.

"I can do whatever I want to! I was not hired by you; I was hired by your manager, Mr. Carlton. I take orders from him, not you. And my orders were to make sure you stayed at the zoo only for a little while, enough to have some fun, and then leave. And guess what? A little while ended a couple hours ago. So it's time to go get your friends. Now!"

"Wait!" Nate jerked.

Mark paused. "What?"

"I have to go to the bathroom!" Nate whined. "I'm going to go in my pants if I can't go now. Please, Mark! I really have to go!" He crossed his legs.

"Fine, you have two minutes. And if you try anything…" Mark grabbed his collar and walked him over to the bathroom. Before letting Nate go in he said, "Give me your walkie-talkie. The only thing you will be doing in there is peeing." Nate reluctantly handed it to him and went inside.

One in the stall, Nate looked around for anything to help him. He had no idea what to do. Why did his friends talk on the walkie-talkie? Their day was going to be over soon because of their stupidity. He suddenly heard a knock on the upper window. He climbed up on the toilet seat and forced it open.

"Caitlyn!" He whispered. "Boy, am I glad to see you. How can you get me out of here? Mark is right there outside the door."

"Squeeze through the window," she said urgently. We will catch you." Caitlyn got down off of Shane's shoulders as Nate tried squeezing through the window.

"Almost done in there?" Mark asked through the door.

"Yeah, yeah," Nate assured him, and finally forced himself out of the tiny window. Eight pairs of hands caught him. They then all ran up the hill to the reptile house.

Once inside, Nate hugged them all. "You're amazing. But we really should leave soon."

"I'm sad," Mitchie said. "This has been such a fun day. I can't believe it's almost over. We haven't even seen most of the animals."

"Hey, before we leave, let's all just run around the park. We will run and look at all the animals in their cages, and then we will leave," Jason suggested.

"Yeah, sounds good. We will follow you, Jason," Shane offered. "Go!"

Mitchie, Caitlyn, Shane, and Nate all took off after Jason. It took them about an hour of running through random animal houses to finish looking at them all. They ended in the middle of the park, out of breath.

"Time… to… leave," Caitlyn said, completely out of air.

"Yeah… we've got to go. One last run to the entrance, huh?" Shane said.

"We should take the aquarium and garden area to get there. Easier to hide," Mitchie suggested.

They all agreed and rushed down into the aquarium. They walked under the archway where all the fish swam over their heads, while Mitchie paused for a second to look at one particular fish.

"What's up, babe?" Shane asked her, leaving the rest of the group.

"Do you ever wonder if they get bored here? Having such a simple life?" Mitchie asked. "Maybe they like the simplicity, or maybe they just couldn't take that much excitement, or maybe they feel content because they don't know about everything else there is to do or maybe—"

"Mitchie," Shane interrupted. "We've got to go catch up with everyone now."

Mitchie laughed. "Right, sorry. Let's go." She grabbed his hands and they ran to the end of the aquarium. Once they caught up with everyone, they all ran up the steps and into the zoo's botanical gardens.

Mitchie grabbed Caitlyn's arm and started skipping through the grass with her. Observing this, Shane shook his head. Sometimes, he just couldn't understand chicks. Finally, all five reached the exit of the park. It was almost completely dark, so everyone quickly made their way down to the taxi spot. This time, they got in the bigger taxi, so they didn't have to squeeze. Mitchie and Shane sat in the middle seat, and everyone else sat in the far back. An exhausted Mitchie then put her head on Shane's chest as he wrapped his arm around her.

"This day has been awesome," Jason commented, closing his eyes.

"Perfect," Caitlyn agreed. "But if you think I am ever wearing this crap again, you are sadly mistaken. I'll be the emo chick next time, okay?" Everyone laughed.

"I wonder what Mark is doing right now. He was kind of a jerk," Nate said.

"Yeah, well, I doubt he will want to be our bodyguard after this," Jason said, giving Nate a high five.

When they finally pulled up to the hotel, Connect Three's manager was waiting in the lobby. "Thank god you're all okay. You are all okay, right?" He asked with slight worry.

"Yeah, yeah," Nate said. "We're fine. Why do you ask?"

"I've been trying to call your cell phones all day!" Mr. Carlton said. "Apparently, Mark is being arrested. He steals things from the people he works for! We went through his suitcases and found some of your guys' valuables!"

"Not the least big surprised," Caitlyn laughed, and then stopped when she saw the manager glaring at her. "Good pick, by the way."

"Yeah, nice one," Shane said, jokingly patting Mr. Carlton on the shoulder.

"So do you have some room keys for us?" Jason asked.

"Yes, I do. But why on earth are you dressed like that? Really, now. That's just embarrassing. You know what? I actually don't want to know. Just be safe. Here are the room keys. Gentlemen are in suite 1047, and ladies in suite 1048." Their manager handed them the keys. "I will be in the room across from both of yours if you need anything. Which you won't since I am going to sleep. Good night."

Shane looked at the clock. It read 8:09. "Okay, everybody follow me." Shane led them out to the gigantic hotel pool, which was complete with a waterslide and waterfall. It was completely isolated. "Who gets thrown in?" He asked.

"I don't know. I think we all broke our character," Jason said.

"Yeah, especially Mitchie," Nate laughed. "I don't think it's possible for you to go that long without smiling. I do, however, think the lovely Caitlyn, even though she hates us by now, did a wonderful job of staying in character. And of not killing every guy that stared at her boobs and ass."

"I say we all jump in, together," Caitlyn suggested, ignoring Nate's comment. "From the top of the waterfall."

"Let's do it," Mitchie agreed. "No swimsuits or anything. We should just jump in like we are."

There were stairs leading to the top of the waterfall, and each person slowly made their way to the peak. Once everyone was up, Shane grabbed Mitchie's hand, who grabbed Caitlyn's hand, who grabbed Nate's hand, who grabbed Jason's hand.

"Ready?" Caitlyn asked.

"One," Jason started.

"Two," said Shane.

"Three!" Everyone shouted unanimously. They ran to the edge and jumped in, not breaking hands the entire time. Eventually, everyone surfaced again. Mitchie's wig floated off, and her dark make-up washed off until she had no make-up on. Nate's fake mustache came off in the water, as well. Everyone started splashing around, and laughing. Mitchie tried to get out once, but was immediately thrown back into the water. Nate attempted to tackle Shane, who turned it back on him.

Once everyone started to calm down a bit, they swam over to the edge of the pool and sat on it, watching the pool move.

"So this was it," Caitlyn said calmly.

"The perfect ending to the perfect day," Jason added in.

Nate laughed. "Not including the bodyguard who's getting arrested."

"Nah, that just made it even more exciting," Shane laughed.

"Back to touring, signing autographs, never being able to step three feet out of anywhere," Mitchie said.

Jason shrugged. "But you know, I wouldn't trade our life for anything. Even though it can get hard at times, it's all worth it."

"Exactly," Shane agreed. "It's always worth it. Even though it's definitely a fun change to get away from it all, and not have people constantly staring at you."

"Umm, we were dressed fairly oddly. People were still staring," Mitchie laughed. "But I know what you mean."

"Alright wet people," Nate said, laughing. "It's getting pretty late. We should go to bed. We've got a big Los Angeles concert tomorrow."

"Party killer," Caitlyn joked, and pushed him in the pool again.

"I can't believe you did that!" Nate said, offended. "Help me up?"

Caitlyn gave him her hand, and he pulled her in, too. The second part of the water war was back on. Mitchie laughed as she realized no one was going to bed at a reasonable time. But that was okay. Like they said—it was worth it.


Oh… my… god… that was so freaking long! Fourteen pages. Lol, I really wasn't planning on making it that long, I just had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I kept thinking of new things that would be enjoyable to write and hopefully to read. Part of why I put this in was because I wanted to show how close they all were becoming. I also wanted people to be like "Aww, yay! Look, everyone's happy!" because it won't last for long. Haha, how sad. But it's true. And no worries, this is still a Smitchie story. Even though I go on fun tangents like this, and I explore some friendships and flirting, it will still always focus on them. The next chapter, for example, is pretty much all about them and their current relationship. And of course, it has to have some drama. Everything is just getting too perfect for them.

By the way, thanks for the reviews, you guys. I seriously cannot explain how much your reviews mean to me. If you have comments, suggestions, or things you do or don't like, I love to hear it. I write to entertain people, so if I'm not doing that, let me know. And I'll go cry. Haha, just kidding! I just had a special moment, wow. Thanks, again!