Naia's POV

The days turned into weeks and soon, March had come.

And I haven't gotten into trouble yet.

Nate kept joking that I was bound to get into something soon but I'd just shoot him a look. I intended on keeping this trouble-free streak going. Some might say that trouble made life exciting but I had enough of the word "exciting" for this lifetime.

It was a warm Saturday day. A little too warm for March to be honest. It was strange, but I decided to take advantage of it and accept Nate's invitation to go to Millennium Park with his family.

Gabby and Matt had a shift that day anyways so I wouldn't have had much to do besides lounge around the firehouse all day.

"Thanks for inviting me," I said to Nate's parents on our way to the park. Celine, Nate's mom was driving, and Anthony, Nate's dad was in the passenger seat. I was squished in between Nate and Sophie in the back.

"No problem!" Celine smiled at me through the rearview mirror, "The more the merrier."

When we got to Millennium Park, it was packed, probably because it was a warm day.

"I'll drop you off here and then I'll meet you at the Cloud Gate," Anthony said as he pulled over, "No point in all of us trying to get a parking spot."

And so we all got out of the car and I made sure I had a tight grip on Sophie's hand.

We made our way to the Cloud Gate where there were a lot of people, most of them taking pictures.

Even though I had lived in Chicago my whole life, I had never been to Millennium Park before this and had never seen the Cloud Gate in person so I took a moment to just admire the piece of art this city was so well known for.

"I'm bored," Sophie whined, tugging on my hand. I looked away from the giant figure and down at the little girl.

"We just have to wait for your dad, and then we can go," I reasoned and Sophie nodded, satisfied with that answer.

For now.

She was five. Standing around wasn't going to entertain her for long.

"Let's play a game," Nate said to his little sister, and I looked over at him, wondering what game he had in mind. "Let's play I Spy."

Well, that worked for a little bit but after a while, Sophie got tired of that game and we were back at square one.

"Can we go to the playground?" She begged, using her five-year-old puppy eyes. "Please?"

"We have to wait for Daddy to come," Celine told Sophie, "And then we can go to the playground."

"What if Naia and I took her," Nate suggested, "Then you wait for Dad and then when he comes, you guys can come to get us at the playground."

Celine seemed to contemplate that idea and she looked skeptical to let three kids wander around Millennium Park. Mind you, we weren't wandering. We were merely going to take Sophie to the playground.

"We won't go anywhere else," Nate added, "Straight to the playground."

Sophie made her way over to her mom, "Please, please, please, please, please."

Finally, Celine nodded, "Alright, but you guys stay together. Which playground are you going to?"

"The one that we always take Sophie to," Nate replied. It was obvious that they've been here more than once.

"You guys have to stay together."

Nate and I nodded while Sophie squealed with delight.

She started running off but I made a quick grab and managed to snatch her tiny hand.

"Hold on Soph," I said, pulling her to my side. Nate took her other hand and then waved with his free hand at his mom before we walked off.

I didn't know where we were going. Sophie evened seem to have a better understanding of where we were headed so I just followed her and Nate's lead.

At some point, the figure of a playground came into view and we picked up our pace, mainly because Sophie was dragging us to go faster.

"Can we go on the swings?" Sophie asked, pointing over to an empty swing.

"Sure," Nate replied and we led her over to the swing set where she got on and demanded at Nate push her.

Nate raised an eyebrow, "What do you say?"

"Please? Please, please please please?" Sophie added, flashing her puppy eyes.

"Okay, hold on tight," Nate said and started pushing Sophie who giggled in delight as she swung in the air.

I laughed at the siblings before looking around the park. There were plenty of people here today because of the strangely warm weather. There were kids that were Sophie's age running around the playground. People were walking around, some had sprawled out in the field on blankets.

"What are you thinking about?" Nate asked me, looking over at me totally zoned out.

I looked over at him, confused, "What?"

Nate chuckled, "What are you thinking about? You have that look on your face."

"Oh, I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just looking around," I replied honestly. "I've never been to Millennium Park before."

"We come here all the time, especially during the summer," Nate said as he gave Sophie another push.

I made a goofy face at him, "Alright then mister. Just have to rub it in my face."

We both knew I was joking so we had a good laugh over that.

Once Sophie got bored with the swings, we tried to keep her entertained by chasing her around on the playground and helping her climb the monkey bars. After a while, she got tired of all the physical activity and we all settled down in the sandpit while Sophie made "food" from the sand.

I'm not going to lie, all the food she made looked the same but we just went with it.

"Parking must be really hard to find if Dad still hasn't found a spot yet," Nate commented, looking down at the watch he was wearing.

I opened my mouth to agree but was interrupted by the first gunshot.