Day 4: Any date of your choice
Riley drags Maya to the aquarium. Chaos [doesn't] ensue.
Like I'm never been to the planetarium, plus that's Riarkle's thing. and I'm taking Zoology, though I know stuff because seahorses are my favorite, we haven't learned about them yet. This current unit has starfish, and we're dissecting one of those starting thursday (1/12).
And it's stupid that I haven't been to the Planetarium when it's only an hour away. But I'm going into Pre-Veterinary when I go to college in the fall, just like Lucas.
"Maya, Maya, Maya!" Riley jumped up and down excitedly.
Maya looked up from her phone. "What?" Her mom had just texted her. "The aquarium has a free day today!" Riley cheered. "It doesn't open until 9, so we have plenty of time to go!" She grinned. Her and Maya had been waken up by a thunderstorm, so they were up really early. It had stopped raining shortly after they woke up, and it wasn't expected to start again until that night.
"What's at the aquarium?" Maya asked Riley, know that almost anything could have gotten her so excited. "A lot of things. Fish, dolphins, seahorses…" Riley giggled. Maya gave Riley a puzzled look. "What's so special about seahorses? Unless you're talking about the guy carrying the eggs." She wondered, so tired she didn't know exactly what she was talking about.
"No, not that. And you're not going to find out until we go to the aquarium." Riley laughed. She was so happy ever since they came out to their group of friends, whom has already known, like Maya expected. Though it was nice to actually admit it so that they could be more openly affectionate to each other. Their parents had figured it out soon after, and they were happy. The only new stipulation for sleepovers was that they had to keep the door to their room open whenever Auggie or Maya's sisters were awake.
"Fine, I'll go to the aquarium with you." Maya chuckled. "Yay!" Riley hugged Maya. Maya looked up as she sawa disheveled, unshaven Cory approach the doorway. "Jeez Mr. Matthews." Maya looked at him. "Be quiet, you'll wake Auggie." Cory hissed before starting to walk away.
"Wait daddy!" Riley said. Cory turned and looked at her. "Could we have some money so that we can see the dolphin show and get lunch at the aquarium?" Riley asked him. "I guess. Just let me get my wallet." Cory grumbled. "Thank you daddy." Riley said before he walked away again.
~***GMW***~
When Rilaya (their friends had given them a ship name…) finally got to the aquarium, Riley made a beeline for the exhibit that had the most seahorses, dragging Maya with her. Go figure. Maya thought, following Riley. Riley quickly pointed out a purplish colored seahorse that had a slightly lighter colored, rounded belly. "Look!" Riley smiled at Maya. Maya help as smile at Riley's childish actions. It was kinda adorable, in it's own special way.
"Yes Riley, that seahorse is very pretty." Maya agreed, taking out her sketchbook. "And very fat." Riley giggled at Maya's comment. "And do you know why he's so fat?" Maya thought for a moment. "No, why?" She asked Riley. "Because he's pregnant." Riley grinned. "But he's a male." Maya stared at her. Riley laughed. "Peaches, you know that he's not pregnant in the traditional sense, the female deposits the eggs into his pouch." She explained.
"Why are you telling me this?" Maya was really confused now. Riley knew that science wasn't her favorite subject, nor math. Riley's face broke out into a grin. "Because silly, some species of seahorses mate for life, and even if they don't, the female still takes care of the male throughout the entire pregnancy." Riley smiled widely, grinning at Maya. Maya still didn't get it. "Is there something you're not telling me? Did I get you pregnant somehow? Did you get Huckleberry to donate sperm?" She couldn't tell you how confused she was.
Riley rolled her eyes, grabbing one of Maya's hands. "No Maya, I'm not pregnant. We're both girls, and we're still in high school. It means that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don't want anything to happen to us like your parents, or my grandparents on my mom's side. I want us to be honey and peaches, together forever. Even if something happens and we're just friends. Which I hope doesn't happen." Riley rambled on, kissing Maya when she was done rambling as the crowd that has gathered around them cheered.
Maya was shocked. She almost (key word being almost) didn't kiss Riley back. It had looked to her like Riley was going to propose, when they were only seniors in high school at that point. Maya just laughed at the irony when the butterflies in her stomach settled down. "I love you." She whispered. Riley just giggled. "I love you."
One big step at a time.
Wow. I was very worried I wasn't going to get this done before midnight. (12/1 central time). Now after I post this everywhere, time for my choir homework.
Riley's childishness with pointing out the seahorses is based on what I do all the time, with aunts, birds, stray cats (our neighborhoods has tons of them, and we even adopted one), people walking dogs etc. Although I am on the autism spectrum like Farkle would be, and Riley is not.