Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters, but I do own Hannah and her aunt.
"Oh, Hannah!" her aunt gasped. "I didn't expect to see you here!" She glanced at the zookeeper. "Alice, this is my niece, Hannah."
Alice crossed her arms. "We've met," she grunted. Hannah blushed with embarrassment when the zookeeper went on," I had to pull her out of the penguin habitat."
Sarah turned questioningly to Hannah, who ducked her head, awkwardly avoiding eye contact with her aunt.
"Oh." Aunt Sarah sounded surprised but as she addressed Alice again, there was a grateful note to her voice. "Thank you for helping her. But Hannah, what are you doing here? I was going to tell you the surprise tonight."
"What surprise?" Hannah asked, looking back at her aunt, now curious.
"The reason we moved here," Aunt Sarah said. "And why I've been so busy these past weeks. I've been working hard to become a zookeeper in this very zoo. I was going to tell you tonight, but since you're here… Well, I can now tell you, I will be working here every day and you won't have to stay home by yourself anymore. You can spend the day here. Right, Alice?" She glanced at the zookeeper.
"I guess," Alice grumbled. "Just stay out of the habitats," she added, shooting Hannah an annoyed look.
Hannah stared at her aunt. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to be working at a zoo?"
"Nothing was for certain when we moved here," Sarah told her. "I wanted to make sure I would get the job and then I had to go through an apprenticeship which I just finished a couple of days ago. But I was worried if I didn't complete it, I wouldn't get the job and I didn't want to get your hopes up. I'm sorry, sweetie. I just wanted to be hundred percent sure I got the job. And I did! Didn't I?" She turned to Alice again, who nodded.
Hannah was starting to get excited. With her aunt working here, she could spend every day around animals and talking to them. She'd have many friends! She couldn't stop herself from jumping with glee and running over to her aunt, hugging her.
"This is the best news I've ever heard!" she said, pulling away from her aunt. "Can I go exploring the zoo?" she asked.
Her aunt glanced at Alice, and the zookeeper shrugged. "Sure, sweetie," she said, turning back to Hannah. "Just be careful not to fall into any more habitats." She turned to Alice, who gestured for her to follow her.
"Come on, I'll show you where the buckets and shovels are. The elephant enclosure needs cleaning up," the zookeeper said.
"I have work to do, but I'll see you around," Aunt Sarah said to Hannah, and then she and Alice left the gift shop.
Excited, Hannah started to follow them, but she turned her feet back to the penguin habitat. She was barely out the door when she felt a sharp pain in her neck and she blacked out.
Groggy, Hannah slowly became aware of voices. She realized she was laying on a hard surface and when she tried to push herself up, she was startled to find that her hands seemed to be tied and when she tried kicking, she realized her feet were also tied together.
Starting to panic, she realized something was covering her eyes. She thought she had them open, but all she saw was blackness.
"Hello?" she called out, turning her head blindly from side to side. "Is anyone there?"
"She's awake," someone said.
"Yes, I can see that." There was a short pause and then whatever had been covering her eyes was removed and she found herself staring at orange feet, but she was seeing them sideways. She jumped when a face appeared in her vision, and she righted herself as best as she could while still tied up.
She gasped when she realized it was the flat-headed penguin! "Oh, it's you. Uh hello." She wiggled around. "Can-Can you untie me, please?"
"Not until you tell me who you're working for," the penguin growled. "And depending on the answer, we might not untie you at all." He didn't give her a chance to respond. "Are you working for Dr. Blowhole? Why am I even asking? Of course you are! The real question is what do you want? And why are you here? To spy on us, obviously!" he answered his own question, his glare sharpening. "Well?" he said after only a moment's pause to catch his breath.
She stared at him, half sitting up. "I-I'm not working for anyone!" she gasped. She grunted as she pushed herself to a more comfortable position. He gave her a disbelieving look, and she tried not to panic. "Really, I'm not. I'm just able to talk to animals. Don't ask me how," she said, noticing the look on the tall penguin's face, obviously about to ask her that very question. The other three penguins stood nearby, eyeing Hannah and the flat-headed penguin with a mix of worry, curiosity, and interest.
"Because I don't know how I'm able to do it," she insisted. "For as long as I was able to talk, I could understand and communicate with animals. I promise I'm not working for anyone." She glanced at the flat-headed penguin, who still glared at her, mistrust in his eyes.
The tall penguin went over to him and whispered something to him. As they spoke quietly together, Hannah noticed the small penguin was standing beside her.
"Hello," he said, and she realized he had a British accent. "I'm Private. And that over there is Rico." He gestured to the penguin with a mohawk who watched the other two talking. "The tall one is Kowalski, and our leader is Skippah. What's your name?"
"Hannah," the human said, smiling at him. He seemed really nice, and she wondered if he could untie her. But before she could ask him, the leader and Kowalski turned back to her.
"Okay. I'm going to believe you for now that you're not working for anyone," said the flat-headed penguin, Skippah as the British penguin called him. She thought that name was too cute for the tough leader. But she didn't want to point that out. "But I'm going to keep a close eye on you," Skippah went on, eyeing her with suspicion. "What are you doing at my zoo anyways?"
"My aunt just got a job here," Hannah explained. She glanced around at the penguins. "Can you untie me now?" she asked.
Skippah waved his flipper and immediately Private and Rico rushed forward to untie her. Once she was free, she stretched and stood up. "Thank you, Skippah."
Immediately the flat-headed penguin's eyes hardened and she heard Kowalski gasp while Private tried to hide that he was laughing. Hannah was confused.
"What did I say?" she asked.
"The name is SkippER," the penguin growled, pronouncing the last of his name with an annoyed tone.
"Oh." Hannah blushed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, SkippER."
The flat-headed penguin rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Come, boys. Let's get back to our habitat before someone notices our absence."
They all turned to leave, but Hannah called them back. They paused and looked at her.
"I have so many questions," Hannah said, stepping closer to them.
"I'm not answering any questions so don't even ask." Skipper glared at her. "I said I decided that you're not working for someone, but I don't know for certain and I'm not risking our secrets by answering any of your questions. Rico?" The leader turned to the one with the mohawk and in a flash he coughed up something and suddenly the room was filled with smoke.
Coughing and waving the smoke away, Hannah was disappointed when she saw that they had gone. She sighed, wishing they had stayed, but apparently they wanted nothing to do with her.
But there's a whole zoo for me to explore and hopefully make friends! she thought, brightening. She needed a map of the zoo. That was the first thing she needed to do, to see where all the exhibits were. Deciding to go back to the gift shop, she forced herself to cheer up. The penguins might not want to be her friends, but maybe other animals would want to be.
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