It was hard to sleep. My alarm clock's annoying neon glare shouted into the darkness. It was one o'clock. I'd be tired for the zoo tomorrow. Whatever, it's not like the Giraffes would care. They didn't judge. 

Speaking of judging...

I thought of my mother's reaction to Morgan. She'd played nice at first, asking her how she was and how her summer was going, but eventually the cheery false conversation had stuttered to a halt, and Mom shot her critical, tight lipped glances in the rear view mirror. It wasn't surprising, since my mother now disapproves of everyone below the age of twenty. She probably imagined Morgan tempting me with drugs, alcohol and sex the moment her back was turned. It had been a relief when we dropped Morgan off at the end of a long winding driveway. She'd walked up backwards, her blonde hair lit like a halo in the headlights, waving till we were out of sight.

I sighed and punched my pillow, lay back and told myself to sleep. The nightstand vibrated and I nearly jumped out of my superman boxers. Geeze louize...

My cell phone was buzzing, the screen lit up, and I grabbed it, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the brilliant glare. It was Carly,

Camping is awesome! We went swimming today, and had a sand castle contest. Plus I met this awesome guy who comes over here to work during the summers.

My stomach dropped a little when I read that, and I frowned at the screen. Did that mean she was going out with him? My fingers hovered over the keys. What should I say to that? I didn't want to come off jealous, but let's face it, I was, a little. I settled for typing,

Cool! Summer school blows! Have fun for me!

That sounded flippant enough. I set the phone back on the side table and flopped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling and definitely feeling sorry for myself. I jumped when my phone vibrated again. Groaning, I groped for it in the dark, certain I was going to see another message from Carly, maybe telling me how amazing her new crush was.

I didn't recognize the number, the text on my screen didn't make sense. I read it over again,

God is trying to kill you.

"What the hell?"

Was this a joke? I snorted, it was pretty lame if it was. I looked at the number again-

277-657-7171

Two seventy-seven? What kind of area code was that? Was some nut job in China text messaging me? I hit reply and typed,

Who is this?

Several minutes passed. Nothing. I stared at the message again, suddenly feeling a bit creeped out. Who says stuff like that? Someone who knew about the close calls I've had lately? It was a pretty sick joke then. Angrily I punched the delete button, slapped the phone down on the night stand and rolled over. No one else knew about everything, no one but Morgan. Had she found my cell number somehow? No, why would she write that? Morgan was sweet and innocent, she wouldn't send something like that.

We were a weird lot. The rest of the zoo's visitors were families and couples, little kids looking around with wide eyes and guys taking pictures with their girl friends in front of the cages. Us, we just stood around awkwardly, a jumble of bored and sullen teenagers led by their equally bored and sullen teacher.

I nudged Morgan and gestured to the pen that housed the chimpanzees, one was mashing his nose between the bars, making outrageous faces. Morgan giggled quietly and I looked over at the others as Mr. Slouch droned on about natural habitats. Chubby kid was picking crusties out of his left nostril and flicking them off the tips of his fingers. Carrots had spotted this and was staring in wide eyed revulsion. Aden was standing apart from them, arms crossed over her chest. She was glaring at Morgan.

"What's the deal with you and her?" I whispered to Morgan, darting a look at Mr. Slouch to make sure he couldn't hear me.

"What?"

"You and sunshine over there, she looks like she wants to kill you."

Morgan shrugged, "Guess she's just jealous of me." Her tone was flippant, dismissive. It was total bullshit.

"You must know her," I insisted, "I saw you two look at one another when she walked in yesterday."

"So we looked," Morgan said, "so what? Girls size each other up all the time. She's sort of a bitch anyways."

I glanced at Aden, who caught me looking and gave me a withering stare.

"Can't argue with you on that one."

We were moving now, past the monkeys. This new cage was way bigger, the inside of it was landscaped, complete with trees, a little waterfall that trickled into a clear pond and a sort of pride rock set up in the center.

"Lions!" Carrots said, and we all stared at her. It was the first word she'd said all day.

"I like Lions." She shoved her glasses up her nose and sniffed noisily.

"I don't see any." Aden managed to look scornful and bored all in one go. "Where are they?"

We stepped closer, nothing in the perfect little forest moved. A family walked up beside us, a man and a woman and a little blond girl who was wearing a pink princess dress, a pair of gauzy wings and a plastic tiara. She held a plastic star wand in one hand, which she brandished at the lion cage. "Lions! Lions! Lions!"

"There are no Lions," Aden said flatly, and the little girl looked up at her angrily. "Are to!"

Aden made a face at her, and the mother grabbed the little girl and pulled her away, darting an angry look at us.

"Nice one, Sunshine." I muttered, making sure my voice was loud enough so she could hear it.

"No Lions?" The little girl was asking her mother over and over. "No Lions?"

Aden snorted and crossed her arms over her chest again. She was a real charmer alright.

Mr. Slouch's speech had wound down. He was staring at the silent Lion cage with an air of dejection. Maybe he and the little girl could cry it out together.

"Well," he said, "moving on." He turned to go. "Next on the list is the ra-ra..."

I turned to look at him. "Rabbits? Rodents? Oh shit..."

It became very apparent why Mr. Slouch had stammered.

So, the comedian in my head sounded perfectly calm, good to see there are actually some Lions in this place.

It was rounding the outside corner of the cage, sleek muscles moving fluidly under its tan coat. It was beautiful, huge and awe inspiring.

Hello, This isn't Aslan, idiot. This thing will eat you.

"No one move a muscle." To Mr. Slouch's credit, his voice had only gone up an octave or two. He was shaking like a leaf though. 

Behind us the little girl said in a delighted voice, "Lion!"

Yes, Lion, I thought. Now wave your magic wand and put it back in the cage, okay?

It paced forward, and the low rumble it made in its throat was enough to root me to the spot. My chest constricted and I didn't dare breathe. It stalked closer, pinning me with golden eyes. The steps it took were slow and lazy. It knew I was pray, paralyzed by fear, unable to move or think.

I could feel Morgan's grip on my arm suddenly, her body was pressed into the side of mine, her lips inches from my ear.

"It will be okay," I heard her whisper. I wondered if she was crazy, but the Lion stopped less than five feet away, considering us. She leaned against me and I swear I heard her whisper,

"Go away."

I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Aden had stepped forward, like she was going to go reason with the damn thing, but now she was looking, wide-eyed at Morgan instead.

The Lion looked at me, looked at Morgan, and then with a lazy twitch of its tail it turned and sauntered back the way it had come. I could hear panicked zoo officials in the distance; Apparently they'd discovered it was gone now. Thanks guys.

My knees were shaking, and I nearly dove for the nearest bench. Collapsing would be neither cool nor manly, though in this circumstance I would have forgiven myself. I shut my eyes and rubbed shaky hands over my face. Mr. Slouch was saying incredulously,

"That was astonishing! Amazing!"

After a second he seemed to realize that two of his students had nearly been eaten.

"Are you both okay? Lucas, do you need to lie down?"

I opened my eyes, dropping my hands from my face, "I'm okay. I'm fine, really."

"Alright, I think maybe we've had enough of the zoo for today."

No shit. Another two hours of reading from the book was preferable to ending up a Lion snack.

Mr. Slouch's van was quite on the way back. Chubby kid was engrossed in whatever music was blaring into his headphones and Carrots was apparently working on Wuthering Heights. Mr. Slouch was babbling about writing the zoo a "firmly worded letter about cage maintenance". Aden sat at the back by herself, staring sullenly out the window.

I leaned closer to Morgan. "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make the Lion go away."

"I'm a Lion tamer, didn't I tell you? I took it as an elective last year."

I stared at her blankly and she laughed.

"Well, what did you expect me to say? That I talk to animals? It was a coincidence. We didn't scream and run like prey, so it decided we were boring."

I stared at her narrowly. "I suppose so."

She shook her head and leaned back in her seat to stare at the roof. "Don't read into it, Lucas."

I shrugged and nodded, pretending to agree. I knew what I saw though. That lion had wanted to eat me, or at the very least maul me. It had made a beeline for me, and Morgan had stopped it. I glanced at her and she gave me a cheeky grin. I shot her one back.

This conversation wasn't over...

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