"Why are you so tired?" Olivia asked after I yawned yet again.

I shrugged as I sipped my coffee. "I have no idea."

"You woke up two hours ago, how can you possibly be tired?" She repeated, a hint of frustration detectable in her voice.

"Hey. We stayed up late last night," I said in a poor attempt to defend myself.

"Eleven o'clock is not late." 

"Eleven!?" I sputtered, "more like midnight!" She grumbled something unintelligible before changing the subject.

"Did you get any replies for jobs?" She asked hopefully.

I shrugged. "Haven't checked."

"Raiya! Check right now!"

"Fine," I sighed and took the phone from my ear. I switched Liv to speaker before clicking out, a red 1  in the corner of my messages app caught my eye and I tapped on it curiously.

"Well?" She prompted.

"Hang on," I mumbled.

A new message sat unread from another number I'd never seen before. I knew it was from Leonardo right away, he'd sent me a different address with a different time around two hours ago. I deleted the conversation and opened my mail app, refreshing it for any new emails. One popped up, causing my phone to vibrate.

"Who is it?" Olivia asked impatiently.

"Central Park Zoo," I announced and quickly scanned over the email. "They have an opening for a part-time trash collector, ticket booth girl, and educator in the Tropic Zone. They said to send a copy of my resume and the position I'd like and they'll consider me."

"That's awesome!" She squealed. I winced at the volume of her voice through the phone's speaker.

"Liv, chill out, you're gonna blow my phone's speaker."

"Oh, sorry. I'm just so excited!" 

I snorted. "Yeah, more excited than I am."

"Unless something is movie or pizza-related I'm always more excited than you. So what are you going to say?" 

I drank from my mug of warm coffee. "Well I'd love to say I can't accept but you would murder me, so I guess I have to tell them I want the education-person-job.

She sighed in exasperation. "Educator." 

"That. Thank you," I said as I typed out a response.

"I have to go, my lunch break is over. I'll see you tonight, and please try to send a polite response to the zoo." 

"Don't worry, I got this." I tapped send with a flourish.

••• 影の秘密 •••

That night, I snuck out again to meet Leo. Thankfully, he'd chosen a rendezvous relatively close to the apartment. This time I decided to climb out the window in my room and onto the roof where I quietly descended the fire escape. I pulled my hood up before turning onto the sidewalk.

At my phone's vibration, I immediately darted down the alleyway I was closest to and climbed a fire escape to the roof. I was right on time.

"Leo?" I called hesitantly, squinting through the darkness in an attempt to spot the turtle.

"Hey."

I jumped at his voice, but not nearly as much as last night.

"Okay, you need a bell," I laughed, brushing strands of hair out of my face.

"Sorry," he apologized with a sideways grin. I waved it away and settled down on the roof.

"So what happened last night?" I asked.

"Oh, that woman I ran off to save?" Leo sat down beside me. "Some men stole her purse. Sorry I had to leave so suddenly."

I shrugged. "That's okay. I only had one question left." I pulled out my notebook and pen, returning to the page I'd written on last night.

Leo's gaze flickered over to me. "Shoot."

"Okay, before you can disappear into the shadows again can I quickly document your appearance?" I asked, almost nervously. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"So you want to draw me?"

My face heated but I kept my cool. "Well if you want to remove the technicality of it all, then yes."

"Alright. What do you want me to do?"

I readied my pen and analyzed the shape of his face. "Just don't run off."

After a while of Leonardo watching my pen glide across the paper to form his face and our eyes locking when I glanced up at him before looking away, I decided to break the awkward air between us.

"Okay, this is weird," I laughed lightly. "You need to talk about something to make it less weird."

Leo nodded in agreement. "Alright. Can I ask you a few questions?"

"Fire away." I moved on to draw the outline of his round eyes but left his irises untouched so I could colour them later. He didn't take long to consider his first question.

"What's your favourite colour?"

A grin crept up my face, matching his. "Red."

"What's your favourite season?"

"Summer. If I could, I would hibernate all winter. I swear my spirit animal is a bear."

"A redhead bear," he corrected with a smile. "Which leads me to my next question, is that your natural hair colour?"

I grinned and pulled a strand of auburn hair from my under my hood and above my lip like a moustache. "Au naturel." 

Leo chuckled. "That's pretty cool. What's your favourite animal? A bear?"

"Nope. Kinda the opposite actually, I like sugar gliders."

His forehead creased in confusion. "What is that?"

"Like a cute little monkey but more dog-like I guess. I swear they're the cutest things in the world. Here, I'll show you." I pulled my phone out and googled images of the possum breed.

"Those are some big eyes," was all he said. I rolled my eyes and pocketed my phone, then picked up my pen and continued drawing.

"What's your favourite song?"

"So Over You by The Mission District."

"...I think I've heard it before."

I started humming it, the tune now stuck in my head. He nodded and tapped his finger against his leg to the beat, then sang a few words. "I'm so over you!"

I cringed and my humming abandoned Leo's voice, leaving him without a tune and beat.

"And all the things that..." He glanced at me like where the hell did my backup go?

"I didn't sign up for a solo," he said.

I laughed and shrugged. "I was stunned to silence by your singing."

He nodded. "An acceptable answer. What's your favourite movie?"

"Now You See Me."

"Really? I thought you'd say some horror-zombie movie."

I grinned. "Well I do love horror-zombie movies, but Dave Franco is in it and I like how they're magicians."

"Favourite book?"

"The Revenge of Seven."

"Oh, well that sounds awfully violent, I'm not surprised. Is your favourite food something spicy?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Sorry to disappoint you."

"What is it then?"

"Mmmmm...either pizza or lettuce."

Leo's head jerked in surprise. "Like just plain lettuce?" I nodded and he laughed, "well that's interesting."

I shrugged and breathed a laugh. "I know. Call me a rabbit."

"What about your favourite subject?"

"Physics. Basically the only thing I'm good at."

"That's probably not true. What's your favourite pastime?"

"Drawing, watching movies or flying." Leo looked baffled and I smiled. "My uncle is a helicopter pilot here in New York so he gives me lessons like twice a week."

"Oh. Did you grow up in New York?"

"No, I lived in Arizona until I turned twelve."

"Why did you leave?"

My heart clenched and my hand froze up. "Me and Olivia, my sister, moved here to...get away from our family. We knew we'd be okay because Uncle Tom was here if we needed him. That's why he's teaching me to fly. So I can get into a good post-secondary and get a good job since pilots earn good money."

Leo watched me carefully, his bright eyes saddened. "Why would you want to get away from them?"

"It's...a bit complicated." It really wasn't, I just didn't want to talk about it.

He nodded and changed the subject. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"When's your birthday?"

"July first." I looked down and started drawing again, hoping he wouldn't notice that it was only a few days ago.

"Oh, that was like three days ago, happy belated birthday."

Yep, there it is. I laughed. "Thanks."

"Okay, I'm starting to run out of questions...Oh, if you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?"

"Probably Iceland."

"Really, why?"

I shrugged. "The black sand beaches, all the amazing scenery and hikes...I actually think you can go on hikes through glaciers there."

"Sounds cold," he laughed "what's your full name?"

"Emmalyn Raiya Carter."

"You go by your middle name?"

"Yeah," my face flushed, embarrassed, "I'm not a huge fan of Emmalyn. Too much of a mouth full." I set my pen down and examined the finished drawing. The empty eyes made Leo look possessed, but otherwise, I was satisfied. He craned his head to look at it but I quickly flipped the notebook shut.

"Nope. Not allowed."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not done. I need to colour something first, then you can see." I stood and put my stuff in my bag before swinging it over my shoulder. "I have flight training in the morning and if I crash a helicopter from lack of sleep Uncle Tom is going to kill me, so I should get going. Will I see you again tomorrow night?" I asked hopefully, stepping towards the fire escape. His electric eyes were the only sign that he was still on the roof; partly concealed within the darkness.

"Maybe."

AN: Please vote and comment!! 😁