Let's Be Birds (OLD VERSION)

☁ 28 ☀️

"Should we go to Disneyland again?" Hannah asks me when we hit Virginia.

I shrug. "I wouldn't mind, but twice in a month? Are you sure you're prepared for that much magic?" She mimics me and I get my answer. "Honestly, we can just go again when we get back home."

She nods and then gasps, pointing at a sign. "Oh my God, Nate, there's a waterpark not too far out of Richmond."

A huge part of me wants to just drive straight home, see my mom, my dad and Tanner and not think about anything much for the rest of the summer. That part only gets huger when I see that we're only twelve hours away from home if we keep driving nonstop. However, I try to squash it when I see how excited Hannah is.

"Let's go!" I say in the most upbeat voice I can muster.

From the corner of my eye, I spot her familiar grin begin to grow. I switch lanes ahead of a minivan filled with screaming kids as she turns up the radio. A Fifth Harmony song comes on the radio and Hannah gasps before dramatically singing along.

The journey to the water park takes about half an hour and we quickly find a parking space in the huge lot. After leaving Clementine with a partly opened window, two bowls of water and kitty feed all over the sink, we bundle our towels, sunglasses and swimsuits into our backpacks and start walking to the park.

"What shall we do first?" Hannah asks me, dramatically putting on her sunglasses. I roll my eyes and do the exact same thing before looking at the park map we picked up when buying our tickets.

"Can we do the water slide right in the middle? Like the big ma-hoosive one."

"Ma-hoosive?"

"I'm trying new things."

"Touché." She stretches upwards. "Well, the first thing I'm gonna do is change into my bikini and then can we take photos on the fake beach?"

"Yeah, sure. I think I'll do the same."

Hannah's lips spread into a wide smile. "You'll change into your bikini too?"

I roll my eyes but it's useless because I'm smiling. "You know what I meant."

She laughs. "I'll meet you back here in fifteen!"

We wave at each other before heading off to separate changing rooms.

It's weird but I'm kind of insecure about my body. Unlike most boys I know, I'm super skinny: you can count all my ribs and one time Candela called me chicken legs because my legs are that thin. The last time I was in a bathing suit, it was just me and Hannah and she really doesn't care about things like this so she said nothing. But will everyone out there think that I have chicken legs? Will they care?

It's a dumb thing to be insecure about, sure, but it has me hesitant in my changing room, wasting time until exactly fifteen minutes are up.

Hannah's talking to an elderly couple. The man has a greying afro and is laughing at something she's saying while the woman smiles at her kindly. They're wearing matching Hawaiian pattered swim gear and have huge goggles on their foreheads. They shake her hand and walk away, still smiling.

"Ah! There he is!" Hannah waves me over. She looks me up and down once, making me feel a little nervous. "Looking good, Nate, black's your colour."

"Huh? Oh thanks." Nobody is giving me a second glance, which means nobody is looking at my body. Ashamed at how self-centred I was being, I direct my eyes to my flip flops and rub the back of my neck. "Fake beach now?"

"You read my mind."

We get to the fake beach and Hannah begins to ready herself for a photo. I watch her go through an abundance of poses before I can't help it anymore and I laugh. She stops for a moment to stare at me.