Lovesick (Part 2)

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Zane: "Enough to know they're not fish, they're mammals."

"Since you were looking for undiscovered sea creatures, wouldn't that have included mammals as well?" Will assumed. "Yeah, it did. She referred to them as fish, I was just correcting her," Zane replied.

Cleo: "Oh yeah. Anyway, do dolphins ever get crushes?"

Zane: pauses in his steps and looks at her unexpectedly. "Crushes?" Cleo nods. "Not exactly. They are instinctive carers, though."

Cleo: shakes her head in confusion. "Meaning?"

Zane: shakes his head. "According to this stuff, they have complex social networks and hierarchies. Basically what matters to them is families and finding food for each other." Cleo looks out over the water where Ronnie was swimming around as Zane continues. "They, I don't know, bond over that sort of stuff. Here, read it yourself. I can't be bothered." He hands the stacks of papers in the folder to Cleo and walks off. Cleo bites her lip and follows after him.

"So, they care about others around them?" Ash figured. Kind of like horses. "Specific ones, yeah," Cleo answered.

"Is that what he was doing then? Caring for another dolphin?" Elliot asked. "Yup." "Which one?" Bella asked, a little too eager to see more dolphins. "You'll see it soon," Cleo smiled.

"She's giving you access to the library, the least you could do was give her some more information," Sam said.

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[The two walk out the front entrance of the park, where the tickets are usually sold, as Cleo tries to catch up to him with the papers in her hand.]

Cleo: "Hey, look at this. The marine park rescued a pregnant dolphin the other day. How cool is that?"

Zane: sighs and shoves the folder shut in her hands. "Get a life, Cleo."

"Says the one doing research on a sea monster," Kim scoffed.

"A pregnant dolphin?" Denman muttered, a small smirk beginning to form, as she realizes what Ronnie has been doing. He's taking care of the pregnant dolphin instead of himself, of course! How did I not realize that? And it seems like Denman wasn't the only one to come up with that conclusion as Max smiled and Bella tried not to jump up and down in her seat at the realization.

Cleo: shoves the folder into his hands. "I'm not the one hunting sea monsters." She walks ahead of him, and he looks at her, jaw open, then runs to catch up with her.

"Oooh, burn," Ash laughed, as the others snickered in amusement. "Yeah, I had that one coming," Zane said with a small smile.

"Wasn't expecting that from the quiet one, were you?" Lewis smirked.

[Not too far from them, but far enough that they wouldn't notice, Emma, Lewis, and Rikki watch them from the sidewalk. They see the two walking away from the marine park together and chatting away.]

Emma: "Well, I guess it's true."

"You were spying on us?" Zane questioned. "And you believed it by just that one instance?" Cleo sighed, mentally slapping herself. "Yeah," the three of them reply, wincing at their actions.

"Maybe we should've gathered more evidence rather than basing it off of a phone call," Bev grimaced. "Thank you!" Cleo nearly shouted. "To be fair, that was evidence to us. They never hang out together, not alone and especially not at the marine park," Emma explained.

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