it turned out that peyton was staying at a friends house about fifteen minutes from our house, meaning we'd get to spend more time with her. our seaworld trip was planned for the day after she came to town, so nick invited her along. she agreed, of course, and showed up at our house the next morning, ready to go.

"SEAWORLD SEAWORLD!" i cheered as i ran down the stairs.

"SEAWORLD!" karl screamed back.

"WOOO!" peyton yelled.

"yes! that's the right energy! peyton i love you already," i told her.

julian showed up next, almost as excited as me.

"SEAWORLD!" i yelled to him.

he yelled it back and pulled me into a hug, giggling in my ear.

"what the heck is wrong with you guys?" nick asked. "it's too early to be screaming."

"do i need to remind you about the time," i started to say but nick quickly clapped his hand over my mouth to shut me up.

outraged, i licked his hand to get him to move it off my mouth.

"ew!" nick yelled as he hurriedly wiped his hand off of his pants.

"that's what you get," i said smugly.

karl giggled at that and peyton started laughing too.

"i hope it's not too crowded," dream said. "i don't want to spend the whole day with people chasing after us."

"that's what you get for being so famous," i pointed out.

"yeah yeah," he muttered and grabbed his car keys off the counter. "let's go."

we took two cars, dream driving nick and peyton while i drove julian and karl.

it was a warm day so we rolled all the windows down and turned the music up as loud as it would go. luckily, there was hardly any traffic on the interstate.

"this is a straight vibe," i yelled over the music. the boys agreed, huge smiles on their faces.

soon enough, we caught up to dream- who had left first- and passed them up. i honked my horn at them as we passed by and waved. their windows were also down and they had music blasting, too.

for a minute, i felt nothing but pure euphoria fill me up and bubble out of me with a wild laugh. i felt free and so happy.

when we got to seaworld, the boys all pulled on hats- even julian- as if that was enough of a disguise. i nicked julian's hat off his head quickly and blew him a kiss as i put it on.

"you're too cute," julian laughed.

"don't inflate her ego," dream warned.

"too late," i said happily.

we spilt up right off the bat, nick and dream going to ride some roller coaster that no one else wanted to ride while julian, karl, peyton and i went to pet the stingrays.

"they're so beautiful," peyton said with a small sigh.

"they are," i agreed. "marine animals are my favorites."

"i like raccoons," peyton remarked. "something about them is just so cute."

"i like turtles," julian added.

i kind of tuned out of the conversation as i petted the stingrays, letting my hands drift across their fins.

"thaliaaa," karl said, waving his hand in front of my face.

"yes?"

the other three just laughed and julian wrapped his arm around me. "you're so cute when you get so happy over petting stingrays."

i just smiled at him and we set off to meet up with dream and nick to watch the dolphin show.

"this is really cool," peyton said excitedly, her enthusiasm bubbling over.

"i used to want to be one of the trainers," i told peyton. "my high school had this summer program where teenagers could do like an internship here and it was amazing. i had everything set up to go to college and get the degree and training i needed to work with the marine life."

"what happened?" peyton asked.

"my dad started having heart problems. i had to step in and take over more of the company so he wasn't so stressed. and when he died, i became the ceo. i don't have to do as much work as a normal ceo because the first thing i did was create department presidents, but it's still a lot to take care of," i explained.

"i'm sorry you didn't get to follow your dreams," peyton said sadly.

"it's fine. i'm ridiculously happy thanks to my lovely friends and boyfriend," i told her. "now, that's enough serious talk for the day. let's go to sesame street now." i grabbed peyton by the hand and pulled her to her feet, her giggles mingling with my own.

"you move so fast," she said. "i don't know that i can keep up."

"no one can," dream said.

we made it to the sesame street part of seaworld, peyton and i skipping arm in arm the whole way there, and i made everyone ride every single ride, even the roller coasters for the little kids. i'm not a big roller coaster person because i hate the feeling of your stomach dropping, but i managed just fine on the small roller coasters.

after we rode every ride, peyton and i went into the store while the boys went to get drinks.

"peyton, look! it's oscar the grouch sunglasses," i said excitedly.

"those are amazing," she said. "are you getting them?"

"of course i am. you want a pair?" i asked. "we could rock the oscar shades together."

"definitely," peyton said, grinning at me.

i grabbed four more pairs for the boys and we headed to meet up with them.

"guuuuys, i got you something," i sang.

"oh no," nick said, taking a step back and looking wary. "what is it?"

i pulled out the glasses with a flourish. "ta da!"

julian busted out laughing and automatically took his and put them on. "i love them."

karl put his on with no hesitation, and he pulled out his phone to take a picture of the two of us.

"nick and dream, put yours on," i said.
they reluctantly put them on and we all got a picture together. "see? we all look cool."

"we do," peyton agreed.

"you know peyton, i think you should definitely stick around. you're on the fast track to replacing nick," i said, teasing nick.

"that's because i'm obviously superior," she joked, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

the last thing we did that day was watch the orca whale show, which was absolutely amazing, and then head to the electric nights party and the fireworks show.

when we got down there, i dragged julian onto the dance floor. he laughed as i started dancing to the upbeat music with him. seconds later, peyton, karl, nick and dream all joined us. i pulled dream closer in and made him dance. he picked me up and spun me around like it was the easiest thing. when he did it to nick too, i couldn't help but laugh and video it.

we spent half an hour dancing with each other and the performers, our laughter mixing with the laughter of the strangers to create a euphoric atmosphere. my heart was beating fast and my adrenaline was pumping, making me feel alive.

when the fireworks started, we all collapsed into the chairs, laying against one another as we watched the sky explode in colors.

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