Part Sixty-Six

Sophia’s POV

"Hey guys! Look! It says he's called Elmo!" I pointed out a sign that said the name of one of the nearby elephants.

"Elmo the elephant?" Harry laughed, and Liam got out his camera to do some more recording.

"Where's Niall?" I asked.

"Gone to get food," Zayn answered.

"Nothing new there then," I mumbled and the others laughed.

"Do you think he'll come over if I shout him?" I asked suddenly.

"Sure, he's your boyfriend, unless he has found food, then maybe not..." Liam said.

"No, I mean Elmo the elephant, you silly billy," I laughed lightly.

"Oh... well, maybe," Liam shrugged.

"Elmo! Elmo! Here boy! Come on boy! Over here! Elmo!" I shouted; waving my hands around, trying to get Elmo's attention.

"What's she doing?" Niall came back, hands full of ice cream.

"Hey Niall!" I smiled.

"She's trying to get the elephants attention," Zayn explained.

"Ah," Niall nodded, "Ice cream?"

"Yes!" The boys shouted and took one.

"Sophia," Niall said.

"Fine, I'll have it," I muttered; knowing what he wanted. I didn’t want an ice cream, but Niall’s just worried about me, I guess. I went over and took one of the two ice creams in his hand. I slowly licked it once and then went back to Elmo, as I saw he was plodding his way over.

"Guys! Look! He's coming to me!" I shouted jumping up and down, smiling widely.

"Sophia..." Niall's eyes widened.

"Niall he likes me! Look everybody!" I shouted; turning back to face the boys, who were all watching me with wide eyes.

"Sophia, carefully walk this way," Liam muttered.

"He's saying hello," I smiled as Elmo reached his trunk over the wired fence.

"Sophia," The boys started to panic.

"Hello Elmo," I cooed and stroked his trunk. His trunk wrapped around the ice cream in my other hand and he took it from me. "My ice cream!" I frowned. I know I didn’t want it, but that was just rude. The elephant made a laughing noise and I glared at him.

He did not just go there. Oh it’s on. "Oh no you did not just laugh at me," I glared at Elmo. He laughed at me again. I stormed over to the gateway into the elephant pen.

"Sophia! Sophia what are you doing?" Harry shouted after me. I took a stronger grip of the gate and hauled myself up. I began to climb it, whilst the boys shouted at me to get down, and ran over to me. I jumped down off the gate and landed inside the elephant pen.

"Sophia get out of there!" Liam shouted at me.

"Now Elmo, you listen here," I shouted at the elephant standing tall in front of me, "That was my ice cream; you do not just take things from people, that isn't even yours! Now Elmo, give me back my ice cream! Now!"

He then dropped my ice cream on the muddy floor.

"You mean mean elephant! How dare you? I was going to be your friend! No wonder you're such a loner and all the other elephants are staying away from you," I shouted angrily, gesturing to the other elephants that were in a group far away from us.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over me.

"Sophia!" The boys shouted in a panic. I looked up and saw the biggest elephant ever standing next to Elmo. I think it was his father... and I think he was angry at me for shouting at his son. I gulped and slowly backed away from the elephants.

The big daddy elephant raised its trunk and let out a huge snort noise that elephants make, almost like a war cry. He bucked and stood on his two back legs before dropping back on to four again. He looked angry.

"Sophia! Sophia run!" Niall shouted loudly. I have never ran so fast in my life. I sprinted across the mud and almost jumped over the high gate. I landed on the other side in a heap on the floor, the elephant raging on the other side; trying to get at me.

"Never argue with an elephant," I gasped. I was literally breathless. I couldn’t even move, I had no energy and I was so weak. I guess I should have had more breakfast this more… did I have any this morning? I don’t even remember.

"That was hilarious!" Harry shouted.

"I could have died!" I attempted to hit him but my arm barely moved.

"Come on, let's go to the llamas," Zayn said.

"Carry me," I mumbled, "I have no energy." Niall bent down and scooped me into his arms and we began walking to the llama pen.

"Did you have any breakfast?" He asked.

"I don't remember," I closed my eyes and buried my head in his arms.

"We'll grab some food after the llamas, yeah?" Niall said to the others. They took one look at me.

"Definitely," They all agreed.

“Is that Beth and Louis?” Harry asked and I looked over to where he was looking. We had almost reached where the llamas were being held in by a small wooden fence, that anyone could climb over… and it seemed Beth and Louis had.

Beth and Louis were riding one of the llamas each. They were riding llamas! Riding flipping llamas! Legends. Absolute legends.

“They’re going to kill themselves!” Liam panicked and we all ran down to the wooden fence that was between us and Beth and Louis riding the llamas. Well, I say ‘we’ ran, I didn’t, Niall ran carrying me. I climbed out his arms and stood by the fence, as Liam paced, panicking.

“Go Beff! Go Lou! Ride them mother hulking llamas!” I shouted; cheering her on. Beth turned to face me and gave me a thumbs up; smiling hugely. Louis just whooped, and waved his arms around, nearly falling off the llama’s back in the process.

“Don’t cheer them on!” Liam hissed.

“Calm your farm Liam, it’s only a llama,” I laughed.

“They’re riding llamas!” Liam shouted at me.

“I know! Isn’t it great? Beth can cross it off her bucket list now,” I smiled.

“Great? Bucket list? Urgh! You’re all mad!” Liam threw his hands in the air, evidently giving up. He then did the unexpected and climbed over the wooden fence, landing gracefully in the grassy llama field.

“Go Liam! Go ride a llama!” I cheered him on, “You, Louis and Beth can have a llama race!”

“It makes you wonder where the zookeepers are, doesn’t it,” Zayn muttered.

“I think you mean ‘fookeepers’, we are in a foo Zayn, not a zoo,” I corrected him.

“Whatever,” He laughed, “I still wonder where they are.”

“Yeah, we should have all been kicked out by now,” Harry laughed, “I mean, normal people don’t go around arguing with elephants, and jumping into their pen, or talking to the pigs and giving them relationship advice, or ‘speaka to  monkey’; not to mention riding on the llamas.”

“We’re normal,” Niall argued.

“There is nothing normal about any of us,” I laughed.

“I guess…” He nodded.

“Can I go ride a llama?” I asked.

“No!” Niall, Harry and Zayn shouted at once.

“Why not?” I jutted out my bottom lip.

“You are not riding a llama,” Harry said sternly.

“Fine,” I huffed.

“Beth, Louis, come on, get off the llamas,” Liam pleaded with the pair.

“But this is fun,” Beth whined.

“We’ll go find the others, and then we can all ride the llamas together, okay?” Liam tried to bribe them from the llamas.

“Okay,” Beth jumped off the llama and Liam caught her, before steadying her on her feet. Louis did the same, but Liam didn’t bother helping him.

“Let’s go find Molly Wolly, Lozzar and Melly,” Beth skipped towards us, Liam jogging after her. They all climbed back over the fence and the seven of us walked off to find Molly, Lauren and Mel.

We were totally never coming back to the llamas. Liam just wanted to get Beth away from them. He’s a sneaky one, that Liam Payne. And I thought he was really gong to let us ride the llamas for a second. Then I remembered it was Daddy Direction who we were talking about and realised that that would never happen. Not even in a parallel universe.

“We’re going to the foo, foo, foo. How about you, you, you? You can come too, too, too. We’re going to the foo, foo, foo,” Beth and I sang, changing the lyric ‘zoo’ with ‘foo’ so it made more sense to us. I remember when I was little, back in Ireland, I used to sing this and I had a little dance to it, but I don’t remember what the dance was. Shame. I’m sure everyone would love to see my little routine.

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere, you have to see this!” Lauren shouted running over to us, her arms wrapped protectively around something.

“What?” Beth asked; excitedly.

“It’s Molly,” She grinned and hurried off to the left, we all followed her; struggling to keep up with her excited pace.

“What’s she done?” Liam asked worriedly.

“Just you wait,” Lauren laughed.

“I don’t think that put his worries to rest Lauren,” Beth laughed.

“I don’t think anything could put his worries to rest,” Harry muttered, earning a slap on the upside of his head from Liam.

“There,” Lauren whispered and pointed around the corner.

Molly was sat on the floor, with some sort of animal in her arms; she was cradling it and rocking it back and forth. She was saying something but I couldn’t quite make it out.

“What is the animal in her arms?” I asked.

“That is so cool! It’s a capybara,” Liam smiled.

“A what?” I frowned.

“A capybara,” He repeated.

“I’m sorry, I have never heard of a capy-bra before,” I said, and looked over at the weird creatures around Molly.

“It’s a ‘capybara’ not a ‘capy-bra’,” Beth laughed.

“Whatever, I still don’t know what one is,” I muttered and left the group to walk over to Molly.

As I got closer I could make out what she was saying to the capybara in her arms. She wasn’t saying anything, she was singing to it.

“Hush little capybara, don’t say a word, Molly’s going to buy you a mockingbird,” She sang quietly.

“And if that mockingbird don’t sing, Sophia’s going to buy you a diamond ring!” I sang loudly; frightening the capybara so much at my loud voice that it jumped out of Molly’s arms and scurried away into the indoor bit of the enclosure with his other capybara friends.

“You scared him away,” Molly frowned angrily.

“Ah well, let’s go,” I shrugged and helped Molly climb out of the enclosure.

“Where are the others?” She asked.

“Here,” Liam said and the others walked over to us.

“Lauren, is that a dog?” Louis asked, gesturing to the little bundle in Lauren’s arms.

“Yes, isn’t he cute,” She cooed and showed us the small black Labrador in her arms.

“Where did you get that?” Harry asked.

“Found him,” Lauren shrugged.

“What in the dog pen? And he just happened to run out and into your arms?” Zayn laughed.

“As a matter of fact, yes, yes he did,” Lauren puffed out her chest, looking, well, trying to look superior, but it didn’t work because Zayn was taller than her.

“Let’s go find Mel, then get that dog back to the barn it came from,” Molly sighed and we all went on the hunt for Mel.

“There’s Mel!” I shouted pointing to where Mel was feeding a giraffe with a fookeeper. I should have guessed; she does love giraffes.

“Aw, look at her,” I nudged Zayn.

“She’s beautiful,” He whispered; going off into his Mel fantasy world daze. What he does in that world, I do not want to know.

“I meant the giraffe,” I giggled.

“Oh, right,” Zayn snapped out his thoughts, “I knew that.”

“Of course mate, wouldn’t doubt you for a minute,” I patted his shoulder and continued the short walk over to Mel.

“Hey guys,” Mel greeted us.

“Having fun with your giraffe?” Harry asked.

“Her names Gretta,” Mel said.

“Sorry, are you having fun with Gretta?” Harry re-phrased it.

“Yeah, it’s been awesome,” She grinned and stood up, dusting off her clothes.

“Excuse me, are you the girl that frightened our elephants?” The fookeeper said to me.

“Frightened your elephants? That elephant tried to kill me!” I argued.

“There they are!” Four more fookeepers ran over to us.

“You were the two riding the llamas!” One shouted at Louis and Beth.

“And you stole on of the pups!” Another shouted at Lauren, who shrunk back, holding tightly to the little puppy, cradled in her arms. The fookeeper roughly took the pup back from Lauren. The pup clawed at the fookeeper and tried to get back to Lauren, who looked as though she was about to cry. I saw Harry pull Lauren into his arms gently; trying to comfort her.

“I think that’s are cue to… RUN!” I shouted and we all split up, sprinting in different directions.

I headed up the hill, past the lion enclosure again, past the monkey’s, taking a detour through the penguin enclosure, entering through the exit, so that I’d lose anyone if they were following me. I didn’t know if anyone was following me, and I didn’t bother looking back to see.

I sprinted faster as I saw the entrance to the foo, my legs were already feeling like jelly, and my lungs burned. We never did get that food after the llamas. Which I’m not sure is a good or a bad thing.

I started to feel light-headed as I pushed myself through the gate and into the car park. Everything started spinning around me, and I stumbled to the floor; I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stop the spinning. My breath was jagged and my lungs were still burning, trying to get as much oxygen into my lungs as I could. My legs went weak and finally gave in, until I was sat on the floor, my head hung low, my eyes still tightly shut.

“Sophia!” Niall shouted, but I had no energy to move.

“Sophia, are you okay?” Niall asked, suddenly at my side.

“Running was never my strong point,” I muttered and rested my head on his chest.

“Come on,” He chuckled lightly.

“Carry me again? Please,” I begged him, literally having no energy left now.

“Sure, and this time, I promise we’ll get some food,” He smiled and picked me up, bridal style, and carried me to where the others were waiting in the car.

“Food,” Niall said and Louis turned the ignition on before putting his foot down and we sped off to somewhere with food. A few minutes later Louis parked in a car park and we all got out the car; me having a bit more energy; but I seriously needed food, and sleep… I need my bed. I cannot wait till we get back home.

“We’ll get the food, you girls go find a seat,” Liam organised us.

“Don’t you want to know what we want?” Beth asked.

“Nope,” They shook they’re heads and walked off.

“This is dangerous,” I muttered as we went to find seats.

“This could end up in disaster,” Mel agreed.

“But it’s all food,” Lauren shrugged.

“I agree with Lauren, any food will do right now, I’m starving,” Molly sighed heavily.

“Group of hot guys over there,” Beth said suddenly.

“Where?” I asked, looking around for these ‘hot guys’.

“There,” She discreetly pointed at a table with six hot lads sitting at it.

“Oh my god, he looks like Beau Brooks!” Molly squealed; fangirling quietly.

“He is so hot,” Lauren agreed.

We all had a fangirl crush on the Brooks boys, personally I think Luke and Jai are hotter than Beau, but Beau is still hot too.

“We are sitting there,” Mel said and we all nodded before walking to the vacant table beside the hot lads table.

“Hey,” The one that looked like Beau Brooks winked at Beth.

“Hi,” She smiled and waved briefly.

“You sitting there?” Another boys asked.

“What does it look like?” I asked; the girls shooting me a ‘what-the-hell’ look; probably because I was just ‘rude’ to a hot lad- but seriously was he dumb or just plain blind, because it’s pretty obvious where we are sitting.

“Whatever,” He shrugged.

“So, which out of you has boyfriends?” Beau look-a-like asked.

“I do,” I answered truthfully. The other girls didn’t say anything.

Are they tripping?

They’re really not going to say anything? We have the five most gorgeous, funny. Kind, amazing (the list could go on) lads in the world as our boyfriends and they are hitting on some cocky boys?

“We all do,” I added, when none of them answered. The girls all shot me glares. They are such idiots.

“Oh,” He muttered and shared a look with the lads, “Let’s go.” With that the six lads left.

“What the hell did you go and day that for?” Beth asked as soon as they were out of ear shot.

“In case you have forgotten, we have boyfriends, who are only over there, and may have seen you,” I said, “Do you want them to break up with you because of some cocky lads?”

“Sorry, I guess you’re right… it was just a heat of the moment thing,” Molly nodded.

“Now, we just forget about this and move on,” I looked them all in the eye.

“This never happened,” Lauren said.

“What never happened?” Mel asked and we all cracked up laughing at her joke.

“Food,” Niall sang and placed a huge tray of food down on the table.

“This is for all of us right?” I asked.

“No, this is for you and me, the lads have got the rest,” Niall smiled innocently, as I stared wide eyed at the never ending mountain of food in front of us. I picked up a fork and began eating slowly, whilst Niall just devoured half the mountain in less than three minutes. At least I wouldn’t have to eat a lot with him sharing it with me.

After dinner we all climbed back in the car and Louis continued to drive us home. We were nearly home when Liam started talking. “Erm,” Liam started, making us all look at him- other than Louis, because he had to keep his eyes on the road and not crash; “We’re going to drop you girls off at your house and then we’re going back to our apartments to pack our suitcases.”

It was only then that I remembered there flight was tomorrow. My chest tightened and I held my breath.

“Okay,” Molly said in a steady voice.

“We’re here,” Louis broke the silence that had lapsed over all of us, as we thought about what Liam had said.

Three months they’d be gone. Three whole months.

We have to do something special together tonight, as it will be their last night with us all for a few months. Sure we’re going over, but we’re not all going over at the same time like before. We’ve spread our trips over up, so Lauren goes for a period of time, then she comes back and a few days later Beth goes, she comes back and a few days later Molly goes, and so on.

I smiled to myself as I got an idea. I kissed Niall’s cheek and hopped out the car, dragging the girls quickly behind me.

“What the hell Sophia? I was trying to say goodbye, that could be the last time I see Harry before he leaves,” Lauren looked close to tears. She was an emotional one.

“It won’t be… because I have an idea,” I grinned and told them my plan to make tonight the best night the ten of us have ever had together.