He brightened up at me and held his hand out to me while saying, "I'm Leo, though you already guess that." I shook it, then he points to the guy next to him, "And this is Zed."

Zed did the same but says to me, "Nice to meet you."

Then a shook his hand as well and introduce myself with a smile, "Nice to meet you, too. My name's Paula."

Zed smiles at me, and my mind partly went blank. When we let go of each other's hands, he spoke, "You have a strong grip."

I blushed a tiny bit as I say, "Ya, I have been told that a lot."

Wait, why am I blushing? A whole lot of people have told me that. So why am I blushing now?!

Then I saw something white move to Leo. I look to where I saw it went and saw a little white monkey on Leo's shoulder. I couldn't help myself from saying, "Aww, he's so cute."

Leo follows where I was looking, he smiled, "This is Sonic."

I point at myself and ask, "Can I?"

He gave me a nod, and as I reach my hand out to Sonic, Leo says, "Oh, and keep in mind that he doesn't take on to strangers very fast."

I let Sonic examine my hand by staying and smelling it. It took about a couple of moments till he jumped onto my hand and ran up my arm to my shoulder. Once there, he started to play with my ponytail and pretended that my hair was his. I couldn't hold back my laughter when I saw that. Then I notice Leo with a stumped look on his face, "Hey, what's wrong?"

He snaps out of it and says, "uh, sorry. It's just, well, after what happened with Mr. Zapp. I just didn't think that he would take to you that fast. You were really scary for that last part of it."

I gave a defeated smile, "I guess I was." I raise a hand behind my head with an apologetic smile, "Sorry about that. I had a really long day so far, and I'm just too tired to put up with somethings right now."

He gave me an understanding look, "No problem. It just surprised me that someone could scare Mr. Zapp that badly like that and still be this kind."

I look back at the guy, and quite frankly, he looks really scared. I guess I didn't know my own scariness either.

"Will he be okay?" I mean, I didn't mean to scare him that badly, not enough that may cause him to break from fear.

"He'll be okay," Zed says in a way that could of lead to suggesting 'he's seen worse.' Though what I had heard of some things that happened here, I won't argue. I just gave a slow nod while giving a hesitant 'okay.'

By then the waitress came back with a large plate of food asking, "So, what did I miss?" She looks at me, then to Leo and Zed, then to Zapp who's at the other end of the bar. She then Laughs before putting the food on the counter where Zapp was and looks at me while saying, "Well, I never saw that side of him before. Here's your food, hope you like it." She then left to continue her job.

I then sat down on the stool and gave a better look at the food she left. It was a big hamburger with tons of french fries and a large glass of lemonade. I picked up the burger and took a bite. It was good. Then the next thing I knew it was almost gone. I took a glance to my right at the guys next to me, and they're staring at me funny. I did the same to my left because I felt a pair of eyes on me. And, somehow, Zapp was three seats away from me, giving me the same expression, too.

I finished what I had in my mouth, then say to them, "Heh heh, sorry. I have been up for about 9 hours, and that was also when I last ate anything, too."

"Why's that?" Zed was the one to ask with a curious look.

So I decide to answer while I eat, "Well, that's because I had to be taken to the airport from my hometown, which took about two hours. Then I waited for my flight, which lasted for an hour or so. Then getting on and off the plane was about a couple more hours.* Then lastly, I got into the city close to 8 am, and I have been wondering around till now. Not only that but the 3 hours I have been in the city. I'm sure I had caused possibly over hundreds of guys to stare at me in a way that gets me agitated. Zapp being one of them."

I gave a pause to take a sip of my drink, before continuing, "Though, he was the only guy in that group to introduce himself while doing that. So he does get a better voting than all those other ones that did it." After I said that, I swear, I think I actually heard him beam with happiness.

"Wow," I look to Leo as he says, "that is a long day."

I propped my head up on the table with my arm before saying, "Yep."

Zed tilts his head to the side as he asks, "If your trip was that long, what did you come here for?"

I gave him a sad looking smile, "I'm moving in with my cousin. She doesn't know that I'm in town yet. Thought I could surprise her."

"Do you know where she lives?"

"Ya, but I haven't been in this area for about 13 years. So..."

"You got lost." Zapp finished the sentence I had started.

"Ya, pretty much," I said in defeat.

"Then," it was Leo's turn now to ask me something, "why not call her?"

Okay, this may not be pretty.

"Uh, how do I say this," I said as I look in another direction away from them. I didn't want them to think badly of me, but there no way to say this lightly either. So I continue on with saying the inevitable, "The last time I have seen or talked to her was also about 13 years ago."

The next thing I knew is that I heard three voices saying aloud, "WHAT!?" in unison. It was so loud, that it made me cringe back slightly. I then hastily say, "Hey, hey, I-I can explain! You see..."

It took me a while to explain my situation to them. I told them about my parents' mysterious deaths, how I got kicked out of my apartment, why I couldn't contact my cousin, how my friends said that I should visit her, and how that visit turn into a move. By the end of my story, I could tell that Zed, Leo, and Zapp felt sorry for me. Zapp felt sorry enough to buy me dessert, even when I said that he didn't have to.

After the desert came (which was a large vanilla sundae with hot fudge and a lot of whipped cream on it*) Leo says to me, "That a lot to have happened in about 3-4 months. How are you holding up from all of it?"

I gave him a shrug, "As best as I can I guess. But I think it just mainly left me angry at the world. Or, left me more easily annoyed. You three want any? I wouldn't mind sharing." The 3 of them accepted my offer, and we split it.

As we ate it, Zapp asks, "Hey, you said you didn't have any kind of contact all these years with your cousin, right?"

I had a spoon in my mouth, so I nodded a 'yes.' He continued, "So how do you know if she still lives in the same place she did 13 years ago?"

I took the spoon out of my mouth to get another spoonful of ice cream as I answer, "I looked her up online to see how she's doing a while back. And as I did that, I found her address; it was the same one as the one back then." He gave an 'ah' and took some more ice cream.

Zed looked at me and said afford, "I wouldn't mind helping you to get there if you want?"

I look at him, trying not to get my hopes too high, ask, "Really?"

He gave me a kind smile as he says, "Why not?"

'Why not?' Are you kidding me?!

It made me so happy that I could scream!

I got off my stool so fast and hugged him at a speed that could only be described as 'lightning.'

"Thank you!" I said it like it made my year. Which after those 3 and a half months, it technically did.

"Uh," I look up at Zed, still hugging him, "y-your w-welcome." Is it me, or did Zed just slightly turned a light purplish-pink color on his face?

All of a sudden I hear Zapp trying not to laugh. Baldly if I might add. And I feel oddly annoyed by it, "What's so funny?" I couldn't help but glare at him before he answers me. "D-don't worry," Zapp says, failing to hide his laugh, "i-it doesn't ca-concern you, re-really."

"Um, sorry but," I glance back at Zed as he spoke, "could you, let go of, me?"

Oh, I forgot that I was still hugging him.

My blush from earlier came back and is a bit stronger than before. I quickly let go and in hyper mood says, "S-sorry about that. It's just that it was the nicest thing to have happened to me in months. So... ya." I ended up blushing even more at the end.

Again, why am I blushing?! I don't normally do that, at least not like this!

Zed looks about as embarrassed as me when he says, "Oh."

We both stay seemingly quiet for a few moments. Obviously, we both don't know what to do now.

What should I do now? It's beginning to get a bit awkward.

Thankfully, Leo breaks the silents by saying, "Hey, um, maybe we should finish this before you leave?"

"Sure," was my only response. So, I went back to my seat, and asking myself in my head 'What's happening to me?'

We left the diner a while ago and since Zed says that he doesn't own a car, were walking to there. But it isn't the worst thing in the world at the moment. As he shows me the way to my cousin's place, he also tells me where and what is in the area. I also asked Zed some questions about himself. Like what subjects he likes, what kind of books he's into, and the like. That's how I found out that he's into a lot of stuff that I am as well. Like we both like being in the water, swimming, reading, and other stuff, too. So when we ran out of things to talk about, for some reason, I feel as though I found someone I can be close with. I actually feel sort of sad when we got to my destination.

"Thanks for helping me out, Zed. I really mean it."

He gave me another kind smile, "No need. I feel as honored as it is."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Honored? About what?"

"Of meeting you, and for being one of the first to welcome you to the Lot."

I blush yet again because of him. I try to hide my blush a little bit as I say, "Thanks, and the feelings mutual." You know, I think his grin just grew a bit.

Well, I should at least ask this now, "So, will I see you again? I mean, I'm still new to the Lot. So maybe you can show me around a bit more." Is it me, or does that sure da sounded desperate?

Zed's smile didn't falter as he says, "I wouldn't mind that."

"Well, if your available and you want to do anything with me. Call kay?"

"Sure, I would like that."

"Okay, well, see you later," I said as I slowly turn away from him, not wanting to break eye contact with Zed.

I guess it was just as hard for him to do that, too. He gave me a small wave. When I almost fully close the door behind me, he started to leave with a pleasant smile.

After I closed the door, I felt really happy. Or am I a bit giddy? Well whatever it is, it made me feel like that my luck is finally turning around for the better. That and I do know one thing another thing. That I sure am hoping that I will spend more time with him soon.

Well, its night now, coming to the end of my hectic day. Though I did wait for about 4 hours till she came home. I think I surprised her for seemingly camping outside her door, as much as for why I was there, to begin with.

When she let me in, Mariel showed me to a spare room that was available. After I got in there, I started to unpack my stuff in there. I had only gone as far as my backpack and changed my crop top in with a blue T-shirt. After I did that, I went to the kitchen and started to helped her to make dinner, I retold the same story from earlier at the diner. But I also added on how I got here to her apartment. So when we started to eat, we just try to catch up on things we missed.

Mariel then said that she'd turn in for the night. After I took a shower, I headed back into the spare room M gave me. I then finished unpacking my bags, put everything where they need to be, and changed into my camouflage pajama-T and shorts.

It's now closing in on 11:50 pm. I would've gone to sleep sooner, but I thought I should get a book or 2 to suggest for Zed the next time I see him, set out. Since we were talking about some books that we have read on the way here. He was interested in some of the books that I have told him of. So I just thought that I should pick out some books that he might want to borrow. Which lead to me reading them for over a couple or so more hours.

I got off the window sill that I was sitting on and put down the book I was just reading. So as I walk to my bed, I stop at a sudden thought. I turn around and look through the window that I was just sitting at. I walked back to it and looked out of it to the city that I'm in as I'm wondering what will the time I'm going to be spending here will be like for me. Well, whatever it will be, I'm just going to let fate decide.

The only thing that I hope for is that nothing bad will happen to me during it.

Then the image of the three friends I just made today, pop up in my head, that causes me to smile. They were so kind to me. I really hope I get the chance to return it to them.

I turned around and headed to bed that was calling me. Once I laid my head on my pillow, I made a promise to myself. I promise myself that I will help as many people that I can. I don't want to experience any more loss and regret anything anytime soon. I thought of that as I am going off to sleep.

Author note:

Thak you for those who had read this.

* her traveling route was from Wise, Michigan 48618, to Gerald R. Ford International Airport, to New York

* I really like my sundaes like that