Maybe that was another reason she and Ellie got along so well. They were alike in a lot of ways.

She hugged Sharon back with her free arm before she had to turn around to step off the escalator, by which time Kate and Andrew had caught up and were distracting Sharon.

Getting to the zoo was both enjoyable and a little surreal. Michael held her hand the entire time and she started to feel like they were kind of a real couple. Everyone was treating them like they were a real couple. Michael was acting like they were a real couple. Heck, she was managing to act like they were a real couple, even if she felt like an awkward fraud and a nervous, bumbling mess.

Sharon’s ridiculous antics helped her forget her nerves though. As long as Sharon kept up her rapid chatter, Ellie couldn’t focus on whether or not she was ready to act like a girlfriend. She couldn’t worry if she was leading Michael on or start feeling panicked about all the different ways this could go wrong when she was too busy laughing at Sharon’s outrageous behavior.

It didn’t take long before the group started to fall apart once they were inside the zoo. There were three main groups, plus Sharon.

Bringing up the rear were Angel, Adam, Jared, Leigh, and Olivia. Olivia and Adam both seemed to feel the need to read every single bit of information the zoo offered about each animal, which made Angel complain, so Leigh was helping to keep her entertained and Jared just seemed to be along for the ride. It was entirely possible Adam was just trying to get back at Angel for wearing her “Knocked Up Baby Momma” shirt out in public by being slow. If that was his goal, he was definitely on his way to achieving it, but Ellie thought he might just honestly enjoy reading all the facts. She made a mental note never to visit a museum with him.

In the middle, although somewhat loosely strung along, were Jessica, Justin, Chris, Hilary, Liam, Maria, and Rick. Jessica kept trying to move faster but Justin kept pulling her back, while Liam had a tendency to wander and Hilary kept having to drag him back over to where everyone else was. Rick and Maria ambled along, looking far too cutely content.

Leading the way down the paths were Ellie, Michael, Lexie, Patrick, Andrew, Kate, and Jake. Ellie had a feeling Lexie would have been a little slower on her own, but she wanted to give Jake an excuse to be with the front group; mostly because being in the lead group allowed him to be closest to where Sharon was.