Rabbit Hole Carnival: Standing Up

“Nick?” Cel asked as she walked in. “Is Renee doing alright?”

“Not really, right now.” Nick said. “She doesn’t handle the rough weeks like she used to.Which is a good thing over all, but it does help when she gets like this.”

“Hey, um, speaking of. Thank you.” Cel said.

“For what?” Nick asked.

“For whatever it is you’ve been doing, because I never thought I would see Renee like this again.” Cel said.

“She did this before?” Nick asked. “She always seemed a little closed off.”

“Mike didn’t wanna deal with me crying.” Renee replied, as she walked down the stairs. “The teachers mostly didn’t help either.”

“Mister Allen did, and he is doing a guest lecture at the aquarium tonight.” Cel said. “I was gonna see if you wanted to go tomorrow, but we can’t have a session today with most of the party sick. I figured maybe you wanna go tonight?”

“I’ll drive you both.” Nick Replied.

“Daddy, it's Saturday closing the bar now would—” Renee started.

“Renee, it’s a 20 minute drive, I’ve closed this place down for far less.” Nick said. “Go have some fun for a bit.”

“It’ll be your first lecture won’t it? You’ll have a great time the last time we went.” Cel Replied.

“Okay, but I wanna talk to at least one security guard once we’re there.” Renee said.
---
“Excuse me?” Cel waved down a security guard. “Is a Mike Shem here?”

“Umm… no, should he be?” the guard.

“No, but he might be, and... Well…” Renee explained a little bit of her life story.

“I see.” The guard replied. “You ladies, enjoy yourself tonight, and  I will make sure the other guards know Miss Shem.”

Renee paused as she saw the tank and walked straight up to it. “He found one!?”

“Took us quite a while.” Mister Allen replied. “But it’s a genuine Alchanian Rainbow fish!”

“Still don’t know why that’s important, but I wasn’t gonna let you miss it.” Cel said. “And you surprised me being my case study, so I figured it was only fair to return the favor.”

“Miss Shem?” A female security guard walked up.

“Yes?” Renee said.

“He’s here.” The female guard said. “We’re doing our best to keep him away, but well—”
“Shouldn’t have brought you.” Cel said.

“Yes you should’ve and I'm glad you did.” Renee replied. “He’s at the west entrance then?”

“Yes, and we are trying to keep him from the east exit.” The female guard said.

“You wanna head to the north one then?” Cel asked.

“No, let's take the long way and leave through the south.” Renee said. “Daddy would go there first, so it’s the best route.”

“You two will stay right here.” Allen replied. “And you will kick this man out, or you can consider this fish gone.”

Renee and Cel listened to a lecture on an Alchanian Rainbow Fish that night, and then let Cel’s mother pick them up. “Yeah, he's still around Daddy. Cel’s mom is gonna drop me off tomorrow, okay?...  Yes I heard about it, and it's so cool. Did you know that…”

“Renee? Renee?!” Cel signed. “You can call him tomorrow, mom.”