"This is the monkey habitat," Danny announced, waving around. I nodded in acknowledgment.

"Actually, we're chimpanzees, not monkeys," a chimp with a British-like accent said. He was picking up a banana peel that the other chimp had thrown on the ground. "You see, we don't have tails."

"Whateva," Julien rolled his big yellow eyes. "A monkey's a monkey, tail or no tail!" Then he doubled over laughing with Mort, who had a REALLY high-pitched squeal.

The other chimp scowled and signed something in what I assumed was sign language. He caught my interest.

"What did he just sign? Why doesn't he just talk?" I asked the British-sounding chimp.

"Phil, here, doesn't talk. And, uh, you don't want to know what he just signed." Mason said.

I looked over at Julien, who was still laughing, and decided that Mason was right.

The sky was still gray.

In the next habitat was this ginormous creature. I just gawked and gawked. "This is Burt. Burt, this is Marlene." Dad said.

"Hi!" Burt greeted.

I kept on staring. I have never seen an animal so big! Well, actually, I had seen some bigger whales back at the aquarium, but still, Burt looked so different!

To avoid looking like a jerk, I shook paws with his trunk. After Julien stole some peanuts from him without him noticing (leaving Danny to tell him to give them back), we went on to the next habitat.

Next was the kangaroo habitat, where I had a speedy greeting with Joey, the inhabitant, and then we got out of there quickly before he could kick us out.

The sky was still gray. It looked like not a sad cloud was moving.

Then we traveled from there to the rhino habitat, and then the polar bar one, then the spider monkeys, then alligator, then ostrich, then a habitat FULL of all these flamingos who all completely freaked me out when they flocked over to say hi.

All this may sound like a lot, but really, the zoo was quite small. The habitats didn't have much space. After we went through the reptile house and childrens' zoo, I was all tired out. Yes, the zoo was small, but the tour was LONG. Especially when Roger, the alligator, had to go and tell us his looooooooong story about the dream of being a singer and actor he had and wanted to follow.

"Is that all?" I asked in a voice that I hoped did not sound snobby or anything.

"Nope! Two more habitats!" Robert said. "Next is the koala one!"

"Ooh! Koalas!" I said. Actually, I did not know much about them aside from the fact that they were fuzzy and cute!

"His name is Leonard." Danny said as we hopped into the habitat. "Koalas sleep in the day and wake at night, so he's not awake right now."

"Oh rilly?" Shouted Julien. "Maybe he's just pretending with us and is actually awake with his eyes closed all the while thinking how stupid you guys are to think that he is sleeping!" He hopped on the tree brunch Leonard was on. "Come on, Leo! You can stop faking now!"

Then he kicked Leonard's behind. Well, apparently he kicked too hard because the next thing everybody knew, Leonard was tumbling down to the hard ground.

"No!" Everybody but Julian cried out.

It was too late. Leonard slammed into the ground and jolted awake. "WHA–?"

Everyone ran over to help him up. "Don't touch me!" He exclaimed. "I can't believe you woke me up! At least you're not the penguins…"

"Penguins?" I asked. Was that the next habitat?

"Yes, penguins," Leonard said mysteriously, brushing himself off. "They are bad. And weird. You do not want to meet them. Not ever!"

"Oh, come on–" Danny started.

But Julien interrupted him. "Oh yes! You don't want to know them! They must be banned! Especially that flat-headed one!"

These two animals were crazy. They didn't honestly mean that, right? No animal could have been worse than Joey. "Are you sure?" I asked the koala.

"Ye–" He suddenly fell to the floor again. This time, sleep had struck him.

"Let's go there now," Robert suggested.

"Oh, no no no no no!" said Julien.

"Great, where is it?" I asked, ignoring Julien.

"It's at the very center of the zoo," said Danny.

Very center? Wow. How had I not noticed it before?

We walked to the habitat in the middle of the zoo and jumped across the fence and water inside the habitat to land on this white platform-like thingy.

"So. Where are the penguins?"

I think that that was the millionth question I had all day. But I really did not see any penguins.

"They are probably in their stupid HQ." Julien rolled his eyes, pushed aside a fishbowl I had failed to notice, and hopped in the hole it had covered before anybody could do anything.

"HQ?"

Millionth and first question.

My dad smiled. "Just come on in." Then he and the rest of the lemurs hopped into the hole.

Puzzled, I jumped in after them. Inside, I could here an argument occurring. Julien's voice and a different one. Extremely curious now, I climbed down a metal ladder into a gray room that looked nothing like a penguin's living environment, or even a different habitat for that matter. It looked impressive.

And then I saw them.

All four penguins.

Everybody turned to look at me when they heard my jaw drop to the ground. I stared at the birds more than I stared at the elephant because, dang, these animals were, well... gorgeous!

"Speak up, doll face," ordered one penguin who obviously had pure authority. He even had a flat head, just like Julien had described. "What, do I have a coffee stain or something?" he asked.

I could not speak. His voice was awesome. My mind was lost in the gray clouds outside.

All the guys were looking at me. I suddenly wondered how it was weird that I was practically the only girl in the zoo. But then that thought also vanished into the clouds.

"You guys, this is Marlene. Marlene, this is–" Danny said.

"I can introduce myself," The flat-headed penguin interrupted. He held out his flipper. "My name is Skipper. And this is my team, Kowalski, Rico and Private."

I only had enough of a mind to shake his cold (cold?) flipper and stammer "T-team?"

"We keep the zoo nice and orderly," a cuter penguin chirped.

Wow. His British accent was even more amazing!

Julien and the Koala were both wrong. These birds were awesome. Although the first penguin's handshake had left a chill in my paw. Hmm. His flipper had felt as cold and as hard as ice. It creeped me out, but I guessed that all penguins' body's were like that.

They were extremely beautiful. Maybe it was their eyes that showed it all. Their eyes were super bright blue.

We all talked a bit more before I left with my dad and lemurs except for Julien. He had stayed behind to argue a little bit more with the penguins. That guy was a jerk.

When we reached the otter habitat again, I flumped down onto my bed, dazed, and thought about my day and so much that I had learned.

The penguins' habitat was the best. Perhaps I was crazy but... I wanted to go back there again.