"I'll...do the washing up for a month?"
Her mom let out an exasperated sigh as she glanced up from the newspaper she was reading "Nice try sweetheart but we have a dishwasher."
Curling her fingers up into tight, irritated fists Meghan let out a sigh "Okay. Okay…" she said as she tried to run through all of the things she could possibly offer to her mom to get her to say yes "It'll be educational! I have nothing else to do! And...and I can look out for Lowery, make sure he's washing his clothes and eating vegetables!"
There was a smirk to her mother's lips as she shuffled to the edge of her chair and reached down to her bag "Now listen to me. You'll behave yourself," she said as she produced a white envelope "You'll study, really help your future career, and you'll listen to your brother."
Meghan's hands were covering her mouth as her eye's followed the envelope waving around in her mother's hand "Are those...is that…"
"Did you really think I would stop my dinosaur obsessed daughter miss out on such an opportunity?"
Letting out a yell of surprise Meghan launched herself toward her laughing mom. Throwing her arms around her she rocked the two of them from side to side before she began to press kisses against her cheek "You are the best!"
"This is literally the worst."
Lowery's eyes raised to the ceiling as Meghan began to complain yet again "I thought a look from the control room would be 'an illuminating experience'," he said in a mocking tone "Your exact words."
"Of course they were I'm not going to deny that," Meghan answered as she spun on the chair she was flopped into "You wouldn't know how to even use the word illuminating."
Vivian, who sat in the desk beside Lowery, let out a chuckle "Sorry," she said disguising it as a cough "You've gotta admit she's funny though."
"Yeah bro, just admit it!" Meghan exclaimed just as Lowery pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"Please stop encouraging her."
Vivian extended her arms in a shrug as she turned back to her own monitor, smile still on her lips, and Meghan got to her feet "Hey, you haven't worn the shirt I brought you yet," she said reaching over to poke her brother in the chest.
"You arrived yesterday?"
"He's so ungrateful Viv," she said as she wandered passed their seats and made her way over to the lift "One hundred and fifty dollars that shirt cost me-"
"She arrived yesterday!"
"-and he can't be bothered to put it on," she said with a shake of her head as the doors opened up and she stepped inside.
"Where are you going? Meghan? Please wear your-" he sighed as she disappeared "-suncream."
She was smiling to herself as the doors closed before she had to reply to her brother. A yawn stretched at her mouth as she pushed her hair from her face. She'd barely slept the night before, her large hotel room had almost seemed echo-y and the jetlag made sure her brain didn't want to relax into a deep sleep.
It didn't help that where she was situated meant she could hear the rumble coming from the T-Rex paddock every now and then.
That was definitely something to get used to.
Glancing down to the VIP pass hanging around her neck she wrinkled her nose up. Managing to cover most of the Boardwalk in her first day on the island, stocking up on a lot of the gift shop merchandise, she was already itching to explore an undiscovered section of the park.
Her fingers tapped on her pass as her eyes darted around her surroundings. She chewed on her bottom lip and let out a sigh.
Trees, trees and more trees.
Scuffing the soles of her boots on the ground as she walked she decided to turn left instead of the usual right down to the main area of the park. Pushing her hands into the pockets of her shorts she sighed once more when her fingertips touched her phone. She'd promised her friends back home daily vlogs of all her exciting adventures…
But she doubted sitting up in the control room watching Lowery count through customer surveys counted as exciting adventures.
"Huh," Meghan found herself saying as she slowly came to a stop. She had no idea where she was.
Turning on the spot a couple of times her brow furrowed and her heart began to race slightly. Tugging her phone from her pocket she bit down on her bottom lip when she spotted the battery had died.
Lowery was going to kill her. He had made her promise to keep her phone on her and charged, told her to always carry the map of the park he had given to her when she'd first arrived…
And here she was. Lost, phoneless and being able to picture the map sitting on her bedside cabinet back at the hotel.
Her boots crunched a few twigs as she took more steps along the overgrown pathway. She wasn't even sure which was she was facing any more and could only hope that if she kept walking she would soon reach a recognisable part of the island.
"And this is why you should listen to Lowery sometimes," she said beneath her breath, her nose wrinkling and an "Ew," also leaving her lips when she realised what she had said.
Hope raised up into her chest as she came to a clearing, the crunching beneath the soles of her boots from gravel rather than roughage. Her eyes squinted as she emerged from the trees and the sun hit her fully "What the-?" she said to herself lifting her arm to shield her eyes. She was stood in front of, what looked like, one of the dinosaur paddocks. People with crackling radios clipped to their belts walked around and trucks were lined up not so far away but it was the sound which caught her attention immediately.
Her eyes widened as she pushed herself to carry on walking. Excitement bounced around her as another high pitched screeching noise reached her ears and her pace quickened.
"Miss, you should not be here."
She almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of someone's voice. Pressing her hand to her chest she turned on the spot "Oh wow," she said before slapping her hand over her mouth "I mean...hi?"
There was a look of confusion on the man's face and Meghan couldn't help but blush as he folded muscular arms over his broad chest "You a guest?"
Meghan drew up to her full height (which wasn't very tall beside her companion) and raised her chin "No," she said with an edge of attitude to her tone "I've been helping up in the control room. My...well my brother works up there and I've come to visit and help him out."
Though a smile of amusement came to his face he nodded his head and extended his hand out for her to shake "Owen Grady."
"Meghan Cruthers," she replied shyly placing her hand into his, jumping slightly as a deeper cawing noise emerged from the large paddock to her left. Raising her eyes to meet his she couldn't stop the shine coming to them or the smile curling the sides of her lips "Are those velociraptors?"
Thanks for reading! This is just the prologue, an insight into how Meghan got onto the island and met Owen :)
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