Disclaimer: I do not own the following: Jurassic Park, Eric Kirby, any characters you recognize from Jurassic Park, or anything that has to do with the original story lines created by Michael Crichton.

Chapter One-Eric Kirby

I sighed a soft sigh and gazed out the window. It was my second to last class of the afternoon and you could not deny the boredom of it.

"The Velociraptor was a carnivore. Standing two feet high…" Mr. Polycarp was saying. He was our science teacher and totally enthused with dinosaurs.

I glanced about the room. Of course, the popular girls were passing notes. But since Mr. Polycarp was blind in one eye, he could never tell.

There was one empty seat in the back. Who was the proud owner? Eric Kirby, dinosaur freak and school geek. He had been stranded on Isla something or another last year.

YEAH RIGHT! He claimed to have been there a little over eight weeks. Most unbelievable. I didn't even believe the islands had dinosaurs on them. I mean; it's virtually impossible to clone a dinosaur.

RING!

"All right, see you next year class!" Mr. Polycarp said above the scraping of chairs.

"Did you see Lane Martin's skirt?" Sally Grude whispered to her friends. They were the most popular girls in the tenth grade.

"Oh I know! You can totally tell she pinned it up," Cassy Torch smirked.

"It does not flatter her legs at all!" Kimmy Flort said, looking over at me and laughing.

I looked down at my white uniform skirt and at my slightly over weight legs. It was so hard to stay thin at this school with all the greasy food they served.

The reason why I had pinned up my skirt was my parents wouldn't allow it to be above my knee. Last year, I did a temporary stitch to shorten it, but my mom noticed the crease when I got home.

Oh well; this summer field trip, I was going to be rebellious. I had just bought myself a new white skirt that came two inches above the knee. There was nothing my parents could do … for the trip at least. They would probably make me return it the day I got home. The skirt was as short as the school would allow.

Candy Saunters opened the office door and slammed a stack of papers on the desk. "Do you have any idea what could happen?" She exclaimed.

"Oh come on, Candy," the man behind the desk said. "We're just flying over the islands. Nothing could possibly go wrong!"

"What about the flying…"

"They wouldn't attack the plane. It's far too large."

"What if something went wrong? What if…"

"We have received the privilege to plan part of the school trip, Candy. I'm not going to waste this opportunity. Besides, we'll have an expert along with us…"

"But it's illegal!"

"Candy, Candy! Don't you worry your pretty little head about it. Everything will be fine. Now you just turn right around and leave. Let me deal with the paper work."

Candy turned to leave but remembering something, she turned back. "Don't expect me to accompany you then Mr…"

"That will be all. Thank you." The man said. Candy glared down at him and stormed out of the room. "Those poor children," She muttered under her breath.

I frowned slightly as I looked around the classroom. All the seats but one were taken, and it was next to Eric Kirby, the person no one liked. Sure, he had a great smile and had been popular last year. But this year… I don't know; it was different.

Eric was lounging in his desk's chair with his arms over his chest. His uniform was perfectly pressed and his hair was short and slicked back with who-knows-how-much-gel.

I sat down and quickly opened my book. I used to have the hugest crush on him but… I don't know.

"Good book?" he asked. Nodding, I turned the page.

"Funny, I never thought you would like reading science upside-down. I don't know; maybe it's an assignment?"

I immediately slammed the book shut and forced it into my 70 lb. backpack.

"Are you going on the school summer trip this year?" He asked me.

I never got the chance to answer. The teacher came in at that moment. Mrs. Temperton hated people talking when she came in. I quickly wrote a note.

Eric,

Yeah, I'm going. Are you?

Lane

Eric and I had been friends in kindergarten through fifth grade but as soon as middle school came, he was a whole other person. We were still friends though, deep down inside. Notes were our primary conversation.

I looked around the room to make sure no one was looking and slipped the note to Eric. He casually opened it, peered inside, and smiled. He wrote something on the back and handed it to me. Opening it revealed these simple words:

Lane,

Yep, sure am. See you there.

Eric