Chapter I. Departure
Forest Grove, North Texas, USA
"Are you coming Anthony? We're leaving to meet Jordan in five minutes." he heard his mom call from downstairs. It was currently four forty five in the morning and Anthony was excited. Barely awake, but excited nonetheless.
"Yea, one second!" he replied sleepily. Anthony Reid, a lanky, dark brown haired boy of fifteen, stood slipping his contacts in in front of the bathroom mirror before making a last minute check of his bags. There were only two, his backpack with all the lighter things he could carry around, and his suitcase, which he'd leave at the park's hotel. Anthony was still having a hard time believing that he was basically going on his dream adventure. Of all the places he could have been able to go, of all the things he could have gotten to do, he was getting to go to Jurassic World.
Anthony's cluttered room was littered with his many display cases for findings and specimens from over the years of his finding and collecting of various natural items, though mainly fossils and minerals. One particular wall was dedicated to his various achievements from school: things like a trumpet section leader award from back in eighth grade, a medal from a golf tournament he'd entered last spring, and a valedictorian award from when he'd exited junior high which he'd been very fond of when he received it. Various movie posters and free handed sketches with likenesses of numerous prehistoric animals littered all of the other walls and shelves, among them the three horned Triceratops, the massive Brachiosaurus, the sea-going reptile, the Mosasaurus, the feathered hunter, the Velociraptor, and the all-famous Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The fascination with prehistory had started when Anthony was about three. It had started small, with crude drawings and figuring out how to say such long, complicated names of the various species, but, this curiosity soon evolved into something of an obsession. His parents had fed his interests. And so, when his uncle who worked there had emailed his parents that he had two extra tickets to the park which he thought would be a good summer getaway for Anthony and a friend to go on, Anthony had thrown himself at the opportunity to see real life dinosaurs. For weeks now, he'd been researching what the best things were to do there and what the best order to do them in was. He planned everything out so that he and Jordan wouldn't have to miss out on anything, especially since everything was payed for already. No expense would be spared.
Leaving the bathroom, Anthony slipped into a dark green, button up Magellan shirt and some khakis, then grabbed his bags and his phone and jogged down the stairs where his mom was waiting for him. He loaded his bags into the car, and they were on their way.
They arrived at the Dallas Airport at just before six. Jordan Matthews was already waiting outside. Jordan was a lean, dark skinned boy Anthony's age whom Anthony had met in second grade, and the two had been very close ever since. His parents had already said their goodbyes and left, and so he'd waited here for Anthony. They made their way through the airport, excitedly talking about what they wanted to do first and what they wanted to see.
"I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the T-rex. I read on the website that she's over twenty five years old! She must be huge!" Jordan said as they went through airport security.
"Yea, I can expect that'll be one of the highlights. A few inches of glass between you and a forty five foot long, twenty foot tall super predator." Anthony replied as he stepped through one of the scanners. "Should put old Walt Disney to shame."
An hour or so later and they were sitting in a lobby waiting for their flight. Anthony had said his goodbyes to his parents, and his mom had told him to have fun and to be good as always, the whole bit.
"Remember," she'd said, smiling, "you might only go there once, so take advantage of it and have fun."
Presently, Anthony was showing Jordan the HD video camera he'd brought in his backpack when an announcer came over the loudspeaker, calling for everyone to board. The two boys got up and showed one of the staff their 'flying alone' passes and they were escorted to the front. Jordan took off the black fleece jacket he'd been wearing in the cool air conditioning and stuffed it in his bag as Anthony took one last glance out into the airport before entering the passage to board the plane.