Chapter 4-

I seemed to be the only one who had absolutely no idea of where we were going—which I got a bit annoyed about, mostly 'cause Zoe kept looking back and asking if I'd gotten lost yet—so I walked close to Rex as we headed for the right jet—which I didn't mind.

Zoe nearly knocked Max over a few times because of Ace and Aza running around our little group like crazy aiming to trip us, but every now and then Zoe would complain they were really trying to kill one of us. But they would never do that. Hopefully.

Some pilot dude stopped us and started talking with Reese for a fair amount of time though, so, I kinda figured that this was gonna take longer than I'd originally hoped. I passed the time by talking to Zoe (no idea why I thought that would be a way to spend it, but alright). And I learned that we both had a feeling that Reese and that dude liked each other.

I laughed at Zoe's impression of what Reese's feeling's face might have looked like as she talked with the guy. This seemed like one of the only times we would get along. And I was pretty sure I'd learn that it would be.

When we finally got to the jet, it seemed a lot quieter for some reason. But I paid no mind to it. But then I just had to notice that we'd left Max, Zoe, Chomp, and Paris on the ground. Sure it would've been just fine to leave them there, but I couldn't stop myself before I mentioned it. "Uhh, does it seem strangely quiet in here to anybody? Or is it just me?"

Reese laughed a little bit before questioning me, it was like she could frickin' read my mind or something…and it was just kinda creepy to say the very least, "We left Max, Chomp, Paris, and Zoe on the ground, didn't we?" Well, that sure is a mouth-full, isn't it?

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we have to go get them. I kinda like the peaceful silence. I can finally hear my own thoughts." I suggested; I really did enjoy being able to hear the silence, besides Aza and Ace. They were having one of their little 'contests' again—the only rule was that you couldn't stop making noise under penalty of nothing. I knew Max and Zoe would be able to find something to occupy themselves with until we came back.

But no, Reese took the jet back down. Then she asked Rex and me to go and try to find them when we got to the ground. I sighed silently; not only did we not get to leave them behind, but I had to be one of the people to go and find them again. Of course.

Finally I caved into Reese's reassuring that having them with us wouldn't be as bad as I thought it was, and followed Rex out of the jet and down around the hangars again. We walked side-by-side as we started our search for Max, Zoe and the dinosaurs; Aza and Ace ran out a few feet ahead of us.

I smiled, happy to see Aza having as much fun and being as happy as she was. I'd never seen her this happy—then again, I'd barely known her, but it still felt like I had always known her. I could only assume that it would be hard to get her to leave when I completed the mission.

The smile faded from my face in an instant. The mission; I'd completely forgotten it, and the fact that Seth would be pretty pissed if I didn't finish it up fast. I'd been busy with everything but figuring out the mission. How was I going to go through with it when I was becoming more of a true friend to them during every minute I spent here?

I hadn't noticed that I'd had an almost depressed-like look on my face until Rex asked me about it. I wished that I'd just been holding it in better; this wasn't a very good time to be talking about crap like this. "What's wrong? You look upset."

I glanced over at him; a small smile wanted to cross my face, but I refused to let it. It was no lie that he cared for me, all he wanted to do was make me feel better, in any way that he could. But that didn't help with the fact that I needed to 'betray' him in order to make Seth proud. Or at least the least bit pleased. Was Seth worth leaving that though?

I wanted to tell Rex the truth, I really did. I wished I could tell him about everything. I wanted him to know about the Alpha Gang: The mission. Everything he didn't know about me. What I was here for. Who I really was. How I felt.

But the fear of a negative answer made me have a need to have to lie again. Something I just didn't want to do to Rex. I wouldn't rathered just jump in front of a moving bus right now and avoid the mission, and lying to Rex. But there was no bus here, and it would probably stop before it was too late anyways.

I didn't see a safer path to take, so I made up an excuse, "It's nothing, just not exactly looking forward to having to go shopping with Zoe." It was a poor excuse, I knew it was, but it was all I could think of on such short notice. It was partly true though.

I turned my head to face the ground as he answered, his voice sounding slightly surprised at my reply, "Oh," I could tell he knew that wasn't the whole story. "Don't worry, it won't be as bad as you may think it will be, just…don't let it get to you. I know for a fact you're strong enough to keep it under control."

He couldn't see through my tough exterior—to my knowledge, he didn't have x-ray vision. Inside I was weak, stupid even. Nothing I did ever seemed to be the right thing to have done or said. This mission was only one example. How could I do this when I felt this way about Rex?

My confusing and complicated thoughts were interrupted again by Rex asking me with a hushed concern to his tone and his expression, "But that's not all that's bugging you, is it?" I wish people would just say that right off the bat so ya don't have to go through this awkward feeling of silence.

I turned my head from the ground to him again; I didn't want him to see the tears of anger towards Seth and confused emotions that wouldn't let me fess up like I wanted to. He stopped walking and turned his whole body to face me when he saw my hesitations.

I turned away from him more. Don't let him see you cry, don't let him see you cry…I tried to answer with a strong, unwavering voice, but that didn't happen at all. My voice sounded like I'd just shattered as I said weakly, "…No…That isn't it…But I don't want to talk about it anyways…"

Rex took my hand in his again—Man I wish he wouldn't do that. Why do his hands have to be so warm and spiffy and stuff?—and pulled me around to face him as he pleaded, "Rante, tell me what's wrong. I only want to help." He took my other hand in his in an effort to keep me facing him.

All I knew was that I couldn't tell him how I felt, or who I really was; I just couldn't. How was I going to know if he would understand? Nevertheless…I sighed, giving in to my want to tell him despite knowing—sorta—the consequences. "It's just that…I—"

I was cut off by Max and Zoe running towards us, both of them screaming their heads off like some crazy killer-dude was coming after them at snail-miles-per-hour. …This is new… Rex let go of one of my hands, but he kept the other the same, maybe he thought this would give himself a bit of a foothold when I was ready to start talking. That was by no means going to happen today though.

Max was screaming for someone to keep Zoe away from him, and Zoe was yelling at Max to stop running so she could punch him. I wonder if Max ate one of Zoe's soccer balls thinking it was round cotton candy. I seriously wouldn't put it past the guy. I mean, look at the way he runs. It's like he's ready to fall on his face with every step. At least he's got his hair for a pillow to land on.

Max stopped in front of Rex, and turned around to face Zoe as she threw a punch at him. That just seemed plain dumb to me; if you're running away from someone, the only reason you should look back is to check if they're still there, and even then that's a stupid idea. That or you forgot why you were running in the first place.

Max ducked; Rex flinched; he didn't have enough time to react. But I did. I quickly moved my palm in front of his face, catching Zoe's fist before it collided with Rex's mouth. I tossed it back down to her side. They all stood in awe at how quickly I'd reacted. Did I know how I did that? No, but it had seemed like the right thing to do at the moment, so…why not?

I felt a burning sensation concealed in my palm; I knew Zoe's nails had cut my skin, I knew there was a chance I was bleeding, but I didn't care. I could've cared less about the pain; it was better than Rex getting a punch in the mouth for no reason other than Zoe's poor aim and bad calculation of time.

"We should get back to the jet," Rex stated, glaring angrily at Zoe for having nearly punched him in the face, and—I could tell by the glint in his eye—for hurting me. How he could tell I'll never know, but he could, and that set me to wondering about ESP. "Reese is waiting."

"Wait," Max stopped us before we could turn around to head back to the jet, an evil smirk was plastered securely to his face as he eyed our hands. I hated it so much when that somehow-smart expression crossed his features. "Why are you guys holding hands, again?"

We both blushed a light shade of pink before letting go of each others hand again. If people couldn't talk, this kind of crap just wouldn't happen to anyone. We turned around and started heading for the jet again: Max and Zoe walked after us, snickering and laughing uncontrollably as they walked. I had a very good idea of what they were talking about.

When we finally got back to the jet the second time, we made sure we had everyone (Rex counted, and miscounted at least four and a half times), and took off again. I had to admit, I regretted agreeing to come here in the first place; quite frankly I'd rather be back at the Taylor's trying to scarf down those 'eggs' Max had 'cooked'.

Max and Zoe yelled and screamed at each other practically the whole time, and for pretty much no reason besides the fact that they could, would, and shouldn't. Rex and I were getting sick of it by the second minute that passed by. I could feel my headache getting a migraine.

"Okay, I agree with you, we should've left them there." Rex told me with a small smile on his face, trying to brighten the mood with a joke wasn't my first thought, but then again I'd been trying to block out all thinking in the first place. I could tell that Rex was getting a headache-migraine from their arguing too. When one person has a headache, it's pretty easy to tell when someone else does because you know what you look like when you've got a really bad one.

When I didn't think I could take their yelling much more without exploding into a million itty bitty pieces that Max might just choke on, I turned around and shouted over both of their extremely annoying and whiny voices, "Okay, what the heck are you fighting about?!"

"Max won't admit birds can't fly!" Zoe squealed as she pointed her finger at Max, who didn't hesitate one moment to bite it. I had to admit, that was a good one. I hadn't expected anything like that to cross Max's mind. But then again, it didn't take very long to get across that place because there wasn't anything there that you needed to go over or around.

I stared at them; Rex face palmed. I could barely believe that's what they were fighting about. But, it was Max and Zoe I was talking about, so it wasn't exactly that hard to believe. And I guess it wasn't really what they were fighting about that I needed to know, it was just the fact that they would stop if I figured out a solution to their problem. Duct tape! That wicked awesome stuff always does the trick!

"Some can, some can't. Now leave it at that, make-up, and get on with your lives for crying out loud!" I told them with exasperation before turning around, hoping for the best and that they'd listen.

They looked at me, and then back at each other. They smiled, apologized to each other, and then leaned close to each other; I closed my eyes and tried to think of anything and everything but what they were about to and doing right now. I didn't want to have to watch them kiss again.

I glanced over at Rex again: He was holding his head in his hand, probably trying to get his headache to go away. I felt a bit bad for him, knowing that mine had already left—yelling at Max and/or Zoe just seemed to do the trick for me every time.

I reached over and gently rested my hand on his shoulder, using a light, comforting pressure like a masseuse would to one of her patients. But I didn't know how to massage people other than the fact that more times than not the patient wasn't exactly clothed.

I asked him, a smile crossing my lips at my poor excuse for a light-hearted joke, "Are you going to survive, or should I go figure out how a defibrillator works?" Really, I had no idea what do to other than rub the pads together and shout 'Clear!' when it was nice and zappy.

He looked back over at me and snickered a little before dropping his hand back down to his lap. "No, I think I'll be fine. But how did you get them to stop arguing?" He asked as he pointed back to Max and Zoe, who were now quiet, and done with their make-out session. "I've known them for a couple of years now and haven't figured out a solution to it."

I shrugged my shoulders as I summarized it all up into a few very scientifically accurate sentences that had nothing to do with science, physics, or a brain whatsoever. "I listened to the problem, got the answer, told them the answer, and boom. Happy couple."

He laughed at the 'happy couple' part—or, at least I could only figure that was the part. If that wasn't it, he was laughing about something he'd thought and/or pictured in his own mind. "You know," He said to me, a sweet smile crossing his face. "You haven't ceased to amaze me once."

I blushed with a bit of shyness before giving Rex a playful but light punch in the shoulder, and replying with a bit of a disbelieving scoff, though I did wonder if he really meant it, "You're not too shabby yourself."

The jet landed in Egypt a few hours or so later, it could've been a day knowing how long I'd slept through it. But for all I know, it could've been five minutes. Like I'd been keeping track; Max mighta been though, I was actually kinda tempted to ask. That and what he'd kept himself occupied with while I'd been sleeping.

We jumped out of the jet, our baby dinosaurs right next to us. Rex and I were the only ones who caught ours; Chomp landed on Max's head, knocking him to the ground, and the same thing happened with Zoe and Paris. Not only that, but they dinosaurs landed on their partners in a simultaneous motion too; I laughed at them both, noticed they were none too happy about it, and kept on laughing nevertheless.

They jumped up from the ground as Rex and I headed over to one of the ancient buildings, our baby dinosaurs back in their cards. The old, old rock seemed ready to collapse, but then again, then ancient civilizations had made their buildings very precise, enough so that not even a piece of paper could fit between the cracks if there even were any to speak of. So, I sorta kinda halfway doubted that it would fall down and crush us. How comforting is that?

"Okay, where's the doorknob? And the doorbell? And the keyhole? Or a window or some kind of crack me and a mouse and a piece or two of cheese can fit through?" Max asked no real person in particular as he began poking all of the little holes in the rock door he could find. For all any of us knew, he might have an imaginary little person clinging to his back whispering replies and answers to anything and everything in his ear. That would explain a lot.

After a fair amount of time spent searching for a way to get inside, and everyone else having given up, Max jumped up from his spot in the sand and exclaimed in an extremely excited voice, "I have an idea! Let's try magic words! I'll go first! Open sesame!" I stood there knowing it wasn't going to work; a few seconds later, the door opened as if on queue. So much for frickin' logic.

"That didn't just happen," Rex mumbled to himself in disbelief, his mouth hanging open wide. Despite the fact that it would suck for him, I was thinking about how to react when a bug got caught in there. "Tell me that didn't just work."

"That didn't just work," I told him with a smirk; he hadn't said it had to be true, or that that request had been rhetorical. "Now come on, let's go." I was the first to start forward into the building, probably being one of the only ones trusting—or trying to anyway—that the door wouldn't close right after Aza and I walked inside.

We walked down a long, dark corridor for a while in silence, but it wasn't like the silence was really planning on sticking around forever, or that it was the awkward kind either. It knew that it had to leave sometime, and knowing that, it would leave the first chance it was given. Everything just depended on how that would happen.

Just like how I knew I would have to leave Rex after some time. I stopped in my tracks at the thought, making everyone else run into me. I have to stop doing that. I have to stop thinking about leaving. I already know I didn't want to, but I don't have a choice anymore, nor did I ever have one.

Rex was, and would always be the only person on this planet that could keep me sane—for whatever reason, doing so was difficult to accomplish on my own. He was the only one that seemed to be capable of saving me from the dark, lonely abyss of myself.

"Why did you stop?" Max asked me, obviously not pleased. Perfect, someone else I've disappointed. Now he was just like Seth. Why can't I just get something right for one measly little minute so I can learn how not to do stuff like this?! Thinking about it isn't gonna help without actions, but what else am I supposed to do?

Tears filled my eyes, but they weren't tears of sadness, they were of my frustration with myself, with the world, and Seth's expectancy of perfection that I just wasn't good enough to live up to. I was glad that the in the darkness they couldn't see me trying not to cry. I quickly wiped my eyes on the back of my hand; I had to be stronger than this. I guess it just wasn't going to show now.

"Sorry. I just…got caught up." I answered, trying to keep my voice from becoming crackled; my tears would then to them become obvious. I didn't want that. I couldn't have that; doing so would make everything that much harder to achieve for Seth and his stupid expectations.

"Are you alright Rante?" I heard Zoe ask me; there was an obvious hint of concern for my reasoning of halting, but I didn't want to go anywhere near it now, or ever. If I went there, that would mean we were actually friends, and that's not what was supposed to be happening here. It would be helpful if they felt that way about me too.

I tried to clear my throat before I answered her, if it grew weak, she would understand I was lying, and there had to be no chance whatsoever of that option, "I'm fine. Let's go." I kept walking, alone for a few seconds, I didn't mind. And they didn't ask me about it again. I had a feeling they wouldn't, and slightly hoped that it was true. For some reason, part of me just wished they would be persistent and try to help me get this off of my shoulders, but no, they wouldn't, and I doubted that I would even let them do so in the first place.

We walked yet again in silence; I tried to keep my mind from wandering off again, but the fact that it would without much effort in doing so was completely and utterly inevitable. I tried to keep it focused on walking in a straight line nevertheless. I knew taking Rex's hand in mine might make me feel better…but then again it might just make everything worse.

I was betting on worse.

My thoughts were yet again interrupted by almost tripping on a rock. And I thought I was supposed to be paying attention to where I was going. I growled to myself. Today was not going well so far. It was all downhill from here, even though it really hadn't started out as uphill in the first place or ever.

"Why do you seem so angry?" Zoe asked me, her voice quick, wispy, and whiny. At first I thought I heard compassion in her tone, but I figured it couldn't be. She was, and had always been close to hating me. Like Seth. And you just couldn't change that about people no matter how hard you tried, or with whatever you did try.

"It's nothing," I answered her through gritted teeth; anything more and I wouldn't be able to hold back from shrieking until my throat was numb. "You wouldn't care. Just keep going, and just be quiet and leave me alone alright?!" …But I don't want to stay here, in this silence. Trapped in the darkness and hatred of this caged mind.

I looked over at Rex, or at least where I thought he was. I could see his blue eyes glowing in the exceptionally dim light. I could almost see his face clear as daylight; I saw so many emotions in his eyes at one time. I wanted to know why they were all there, but I was no mind reader, and now just wasn't the time to be asking such heartfelt things. With Rex, I'd never get the chance to embrace a time like that.

Why he felt so many things for me, I'd never understand. Couldn't he tell that I couldn't be interested? That I didn't seem to have the choice in this one? Why the heck couldn't I piece this all together? What the heck was wrong with me? Why couldn't I just be happy? Why couldn't I just figure out how Rex really felt about me? Was he just my friend, or did he l—

I rammed into a wall; I nearly shouted something I would've regretted. The only thing I could do to keep slightly silent was bite down hard on my tongue. I thought I was going to bite it off for a second or so there though.

When I got over the fact that I'd been so deep in thought that I'd run into a wall, I looked around me. Zoe was laughing at me for running into the wall, but she must've just thought I was blinded by the darkness enveloping us, not that I'd just been thinking again. I had to use all the power of my being to make sure I didn't go and strangle her right then and there.

I clenched my fists; I tried not to punch her. I heard the light click of Rex's shoes as he walked up to me; I felt his gentle hand calmly touch my tense shoulder, pulling me slightly close to him. My fists unclenched, and hung down at my sides in an almost serene state. Rex knew I wasn't completely angry at Zoe for laughing; he could tell something completely different was bothering me inside. He just wasn't sure what, and he could see that I wasn't planning on talking any time soon, possibly ever.

I wanted to lean against him, to fall into his arms; to rest my head on his shoulder, have him hold me close to him. No, I knew I couldn't do that. I just couldn't. It would be wrong; I couldn't just throw away the mission because of some stupid feelings inside me. Seth would've told me they didn't matter, that they were worthless. And they had to be, they just had to.

….But I still didn't know if I really did think the same about them.

"Look, there's another room!" Max said as he kicked his feet into high-gear and sprinted gleefully to the next room, seeming to completely forget about what had just gone on with the wall and all of my exasperated replies. But, I guess it was better than having him linger on them for half or more of forever.

I could see light, and a fair amount of shiny objects. Curiosity got the best of me. I walked away from Rex and started heading for the room Max had just ran into. Zoe ran past me to follow Max, pushing me easily up against the wall; I didn't know why I'd become so weak and heavy laden with troubles all of a sudden. She'd either pushed me into the wall, or I fell into it.

I hoped Seth was happy. He was killing me, inside and outside. This stupid mission, the pressure of it all resting on my shoulders, it was all killing me, making me weak. I stumbled forward onto my knees; I was glad Rex had already walked past me. I didn't want him to see me like this. In fact, I didn't want any of them to see me like this at all, or anywhere near it at that.

I got back up onto my feet. It was like I'd put bullet-proof glass in front of my heart, just trying to keep my thoughts from penetrating it again. I had to be stronger than this; I had to be smarter than the D-Team for now. I just had to finish this mission. Then I could forget about all of this, and then I was home free, but with no home that I wanted to go back to. I just had to survive for a few more days before I would force myself to leave everything and try to make something new out of my life.

When I'd finally gotten to the next cavern-room, I saw giant mounds of gold and silver coins, and many other treasure-like things. Zoe was running around looking and touching everything like I'd kinda expected, while Max and Rex just kinda stood there watching her run around, trying to convince her that we needed to keep going to we could find the dinosaur.

But, that wasn't really needed. It was apparently coming to us.

The dinosaur that had sent the DinoHolders berserk began walking into the room like it owned the frickin' place. Even though with its size, I was pretty sure it could've convinced any landlord. I was about to have Aza go and take it down, but then I saw a figure appear from behind one of its legs; the person seemed unafraid, and fully aware of what he was near, so I didn't send Aza over. I put the card back in my pocket, but had to admit that I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to fight with her at my side. Hopefully I'd get the chance to someday. Maybe.

Rex didn't realize that the person wouldn't have been standing by the dinosaur if they didn't know what they were doing, because he ran over to the woman—I had assumed that the person was feminine anyway—calling, "Miss! Watch out before it crushes you!"

When he got over to her, he took her by the arm, and tried to pull her away from the dinosaur. But she didn't move, and while not doing so she told him, "No, it's alright. Genie's not going to hurt anyone."

"Genie?" I could tell he was confused by the way his voice rose up in pitch ever so slightly when he spoke the name. Most people wouldn't name their dinosaur 'Genie'. But I think I knew who would. And I dreaded the fact that I knew for certain I was 100 percent sure I was right.

"Sara?" I questioned as I walked up to all of them, placing my hands in my back pockets to hide that they were shaking. If this other human was Sara, she might let loose that I was part of the Alpha Gang. "Please tell me that isn't you?"

She gasped. Darn it! Most people don't do that if they don't know a person. Let's hope she's part of the most people category. "Amarante? Oh! It is you!" Oh, perfect. It was her. Why couldn't the dinosaur have crushed her when it had the chance? It would've made everything and everyone on earth and elsewhere a heck of a lot happier.

"Oh, never mind. I guess it is you." I mumbled in annoyance that I'd hoped I wouldn't have even needed to feel right about now. I'd met her when Seth had sent me to Egypt to train or something—I still had no idea why he sent me to this place the first time, but he had, and there really was no changing that. He just kinda stuck me here for like, 3 to 5 months or something. I didn't really remember much of anything about it anymore.

"I thought I'd never see you again after you left the first time!" Sara exclaimed with a bright smile. She ran over to me and looked me up and down. For a minute I thought she was going to try and hug me, and I made sure I was ready to jump back and give an excuse having to do with small pox so she wouldn't.

"You got a bit taller. I think; I'm not quite sure. But I know you're hair got a bit longer…" Sara hadn't changed at all, still always talking and asking questions and saying things she didn't need to, and had no real good reason to be asking anyways. Then she finally noticed everyone else. "Oh, and who are they? Why haven't you told me their names yet Amarante?" 'Cause you haven't given me a real chance to, now have ya?

But everyone just seemed to introduce themselves, and I didn't mind that. Whatever got us out of here, back on the jet, and back to the Taylor's place the fastest and with the least talking and meeting of people that I hadn't seen in years.

"I'm Zoe."

"You can call me Max."

"And my name's Rex."

"And you already know me," I stated unpurposefully; now I was starting to sound like Sara. That, was not a good thing by any means at all. If you paid me or not, I would not want to go through a day as Sara, or acting like her. Or Zoe for that matter. I'd rather choke on a pine tree. "Guys, this is Sara."

"Nice to meet you all," She said to us with a smile; even though I'd never really liked Sara herself, her smile had always been something I wondered about. How did a person this annoying and prissy—not as bad as Zoe I might add—get such a nice, warm, sweet smile? "Friends of Amarante are friends of mine."

Everyone except for me was smiling; I just couldn't help it, I didn't feel like smiling anymore today. Rex's eyes drifted over to me; his smile slowly faded when he saw my nonchalant expression. I caught his gaze, and glanced over at him. The look on his face appeared to be asking me what was up and why I wasn't enjoying the little reunion with Sara. Like I would've enjoyed it without all this crap on my mind anyways.

I shrugged my shoulders at him, as if I were just saying I was just a bit tired or something, just not in the 'happy to see an old friend' mood. In reality, I was, and that which I said was no lie, but then again…it was. Or, at least it wasn't the whole truth that he wanted to know. But nevertheless, he nodded his head. I guess he fell for my excuse. Why couldn't he tell I was lying? Or could he, but he just never said anything about it?

"Why did you come here anyway?" Sara asked us, still smiling. I couldn't help but wonder if she kept that up, if she would get stuck that way forever. It really wouldn't be that much of change to anyone, 'cause she already did that all the time, but it would still be a bit strange. Someone's ticked at you, and they're smiling all nice and sweet and everything. It's just plain wrong.

"Our DinoHolders told us that there was a dinosaur somewhere around here. I guess it was only Genie." Max said pointing over at Genie. Yeah, it was only a big giant dinosaur that can't possibly fit in a lamp that came out of said lamp in order to be able to crush you. In short, yeah, sure, it was only Genie.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sara said, directing her apology to all of us even though she really had not reason to say anything close to it in the first place. Her face was now completely an innocent expression that did seem to match her words. But then again, everyone's faces did that every now and then. Unless they'd gotten stuck. "I didn't know she would interrupt whatever you were doing."

But then again, I started to take back the fact that Sara hadn't needed to apologize for interrupting anything and everything that we may've or may not have been doing when our DinoHolders exploded with berserk-ness I was pissed when I figured out that it was pretty much all Sara's fault for interrupting Rex and my—

I stopped thinking. I couldn't believe I was angry about her stopping what had gone on between Rex and me. I shouldn't be angry at her for what happened, at the very least I should've been relieved that she'd stopped me from doing something that couldn't endangered the success of my mission.

Besides, I shouldn't even feel this way about him anyway. How could I be angry at someone who didn't even know what was going on with Rex and me, or Seth and the mission? If I was going to be mad at someone, it may as well be me. There was no one left that was fit to take the blame for anything anymore.

"It's alright, I guess." I told her with a solemn tone that didn't want to mean it, but had to. That, and the fact that my bad mood trying it's best to get the heck out, and through my mouth was one of the only options. So, out came the ticked-seeming voice.

She smiled, apparently accepting my 'forgiveness', however uncertain-sounding and halfway unfelt it was. I don't think that she really had a choice not to, or could really tell that I wasn't feeling it anyways. If she could, big deal, if not, who cares? I know for sure that I don't; honestly I couldn't care less.

"We should probably go now; it was nice meeting you though!" Zoe called as she started dragging Max towards the nearest exit. I didn't understand why she felt the need to drag him, but I had to admit, it was pretty entertaining to pull him around places he didn't want to go. Except when he was covered in drool like he was right now.

"Yeah, Zoe's right—" For once. "—we should be heading off. I guess I'll be seeing you then Sara." I said to her as I waved unexcitedly as a gesture of said hopefully-soon-to-be-gone-good-bye, and turned to walk away. Rex was right next to me, though, I doubted that a circumstance would come that I would forget him here like we did Max and Zoe.

"It was nice seeing you again too. Oh, and, before you go," Sara stated as she placed a hand on my shoulder, sadly putting a halt on my should've-been-speedier-retreat for the door. "I have a question." Darn you and your questions, and that dinosaur that interrupts stuff that's good to be interrupted but somehow still ticks me off.

"And what might that be?" I questioned curiously, maybe a bit too curiously for my own good. If I'd just left her with her question and said, 'Tough beans' and just gotten the heck out of there, I probably would've been able to steer clear of a lot of things I need not have talked about, or gone over.

She smiled with glee as she practically screamed at the very, very tops of her lungs, nearly making me deaf in less than three and a half seconds flat, "Do you like Rex?!" …Speaking of things I just did not want to think and/or talk about.

I nearly fell backwards, like the sound waves along were enough to knock me over now. I blushed like a moron, and looked behind me over at Rex, wanting to know what his reaction to her question was, or what it could possibly be. His face didn't seem to change, except for the few facts that he was blushing a very light pink, and he wasn't looking at me, his eyes were almost half open, and he was staring away from me at the wall. Almost like a little daydreaming face; it was kinda cute—Stop doing that darn it! Keep your head and eyes on the mission and the DinoHolders already!

I looked back over at Sara, and told her, still blushing, "I…I really don't want to answer that question…right now…well, I guess I'll see you around." I shouldn't have let myself stutter, but I had, and there was no way I was going to try to re-say any of that, or say anything more to her.

I grabbed Rex's arm and pulled him in the direction of where Max and Zoe were headed. Anywhere was better than here right now, and anytime at all anywhere else was better than here. I would rather be in the bottom of a deep dark abyss right now than here; at least I got to twiddle my thumbs as I fell.

I turned back to look at Sara's reaction to my reply—big mistake on my part by the way. She was smiling at Rex and me—can only imagine why. I could tell what she was thinking. But I didn't want to believe it. I never did like this chick; always assuming what I didn't want any frickin' person assuming or knowing.

She didn't think I liked him anymore, but then again, she never really had assumed that I did. I could tell that she'd figured right off the frickin' bat that it was more than that. Way. More. Than that. Hopefully she just didn't remember to add anything about me being in the Alpha Gang on our trip out.