The next week goes on pretty uneventfully. Since we aren't actually doing anything till the raptors hatched, we have plenty free time on board. So, till Claire gets an assistant, I am supposed to help her out with her work. That was tough. That woman had an impossible job, damn it. She knows each and every crevice of this island so well, I bet that even if she hit her head and lost her memory she'll still be able to name every attraction at the park. Following her around is tough. I've gotta start looking for potential assistants to help her. How does she even remember this stuff?
Owen, on the other hand got assigned to emergency services. I guess he freeloaded till his arm healed. He must get into some real bad stuff I guess, because I once caught some bad bruises on his arms. Must be pretty exerting too, because when he gets home, he literally collapses on the couch, and don't ask me count the number of times I've had to haul his beautiful, muscular-ahem-excuse me. Yeah where was I? Right, I haul up his lazy butt all the way to the top of the stairs, and then he suddenly jerks awake and then locks himself in his room.
So today, I'm standing outside Claire's office, waiting for my next round of orders. I've officially completed 2 weeks in secretory-ship. Yay! I was going to have to celebrate. The last time I called my family was 2 weeks ago. Ok, I'll celebrate and call them tonight.
As I walk up to her doors, I hear some noises inside. And I, being the inquisitive person I am, stick my ear to the door and listen on.
"-Claire, I need you to at least think over it!" a highly agitated male voice says.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hoskins," Claire began in that calm yet firm voice of hers that I envied. "But I will not, sign this unless this is approved by Simon Masrani. The eggs haven't even hatched yet!"
"All you have to do is bloody sign this paper! He's going to sign it later! " he was screeching. I didn't even need to put my ear to the door by now.
"Get it approved and then we'll talk."
I jerk away from the door as I hear footsteps. The door opens and a white man with an evil glint in his eyes walks past me. I sigh in relief. I had a feeling that this man was going to be very troublesome.
"Hey Amber, come in." Claire calls out to me. I walk in and sit in one of the chairs in front of her desk. I grab an apple from her table and start munching it.
"So," I say with my mouth full. "Whajrwasgreutbacout?"
"What?" she looks at me in disgust. "I was saving that for later."
I swallow. "Yeah, sorry. What was that about? Who was that man?"
Claire inhales. "No one you have to worry about, at least not today. Anyways, I have to check on some of the exhibits today-"
"No more paperwork?" I ask her hopefully, taking another bite out of my [Claire's] apple.
"Of course there is. But less so than usual."
"Fantastic." I grab my bag and stand up. "Anything's better than staying in this stuffy office anyways."
Claire looks offended. "No offence meant Claire." I attempt to save myself.
"MY OFFICE IS NOT STUFFY!"
"Whatever you say. Let's go boss." I gesture for her to move outside.
She huffs out of the room, with me tailing behind her. I barely manage to walk inside the elevator before it closes.
"So where are we going?" I ask her.
"We're going to see the Triceratops Territory and Gallimimus valley."
"Great."
"I'm sorry Claire." I apologize to Claire, not really meaning it. Hopefully, my acting skills were good enough to pass off as a real apology. I did not know she was so protective about her office.
Anyways, after enduring whiny boy band songs (I had to fix Masrani's ears), we exit the elevator and sit in Claire's car. She starts the engine and we start our 30 minute drive from headquarters to the Triceratops Valley.
"Hey Claire," I ask. "Do you have any music?"
"Oh yeah." She opens the glove box in front of me. Wow, she had a lot of CDs. Then she grabs one at random and puts it in the player.
"Seriously Claire? Taylor Swift?"
"House rules, Amber. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts her cakehole."
I was stunned. This was the first time I'd ever heard Claire use some kind of informal language. And that too a pop-culture reference? Never thought I'd see the day. Apparently Claire could see that emotion written on my face, so she raises her eyebrows.
"What? I have free Netflix, courtesy of Jurassic World. I use my time well."
"Nothing." I nonchalantly say.
After twenty minutes, Claire makes a turn and enters a secluded area. There was not even a trace of a tourist.
"Claire," I was beginning to get worried now. "Are you sure we're in the right place?"
"Of course. I am sure." She said casually and kept on moving.
"Uh, why is there not even a single tourist here then?"
"Oh, right, right. Yeah, the Gyrospheres are still being tested. They don't open to the public till next week.
"Oh, I see. Wait what-? What are we doing at the gyro- whatever they are?"
"Eh, maybe make a few checks and then ride in one of them."
"Great," I say.
Claire reaches to a halt, and then we hop out of the car. She locks it, and then we walk on to the enclosure. I could barely read the letters of the new attraction, these guys knew how to hide stuff.
Initially, the security guy wanted to throw us out immediately, but upon seeing Claire, he decided that that would be a very bad idea. So, doing the smart thing, he lets us in. I could smell the wood polish as soon as I entered. Pretty new place, I guess; but as far as what I could see, it was all operational.
"We're having over some journalists the day after," Clare tells me.
"I see."
"Hey, Clint!" Claire shouts and a young man in his late-teens runs out of the office and stands straight in front of Claire, even saluting her. I hold back a chuckle.
"Sergeant Clinton Barton reporting for duty, sir!" Claire looks mad at him.
"You know, if you want to join the army, Owen can get you in." I tell him. When he looks at me, his jaw drops so low I could hear it hit the floor. Not really, but it sure did look like it.
I snap my fingers in front of his face. "Hey buddy, you there with me?"
"YOU'RE AMBER GRANT! THE ONE WHO SURVIVED THE OLD PARK! OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE MY EYES ITS-"
"Okay, boy, breathe." I tell him.
"YOU'RE AMBER GRANT! THE AMBER GRANT!" he yelled.
The corner of my mouth turned up. It was the first time I was received with such respect.
"Yeah, course I am." I smile at him, my posture becoming straighter.
"So why are you here?" he asks me.
"Oh, I'm here to help out Claire. I've still got a few days before I actually have to start working on the rap-" Claire glares at me. Oh right, that was supposed to be top secret. "Dinosaurs." I correct myself.
Claire clears her throat. "So Clint, I need you start up one of the gyrospheres. I and Amber are going to check the paddock."
"Sure," he says, but I don't really think he understood what Claire told him to do. He had the same expression on his face like the one I had when Jensen Ackles visited our dig. I'm pretty sure did not even close my mouth after he left; I was that star-struck. Sarah still teases me on that.
I smile at Clint and then ask him, "Hey Clint, can you start one of those gyrospheres for us?"
"Oh yes!" then he runs back into the office, flips a few switches and then signals us to go sit in the glass sphere which had just appeared before us. Claire rolls her eyes.
Interesting, I think to myself. Claire gets into the driver's seat, and I get into the seat beside her. As soon as I buckle up, the screen in front us displays a video.
"Hey, there. I'm Jimmy Fallon." I turn to Claire.
"You hired Jimmy Fallon for this gyroball?"
"Gyrosphere, and yes. We spare no expense." Claire says in full John Hammond mode. Spare no expense? Yeah right. That's like saying me and Owen had a kid. Which means never in a million years.
"Welcome aboard the Gyrosphere," Jimmy Fallon continues to say, while Claire navigates us through the vast, boring paddock. Where were the dinosaurs?
"Hey Claire," I say.
"What is it?" she asks me, annoyed.
"Where are the-" I am cut short by the rumbling of the ground. Suddenly, our entire sphere shakes.
"What's happening?" I ask Claire, worried.
She smiles at me. "Well, you wanted to see the dinosaurs, here are the dinosaurs." And then I see the first row of the Gallimimus herd, full on heading towards us.
"Wow," are the only words I could say.
"And that's only one of the species we have planned next."
"You mean there are more? What else can we see right now?"
"I guess we can see the ankylosauruses-"
"OH MY GOD!" Yeah, I know I was screaming like a 7-year old on steroids, but I had never seen this species of dinosaurs ever in my life. Okay fine, I have, but fossils don't count!
Claire smiles, and drives us towards the Ankylosauruses.
"These guys can be a little violent, so we definitely aren't opening them to the public until a few year or so. That's why we're restricting this entire section."
"Oh." I am going to see something no other tourist can until the next 5 years. I feel already like a VIP.
Claire drives in deeper through the woods and what I see makes me skip a beat.
5 majestic creatures, each one as tall as an elephant, covered all around with thick bony armor and spikes. Literally, they were living tanks. I'm pretty sure that the real ankylosauruses were not like what I saw in front of me, but from what I know from fossils, they aren't anything like the ones I was seeing in front of me.
"Impressive huh?" Claire asks me, knowing that look on my face all too well. Of course she does.
"Wow. They are exactly like huge living tanks, aren't they?
Claire's expression hardens. "No."
I wondered if her sour mood had something to do about today morning. However, I value my life, and I decide not to further press the subject.
"Can we get out and see them?" I ask her eagerly.
Clair faces me with a stone-set expression. "No. Even the handlers themselves have to wear special suits to even go near them. We don't stand a chance."
I decide not to let Claire's bad mood dampen my Ankylosaurus experience. I resume admiring them through the glass of the gyrosphere. After sometime, Claire decides that we spent enough time looking at the dinosaurs, and that we had to get back to the station.
I sigh. Claire turns us around and drives us out of the restricted section. It isn't long before we reach the station. Clint welcomes us like we're some superstars who've decided to visit one of their fans randomly but the fan is always prepared and in the end it's the celebrity who's surprised.
In short, Clint had a pair of flower garlands and lemonade in his hands. I love lemonade!. Once we're out of the spheres, I give him my most charming smile.
"Thanks a lot Clint! You're a lifesaver." In my opinion, that statement is a bit of an overkill but it seems to work on him because his face turns as red as the apple I was eating in the morning. I'm not going to deny that, it was fun teasing him like this.
Then Claire caught on and gave me that 'I-know-what-you're-doing-and-if-you-don't-stop-I'm-firing-you' look. I glare at her. She glares back. I decide to withdraw from this battle. Clint leads us into the small office inside the station, where we continue to sip our lemonades peacefully. However I finish mine pretty quickly.
"Did you like it?" Clint asks me nervously. I beam at him.
"Of course I did! It's not every day you see a herd of gallimimus running towards sprinting at top speed." His expression lowers. Oh. He thought I was being sarcastic.
"I'm not being sarcastic." I clarify for him. His expression returns back to the star struck thing it was.
"I hope you'll come back again?" he adds, hopefully, his fingers fidgeting with the seat of his chair. Aww, this kid was too adorable to resist.
"Of course I will." I smile at him.
After Claire thanks Clint for the lemonade, she tells me wait there till she brings over the car. Clint barely says a word except 'goodbye' when Claire arrives. I decide to toy with his emotions a little more. As we leave, I step forward and kiss him on his cheeks. He turns redder than the time dad ate that bhoot jolokia chili on a dare. Clint was in so much shock that he barely even says goodbye to me.
Claire tries very hard to hold back a laugh. I could see that in her eyes. She relaxed considerably in her time at the station. That's good news, right?
"Hey Claire, can I pick the music?" I ask her. I was sick and tired of listening to Taylor Swift drone on and on about her break-ups. The only guy I ever dated was in my year at high school, but we never did anything much really. In fact, I was surprised we were steady for 2 years until we finally stopped being together. I got over him faster than you can say 'Harry Edward Styles.'
"Sure." Claire says, not really into the conversation.
I unlock my phone and connect it to the stereo. Then I play the playlist that Sarah had once created for me as a prank. She transferred all of mom's 80's songs and changed every single ringtone to 'Eye of the Tiger'. But for some reason, I still haven't changed it.
A.n- Catch all the references?
