"The sun rises as the campers wake up," Kenji says, trying to use a British accent. "Darius lifts his head and frowns."
Said camper does exactly that.
"Why are you pretending you're British?" Yasmina yawns.
"Yasmina yawns and questions the narrator," Kenji continues.
"Why are you narrating our lives?" Brooklynn asks.
"Nosy Brooklynn is trying to break the fourth wall," Kenji says, barely able to keep a straight face.
"Are you pretending that you're the Animal Planet narrator?" Sammy giggles.
"My parents think that I'm good at imitating him," Ben chuckles.
"Give us a demonstration," Kenji encourages.
"A juvenile male of the wild Kenji species strides into the camp site," Ben says, doing a perfect British accent. "He is looking for a mate."
The campers laugh as Kenji gets down on all fours, snorts and pretends to sniff the ground. Then he starts walking like a T-rex.
"He approaches a young female," Ben continues. "She is of the Yasmina breed, commonly known as Yaz. The wild Kenji begins to try to impress the female."
Kenji struts around like a chicken in front of Yasmina. She smacks his face and laughs.
"The wild Kenji has been rejected. He moves on to a vibrant, young female of the Brooklynn breed and attempts to swoon her."
Kenji struts around in front of Brooklynn who laughs.
Ben continues. "The Brooklynn has already found a mate: a striking young Darius. The Darius moves in to protect his mate and the wild Kenji backs off."
Darius impersonates a T-rex and roars at Kenji.
"The wild Kenji finds a young female of the Sammy variation. He tries to swoon her."
Kenji struts like a chicken and tries to be a cocky peacock.
"The female Sammy is impressed and accepts him as her mate," Ben grins.
Sammy laughs and pretends to purr.
"The wild Kenji initiates the mating process," Ben snickers.
"Woah, Ben! Too far, too far!" Darius exclaims.
"Nooo!" Kenji laughs. "We're getting a little too into this, aren't we?"
The group snorts hysterically. Toothless steps up onto her hindlegs and imitates Kenji strutting. This sends the campers back into hysterics.
"You sound like my brother," Brooklynn wheezes.
"In a good way?" Ben asks.
"In a good way, which says something," Brooklynn laughs. "My brother is extremely annoying."
"Are all older brothers annoying?" Sammy asks.
"Yes," Yasmina, Darius, and Brooklynn answer.
"What's it like to have an older sister?" Brooklynn asks. "Or a sister in general."
"Similar to a brother," Yasmina shrugs. "They can be annoying at times, and funny other times."
"I've always wanted an older sister," Brooklynn sighs. "Someone I can talk to, gossip about things with, share clothes with."
"You mean fight over clothes with?" Sammy and Yasmina say at the same time. Brooklynn and the boys laugh.
"Would you prefer a brother or a sister?" the pinkette asks.
"Brother," Yasmina shrugs. "Girls are too dramatic. Habeeba is fine, but girls are problematic."
"That's a strong opinion," Sammy chuckles.
"Every opinion of mine is strong," Yasmina snaps. "Otherwise I'm apathetic."
"Why you gotta be so opinionated?" Sammy shakes her head.
"So that others can't push me around," Yasmina shrugs.
"Imagine pushing Yaz around," Kenji laughs.
The campers begin their daily routine. As Ben feeds the Indoraptors, Yasmina sits next to him, shyly. "Hey, about last night. I think you did a really good job."
"Thanks," Ben smiles.
"It was very mature and compassionate," Yasmina continues. "And it was very brave of you to get in between everyone and yell like that. That was really good."
"Thank you," Ben blushes. Yasmina gives him a pat on the back and heads off for a bathroom break. Ben's smile cannot leave his face.
Kenji notices this and smirks as he flops next to Ben. "What are you smiling about?"
"Nothing," Ben shrugs, blushing.
"Come on, what did Yaz say?" Kenji grins teasingly.
"Nothing," Ben says, his blush becoming stronger. "She just complimented my way of handling the situation last night."
"Oh, ho, ho!" Kenji laughs.
"WhAt?" Ben asks, his voice squeaking.
"You like her!" Kenji snickers.
Ben turns beet red. "As a friend. Nothing more." His face said it all.
Kenji laughs.
"Even if I did, it wouldn't matter," Ben says, desperately trying to end the conversation. "Yaz wouldn't want to date anyone."
Kenji waggles his eyebrows. "Hey, Yaz! Would you wanna date someone?"
Yasmina, who was climbing up the ladder, frowns. "No," she says strongly. "I'd rather be single. Dating and religion are the most problematic, overrated things on Earth in my opinion. I don't need a boyfriend. They're pointless and just trouble."
Kenji laughs as she walks away. "She's certainly a spitfire."
Ben groans. "I have zero crush on her. It's all friendship. Even if I did, it would be pointless. She's uninterested in dating and can barely be friends with someone. I'm just honored to have her trust as a friend."
Kenji is unconvinced, but he relents a bit. "I doubt it. I think you like her, but because she's so standoffish and hard to get along with, you're convincing yourself that you don't like her. To protect yourself from heartbreak."
Ben blushes. "Maybe that's how you view it," he admits. "But I don't have a crush on her."
"Why do you like her?" Kenji asks, folding his arms behind his back. "Romantically or friendly."
Ben shrugs. "Uhh… because she's so strong and caring. When you earn her trust, she can be a really loyal friend."
Kenji chuckles. "Yeah, that's Yaz." The boys are silent for a bit. "You're attracted to girls who intimidate you, huh?"
Ben facepalms. "I mean, opposites attract, right?"
"Yeah, that makes sense," Kenji says. "Typical couple: super cool, tough girl and nerdy, sweet guy."
Ben gaps. "Hey!" he protests. Thinking of a snappy comeback, he says: "You'd have the Princess and The Frog relationship. Lazy, entitled prince gets stuck with a hardworking girl who's oblivious to his feelings and he has to learn to be a gentleman."
Kenji starts guffawing. "Dang! When did you get so good at snappy insults!"
"So you've fallen for the hardworking southern," Ben grins. "If we're going for a carbon copy of the movie, she'd be from New Orleans, but Texas works, too."
Kenji spits out his drink and starts choking. Ben lets him live before continuing. "So, who's your Tiana?"
"I think I need to use the restroom," Kenji says quickly and throws himself down the slide.
"Oh, that's not at all suspicious that you avoided the question entirely!" Ben calls out, laughing.
"Where'd he go so quickly?" Sammy asks, sticking her head out of the room.
"When you gotta go, you gotta go, Ranchgirl," Kenji shrugs, climbing up the ladder to join the conversation.
"Shouldn't you call me Cowgirl?" Sammy laughs.
"Yeah, Ranchgirl makes you sound like one of those weird people who puts ranch on everything," Kenji laughs.
Sammy makes a face. "I'm not that weird!"
"I thought you had to use the restroom," Ben snickers evilly.
"Oh, yeah!" Kenji chuckles sheepishly, climbing back down the ladder.
The campers head down to the ground level. Mocha and Indigo climb up onto their parents backs as they walk. "I think today we should work on training them to rescue," Darius suggests. "Their sense of smell is highly developed, and when they're bigger, they would be very good at rescuing us."
Brooklynn nods.
"It would also be good if they knew how to gently rescue humans," Darius continues. "In case they… in case there's a… dino war."
Brooklynn nods solemnly.
"You know you can say something, right?" Darius sighs. "I didn't say you have to be quiet all the time."
"No, it's fine," Brooklynn shrugs. "I don't have anything to say."
"That's a first," Darius thinks.
"Here is a mayo packet for your services," Kenji says, handing Darius a small packet of mayo as he walks by.
"Thanks, I hate to think about—wait, wuuu…" Darius turns around in confusion, taking a second to get what Kenji gave him. Brooklynn starts laughing at his delayed reaction.
"Why are you handin' out mayo packets?!" Sammy exclaims, following Kenji.
"Because I'm the Mayo Man!" Kenji declares. "You're Ranchgirl and I'm Mayo Man!"
"Mayo Man sounds like a creepy boi in a white van drivin' around with mayo for kids," Sammy states. "How 'bout Mayo Boy?"
"Fine, I'm the Mayo Boy and you're the Ranchgirl," Kenji relents.
Darius blinks at the two before shaking his head and continuing. Mocha sniffs the mayo packet in his hand as he walks. "I hate to think about them being used against their own kind, but it might be their salvation if they can help humans."
"It's hard to think that we might be moving into a time where dinos roam the Earth and are used in wars," Brooklynn mumbles. "But with Wu's plan for these guys…"
Mocha snatches the mayo packet and leaps off of Darius's back. "Come back here!" Darius yelps, chasing after the little dinosaur. "You can't eat that!"
Brooklynn and the others laugh as Darius trips over his own feet to catch her. The chase for the mayo becomes a relay race as Mocha passes it to Rima. Darius finally catches his little girl, only to realize that Yasmina is sprinting after her Indo baby. "Stop it!" Yasmina shouts, running after the white Indo.
Rima passes it to Princess who speeds off. Ben sighs before bolting after his dino. The Indoraptors chitter with glee and mischief. The campers laugh as Princess passes it to Indigo and Brooklynn tries to get the jump on her baby.
Indigo passes it to Toothless and the final leg of the relay is off. Kenji stumbles after the black Indoraptor like a cartoon character as she sprints off. Toothless darts under a tree branch, and Kenji runs into it. It catches under his chin and his legs fly into the air before he lands on his shoulders in a painful heap. Toothless stops running and watches as he groans.
"Kenji, you okay?" Darius asks, as the campers rush to his side.
Kenji coughs. "Yeah, I'm good," he rasps.
Toothless trots over to her daddy and spits the slimy mayo packet at him. He gives it to Darius and rubs the back of her neck.
"Okay, let's try to explain the concept of 'rescue' to them," Darius chuckles.
The campers take their little charges out into a field. Due to the nature of the very obedient and smart Indo, Princess goes first. Ben lays down on a rock and pretends to be hurt. He calls out for help.
"Princess, rescue!" Yasmina commands, pointing to Ben. The little Indoraptor doesn't get it.
Darius thinks for a moment. "Blue?"
The velociraptor sniffs Ben and trots off. She was still adamant that she wouldn't touch the humans.
"How do we explain to them what rescue means?" Sammy asks.
Darius sighs. "Yaz, rescue!"
The athlete looks at him in confusion, before getting it. "Why me?" she cringes before getting down on all fours and running towards Ben. The campers get a kick out of watching her run like an animal awkwardly. She approaches Ben and thinks for a second. "How do we want them to bring him back?"
"Preferably on their backs," Darius says. "But if they have to use their mouths, they need to learn to use them gently."
Yasmina sighs and tries to get Ben onto her back—without using her hands. Ben is wheezing as she struggles to roll him over onto her back. Then she carries him back to the group on all fours. The teens take a minute to laugh. "I am not doing that again," Yasmina wheezes. "That was awkward."
Ben heads back to the rock and cries again for help. Darius tells Princess to rescue him, and the little Indo trots over to him. She noses her way underneath him and tries to carry him back. The Indos had grown to be the length of the camper's arms—minus their tail—but they were still too tiny to carry the humans. Ben had to crawl along with her underneath him.
The other three Indos chirp in excitement—Toothless wasn't paying attention. "You take after me a little too much," Kenji quips with a laugh.
Next, Mocha has her go. Darius pretends to be hurt, and Mocha tries to carry him back. Next, Rima has her go. She tries to drag Yasmina by her arm. It takes a yelp of pain from Yasmina—not entirely faked—for Rima to understand that she needed to gently carry her mother. Indigo and Toothless had their gos. Indigo was a bit of a brat and wanted Brooklynn to walk herself, while Toothless got distracted by a dragonfly halfway to the group. All in all, the Indoraptors seemed to understand that "rescue" meant helping their parents when they were in "pain."
After trying a couple of different rescue exercises—ranging from being in pain, to being unconscious, to being unable to move—the campers move onto a new command: "Get aid." Brooklynn climbs into a tree a ways away from the group and calls for help. The Indos are ready to run to her and rescue her, but Darius stops them. "Kenji, rescue!" he commands.
Kenji gets down on all fours and runs towards Brooklynn. Darius tells the younglings to follow Kenji, and they obediently do. Kenji puts his hands on the tree underneath Brooklynn and imitates the Indoraptor's purr. The dinos watch him curiously.
"Get aid," Brooklynn commands, pointing to the group.
Kenji gets down on all fours again and runs towards the group. The Indoraptors chitter and follow him in confusion. Didn't "rescue" mean he was supposed to bring Brooklynn to the group?
Kenji runs behind Darius and headbutts his back. "Dude!" Darius protests.
"I'm trying to act like them," Kenji explains. "And you wouldn't want them to bite."
"You want them to headbutt you from behind when they're bigger?" Darius points out.
"Fair enough," Kenji shrugs. He leads Darius to the tree with Brooklynn. The Indoraptors follow again, very confused.
Darius climbs the tree and helps Brooklynn down. As an added measure to ensure that the Indos knew that that was what they were supposed to do, Darius scratches Kenji underneath the chin and gives him a piece of bread as a "treat."
"You're enjoying acting like an animal a little too much, aren't you?" Brooklynn folds her arms at him.
The alpha male shrugs. "It's fun."
The little dinos have their go at "Getting aid." It takes a couple tries to understand that their parents meant get someone else who could "rescue" them. After grasping the concept of it, Toothless excels at "Getting aid." Her favorite thing to do was fetch, so the new trick was right up her alley. The others found it a bit boring.
The teens head to bed feeling successful at training their dino babies. The next day, they head out into the jungles to practice "Rescue" and "Get aid." The third search and rescue technique the kids wanted to work on was "Seek." Sammy heads into the woods and hides. Then Ben pretends to sniff around and find her. Sammy had told him ahead of time where she was hiding so that it didn't take him hours to find her.
The dinos get their chance to search for the humans. The Indos thought it was a whole lotta fun to "Seek." The campers begin hiding in different places to test the Indos skills at hide 'n seek. Darius and Brooklynn sprint out into the tall grasses and hide. This is where the trouble began.
The four teens follow the Indo's around as they sniff out Brooklynn and Darius. Back in the grass, the two are waiting to be found. All is quiet until they hear footsteps. Large footsteps. The two campers slowly look up to find Rexy moving towards them. The predator had yet to see them, and Darius wraps his arm around Brooklynn, trying to keep her quiet. Their hearts pound as they hope for Rexy to leave.
The two have bad luck as Rexy spots their white and pink shirts in the tan grass. The T-rex roars at them.
"Run!" Darius shouts, and the two kids sprint for their lives.
Indigo sniffs the dirt and lifts her head to chirp. The teens arrive at the treeline to see Rexy chasing after their friends.
Kenji takes charge immediately. "Blue, take the Indos back to camp. Let's get on our tanks, come on guys!"
Sammy and Yasmina quickly mount Tornado while Kenji and Ben jump on Bumpy. Sammy and Ben spur on their dinos and the two herbivores gallop off towards Rexy.
Darius and Brooklynn run as fast as their legs can carry them. They can feel Rexy's hot breath on their necks as the predator closes in. As she reaches her jaws out to grab the campers, Tornado bellows and headbutts her flank. Rexy stumbles to the side and roars. Bumpy comes and whacks her with her clubbed tail.
Darius and Brooklynn keep running, trying to put distance between themselves and the T-rex while their friends occupy her. Kenji whoops as Bumpy swings her tail around to hit the predator. Rexy roars and lunges for the humans on the Ankylosaurus's back. Bumpy rears back to meet her jaws with her horns. Kenji and Ben almost fall off.
Rexy pushes Bumpy backwards and the Ankylosaurus is dangerously close to falling on her back and crushing her human companions.
"Shoot 'er!" Sammy exclaims.
Yasmina takes out an arrow and aims at Rexy. She releases the arrow and it whizzes by Rexy's face, distracting her long enough to let Bumpy go.
"I can't hit her!" Yasmina exclaims.
"She's like a twenty foot beast!" Sammy protests.
"Tornado's gait is too wild, I can't keep the bow steady!" Yasmina shouts.
"Then I'll do the shootin' and you do the ridin'!" Sammy exclaims, pulling Yasmina's hand to the Triceratops frill.
"Wait, wait, wait, no! I can't ride!" Yasmina panics as Sammy switches places with her and pulls out her rifle.
"Just guide her frill to where you want her to go, it's pretty simple!" Sammy explains, cocking her rifle and balancing on the galloping Triceratops.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Yasmina shakes her head. "I can't do this!"
"Well, you gotta!" Sammy snaps. "Steer her around so I can aim at Rexy!"
Yasmina groans and pulls on Tornado's frill. The Triceratops bellows, skids in the grass and gallops towards the T-rex. Sammy balances on her ride with her thighs and shoots at Rexy. The queen of dinos roars at them, infuriated. Bumpy clubs her with her tail.
Ben guides his ride to run alongside Sammy and Yaz. "Having fun?"
"NO," Yasmina shakes her head, panicking as she tries to guide the Triceratops. She lets out a nervous laugh. "I don't trust the dino!"
"Do you trust me?" Sammy asks.
"No!" Yasmina exclaims.
"Do you trust yourself?" Sammy asks.
"No!" Yasmina laughs.
"Gurl, you take trust issues to a whole 'nother level!" Sammy cackles.
"You guys grab Brooklynn, we'll grab Darius!" Kenji commands. As they come up alongside their panting friends, Kenji leans down and grabs Darius's hand. He pulls Darius up and almost falls off head first himself. Ben and Darius have to grab the back of his shirt and pull him back up. Sammy holds Yasmina's hand as she leans over backwards to grab Brooklynn. The athlete pulls the pinkette up using her strength. Sammy takes over as rider as the six campers try to outrun Rexy. They race around the edge of the jungle in hopes that Rexy would lose interest. Eventually, she does and roars in fury.
The campers laugh and hop off their rides and walk into the jungles. "Aside from Darius and Brooklynn almost getting eaten, that was fun!" Sammy laughs as Tornado and Bumpy run ahead.
"Don't ever make me ride Tornado again," Yasmina hisses, laughing despite herself.
"We gotta teach you how to ride her, then," Kenji laughs. "I wanna learn to ride Bumpy. Or Tornado. You know what? It doesn't matter, I just want to steer one of them."
"Would've been awesome if you had actually hit Rexy," Darius laughs.
"Definitely," Yasmina nods. "Maybe I could've if I was on Bumpy."
"She's a 13 foot dino, how could you miss her?!" Kenji laughs.
"Let's see you do better," Yasmina huffs. "I bet you couldn't even hit the broad side of a barn."
"Naw, he'd shoot the arrow, it'd turn around in midair and come back for him like a cartoon," Sammy snorts.
"That's not physically possible," Darius chuckles.
"With the Kenji, everything is possible," the alpha male says confidently. "I am invincible!" He throws his arms out and hits Ben in the face.
"Hey, you made me lose my spear!" Ben sputters, holding his face where Kenji hit him.
"Sorry," Kenji chuckles sheepishly.
Ben shakes his head and rustles through the bushes for his weapon. He finds it and stands up, but the rustling noise doesn't stop. Trained by living for almost two months on the island, the campers whirl around and prepare for an encounter.
Ben grips the spear in anticipation. Something shoots out at him and hits his face before he can react. The boy stumbles back with a shriek, immediately trying to wipe the substance off of his face. A colorful frill peaks out of the bushes and growls.
"Dilophosaurus!" Darius exclaims, pulling Sammy and Brooklynn back. "They can shoot venom up to—"
His sentence is cut off by Yasmina shooting the Dilo in the neck with her arrow, instantly killing it. Sammy moves to Ben and tries to wrestle him down to help him. "Stay still so I can help!"
Kenji and Yasmina move in to hold him still while Sammy pours water over his face. Ben spits out the water and venom disgustedly.
"Just hold still and keep blinking," Sammy instructs, pouring more water on his face. "We gotta get him back to camp. We need more water."
The campers guide a blinded Ben back to camp and Sammy continues to pour water on his face for about fifteen minutes. "Okay, can you see?"
Ben blinks. "Yep."
"Does anything irritate you?" she asks.
"It's a bit irritating," Ben blinks, his eyes red from the venom.
"Okay, let's let your eyes settle down," Sammy says. "If they're still irritated later, we might have a problem. I'll check in on you after dinner."
Ben sits down next to a snoring Bumpy. Sammy heads up into the shelter to start dinner and the other campers occupy themselves with entertaining the energetic Indoraptors. Bored with Toothless's napping, Kenji climbs up the ladder to find Sammy cutting up sweet potatoes. He surprises her with a hug. "Agh! Don't surprise me with a knife in my hands!" Sammy scolds.
"Ah, the birds are cutting, and you're chirping sweet potatoes," Kenji grins. "What a sight! Wait…"
Sammy starts snorting and falls over. "Chirpin' sweet potatoes?!"
"Why does that sound like something you would say, though?" Kenji laughs. "Like, that just sounds very Southern."
"'What are ya up to, Sammy?' 'Oh, just chirpin' sweet potatoes,'" the Texan giggles. "Yee, sounds like something I'd say."
"Haw," Kenji grins.
Sammy claps her hands together. "Kenji hawed to my yee!" she calls down to the others.
"What?" Darius frowns, looking between Brooklynn and Yasmina. The two girls shrug, just as confused.
"You're my first friend who's hawed to my yee," Sammy grins. "I swear, if my boyfriend doesn't propose to me with 'Will you be the Haw to my Yee?' I'm not marryin' him! I don't have a boyfriend yet, but if I did, he better get used to my quirkiness."
"Duly noted," Kenji nods.
"What are you guys yelling about?" Darius asks as him, Brooklynn, and Yasmina climb up the ladder.
"Chirping sweet potatoes!" Kenji grins.
"Squawkin' mashed potatoes!" Sammy snorts.
"Quaking baked potatoes!" Kenji gives her finger guns.
"Honkin' hot potatoes!" Sammy laughs as she gives him finger guns back. The two crumble into a snorting, wheezing mess.
"How much sleep did you guys get last night?" Brooklynn quirks an eyebrow.
"Is this some form of Texan dialect I'm unfamiliar with?" Darius asks, sending the two in question into another fit of giggles.
Yasmina frowns and slides down the slide.
"What's wrong with her?" Brooklynn asks.
"I think she's still mad at me for making her steer Tornado," Sammy sighs.
"Maybe she wanted tweeting potato salad?" Kenji suggests with a snicker.
Yasmina irritatedly speed walks over to Ben and sits down behind him, leaning back against him with an irritated growl.
"What's wrong?" he asks. "What were Kenji and Sammy doing?"
"Talking about chirping sweet potatoes," Yasmina grumbles.
"And that makes you mad because?" Ben frowns.
"I don't want to talk about it," Yasmina sniffs, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, right," Ben rolls his eyes.
"You know who Sammy reminds me of?" Yasmina starts to rant.
"There it is," Ben thinks to himself in a singsong voice.
"She reminds me of an old friend," she growls. "Chirping sweet potatoes used to be an old inside joke between us. She was cutting them up for dinner and texted me that, but autocorrect changed cutting to chirping. We thought it was funny."
"What happened to your old friend?" Ben asks.
"I don't want to talk about it," Yasmina huffs again.
"Three, two, one," Ben counts in his head.
Like clockwork, Yasmina begins to rant. "I didn't do anything to her and then one day… we weren't friends anymore… I did absolutely nothing to her. The problem wasn't even between the two of us. It… I was cut out for no reason…"
"What did she do?" Ben asks. "Let me guess, you don't wanna talk about it?"
"How many times have I said that?" Yasmina asks.
"Twice," Ben chuckles.
"Well, I don't want to talk about what she did," Yasmina sighs.
"Thrice," Ben counts again.
Yasmina is silent for a while, and when Ben turns his head, he notices that she has tears. "You can talk about your friend if you want to."
The athlete bites her lip. Ben could tell that she was thinking about it. Her issue with trust and privacy was getting in the way, though. Yasmina was contemplating testing the waters. She wanted to rant and talk about it, and she did crave a friend that she could trust, but there was still a wariness of opening up. Her craving of friendship and need to rant wins out. "I… she… it's kinda complicated. We were friends since kindergarten. She was with me through the good and the bad times and then one day… I don't know what I did… she just… broke my trust…"
"And that's why you don't want to trust Sammy?" Ben asks.
"I want to like Sammy," she sighs. "She's nice and she's really funny. Sammy's just that happy, goofy person that I'd like to hang with. As long as I can have time away from her, too. And… Kenji and the rest of you guys seem to trust her so much. I wish I could, but… I'm scared that she'll hurt me again. I'm scared of opening up."
"It's a scary thing, being vulnerable," Ben nods. "It can be a risky chance. But that doesn't mean you should be scared of taking it. You should be cautious with what you share, but when you find the right people, the results can be wonderful. Sammy is a wonderful friend. She's friendly and trustworthy and wants to be friends with you. The spying was a fluke. It was situational."
"The fact is," Yasmina sighs, "if the situation arises, she chose family over friends. I doubt that she would try to intentionally harm me, but if that situation arises, who's she going to pick? She's inclined to pick her family over friends and law. I don't wanna be in that position, and I'm sure Sammy wouldn't either."
"Are you actually wary of Sammy, or are you just afraid of opening up in general?" Ben asks.
"At first, it was the second, but now I actually have a reason to distrust Sammy," Yasmina says.
"But you're opening up to me," Ben points out.
"I trust you," Yasmina smiles.
"Your feelings are safe with me," Ben smiles back. "But you know, Sammy's pretty trustworthy with secrets. Do you think Kenji would entrust her with his secrets if she wasn't? The guy who pretends that he's perfect even when it's plainly obvious that he's not?"
Yasmina sighs. "She reminds me too much of my old friend. She's sorta a people pleaser, and the fact that she can hide so much scares me. I like it when I know who a person is. And popular people just freak me out. Too many friends to gossip with."
"What did your friend do?" Ben asks.
"I—" Yasmina starts.
"Don't wanna talk about it," Ben rolls his eyes with a chuckle.
"Yeah," Yasmina laughs.
"So, just from what you've said, it sounds like your friend left you because of a problem she had with other people," Ben says. "And probably gossiped about you behind your back with her other friends."
"You figured out all that from me not wanting to talk about it?" Yasmina asks, surprised.
"You don't like gossiping, and you don't like popular people with a lot of friends," Ben states. "You put them both in the same sentence, so they must be related. If she's a people pleaser, maybe you thought you knew who she was and then another side of her was shown in a scary way. Which would explain why you reacted so violently to Sammy's secret."
"Yeah," Yasmina nods sheepishly.
"What happened to her?" Ben asks. "Was it drama with another friend, or a boyfriend, or parents?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Yasmina mumbles.
Ben shakes his head, trying not to laugh. "Maybe—this is just a guess since you haven't given me much to work with—maybe your old friend hurt you because she was hurting herself? Or her anger was just taken out on you? Or maybe she left you because she really did like you, but you reminded her of someone she had a problem with? And it was just too painful to be around you?"
"That… that sounds about right…" Yasmina murmurs.
"Doesn't that sound like what you're doing to Sammy?" Ben asks. "Refusing to be friends with her because she reminds you of someone else?"
"Stop figuring me out like a puzzle!" Yasmina chuckles.
"Well, your puzzle is a total mess right now," Ben says.
"I've tried to put it together," Yasmina sighs. "It's just so hard to put the broken pieces back together blindly."
"Maybe you need a new perspective," Ben says. "Sometimes the best thing to do when you're struggling with your puzzles is to ask for help. A fresh pair of eyes who can see a match that you've looked over too many times."
Yasmina smiles. "I guess I do."
She leans her head back on his shoulder. Ben takes pity on her; how could someone so strong be so broken and hurt? He could feel anger and pain radiating off of her when she spoke of her old friend. She had so much anger and pain built up against this mysterious figure; what could she have done? It saddened Ben to think about Yasmina. What was it like to walk around afraid of talking and trusting people? What had to happen to you to become this afraid? What did you have to go through to be determined to be alone and deprived of friendship? The thought makes his heart ache. Whatever happened to her, she didn't deserve it.
"I think you need to learn to be rescued," Ben says quietly. "You need to learn when to get aid. You're so alone, Yaz, when you don't need to be. Sometimes you can't do things on your own. Sometimes you can't heal your wounds on your own. And it's okay to not be able to do everything by yourself. Whatever she did to you is tormenting you. You don't have to hold it all in and let it fester. You don't have to hold anything that happened to you in." "For this is surely not the only thing that happened to you," Ben thinks.
"I know," Yasmina sighs shakily. "It's just so hard to let it all out sometimes."
"What did your friend do?" Ben asks again, wanting to help her get through this emotional trauma tormenting her.
"I—" Yasmina says.
"Don't wanna talk about it," Ben says with her. The two laugh at the phrase.
Back in the United States, commotion was arising in a house. "Momma!" a little girl cries out, shrieking with laughter. "Uncle Tim won't stop tickling me!"
"Tim, stop torturing my daughter," her mother calls from the kitchen.
Tim sighs, letting his niece go. "Why do you have to ruin the fun, Lex? The T-rex had Mingmei!"
"That didn't sound like fun to me," Lex rolls her eyes. "Especially not if you're being a T-rex."
Her brother grins. "Come on, Snotrod, Rexy was the best part of the trip."
Lex sighs. "Am I ever going to live down being sneezed on by a Brachiosaurus?"
Her brother grins mischievously.
"And second, Rexy was not the best part of the trip," Lex continues, sitting down at her kitchen table. "The best part of the trip was getting off the island. Or working with the computers."
Tim laughs. "How about being chased by raptors in the kitchen?"
"Gosh, no," Lex laughs. "That scared the heck out of me."
"Rawr!" a little boy exclaims, jumping out at his mother from under the table.
"Oh my goodness!" Lex exclaims, laughing. "You scared me, Austin."
Her five year old son laughs and goes to terrorize his adopted older sister, Mingmei.
"Are you sure it's safe to be pregnant?" Tim asks, concern for his sister welling up again. "As much as I love nieces and nephews, you're thirty five. You could adopt like you did with Mingmei."
Lex looks down at her bulging stomach. "Many women have babies at my age and are just fine. It's not like I'm in any danger."
"Speaking of, how's your brother in law?" Tim asks. "Wasn't he working at Jurassic World?"
"Death park 2.0?" Lex smiles wryly. "Yeah, Andrew's brother worked at Jurassic World. I can't remember what he did. Andrew! What did Kody do for a living?!"
"He was the co-head of the ACU at Jurassic World!" her husband calls from down the hall.
"Where was he when the hybrid got loose?" Lex calls.
"He was on a break at home," her husband says. "Missed the entire ordeal. He's trying to head back there."
"Why would he want to go back?" Lex asks in confusion.
"Because there's apparently six VIP teens that got stuck on the island and are surviving," Lex's husband says, peeking around the corner. "He knows one of them. The boy would wander around the park and hang out at the ACU headquarters."
"Yeah… Kevin? Was it?" Lex asks.
"Something with a K," her husband nods. "He was the son of some rich guy connected to Jurassic World. Never got attention from his father. There was a summer camp program Jurassic World was testing out, and he was one of the kids invited. They're still stuck on the island and their families are trying to launch a rescue mission."
"My husband never tells me anything," Lex shakes her head as he heads back to his office. "I knew absolutely nothing about this."
"I think I heard something about that a few weeks ago," Tim frowns. "I was busy so I didn't pay a lot of attention at the time."
"I can't imagine being stuck on Isla Nublar for months," Lex breathes. "And being a mother…"
"Hey, Andrew! Is there a way to join the rescue mission?!" Tim calls out.
"You're going to join?" Lex asks.
"Of course," Tim shrugs. "If there's kids stuck on Jurassic island, I wanna help them. We both know what they're facing."
"Snot rockets and T-rexes," Lex says grimly. Tim on the other hand laughs.