Cherry and Atticus kept running and ended up in a gas station, panting heavily.
"Did we lose him?" Atticus asked.
"I hope so..." Cherry sighed, then leaned against a van next to a gas pump slightly. "Phew... What's next, a zombie invasion?"
"I doubt it." Atticus said.
Cherry wiped her forehead. "Phew!"
They then saw they were at a gas station.
"You got money on you?" Cherry asked, hopefully, they may not have had money for train tickets, but maybe they could stop for a quick bite to eat.
"I think I have some money in one of my pockets." Atticus said, searching his pockets.
Cherry hoped so. Atticus took out a couple of dollars and a few coins.
"Great... We can split half a sandwich..." Cherry deadpanned.
Two kids came out of the gas station, having their own food.
"You think that'll be enough until we see Grandpa?" the boy asked the older girl.
"Should be." the girl smiled to him.
"Well, this is all the money we've got." Atticus said to Cherry.
Cherry sighed. The two other kids looked to them, wondering what was wrong, then walked over.
"Uh, excuse me?" the girl spoke up. "Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah, just looking for food..." Cherry sighed.
"Why don't you ask your parents for some money?" the boy suggested.
"Um, well, you see, we're on a journey to find my best friend/sister figure here her parents, but as for me, well, I don't really have any parents." Atticus frowned.
"You don't have any parents?" the boy asked.
Cherry and Atticus shrugged and shook their heads.
"I have a feeling my parents might be alive..." Cherry said.
"Then where did you come from?" the girl then asked. "If you don't mind me asking..."
"Somewhere far, far away from here." Atticus said.
The boy and girl looked to their food and offered it to Cherry and Atticus.
"Oh, no, we couldn't..." Cherry said.
"You should..." the girl insisted. "You need this more than we do."
"Well, thank you." Atticus smiled.
The boy and girl gave their food to Cherry and Atticus. Cherry and Atticus were relieved to see good enough foods that they liked and ate them, they had eaten recently, but it was still nice to have this kind of food. They remembered their thank yous of course, hoping and feeling like they made friends in these two strangers. After finishing the food, it was now time for introduction. Cherry and Atticus gave their names.
"I'm Lex and this is my brother, Tim." the girl introduced.
"Sup?" the boy, Tim, raised his right hand with a friendly smile for his possible new friends.
"Nice to meet you both." Atticus smiled.
"Where are you off to?" Cherry asked.
"We're gonna meet our grandfather, he has his own theme park." Lex smiled in excitement.
"Did you say theme park?!" Atticus asked out of excitement.
"Uh-huh..." Lex nodded.
"What's it like?" Cherry asked.
"This is our first time going," Tim explained happily. "We're on vacation, so Grandpa decided to invite us over to let us forget about our troubles back home."
"Trouble back home?" Atticus asked. "What kind of troubles?"
"Our parents are fighting..." Lex said softly.
"Oh, my..." Atticus said.
Tim looked like he was going to cry.
"Hey, it's okay..." Lex tried to soothe her brother.
"What if they never stop?" Tim looked back. "What if they divorce?"
"I'm sure they won't..." Lex tried to soothe him.
"Do you mind if we come along?" Cherry asked.
Tim smiled. "If you would like that."
"We have no other place to really go..." Atticus shrugged.
"Oh, could they?" Tim asked his sister.
"Well, I guess the more the merrier and Grandpa would be happy to have two more kids to witness real living creatures that have been extinct for 65 million years." Lex said.
"What...?" Cherry and Atticus asked in surprise.
"You guys ever wanna meet real live dinosaurs?" Tim asked. "Up close?"
"No way, there is no way that your grandfather could have real, living dinosaurs, they've been extinct for millions of years, there's just no scientific way to bring them back, I mean, scientists have even tried to do it for years and years." Atticus said.
"Seeing is believing..." Lex smirked.
Cherry and Atticus shrugged.
"Okay, let's go see this theme park of dinosaurs." Cherry said.
Lex and Tim opened the van door and allowed their new friends to join them and put their luggage in the backseat. After they each got into the van and buckled up, they now just had to wait for the two kids' parents to arrive, so they could drive them to their destination.
"A theme park with real live dinosaurs, I feel an adventure out of this." Cherry commented.
"Same here." Atticus said.
Lex and Tim then saw the drivers who were their parents and asked them about letting Cherry and Atticus come with them for the ride.
"Oh, uh, I don't know..." The father replied. "Is that okay with their parents?"
Tim and Lex began to make hand signal of telling him not to mention the word 'parents'.
Their mother caught onto this. "Erm... I'm sure it's just fine..." she said with a small and sheepish smile.
"You think so?" Their father asked.
"Yes... Maybe their new friends would like a vacation, so let's send them with Alexis and Timothy to visit their grandfather's theme park, huh?" Their mother bowed her head with a wink.
"I guess it would be fun for them." Their father said.
"Uh-huh..." Their mother agreed.
Their father nodded, then looked back to Cherry and Atticus with a friendly and accepting smile. "All aboard the Murphy Express!"
"Thank you ever so much, sir." Atticus bowed.
"Yeah, thanks." Cherry added.
Lex and Tim's parents then started the van up and started to drive them over to their infamous grandfather's theme park.
"So is this theme park few miles away or on an island?" Atticus asked.
"It's a surprise..." Mrs. Murphy said.
Atticus sighed. "Well... Okay..."
"You'll have to find out for yourselves." Mr. Murphy said.
"Fine..." Atticus folded his arms with a pout.
"So much for finding my parents..." Cherry mumbled with a shrug.
"Don't worry, we will find them, I promise." Atticus whispered.
"I wonder who they are and where they are right now..." Cherry stared at the floor. "If they even regret giving me up... Why they gave me up..."
"You're not gonna sing like Cinderella, are you?" Atticus asked as music swelled.
The music then stopped like a record needle scratch.
"I hate singing!" Cherry said then.
"That answers my question." Atticus said.
"Jeez Louise, Atticus, you wanna kill me!?" Cherry then ranted. "Honestly, I wonder why I put up with you sometimes... I mean, just imagine if you were strong as a Greek god or had some supernatural powers like a witch or somethin'!"
"I couldn't imagine my life without you." Atticus said.
"It would be happier..." Cherry put her hands together. "No one doomy and gloomy to drag you down!"
"Also I would possibly not be who I am now." Atticus said.
"You'd be fine..." Cherry said.
"So, where did you guys come from?" Lex asked. "Really?"
"I don't think you're old enough to understand, call me when you're accepted to college." Cherry changed the subject.
"Oh, come on, please." Tim begged.
"Far away..." Atticus said.
"Guys, come on..." Lex said. "You can trust us..."
"We come from a kingdom far from here." Atticus said.
"A kingdom?" Lex and Tim asked.
"So did you tell them all about Cinderella and the Prince?" Mo asked as Junior smiled and listened attentively to the story.
"Well..." Atticus said, very long.
"They didn't believe you?" Mo guessed.
"Right on the dot." Atticus said.
"Oh, I'm so sorry..." Mo said.
Junior took out a block and started to teethe on it.
"Looks like someone is starting to teethe." Atticus said.
"Oh, looks like it..." Mo noticed. "Uh, Cherry, how old is Junior?"
"He should be two now." Cherry said, Mo might had been Junior's adoptive sister, but since Cherry was biologically related to Junior, she knew a little more about him than Mo did.
"Anyways, let's continue where we were." Atticus said.
Mo took out a teething ring and gave it to Junior. Junior tossed the block aside and then took the teething ring, teething on that instead of the block.
"Please continue." Mo prompted.
"Anyways, you're right, they didn't believe us when we told them where we came from." Atticus said.
"They thought we were making a joke... Tim seemed to believe us, but Lex told him we were probably just kidding..." Cherry added.
"But we're not kidding." Atticus said to Tim and Lex.
Tim and Lex just shrugged to their new friends.
"Really!" Cherry said.'
"Okay, we get it," Lex commented. "We told you our grandfather has a theme park with dinosaurs, so you're messing with us to get back at us. Very funny."
"Oh, never mind." Atticus said.
Lex and Tim shrugged to their friends, but Tim had a hopeful look, possibly due to his young age. They kept waiting anxiously until the van would drop them off to this mysterious and exciting sounding theme park.