Chapter 2

Welcome to Jurassic World

They weren't sure how long Ms. Moynihan had been planning this trip. She certainly had the funds. She had even gotten everything squared away with their other classes. Coach put up a minor complaint about football practice, but Max had promised to work extra hard when he came back and he wasn't about to skip his workout schedule. They were just going to be gone a week.

Turns out it wasn't much of a concern anyway since they were going during winter break, although Ms. Moynihan pointed that out after Coach spent his air. That smoothed everything over with everyone except their families.

Fiona's family, in particular, weren't too happy about her being away during Christmas, but they eventually caved. It was Jurassic World after all and they knew there had to be something special about it for their spinosaurus daughter. It was Terri who complained the most.

"This is so cool!"

Fiona pulled Terri back from the ferry railing where several of them were watching the sea spray and laughed. "We aren't even there yet, sis."

"I know, but we're going to see real dinosaurs. Ms. Moynihan is the coolest."

Buzz snorted as he leaned on the railing beside them. "Dude, you live with a real dino."

Fiona elbowed him. "Shh!"

"What? No one's listening. Not like they're gonna know what I mean, anyway."

Fiona still shot him a look.

Terri rolled her eyes. "Nah, I'm over it. If a dino is my sister, I'm automatically over it. It's automatically un-cool."

"Uh-huh?" asked Fiona, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms.

Terri dismissed her glare. "These are like, animals, you know? Hey, if you shift here you think they'll tranq you?"

"Actually—."

Terri jumped as Rodger popped up behind her despite being twice her size. She blamed the noise of people milling around the ferry.

"Going dino here would be a really bad idea."

"That is an understatement," Ms. Moynihan said, but she didn't look away from the steadily approaching island. They were about ten minutes from docking and she had just barely managed to pull away from Fiona's father thanking her for the twentieth time for offering them the trip. "A dinosaur cannot just appear in the park. They keep incredibly detailed records about all their assets. They would notice if any of us showed ourselves and ask questions we can't answer, not to mention potentially attack and hurt someone. There's will be absolutely no revealing of your dinosaur forms. There are too many cameras and not enough leeway for an explanation."

Buzz and Rodger shared a look.

"Are you okay Ms. M?" Fiona asked. "You've been kinda tense since we got on the plane."

Ms. Moynihan shook herself. "Oh, don't worry about me. Just my old head thinking about useless things.

"Like what?"

Ms. Moynihan smiled at Terri and patted the young teen's head. "Nothing important."

Buzz shifted. "Uh. We're almost there. I'm gonna go find Max and Caruso."

"That's a wonderful idea, Buzz," Ms. Moynihan said. "Would you mind sending Fiona's parents to meet us up here too? If we stick together, the sooner we can check in."

"And the sooner we can start exploring." Rodger laughed and waved his event pamphlet a little. "I want to drag Max to the t-rex feeding and get a video of his face."

Max had recently been, ironically, trying vegetarianism. He broke his diet pretty often because he hated the protein supplement shakes so much. He was pretty chill about his friends' teasing. But it was still funny to remind him t-rexes weren't vegetarian.

"That's so mean," Fiona snorted. "Save me a spot."

"Hey, it's fair. We're going to do these gyrosphere things they've got out on the plains." He showed her the picture of the blue glass ball. "They'll let guests go out and see the plant eaters."

Ms. Moynihan took the pamphlet and read it. "I wasn't aware of this attraction. Letting guests pilot these things seems rather unwise." She paused. "Perhaps it's alright if the herbivores are used to people..."

"You want to come with us?" Fiona asked as Max and Caruso arrived.

"I just might, but…we'll see." She had an odd expression before she wiped it. "Leave a couple of hours free, everyone. I've arranged something with a friend of mine and as soon as he's free, he's agreed to give us a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the more interesting research facilities."

"Alright! VIP treatment," Caruso said over the horn and an announcer's voice signaling for everyone to depart. He strained to juggle his three fully packed suitcases while Max rolled his eyes and slung his duffle bag over his arm and handed Rodger his.

"That's so cool." Fiona nodded, waving as she caught sight of her parents, already on the dock waiting for them with an apologetic-looking Buzz. They probably were near the front of the line when they started letting people off the boat.

"You know someone who works here?" Max asked.

"I do. One of the researchers. He's an old friend and-ah there he is!"