What a Jurassic Mess
One Chapter Two
Gray ran up the steps to the Innovation Center pausing to look back at his siblings every so often.
“Come on!” He called out excitedly bouncing in place on the steps when everyone but Zach sped up a bit.
“Relax.” Zach called out as he started walking up the stairs, Gray glared slightly at him before continuing up the stairs.
“Come on!” He called out again, causing Zach to roll his eyes.
“Dude, chill.”
Nora and Gray pushed the doors open looking around excitedly as their siblings followed behind them. Zara barely made it through the doors as she paid too much attention to her phone. The announcer chimed overhead as the siblings looked at the holographic platform displaying a life-size projection of an Apatosaurus roaring seemingly at them.
“Welcome to the Innovation Center, where technology meets Prehistory. Join us on an exciting journey 65 million years into the past.” Gray rushes over the Mr. DNA Show, and after looking over the screen he immediately begins pushing buttons, reciting the answers.
“Cytosine, Guanine, adenine, and thymine. The same four things in everything that ever lived.” A 3-D Mr. DNA appeared on screen with a thumbs up before the computer called out.
“Test your knowledge!” Zach walked up beside him looking around grumpily as their other siblings had dispersed to their own areas.
“Hey, don’t wander off, all right? Mom’s not paying me for babysitting.”
“Mom never pays you for babysitting.” Gray said unimpressed and Zach is cut off from responding by Claire calling out to Gray.
“Gray, is that you?” She asked, smiling as she held her phone to her ear walking down the stairs. Gray and Nora hurried over grinning as they called out to her.
“Aunt Claire!” Claire rushed finishing the call as she made it to the bottom of the stairs.
“Okay, yeah. No, I’m going to have to go. My nephews and nieces are here.” She hung right as the two hugged her causing her to smile in surprise and awkwardly hug them back. “Hi!” She laughs patting their backs looking down at them. “Oh, my gosh you guys are so sweet!” She turns smiling at Alice, Simon, and Zach as they walk closer. “Whoa! Zach Simon! Last I saw you two, you were like..” She held her hand a little higher then Gray and Nora’s height causing a grin to spread on Alice’s face and Simon ruffled his hair awkwardly. “That must’ve been, what? Three, four years ago?” Zach frowned, rolling his eyes slightly.
“Ya, seven. Seven years.” He said unimpressed, causing Simon to elbow him before moving forward.
“But close, you know! It’s good to see you again, Aunt Claire, you look beautiful.” Claire smiled softly at Simon.
“Thank you Simon, you’ve both grown up handsomely. I see you already got your wrist bands! This is for food!” She said, pulling a card out and handing it to Alice with a smile. “Zara is going to be taking care of you until I’m off work tonight, okay?” Zara glanced up uninterested before returning to her phone, and Gray looked up at her upset while Nora looked at Alice in understanding.
“You’re not coming with us?” Gray asked, causing Claire to look down at him awkwardly.
“Oh, um, I really wish that I could, but tomorrow I can take you into the control room, show you behind the scenes and all of that. That’s…that's gonna be cool, right?” She asks, smiling at them before her phone rings, not noticing the disappointed and unimpressed looks she was getting. “Okay, so I will see you tonight at, uh, uh, six.” Zara didn’t look up from her phone as she responded to Claire.
“No, no, don't forget you have the…” She stopped when Claire cut her off, nodding.
“Right, of course. I will see you tonight at eight. What time do you go to sleep? Or, or, do you go to sleep at different times?” They don’t respond as her phone continues to ring and she checks it. “Okay, so, um, have fun.” Claire turns to look at Zara. “And take very good care of them.” She smiled at them before walking off through the holographic dinosaur answering the phone. “Yeah, No, I’m here.” Simon smiles tightly at Zach and Alice before pulling Gray and Nora close.
“Well let’s set off. I have it on good authority that the T-Rex will be feeding soon!” Zach snorted, tilting his head to the side.
“Who’s authority?” Simon gave him a deadpan look before rolling his eyes playful and holding up a pamphlet.
“Well as I can tell, I’m the only one who grabbed the paper that tells you everything that's happening.” He said smugly, earning a laugh from Alice who took the pamphlet walking towards the doors.
“Nice one Bub! Alright let’s set out!”
Gray was bouncing up and down trying to see over all the others at the petting zoo. Zach stood by him looking around while Alice helped Simon lift Nora up enough to see the babies.
“Zach, lift me up. I can’t see!” Gray called out tugging on his brother's hoodie sleeve. Zach made a face pulling away from him.
“I’m not Dad, and you’re not five.” Gray huffed running to a different spot to get a better look, Zach following.
“I can still ride the Triceratops, or we can go on the spinning dinosaur eggs!” Gray said, looking down when Zach tugged on his shirt.
“Nope and cover up your dork pouch.” Simon gave him a look as he lowered Nora down with Alice.
“Zach.” He said warningly but was cut off when Zach grinned looking behind him at Zara, who was arguing on the phone.
“Scatter.”
“What?” Gray asked, confused only to be pushed slightly as Zach started to run in the opposite direction of their babysitter.
“Go. Run. Go!” He urged grabbing Simon’s hand as he passed him, the others soon following, Nora giggling loudly. Simon groaned as he ran with them, not looking back.
“Zach! You know I suck at running!” Simon lamented before tugging him away from the T-Rex feeding area. “No! She overheard us talking about the T-Rex, that's the first place she’ll go!” He looked around before pulling them toward the Mosasaurus’s enclosure. “Quick, let's get in line!” Zach nodded and the two started running again, their other siblings following behind them. Simon signed leaning against Zach tiredly after they got in line. “Make me run again on this vacation and I might kill you Z.” Zach snorted, rolling his eyes as he looked over at a few girls.
“No you won’t.” He said smirking slightly looking at Simon who was acting overdramatically tired. “Stop being dramatic, Si.” Simon was going to retort but Zach’s phone went off catching all of their attention.
“Zach we said no phones.” Nora said, jabbing him in the side. Zach swatted at her, hitting her arm slightly.
“It's mom, so calm down Miss phone police.” He grumbled before answering the phone. “Hey, mom.”
“Hi mom!” Simon called out leaning against Zach more so that he could hear their mom.
“Hi, I miss you boys. Are you having fun?” Emily asked, smiling as she heard two snorts.
“Yeah, I guess. Aunt Claire gave us passes, so we don’t have to wait in line.” Alice cursed lowly earning a look from Gray. “And we are just now remembering that after standing in line for twenty minutes.” That earned a laugh from Emily until she realized that meant Claire wasn’t there.
“Wait a second, she’s not with you all?” Simon and Zach shared a look as they followed after their siblings to the very obvious ‘Skip the line’ entrance. “Boys I will talk to you later, I love you both tell Alice, Nora and Gray I love them too.” She said before the line went dead, Simon leaned away looking at the ground awkwardly.
“Uh-oh, we got Claire in trouble.” Simon said and Zach shrugged as he pulled him forward.
“Worry about that later, come on, let's watch the show.”
“The Mosasaurus was thought to have hunted near the surface of the water where it could prey on anything it could sink its teeth into.” The announcer said as she clicked a button and a great white shark was moved above the water via a mechanical hook. Gray started bouncing excitedly, shaking both Zach and Simon. Simon laughed while Zach just continued to stare at the photo of his girlfriend on his phone.
“Isn’t it illegal to kill and well, feed great white sharks?” Nora asked, leaning closer to Alice.
“Well in the states and possibly a few other countries, but we’re in Costa Rica so laws are different.”
“Okay folks, let’s see if she’s still hungry after eating already today. She’s a little shy so be nice and give her a hand when she comes out!”
Gray shook them even harder as the Mosasaurus leapt out of the water and its jaws snapped closed around the great white dragging it under the water, sending a pool of water onto the audience. Zach laughed loudly, while Simon groaned, pulling his glasses off having forgotten they were in the splash zone.
“That was so cool!” Gray cheered loudly, earning a laugh from his siblings. As the bleachers started to move downwards, showing them the Mosasaurus underwater.
“Okay, hold on tight! We’re going to give an even closer look at our Mosasaurus!” Gray turned to Zach grin never leaving.
“It has eight-eight teeth!” Zach chuckled looking at him.
“Hey, you wanna see something else cool?”
“Yes!” Nora and Gray yelled at the same time earning a laugh from all the others.
“Hey, I’m gonna skip the Gyrosphere ride. It's a two person only ride and I don’t wanna get stuck with some rando, so you four go and have fun.” Alice said with agrin as they neared the monorail that would take them. Simon looked at her worried and she simply rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry Bub, enjoy the ride and get up close and personal with some dinos! I am going to get up close and personal with all the food this card can buy me!” Zach snorted, nodding to her before steering Nora and Gray onto the monorail, Simon followed right after. Nora and Gray immediately took a seat together leaving Simon and Zach to sit together. After a while it took off, shuttling them to the ride.
Nora and Gray talked quietly in front of them about the dinosaurs they’d seen so far. Simon kept glancing at Zach out of the corner of his eye having noticed that he closed in on himself again. Simon sighed, catching Zach’s attention.
“What did I do?” He asked, trying to keep the hurt out of his voice.
“What?” Simon huffed, rolling his eyes and turning to him.
“What did I do for you to hate me!?” Zach turned to him looking shocked and slightly angry.
“I don’t hate you!” Simon let out a short bitter laugh as he glared at the ground. “What makes you think I hate you!?” Zach question not looking away from his twi,
“What didn’t, Zach?! You don’t spend time with me anymore. Half the time I try to talk to you, you either roll your eyes and walk away or you don’t even acknowledge me! You have a girlfriend that hates my guts and I don’t even know why she does! So you tell me Zach, out of all those actions, what makes you think I wouldn’t get that feeling?” Zach glared, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes at the list.
“You have no room to talk! We’re twins Simon and what was our one big rule? No secrets! And I’ve been waiting for a very long time for you to tell me this secret you’ve been keeping but its been years, and recently it's gotten even worse!” Simon freezes thinking of the only secret he hasn’t told Zach, the secret that he found easier to tell Abby who he just met this year.
“Its, that's…Zach.” Simon stuttered at a loss for words terrified to say the words he wanted to tell his brother.
“Just forget it Simon.” Zach snapped, turning and looking out the window.
Simon sighed playing with his hoodie string as he looked down at his converse.
Gray and Nora stood in between the two while they waited in line. Nora argues with Simon about her and Gray going together while Gray mutters facts to Zach.
“Did you know the soft tissue is preserved because the iron in the dinosaur’s blood generates free radicals, and those are highly reactive. So, the proteins and the cell membranes get all mixed up, and and uh…act as a natural preservative. DNA can survive for a millennia that way.” Zach didn’t even hear a word Gray said as he smiles and stares at a group of girls. “See, now, even if the amber mines dry up, they’ll still have bones to-”
“Shut up?” Zach muttered not looking away from them, Gray turned looking at the girls before turning back to him.
“What do you think’s gonna happen from you just staring at them?” He asked, ignoring that the girls burst into giggles together and that he embarrassed his brother. Zach looked at him unimpressed letting out a sigh as they got into the Gyrosphere and drove away.
“Thanks, Man.” Gray smirked slightly, turning to look at the next Gyroshpere.
“You’re welcome.”
“Yes!” Nora cheered, pulling Gray into a hug. “Si agreed that we can ride together as long as we stay on the phone with him and Z! Let's go!” Her and Gray hurried onto the Gyrosphere buckling up and Nora gave Simon and Zach a thumbs up before driving off.
“Let's go Z.” Simon said softly before stepping into their Gyrosphere.
MasterList
