•adeline• || o. grady

5~

Lowery eventually got over his fear of Owen, fortunately for everyone. Now, Owen was stressing over Adeline's surprise birthday party. He was planning on having it at the beach near his place with Barry, Lowery, himself, and, of course, the birthday girl. Her 25th needed to be perfect, and he was pulling out all the stops.

He was at the raptor paddock, leaning on the railing of the catwalk.

"Focus on your job, will you, Owen?" Barry shouted to him from the ground. Owen waved a hand dismissively at him, but brought himself back to reality and began feeding the raptors. It went about as well as it usually did, with Blue controlling the other girls in an attempt to challenge him. So much for Alpha Owen. After another few hours, he took his motorcycle back to his bungalow before Adeline could meet him at the paddock. He was trying to avoid her today. He was never good at surprises or secrets, so if he didn't see her then he wouldn't give anything away.

•

"We'll see our Triceratopses back out here in two hours, so feel free to swing by at 11!"

Adeline waved goodbye to all the guests before heading back to the shed. After she put her stuff away and dejectedly headed to her car, she was stopped by all of the Triceratops trainers wearing birthday hats and grinning at her.

She could've cried. No one had texted her yet that day, other than some friends from college and her parents. She hadn't seen Lowery, Barry, or Owen either.

She hugged her coworkers, accepting the cupcake and blew out the candle. She let them put a birthday hat onto her head before she got into her Jeep and headed for the Valleys.

Once she reached the Gyrosphere Valley, she couldn't find her notebook anywhere. Not in her glovebox, under the seats, or in the back. She sighed, putting the numbers and notes into the notes app on her phone. She could hardly see the screen due to the bright sun.

After a decidedly bad morning, she went to the petting zoo to check the animals while it was closed for the lunch hour. They were all, luckily, uninjured and healthy. She refreshed their food and water before heading to get her own lunch.

She went to the Jurassic World Starbucks for the first time ever to get her free birthday gift in the form of a grilled cheese and a cake pop. She sat outside the cafe, observing her latest sunburn and people watching.

Her phone rang and she jumped to answer it.

"Hey, Viv!"

After a very sweet birthday call from Vivian, she headed to her (new!) office to answer emails and do her typical computer work. Simon Masrani had sent her a birthday e-card.

Still nothing from any of her friends besides Vivian. She was fine with it, whatever. It was better than going out to a bar, like she had done in the past.

She had to go cover the 3 o'clock feeding, followed by a 4 o'clock meeting with all the herbivore employees, the Park Operations Manager, and Simon Masrani. Adeline had met Claire, the park operations manager, in the past but surprisingly not had much of a conversation with her.

The meeting was about the runnings of the department and suggestions from the employees. Adeline was happy to suggest they discontinue the petting zoo, but knew it wasn't something that could be done. It was practically the only thing the very young kids could take part in. The park's demographic needed to be all ages.

After the meeting, she headed home to make herself a small dinner and get ready for bed. Her phone dinged. Owen.

You left your notebook at mine. Come get it?

She rolled her eyes. Of course he couldn't just bring it her, that would be too easy. She agreed, and changed back into real clothes. She wasn't sure she wanted to arrive at his house in a tank top and pajama shorts. He'd seen her in less, but that was different.

She grabbed her keys and headed out the door. It was foolish of her to expect that he'd even know it was her birthday. Lowery, she was disappointed in. Maybe she'd slap some sense into him the next day, but she was too tired for that now.

She pulled up to Owen's house. There was one Jeep too many, but she didn't really notice. She went up to the front door and knocked. Someone, who she quickly identified as Owen because she was unfortunately quite familiar with his arms — even in the dark — grabbed her from behind, covered her eyes, and lifted her up. She kicked, but was not able to get out of his hold, not that she really wanted to.

He carried her all the way to the beach and set her down in a lawn chair. He uncovered her eyes, revealing Barry and Lowery sitting across from her, holding out a cake. "Happy Birthday, Addie!"

She turned around and hit Owen in the chest. "You ass, you made me think you forgot!" She frowned, but appreciated the surprise too much to hide her growing smile. Owen brought out the steaks he had made before they dug into the cake. The boys had beers, but Adeline was happy with her seltzer.

The more drunk Lowery got, the sadder and more pathetic he became. He complained about Vivian never loving him back, and that he was too lame for her. The others couldn't really disagree, but they tried.

"What would you guys do?" Lowery asked, looking up from his hands.

Owen and Addie responded at the same time.
"Invite her out for drinks!"
"Talk to her about how you feel."

They looked at each other, then said in unison, "What?"

"No, she would want to have a conversation about it, then they can go out if she wants. It's better if he confesses before just asking her out."

"Don't listen to your sister, Lowery. You should sweep her off her feet, take her to—"

"Do not say Margaritaville."

"...somewhere. Then tell her how you feel."

"You two are not helpful," Lowery complained. Barry ignored the two, trying to offer real advice on what to do.

"Alright, try this. Pretend I'm Vivian. Now ask me out." Barry rotated his chair to face Lowery's, setting his beer down intently.

"I'm not doing that."

After a few seconds, he gave in.

"Alright. Vivian, I was wondering if you'd maybe want to—"

Owen cut him off. "Not assertive enough. Alright, I'll be you, Barry is Vivian." He stood up and walked over to Barry. "Vivian, let's go out tonight, we can go to Winston's, or Sunrio Tequallia. What do you say?"

"Of course, Lowery, I love you!" Barry leapt into Owen's arms.

"That's too forward," Adeline stood up. "You have to flatter her at least a little bit. Be nice, you can't jump straight to the point. Owen, sit down. Barry, you're Vivian, I'm Lowery."

"Why am I always Vivian?"

"Shut up. Alright, go," Adeline pushed Owen to the side gently and stepped over to Barry. "Hey, Vivian. I really like you, would you want to get dinner with me tomorrow night after work?"

"Sorry, Lowery, I don't want to."

"Barry! Why does your Vivian say no to me, but yes to Owen?"

"My Vivian thinks assertiveness is hot, and Owen is more ripped."

Adeline scoffed. "You'd be surprised." She muttered.

"You clearly haven't seen her muscles, Barry. She was a jock in high school and college." Lowery pointed out. "Lacrosse, track, gymnastics. She's scary strong."

"Flexible, too," Owen smirked, taking a sip of his drink. Adeline smacked his arm.

Gritting her teeth, she turned back to her brother. "Anyway, if you go with my idea, you will have a better chance of getting that date. And maybe more after that! Ignore everything Owen says, he can't get second dates."

"And you can?"

"I could!"

•

i love cliches and i love lowery (hi nick miller) and i love addie being ripped