Raptor Boy

Things Fall Apart

Ava's POV

Hanging out in the common area, everybody was doing their own thing. Ben was drawing something with crayons, of all things; and Kenji was sitting at those office chairs with wheels, spinning in place. Yasmina was showing Sammy her notebook, which I discovered to be her drawing notebook after taking a peek; she was actually really good at it. I was sitting at the ping-pong table, bouncing the little ball in the air with the racket, since nobody wanted to play with me.

Even though it was not raining anymore, Dave and Roxie had left us, once again, to die of boredom in camp.

The door flung open. "What up, Camp Cretaceous? Woo-ho!" Darius yelled.

"Not in a 'woo-ho' mood this morning, Darius." Kenji said, leaning back in his chair. "Not after yesterday. Trekking through a rainstorm will do that."

Ben took a loud sip from his juice box. "We only had to walk because you crashed our gyrosphere."

"But today is a new day! Kayak day!" Darius walked around the room, trying to cheer us up. "Who doesn't like to paddle alongside dinosaurs, real dinosaurs? It's gonna be awesome, right?" He paused, looking around to finally realize we were alone. "Wait, where's Dave and Roxie?"

"The babysitters took off early and left this." Kenji slid on his chair over to Darius and gave him Dave and Roxie's note.

"BRB, gotta go. Boss-talk. BB later. Smiley face." Darius read the note aloud. "Is there a dinosaur emoji with a thumbs up?" He frowned.

"It's Dave's speak." Kenji parked his chair next to me.

"Just flip it over, Roxie translated on the back." I said without taking my eyes from the ping-pong ball going up and down.

Darius flipped the note and resumed reading. "We have to go talk to our boss. Stay inside until we return. Draw, bond, whatever. The radio's set for channel six in case you need us. Stay inside, stay inside. Do not leave, Kenji, looking at you. And before any of you do anything, again, looking at you Kenji, Tyler's in charge" Darius chuckled at Roxie's last comment. "Sorry for the kids' menus, it's all Dave had." Darius glanced at the box of crayons left on the table.

"Do they understand how old we are?" Kenji grabbed the little ball mid-air.

"Hey!" I complained and tried to snatch it back, but he was already out of my reach.

Kenji slid across the room on his chair. "I mean, when was the last time you even saw a crayon?" He tossed the ball back to me, aggressively, which I caught with an angry frown.

In response to Kenji's remark, Ben showed us his drawing of him and a little fat and round dinosaur playing chess, probably the one Ben had fallen in love with back at the genetics lab.

"Hmm, I have notes." Yasmina commented on Ben's drawing skills.

"Yasmina!" Sammy laughed, shoving her lightly.

The door was opened again and Tyler walked out yawning, pulling his shirt down. He looks at all of us and smiles. "Morning," He causally says and looks around.

"Where's Dave and Roxie?" He asks walking up to Sammy and Yaz putting his arms around them. Darius gives him the note and he reads it. 

He looks up from the note and he crumples it up and tosses it. "I never agreed to be in charge!" I giggle at his pissed off demeanor. 

For the third time today, the door flung open, and all eyes turned to see a very pissed off looking Brooklynn on the doorway.

"Brooklynn. What's new on the Internet, superstar?" Yasmina rolled her eyes at her dramatics.