Jurassic Girl

Chapter Three

I made a quick stop at the bungalow to change, now wearing grey ripped jean shorts with a dark orange flannel wrapped around my waist, a black cropped tight top with chain straps, keeping my dark brown combat boots on. I put my curly rose red hair, that I got from my mother, up in a ponytail to keep me cool.
I drove down to the park and parked my truck in the employee's area, walking the rest of the way to the visitors center. I have to almost fight my way through the crowds to get there, pushing people out of my way.
Once I saw Zara's hair I made a path towards, now having a small goal. I got out of the thick crowd, stumbling up the steps towards Zara, who was alone.
"Zara," I shout, getting her attention.
She looks up from her phone and smiles at me, "hey Mor."
"Hey, where are the nephews," I ask, looking for any children in sight.
"Getting something to eat before we explore," she says unenthusiastically.
"Are they a handful," I ask.
"The younger one, yes, he's obsessed with dinosaurs and he won't shut up. The older one, well-"
"Zara, who's this," asks a voice from behind me.
I turn to see two boys, the younger one with wavy dirty blonde hair that is a little long and covers his forehead. The older one, just a little taller than I am, with dark brown hair. He doesn't even look up at me as they approach.
"I'm Morgana Grady, you aunt asked me to help Zara look after you," I said, leaning over to whisper to the younger kid, "and so you'd have at least one person with their nose not stuck in their phone."
The kid laughs loudly at that, "I'm Gray Mitchell, and this is my brother Zach."
Gray pulls on Zach's arm and he gets annoyed, "what. Gray, stop it. What do-"
He stops short as he looks up at me, his eyes raking all over me. Lingering on my exposed stomach, where my ruby devils bellybutton ring was.
Gray kicks him and he finds some sense of composure, "hi, hey, um I'm Zach."
"I heard," I say, "I'm Morgana, but you can call me Mor."
"Well," he looks me up and down again, "it's nice to meet you."
"Likewise," I say sarcastically then I turn to Gray, "what do you want to do?"
"Ummmm," Gray thinks.
"I have an idea, let's start small," I say, "the petting zoo."

"Lift me up, I can't see," Gray says to Zach.
I walk beside the young kid, Zach trailing behind us a few steps. Gray grew on my fast, his excitement rubbing off on me. It was hard not to like the kid. Zach, on the other hand, was easy not to like. The way he treated Gray, like he was just a nuisance, bothered me. He was a cliche teenage boy, thinking it's cool to be indifferent and to flirt with every girl he laid his eyes on.
"I'm not dad, and you're not five," Zach tells Gray.
We pass Zara, who's phone rings. Gray runs up on top of a little stand so he can see.
"I can still ride the triceratops. I'm 47 and a half inches," he says, taking pictures.
Zach sighs, "this place is for little kids."
I glare at the back of his head as I help Gray off the little platform, "their dinosaurs Zach, it doesn't matter what age they're targeted for."
"Wanna go on the spinning dinosaurs eggs," Gray asks us.
"Nope," Zach answers before I can, he turns to Gray, "cover up your dork pouch."
I roll my eyes at Zach, he was such an ass to his little brother, it irked me so much. Yeah, Zach is very attractive, but him treating Gray like a piece of garbage was a big turn off.
"Scatter," Zach suddenly says.
"What," Gray and I ask.
"Go, run, go," Zach says again, looking behind at Zara who is on the phone.
He grabs my hand and pulls me along. I run with him, laughing loudly. We make it back to the main area, Zach and I following an incredibly excited Gray.
"T-Rex," Gray suddenly yells, "come on come on!"
I pull my left hand from Zach's right and check my watch, which is on the inside of my wrist, a habit I picked up from Owen. It was time for Grey's feeding.
"You guys go into the observation area," I tell Zach with a secretive smile, "I'll be right back."
"Where are you going," Zach asks, one eyebrow raised.
"You'll see," I wink and take off before he can say a word.
I get to the employees only area and find Liz right away.
She gives me a confused look, "Mor? What are you doing here?"
"Claire's nephews are about to watch the show, I want to give them a show," I tell her and she knows instantly what I mean.
"I swear, Mor. If I lose my job because of you," she sighs, "I'll kill you."
I smile widely at her and race up the steps to the top of Grey's cage. Grey is already eating by the time I get up there.
I whistle loudly and she turns her head quickly towards me.

-Zach's pov-
I hang up the phone and turn towards the windows, where everyone was cheering, blocking Gray's view. I shake my head and grab his shoulders, pushing us towards the front of the crowd.
Just when we get there, the animals head quickly turns upwards at the sound of a whistle. Everyone looks up and to my surprise, there stands Mor.
"Is that-"
"Yeah," I say.
Mor raises both of her hands and brings them together, interlocking her fingers. The T-Rex walks underneath the walkway and she jumps over the rail.
Everyone in the observation area gasp, a few people scream. Mor looks up at the glass and I swear her eyes land on me. She gives me a reassuring smile as she taps the dinosaurs back three times, and it turns left, towards us, in answer.
"She's so cool," Gray whispers beside me.
She climbs on its back, walking towards its head, she taps it four times and it stops in front of the observation area. A large smirk lights her features as she taps it once. The dinosaur takes a deep breath and lets out an earth-shattering roar in answer.
Gray laughs loudly and applauds, everyone else starting up as well. I slowly begin to applaud as well, watch Mor take a deep bow, doing a rhythmic tap on the dinosaur's back and it bows its head with her.
"She's so cool," I whisper.

-Mor's pov-
I meet the boys at the entrance to Grey's exhibit. They both excitedly run up to me, Gray tackling me around the waist.
"That was so cool! You were on a T-Rex," he yells.
I laugh loudly, "her names Grey, just like you but with an e instead of an a."
"Really," Gray yells excitedly, "a dinosaur is named after me!"
He turns to Zach who is staring at me in awe, "Zach did you hear that?"
"Yeah," Zach replies absently, "Mor, that was awesome."
"Thanks," I say, "what do you guys want to do next?"
"What could top you riding a T-Rex," Gray asks.
I think for a moment and then snap my fingers, "I think I know the perfect thing!"

"The mosasaurs was thought to have hunted near the surface of the water," the announcer said.
Gray, Zach, and I sat near the front, just out of the "splash zone," but they didn't know that the zone was a lot larger than said. I sat to the left of Gray, and Zach on his other side, again, on his phone.
"Where it preyed on anything it could sink its teeth into," she continued, "including turtles, large fish, even smaller mosasaurs."
She turns and places her hand on a panel, which makes a dead strung up shark move over the water, "okay folks. Let's see if she's still hungry after already eating today."
Gray sits forward in his seat even more than he already was. I was honestly scared he'd fall over the seats in front of us.
"She's a little shy, so be nice and give her a hand when she comes out."
"Zach, Zach. The mosasaur," Gray tries to get his attention, but his eyes are glued to a picture of a pretty blonde girl.
"Zach! You're gonna want to watch this," I say, covering his phone screen.
He looks up at me, but then towards the water. The mosasaurus jumps out of the water with a deafening roar, its mouth open wide to take the shark whole. It snaps its jaw around the shark and begins to fall back into the water, splashing everyone.
I laugh loudly, looking towards the boys who were smiling and laughing as well.
"Oh my god," Gray yells, "that was awesome!"
The seats suddenly start to descend, to give us an underwater view of the mosasaurus eating. I look back over at the boys and see Zach's wide smile, his phone now forgotten as he and Gray laugh and watch together.
"You guys want to something else cool," I ask, raising my voice over the cheering crowd.
"Yeah!"