Way Back into Love ↪ Owen Grady

five ↪ the real deal

    Being the new girl wasn't easy at all, as it wasn't in any other department, and I certainly didn't expect it to be. Everyone would look at me funny: a girl who liked dinosaurs so much she wanted to actually walk in the paddocks? Like I was the only girl in the world they had seen doing such a thing. Like Ellie Sattler and Sarah Harding never existed.

    "Elle, please come in" Roger's voice brought me back from my temporary trance. I nodded and walked into his office.

    He looked at some paper before speaking. "As you know, you are on trial. Which means no close contact with the dinosaurs, no walking into gates when they are loose, definitely not touching them."

    "Oh" I blinked. "I didn't know that"

    "I didn't think that had to be addressed" he raised an eyebrow. "Not even I walk into dinosaurs being loose. It's our number one rule"

    "Right, sorry" I apologized. "So what is my job exactly?"

    "Your job.." he glanced up at me. "..is to keep the environment clean, watch those animals from outside, live the dream"

    I stood up after Roger dismissed me. What a bummer. Seriously?! What was the point of working with dinosaurs if I could only swipe off their poop? — I stepped out of the structure and walked towards the monorail. At least I could actually live the dinosaurs' experience while being in a damn gyrosphere.

    "Where are you going? Why are you not working?" Nick asked from behind me.

    I turned around and gave him a quick look before going back on my path. — "You don't know? I have to wait until they poop so I can clean that. I'm so living the dream, I feel so lucky"

    "What? They make you do that?" he continued, following closely.

    "That's the only thing they make me do"

    "No way. Not on my watch"

.

    I stood in line for a little bit more than thirty minutes and, being alone, I had been paired with a random girl. When she squealed, I turned to the entrance of the ride and spotted the empty gyrosphere we had to ride. Her long blonde hair brushed on my face when she took the seat next to me. Her feet tapped nervously against the bottom of the sphere and she fiddled with her hands. — "Jesus, haha, do you think we'll get eaten?"

    I slowly glanced in the girl's direction and raised my eyebrow at her. "What?"

    "Dinosaurs eat people, right? We are literally going to them right now. If I die in this hell of a place I swear-"

    I studied her from head to toes. Who even goes to a kind of amusement park in dress and high heels? My family had sacrificed a lot for me to be there, and that girl was complaining about dinosaurs the whole time. What on earth?

    The gyrosphere stopped abruptly, causing both of us to almost fly against the wide window, blocked by our seat belts only. The little screen in front of us glitched and eventually shut down.

    "That's not supposed to happen, right?" the girl panicked.

    "Okay" I breathed out as I looked around. "What's your name?"

    "Grace, and I'm going to die for that jerk of a boyfriend I don't even like that much!" she chaotically blurted out.

    "We're not gonna die, Grace, breathe"

    A few moments later, the doors of the gyrosphere slid up and opened. Grace jumped in fear and wrapped her hands around my right arm in a tight grip. The first dinosaurs in the valley started to show up, one of the Ankylosaurus got closer to us and snooped his head into the gyrosphere. Grace was dramatically shaking, tears in her eyes, her grip around my arm tightened even more. I stretched my free arm out and pushed the dinosaur's head back a little. — "Go have a walk, buddy. There's nothing to see here"

    "Are you insane?!" Grace gasped loudly, covering her eyes. "We're going to die!"

    "It's okay, we're fine" I pulled my arm out of her grip and crawled out the gyrosphere. As expected, the girl desperately begged me to go back in.

    "Hey, you" I called out in the dinosaur's direction. "Come this way, buddy"

    "Um, hey! There are kids behind us" Grace informed in a shaky breath.

    I turned around and spotted another broken gyrosphere not too far from ours, two kids inside. I asked Grace not to move so I could go get the boys and stepped in their direction. They looked scared, tears in their eyes as well.

    "Hello there." I tried to use a reassuring tone. "My name's Elle. Everything is fine. What're your names?"

    "I'm Ryan and this is my little brother Ashton. Is the ride broken?" the oldest kid almost cried.

    "It's okay, bud. What about you two come with me and my friend to our gyrosphere?"

    "Yes please" the tiniest child, who looked around five or six years old, begged.

    "Okay, let's go, stay close" I picked up little Ashton and held Ryan's chubby hand.

    The ankylosaurus' pack calmly passed by us, not even caring about our presence at all, and so did stegosaurus' and parasaurolophus'. The boy in my arms calmed down, probably understanding how none of those dinosaurs were going to actually hurt us intentionally.

    "Oh" the big boy relaxed. "All of the dinosaurs here are herbivores?"

    "That's right" I ruffled his hair. "But that doesn't mean we don't have to be extra careful. They're pretty big, see? It's better if we just stay here"

    "Can you please come inside this damn sphere?!" Grace groaned.

    "Language" I raised an eyebrow at her. And, before I could say anything else, the small screen in front of them turned back on.

    "Please hold on and stay inside the vehicle. Our team is on its way to pick you up and get you back to the park. Do not leave the gyrosphere under any circumstances."

    I glanced at Grace who soon sighed with relief before another message showed up on the same screen. — "You are currently in line. Forty minutes left for pick up"

    "There's no way I'm keeping two kids out here for forty more minutes" I offered my hand for Ryan to take and carried him outside the gyrosphere.

    "It literally just said not to leave the hamster trap!" Grace groaned one more time, frustrated.

    "In forty minutes the sun will be down, you don't want to be here when that happens"