Catastrophe

two

• 2 •

Simon Masrani: "Don't forget why this place was made, Claire. Jurassic World exists to show us how very small we are. Very new. You can't put a price on that."

— Jurassic World

•••

  ISLA NUBAR WAS BREATHTAKING, TO SAY THE LEAST. From the second Liana stepped onto the deck of the Jurassic World ferry, she was in complete awe of the whole island. She had never seen such a beautiful place in her whole life. As she leaned over the rail of the ferry, she was nearly unable to tear her eyes away from the water. The water back home in New York couldn't possibly come close to the clear water she was staring down at. When she looked up, she saw the theme park getting closer and closer into view, hidden in between Isla Nubar's grassy mountains. She felt someone tapping her arm and she looked down.

  "Lia, do you see any dinosaurs yet?" Ryleigh and Daniel were looking up at her with wide, excited eyes.

  Liana looked back towards the theme park and squinted, only seeing mountains and the larger buildings that held all the attractions. "No, not yet," she told her siblings. The two younger kids stood on their tip-toes and tried to look over the rails like Lia was, but were too short to properly see anything.

  "I want to see the T-Rex," Daniel whined. Ryleigh muttered 'me too' and crossed her arms. Liana looked down at her siblings and shook her head softly.

  "It's okay, look, we're almost there," Liana pointed towards the island, which they were very quickly approaching. Though the dinosaurs weren't able to be seen from they were, the attractions and buildings were slowly coming into view. She hopped up onto the bottom rung of the rail to get a better look over the ferry and into the water, only to hear a small coughing noise. She turned her head to see her mother shaking her head at her in a very scolding manner.

  "Liana, get down from there," Heather told her daughter.

  Liana rolled her eyes, taking her sunglasses off of her head and sliding them onto her face. "As you wish," she said sarcastically, getting off of the rail and smiling at her mother.

  "Better?" Liana quipped, taking out a nail file and filing her nails down as she leaned up against the railing.

  "Much."

•••

  "Lia, come on!"

  "Hurry up!"

  The oh-so-familiar yells from her siblings were all she could hear from the outside of the door that separated the hotel bathroom from the living area.

  "I'm just getting changed!" She yelled back. It was made very clear as soon as she stepped onto the island that the clothing she wore in the middle of New York's winter was not suitable for South America's weather. There was a loud knock on the door, causing Lia to freeze.

"Yeah?"

"Make it snappy, Lia. Ryleigh and Dan are getting jumpy," Heather said.

"I said I'm just getting changed!"

  "We've got dinosaurs to see!" David said excitedly, clearly trying to loosen the tension between his wife and his oldest daughter. Just as Ryleigh and Daniel started to cheer and jump up and down, Lia opened the door and stepped out into the living area, a striped button down tucked into her high waisted shorts and her usual leather backpack slung over both shoulders.