Chapter One: Dinosaurs Are The Reason We Can't Have Aliens
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"Why are you so convinced there's no extraterrestrial life out there?"
Eva sidestepped two girls who had their lips pressed together that were blocking her path to the cafeteria. She hurried past small groups of students exchanging their books for food and to Kai's side.
Kai stood still, waiting for Eva. A tall boy nearly ran into them, curting around the side at the last minute. He muttered something, to which Kai flipped him off.
"Thanks," Eva muttered as her steps fell into line with Kai's. Kai shifted their books from one hand to the other, and gave Eva a pressing look. "Um, zero contact, and you know, there's no scientific proof of extraterrestrial life. No proof of aliens, sorry, Kai."
"Bullshit," they laughed. "There's no proof there isn't aliens. There totally could be. Little green boys or six foot tall rats, listen, it's totally plausible." They left the English hallway and turned down a ramp that led to Ivy Hall, one of the cafeterias open to students. "Besides, if they were looking through a telescope, they'd just see dinosaurs, so maybe they're waiting for evolution to run its course, in their eyes."
"But evolution has run its course."
"Okay, well, what if there's an intergalactic war going on, and they're not involving us because they think we're just lizards down here? What if they're just waiting for their war to be done to come visit? Still, it means we're not completely alone in our universe."
Oh, here they go. If Kai keeps talking, they'll start rambling about the multiverse.
"Even if they looked at us in the future through a telescope, they're gonna see endless wars over stupid things, and then the lizards will be back!"
Kai pushed open the right hand door and waited for Eva to pass through before following.
"So you're saying genetics is the reason we'll never meet aliens? Damn, fuck the dinosaurs, then."
Eva patted her pockets in search of her meal card, laughing. "I don't know, dinosaurs in the modern age is kinda badass."
Kai swiped their meal card. "All those people that were eaten alive would say different."
Eva opened her wallet, then the front pocket of her backpack. "If they could speak. Damn it, I think I lost my meal card."
"Again?"
"Shut up," she laughed. "I swear I put it on my lanyard, but I don't... Okay, I may have left my lanyard on my bedpost."
"Loser. I'm hungry."
"Yeah, sure, leave me here alone, starving—" she gave the worker behind the card swipe a grin. The worker returned her grin with a deadpan stare. "Yep, I'll just, walk across the entire building back to the dorms for my lanyard." The worker raised an eyebrow. "Alright, Kai—"
And, Kai was gone. Eva spotted her in one of the food lines, adding mashed potatoes to her plate. She chewed on her bottom lip before sighing. Head hung low, she exited Ivy Hall, heading back the way she came.
As she entered the earth science hallway, a hand wrapped around her hair and tugged her downward. Her face came into contact with a knee. She stumbled into the lockers on her right, eyes trailing over long pale legs to a navy blue skirt, up a buttoned white shirt and to honey brown eyes.
"What?" She muttered.
Her head spun. Something wet and sticky gushed from her nose and down her lip. The hallway seemed to fall silent around the two girls. Jayla, the brunette with vengeance in her eyes, stared up at Eva.
"What up, girl?"
The sound of skin on skin contact echoed through the hallway. Eva bent over, chuckling. Her eyes stung with tears as her knees collided with the linoleum floor.
"Wow, not how I saw my Tuesday going."
A hand gripped her shirt's collar. "You fucking bitch," Jayla snarled.
"Alright, hon, I'm gonna give you three seconds to fuck off—"
Jayla pushed her further into the ground as her fist once again collided with Eva's nose. She blinked away the pain as another fist hit her.
"I don't know what's going on, but can't we talk this—"
Smack.
Eva forced her eyes open in time to see Jayla's bloody knuckles coming for her again. Eva caught the fist with ease, surprising the upperclassman. In a flurry of panicked limbs, her hand wrapped around Jayla's other wrist, too.
Twisting her leg under the brunette's body, she reeled her foot back before kicking Jayla between the legs.
Jayla groaned, falling off of Eva.
Eva sighed in relief. Above her, the fluorescent lighting swam circles in her vision.
"What's— what's happening?" A voice boomed from down the hallway.
Her eyes fell on the crowd around them, noting one of the boys in front, Danny Little, Jayla's boyfriend.
Oh.
Things fell into place in Eva's mind— her most recent lab partner was Jayla's boyfriend, and as most girls had learned months earlier involving an accident with Ella Flores, Jayla was very territorial about things that were hers. It was like she had peed on him to claim him as her own, and would tear into any girl that stepped too close to him. Ella was lucky to have escaped with only a broken wrist.
A man dressed in slacks and a grey button down appeared at the front of their little fight circle. Eva dropped her head onto the floor and sighed.
The man, Mr. Morrow, was the vice principal of Rutherford. He had a pot belly and peppered grey and black hair that was always slicked back. To Eva, he looked like Snape if he only ate MacDonald's and was about thirty years older.
Mr. Morrow helped Jayla to her feet, whilst shooting a look of disapproval at Eva.
Of course, her brain screamed. Of course it would be her fault. It always was. After the incident, he hated Eva. Any chance he got to get her into further trouble, he took it. Something about being a stain on Rutherford's legacy, she had overheard him say once.
She sat up and quickly gathered her purse and books.
"Miss Rocker," Mr. Morrow addressed.
Eva turned her head so fast her neck cracked.
Mr. Morrow's eyes trailed over her bloody neckline and gushing nose. "Go to the nurse's office... We'll talk after."
She refrained from rolling her eyes in front of him— something he wouldn't take lightly— and broke through the crowd. Eyes followed her as she left the earth sciences hallway. Most of the kids were in class by now, but that didn't stop the stragglers from staring her down as she went.
She took the stairs to the first floor, where nearly no one was. Sighing, she pushed the door of the nurse's office open.
"Miss Rocker," Ms. Pugh greeted over the edge of her computer screen. She glanced down before looking back up, taking in Eva's appearance.
"Lord! What happened to you?"
"Can I just, like, have an ice pack and a note to get me outta class?"
Ms. Pugh rose to her feet and ushered Eva towards one of the beds. "Sit down, sit down."
Eva sighed as she dropped her bag and took a seat. Ms. Pugh left the room. Looking up, she made eye contact with a boy sitting across from her on his own bed.
He was dressed in his Rutherford uniform, save for his jacket which was balled at his side. He sat up straighter when he caught Eva staring. Today, his hair was gelled up and back, like a wave she would hate to surf. He didn't look sick, his skin it's usual warm beige, his eyes sunk in slightly.
She narrowed her eyes at him and he shrunk back. "Why are you here?"
"S-stomach troubles."
"What class are you skipping?"
"What?" He chuckled nervously. "I'm not— no, no. I'm not skipping class."
Eva rolled her eyes. It was clear he was skipping something, but she didn't really have the energy to care. She never bothered with whatever Kenji Kon did in his free time as of late. So long as he wasn't with Nico and Prince being an entitled dickwad to the lower class of Rutherford, she couldn't care less.
Ms. Pugh returned to the room with medical supplies in hand. Eva closed her eyes, letting the nurse get to work. Occasionally as she worked, Eva would open her eyes to see Kenji across from her, already staring at her. Other times he was checking his phone and frantically typing out messages. When Ms. Pugh finished, she handed Eva an ice pack and told her to rest up.
Eva pushed an earbud into her right ear and began to zone out, staring up at the fluorescents above her. The exam paper below her crunched every time she moved. She made it through two Fall Out Boy songs before a shaky voice spoke up from across the room.
"Are... are you okay?"
"Ugh!" She groaned, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm fine."
"Why did you let that girl attack you?"
And how the hell did he know about it already?
Eva brushed her fingers through her hair— unknotting the dried blood as the edge of her forehead. "Why do you care?"
He laughed, then sniffled. "We both know you're a girl that fights back."
She turned on her side to face him. "Yeah, not this time."
"What did you do to her?"
"She thinks I made out with her boyfriend."
Kenji leaned forward on his knees. "Did you?"
Eva rolled her eyes and scoffed. "I'm not a homewrecker, nor is Danny Little my type."
His eyebrows shot up and he cracked a grin. "You let Jayla Donovan kick your ass? Ugh! Why wasn't I there to see it?!" He fell backwards against the wall. "God, the street cred she must've gotten when she fought you..."
Eva sighed and closed her eyes. It was silent for several moments, and "Of All the Gin Joints in All the World" by Fall Out Boy began playing. Eva settled into the crinkle-filled bed.
"So, what is your type?"
"Oh my god, fuck off Kenji!"
"There she is."
Eva raised her hand and flipped him off.
~~~
The sound of her bookcase vibrating woke Eva from her little cat nap. The screen of her phone was lit up, showing a cat hanging loosely in her grandmother's hands.
She groaned as she buried her head beneath her pillow. Two beats later, the phone stopped ringing. She sighed as she buried herself back into her blankets, getting comfy again.
And then the buzzing started again.
"Ugh!"
Her hand patted around the bookcase before finding her phone. She clicked the answer button and watched as her Oma and Opa's faces filled the screen. "Schätzchen, wie geht es dir heute?" (Darling, how are you doing?) Her Opa asked.
"We can't see you!" Her Oma's shrill voice came through the speakers. "Lovey, we heard you were in a fight. Did you win?"
Opa turned to face Oma, "Hat sie gewonnen? Was ist los mit dir, Beth? Sie sollte sich auf gute Noten konzentrieren und nicht gegen Mädchen kämpfen."
Okay... Eva didn't understand a lick of what her grandfather just said, but she could tell he was upset.
"You better not have missed any classes!" Opa said. "I am not paying for your education for you to keep getting into trouble! How would you like it if you went to public school? Sub par teaching, one cafeteria, terrible food, no one to push you academically. One call, that's all it takes," he bit.
Oma walked off camera, and into the direction of the kitchen.
"Nein, tut mir leid. Es wird nicht wieder passieren," she apologized. (No, I'm sorry. It won't happen again.) It became a phrase she often used for her Opa.
"Good." He nodded.
"Tell her the news," Oma said loudly.
"Ah, the news."
Eva nodded, "What news?"
The last time they delivered 'news', they announced they were touring southern France over summer break. The time before that, it was that they were selling the home Eva grew up in. And the time before that, it was that she was transferring to Rutherford. So really, this news could mean anything. Good or bad. Eva didn't like her odds.
Opa turned to face what Eva presumed to be Oma. "Where is the— the paper. The paper!"
The sound of crinkling paper filled the speakers.
"Ah, the paper!" Opa unfolded it and held it shakily to the camera. "You read, yes?"
"All I'm seeing is white, Opa."
He grumbled as he lowered the paper. "I kindly suggested you be invited to this thing, uh—" He adjusted the glasses on his nose and held the paper directly in front of his eyes. "Camp Cretaceous? Camp Cretaceous, yes."
"Okay, so what's Camp Cretaceous though?"
Oma swooped in from the left and stole the phone from Opa. "It's Jurassic World, Lovey." She cackled, a wide smile on her face. "It's an adventure camp—"
"I itched my connection to those dinosaur scientists—"
"—Shush—" Oma waved her hand at Opa. "You're gonna love it, dear. Make friends, see behind the scenes ops. I checked your star chart, Lovey. This experience is going to change your life."
"Okay... so... when do I leave?"
"Ten days."
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FIRST CHAPTER IS UP!! To whoever reads this, thank you for taking a chance on my book! Updates will come every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with two chapters a day. I hope y'all enjoy Panic Room. I had a lot of fun writing it.
Feel free to vote/comment/follow if you want! I am currently working on more JW:CC fanfics that hopefully will see the light of day in the future.
- Atha