Main Street was flooded with crowds of people as the group made their way towards the Innovation Center. Gray was running enthusiastically up the steps of the tall glass building with his brother and Natalie following a little way away, Zara close behind them.
Natalie's cheeks still held the faint signs of her earlier embarrassment. She couldn't bring herself to walk as close as she normally does to Zach, knowing Zara's watchful eyes were just behind them. Zach knew why Natalie was keeping her distance but he didn't share the same humiliation. Every so often he would move closer to Natalie, reaching for her hand or moving to wrap his arm around her shoulder only to be slapped away. It was all very amusing to him.
"Come on!" Gray yelled down from the top of the stairs.
Natalie held her thumb up, showing Gray they heard him but nobody quickened their pace. "Aren't you hot?" Natalie asked Zach as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
"I'm always hot - I also identify as wettingly good-looking," Zach smirked down at his friend, "Have you only just noticed?"
"That's not what I meant, asshole," Natalie's nose crinkled in disgust, "I meant, don't you feel hot in what you're wearing?" she rephrased her question as she eyed her friend's attire. Zach dressed in the same clothes he had worn when they got on the plane; a red, cotton t-shirt, skinny jeans and a grey hoodie. "Ever heard of the equator before? It basically means it's shit hot all the time."
Zach scoffed at Natalie's playful tone, "Just because I don't want to be walking around in my underwear," Zach dismissed, his eyes scanning over Natalie's shorts and vest.
Natalie laughed, knowing she was showing less skin than the girls he had been eyeing just on the walk to the Innovation Centre, "Oh, I get it. Rather get heatstroke than let out those pasty, white legs of yours, hey?"
Zach's face pinched in offence, "My legs are great, actually. They're made of hard muscle and firm flesh,"
"Firm flesh?" Natalie repeated, cringing in disgust.
"Believe me, Nat, they're not the only 'firm flesh' on my body," Zach wiggled his eyebrows.
"Urgh! For fu--"
"Come on!" Gray yelled again, this time his impatience showed through clearly when he saw the rest of the group only just reaching the top of the stairs.
"Dude, chill." Zach chided, his playful smirk gone as he frowned at his impatient brother.
The group pushed open the double doors to the Innovation Centre, where they had planned to meet the boys' Aunt Claire. Zara, trying to keep up with their fast pace, almost didn't make it through before the doors swung shut.
The inside of the Innovation Centre was nearly as busy as the outside. Natalie could spot some of the different minor theme-park attractions that had been set up within the building; guided tours, skeleton digging where children use brushes to uncover bones and the Hammond Creation Lab. In front of the Hammond Creation Lab, Natalie could see a bronze statue of Doctor John Hammond, the CEO and creator of the original Jurassic Park, standing tall.
"Welcome to the Innovation Center, where technology meets prehistory. Join us on an exciting journey 65 million years into the past."
At the centre of the lobby, there was a holographic platform projecting a life-size Apatosaurus roaring at the group of children marvelling it.
"...literally meaning "three-horned face." Three. Triceratops is half as tall as T. rex..."
There was a theatre in one section showing an asteroid strike the Earth in an enormous explosion. The children surrounding the screen gave exclamations of amazement and fright. On the other side of the room, there was another holographic projection showing a globe of the Earth, pinpointing where various dinosaurs lived during prehistory.
"...can turn its head back to look over its shoulder, to better aim the swing of its dangerous tail."
Gray ran straight over to the Mr DNA Show attraction - it looked like it was some quiz about genetics. After a quick scan over the screen, he immediately began pushing buttons and reciting the answers.
"Cytosine, guanine, adenine and thymine. The same four things in everything that ever lived." Gray muttered the answer to himself as Zach grumpily sidled up to him, Natalie at his side as she began to read the next question on the quiz. Zara stood behind them, sending emails on her phone.
"Hey, don't wander off, all right?" Zach told Gray, "Mom's not paying me for babysitting."
"She's paying me though," Natalie grinned up at Zach as his eyes snapped to her in disbelief. Natalie dug into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out a thin wad of cash, "Forty bucks for the week, hoe,"
Immediately, Zach lunged for the money. Natalie squealed as she almost curled herself around the money, Zach's body wrapping around hers, her back pressed against his chest as he tried to snatch it out of her hands.
"You shouldn't say 'hoe'," Gray scolded absentmindedly as he concentrated on the quiz.
"Gray, is that you?" Distracted from their fighting, Zach and Natalie turned to see a beautiful woman with striking red hair descending the stairs on her phone. "Okay, yeah. No, I'm gonna have to go. My nephews are here." she finished her call hastily.
The quiz was forgotten as Gray exclaimed, "Aunt Claire!" before running over to his aunt and enveloping her in a hug as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
Natalie and Zach stopped in front of the two of them. Natalie could tell Claire was overjoyed to see her nephews after so long but didn't know how to respond to Gray's affection and awkwardly hugged him back. "Hi! Oh. Oh, my gosh, you're so... you're so sweet!" she laughed, patting Gray's back.
When Gray finally pulled away, Claire turned to Zach as Zara joined them, having finally caught up to the group. Zach was far less excited about seeing his aunt compared to his brother, still looking moody and emotionally distant as usual, hands stuffed into his pockets. "Whoa, Zach!" Claire's piercing blue eyes widened in surprise. "Last time I saw you, you were like..." She trailed off, holding a hand at about Gray's height. "That must've been, what? Three, four years ago?"
"Uh, seven. Seven years. But, you know, close." Zach gave his aunt a forced smile.
Claire's eyes dropped down to her heeled feet in slight embarrassment before she lifted them again to meet Natalie's dark eyes. "Oh! You must be Natalie, Zach's girlfriend," Claire smiled at the young girl.
Natalie could see Zach smirking out the corner of her eye as she hesitated to answer. The lie had already backfired in her face at the hotel with Zara. The thought of telling the truth and Zara calling her out for it made her suck in a breath, "Yeah, that's me," she answered, shaking Claire's hand. "It's nice to meet you finally, Miss Dearing"
"You as well. And please, call me Claire," Claire smiled politely before turning to Zach, "She's just as beautiful as your mother told me," Both Natalie's and Zach's cheeks flushed pink. Now, Natalie realised why Claire thought Natalie was his girlfriend, it must have been a plot between Aunt Cass and Mrs Mitchell. "You two make quite the couple, I can see you like each other very much,"
"See, Nata--" Natalie's hand flew out to cover Gray's mouth before he could say anything. Claire's eyes widened in surprise while Zach's narrowed in confusion but both ignored it after Natalie shot them a tight smile.
"So I see you already got your wristbands," Claire said when she saw the wristbands attach to everyone's wrists, "And this is for food." She handed Gray an envelope with the Jurassic World logo stamped onto it, which Zach snatched out of his brother's hand and stuffed in his backpack. "Zara's going to take great care of you until I'm done working tonight, okay?"
Gray's happy face dropped to a gloomy look that could rival Zach's at this revelation. "You're not coming with us?" he asked in disappointment after pulling Natalie's hand from his mouth.
"Oh, um," Claire started, not expecting her nephew to seem so disheartened by the news, "I really wish that I could, but tomorrow I can take you into the control room, show you behind the scenes and all of that. That's... that's gonna be cool, right?"
Natalie smiled sympathetically down at the boy and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Zach rolled his eyes while Gray averted his gaze from his aunt and stared at the door. Before anything else could be said, Claire's phone began to ring. "Okay, so I will see you tonight at, uh... six."
Zara quickly shook her head at her boss, "No, no, don't forget you have the..."
Claire's eyes widened in realisation, "Right, of course. I will see you tonight at eight. What time do you go to sleep? Or, or, do you go to sleep at different times?"
The boys didn't respond; Gray from disappointment and Zach from simply not caring. Claire looked down at her phone nervously as continued ringing; it was obvious she didn't want to leave her nephews on a bad note but it must have been an important call.
"Don't worry, Claire," Natalie smiled at the slightly distressed woman, "I'm sure we can still get an hour or two with you if we meet at eight. The attractions don't close 'til ten, right?"
"Yes, yes, that's right," Claire gave Natalie a grateful smile when she saw Gray perk up at the idea. "Okay, so, um, have fun." she smiled at her nephews before turning to Zara, "And take very good care of them." Giving one last smile, she walked off through the holographic dinosaur.
Zach sighed in annoyance, "Un-fucking-believable,"