"He laughs, then lowers his mouth so that it's close to her ear. 'People who meet in airports are seventy-two percent more likely to fall for each other than people who meet anywhere else.'"

I laughed to myself and folded the top of the page, marking my spot and shut the book. I won't lie, this book was pretty good, I was a fan of it already. But I honestly don't think that I can deal with any more lovey-dovey stuff. I mean, how is that even true? How are strangers who meet in airports more likely to fall in love with one another than those who meet elsewhere? This author is clever and I love her style of writing, but I've got to call it a day on reading this. I pressed the home button on my phone to check the time. We had about two or so hours left in the flight. I was surprisingly not incredibly bored on this flight. Though, I am getting a little tired of my playlist. I took my headphones off of my head and held them as I unplugged the cord from my phone and wrapping it around my headphones. I stuffed them into my backpack, along with the book and then undid my tray table, placing my sketchbook and pencils onto it. I leaned down, trying not to hit my head on the tray table as I zipped my backpack and kicked it beneath the seat. I looked at the two boys beside me to see that Gray was fast asleep, his head pressed against the window. Zach had his hood up on his head and his headphones still on, he was blasting that new Drake song. While I don't like him too much, I'll admit he has some pretty good taste in music, but I don't know how he could sleep right now with how loud it was. But his head was turned and resting against his seat and he wasn't budging...so somehow he's asleep.

I was never one to fall asleep easily on airplane rides. I remember always being too caught up in looking at the clouds and making up stories with my mom to even close my eyes for longer than a single blink. I put my pencil case on my lap and opened up my sketchbook. Normally, I'd just open up to the page I left off...but I've got time and I always liked looking through my old drawings. I flipped through the pages, examining my past drawings that filled this book. Sometimes my eyes would just skim through before I flipped to the next page, and other times my eyes would linger for a bit. As I flipped the page, my eyes skimmed across it before setting in the middle. It was an old drawing I did of a photograph my mom showed me one day when we were flipping through old scrapbooks. It was a picture that the wedding photographer at my mom and dad's wedding snapped of my mom before she was going to go to do their first look without seeing one another. Their wedding pictures were so beautiful, they both looked so happy...they were so happy. I kept flipping through my drawings, coming to a stop again at one of my drawings from a month ago. It was a portrait I did of my mom. She asked me to draw her, and when I told her that it wouldn't be too good because I wasn't as good as she was, she just laughed and said: "nonsense, everything you draw is beautiful."

I looked to my right to see that Zach was looking over at me and I immediately flipped my notebook to the drawing I had been working on. It was a new one of one of Owen's velociraptors, Blue. She was my favorite. "It's not polite to look over people's shoulders you know," I said, getting my pencil case open.

Zach's jaw dropped, but he immediately cleared his throat and looked down at his phone. "Sorry."

I just sighed and shook my head slightly, turning my attention back to my sketch. It was basically done, I just needed to start shading it and filling it in with color. I held the colored pencil that I'd need in my hand and just stared at the paper. "That was nice, what you did earlier."

"Huh?" Zach asked, looking at me.

I nodded my head in the sleeping Gray's direction. "Letting him have your seat so he could see out of the window, that was nice of you," I started to color in my sketch and I looked at him for a few moments. "I didn't expect that from you."

"Oh, well...I only did it so he wouldn't lean over me the entire flight, it would've been annoying," He fixed his slouching position and took a deep breath. "sorry if he was bothering you earlier, he's so obsessed with dinosaurs and when he found out we were visiting our Aunt, he hasn't stopped talking about it."

"No it's fine, he was actually pretty fun to talk to. Makes me wish I had a younger brother."

"Yeah, well you can have him," he huffed, looking at Gray and shaking his head. "he's just getting his hopes up to spend all of this time with our Aunt. She doesn't care that we're coming and obviously our parents don't care since they're shipping us off," He sighed and just shrugged his shoulders. "but it's not my problem, he'll figure it out the moment we get there."

I stopped coloring and looked at him in disbelief. Why was he being so mean about his little brother? I returned back to coloring and rolled my eyes. "Has anyone ever told you that you're kind of an ass? I guess not, because otherwise maybe you'd be less of one."

He looked a bit caught off guard as my comment settled into his mind and when it did, he looked annoyed. "You don't know me..."

I put my pencil down and looked at him, giving him a sarcastic smile. "And I don't think I'd like to," I picked my pencil back up and started coloring. "because anyone who could treat their younger sibling, let alone anyone like the way I've seen you treat your brother, is no person I'd like to get to know."

While it looked like I was completely ignoring him, I was actually watching what he was doing from the corner of my eye. He looked at me in disbelief for a few more seconds before putting his headphones back on his head and picking up his phone. I expected some type of rebuttal or smart comment, but maybe he realized I was right...or maybe he just didn't care. So I rolled my eyes and paid attention back to my sketchbook. "I really liked your drawing, by the way, you're talented."

I stopped coloring for a moment, staring at my barely filled in Velociraptor sketch and then looked at him. His eyes were focused on his phone and I just shook my head and returned back to my work. I smiled to myself as I continued to color in the sketch, but it quickly faded. Why was I smiling? Stop that Hailey, he's such an ass, don't smile at his compliment. I looked back at him from the corner of my eye and saw he has a slight smile on his face. Oh God, he saw me smiling and now he probably thinks I think he's cute or whatever. Ugh, as if....

The last two hours seemed to drag on and on. I don't know why maybe it was because I didn't have anyone to talk to. Zach had played some game on his phone and Gray didn't wake up until our plane's tires hit the runway. I had stopped coloring my velociraptor drawing about thirty minutes after I had started. The three of us had to sit there as the rest of the plane un-boarded and wait until Alyssa came to get us. With me being the aisle seat, I was obviously the first one to get up. I had opened the above head compartment and tried to pull my suitcase down, but couldn't. Before I could even ask Alyssa to help me out, Zach was standing next to me, pulling it down and placing it on the ground. I couldn't even say 'thank you' if I wanted to because he just reached back into the aisle and grabbed his backpack and then put his headphones back onto his head and resumed listening to his music. I let Gray out of the aisle and then we followed Alyssa off of the plane. She was talking about who knows what, I wasn't really paying attention. Nope, my thoughts were stuck on how much of a jerk this Zach Mitchell kid is. Gray was hanging onto every word Alyssa had to say though, I think he was talking to her about how excited he was to go to Jurassic World. But like I said, I wasn't paying that much attention.

Alyssa stayed with us the entire time, up until when we reached the part where we were supposed to follow towards the baggage claim. Apparently, we were getting traded off to another representative from the airline who was local here in Costa Rica. After we'd be put into their care, they'd then take us to our next stop, which was the Isla Nublar ferry just across the parking lot. And then we'd check ourselves in, get on the ferry, take the short ride to the island and then the three of us would be going our separate ways. I couldn't say that I wasn't excited because Lord knows how much better this vacation would be while being in the presence of my Uncle Owen and not in the presence of Zach Mitchell. But sometimes when I actually catch myself getting excited about going to Jurassic World and seeing Uncle Owen, the lingering thought of why I'm actually here comes up and that excitement diminishes. I mean, I know I'm sad...and my dad is sad. But Uncle Owen is my mom's brother, so who's to say that he's not sad too? That maybe he won't be the happy-go-lucky Uncle I've always known.

You know that feeling when you're almost on some sort of autopilot? Maybe it happens when you're sitting in class and you just zone out for a while, but you somehow still listen to what's being said. Or when driving, you find yourself sort of super focused on the road and don't realize you zoned out and yet you'd been driving perfectly. That was me at this very moment. I was so lost in my thoughts the entire time, that I didn't realize Alyssa was no longer with us and I was just following Gray and Zach and our new caretaker. How I'd switched caretakers, walked across the entire parking lot without noticing is beyond me. I guess my dad was right, I do tend to zone out a lot. "So, you guys just walk on up to that man right there in the funny outfit, tell him your name and he'll check you in and you board the ferry. I hope you guys have a good trip over there at dinoland." The caretaker said, giving us a 'why the hell am I still working this job' look.

"Actually, it's Jurassic World." Gray corrected him, giving him a confused look.

"Come on, let's just go," Zach said, grabbing onto his backpack straps and walking up the ramp towards the man checking people in.

Gray followed suit and I looked at the guy, giving him a small smile. "Thanks."

"En cualquier momento hermosa." He replied, giving me a creepy smile. 'Anytime beautiful'

I gave him a look and just rolled my eyes. "En tus sueños." 'In your dreams'

"Whoa, you speak Spanish?!" Gray asked, looking at me.

I laughed and shook my head. "No, not fluently. I took it freshman and sophomore year, so I picked up two years worth. So I really only know bits and pieces."

"Cool! What did he say?"

I turned around to see that the worker was already gone and then I looked back at Gray. "He said to have a good trip."

"Gray, hurry up!" Zach said, already standing directly in front of the man and then turning back to talk to him.

"I don't know why he's in such a bad mood, sometimes it's annoying," Gray mumbled, turning around and walking up the ramp.

I smiled to myself and followed behind him, coming to a stop when the man at the small kiosk typed on his iPad and looked at the both of them. "Alright, you guys are all set. Enjoy your trip," He looked up at me and gave me a smile, he was actually pretty attractive and young looking too. Probably no older than 18. "what's your name?"

"Hailey," I said, clearing my throat. "Hailey Collier. C-o-l-l-i-"

He looked down at his iPad while scrolling. "Collier, Hailey. Yep, here you are," He looked back at me and gave me a smile. "Welcome aboard, my name is Mateo. If you need anything, don't be afraid to find me on the ship."

I could feel my cheeks start to burn as I nodded my head and smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

I saw that Gray and Zach were nowhere to be found, they must have boarded the ferry and found a place to stand. There were already so many people on the ferry and it had two levels. I could feel someone looking at me and I turned around to see Mateo looking at me and when he noticed I was looking back at him, he quickly looked away in embarrassment. I laughed to myself and then kept walking up the ramp and into the first door onto the ferry. I'm not a frequent boat rider. The only other times I've been on a boat were the other times I've visited Uncle Owen and then whenever we went to Hawaii and did those dinner cruises. I pulled my phone out of my flannel pocket and unlocked it, opening my messages to type a new one to my dad. As I was typing it, I saw that I had little to no signal. I quickly looked around to find the way to the upper deck and found the stairs. I pushed my way through the crowd and walked up the stairs. For some reason, being on the top deck was more...freeing than the lower deck. Granted, there were just as many people moving around up here...but the way the breeze hit your face was different. I saw an open spot against a railing and walked over, resting my elbows on the rail and continuing to type my message.

Padre👨🏻🕺🏻

Hailey

landed and made it onto the ferry! I'll let you know when I'm on the Island and with Uncle Owen! Stay safe, love you!

I pressed send and opened another message with Uncle Owen. He's been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, he's been working heavily with the Velociraptors.

🦖Uncle Owen🦕

Hailey

hey, I'm on the ferry! should be at the park soon, miss you!

I locked my phone and slid it back into my flannel pocket. I brought my suitcase closer to me so I wouldn't lose it and I looked out at the open water as the ferry horn blasted- we were moving. The smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves crashing against the side of the ferry began to take over my sense- it was just so calming. "Hailey! Hey Hailey!"

I turned to see Gray walking at a fast pace over to me. "Hey, Gray, what's up?"

"Can I stand with you?" He asked, biting the inside of his cheek.

I looked around him, seeing no sign of Zach anywhere. "Sure buddy. Where's Zach?"

"He's too preoccupied pretending not to know me..." He mumbled, nodding his head to the right.

I leaned over the rail a bit and looked down the railing to see Zach was leaning against it, his headphones still on but his eyes weren't glued to his phone. Instead, they were looking down onto the lower deck. I followed his gaze down to a group of girls who looked a little older than us, but not by much. I laughed to myself and rolled my eyes. "Well, it's his loss, because I think you're pretty cool."

"Thanks, Hailey, I think you're pretty cool too." Gray smiled, looking back down in the direction of his older brother.

I could sense he was getting upset, so I nudged his shoulder. "Hey, why don't you tell me some more facts about Jurassic World. You seem to know a lot about it."

He looked at me and got a big smile on his face. "Okay, what do you want to know?"

"Anything, just tell me," I said, smiling at him as he started to talk. I looked back up at Zach to see that he was basically flirting with the girls on the lower deck without even moving from the top deck. Has he even noticed that Gray went missing? Probably not. Whatever though, he'll no longer be my problem once we're off this ferry. I just feel bad for leaving Gray behind with Zach, cause he'll probably suffer at the hands of his older brother no doubt.