Chapter Text
December 5, 2015
17 year old Dakota Woods awakes to ribbons of sun streaming through the gaps in his blinds onto his face. He groggily sits up and goes to the bathroom to get ready, brushing his brown hair that he rarely ever styles. He has pale skin, with freckles around his cheeks, and brown eyes.
After brushing his teeth, he makes his way to his nightstand and picks up his phone. There is a notification, it reads: "1 new email". He sits down on his bed and opens it.
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Jurassic World Junior Pale... Today
to me ^
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Dakota J. Woods,
Congratulations!
Your research paper, "Evaluation of Utahraptor Soft Tissue Discoveries and the Evidence of Feathers" Was selected as the winner of the Jurassic World Junior Paleontology Project!
You have been invited to join us at Camp Jurassic, part of our team of camps here at Jurassic World on December 19th, 2015! Camp Jurassic focuses on future park employment opportunities and research work, and provides an inside look at how the park ticks! Looking to work with us one day? This is the camp for you!
Explore our main park, hatchery, and guest service facilities. Get a closeup experience of the dinos with our certified park vets. See how our attractions function, and how we take care of our dinos! For a full list of experiences offered at Camp Jurassic, see our website!
Thank you for participating! We hope to see you at Camp Jurassic.
-Jurassic World Team
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Dakota speeds through the email, and almost drops his phone in shock. He sprints down the hallway to the living room, catching his mom just as she leaves for work. "I won! Look! Look, I won!"
"Oh, sweetie, that's amazing!" She pulls him close, "I'm so proud, my mini paleontologist."
"Moomm, I'm 17!"
"Since when?" She says playfully.
"I get to go to Camp Jurassic!!" He squeals
"That's amazing, we'll talk about it tonight, I'm gonna be late" She walks out the door.
Dakota runs back to his room and video calls his dad, a paleontologist who is away doing field work. His granddad had been a paleontologist too, and had recently passed. They were close, they'd talk for hours about the latest dino news, and Dakota would dream about working at Jurassic World one day. Before he passed nearly a month ago, he gifted Dakota a Spinosaurus claw to remember him by. This is the first time he's felt excited about– well, anything for a while. Maybe this will be the thing to cheer him up, he can finally get a glimpse into his future dream job!
The phone rings, and his dad picks up. He appears on the screen, behind him Dakota can see people working diligently with chisels and brushes.
"Hey kid! How's my Dakotaraptor?"
"Like, really good!"
"Ha, i haven't seen you this excited in weeks, what happened?" He asks quizzically
"I'm going to Camp Jurassic!" He proudly announces.
"That's amazing! When?"
"The email said in a couple weeks!! I'll send it to you. So, how's work?"
"It's alright, we're almost done here, then we'll move on to the next site"
"Anything interesting?"
"Not really, a slow few days here haha, but hey, you'll be there to see those dinos...up close." He says, with a hint of hesitation in his voice. "Just stay safe, alright? Stay with the guides."
"I willll"
"Good, that's good. I'll talk to you later Dakota, I've got to go for now"
"Okloveyoubyeeee!" He ends the call, and sits down at his computer, researching the camps all day and feeling giddy. He studies the Camp Jurassic page, and then spots a list of camps offered by the park. "Camp cretacous, Camp Jurassic, Camp Triassic..." He reads the section for Camp Triassic, it's basically a camp for younger kids held closer to the park itself. As he researches, he thinks back to what his dad said. Stay safe. Is he worried? Dakota's certain that he'll be fine.
December 19, 2015– 6:15 am
Dakota's eyes shoot open, barely having slept the night before. It's today!!! He already packed last night, he just has to get everything together and have his mom drive him to the airport for his 6 hour direct flight to San José!
He grabs his backpack off the floor next to his bed, and slings it over his shoulder. He goes to the bathroom, brushes his hair and his teeth, and grabs his phone from his nightstand...and something catches his eye on the shelf. It's granddad's spinosaurus claw. He grabs it off the shelf and studies it for a moment before slipping it into his bag.
"I made it granddad."
December 19th, 2015– 1:32 pm
The flight to San José is exhausting, but luckily Dakota has Dr. Grant's book, Dinosaur Detectives to entertain him.
The plane finally lands, and Dakota and his mom disembark the plane. Dakota can't legally fly alone, but he thinks he would have been totally fine. They get past security, and spot a sign that reads "Camp Jurassic". A ways off, Dakota notices another sign reading "Camp Cretaceous" but nobody seems to be there yet.
They walk over to the sign, there are 2 men wearing T-shirts displaying the Camp Jurassic logo, one of them holding a clipboard. "Hi, I'm Dakota– Dakota Woods"
One of them flips through the papers on his clipboard, "Dakota...Dakota...ah! There!"
He holds out his hand, "Mark, Mark Nilsen. I'll be one of your group leaders here, it's great to meet you."
Dakota enthusiastically shakes Mark's hand. "It's great to meet you too!"
The other man also extends his hand. "Nico Romero, at your service" he said with a flourish.
Dakota shakes his hand as well. Mark turns to Dakota's mom. "You must be Mrs. Woods, It's lovely to meet you too." Mark's accent strikes Dakota as distinctly Australian.
"Yes, that's right, take good care of him, alright? Don't let him do anything stupid" Dakota's mom gives him a half-playful, half-serious glance. She'd like to think she was joking, but a mother worries.
"I can assure you, your son is safe with us, the other campers should be on their way soon enough, safe travels on your return flight!"
Daokta's mom bends down and gives Dakota a hug. "Be careful sweetie, I love you."
"I will mom, love you too."
His mom heads off to catch her return flight.
December 19, 2015– 2:52 pm
A few other campers arrive, and they're shuttled off from the airport to the dock. Driving by, they can see long lines leading to a ferry, with Jurassic World banners and signs around the waiting areas. It's the main ferry to Isla Nublar, kids wait excitedly in line, holding dinosaur plushies and squealing. Extravagant signs show giant images of the mosasaurus and tyrannosaurus rex.
The group drives past this, further down the dock there are a few smaller ferries, one of them is labeled Camp Jurassic. The other two, Camp Cretaceous and Camp Triassic. The group is set to arrive at the South Dock, they'd make their way upwards through the park, visiting the hatchery and main park on the way, eventually making it to the north end of the park, where the camp was located. Dakota knew this well, he'd studied the website in excitement and knew every detail.
They board the ferry, taking their bags with them, and find a circular seating area on the deck.
Something catches Dakota's eye as they sit down. A gold and black necklace dangling around the neck of the boy across from him, with a green crystal in the shape of a donut tied to it.
"I like your necklace" says Dakota
"Hey, thanks, It's aventurine!" exclaims the boy, he wears a beige t-shirt and jeans, and has brown hair thats swooped backward.
"I'm Dakota, I'm from Chicago"
"Neat! I'm Diego, from Arizona, I'm so ready for this!"
"I know, me too! I can't believe I won, they must have really liked my paper"
"My mom works as a park ranger, that's how I got in! What'd you write your paper on?"
"Oh, I didn't realize you could get in that way... Anyways, it was on evidence of Feathers based on tissue samples from a few different Utahraptor finds."
"Ooh I've heard of that! Too bad the raptors here dont have feathers."
A boy next to Dakota with curly black hair and a t-shirt with a dna strand on it pipes up. "Did you know that's because of the Null Allele? It's why Dr. Wu couldn't give them feathers, I heard it from my dad."
"That's not true!" Says a girl wearing a red hoodie and sunglasses perched on her blonde hair "It's just a rumor"
"Yeah it's true! My dad is a geneticist at the park." Says the boy smugly.
Another girl with green eyes wearing a black zip-up hoodie rolls her eyes and keeps tapping away at her cell phone.
Someone rounds the corner, she's wearing a vibrant pink jacket, has braided hair with colorful beads, and is carrying a pastel orange sketchbook, bursting with papers. "I got it! What'd I miss?"
"Not much" says the girl in the red hoodie, still slightly annoyed by the argument.
"Just–err, some introductions! I'm Diego!"
The girl sits down, "Hi Diego! I'm Olivia"
"I'm Sydney," Says the girl in the red hoodie.
"Ozzie Fields, son of Marcus Fields, you may have heard of him."
"I uh– have not." Says Olivia.
"I wouldn't expect any of you to have, he's very low profile to the general public"
"Right..." says Sydney.
"What about you?" Says Diego to the girl on her phone, ignoring everyone. "What's your name?"
"Jade." She says without looking up.
"You know they're not gonna let you keep that, right?" Says Ozzie
Jade scoffs, "Whatever" and goes back to what she was doing.
December 19, 2015– 3:25 pm
The group stands on the South Dock, carrying their backpacks and bags.
"And that's all of us accounted for!" Says Nico, one of the camp guides. "Welcome to...Jurassic World!!"
The group talks amongst themselves excitedly. Mark returns with a jeep, and the kids pile in the back. Before Jade can sneak past, Mark stops her.
"Sorry Jade, phones have to stay with us for the trip."
"Are you serious?!"
"I'm afraid so"
"Whatever." She hands over her phone.
Nico calls out from the driver seat, "First stop, the Hammond creation lab!
The jeep rumbles over the dirt road, through the trees. The sky is clear with only a few clouds, and the weather is pleasantly warm and tropically humid.
Olivia is focused on sketching, Jade is sulking, and the rest are making small talk.
"So, Sydney, how'd you get here?" Says Dakota.
"I took a first aid and veterinarian course from the park and got top of my class" replies Sydney.
Diego asks, "Neat! So you're like, a doctor?"
"Kinda, well, my mom's the doctor, I'm just learning. I wanna work here one day."
"Top of your class learning!" says Diego
"Yeah, I guess..."
Ozzie interjects, "Well, my dad got me into it, I'm going to have the same job one day, and I'm going to be one of the best too."
"Mmhm." Sydney looks annoyed and the conversation dies off.
Dakota looks over at Olivia, "Whatcha drawing?"
Olivia looks up from her work "A Suchomimus" she shows Dakota the drawing.
"That's really cool, you're good at that."
"Thanks, it's how I got here. I won a paleoart contest. I wanna do art here one day, work as an artist or graphic designer for the park. I just love observing them in action."
"Ha, so you've got it all figured out, huh?" replies Dakota.
"Yeah, pretty much! I've got a goal, now I've gotta get there."
"I wanna work here one day too!" says Diego, "Like my mom."
"What do you want to do, Dakota?" Asks Olivia.
"I–...don't know."
"...Oh."
"Well, I mean, I know I wanna work here but I just like...don't know where?"
Diego interjects, "You figure it out eventually dude!"
"Maybe you'll find something you like here," says Olivia.
"I hope so," replies Dakota.
The jeep keeps rumbling along the winding dirt road towards the creation lab