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Nah, I ain't ever been to space before
But I ain't never seen a face like yours
You make me feel like I can touch the planets
You want the moon, ̶g̶i̶r̶l boy? Watch me grab it
See, I ain't ever seen a star this close
You got me stuck by the way you glow
I'm like oh, oh, oh, oh
I'm like oh, oh, oh, oh
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𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋
Bruno White had grown tired of watching over the others. They were all roughly the same age, so he never really saw the benefit of having to follow them around and keep them out of trouble.
Either way, White knew better than to disobey Mr Ludwig. The man had pulled him out of his misery and was one of the few that chose to actually see him for his intelligence, after all.
The boy blinked.
The other children had advanced before him already. Sighing, he jogged over to the other kids.
They were entering Hall 37: the ‘Geology Hall’ as Mr Ludwig called it. Finally catching up to the others, White had looked around to do a quick headcount of all the children. ‘Twenty-seven… Thirty-four… and Forty-nine. Forty-nine including me’, he thought.
‘Someone was missing.’
White curled his lip downwards, albeit slightly, but he chose to ignore the dread crawling up his skin. Maybe he had just counted wrongly. Not too far away, another boy had chosen to leave the crowd and approach him. Anthony Carrizales. They didn't have too much of an age gap, but both were old enough to be the ones ‘in charge’ when Mr Ludwig was busy. Speaking of Elliot Ludwig, where was the man anyways?
As the brunette approached him, White did a quick one-over of the boy. Anthony looked like he'd just come back from the trenches with how drenched he was in his own sweat. “Bruno! There you are. I was wondering if you'd just abandon everything and go to observe the exhibits yourself.”
White scoffed. “Anthony, even if I wanted to, I can't. We're the ones in charge here for a reason.”
The two continued to walk across the hall, stealing a few glances at the children they were supposed to monitor every once in a while. Right at the front of the group, White noticed, was Elliot Ludwig himself, standing with the guide as she prepared to explain about the plants and invertebrates displayed in the room.
White crossed his arms, leaning in to listen to the docent. She gathered the group of children at the entrance of the west mezzanine, adjusting a small microphone and leaning toward the Young Geniuses to ensure they were engaged.
"Good morning. My name is Margaret.” She paused, a gentle smile formed on her delicate face. ‘She looked a bit like porcelain’, White thought. ‘Those were the type of dolls that Poppy would play with, right?’
“Today we aren't just looking at skeletons; we are traveling back to a time when Chicago was a warm, tropical sea.” She motioned her hand to get the kids to scoot over closer to her.
“Please, step closer to these dioramas in Hall 37. Do you see the vibrant colors? These are our Paleozoic marine life displays. Do any of you know what these creatures are?”
A boy raised his hand amidst the crowd. “Cephalopods!” He cried out.
Margaret did a little clap with the tips of her fingers, while Elliot looked over to the child in pride. The older man had always adored the intelligence of the Young Geniuses, that was why he chose to found the programme in the first place. After some time, Margaret continued. “That's right, dear. Many visitors rush past these, but look at these Cephalopods—the ones with the long, straight shells. They were thought to be the 'kings' of the ocean long before even a single dinosaur ever took a breath. We focus on these small invertebrates because they invented the very blueprints for life: shells for protection, eyes to see, and the first complex social behaviours. Everything you see in the next hall began right here, in this silent, blue world.”
The crowd then replied with hushed ‘ohs’ and murmurs. Someone else, another boy who had miraculously appeared next to White somehow had chuckled at the crowd’s reaction. Both Anthony and White turned to look at the other boy. Sanji, Sanji Sukonoko had stood tall, his jet black hair slicked back as usual, raising an eyebrow at the other two. “What?” He asked. Anthony huffed, replying, “When did you get here? You're always going around walking like a ghost. Do you even have footsteps, Sanji?”
This earned a stifled snort from White.
The Japanese boy looked over to White now, his eyes lidded and shoulders dropped. “You can't really blame me. It's just how I walk. Besides, I'd rather observe the exhibits alone than stand here monitoring children.” White hummed.
“つまんない?” White asked.
(Bored?)
Sanji sighed, his lips slightly pouting. “うん、暇.” The other boy looked over toward the children.
(Yeah, I am.)
“Also,” Sanji added. “Someone's missing.”
White's posture straightened, and Anthony's lips began to thin at the comment. White internally cursed at himself. He knew he was right. Sanji tilted his head sideways, facing White. “I think it's Harley. Everyone else we know seems to be here.” Anthony rolled his eyes. “Of course that troublemaker would get us in trouble again. I'm tired of getting scolded by Mr Ludwig”, he groaned. White placed a hand on Anthony's shoulder, gently rubbing it to calm his friend down. “Don't call him that. I'll go look for him”, White suggested. “But weren’t you the one who got so excited over this hall when we first arrived here?” Anthony queried as he frowned, earning a giggle from White. “Yes... but I think the dinosaur hall is better”, he lied and grinned as he walked off.
The other two boys just stared at White, unsurprised as the auburn-haired teen left. Either way, they were kind of glad that White had volunteered to go, as Harley Sawyer was not someone pleasant to deal with in the first place.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
White spent several minutes looking around. If it were any other child, he’d definitely have found them by now. Which meant it really was Harley who was gone. He looked upwards, noticing a board stating ‘HALL 38’.
Hall 38. Mr Ludwig said that that was the ‘Dinosaur Hall.’ Well, that was quite dumb of him. Why didn’t he just go in here in the first place? Harley liked dinosaurs anyways.
As White calmly walked in the giant room, the very person he had been looking for was standing in the heart of the hall. Harley Sawyer was there in the flesh, standing beneath the central display and gazing up at the skeleton in front of him. The other boy seemed to be squinting at the display, possibly scrutinizing it. Sawyer was standing in the middle of the path, blocking the way of the other visitors, acting as if he owned the place. That alone had already earned the boy hushed complaints from the museum’s other tourists. White sighed. Seems like there were already problems piling on his back before he’d even approached Sawyer. He walked up to Sawyer, complaining on the way “Harley, you can’t stay in the middle here. You’re blocking the way. And what did I say about sticking to the group? I know you wanted to see the dinosaur displays, but couldn’t you wait just a bit longer?”
The other boy looked at him, adjusting his own glasses on his face. His mouth had already contorted into a frown as soon as his peace was disturbed by none other than Bruno White himself. Ludwig had already assigned White specifically beforehand to keep an eye on him during the trip, which only worsened Sawyer’s irritation with the entire excursion. It made the distaste for this ridiculous ‘adventure’ coil tighter around his chest. “White, first of all, do not call me Harley. I thought I made that clear already. Besides, I have no interest in the other exhibits besides this one. And to answer your question, I’d rather not gain more unnecessary attention from people. I’ve already gotten weird looks from people when we first arrived.”
White crossed his arms, sagging his shoulders. He slowly breathed out, already tired of this conversation. “Right. Sorry about that, Sawyer. Nonetheless, it would be a lot nicer of you if you did. I don’t want to be the one everyone points fingers at once a certain fourteen-year-old gets reported missing.”
This earned a grimace from Sawyer.
White continued. “Also, what do you mean by… ‘weird’ looks?...”
Sawyer’s eyes widened, even if it was just for a bit. He was baffled, furrowing his brows at White and looking at the other as if he was conversing with a complete moron.
“What do you mean by what do I mean? You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
White shrugged. “No, I don’t. You can’t expect me to know everything you’re talking about, Sawyer.” White knew, really. He himself had gotten the same looks as well. He’d face this sort of treatment all his life, so why wouldn’t he know? But getting Sawyer all worked up and enthusiastic to ramble over anything was very funny to him. Plus, Mr Ludwig did say that he wanted Sawyer to socialise more. Even if it was only with White himself.
Sawyer clicked his tongue. He looked around them to see if there were any nosy nobodies who could overhear them. Thankfully none, good.
Sawyer inched a bit closer, lowering his voice to an almost whisper. “Don’t act dumb, Bruno. I don’t talk to idiots. They were giving— well, the look of ‘What is a slave doing out here in the open and not indoors?’” White rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous, Sawyer. While it technically is still a thing, we’ve got nothing to worry about. The 13th Amendment happened last century, remember? You’re being too paranoid”, he replied. Sawyer huffed in response.
‘Sauropoda, to which its infraorder is more commonly known as Sauropods. The animals classified under this clade possess a long tail and neck, with four ginormous legs to support its weight and have a small head.’
That was what White had briefly recalled about the term when he read an encyclopedia on Saurischia.
White tilted his head upwards to look at the skeleton of the dinosaur. “I guess you couldn’t wait to see ‘Bron’-tosaurus huh?” He jibed.
Sawyer followed his gaze toward the towering exhibit.
“Apatosaurus. White. And no, you're not funny.”
White raised an eyebrow. “Mmm. I thought you oh so deliberately set on calling it Brontosaurus. The name meaning ‘thunder lizard’ seemingly all the more fitting for the reptile.”
Sawyer continued to look at the lizard, his eyelids drooping in annoyance now. “The sound of ‘deceptive lizard’ is too… comical for it,” he replied.
“...Comical?”
“...”
They both stood in silence, neither wanting to make it even more awkward than it already was. White's patience was already wearing thin. They should really get back to the others now.
“Hey.” White started.
“What?”
“Anything else you wanted to comment on? You seemed quite bothered by the statue when I first saw you.”
Sawyer hummed.
“...I suppose… Yes, there are a few things.”
Bruno's eyes lit up. There he was, the boy who loved to lecture about science that he had grown to know.
Harley sighed. “...The… head. The skull placed on the structure is not even remotely close to that of a Brontosaurus. And the tail is positioned too low. Everyone knows that it's common sense for a creature like this to not go around and drag its tail.”
Bruno smiled, looking at the head of the fossil. “Camarasaurus, right? That's what's in place of the real head. And… Maybe the museum just arranged the tail weirdly to save some space? Who knows?” He shrugged.
“Well, I for one think that there's a lot of space lying around,” Sawyer insisted.
“Maybe for other displays, Harley. And speaking of which, I thought this was the ‘Dinosaur Hall’, why are there horses and whatnot?”
“Maybe they just want to… save some space.”
Bruno turned to look at the other.
Huh. Harley didn't comment when he used his first name. He's warming up to him. That's good. However, Bruno himself couldn't deny that he himself felt a strange warmth creeping up his chest. He swore he could feel his heart race faster.
Harley glanced at him shortly.
“It's rude to stare, Bruno.”
Bruno was taken aback. Did Harley just… call him by his first name?..
Bruno shifted quickly, turning to face the skeleton again. “R-Right. Sorry.”
Harley crossed his arms, shifting his weight to one leg. The boy covered his lower face with his hand and snorted slightly. “You look like Bron.”
Bruno turned to look at Harley. “...What.”
“Let me rephrase that. Your face is as red as the planet Mars. I almost can't even see the different colours of skin patches on you anymore.”
Bruno opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out immediately.
Harley was still looking at the looming pile of bones over them. Bruno flushed in embarrassment, hands raised to cover his face as he looked away.
Harley chuckled. That alone nearly made Bruno forget what they’d been talking about…
“Oh look, White. It seems like the others have caught up.”
Bruno turned to look at the hall's entrance, footsteps echoing beneath the tiles on the ground. Their group chattering rather loudly from the distance.
Bruno sighed. He hoped his face would rid itself of its red tint by the time the other Young Geniuses reached their exhibit.
𐀪𐀪
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.
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Here we go (yeah)
Come with me
There's a world out there that we should see
Take my hand
Close your eyes
With you right here, I'm a rocketeer
Let's fly (fly, fly, fly, fly)
Up, up, here we go, go
Up, up, here we go, go
Let's fly (fly, fly, fly, fly)
Up, up, here we go, go
Where we stop? Nobody knows, knows
Song Title: Rocketeer — Far East Movement ft. Ryan Tedder (2010)