Page 28 of Zachary

“Wait,so… the planet they crashed on isEarthin the past?” Cam shoves a handful of popcorn into his mouth as a huge lizard-looking creature—though I’ve never seen a lizard that size—attacks the valiant hero.

“This movie is so fucked-up,” Garrett moans, but his fascinated gaze is fixed on the screen. “Are we really supposed to believe that life on a distant planet evolved to create humans over sixty-five million years ago, and then the process was repeated here exactly the same way? Be real. The least they could have done was made them look different or given them a nonhuman ability like telekinesis.”

I look from the screen to them, then back at the screen. Something has clearly told them that this primitive planet is Earth, but I don’t get it.

Leaning closer to Zoe, I murmur, “How do we know this is Earth?”

I should have remembered that Garrett’s hellhound ears are far more sensitive than those of any other species, because the question is barely out of my mouth before he’s snatching up the remote control and hitting Pause.

“What?” Cam asks. “It was starting to get good. The dinosaur might have won!”

“It’s not that kind of movie,” Zoe tells him kindly. “I’m pretty sure the good guy’s going to win.”

Cam pulls a face. “I’m less interested now. Does the girl die, at least?”

“I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know. But the reason Garrett paused is because Ronan’s never seen a dinosaur before.”

All eyes turn to me, and I resist the urge to squirm. “Earth has a lot of history,” I defend weakly. “I-I’m still working through it all. I wanted to learn about all the different modern cultures first.” Which, as they’ve all probably guessed, hasn’t exactly been a strong point. Partly because I’ve been focused on trying to learn about my own culture—and it goes back a lot more than sixty-five million years.

“No, no, that’s cool. It’s just… Does that mean you’ve never seenJurassic Park?” Cam’s eyes are wide.

I bite my lip. We’ve all been having a good time so far, and I don’t want to wreck it. “No, I haven’t. Is… is it in America?”

“We must stop this movie immediately,” Garrett declares. “Where’sJurassic Parkstreaming?”

While Zoe and Cam bend their heads to their phones, Garrett smiles at me. “The dinosaurs predated our modern species here on Earth by about 250 million years. Then sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid hit the planet, setting off a chain reaction that led to an ice age and the eventual extinction of most of them.”

“Most of them? There are still some alive?” I look at the frozen image on the screen. I’m pretty sure I would have heard about it if something like that was still roaming the planet.

“Not exactly. I’m not all that knowledgeable in this field, but I believe some of the avian species evolved into our modern-day birds. And crocodiles and alligators are also descended from dinosaurs.”

That’s really interesting. “So did they really look like that?” I gesture at the screen.

Garrett shrugs. “We’re not completely sure what they looked like,” he replies, still using his teaching tone. “Or what they sounded like. I think some of the more recent theories posit that instead of lizard hides, some of them were feathered. Our information all comes from fossils and guesswork.”

“And they’ve been dead for sixty-five million years?” I guess Earth has some pretty cool history too.

“Give or take. That’s when the asteroid hit the planet.”

Cam looks up. “Hey, if the movie’s called65, does that mean the asteroid is going to hit while they’re there?” His eyes widen. “Because that would be a cool ending. Like, they go through all this crap, fighting off dinosaurs, and then at the end, kaboom.”

“I still don’t think it’s that kind of movie,” Zoe says patiently. “Does Micah know you’re this bloodthirsty?”

“Oh yeah. We had aScreammarathon a few weeks back. At first he was shocked, but then I think it kind of turned him on. When we had sex that night, he did the th—”

Garrett clamps a hand over Cam’s mouth. “No. He’s practically Asher’s brother, which means he’s like my brother. I’m happy you have a satisfying sex life together, and if you ever run into problems, I’ll be there to troubleshoot, but no. There will be no details that might make it hard for me to look him in the eye tomorrow.”

Cam rolls his eyes but nods, and Garrett removes his hand. “Fine. No details. Prude.Jurassic Parkis streaming on Netflix and Prime.”

Zoe looks over at me. “Do you mind if we change movies? We can always come back to this one later, but believe me,Jurassic Parkis better.”

“My dinosaur education is in your hands.” This is fun! Who knew friendship could be so easy?

Cam cheers. “We need more snacks! And a pee break. Meet back here in five.”

“The thing is,”Cam says, hours later, after both movies have been watched and many of my questions answered, “if the asteroid hadn’t hit, there’s a really good chance none of our species would have evolved. Right, Garrett?” He’s lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, eyes narrowed.

“There’s no way to know for sure,” Garrett replies. He’s curled up in a corner of Zoe’s couch, eating what’s left of the popcorn. I thought we dragons ate a lot, but so far, Garrett’s matched me bite for bite… and then some.

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