Fifteen Years Ago... Olduvai, Mars 2031

The dig was still new and exciting, not just for my father or the other archaeologist's, but for us kids too. We spent hours, days just looking at all the rocks and things they brought up from the dig. It just fuelled my passion to become just like my father, an archaeologist. My mother had died a year before my father was asked to work on the Olduvai dig on Mars. It hit both me and my father hard, she was caught up in a traffic accident, some drunk driver apparently. I had never been a popular kid, but after her death I pulled in on myself. I just stopped trying to reach out to people. I didn't see the point. I had no real friends in the school I was in and after a long talk, my father took the job. It had been the best thing to ever happen to me... or so I thought back then.

"Hey look at this Sam!" I cried out pointing to the table with the freshest batch of rocks from the dig. Sam bounded over to me, her blonde hair tied into long pig tails, her skirt and pink t-shirt mucky from the dirt we were playing with. To look at me and Sam you would probably think there would be no way we could be friends. I was chubby, with long chocolate hair, tied up and hidden by my baseball cap. I wore baggy boy's t-shirts and jeans ripped at the knees. Sam was a girly girl and I was a tom boy, yet we were best friends. There weren't that many kids on the dig so to find people who liked me, it amazed me. I had never really been popular or had many friends, with my fathers work we moved around a lot too, making it harder to find friends. I had always been the new kid, but when we moved to Olduvai, we were all the new kids. Something clicked with Sam, she just got me, and for the first time in a really long time I had friends. It changed my world.

"Wow Dani, it looks like a fossil! How cool is that John?" Sam beamed looking around for her twin brother. John walked round from another pile of rocks and raised an eyebrow. John had dark brown hair but the same hazel coloured eyes as Sam, he was a little taller than Sam. He was liked by nearly everyone on that dig. Both twins were popular with everyone on the dig.

"Hmm... it's ok." John remarked dryly, his attention drawn to the table. He picked up the fossil and seconds later dropped it to the floor, clutching his hand to his chest. "Ow!" He cried out in pain.

"What happened?!" Both me and Sam exclaimed at the same time. John took a tentative look at his hand and screwed up his face. He screwed his hand up and instantly brought it back to his chest. I noticed a thin red line forming in the creases of his fist.

"I cut it on the fossil. It looks bad." John hissed with his eyes screwed shut. I could see he was trying not to cry. John never really wanted to cry in front of Sam because she usually ended up crying too. I blamed it on the twin thing, John said it was because Sam was so sensitive.

"I'll go get mom!" Sam screamed running back to the other lab where their parents and my father worked together. I took a step closer to John and bit my lip. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do, but I knew I had to do something to help.

"Let me take a look." I tentatively said making John snap his eyes open. I stopped dead as his eyes locked on mine.

"What? Why?" John worriedly asked as I noticed his eyes watering. I felt really bad for John, I knew it must have hurt pretty bad to make him cry. We used to play rugby together and he never cried when he got tackled, ever. I took a deep breath and pulled myself together. I knew I had to be strong, to help John.

"Let me look would you?" I asked stubbornly. John didn't look convinced but he slowly reached his hand out to me. I took his hand in mine and opened it slowly. All I could see was the blood, but there was a lot there. There was a split second where I thought I was going to be sick. I glanced up at John and noticed him get paler. I swallowed the feeling and pushed all my feelings away so I could clean up the cut.

"See! Look how bad it is! I bet I'm going to lose my hand! I bet I get some alien infection and turn into a monster and die! I'm going to die! Oh man I don't want to die! I'm way too young to die Dani! I have dreams! Plans! I don't want to die Dani, not by some freaky alien infection! Oh god what if my hand gets a life of it's own?!" John cried out loudly, sounding genuinely worried about his hand growing a life of it's own. I looked up from his hand with the most unimpressed expression I could muster. I knew John liked to be dramatic but it was the first time I'd seen him go overboard like that. He paused, his hazel eyes locking on mine for a beat while he took in my expression. "Sorry- but it hurts!" John pouted as I just shook my head, hiding a smirk. I went into my back pocket and pulled out a first aid kit.

"Let me wash it." I coaxed John, leading him by the wrist to the sink and ran cold water over the cut to get a better look. John tried to pull his hand back as the water stung the cut.

"Dani it's hurting." John whimpered gritting his teeth, he kept glancing at his hand, hissing then looked away.

"Just hold on." I said reassuringly while reaching over the sink and grabbing some paper towels. I pattered it dry and noticed it was a deep nasty cut across his palm. As soon as I wiped the water away fresh blood was coming out. "Hold this on it." I said pulling John's other hand over the paper towels while I opened my first aid kit and pulled out a bandage.

"You know, if this was Sam she'd be screaming by now." John muttered as I smirked at him. Sam wasn't the best with blood and guts stuff, she preferred things less icky.

"I know." I giggled a little taking the paper towels and throwing them into the sink. They landed with a sodden thump and I ignored the fact they were soaked in John's blood.

"You're weird Dani." John announced as I wrapped the bandage round his hand. I looked up with the same unimpressed expression on my face. "I mean, I mean you're not like Sam. Not that I want you to be like Sam. You're not freaked out by the blood. I mean... you're not like the other girls here. You're more like the boys, yeah you're like a boy. But, but I mean obviously you're not. Not in a mean way, just you're a girl, and you act like a boy, and-" John tripped over his words as I went back to the bandage. I glanced back up and noticed he was blushing slightly. Something stirred in my stomach, a flutter of butterflies. John was the heart throb of the dig, all the girls bar his sister had a massive crush on him. And here he was telling me, that maybe he liked me. I smirked as I wrapped the bandage around his hand.

"Girl." I muttered as I met his eyes again. "So, you need stitches, but it's all cleaned up now. I think it's safe to say you'll live and wont get an alien infection Mr Grimm." I added smirking with a goofy smile. John rolled his eyes as Sam and their mother came rushing into the room with their dad and my dad seconds later.

"Are you ok baby?" John's mother asked as everyone gathered around. The worry was clear on her face. Everyone looked worried for John, I could only imagine the story Sam had told them. She could be a little dramatic at times.

"Yeah mom, it's just a cut." John drawled rolling his eyes acting like it was nothing. I caught his eye and rolled my own eyes. If only everyone had heard what he was saying a few minutes ago...

"Who put the bandage on?" John's dad asked looking around with a confused expression on his face.

"I did Doctor Grimm." I whispered softly and Sam pulled me into a tight hug. She knocked the air out of my lungs as she hugged me.

"You saved his life!" Sam squealed hugging me like I had done something amazing, like brain surgery, not just cleaning it and putting a bandage on.

"That's my girl." My dad beamed smiling at me. In the mean time Mrs Doctor Grimm had inspected the bandage.

"You want to be a doctor when you grow up sweetie?" She asked smiling at me. Her arm wrapped around John's shoulders protectively. Suddenly everyone was looking at me and I felt a little nervous. I glanced at my father as he nodded with a small smile.

"No ma'am, I'm going to be an archaeologist here on Mars." I smirked proudly as he squeezed my shoulder a little. I knew my father was proud of me, it the best feeling in the world.

"Then how did you know to do this?" Doctor Grimm asked looking at his son's hand impressed. Both Grimm parents where so impressed with my first aid skills.

"My dad taught me. You always gotta be ready for anything on dig, right dad?" I asked, repeating my fathers quote to me, beaming at my father.

"Right baby." He smirked back, ruffling my hat slightly.

"Well Marcus, looks like we don't need to be here." Doctor Grimm shrugged to my father. "Your little lady took care of everything."

"Well I think the our little paramedic should take John down to medical, just in case he needs stitches." Mrs Doctor Grimm said smiling at us.

"Me too?" Sam asked feeling left out.

"Yeah Sam! I mean who went to get help? Without you anything could have happened!" Doctor Grimm added making his little girl grin.

"Ok you three, head back. And remember to be careful!" Mrs Doctor Grimm said sternly.

"Yes mom." The twins said at the same time before she gave them both a hug and a kiss. My dad pulled me to the side and gave me a big hug too.

"That's my girl. See you later alligator." My dad said letting me go.

"In a while crocodile." I replied smiling.

Who would of thought minutes later my whole world would have been tipped on it's head and everything, my new perfect life would have been snatched away from me by the movement of a few dumb rocks?