"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Lao-Tzu

"Dear Dr. Logan D. Malcolm,

Here at Masrani Global, we have heard about your father's past with our predecessor, InGen's, work. We extend our greatest apologies on their behalf, for what he may have experienced.

However, we have heard more about your great findings and thesis statements on the Smilodon. At your young age of twenty-three in the spotlight with brilliant findings, we find you to be much ahead of your time. This is a valuable asset we would love to acquire at our Jurassic World theme park. Discussion is poor over technology; words must be discussed face to face. Please respond to this email confirming a week that is suitable for you to travel and discuss. Your trip will be completely complimentary.

We look forward to hearing from you quite soon.

Simon Masrani. "

My eyes read those words at least a thousand times; I literally could not believe what was in front of me. Shooting up from my relaxed position and into a standing stance, I scrambled through the piles of paper that cluttered my desk for my calendar. Having just graduated, I was sure that I had plenty of free time, except the few dig sites with Dr. Alan Grant that my father had set me up with. My fingers landed on the hard, leather bound agenda, pulling it out from underneath the stacks of papers which sent them flying across my office.

Searching through my calendar, I mapped out my plans. I had three weeks until I was scheduled to dig in the Midwest with Doctor Grant. I figured I had plenty of time, and had given Masrani Global enough time to coordinate flights and rooms. Hopefully, that was enough time to tell my father everything as well.

My father was not a fan of InGen or its successor, Masrani Global. Years ago when I was first born, my father was brought to Jurassic Park as a tax consultant. He was brought to scope out what could be liabilities to the park and in return would receive a large payment for doing so. This was something both he and my mother focused on after having to take care of a newborn baby along with my half-sister, Kelly. Having two children and a mortgage wasn't the easiest to balance when one income was from an archaeologist and the other, a mathematician.

Once on the island and seeing the situation he was put in, my father, Doctor Ian Malcolm, was horrified. The scientists were so preoccupied with what they could do; they didn't pause to think about whether they should. All the scientists and park managers assured the group (that included my father, Doctor Grant, Doctor Sattler along with a few others whose names I cannot recall) that they would be safe, technology and force would prevent anything from going wrong. What my father tried to tell the people of Jurassic Park, was that life finds its way no matter what you attempt to do to prevent it. He was proven absolutely right when all hell broke loose. Numerous people were killed by the escaped dinosaurs when technology proved faulty. My father himself nearly died when he was tossed several feet by a tyrannosaurus rex.

Three or four years after that; my mother Sarah, father, and sister Kelly found themselves on Isla Sorna, which was known as Site B. A second island that InGen used to breed new dinosaurs. They all found themselves face to face with death, literally when a family of Tyrannosaurs terrorized the colony of people on the island, and then became loose on the San Francisco docks before being returned back to the island. After those two horrific events, my fathered banned us from anything relating to prehistoric animals.

So naturally, me being a Malcolm and never following orders from others, I fell in love with prehistoric animals. I loved dinosaurs from the time I was five, I screamed and cried until my childhood bedroom was decorated like the Jurassic period. My first tattoo was of a brontosaurus on the back of my neck. When the time for college came, I majored in Paleontology at Virginia Tech, the United States' best college for it. This caused uproar in my household, my father going ballistic. I distinctly remember him telling me; "Logan Deborah Malcolm, if you even think about stepping foot onto that Island, I will kill you before the dinosaurs have a chance to!"

This caused me to strive for Paleontology even more. Eventually, my father came around and set my work study hours up with Doctor Grant. Virginia Tech was where I fell in love with prehistoric megafauna. The thought of mammals the size of firetrucks walking where I was, intrigued me. I spent hours upon hours doing extensive excessive research and writing papers, having my professors read them time and time again. They praised my work ethic and thoughts, saying not too many people cared for the megafauna anymore. The focus was on dinosaurs, because of the events that my father had endured.

While in Brazil in my junior year of college, I had dug up fourteen S. populator skeletons. These were my favorite Pleistocene era megafauna, and they were also the largest subspecies of the Smilodon genus. The skeletons I had uncovered were mostly female and some were very small, which led me to an idea that no paleontologist had thought of before. I then wrote my thesis that stated Smilodon females grouped together before/after giving birth and banded together to protect and raise their cubs as a pride, much like big cats do today. As more dig sites around the world uncovered multiple skeletons at a time, my thesis was further proved. My thesis paper was published, and my discoveries quickly became a hit in the paleontology world. I had offers thrown at me left and right while finishing up my schooling, I liked to joke that I was a 'D list celebrity on good days'.

While this thrilled my family, the thrill quickly wore off for me. I yearned to work with actual prehistoric animals.

This was my perfect chance.

"Dear ,

Thank you so much for reaching out to me, I really appreciate this. I am absolutely amazed at this opportunity. Upon looking at my schedule, I am free to travel for the next three weeks. Please tell me what is good for you and my bags will be packed and ready to go.

Thank you again, Logan Malcolm"

A week later, I found myself packed and ready to go for the following day. I did not find myself being completely honest with my parents. I had told my sister, who understood and urged me to take whatever job offer was being thrown at me.

"Take it Lo, live your life. Don't just settle for writing books and having children like other paleontologists, or dad. Go work with the animals you have loved your entire life." She had said after I called her, expressing my hesitations. Kelly knew me all too well to shoot anything down. Even if she didn't agree, she would never tell me. My sister was always supportive of my actions no matter what they were.

So here we all sat at a dinner table in my sister's house after making my father's favorite dish, chicken parmesan. If I'm being honest, Kelly and I just ordered it and placed it in a serving casserole dish.

I sat at the head of the table, my niece to my left, Kelly next to her with my ten month old nephew in her lap, her husband Billy sitting opposite of me, my father, and then my mother. So if I told my father and things went wrong, I had someone to stall him for a few seconds while I ran.

"Lo, what's up?" my father asked, pulling me from my thoughts as he took a bite off his fork, "You aren't hungry?"

"Oh no, I'm fine dad. I had a huge lunch today." Lie

If I hated anything more than rain or cold weather, it was lying to my father. He was always so honest with me and not telling him the truth made me feel like one of the worst things to ever walk the face of the Earth.

Kelly glared at me. She had urged me to tell him before dinner, but I wimped out. I knew this would go one of two ways and my gut told me it would go the horrible way. I quickly reached for my wine glass and averted my eyes from hers.

"Logan received a job offer last week." Kelly said, bouncing James on her lap as he cooed.

"Where Auntie?" asked my seven year old niece, Malia. She was a lighter version of Kelly, but her personality matched mine to a T. Which meant that it matched my father's as well. We were often titled 'the three musketeers'.

"Yeah, Logan, where?" my mother smiled, looking up at her dish briefly.

I silently cursed my sister in my head as I put my wine down and softly smacked my lips. Taking a deep breath, I looked up at my family who was eagerly awaiting my response.

"Jurassic World."

The clang of metal hitting glass echoed around the now silent dining room as forks were dropped onto plates. Kelly sucked in a deep breath and looked at Malia; "Malia baby, take your brother and go watch TV in the den." She smiled.

"But mommy! I want to hear about her new job with the dinosaurs!" Malia frowned. I sucked in a sharp breath, feeling my father's glare. Billy flashed me a look of sympathy as he took his son, standing up as he was doing so.

"This is not a conversation I need to be present for so I'll take them onto the deck." He said quickly, taking Malia's hand and leading her out of the dining room. I knew that the second we heard the sliding door close, all hell would break loose at the Malcolm family dinner table.

"Jurassic World? Logan you can't be serious do you even know what your father, sister and I even went through? Billy as well!" my mother exclaimed, her face turning as red as her hair.

"Yes mom, I do. And I'm sorry but that was what? Fifteen years ago? Technology wasn't as evolved then as it is now, it's safe." I said, swirling the wine around in my glass. I did not want to look at my father; I knew he was a ticking time bomb at this point. Nothing good would come out of this situation and we all knew it.

"Well what is the position?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"See, that's the thing. I'm flying there tomorrow to discuss with , the owner. I'm not quite sure but I know it has to do with the Smilodon populator."

My father erupted into laughter. Not funny laughter, very angry and sarcastic laughter. "You don't even know what your title is going to be? Oh my GOD, Logan. Please tell me this is a joke." He said, pushing his glasses up onto his head and rubbing his face with both hands.

My brows furrowed and I felt myself becoming defensive. "No, dad, I'm not kidding. I'm twenty-three years old; I'm not a child anymore. You and mom had no problem running off to the islands and you even dragged Kelly along. While your newborn daughter was home alone with her grandmother." I snapped.

"Logan." My mother warned, her dark green eyes meeting mine. Everything about me came from my father, except my eyes. We both had piercing blue-green eyes that became a dark green when we were angry.

"No mom, I love you both dearly and I know that you two are only like this to protect me, but I am not a little girl anymore. I'm getting on that plane and flying to Costa Rica to see what this job offer is because maybe I can actually fulfill my dreams that I have had for twenty years. I don't get why you two can't be as supportive as Kelly." I practically spat, my eyes darting back and forth between my mother and father.

"You knew about this?" my father asked, his head snapping towards Kelly. She sucked in a deep breath and flashed a dirty look at me, her way of saying 'Thanks for throwing me under the bus'. "Yeah dad, I did. I think we should be supportive, I mean it is her dream. She's my little sister; I'd do anything and support her in order to fulfill her dreams." Kelly said, looking at me then towards our father.

"And a tyrannosaurus rex or a velociraptor would do anything in order to make her his lunch." Dad shot back, his eyes boring into mine. I sucked my cheeks in; it was a huge struggle not to lose my shit on him.

"Dad, for the second time, this is relating back to the Smilodon populator, maybe they just want my input or want me there for good publicity."

"Oh that's even better. An eight hundred pound, four foot tall cat that hunted prey the size of mammoths. That is exactly what I want you around." My father chuckled.

Something inside of me settled the anger, and I decided to get up. Pushing my chair in, I looked at my parents who were staring at me.

"You know, it'd be nice to have some support every now and then from you two, but I forgot I'm not the Olympic gymnast in the family! Just some loser who loved to study the things you fear most because you can't get over an incident that happened two decades ago due to the wrong equipment and technology," I spat, shrugging on my leather jacket.

Looping my satchel handle over my head, I looked back at my parents and sucked my teeth. "So I will be in Costa Rica for a week. If you need me or want to apologize, call me. I'll be sure to let you all know whether or not I take the position. Otherwise, goodnight." I growled, storming out of my sister's house.

Logan: 0. Gut Feeling: 1000