No Bones About It (5 page)
Authors: Nancy Krulik
A tear ran down Katie’s cheek.
“Whoa, check it out,” Kevin said. “Mr. Weird is crying.”
Katie gulped. She didn’t know a lot about being the Director of the Education Department. But she was pretty sure that someone like Mr. Weir did not cry. At least, not in front of kids. Quickly, she used the sleeve of Mr. Weir’s shirt to dry her eyes. “I am not crying,” she corrected Kevin. “My eyeballs are just sweating.”
“I’ve never heard of sweating eyeballs,” Kevin told her.
“I believe his eyeballs are sweating. Every other part of him is sweating,” Suzanne noted.
It was true. Mr. Weir’s shirt was covered with perspiration. Katie felt dampness on the back of her neck and on her forehead, too. Her underarms were disgusting. Yuck. Katie frowned. Being Mr. Weir really stunk . . . in more ways than one.
Katie didn’t like Mr. Weir at all. But she didn’t want him to lose his job. There was only one thing to do. “We’ve got to put this dinosaur’s tail back together,” she told the kids.
“Us?” Kevin asked. “We don’t know anything about being palea . . . paleee . . . pileontol . . .”
“You mean paleontologists,” Mandy told him. “Dinosaur scientists.”
Kevin nodded. “See, I can’t even pronounce it,” he told Katie. “How am I supposed to be one?”
Katie sighed. Kevin was right. They didn’t know anything about being paleontologists. But they couldn’t just leave that pile of bones sitting there. They had to at least try to put the dinosaur’s tail back together. “How hard can it be?” Katie asked the kids.
“Really hard,” Kevin answered.
“You played with blocks when you were little, didn’t you? This can’t be much different. All we have to do is follow this picture.” Katie pointed to a drawing of the completed dinosaur skeleton.
George picked up one of the bones. “This looks like the bottom of the tail,” he said quietly.
Katie smiled at him. She could tell he was sorry for what had happened. None of his pranks had ever turned out this badly before. Maybe George would be a little more of a goodie-goodie himself after this.
“Okay,” she told him. “Let’s get started.”
Kevin picked up a big bone. “Good thing Katie’s dog’s not here,” he said. “Can you imagine how he’d love these things? They’re huge.”
“Pepper would have a lot of fun here,” Katie agreed.
“Hey,” Suzanne asked. “How’d you know her dog is named Pepper?”
Katie gulped. She’d forgotten she was supposed to be Mr. Weir! “I didn’t,” she said quickly. “I . . . uh . . . I was talking about my dog.
His
name is Pepper.”
His
name is Pepper.”
“Poor Katie,” Suzanne whispered to Miriam. “First, Mrs. Derkman moves in next door to her. Now, Mr. Weir’s dog has the same name as hers. Good thing she’s not here to find out about that!”
Katie sighed. That was a close one.
“I’m getting hungry,” George moaned.
“You’re always hungry,” Suzanne told him.
“Lunch isn’t for another fifteen minutes,” Kevin moaned as he looked at the clock on the wall.
Katie gulped. Fifteen minutes? That was hardly any time at all. They had to get the dinosaur’s tail fixed before Mrs. Derkman came back. They would all be in big trouble if she found out what had happened.
“Faster, faster,” Katie urged the kids. “We’ve got to get this thing together.”
“We’re almost done, Mr. Weir,” Mandy said. “There’s just this one big bone left.”
Katie took the bone from Mandy. Quickly, she used it to attach the dinosaur to its tail. “Finished,” she said, taking a deep breath.
“It looks pretty good,” Kevin said. “Almost like the real thing.”
“Almost?” Katie asked nervously.
“It’s not like the picture,” Kevin told her.
Katie looked at the picture. Oh, no! Kevin was right. In the picture, the dinosaur’s tail was pointing down to the ground. Now, its tail was pointing straight out.
“Maybe no one will notice,” George suggested.
“Are you kidding?” Kevin asked. “Who could miss that?”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Before Katie could say anything, she heard a strange noise coming from her shirt pocket.
Before Katie could say anything, she heard a strange noise coming from her shirt pocket.
Startled, Katie looked down. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, black pager. She looked at the words on the screen.
COME TO YOUR OFFICE. DR. MUFFINSTOFFER HAS ARRIVED.
Katie gulped. Dr. Muffinstoffer was the famous scientist Mr. Weir was supposed to meet with. Now, Katie was going to have to be the one to show him around the museum.
But Katie didn’t know anything about the museum!
This was so not good.
Chapter 9
“Um, I have to go,” Katie nervously told the kids.
“You can’t just leave us here,” Suzanne said.
“I’ll be right back,” Katie said as she raced into the hall. “Don’t move until I get here. And, whatever you do,
don’t touch that dinosaur
!”
don’t touch that dinosaur
!”
Katie had no idea where Mr. Weir’s office could be. For a moment, she thought about asking one of the guards how to get there. But she looked like Mr. Weir now. Mr. Weir would surely know the way to his own office. If she asked for directions, the guard would surely think that Mr. Weir
was
weird.
was
weird.
Katie wandered around the museum until she came to what seemed to be a row of offices. Maybe this was where Mr. Weir worked. Quickly, Katie opened the first office door and stepped inside.
Oops.
This was definitely not Mr. Weir’s office. Instead of a desk and books, the room was filled with mops, pails, and cleaning supplies. Katie was in the janitor’s closet!
This was definitely not Mr. Weir’s office. Instead of a desk and books, the room was filled with mops, pails, and cleaning supplies. Katie was in the janitor’s closet!
She reached for the doorknob. But before she could open the door, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. There were no windows in the closet and the door was shut tightly. Katie knew right away that this was no ordinary wind. This was the magic wind.
The magic wind grew stronger and stronger. It whirled around Katie like a tornado. Faster and faster it blew, until the wind was so strong that Katie could barely breathe.
And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.
Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked down at her feet. Her purple sneakers were back. So were her jeans. And there wasn’t even a trace of sweat on her tank top.
She was Katie Carew again!
Katie knew she should find her way to the library and wait for her class. But Katie wanted to be with the rest of her class in the Hall of Dinosaurs. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to get back there.
But the real Mr. Weir certainly did.
As Katie stepped out into the hall, she found him standing outside an office door. He was staring at his beeper.
“Mr. Weir,” Katie said. “What are you doing here?”
“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “One minute, I was in the Hall of Dinosaurs and the next thing I knew, I was standing outside of my office.” He stared at Katie for a moment. “What are you doing here?”
“Um, I came to get you,” Katie said quickly.
Mr. Weir didn’t ask her why. He just kept staring at his beeper. “Dr. Muffinstoffer is supposed to be in my office. But I don’t remember hearing my beeper or walking over here. And Dr. Muffinstoffer isn’t here.”
Katie didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t sure why Dr. Muffinstoffer had disappeared. She just hoped that it wasn’t her fault. Too many things had been her fault today.
“How about we go back to the dinosaurs?” Katie said quickly.
Mr. Weir sighed. “I’ve got to get a new job,” he moaned. “This one is too stressful.”
Chapter 10
When Mr. Weir and Katie arrived in the Hall of Dinosaurs, only the kids who had been with Mrs. Derkman were there. The teacher looked frantic.
“Mr. Weir!” she cried out. “Where have you been? And where are my students?”
“I . . . um . . . er . . . I’m not certain,” Mr. Weir mumbled.
Mrs. Derkman gasped. “You lost my students?”
“Well, not exactly,” Mr. Weir said. “I’m sure they’re around here somewhere.”
“I know where they are,” Katie interrupted. “Follow me.”
Katie led her teacher and Mr. Weir to the back hallway and into the room where the dinosaur models were built. Sure enough, the kids were all there. So was a small man with a long white beard and glasses.
“Dr. Muffinstoffer, I can explain,” Mr. Weir said as he walked over to the man with the beard. “At least I think I can . . . I’m not really sure.”
“It’s fine. When you weren’t in your office, I started to walk around the museum myself,” the famous scientist explained.
“I don’t know why I wasn’t there,” Mr. Weir apologized. “I don’t know anything.”
“You can sure say that again,” Jeremy whispered to George.
“Fascinating,” Dr. Muffinstoffer muttered. He was looking at the tail on the dinosaur model. “I don’t know how you did this.”
“I’m not sure, either. It’s all kind of fuzzy,” Mr. Weir sighed.
“There are only a few paleontologists in the world who are aware of the change,” Dr. Muffinstoffer continued.
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