by Beth Vrabel
Grandma squeezed my shoulder. “I don’t think so, Toots.”
“What if they just don’t realize how perfect they are for each other? What if someone points that out to them?”
“Someone like you?” Grandma asked, a furry eyebrow raised.
I shrugged.
“You can,” Grandma said. “But when it comes down to it, whether two people hit it off will be up to them.”
I made it back to the computer lab with twenty minutes of screen time left. “Told you I wouldn’t get caught,” I whispered to Megan as I took the empty seat behind her. She rolled her eyes at me and went back to typing furiously.
I pulled up the Camp Paleo blog and read the latest post, not wanting to wait for the breakfast printout.
Dear Super-Secret Camp Paleo Blogger:
Camp is great and all, but I’ve got bigger probs than tasteless jerky and soggy eggs. How do you tell a friend that you like her? I mean, like her.
From,
FossilFinder04
Dear FossilFinder04 and the rest of my fellow Paleo campers:
The only thing worse than a cold mountain pie is a lonely heart. Or, at least, that’s what I’ve heard. As our esteemed leader would say, “Quit rutching and just tell her, onest!”
Put a group of us together, get rid of our parents, and make us survive on subpar nutrition and bug spray, and our hormones are bound to overreact. If you want my advice (and I’m not sure why you would, since you don’t even know who I am), then just tell her.
We’re all seeing connections that might or might not be real. Let’s face it. The friends you make at camp probably aren’t going to be lifelong buds. Neither are the friends you make at home, for that matter. Come on! We’re barely tweens here! If you like her, say so. Camp should be a time for you to live the way you want to live, with nobody breathing down your neck about how to act or who to be.
Signing off,
Your SSCPB
FossilFinder04. Oh yeah, I think I know that boy. This was it! The nudge I needed to put Operation Dorks in Love in action. Clearly Sheldon, Camp Paleo’s fossil finder, was talking about April. After all, he called her “a friend,” which only leaves pack members. Since he’s terrified of Amanda, that points to April. Score! Now I just needed to get April onboard.
Sam and I had decided to just email today since he had a late practice. I fired off a quick note about the day, but didn’t mention Operation Dorks in Love.
For some reason, my fingers couldn’t even type the word love in a message to Sam.
Chapter Eight
Major drama at the excavation site!
After our usual gritty egg and watered-down orange juice breakfast, we headed back to look for more fossils. I heard Sheldon’s teeth grind together as we made our way toward the dig site. The spot where Sheldon had uncovered his leaf fossil days earlier was swarmed with digging campers. Next to Sheldon, Amanda cracked her knuckles. Maybe she needed an extra dose of morning meditation. Amanda looked ready to plow over the campers huddling where Sheldon first found a fossil. “Come on,” she eventually said through clenched teeth. “Let’s find fresh ground.”
Sheldon and Amanda headed down a little incline and completely complicated my master plan. Because smack dab in the middle of the campers swarming Sheldon’s former dig site was Kira. Next to Kira stood April, laughing at those lame robot dance moves Kira’s twin brother, Ash, was making.
I tapped April on the shoulder when she was still mid-laugh. She turned, eyes sparkling and smile wide, though it shook a little when she saw it was me. “Come over this way,” I said. “The pack’s onto a new site.”
“Oh! Um.” She looked toward Kira and Ash, who both watched us.
“Yeah, maybe if she wanted to hang out with a bunch of geeks.” Kira rolled her eyes. “We’ll stay here, thanks.”
I half-laughed, half-grunted. “We’re not geeks, right April?” I nudged her with my elbow. “We’re dorks.”
Megan, who was close by, laughed, but Ash and Kira just stared at me.
“That was a joke,” I offered.
Blank stares.
“Okay,” I said slowly, turning back to April. “Are you joining us, or what?”
April chewed her bottom lip and looked again toward the twins. Kira rolled her eyes again, making it really hard not to whap her in the back. Dad once told me not to make stupid faces because if someone hit me hard on the back, I’d be stuck with that face forever. Ash’s eyes swept over me, like he knew what I was thinking.
“Let’s give it a shot,” he finally said.
“Are you serious?” Kira gasped.
He shrugged, his smile spreading at his sister’s outrage. “They found the first fossil in camp. Maybe they’re onto something.”
“Whatever,” Kira said, again turning her back to us. “April and I are staying here.”
Ash and I both turned to April. “You could come with us, April,” Ash prompted.
I had never seen my friend so unsure. April usually plowed into things, kicking the blocker in karate until the tops of her feet bruised, skipping down the street without worrying once about how her arms flailed, and howling like a wolf in a full cafeteria. But now she stood in front of me, her hair slicked into braids like Kira’s. Her eyes boring into Ash’s like she was trying to read his mind. Worrying her lip instead of spouting out an answer. Where was my April? Pack April? She smiled, and suddenly I saw her.
“Sure! Let’s go!” But then, after a deep breath, she added, “This place looks pretty picked over anyway.”
“Awesome!” Ash said, then turned to the boy beside Kira. “How about you, Jer?”
Jer, who shared Sheldon and Ash’s A-frame, kicked a hacky sack and popped it up to his knee, then knocked it to his other ankle and back up again to the other knee. Over and over. The four of us—Ash, April, Megan, and I—watched the little ball whip around. I had to admit, I had still sort of been avoiding this kid. Partly it was because whenever he saw me, Jer waved like crazy at me the way he thought I had when we met the first day. He also winked at me whenever we passed. I wasn’t sure if it was deliberate. Maybe he had some sort of eye twitch or something. But also, as someone who is first out in dodgeball, misses every serve in volleyball, and whose only score in basketball was for the other team, I’m not naturally drawn to super athletes (secretly incredible gymnasts, aside).
And Jer always had a ball in his hands. Seriously! When he got to camp his backpack was bulging with a basketball, which Mr. Bosserman confiscated. (“Cavemen didn’t play basketball!”) Next time I saw him, he was pounding a tennis ball against the A-frame. Mr. Bosserman took that ball, too.
Megan’s arm brushed mine as she stepped forward, her eyes following the hacky sack until Jer bounced it on his forehead. Then her eyes stayed on his face. I squinted, trying to see what had captured her attention. I guess he was kind of cute; he had dark skin and greenish blue eyes and was about three inches taller than even April. He hit the ball with his heel and head butted it again. Hmm. If Jer realized Megan was into him, maybe he’d stop all the winking.
“He’s pretty cute, huh?” I whispered to Megan.
“Mega cuteness,” Megan whispered.
Jer kept bouncing around the ball, doing a few more tricks now that he had us as an audience.
“You know Mr. Bosserman is just going to take that from you, right?” I pointed out.
Jer tapped the ball toward me with his ankle. I stepped aside. Megan’s thin little hand shot out and grabbed it.
“Wow, nice catch!” Jer said, his hand open for it to be tossed back. Megan’s face flushed pink and her fist closed around the ball. Again Jer held out his hand.
I nudged Megan, who seemed to have forgotten English. “He wants the ball back.”
She nodded and held out her hand. Jer tugged at the ball, and we all sighed when she finally let go.
“Ah, look,” Kira said in her snotty way. “The geek’s in love with you, Jer!”
“Sh
ut up!” Ash and I shouted at the same time.
Next to me, Megan squeaked. That’s really the only way to describe it. She squeaked like a tiny frog. Tears burst out of her eyes as she rushed away.
Kira laughed, even though Ash told her to shut up again. She rolled her eyes. I think it might be the only facial expression she can make. “Jerk much?” I snapped at Kira, who just rolled her eyes.
“Let’s go,” Ash muttered. We walked toward Sheldon and Amanda and past Mr. Bosserman. Even though Jer kept going with the hacky sack, the old grump didn’t take it away. He even grunted at a pretty spectacular ankle-to-knee-to-other-ankle-to-head-butt action.
“He’s in a weirdly good mood,” April said in her new careful way.
I just nodded, not ready to talk to her after she didn’t stick up for Megan with me. If she had stuck up for Megan—or even been a little more Aprilish—I would’ve told her about the laughter I heard tickling the air last night from the general direction of a certain caboose. I’m pretty sure it was Grandma’s chuckle.
I tried some of Amanda’s deep breath kumbayas to curb my anger at April as we made our way toward Sheldon and Amanda. It’s not like I can’t relate to doing mean things because I wanted someone to like me. I pretty much did that my whole fourth-grade year up until I ditched Becky and Tom to hang out with Sam. (Honesty alert: They ditched me. But I prefer to think of it the other way around, and when Sheldon invents the time machine to go back and check out real dinosaurs, I’m going to have him drop me off at the beginning of fourth grade and do the ditching myself.)
Surprisingly, the deep breaths and kumbayas helped, and I was back to Operation Dorks in Love. “Look!” I pointed to a spot beside Sheldon and Amanda. “There’s a perfect place for you right there.” I half-pushed, half-dragged April to the little crevice between Sheldon and the embankment.
“Hey, April!” Sheldon said. His grin stretched so far that if it reached another inch, his ears would be turning upward, too.
Next to me, Ash made a coughing noise.
“What?” I asked.
“Um, you’re twisting your fingers together like a mega-villain. That’s all.”
I shrugged. “Just getting ready for fossil hunting.” I tried to sound casual as I made my way to a spot on the other side of Amanda. Her hands raked the dirt, sending clumps flying like my neighbor’s Rottweiler. The hard-packed dirt and rocks left behind were then carefully checked out by Sheldon, who piled everything behind him.
“Villains are cool,” Jer said. “But I prefer superheroes. Who’s your favorite?”
Megan sat on the top of the embankment, her face in her hands, but I knew she was listening to us. Maybe I could do a third matchup. “I don’t like superheroes,” I said, even though it’s a total lie. “But I think Megan does. Don’t you, Meg?”
The only response was a little tip forward and back of her black hair.
“Cool,” Jer said.
“What do you mean you don’t like superheroes?” Amanda grunted.
“Yeah,” said Sheldon, wiping his fingers on his khaki shorts. The dirt just trickled down to stick to the ever-growing stain on his pulled-up tube socks. “You made us all pick our favorite Avenger. You made me Hulk.” He growled and flexed his muscles, making the vein in his neck pop out.
“I still think I should’ve been Hulk,” Amanda muttered. “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”
“You’re always angry,” I snapped.
“That’s my secret.” She smiled.
“You’re Thor. Sam is obviously Captain America. April is Black Widow, and I’m Nick Fury,” I told them.
“I thought you were Black Widow.” Sheldon said.
“Now I’m Nick Fury,” I snapped.
The two of them finally went back to digging. I climbed to sit next to Megan. She twisted a silver bracelet in circles around her wrist. “You can be Iron Man,” I whispered. She shrugged but didn’t turn away.
And that’s when mega drama broke out!
“I think I found something!” Ash said, peering at a chunk of dirt and rock in the dig site. He blew off some of the dirt around it.
Sheldon rushed forward. “OMG! OMG!” (He said it just that way, letters only.)
“What?” April asked.
Amanda barged forward and knelt next to Sheldon. Ash slowly stood and backed away from Sheldon, Amanda, and whatever he had discovered.
“Is that what I think it is?” Amanda asked.
“Yes!” Sheldon screamed. He pulled up the flat rock and cradled it in his palm.
Together, he and Amanda yelled, “A complete trilobite!”
“A what?” Jer asked, momentarily not throwing his hacky sack in the air.
In an awed voice, Sheldon continued, “Oh, nothing. JUST THE FIRST ORGANISM TO HAVE EYES!”
“Boom!” Amanda wiggled her hips in a little jig. “A genuine Phacops rana.”
“When did you start speaking Sheldon?” I could see the funny-looking fossil from our perch on the embankment. If you mushed the body parts of a crab with a shrimp and added marble eyes, that’s what a trilobite looks like.
Amanda kept dancing. “Hobbies like archeology are great for anger management!” Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
I thought for a second that Sheldon’s excitement had led to a seizure, but that’s just how he danced.
“What’s the big deal?” Ash asked.
“It’s like seven hundred million years old,” Amanda snapped. “That’s what!”
Quietly, Sheldon corrected her. “Five hundred or so at the oldest. More likely three hundred fifty million years old.”
“Wow,” Ash said, leaning in to look at the fossil as Jer darted back up the hill to where the other campers were digging.
“Guys! Ash found a fossil a thousand million years old!” Jer shouted.
Paleo campers barreled down the hill like a herd of buffalo. Sheldon cradled the trilobite Ash had found to his chest, muttering random facts like Amanda’s kumbaya chant and protecting it from the crowd. “Pennsylvania state fossil. Fairly common. Usually found in pieces. Devonian age.”
Sheldon backed up, pressed against the embankment, eyes squeezed shut as the campers rushed him.
“Let me see it!”
“Can I hold it?”
“Where’d you find it?”
Mr. Bosserman tried to wrangle toward the front of the crowd, but no one let him by, even though he was yelling so loudly his nose turned purple. Jessica stood beside him, clapping her hands like she was calling puppies.
One voice rose above the others. My nemesis, of course. “Why are you holding it, geek? Jer said my brother found the fossil!” Kira put out her hand for the fossil, the other hand on her hip.
Sheldon now curved over the trilobite like a comma. He was shaking his head and still muttering in full-out panic mode. If anyone tried to get the trilobite from him, they’d have to pry back his fingers one by one.
“He can have it,” Ash said. “I don’t care.” Ash backed off, his hands up.
I wanted to do something to stop Sheldon’s panic—his fact chant kept getting shriller and shriller—but no one listened as I yelled for everyone to give him space.
“Cambrian period possibility. World’s largest found in Canada. Native American amulets …” Sheldon’s neck vein bulged and his knuckles turned white around the trilobite. He was about to go Hulk.
Amanda spit out kumbayas as quick as Sheldon’s monologue of facts.
Then Kira made a grab for the fossil, and that’s when everything erupted.
Amanda leaped in front of Sheldon with ninja grace. Her hands splayed and arms up, she yelled so loudly and deeply that spittle flew into Kira’s cocky little face. “BACK! OFF!”
Total silence from Camp Paleo. Even the mosquitos stopped buzzing. Amanda took a heavy, stomping step forward, and every single Paleo camper took a step back. “You are in an evacuation zone!”
Quietly Sheldon corrected her. “Excavation zone.” I was gla
d to see his fingers relax slightly.
“Everyone needs to BACK OFF!” Another step forward from Amanda, another herdlike step back from the campers. This continued until everyone was off the little hill.
“Well, it’s not like you can keep it,” said Kira, arms crossed at the edge of the dig. “It belongs to the camp.”
“Nah, you can keep it,” Mr. Bosserman said. “Finder’s keepers.” He sort of whistled as he walked back up the hill.
Remembering my mission, I nudged April. “Go congratulate your boy!” I said to her.
April’s eyes widened and her face flushed deep red. “You think I should?”
“Absolutely!” I clapped, then thought of Jessica and quickly stopped.
“Okay!” April breathed. “I will! I am! I’m going to congratulate!”
“Yes!” I cheered. “Congratulate!” (Like I said, April Speak can be contagious.)
But then, oddly, April went right past Sheldon and went up to Ash. Ash!
My head swiveled over to Sheldon. His eyes were locked on the back of Amanda, who was Rottweilering through more mounds of dirt. And the look on his face? It was the expression he usually reserved for dino nuggets. “You can be Hulk from now on,” he breathed to Amanda.
“Thanks.” Amanda grinned back, their eyes locking.
Lollipop farts!
“So.” I jumped, startled by the voice at my side. “You want to excavate with me?” Jer stood beside me, balancing his hacky sack on the tips of two fingers.
“Uh …”
“Come on,” Jer said. He leaned closer to me, so I could see the way his thick eyelashes tangled. “I think I already found my treasure.” He chuckled and then—horror of horrors—he winked at me. Behind me, Megan squeaked again.
“Is someone putting you up to this?” I asked. I mean, seriously, he winked.
“No.” The hacky sack dropped to the ground with a thud. “I was catching all sorts of vibes from you.”
“Not me!” I said. “From Megan!”
I thrust my thumb back toward where Megan sat, face covered, squeaks sounding.
“But—”
