No Bones About It Read Online Free Page A

dominoes. In seconds, Katie and George were sitting on the ground, surrounded by a pile of white plastic bones and wire.
    “Oops,” George said sheepishly.
    “Oops?” Katie cried out. “Is that all you can say? Look what you’ve done!”
    “I didn’t do it. You did,” George said. He rubbed his bottom. “And how come you only care about the dinosaur? I hurt my tail, too.”
    Katie didn’t care about George’s sore rear end. All she could think about was the pile of bones on the floor. Mr. Weir was going to be in big trouble. He might even lose his job! And it would all be Katie’s fault.

    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.”
    “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