Dinosaur Boy (8 page)

“We're just kids,” Elliot reminded me. “I doubt she'd talk to us about other students. Even if she's
not
hiding anything.”

“I vote that we sneak into her office and see what we can find,” Sylvie said.

“I vote that too,” Elliot agreed, and shoveled a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

I frowned. Somehow, the two of them had managed to get on the same page. But they had left me a few pages behind.

Still, I found myself nodding in agreement. Sometimes, especially when you're part dinosaur, it's easier to just go along with the crowd.

I grabbed a napkin to dab my watering eyes. I had eaten my entire salad. And now it felt like the molé was trying to escape through my eyeballs. Also through my nose, which had started running.

All of a sudden I felt a sneeze coming on. I could tell it was going to be massive, but even I wasn't prepared for how loud it was when it finally came.

“AAAAAACCCCCCHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!”

Sylvie and Elliot both jumped. The guy at the top of the ladder nearest us jumped, too, and glared down at us.

“Wow!” Elliot exclaimed. “That was one big dinosaur sneeze!”

I shrugged and wiped my nose. I felt better. Like when a cold you've had for a long time finally goes away. Kind of cleaned out. Maybe I should eat spicy food more often.

The next morning, during computer class, Mr. Broome woke up for long enough to saddle us all with a boring spreadsheet assignment, then promptly went back to sleep at his desk. Almost immediately, people started gathering around Allan's computer, just the way they had on the second day of school.

And once again, Allan's big head was blocking the screen so I couldn't see what they were looking at.

“Uh-oh,” I heard Sylvie say.

She had taken the computer next to mine. Elliot was on the other side of her, and she had just angled her screen to show Elliot something.

I got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“What?” I asked.

Sylvie moved her screen so that I could see it too.

It was the
Portland
Daily
News
website. And the top headline was:

Dinosaur
Hybrid
Goes
Prehistoric, Bites Classmate

My first reaction was a strange mixture of guilt and confusion. Had I bitten someone and somehow forgotten about it? Who had I bitten? Had I hurt them? My teeth were still quite human, so I couldn't have done any more damage to them than an ordinary human…

But then I remembered Amalgam Labs, and how I wasn't the only dinosaur hybrid in the world.

“It was in New Jersey,” Sylvie reported, scanning the article. “A T. rex hybrid. He bit another kid in the middle of a soccer game.”

“Well, that's a relief,” I joked. “I only bite people over volleyball disputes.”

Sylvie and Elliot both snickered, but the half dozen kids who were gathered around Allan's computer all turned around and stared at me, openmouthed.

I gulped. I hadn't realized they would take this so seriously.

“I'm kidding,” I told them all. “I don't bite people.”

“This kid didn't either,” Allan said, pointing at his computer screen. They had also been reading the article. “Until he
did
.”

“That kid is a T. rex,” Elliot pointed out. “A meat eater.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Cici demanded. As usual, she was right next to Allan, backing him up. I wondered if she ever used her brain at all or if she just let Allan do all the thinking for the pair of them. Which didn't seem like the best plan to me, considering how stupid Allan was.

“Stegosauruses are herbivores. They eat plants.” Elliot explained. Then, with exaggerated patience, he added, “That means that Sawyer is more likely to attack the fern in the back of the classroom than you.”

“Doubtful. I'm pretty sure it's plastic,” I muttered.

But nobody was listening to me.

“A dinosaur is a dinosaur,” Cici sniffed. “Who cares if he
looks
like
Stegosaurus
? He might have the appetite of
T. rex
. We won't know until he starts eating us.”

“The article says the kid in New Jersey didn't even need stitches,” Sylvie pointed out. “He wasn't
eaten
.”

“Oh sure.” Allan rolled his eyes. “That school is probably just protecting their dino boy. The same way this school protects Sawyer.”

I opened my mouth to say something in response. I'm not sure exactly what. But before I could say anything, Allan just gave an angry grunt and turned his back on me.

“Whatever.” Sylvie dismissed the whole thing with a wave of her hand. “Maybe now they'll leave you alone. Try gnashing your teeth at them every now and then. That might help.”

“Sure,” I said, frowning at my computer screen. I had no intention of gnashing my teeth at anybody. But maybe Sylvie was right. Maybe this T. rex kid gnawing on somebody's arm in New Jersey would turn out to be the best thing that had ever happened to me.

• • •

It did not turn out to be the best thing that had ever happened to me.

For one thing, the staring started again. There had been a lot of staring at the beginning of the year, on the playground and in the halls. It had never really gone away completely, but people at our school had gotten somewhat used to having a part-dinosaur in their midst. To the point where I could walk the halls without people gasping in surprise or stopping whatever they were doing to gape at me.

But now, the gaping was back.

Before, I had just been kind of an oddity. My plates were pretty harmless looking, and my tail spikes were always tennis-balled, so I don't think it had occurred to anyone to be scared of me.

Until now.

Now everyone watched me with a mixture of worry and curiosity, as though I was just a heartbeat away from randomly attacking someone in the hallway.

I was pretty sure that not a single one of them had bothered to read past the headline to find out what had really happened. I, however, had spent the remainder of computer class reading every article I could find on the situation. And as far as I could tell, the T. rex hybrid (a third-grader) had bitten a sixth-grader on the arm after the sixth-grader attacked him for no reason. A school nurse treated the sixth-grader's arm with disinfectant and two Band-Aids, while the hybrid had landed in the hospital with a broken nose. (Er, snout? The articles weren't too clear on the proper terminology for a T. rex nasal appendage.)

But all anybody at our school cared about was that a dinosaur hybrid had bitten someone. The reasons and circumstances behind the bite didn't matter at all.

What mattered was when
I
was going to bite someone. And from the looks I was getting, it was clear that the kids at my school had decided it was only a matter of time before I chose my first victim.

At lunch that day, there seemed to be more space than usual between our table and the rest of the room. We were the same distance from the bathroom as before, so I could only assume that other kids had moved their tables away from us.

On the off chance that I decided to go on a biting frenzy, I suppose.

The only person who didn't keep his distance from me was the only person I may have actually been inclined to bite. If I had given the matter any serious thought. Which, for the record, I had not.

Allan approached our table

“You really think you're fooling anybody with that salad, Butt Brain?”

He gestured angrily to my mixing bowl.

I swallowed a bite of tomato and glared up at him.

“What do you want, Allan?” I asked, trying to sound bored.

He put both his hands on the table and leaned down over me. He kept a smile on his face so the lunch monitor would think it was just a friendly chat. But his voice was shaking with rage as he whispered into my ear.

“I know you're eating them.”

“Eating who?” I asked, not bothering to whisper back.

“The kids who got kicked out,” Allan said, continuing to whisper. “That's why no one has heard anything from them.”

His voice had been loud enough for Elliot and Sylvie to hear. I looked over at them. Elliot's mouth dropped open.

Sylvie started giggling.

Allan turned to her, his huge eyebrows squished together in a frown.

“Shut up, Fence Jumper,” he commanded. Smiling even brighter, for the lunch monitor, he raised his voice to her. “I'll bet that's why you hide under that stupid hood all the time, isn't it? You don't want anyone to recognize you? Don't want us to find out your parents are illegal aliens?”

Sylvie only laughed harder. So hard, I was pretty sure we were all in real danger of having Pixy Stix dust sprayed out of her nose at us.

But I didn't think it was funny. I glared at Allan.

“Don't talk to her like that,” I said, hoping I sounded threatening.

“I didn't come over here to talk to her,” he said dangerously. “I just want you to know that I
know
. I know you're eating them.”

“That's crazy,” I told him. “You're
crazy
. Why would I eat anybody?”

“Because you're a monster,” Allan told me. “Just like that kid in Jersey. I knew from the very beginning that it was only a matter of time before you went all dinosaur-psycho on us.”

“Shut up,” I muttered. I was so angry my hands were shaking, but I hid them under the table so Allan wouldn't see.

“Make me,” Allan suggested.

My hands started to shake harder. It wasn't because I was nervous. It was because I was
angry
.

“Get out of here, Allan,” Elliot whispered loudly. “You don't know what you're talking about.”

Allan didn't look at him. His squinty eyes, buried beneath his eyebrows, were focused squarely on me.

“Sawyer knows what I'm talking about. He's a monster. He doesn't belong in a school. I'm going to prove it, and when I do, they'll put him somewhere safe. Like in a zoo. Or some lab. Just as soon as they recognize him for the
freak
he is.”

My hands were now shaking so hard that they were vibrating the table. I couldn't control myself anymore. I shot to my feet and screamed right in his face:

“Shut up, Allan! You don't know what you're talking about!”

At least, that's what it sounded like in my head.

Out loud, it sounded like:

ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR!

It was the loudest sound I had ever heard in my life. And I couldn't just hear it. I could
feel
it. It shook the entire cafeteria. The tables rattled uncontrollably, and people grabbed for their lunches while also trying to cover their ears. It was kind of like we were all standing really close to a bass speaker, only about a hundred times louder.

I shut my mouth. The sound stopped.

There were about two seconds of silence. Absolute, perfect silence, as all three-hundred-something people in the cafeteria stared at me without moving a muscle.

Then the screaming started.

Every kid in the cafeteria jumped to his or her feet, knocked over their chair, and scrambled for the exit doors. Only Sylvie and Elliot stayed in their seats. Allan, who had been knocked on his butt by my roar, made two failed attempts to get to his feet before he finally crawled away as fast as he could. He was soon lost in the crowd that was fighting to fit through the double doors that led to the quad.

In less time than I would have thought possible, Sylvie, Elliot, and I were alone in the cafeteria.

I collapsed into my chair before my knees could give way. Across the table, Elliot looked sheet-white and shaken.

Only Sylvie looked unaffected. She passed us each a Pixy Stix, and sat back in her chair with a contented smile on her face.

“
Finally
, some peace and quiet around here!”

I couldn't sit there one second longer. I just couldn't.

But I also didn't want to run into the crowd of students who had just vacated the cafeteria in terror. I had a feeling I wouldn't blend in.

So I went out the back way, the way that only teachers and cafeteria staff are allowed to go.

I left Sylvie and Elliot behind, walked through the deserted kitchen, and just kept opening doors until I found one that led outside. It opened up right next to the soccer field, which was blissfully empty of people.

I ran, holding my tail off the ground with one hand, until I was in the very center of the field. Then I stopped and stood still. I had no idea what I was doing there. I knew it wouldn't be long before someone would find me. Probably Animal Control. Or the police.

But for right now, this moment, I was in a big, empty, open space. Alone. With no one staring at me.

It felt…
nice
.

The weather was nice too. It was unseasonably warm for fall in Portland, and the sun was actually coming out from behind the clouds for once. I could feel its warm rays hitting my plates. I stretched my neck out and angled my back so that the sun would be able to reach as many of them as possible. I shivered in the warmth. It was the good kind of shiver, like stepping out into the sun after you've spent too long in air-conditioning.

There was a little bit of breeze too. I could feel it on my face. I was never really one to notice things like breezes, but this one caught my attention. I closed my eyes and felt the light wind pick up the very ends of my hair. I tried to use that to figure out which direction it was coming from. I didn't really know why I was doing that. It didn't make much sense to me. Until, slowly, as though I was obeying some long-forgotten instinct, I turned into the wind.

I felt an icy
woooooosh
as the breeze traveled over the top of my head and down my two rows of plates, spilling down my back like a waterfall of wind. I had always thought of my plates the way they were described in scientific journals, as “bony protrusions,” but they were anything but that right then. They were
alive
. And as sensitive as fingertips as they drank in the sunshine and basked in the gentle touch of the wind.

I kind of wanted to squirm, the way Fanny did when I rubbed her belly in just the right spot. But I was afraid to move, afraid to lose the sensation. It was peaceful. For the very first time, my dinosaur parts didn't feel like bulky, awkward growths. In fact, they didn't even feel like
parts
anymore. They just felt like me.

It occurred to me that everybody, including me, had been talking about how I had “turned” part dinosaur over the summer. But that wasn't exactly true. Dinosaur had been in my DNA all along. I had always been part dinosaur; it had just taken me eleven years to grow the plates to prove it.

I could hear people in the distance. Shouting. At me. And at others to tell them they'd found me. They would be upon me soon. And even if they somehow missed me, standing out in the open, the dark clouds on the horizon would eventually roll in and take away the sunshine.

But until then, I would just stand here with my eyes closed. I didn't want this feeling to end. I just wanted to be happy. And I would be, for as long as they would let me. Happy to not hate that I was part dinosaur. For at least a minute or two more.

• • •

“I'm really sorry, Principal Mathis,” I said, staring down at my hands. “I don't know what happened.”

When I finally looked up, Principal Mathis was blinking at me from across her desk. Her hair looked bigger than usual today, which made her face look smaller. Which, in turn, made her look extremely mantis-like.

“What
happened
is that you lost your temper,” she said. “What did Allan say to you?”

“Nothing,” I mumbled, trying not to shiver. Seriously, why did the administration wing always have to be like twenty degrees colder than the rest of the school?

“At the beginning of this year, I told you to come straight to me if anyone started picking on you. I
know
Allan has been giving you a hard time, but I don't have anything to prove it. Why haven't you been to see me about him?”

I shrugged.

“Sawyer,” she said, her voice taking a turn for the sharp. “
Why
won't you admit that Allan is bullying you? I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened.”

“I don't—” I swallowed, somewhat painfully. My throat had been aching ever since the roar. “I don't want you to help me anymore.”

“What?” Principal Mathis asked, sounding confused.

“Enough kids are already gone,” I said, so quietly I could barely hear myself. I glanced up at her, worried that I had gone too far.

Principal Mathis wasn't looking at me. She was staring at the lone piece of artwork on her office wall, a framed quote that read:

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.

—Victor Hugo

“Not quite enough,” she mumbled. Then she shook her head and turned back to me again.

“I want you to feel safe at this school, Sawyer.”

“I do,” I said quickly. “But what about them?”

“Them?” She blinked at me again.

“The kids who are gone,” I persisted. I was pushing it, I knew that. But I
had
to find out.

Principal Mathis's face had no expression on it whatsoever.

“What about them?” she asked.

“Are they…safe?” I asked.

“Of course they're safe.” Principal Mathis looked aghast. “What do you think has happened to them, Sawyer?”

I shrugged.

“I don't know. We just think—”

“
We?
” she demanded.

“
I
,” I corrected myself. There was no point in dragging Sylvie and Elliot into this. “
I
just wonder where they went. That's all.”

Principal Mathis took a deep breath. After a moment or two more of staring at me, she opened her desk drawer and took out a brochure. She made as if to hand it to me, then hesitated.

“Can you keep a secret, Sawyer?”

“OK,” I agreed.

She put the brochure in my hand.

“I can see you are very concerned about your classmates, Sawyer,” Principal Mathis said. “So I'll let you in on the secret. Because of the zero tolerance policy, all of the students who have bullied you since school began have been automatically expelled. But they have also been offered the opportunity to enroll in a six-week intensive program at Camp Remorse. Those who successfully complete the program will be welcomed back to school.”

“Oh,” I said. Was that it? Parker and the others weren't dead, they were just in Colorado? Suddenly, everything Elliot and Sylvie and I had speculated over the past few days seemed absurd. What had we been thinking? Of course ten kids hadn't just up and disappeared.

“Why is it a secret?” I asked Principal Mathis, as I skimmed through several of the program offerings inside the brochure, like “Hot Yoga for Hot Heads” and “The Art of Patience, Not Put-Downs.”

She sat back in her chair and shrugged.

“Several of the parents are concerned about this incident damaging their child's future academic career. I have assured them that so long as their child graduates from the program, their expulsion will be reversed and removed from their permanent record. Assuming there are no future incidents, no one will ever have to know that their child attended Camp Remorse.”

“Oh,” I said again. That made sense.

Principal Mathis caught my eye over the edge of the program.

“They're not getting off without punishment, Sawyer,” she said. Behind her glasses, her eyes were full of sincerity. “This is a tough program. It will make them think about what they did to you and how wrong it was. But it will also give them a chance to work through their problems and rejoin the school as better adjusted, more tolerant kids. I promise, not a single student will be allowed back into this school until they have demonstrated, to my satisfaction, that they have been fully rid of their need to bully.”

I nodded vigorously, rather embarrassed by Principal Mathis's intense need to defend me.

But I was also kind of touched. I was pretty sure that our previous principal hadn't even known my name.

“I'll try not to roar again,” I told her. “I didn't mean to. I think it might just be something that happens when I get angry. Or maybe when I eat spicy food. I'm not really sure. But I promise I won't bite anyone, like that kid in New Jersey.”

“I've never thought you would bite anyone, Sawyer,” Principal Mathis said. She stood, indicating that I should leave.

“But do try to keep the roaring under control. Two fifth-graders who heard it had nervous breakdowns and had to be sent home for the day. Their parents were not pleased.”

“Sorry,” I muttered again, as I reached for the doorknob.

“Sawyer?”

“Yeah?” I turned back around.

Principal Mathis held out her hand.

“The brochure?”

“Oh, right…”

I handed her the brochure and left her office. Ms. Helen looked up as I did, then pressed a button on her fan that made it oscillate back and forth even faster than before.

• • •

I had to break my promise to Principal Mathis almost immediately, as Sylvie and Elliot were both waiting for me right outside the administration building. I felt sort of guilty about it, but I couldn't let the two of them go on thinking our classmates were dead or in trouble when I knew differently.

They didn't react how I'd imagined.

“Camp
what
?” Elliot scoffed.

“That sounds made up,” Sylvie seconded.

“I saw a brochure!” I insisted. “There were classes, and a logo, and it's just outside of Colorado, and—”

“Totally made up,” Sylvie concluded with a sniff.

“Well,” Elliot hedged. “I guess it does sort of explain why Parker's mom said she missed him.”

Sylvie shook her head.

“You guys are so gullible. Camp
Remorse
? That's just ridiculous. Principal Mathis is a total liar.”

“No, she's
not
!” I fired back. “She's trying to help me. You don't know anything, Sylvie.”

“Oh, I know stuff!” Sylvie snipped, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at me from under her hoodie. “And even if I didn't, I know better than to be a trusting nitwit who just—”

“Shhh!” Elliot broke in frantically. “It's her!”

Sylvie's jaw snapped shut as Principal Mathis came striding through the administration building doors.

Even in her enormous heels, which made a sharp
click
-
click
on the ground as she passed us, the principal was still only a bit taller than Sylvie and me. Which meant that she was about a foot shorter than Elliot.

“Hello, Principal Mathis,” Elliot said, smiling and giving her a goofy wave.

“Hello there,” Principal Mathis said, smiling up at him as she breezed by. She seemed to be in a hurry. She barely nodded at Sylvie and me as she
click
-
clicked
down toward the parking lot and took a sharp left.

Sylvie watched with narrowed eyes as Principal Mathis disappeared around the side of the science wing.

“I'm following her,” she declared, then looked warningly at Elliot and me. “You coming?”

I hesitated. So did Elliot.

“What if we don't?” Elliot inquired.

Sylvie shrugged.

“Then don't blame me if you both end up at
Camp
Remorse
.”