teacher was in charge of the club She had arranged for the whole club and their families to come on a field trip to Paleo Park this weekend For the dig Ms. Daisy had assigned Violet and Nick as partners They bent down on opposite sides of the fossil Violet took her field notebook out of her backpack Ribbon bookmarks divided her notebook into different sections Each of the seven ribbons was a different color of the rainbow She opened her notebook to the dinosaur dig section in the middle and started a new entry December 8 Paleo Park Specimen 1 2 1 Far back corner of the park halfway up the hillside 2 Whitish gray object quarter size 3 Found near gray clay ironstone lignite Violet put her green ribbon bookmark on the page and closed the field notebook Violet and Nick used their paintbrushes on the fossil to clear away the ironstone pebbles the way Ms. Daisy had showed them The lignite or small chunks of fossilized
wood pieces crumbled into an ashy powder with each brushstroke Rubbing their work gloves gently on the fossil removed most of the sticky clay from it It was the size of a football Violet hadn't found a fossil this big before The rounded surface with little holes reminded Violet of a sponge And she knew what that meant Bone It has to be a dinosaur bone she thought Violet opened her field notebook to the page marked with a green ribbon She sketched the exposed part of the fossil Below her drawing she continued her list of seven 4 Spongy football sized 5 Appears to be a dinosaur bone Violet cupped her hands around her mouth Lao Lao Near the bottom of the hill Lao Lao knelt on a thick foam pad and combed through the ground Her silver hair peeked out of her straw hat When Lao Lao looked up at her Violet motioned for her to come up the hill Coming Lao Lao yelled back Your grandma makes it look easy to climb said Nick Lao Lao moved at a steady pace swinging her kneeling pad in one hand and her water bottle in the other 3
4 Violet nodded and smiled She does this a lot When Lao Lao reached Violet and Nick she hovered over the fossil Now that's a big dinosaur bone Violet was so excited If Lao Lao says it's a dinosaur bone thought Violet then it's a dinosaur bone Lao Lao was never wrong She didn't hunt for them as part of her job like Mom but Lao Lao knew bones I'll get Mom and Dr. Hart said Violet Will you stay here with Nick and our fossil find Of course Lao Lao knelt on her foam pad beside the fossil
Violet scrambled up the hillside She took seven steps And then seven more steps But her hiking boots lost their grip before she made it to the top Ahhhh Violet slid backward down the hill But one of her boots hit a large clump of rusty ironstone sticking out of the clay She fell forward reaching one hand out to catch herself from falling all the way to the ground She took a deep breath in counting to seven And a deep breath out counting to seven Are you okay yelled Lao Lao behind Violet Nick and Lao Lao were the only ones on the hillside The only ones who would've seen her Violet turned around toward them Yeah I'm okay she yelled back Violet wished Lao Lao and Nick hadn't seen that Not that they would make fun of her But still it was embarrassing Violet climbed the hill again carefully calculating each step But she imagined that she slid down the hill again and the large clump of bronze poking out of the ground didn't stop her In her mind she tumbled down the hillside until she ran into Lao Lao and Nick She could picture herself breaking Lao Lao's arm and Nick's leg so that pieces of bone popped out of their skin This 5
