“D,” Petey said quietly by his shoulder. “We’re not supposed to leave our class. We’ll get in huge trouble if we’re caught, and our parents will kill us.”
“Well, then, we won’t get caught,” Diego said, shrugging. “Come on, Petey, where’s your sense of adventure?” He grinned at the girls.
Lucy and Paige shared a glance.
“We’re not going to let these North-side runts show us up, are we?” Paige said.
Diego was surprised to see uncertainty on Lucy’s face.
Paige leaned toward Lucy. “It’s not gonna bite.”
“It’s really cool,” Diego added. “Besides, you’ve got me and Petey to protect you.”
“Please,” Lucy said. “I don’t need a boy to take care of me.” She nodded and glanced at Paige. “Let’s humor them.” She took a deep breath as she said it.
Diego glanced back at their classes. “We should stay with our groups until we’re down the hall a little farther. Then watch for my signal.”
After what seemed like a never-ending lecture by Mr. Nelson, the classes split into four-person groups and were allowed to take in the rest of the exhibit on their own. Each student was given a small chalkboard to gather at least three interesting facts from the displays. The boys scribbled down as much as they could at the first exhibit about mammoths and then announced that they were headed for the restrooms, and set off to find Lucy and Paige.
They spotted Lucy with her school group over by an exhibit about glaciers. Paige was with hers by the mastodons. Diego nodded to each of them, then waited over by a diorama featuring Neanderthal hunters confronting a saber-toothed tiger.
“Those would be good friends for you two,” Paige said as she and Lucy arrived.
“Actually,” Petey said, waving his hand dismissively at the exhibit, “that’s not even close to what a real Neanderthal looks like.”
“Like you would know that, North-sider,” Paige said, one eyebrow raised.
“Actually, Petey and I have been out to the wild lands,” Diego said. “We’ve seen the Neanderthals firsthand.”
“Oh, really?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah,” Diego said. He didn’t add that technically they only thought they’d seen a Neanderthal tribe, from a far distance. At the time, they’d been running from that dimetrodon.
“You’ve actually been out to the wild lands?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah, right,” Paige said. “These two couldn’t even survive a walk in Cicero. There’s no way they’ve been out in the wild lands.”
“We’ve been there a few times,” Diego said. “And I’m not sure you could handle it.”
“Oh, I’m about to show you what I can handle,” Paige said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Hold on,” Lucy said, grabbing Paige’s arm. Diego noticed that her eyes had widened. “But aren’t there . . . dinosaurs out there? Like, real ones?”
“Oh yeah,” Petey said, “lots of different kinds. Man-eaters, giant herbivores that could squash you with a single step.”
“It’s not that bad,” Diego said, watching Lucy’s face as Petey went on. “They usually keep to themselves. It’s actually more dangerous if you cross into Algonquin lands without permission, or run into one of those Neanderthal hunting parties.”
“Yeah, right,” Paige said. “You two talk big. I bet you’ve never really been out there.”
“We have, too,” Diego said. “My dad leads salvage expeditions, and he takes us along to help.”
Paige opened her mouth to add more when snickering distracted them.
A group of boys lurked across the hall, with Joe Fish standing in the middle.
“Ugh, I thought I smelled Believers,” Petey said, but he kept his voice quiet enough that the gang wouldn’t hear.
“True Believers?” Lucy asked.
Just then, Fish blew her a kiss. His gang cracked up.
“They’re a lot of filthy hooligans,” Lucy said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Come on, y’all, we don’t need to waste time with them,” Paige said.
“You heard the ladies,” Petey said, catching up.
Diego started after them but paused and turned back to Fish.
Fish’s buddies laughed at this, too. Fish scowled at Diego and made a circular motion, with his finger pointing at the ground. Turn around and walk away. He then raised his thumb to his throat and made a long, slow, cutting motion.
It was all Diego could do to keep his cool. Not even two years ago, they’d been friends, and Fish had even come by the workshop sometimes. Now he was well on his way to being a Time-separatist thug.
“D,” Petey said from a few steps behind him. “Come on.”
Diego tried to swallow his anger. But before he turned away, he held up a hand to his ear, then with the other hand pretended to be turning up the volume dial on a radio. He moved his hand away from his ear and slowly raised his middle finger in time to the dial spinning.
Fish shoved his hands in his pockets, his face so red it looked like he might boil over.
“Why would you do that?” Petey asked as they hurried to catch the girls. “I really don’t want a busted jaw, or worse. You know those guys have roughed kids up, bad.”
“He needs to know that not everyone is afraid of him,” Diego said.
“But I am afraid of him,” Petey said. “I’m sore at him for turning on us as much as you are, but we can’t do anything about it.”
“They shouldn’t act like that toward a girl,” Diego said.
“You two speak for yourselves,” Paige said as they caught up. “Them hoods wouldn’t dare mess with me, or they know what they’d get.”
“Yes,” Lucy said, “we don’t need seventh-grade bodyguards, if you please. We can handle ourselves.”
“Fine,” Diego said.
Petey said, “There’s the service entrance.” He pointed to a door with a keypad lock. “Right, D?”
“Yeah.” Diego led them to the door. He punched in the code.
The door didn’t move.
“I thought you said you had this?” Paige asked. “Or is this just more of your bull?”
“No.” Diego typed in the code again. He’d gone over it in his head. This was definitely it.
Still nothing.
Lucy huffed. “What a bore.”
“Try it slower,” Petey said, “in case the buttons are sticking, or a number isn’t registering.” He gazed back over his shoulder. “But, you know, hurry. Mr. Nelson could come by any second.”
Diego typed the numbers again, and when the door still didn’t budge, he slammed it with his palm.
“Knew you were all talk,” Paige said.
“We should just head back,” Petey added.
“No, wait,” Diego said. “Just . . . hold on.” He closed his eyes and tried