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Kendall is trying to figure out how they got here.
She and Shelby are sitting on the side of a deserted Canadian highway in the pouring rain in the middle of the night, on what’s left of their soaked luggage, shivering, and giving each other the mutual silent treatment.
Kendall’s mind feels fried, she’s exhausted, and her memory is getting fuzzy as the hypothermia starts to set in, but she’s pretty sure that this is all Shelby’s fault.
***
“Kendall!” Shelby yells, charging into the laboratory, and Kendall is already holding her breath at what might come next. “We’ve got to get to Canada!”
Well, points for the element of surprise. “Canada? What?”
Shelby slams down a magazine in front of Kendall, pointing excitedly at a picture of a dinosaur that looks very familiar. “They’ve found a new dinosaur in Canada, and guess what kind it is, guess!”
Kendall quirks an eyebrow as she examines the article. “It looks suspiciously Chasmosaurinae.”
“It’s a Centrosaurinae!” Shelby exclaims, clapping her hands together. “Kendall, they found a new subgroup of ceratopsian dinosaurs, and they’re calling her Wendiceratops, the Triceratops first cousin! This is the first time ever that the unique nose horn of the Triceratops has been found in another dinosaur fossil! It’s huge! It’s monumental!” Shelby explains, and Kendall can’t help but be impressed with her enthusiasm for the dinosaur. Shelby reached over and grabs Kendall’s arm and shakes it with a crazed look in her eyes. “We have to go.”
“Shelby,” Kendall says, prying her arm away, “We can’t just drop everything to go to another organizations dig site for a dinosaur which doesn’t have any connection to the Energems. We have work to do.”
“But Kendall!” Shelby whines, following Kendall as she stands and walks towards the central scanning platform in the lab. “It’s one of those awesome, life changing experiences for people who love dinosaurs as much as we do-- No, don’t deny it, I know you do!”
Kendall had opened her mouth to object, but not about loving dinosaurs. “I wasn’t going to deny it.”
“Then you agree we have to go!” Shelby says, throwing her arms up in the air, and Kendall lets out a groan. “Come on, you could use your museum credentials to get us on the dig site, and I could go as your, uh, personal assistant!”
Kendall scoffs.
“We don’t have to stay away long, and the guys can handle things while we’re gone,” Shelby continues, following Kendall around to lab as she tries to busy herself with important things to do, “It’ll be an adventure, and we might find valuable assets for the museum.”
“You’d have had a better shot at convincing me to go before we found the pink Energem,” Kendall scolds, smirking, “As it’s the only one Keeper entrusted to the ceratopsians.”
Shelby stops where she is and sticks her lip out. “Please, Kendall? It’s one of the only things I’ve ever really wanted!”
Kendall sighs. She can admit that the idea is tempting; she is after all a paleontologist first, and it was her love of dinosaurs and discovering them that had led her to Keeper and the Energems. She missed going on digs and talking with real scientists who shared her interests. And it had been a while since the museum had actually acquired anything of interest or value.
But Canada was a long way to go to be on a dig site where they wouldn’t have unrestricted access, and she’s not entirely convinced that the guys could handle any emergencies without them while they were gone. Besides, she’d be trapped alone with Shelby for the duration of the trip, and even on her best days Shelby’s personality is a little much for her to handle.
Could she send Shelby on her own? Get her out of her hair for a few days and let her have her adventure… that is probably an irresponsible thought. No, Shelby is right; if anyone is going to go, it would be the two of them first. They couldn’t really spare any more of the rangers.
But why is she even considering this? All Shelby had really done was throw a (credible, peer reviewed) magazine at Kendall and beg to go. Was she going soft? Was that really all it took to get to her consider this insanity?
“Kendall,” Shelby tries again, her resolve as undeterred as ever, “You don’t know that there isn’t another one of the Energems in the dinosaur graveyard they found Wendi in. This could be a sign. Wendi could be calling to me.”
Kendall rolls her eyes at her, smiling fondly. “A sign?”
Shelby wiggles under Kendall’s scrutiny. “And also I really, really, really wanna go, come on!”
Kendall lets out of a puff of air. “I’ll look into it, but-”
Shelby pounces on her instantly with a bone crushing hug, like she’s already said yes. Kendall objects strenuously with the little air left in her lungs as Shelby starts planning the trip.
***
Kendall leaves strict instructions for the boys to follow about running the museum and calling them if there’s trouble, but she knows they’ll ignore them as soon as they’ve boarded the plane. She’s torn; she’s already regretting agreeing to this trip, but she’s also really excited to go check out this new dinosaur.
She can’t let that excitement show, of course, or Shelby will get even more excited than she already is. She’s practically bouncing in her seat, so Kendall puts on her mask of practiced calm and reads while Shelby doodles pink three horned dinosaurs on her napkin.
Kendall had requested access to observing and assisting at the dig site on behalf of the Amber Beach Museum, and the organizer of the dig had seemed grateful for the extra help. They’d discovered over four intact specimens of Wendiceratops at the dig site, so the extra help uncovering them was probably welcome. However she was politely informed that it would be research and assistance only; the site belonged to the Royal Ontario Museum and they weren’t likely to walk away with anything for Amber Beach.
But maybe if the completed fossils traveled they’d get to host one of them for an exhibit at some point. Paleontology was a fairly small world, and networking could be useful, too. Kendall wasn’t very good at it (she was, after all, usually the smartest person in any given room and what was worse was that she knew it) but it couldn’t hurt to try. Maybe Shelby’s enthusiasm and natural charm might work in their favor there.
They went straight from the airport to the dig site in a rental car, luggage and all, planning to check into the hotel that evening after a full day of getting dirty with dinosaur fossils. Shelby chatters a hundred miles a minute the whole way, and somewhat haphazardly rubs sunscreen on Kendall’s nose at stop lights.
It’s like traveling with a toddler; cute, messy, and loud.
“In case I don’t remember to tell you this later,” Shelby says, as they arrive at the site and are waved in by members of the dig team, “You are the best ever for taking me to do this, and I really didn’t expect for you to care about making my dream come true, but I’m so glad you did and I am so glad we’re friends.”
Shelby leaps out of the car door before Kendall can respond.
***
Looking back, Kendall should have known right there that the warm, fuzzy feeling in her stomach was not from Shelby’s unusual show of affection, but was instead a warning of their impending doom.
Sometimes Kendall hated being right.
She had set off to help uncover one of the large bones in one of the legs with the excavation site manager, and as she sometimes did, she lost herself in her work. In doing so, she also lost track of Shelby.
Shelby, who wanted so badly to impress the other workers on the site that she offered to help move equipment far too heavy for her. Shelby, who was too busy rattling off dinosaur facts to people who didn’t care to watch where she was going. Shelby, who couldn’t just let Kendall have a moment of peace before practically destroying both a very expensive piece of drilling equipment and a part of their very rare fossil. Shelby, Shelby, Shelby…
Okay, to be fair… it was Kendall who had forgotten to put on the parking break in their rental car, which during the chaos began to roll backwards across the site and had ended up in a heap off the side of a ravine. But that was Shelby’s fault, too, because if she hadn’t gotten all mushy with Kendall when they got there, Kendall would have remembered the parking brake.
They’d been on the site maybe 2 hours before practically ruining the entire dig site, and the crew had promptly rescinded the invitation to help them excavate. To make matters worse, the crew had packed up and gone home when the rain storm set in that evening, and neither Shelby nor Kendall could convince any of them to give them a lift back to the city.
“There’s a station on the way out,” the surly excavation manager had sneered at them, “We’ll let them know some tourists got lost.”
“You are a despicable!” Kendall had shouted after him, “And a bad paleontologist! And shitty human being!”
Which had left them here, on the side of a deserted Canadian highway in the pouring rain, shivering in silence.
Kendall is pulled out of her ruminations of the day when she hears Shelby sniff.
“Are you crying?” Kendall asks, still staring out at the road.
“No,” Shelby says defensively, “It’s allergies.”
Kendall snorts, and that action actually makes her smile. At least Shelby hasn’t lost her sense of humor.
“Okay,” Kendall says, pushing herself up off the ground, “Enough moping. It’s time to get to work.”
Shelby looks up at her with a confused look. “What?”
“I don’t know about you,” Kendall says, putting her hands on her hips defiantly, “But I don’t intent to sacrifice my reputation and my life to Wendiceratops. If I’m not getting out of here with one, I’m sure as hell leaving with the other. We’ve got to get to that ranger station, somehow. You with me?”
Shelby looks away. “I thought you were still mad at me?”
“Oh, I am,” Kendall assures, perfectly serious, “But I’m stuck with you, so I figure I might as well put you to work. Besides, you’re clumsy, and ridiculous, but… you mean well. I’d rather be stuck with you than that stuffy excavation crew who left us out here any day.”
“You mean that?” Shelby wonders, tilting her head. “I know how badly I messed up, I don’t need you to make me feel better about it.”
Kendall shrugs. “Well, having your dreams come true and then having them get ruined all in a couple of hours is a lot to take in. I figure you’ve been through enough today. Come on,” she says, offering Shelby a hand, “Let’s get going.”
Shelby considers her hand for a moment before taking it and pulling herself up. “I think I have a better idea.”
***
Excavating during storms was dangerous. It was not a recommended practice, mostly because of the way things could shift at any moment, causing rock or mud slides. Kendall can’t believe she agreed to it. But they were out here, and well… it was a known discovery site. The museum didn’t own it all.
What else were they going to do in the middle of a Canadian wasteland all night?
***
When the crew returns the next day, Kendall and Shelby wave at them from across the trench, sitting atop the leg of their very own specimen of Wendiceratops pinhornensi.
The looks on their faces are almost worth the entire disaster of the day before.
The look on Shelby’s face definitely is.
***
Kendall swears off all future trips with Shelby, even in lieu of the fact that they’d found a very unique fossil for the museum. She reminds Shelby of how they got into the situation every chance she gets, but Shelby doesn’t seem fazed.
If anything, she’s even more determined to become a certified fossil hunter.
“I’m just saying, first time out, I found her,” Shelby tells her, back in the safety of the lab, “I have a gift.”
“A gift is not what I would call it,” Kendall admonishes.
“I think we should go to that crater in Mexico next,” Shelby tells her thoughtfully, “Maybe we can find a new dinosaur. I could name her the Shelbysaurus.”
Kendall rolls her eyes, tosses a pencil at her. “Keep dreaming, Shelby.”
“I meant what I said before, you know,” Shelby says, smiling, “I know you probably regret the whole thing, but I know you did it because you like me, and I won’t forget it.”
“Try,” Kendall deadpans, even when Shelby laughs.
“One of these days,” Shelby says, heading for the doorway, “I’m going to need you to admit that we’re friends, even when I drive you crazy.”
Kendall doesn’t answer, and Shelby leaves her alone in the lab, probably heading back upstairs to look at the empty spot where Wendi will go when she arrives.
“Not today,” Kendall mutters to herself, tapping a few keys on her computer and smirking.
She closes out the browser about the fossil crater in Mexico with a shake of her head.
Maybe someday, she thinks, before following Shelby up the stairs.