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Ryan came running. When she was certain no one was hurt, she put her hands on her hips and frowned at Rocky. “That,” she said, “was not the proper technique for extracting rocks. However” — she picked up one of the bigger chunks and turned it over in her hands — “you did dislodge some intriguing specimens.”
    She showed the piece to Rocky and Bobby. “See the shells embedded in there? That could indicate there was once a body of water here. Interesting, yes?”
    She gave the chunk to Rocky for his collection and then called to the other students. “Class, come over and help yourselves to one of Rocky’s rocks! Then it’s time to go back to school.”
    Rocky put the rock piece into his plastic bag of other samples. Bobby grabbed his own shell-studded sample and then put on his backpack and picked up his crutches.
    “Help me put my stuff in my pack, will you, Rocky?” He handed his sample bag and safety glasses to Rocky. Rocky slipped them in, along with the rock hammer, his glasses, and his bag of rocks. Then he zipped up the pack.
    After hobbling back from the park, Bobby excused himself to use the bathroom at school. When he returned to the classroom, he took the hammer and two pairs of safety glasses from his pack and added them to the others already there. Then he took out his bag of rocks, put them on his desk, and set his backpack aside.
    “Psst, Bobby! Can I have my samples?” Rocky whispered.
    Bobby turned a confused eye to him. “Huh?”
    “My rocks! Give me my rocks!”
    Bobby shook his head. “I don’t have your rocks!”
    Rocky grabbed Bobby’s backpack then. “Yes you do! I put them right in here!” He rummaged frantically inside the pack. But it was empty. “Where’d they go?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Rocky,” Bobby said. “There was only one bag of rocks in there — and it was mine!”
    “Is everything okay, boys?” Mrs. Ryan asked.
    “I — I lost my samples,” Rocky replied. He told her what happened. “Maybe I left my bag behind. Could I go look?”
    She shook her head. “I can’t let you go back there without a chaperone. You’ll have to go after school.”
    “What if they’re not there anymore?”
    “Take a rock hammer and pair of safety glasses with you. That way, you can gather a second set of samples if need be.”
    Rocky nodded dumbly. He was completely bewildered. He knew he had put his rock samples in Bobby’s backpack. So where had they gone?
    Then he realized what Mrs. Ryan had said. He had to go back to the park after school — but he was supposed to meet Coach Ward and the others for extra practice at three!
    If I run to the park and find my samples right away, I can still make it to the field on time,
he figured.
But if I have to dig out more samples, I’ll be late for sure! I may even miss the extra practice time altogether!
    There was nothing to be done about it, though. Schoolwork came first, football second.

12
    A fter school, Rocky raced to the cliff. He searched frantically. There was no sign of his bag of rocks anywhere. Fortunately, there were many interesting bits of rock lying on the ground, including the seashell ones he’d dislodged earlier. He gathered several good-size samples and stuck them in his backpack. They rattled around as he ran, pell-mell, for the locker room.
    But even after running at top speed he was fifteen minutes late to safety practice. Coach Ward looked pointedly at his watch but nodded with understanding when Rocky explained what had happened. “I won’t be late again, I promise,” he assured the coach.
    “See that you aren’t,” Coach Ward said sternly. “You don’t become a good two-way player in a week by missing practice time.”
    The remainder of safety practice, and the regular practice that followed, went smoothly, much to Rocky’s relief.
    The next school day passed without mishap too. Rocky still couldn’t figure out what had happened to his original samples, but now that