by Laura Dower
“Get it off me!” Ivy squealed. “GET IT OFF!”
“Shhhhh!” Madison said. “Stop screaming. Where is it?”
Joan poked her head into Ivy’s stall. “It must have crawled away. It isn’t here anymore.”
“Is this the spider?” Stacey asked. She held open her stall door and pointed to the wall. On it, a fat brown spider measuring about half an inch crawled down a pipe. “I guess he crawled in here when Ivy screamed,” she said.
Ivy shook her head. “That can’t be him,” she said. “He was way bigger than THAT!”
Stacey reached over and the spider walked onto her finger. “I like spiders,” she said. Everyone gave her a funny look. She held it out to Ivy.
Ivy jumped backward. “Get that away from me,” she howled.
“We’d better get back to bed. Lights-out was almost a half hour ago,” Fiona said. “And we have to get up early tomorrow.”
The group left the spider behind to eat up some of the bugs. They slipped and slid in the mud on the way back to the cabin, sidestepping fallen branches.
Once they were inside, the girls removed their muddy sneakers and wet pants, changed into their pajamas, rolled out sheets or blankets (those who had them), and unzipped their sleeping bags. Madison had brought an old, army green sleeping sack that Dad had given her when she was in third grade. She noticed that Ivy had the same one. Their dads had probably shopped together back then, back when Maddie and Ivy were still friends.
After good-nights with Aimee, Fiona, and Lindsay, Madison pulled on some wooly socks and crawled into her sleeping bag with her orange notebook and flashlight. It was a little hot under the covers. Sleepy hot.
File: Lights-out
Rude Awakening: Why do they call it the great outdoors? What’s so great about mud and bugs? This field trip is like a head trip—especially when Ivy acts like she’s queen of the wilderness.
Madison stopped writing. Her eyes were getting heavy.
She dozed off about two minutes later.
The camp staff canceled the bird walk for the next morning, just like Mrs. Wing said, so everyone woke up early, dressed, and headed directly to the snack shack for breakfast. Madison and her friends pulled on their fleece jackets. The air was nippy. The ground was still a little wet, too, from the rain the night before.
“How did you guys sleep?” Madison asked.
“My sleeping bag smells,” Aimee complained. “It’s Billy’s and it stinks like feet. Sick, huh?”
“I kept dreaming about that spider,” Fiona said, shuddering.
“That was scary,” Madison said. “But the look on Ivy’s face was worth it.”
“I think Ivy snores,” Aimee joked. “Or one of the drones does. I heard them in the middle of the night.”
Fiona and Madison giggled.
Farther along the path to breakfast, they ran into the boys. Fiona lit up when she saw Egg. Everyone walked into the snack shack together.
The room was like a school cafeteria but with different decor: wood beams, screened-in windows, long wooden tables. There was no orange table like at FHJH, but the group found a place to sit. There were no chairs, either, just benches, which meant squeezing together.
Madison jockeyed for position so she’d be near her crush. But Hart sat with Dan and Chet, not Madison. She was stuck between Aimee and Drew.
“My brother Doug was here just two years ago and he said the food is gross,” Aimee said.
“Everything is gross to you,” Madison teased.
On the table was a stack of bowls and little mini-boxes of cereal like Chex and Special K. There were also pitchers of orange juice and water, and assorted fresh fruit.
“What’s gross about cereal?” Madison asked. “Although I wish they had Honey Loops.”
“Or Frosted Mini-Wheats,” Drew said, chomping on an apple.
“Well, all of this doesn’t really matter anyhow,” Aimee went on. “Doug and Dean both told me that the activities they have us do are really fun. It’s like this total bonding experience for the seventh grade, especially climbing the Tower.”
“The Tower scares me,” Madison admitted.
“It’s not scary! Doug says we’ll all have a good time. Try it before you say anything bad,” Aimee said.
“You sound like Mrs. Goode,” Drew said.
“I do not,” Aimee protested. “I’m only saying it because it’s true and it’s what my brothers said and they should know. I mean, what do YOU know about this place, Drew? Have you ever been here before?”
“No,” Drew said simply. “I’ve been to camp, though, and this is just like camp everywhere. Don’t you think so, Maddie?”
Madison smiled. “Sure,” she said.
“But you’ve never been to camp, Maddie,” Aimee said.
“Technically, no,” Madison said. She started to explain how she wished she had been to camp, but then the conversation took a left turn. Drew and Aimee got into an argument about what the K stood for in Special K.
Madison glanced across the table at Hart, Dan, and Lindsay, who were having a three-way bubble-blowing contest in their small cups of milk. Chet looked like he was asleep; he was leaning on his hand to keep his head up. Egg and Fiona were talking. They looked like a couple, Madison thought. Or at least they looked like what Madison thought a couple should look like.
“ATTENTION!” Mrs. Goode stood up at the front of the room, coffee cup in hand. “Good morning, boys and girls. Welcome to your first morning at Jasper Lodge. How did everyone sleep?”
Half the kids cheered. The other half groaned.
Madison whirled around to find Ivy and her drones. They were sitting a table away but at the other end of the room. Ivy saw Madison look and made a sour face. She was probably still fuming about the spider-in-the-bathroom incident.
“Should we start the morning with a little stretch?” Coach Hammond asked. He was the FHJH gym teacher—but with a New Age twist. He always asked for meditation moments before practices and adopted all these funky stretching routines in gym. He wanted to bring yoga and Pilates to school.
Benches creaked and a few plates and cups were dropped as the room got to its feet. Kids grumbled as they raised their arms. Madison yawned. When she stretched, she realized that her T-shirt was on inside out.
“Anyone here know what makes a rainstorm?” Coach Hammond asked the room.
A few kids said, “Yeah!”
Aimee squealed, too. “Cool! We’re gonna do a rainstorm. This is the best.”
Madison had no idea what Aimee or Coach Hammond was talking about.
Coach pointed to one corner of the room and asked each kid there to rub two fingers of one hand on the palm of the other. Then he asked the members of another table to rub their palms together. He instructed Madison’s group to clap two fingers on the opposite palm. Ivy’s table was told to clap hands. All the teachers were in charge of foot stomping. Slowly, starting with table one, he added actions and noises until the room sounded so much like a rainstorm it felt wet.
Madison wondered if all campers did was learn weird songs and games and sing them before, after, and during meals. And why were they singing a song about rain when it had rained the night before?
“Very fine!” Mrs. Goode said, clapping louder than the rest. The indoor rain stopped. “That was a little reverse psychology, students. We hope our rainstorm will shoo away the real rain. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
Madison looked up at the beams on the ceiling. There was a spider on one of the rafters. Its web was reflecting sunlight from the big windows.
Mrs. Goode had faculty members go around the room to split kids up for the morning’s activities. The class would spend the morning helping to clean up the woods and lodge. Madison’s table split right down the middle. The way it was divided, she wouldn’t be on the same team as Hart, Dan, Chet, Fiona, Aimee, or Egg. She and Drew and a bunch of other seventh graders they hardly knew ended up together. Aimee and Fiona were ready to complain when
Drew spoke to one teacher and asked if they could swap. He traded places with someone who didn’t care whose group he joined. Madison did the same. Ivy was not part of either equation.
The first morning stop for Madison’s group was picking up on the trails. The students were asked to clean and maintain the trails around the camp. This meant replacing rocks, picking up any litter, and other small tasks. Naturally, the ground was muddier than muddy from the night before, so the job was a messy one.
“Heads up!” Chet cried as he flicked a little mud at his sister.
She yelled back at him, tossing wet leaves at his head. She missed.
Madison, Drew, and Egg watched quietly as the mud war heated up. When Fiona got hit with a mud splot on the neck, Egg burst into laughter. Drew started snorting with laughter, too. Madison didn’t want to laugh. This was her BFF, after all! But after a moment, she caught the giggles. Drew and Egg made another joke about Fiona’s mud mask. Madison laughed again.
Fiona saw her. And heard her.
Madison quickly ran over to her BFF with a towel.
“I can’t believe Chet threw mud at you!” Madison said with disbelief.
“Then why did you laugh?” Fiona asked. “I saw.”
Madison shrugged. “What? Huh?” she stuttered.
“Weren’t you laughing at me?” Fiona asked sweetly.
Madison felt the knot in her belly tighten. It was like a little noose around her heart. How could she have been laughing out loud at her best friend’s expense? She wasn’t. Was she?
“Egg wasn’t laughing, was he?”
Madison’s eyes bugged out wide. “Egg?” she asked, glancing back. Now Egg was distracted by the antics of Dan and Drew. “Never saw a laugh,” Madison said. “He was ready to yell at your brother for starting the whole thing.”
“Good,” Fiona said, wiping more mud off her shirt. “Do you think I need to change my clothes?”
“How are things over here, young ladies?” the camp staff leader, James, asked. “Saw the mud. Nasty stuff.”
Fiona giggled. “Yeah, well…that guy is my twin brother, actually.”
James smiled. The one good thing about Madison’s group was definitely its leader, James. He was the cute guy that Ivy couldn’t stop raving about the day before. Now it was Madison, Aimee, Lindsay, and Fiona’s chance to ogle.
“Um…should I put on a different shirt?” Fiona asked.
“Don’t go changing,” James said.
Fiona blushed.
“We’ll get Chet back later,” Madison said firmly, looking back at Egg and the rest of the boys. It had been a close call. The last thing in the world that Madison wanted to do was to alienate her BFF in any way, especially if Fiona was feeling boy-vulnerable these days.
After an hour of cleanup, the group followed James past the cabins down to a clearing, where everyone sat on stumps and rocks while he explained “survival skills for the wilderness.”
“It’s like that TV show!” Chet said.
“Yeah!” Hart said. “Where they eat snake brains or whatever.”
“Gross me,” Madison said.
“Snake brains aren’t as bad as pig knuckles or live bugs,” Egg said. “That stuff is nasty.”
James rubbed two sticks together and a small pile of dry leaves sparked.
“Aren’t you supposed to teach kids not to start fires?” Madison asked.
Egg elbowed Madison in the side. “Would you please shut up—I’m trying to concentrate,” he said.
Madison elbowed him right back. “Yeah, right.”
“What’s the deal with his hair?” Dan asked. “Is it supposed to stick up like that?”
“Shhhhh!” Fiona said. “I’m trying to listen.”
“Sorry,” Madison said. She bit her lip so James wouldn’t notice that the kids on this side of the demonstration were laughing at him.
Meanwhile, the teacher chaperone for the group, Mr. Danehy, was giving everyone the evil eye.
James continued his lecture without interruption. He showed the group how to build a shelter for rain, how to find nonpoisonous berries, and other skills. Some kids snickered, but he ignored them. Mr. Danehy kept order.
“Ivy was right,” Aimee whispered to her BFFs. “This guy is way cute. Don’t you think so? Maybe this trip isn’t so bad.”
Fiona nodded, absentmindedly. She was obviously still partial to Egg.
“He’s cute,” Madison also agreed. “And smart.”
“Who?” Fiona said, turning to Madison.
“Who? Him,” Madison said, pointing to James. “Who did you think I meant?”
Fiona shrugged and kicked dirt. “No one.”
“And when you tie the knot like this…” James explained how to make a bowl from bark. He didn’t actually make one, but he showed the group that it was possible. He claimed anything was possible out here in Jasper Woods.
Madison wasn’t convinced.
She had started the field trip yesterday a total noncamper. She had successfully tackled the bathroom at night and located an Ivy-stalking spider. And that was a good start. But she hadn’t sat near Hart once, and the Tower seemed as scary as ever.
Madison was beginning to wonder if camp just wasn’t right for her, after all.
Chapter 7
AFTER HIS DEMONSTRATIONS, JAMES led the group on a walk along some hidden paths. Madison, Aimee, and Fiona linked arms as they walked along. It was darker here in the deep woods.
“It feels like sundown,” Aimee said.
“Yeah,” Fiona said. “Like nightfall or the end of the world or something.”
“Very funny,” Madison said, getting a little scared. “It’s only eleven-thirty in the morning.”
They walked up a sharp incline, and someone pointed to a run-down shack off in the distance. Madison looked up to see the haunted cabin. Then she glanced around and caught sight of the giant, looming, orange tower.
That’s when she lost her balance.
Aimee tried to reach out for Madison’s arm, but it was too late.
Splat!
Madison fell down the incline and got mud all over her arm and even in her hair.
“Are you all right?” Aimee asked, reaching down to help her friend.
Madison rolled onto her feet, a little dazed.
“Nice one, Finnster!” Hart said, chuckling. Madison grimaced. She could think of nothing more embarrassing than sitting there on her butt while her crush laughed his head off.
“Thanks,” Madison said quietly. “I guess I’ll get up now.”
Still laughing, Hart extended his hand to help her.
“Don’t fall again,” Egg said, also extending his hand to help.
Fiona rushed in and picked off some dead leaves that were stuck to Madison’s pants.
“Everything okay?” James called out. He was up ahead of the group.
“Aimee, I looked up at the haunted cabin and then I fell…just like that. Do you think there’s a connection?” Madison asked.
“Huh? Yeah, there’s a connection between not looking and falling, sure,” Aimee said. “Maddie, you’re so goofy.”
“I am not,” Madison said. “It could have been the ghost.”
“Are you kidding?” Fiona asked.
“No, I’m not kidding,” Madison said.
As the group walked on, Madison raced ahead to keep up with James. She left her friends a little behind.
“Is it true that the cabin we just passed is haunted?” Madison asked James.
“The run-down one? Back where you fell?” he asked. “Where did you hear that?”
“Around,” Madison explained.
“Rumors,” James said. “Unsubstantiated rumors.”
“What does that mean?” Madison asked.
“No proof,” James said.
“So you don’t believe in ghosts?” Madison asked. “Don’t all camp counselors have to believe in ghosts? Isn’t that like a prerequisite for telling scary stories around the campfire and all
that?”
James laughed. “As far as I know, the only ghosts that live around here are the ones we decorate the mess hall with on Halloween.”
Madison tugged her mud-stained fleece a little tighter. It was getting a little warmer out, but she felt chilled. That ground had been cold.
“It’s almost that time!” James announced as the group came into another clearing. “If you trek up this little hill, you’ll find yourself back near the main lodge and the picnic table area. Your teachers have put out the box lunches. Any questions?”
“I can’t believe it’s already lunchtime!” Chet said. “We did a lot this morning, right?”
“I don’t ever remember camp being this interesting,” Egg said.
“That’s because you were at computer camp, dork,” Aimee said.
“Computer camp is good, though,” Fiona said, sticking up for Egg.
“I went to river-raft camp with my cousin two summers ago,” Drew said. “Remember when that lady fell out of the raft?”
Drew and Hart were second cousins. Hart nodded enthusiastically.
“She was so hyper,” Hart said. “Camp was mad scary, though, sleeping outside in the middle of nowhere.”
“At soccer camp, we mostly play soccer, but they go on camp field trips, too,” Fiona said. “We went horseback riding once in California.”
“I love camp,” Dan said.
Madison listened, although she didn’t have much to add. Her camp story was twenty-four hours old.
As they scaled the incline, the group spotted the rest of the class up by the tables, getting their lunches. Dan, whose elementary school nickname had been Pork-O, ran like a racehorse up to the tables. He was hungrier than anyone else, he said. Everyone else scuttled after him.
Madison looked down at her dirty clothes. She looked like she’d been wrestling on the ground, and she knew what Ivy would say if she saw Madison looking like this. Madison wanted to avoid that confrontation at all costs. She found Mrs. Wing and asked permission to go back to Maple cabin alone to change into another sweatshirt and jeans. Mrs. Wing agreed.
The walk to the cabin was peaceful. Madison spotted a bird poking its beak out of a knot in a tree. She guessed there must be a nest inside. A hawk made lazy circles overhead.
