Lights Out!

by Laura Dower

  “At least we’re all here to carry the stuff together,” Madison said.

  Mrs. Goode wasn’t there when the group showed up with the items, but Ms. Quill was. She placed the objects in a marked bag and thanked Madison and her friends.

  Everyone stood around congratulating themselves for finishing the contest.

  “Wait—what time is it?” Lindsay asked aloud.

  “Five-oh-seven,” Drew announced, proudly showing off his diver’s tank watch. Drew’s parents were rich, which meant he had the latest, greatest toys. “Did I tell you guys that I can play Quasar on my watch?” he added.

  “What’s happening at five, again?” Madison asked aloud.

  “We have to practice for the talent show,” Egg said, stopping short. “We should split, guys. Hart, didn’t you say we’d meet up with Ivy to practice the song at five?”

  Hart slapped his forehead. “Yeah!” he said. “I totally forgot.”

  “Ivy?” Madison said.

  Although she was glad that it was her company that made Hart so forgetful, she was equally appalled that he would ditch her to go find Poison Ivy. She regretted turning down the boys’ offer of singing a group song to sing with her BFFs instead.

  Had she made the right decision?

  “See you at dinner!” Egg cried.

  “See you later, Egg,” Fiona said, but he was already out of earshot.

  The other boys ran off, too.

  “Sometimes I feel like Egg doesn’t care if I’m dead or alive,” Fiona said dejectedly.

  “That isn’t true,” Aimee said.

  “I guess we should go practice,” Lindsay said.

  They marched off through Jasper Woods toward Maple cabin.

  Almost halfway back, Madison realized that she’d left her jacket behind in the main lodge, so she turned back to retrieve it.

  The sky overhead looked threatening again, which did nothing to settle Madison’s escalating nerves. She was tired of rain and mud. She didn’t feel like practicing for a song she couldn’t sing that well, anyway.

  Madison wished she could be sitting at home so she could snuggle with Phinnie. Then everything would be all right.

  As she walked along, Madison spied the orange tower sticking up through the trees. In the late afternoon sun, it didn’t look as ominous as it had before, but it still gave Madison hives. How would she climb to the top—in front of everyone?

  Would Ivy climb to the top successfully? Madison took some comfort in the fact that whatever goes up must come down. She hoped that in Ivy’s case, the coming-down part involved a hideous, loud crash.

  Madison blinked at the Tower and tried to memorize the ropes and pulleys. She’d need the help of every haunted cabin ghost in Jasper Woods to help her climb that thing.

  But she couldn’t let the Tower distract her. That was for tomorrow.

  Chapter 9

  I woke up in the morning and glanced upon the wall.

  The roaches and the bedbugs were having a game of ball.

  The score was six to nothing!

  The roaches were ahead.

  A bedbug hit a home run and knocked me out of bed.

  Oh, it ain’t gonna rain no more, it ain’t gonna rain no more.

  It rained this week and the week before—

  it ain’t gonna rain no more!

  Aimee’s head bobbed up and down, up and down as she sang along with the rest of the room. Everyone tried to wish away the rain—again.

  Madison was amazed how many camp songs were devoted to rain.

  However, the anti-rain chanting was working. Skies were cloudy, but there was no rain yet. Mrs. Goode led the room through verse seven of the song.

  Madison glanced across the dinner table at Hart, who sat directly in front of her tonight. Her stomach flip-flopped, but she didn’t know why. Was it nerves about the talent show, she wondered, or was it Hart’s face? Madison fixated on Hart’s left dimple, tracing it down his chin and back up in a circle around his lips.

  Pitter-pat, pitter-pat, pitter-pat.

  She’d replayed the scenario in her head a thousand times. Madison’s dream kiss involved lots of rain. She imagined walking along, thinking about Hart. He takes her hand and they walk on together. As they walk along, it begins to rain, so Hart pulls Madison underneath an enormous tree. He takes Madison’s face into his hands and—

  “MADDIE, PASS THE KETCHUP!” Egg screamed.

  Madison shot Egg a look that nearly knocked him off the bench. “What?” she snarled.

  Fiona reached halfway across the table, got up, and brought the ketchup to Egg. “Here you go,” she said sweetly.

  Egg grabbed it and thanked her, but he hardly looked up. He was too busy eating his drippy macaroni and cheese—with ketchup.

  Fiona sat back down again without another word.

  “What’s with Fiona?” Aimee whispered to Madison.

  Madison shrugged. “I have no clue. I think Egg is ignoring her again.”

  “So what?” Aimee asked. “He ignores everyone. Doesn’t she know that by now?”

  Madison shrugged again and picked at the little macaroni pieces on her plate. She felt like she was eating lunch at FHJH. The food tasted exactly the same and everyone had the exact same problems they had back in Far Hills.

  “Hey, Maddie, are you going to eat that roll?” Dan said.

  Madison passed the roll over to him. “No, but you are,” she said.

  Across the room, Ivy and her drones ate their dinners. Madison hadn’t seen Ivy since their cabin confrontation. She wondered why Ivy hadn’t blabbed to Mrs. Goode about finding Madison alone in the cabin, away from the scheduled activities. Usually Ivy would seize on any opportunity to tattle on the enemy, but not this time. Was she being nice—or did Ivy have other things on her mind …like winning the talent show—and winning Hart?

  “Maddie, Aimee and I are going to run to the bathroom and go through the song one more time,” Fiona said quietly. They needed to work on some last-minute dance steps they’d invented a few minutes before dinner began.

  “Okay,” Madison said.

  Egg, Drew, Dan, Hart, and Chet were playing spit-ball hockey and singing at the same time. Madison and Lindsay kept score.

  The camp staffers came into the snack shack carrying trays of ice cream sandwiches and Popsicles.

  Egg stopped playing immediately. He had instant dessert radar—and he was UP! He grabbed Madison’s arm.

  “Let’s go, Maddie,” he said, tugging on her sleeve. “I’ll get ’em for the guys and you get ’em for the girls.”

  “Huh?” Madison asked.

  “I need to ask you something,” Egg whispered. “Something serious. But I don’t want them to hear me. Come on.”

  Madison was intrigued. She followed Egg over to the table where they were passing out the sweets.

  “Get me one!” Drew yelled. Then everyone else yelled, too. Egg and Madison needed to get four cherry Popsicles and six chocolate ice-cream sandwiches in all.

  “What is it?” Madison asked Egg as he loaded up his arms with the treats.

  “Fiona,” he said softly. “What’s her deal?”

  Madison wrinkled her brow. “What do you mean? I thought you guys were a couple.”

  “What does that mean?” Egg asked.

  “A couple…going out…boyfriend and—”

  “Ack! Don’t say it,” Egg said. “She acts like we should be attached at the hip. It weirds me out. I mean, I like her and all that, but…”

  Madison’s heart started to thump. She didn’t want to hear if Egg had something bad to say. Not here, in the middle of Jasper Woods. Why was he telling her this now?

  “I don’t want to stop hanging with her,” Egg said. “It’s not that.”

  Whew.

  “So what’s the problem?” Madison asked. She helped carry the Popsicles and ice-cream sandwiches back to the table.

  “I guess there isn’t a real problem. I’m just a little…”

  �
�Annoying!” Madison said, finishing his sentence for him.

  Egg clicked his tongue. “Tsssssk! Forget I said anything, okay?”

  “Okay,” Madison said, putting her arm around his shoulders. “But please don’t be a weasel.”

  “Weasel? Me?”

  Egg leaned in and tickled Madison. She dropped her Popsicles on the floor.

  “Nice one, Maddie,” Egg said, bending over to help pick them up. They scooped up the cherry Pops into their arms and stood back up again, shoulder to shoulder, laughing out loud.

  “Hey, there,” Fiona said.

  Madison’s jaw dropped. Fiona was standing right there? How long had she been watching? Had she heard what they were talking about?

  “You two seem to be having a fun time,” Fiona said, her voice quivering a little.

  Madison didn’t know what to say or how to respond.

  “Just hanging,” Egg said. He pushed to the side and sat back near Hart and the other boys at the table.

  “Yeah, Egg’s a fungi,” Madison finally said, recalling their joke from earlier in the day. She grinned, hoping for a grin back from Fiona.

  But Fiona wasn’t laughing.

  “I thought you were my friend,” Fiona said. She had a blank look.

  “Of course I am,” Madison said, absently dropping her Popsicles on the floor again.

  “Welcome to the Jasper Wood’s talent show!” Mrs. Goode announced.

  The room exploded with clapping and snapping. It sounded a lot like the made-up rainstorm Coach Hammond had orchestrated that morning.

  The stage wasn’t anything special with lights and microphones. It was just a corded-off area of the main lodge. The music played out of two enormous, old speakers that were riddled with dents and scrapes. Like everything else in the cabin, the music system was a little outdated.

  The rest of the kids sat on the floor in the main part of the lodge—a large, high-ceilinged room with wood beams, pillows, benches, and other nooks and crannies. It was jam-packed!

  “We have about twenty acts, so we have to keep things rolling,” Mrs. Goode said. “Let me introduce our panel of judges!”

  The panel included science teacher Mr. Danehy; cybrarian (and Madison’s ally) Mrs. Wing; Aimee’s English teacher, Ms. Quill; and Madame La Pierre, the seventh-grade French teacher who kicked kids out of the classroom for speaking English. The four of them were seated way in the back of the room.

  “Can they even hear from where they’re sitting?” Lindsay asked.

  “The judges are not stacked in our favor,” Aimee grumbled. “Madame La Pierre hates me.”

  “It’s okay,” Madison said. “We have a great act. We’ll win. Fiona has the voice and you’re the dancer. We can’t lose!”

  Fiona rolled her eyes. “I don’t feel like singing,” she said. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

  “What are you talking about?” Aimee said.

  “Fiona?” Madison’s voice trembled.

  Fiona sighed. “I just don’t feel like singing.”

  “What are we going to do if you don’t sing?” Lindsay said. “I can’t do this alone!”

  “What is your problem?” Aimee cried.

  Fiona looked away. All around them, kids were talking about their skits and routines, getting psyched for their talent performance.

  “Fiona, I have never seen you like this,” Aimee went on. “What’s wrong? Tell me!”

  “Nothing,” Fiona said. “I’ll sing. But I’m not happy about it, okay? Okay?”

  Lindsay was confused. “What’s up?” she asked gently. “What happened?”

  Fiona looked right at Madison. “Forget it.”

  Madison was about to say something to Fiona when Ivy Daly strolled by. She and the drones sat right up front.

  “Aren’t you four wearing costumes?” Ivy asked. She was wearing a feather boa and had drawn hearts on both her cheeks. She also wore her short shorts, the same ones she’d been modeling in the cabin a day before. They must have been magnetized because all the boys were staring at them!

  Even Hart.

  “Our costumes!” Lindsay cried. “We have to get changed right away.”

  Aimee led the group into the opposite corner, where they each put on funny hats and pulled on T-shirts with words taped to the front. When Aimee, Fiona, and Lindsay stood in a line, their shirts read: FRIENDS ARE FOREVER. Madison stood at the end. On her T-shirt were six bold exclamation points—!!!!!!

  “Ivy’s costume is nothing compared to ours,” Aimee said. “Ours rule.”

  Fiona wasn’t saying much, which had Madison worried.

  “Are you okay?” Madison asked her.

  “Fine,” Fiona said. But she crossed her arms and looked away.

  The four friends in hats watched other acts go before them. Madison’s classmates Montrell and Lance juggled while they sang. They called themselves Surfer Boys. Another group of girls, including Fiona’s soccer pal Daisy and Stacey “the traitor” sang an old song by the Supremes called “Stop! In the Name of Love.” Their group name was The Butterflies.

  Fiona wasn’t saying much. She was concentrating on the next act. Next up were Chet, Hart, Dan, Drew, and Egg—otherwise known as The Dudes.

  The guys all had sports equipment they had found in the main lodge, and they pretended that the lacrosse sticks and baseball bats were musical instruments. Ivy played a girl in their music video, the part that Egg had originally asked Madison to play.

  Aimee clenched her teeth so she wouldn’t laugh. “Music video? The Dudes?” she silently mouthed the words to Madison. “Are you kidding?”

  Madison shrugged. It wasn’t so bad. They would definitely get points for creativity. And Ivy didn’t do anything except walk around them while they sang, pretending to pose like a model. As if.

  “That part was really dumb,” Lindsay said afterward. “Why did Ivy even need to be up there?”

  Madison shrugged. “There needs to be a girl in every boy band video,” she explained. “I know how Egg’s brain works.”

  “Sure,” Fiona said, breaking her silence. “You know everything.”

  Aimee did a double take when Fiona said that. Fiona Waters never said bad things about anyone—let alone one of her BFFs.

  “Next up, the BFFs,” Mrs. Goode announced.

  “That’s us!” Aimee squealed, twirling around. “Hit it!”

  “We have to go on,” Madison said quietly.

  “I know,” Fiona said. “I KNOW.”

  Without another word, the BFFs took the stage. Everyone was hooting and clapping for them, especially the boys.

  But Fiona’s singing cut right through all the noise-making. Her voice was like ribbon candy, rippling and sweet. Kids sat back down just to listen to her—she sounded that good.

  Madison swayed to the music in the background. Aimee twirled around the stage area.

  “‘That’s what friends are for,’” Fiona sang out as if she were a real-life pop singer. “‘In good times…in bad times…I’ll be yours forevermore.’”

  Madison hoped that what Fiona was singing in the song would be true in real life.

  Chapter 10

  MADISON’S EYES GLAZED over as she looked at the crowd. A lodge of seventh graders clapped furiously. Lindsay clapped along with them. Aimee just kept twirling. The excitement was contagious.

  Fiona beamed and bowed. Then she took a second and then a third bow.

  As they walked away from the performance area, Aimee whispered to Madison, “We did it!”

  Madison smiled. “I knew we could.”

  Fiona rushed over to them and threw her arms around Aimee’s neck.

  “Yay!” Fiona chirped. “I am so-o-o-o glad that’s over. Phew.”

  “Wow!” Lindsay said. “You were amazing, Aimee!”

  Aimee threw her arms into the air. “Of course!”

  “And you were amazing, too, Fiona!” Lindsay added.

  “Thanks, Lindsay,” Fiona replied, giving her a big
squeeze, too.

  Madison stood as still as a post, waiting for Fiona’s arms to come flying around her own shoulders. But they didn’t. Fiona didn’t say a word to Madison directly. Not a word.

  Aimee and Fiona hurried back to where they had been sitting earlier. Madison and Lindsay trailed behind.

  “And next up is Sweet Stuff,” Mrs. Goode bellowed.

  “Stage hog is more like it,” Lindsay muttered under her breath as they watched Ivy take the stage again.

  Madison thought that was funny, but she didn’t giggle. She was too worried about Fiona. Why had her BFF rushed away from her?

  For this performance, Ivy wore the same costume she had worn for the song with the boys—but now she had removed her feather boa and put on platform sandals. The drones wore sandals and shorts, too.

  They sang “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and tossed a beach ball around the stage area.

  “‘They just wanna, they just wanna…’” the drones sang behind their leader, Poison Ivy. She was trying to dance, but her shoes kept getting in the way.

  “What a clod,” Aimee said.

  Madison watched the enemy teetering on her platforms, taking smaller and smaller dance steps so she wouldn’t fall. The room was clapping along with the song. All the boys, including Hart, were whooping at the singers.

  “Whoo! Whoo!” Chet yelled.

  Madison swore she saw Ivy look right at Hart. He grinned.

  “We should have done a fast song like this one,” Aimee said.

  Madison nodded. “Maybe…”

  “Do you think theirs is better than ours?” Lindsay asked, sounding worried.

  “I like it,” Fiona mused. “I think the fast ones are better. Egg’s song was nice, too.”

  “Of course you liked his song!” Aimee said teasingly.

  Fiona blushed.

  “We’ll win.” Madison said. “I know we can win. Fiona—you were great.” Madison smiled, hoping for some kind of a postcompliment, positive reaction from Fiona.

  But all she got was a blank stare.

  “Fiona, don’t you think we were good?” Madison asked again.

  Fiona shrugged and raised her hands in the air to clap. She appeared preoccupied. The clapping got louder as Ivy and the drones took their bows.