Lights Out! by Laura Dower

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