by Laura Dower
Madison climbed on. She put one foot at a time into rope ladder segments, onto blocks, and on top of large rough-hewn beams. If she was going to do this, then she was going to do this.
She caught her breath on beam number five (she was counting) and pulled herself up on a rope. Her helmet squeezed hot on her head. All she could think was, Boy, am I going to have a bad hair afternoon, and, Please don’t let me fall off this next beam, as she groped and grabbed her way up the structure. The cheers from below continued, but Madison couldn’t tell if they were for her, for another kid on the Tower, or for the large percentage of classmates who were navigating the obstacle course.
She climbed on.
About ten feet from the top of the Tower, Madison felt a pang of fear. Her fingers ached a little. She wanted to quit. She wanted to let go and fall in that harness. But she did none of those things.
She climbed on.
“Go, Maddie!” Fiona and Aimee were squealing as loudly as they could from the bottom of the Tower. They had both made it to the top already. Madison aimed for clouds.
Madison grabbed at a large, dangling, knotted rope at the very top part of the Tower, but she couldn’t quite reach it. She rested for a deep breath, just a second. Then she moved on again.
She held on to a wooden ring and then a rope pulley, edging slowly upward. Her helmet itched. One step she took missed, but she didn’t come rappelling off the tower. She grabbed another wooden grip in time to save herself from dropping off. Whew. Her arms felt like noodles.
Up high, there in the sky, the air was chillier than down below. Air was damp from all the rain the sky had been delivering for the past few days. Madison gazed at where the sun should have been shining. It looked more like a white-gray glow from behind clouds. But in the middle of all that rainy sky, in a small patch of azure sky no bigger than a football field, Madison saw something that was most definitely not bad weather.
Madison saw a rainbow.
“Look at that!” she cried. No one down below heard her, but it didn’t matter. The rainbow’s arrival was perfectly timed. This was the sign she’d been waiting for the entire field trip. The sign that proved she could do it.
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.
Madison reeled as she leaned over one rope to see where the noise was coming from. Down below, the seventh graders from the obstacle course had gathered anew under the Tower. Everyone was clapping. Was their applause for the rainbow? Or was it for Madison?
“Go, Ivy!” Hart cried. Madison heard his voice above all the others.
Go, Ivy?
Madison felt a knot in her throat. Her foot slipped a little, and she wondered if she should just give up and let go. What was the point of continuing when the only person Hart ever noticed was Poison Ivy?
But Madison stayed focused. She pulled herself up onto the very last beam. Taking a deep, cool breath, she sat on the top of the Tower and gazed up into the rainbow.
You can go, Ivy, Madison thought. Go away. I’m the new queen of the wilderness.
Chapter 13
SUNLIGHT POURED IN THROUGH the cabin’s screened-in windows. Madison couldn’t help but laugh. The trip was over—and now the weather was nice?
She scratched her head and contemplated taking a shower before heading home but decided against it. Going to the bathroom outside the cabin had been hard enough. She didn’t feel like getting wet and cold with pine needles between her toes now. And who took a camp shower in the middle of the day? Instead, she changed out of the clothes she’d been wearing on the Tower. Madison pulled on her last clean orange T-shirt, cargo capri pants she borrowed from Fiona, and sneakers. After packing up everything else, she disappeared outside for a few moments to write in her orange notebook.
FILE: The Tower
I saw the world differently from up on the Tower. I was a little closer to the sky and trees. Why did the air feel different up there? I looked across a clearing in the woods and saw the different cabins from above.
I could see my friends, waving up at me, looking up to me. Me!
Rude Awakening: Usually when people act all high and mighty, it bugs me. But today, when I was standing on the Tower, I felt high and mighty. And it was very cool.
Why was I so scared about camp? I can’t even remember.
Madison took a deep breath, picked up her notebook, and walked back into the cabin. Some other girls had changed their outfits for lunch and the bus ride home.
“Didn’t you have fun this morning?” Lindsay asked Madison, struggling to squeeze her clothes into a bag that was too small for everything. “That was such a rush.”
“Yeah,” Madison said, smiling to herself. “I’m almost sad to leave camp.”
“Don’t get carried away,” Aimee called from the other side of the room. She walked over to Madison.
“I mean, do you want to stay here another night? Be honest.”
“I do!” Fiona said, smiling. She lugged her bag to the screen door and pushed it outside.
“What’s she so happy about?” Poison Ivy grumbled.
“You did it, Maddie,” Aimee said, wrapping her arm around Madison’s shoulders. “You made it through camp.”
“Well, it’s not really camp,” Madison said. “I mean, it’s not like I’ve been here for weeks and weeks.”
“You gotta start somewhere!” Lindsay said.
Fiona poked her head back into the cabin. “Hurry up, everyone,” she said. “I see some people heading down to the main lodge already.”
“We still have time,” Joan the drone barked. She was folding all of her clothes into perfect squares.
“What’s your problem?” Ivy asked Fiona. She still had to fix her hair.
Fiona stuck out her tongue. Madison grinned.
“I feel different now,” Lindsay said, sitting on her bag to zip it up.
“Me too,” Madison whispered. All packed and ready to go. She pulled her baseball cap onto her head.
Stacey and Aimee swept the floor, not because it was a little dirty after two nights of mud and rain—but because it was a requested chore. The camp staff and FHJH teachers had composed a brief list of “other things to do” before the field trip ended. The list had been attached to the original agenda. Madison wondered why they couldn’t attend any school event without a bunch of rules.
Afternoon of Departure
Sweep the cabin, deck of cabin, and walkway near cabin. Floor should not have pine needles, dust, caked dirt, or anything else on it.
Remove any litter from barrel near door. There is a main Dumpster near main lodge.
Remove all sheets and other materials from the mattresses. Pack with your belongings.
Double-check bathroom cabin for shampoo, soap, and other personal belongings.
Refrain from carving or writing your names into the rafters or anywhere else in the room.
Having finished their packing, Rose and Joan perched on their beds and carved their names into one of the beams in Maple cabin. They used the ballpoint tip of a pen, which worked in the soft wood. Madison was a little jealous of the drones. Everyone else wanted to leave her name behind, too, but there wasn’t enough time.
“You guys, we have only ten minutes to get our stuff out of here,” Fiona announced. “It looks like everyone else really is on their way to the main lodge”
“Stop nagging everyone,” Ivy moaned.
Fiona stuck out her tongue behind Ivy’s back again and slammed the screen door.
The girls left their suitcases and duffel bags on the cabin stoop and trudged over to the main lodge for the final lunch. Madison pulled her orange bag containing her notebook, her wallet, and a few other items over her shoulder. She stuffed her fleece into the bag, too, in case she needed it.
Fiona was wrong about Maple cabin being the last to go to lunch. The boys were on the path, too. Madison walked alongside Dan and Egg.
“Congrats on your climb,” Dan said.
“Yeah, Maddie, you aced tha
t Tower,” Egg said. “I thought you said you were scared.”
“You didn’t look scared,” Dan said.
Madison smiled. “I was,” she admitted. “But I did it, anyway.”
Egg slapped her on the back. “Wasn’t it worth having a total anxiety attack over? Huh? Huh? Wasn’t it worth it?”
Madison chuckled, but Egg was right. It was worth it. The entire field trip had been worth all of its anxiety and pressure. This really was one of those “growing experiences” Principal Bernard had talked about.
The only possible drawback to the end of the field trip for Madison was giving up on her crush, Hart, who seemed to prefer Ivy’s company. A few paces ahead of Madison, Hart was walking to the lodge with the enemy right now.
But Madison refused to believe that she’d lost Hart to Ivy forever. One day she’d admit her real feelings to Hart’s face. One day.
When they walked inside the main lodge, Madison and her friends smelled the clipped hyacinth and other wildflowers that had bloomed early in Jasper Woods. A large sign hung over the front doors that read, THANK U, CAMPERS! Everyone hustled inside and took their seats.
“I’m hungry!” Dan said.
“Yeah, like that’s a surprise,” Aimee said.
There was a buffet of sandwiches, chips, brownies, and a big bowl of cold oranges. Much to Madison’s delight, they had put out cans of soda, including root beer. Everyone got their food and sat boy-girl-boy-girl at the tables.
“Well,” Mrs. Goode said, her voice booming as usual. “I want to congratulate all of you on a very successful field trip. The camp director tells me that you are the finest group of seventh graders she has had in some time.”
Pam, who was standing next to Mrs. Goode, nodded and clapped.
“Wawooooo!” someone yelled. The room burst into laughter that quickly escalated into loud chatter.
“Students! Students!” Mrs. Goode continued.
“As you know, we have a few awards of recognition we need to distribute.”
The same kid yelled, “Wawooooo!” again.
“First!” Mrs. Goode said. “Mr. Danehy and the other science teachers would like to present some awards for our junior naturalists, otherwise known as our scavenger hunt winners.”
Mr. Danehy, wearing an ecology club T-shirt that read ECOLOGY 4-EVER, stepped into the center of the room.
“You all did a tremendous job of gathering the objects on the list,” Mr. Danehy said. “Unfortunately, there can be only one grand-prize trophy winner.”
“They always say that,” Egg moaned. He was ultracompetitive.
“But we have ribbons for all runners-up,” Mr. Danehy continued.
There were eleven teams in all. He read off the names of the team members slowly, which was irritating at first. But then Madison and her friends realized that after nine teams, they still hadn’t been named.
“I bet we won,” Drew said.
“We totally won,” Chet said.
The table held their collective breath.
“And in second place,” Mr. Danehy cried, “Walter Diaz, Madison Finn…”
“Practically first,” Madison said.
Fiona sighed. “We deserve more than just a ribbon. It’s no fair that those boys get the trophies.”
“Come on, we did great,” Dan said, giving his guy friends high fives.
“It was your sleeping bag that got us into the top two, Aim,” Egg joked, elbowing Aimee in the side.
“Shut up!” Aimee said, laughing. She smacked his arm.
“Hey, second place is better than Ivy did,” Lindsay whispered to Madison.
“Now!” Mrs. Goode continued. “Before we move on to the talent show prizes, I have another special trophy here for…” She checked her notes. “For the best time on our obstacle course.”
Hart leaned forward. He was hoping his time would be the best.
“With a running time of three minutes and twenty-six seconds, the winner of the obstacle course is…Wayne Ennis!”
Egg’s jaw dropped. “There must be a mistake,” he said.
Madison whacked his arm. “Shhh!” she said.
Hart dropped his head. “Aw, man,” he said.
“Sorry,” Madison said.
“Yeah, thanks,” Hart replied, still looking down.
Madison had never seen him bummed out like this before.
Meanwhile Egg, Chet, Dan, and Drew were all making each other laugh with bad imitations of Wayne accepting his trophy.
“Shhhhh!” Madison said again. She didn’t want Egg to get into trouble.
“And now on to our fabulous talent show. And I must start out by saying that the faculty and the camp staff were all impressed with your various performances. We have divided the talent show awards into categories. Everyone who participated receives a prize,” Mrs. Goode explained. “And then we have extra-special recognition and three trophies for all-around talent.”
“Huh?” Aimee said. “She makes it sound so complicated.”
“Yeah,” Lindsay added. “It’s not the Academy Awards.”
Fiona giggled.
Madison was taking it a little more seriously than her other three friends. She gripped tightly under the bench where she was sitting. She really wanted to win a prize for the talent show performance. This was the place where beating Ivy really mattered. The BFFs had to win one of the trophies.
Mrs. Goode read off a bunch of fun categories of recognition like “Happiest Song and Dance” and “Best Crowd Pleaser.” These were joke categories as far as most kids were concerned. It was just the school’s way of giving everyone a little something, even if they were really bad.
“For ‘Most Creative Use of Props,’” Mrs. Goode announced, “we have The Dudes.”
Egg stood up and whirled his fist in the air. “Duuuuuude!” he cried. The room broke into laughter. His team won the last of the special categories. Now, it was on to the trophies.
Madison held her breath. She looked over at Fiona, Aimee, and Lindsay expectantly. They all grabbed hands.
“Third place in the ‘All-Around’ category goes to…”
Madison gulped.
“The BFFs!”
She sighed. A well of emotion surged through her chest. Third place? It meant that Ivy’s group had gotten second or first. It meant they got the smallest of the three trophies.
Madison was disappointed, but Lindsay jumped right up, squealing.
“Coolness!” Lindsay shouted. She grabbed the other girls and they accepted their trophies. Madison smiled as much as she could under the circumstances.
“Grrrr… It was those minishorts,” Aimee said. “I swear, it is so unfair how she wins all the time. Why does that happen?”
Madison shrugged. At least Ivy hadn’t climbed the tower first, too. Madison would always have that honor.
Thankfully, Ivy and Sweet Stuff collected second place. They’d won a bigger trophy—but not the biggest. First prize went to a group of boys who called themselves Funk. They had performed some kind of special techno-dance with somersaults and harmonized melodies. They really had been the best.
Everyone in the room clapped, thinking that the ceremonies had ended. But Mrs. Goode waved her arms.
“Hold on,” she cried. “We have a few more announcements. Please take your seats. This year we decided to distribute a few additional awards for recognition on the field trip. These students receive a special certificate. Mrs. Wing, would you do the honors?”
Madison picked a chocolate chip off her brownie. What would they give Ivy this time—an award for best kiss-up?
“For ‘Best Leader,’” Mrs. Wing said, “we have a three-way tie. Walter Diaz, Lois Gillooly, and Alanna Kelly.”
Madison clapped politely. She grinned at Egg, who was bouncing off the walls.
“I got a special award,” he exclaimed. “Now this is cool! I’m king of the world!”
Everyone laughed, as usual, at Egg’s dramatics.
“For ‘Best Athl
ete,’” Mrs. Wing said, “we have a two-way tie. Hart Jones and Fiona Waters.”
Fiona’s eyes opened wide. She hadn’t expected to win anything. Hart jumped up and grabbed his award, too.
Madison smiled at Hart, but he was too busy looking around the room to notice. She checked to make sure he wasn’t smiling at Ivy instead. Thankfully, he wasn’t.
Mrs. Wing read through a few other awards for “Best Entertainer,” “Best Cabin Buddy,” “Best Tower Climber,” and more. Most awards had two-way, three-way, and even four-way ties. Everyone was recognized in some way.
“And for ‘best Camp Spirit,’” Mrs. Wing said, “we have a two-way tie. Dan Ginsburg and Madison Finn.”
Mrs. Wing beamed brightly as she handed Madison her certificate.
“Congratulations,” Mrs. Wing whispered. “Good job.”
Madison’s stomach flip-flopped—but in a good way.
“Hey, Maddie,” Fiona whispered. “Camp spirit…like the haunted cabin ghost?”
Madison laughed. “Yeah, right.” She read the certificate at least ten more times before placing it inside her orange bag.
“Congrats, Maddie,” Dan said.
“You too,” Madison said. Dan looked proud of his certificate, too.
After the lunch ended, the seventh grade broke into a chorus of “On Top of Spaghetti.” Everyone gathered together and headed out to the lawn behind the lodge for arts and crafts before the buses took them home. Since it was such a nice afternoon, they did their last activity outdoors.
“What is this?” Egg asked. “I feel like I’m in kindergarten, making a gift for my mom like a souvenir of camp or something.”
Drew snorted. “That’s funny, Egg.”
But Madison wasn’t laughing. She was excited about this part of the day. Making art was something she really loved—something she was good at.
The camp staff and FHJH teachers put out various supplies like glue, paper plates, string, and scissors for the students’ use. On one table were the piles of items retrieved from the scavenger hunt, except for Aimee’s sleeping bag, of course. She’d gotten that returned to her right after the contest.