Lights Out! (11 page)

“Or a ghost,” Madison said. “Like from the haunted cabin.”

“You’re just making that up,” Ivy said. “There are no ghosts at the—”

BLACKOUT.

The lights went out again even though no one had gone near the little compartment where Stacey had hit the switch earlier.

“Oh, wow,” someone said in the darkness. “This is so creepy.”

“I’m scared,” Lindsay said. “For real.”

“Someone switch the lights back on,” Rose said.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Madison froze in her footsteps. She didn’t want to go back to the switch. Now that’s where the noise was coming from.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

“Stop it!” Ivy said. “Madison, what kind of a mean joke is this?”

Madison flicked on her flashlight and shone it in Ivy’s face. “You’re the joke, Ivy Daly,” she snapped. “Why are you blaming me?”

Aimee was about to step in before a full-scale Madison-versus-Ivy thing broke out, but she stopped.

“Did you hear that?” Aimee asked.

No one answered.

Click, click, click.

“There! That!” Aimee cried. “Turn off your flashlights. Quick,” she whispered. Slowly she moved across the room back to the screen door. Madison followed closely behind.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

“ARRRRRRRGGHHHHHH!”

Everyone jumped and screamed and Madison thought she was going to pass out—she felt that scared. The screen door flew open with a
clack.

“Hart?” Madison said.

“Hey, Finnster,” Hart said with a sly smile.

Before the girls knew it, there were ten boys standing in the middle of the cabin—looking very, very pleased with themselves.

“S
URPRISE!” EGG SAID, FLICKING HIS
flashlight under his chin like some kind of crazy monster.

Girls ducked under their blankets. Madison reached over to switch the overhead lights back on.

“No! Not the lights!” Chet goofed. “I’m melting, melting….”

“That’s
Wizard of Oz.
Duh,” Aimee said.

“What are you guys doing here?” Fiona said, laughing at Egg. “You scared all of us.”

Egg grinned. “Not bad, eh?”

“Excellent,” Fiona said, appreciating the joke. Egg seemed happy with Fiona’s positive response.

“Hey, Ben,” Aimee said, bowing her head.

Ben Buckley stuffed his hands into his pockets and smiled. “Hey.” It was the most Madison had heard him say the whole trip that wasn’t something scientific.

“You guys are
not
supposed to be here,” Rose said nervously. She scrambled over to the windows.

“Who says?” Dan said. “I don’t see Mrs. Goode anywhere.”

Rose looked annoyed.

“What do you guys
want
?” Joan asked, flirting a little.

“Hey, Hart,” Ivy said, sidling up to him. “I was so scared. Thank goodness it’s just you.” Madison swore she saw Ivy bat her eyelashes at him.

“But it was fun, right?” Drew asked.

“Excuse me? Was I talking to you?” Ivy said.

“What were you guys doing in here besides talking about us—ha, ha, ha,” Chet said, snapping his fingers.

Madison chuckled. “Hanging out telling stories. Ghost stories,” she said.

“Perfect!” Egg said. “So we came in right on cue.”

“Actually,” Madison said, seizing the moment, “Fiona was telling the story. You would have loved it, Egg.”

Fiona gave Madison a quizzical look.

“I think Fiona is maybe the best ghost-story teller I’ve ever heard,” Madison went on. “Don’t you think so, Aim?”

“I was definitely spooked,” Aimee said. She smiled at Ben again.

Most of the girls in the room were giggling by now, avoiding looks from boys they didn’t like and staring at boys they did. Stacey the quiet girl sat back down on her bed and nervously pulled all the blankets up around her. Joan started telling all the boys what to do. Lindsay and Dan were counting the moths on the screens.

Of course Fiona was beaming at Egg. And for the first time on the field trip, Egg was beaming back.

“What were all those noises you guys were making?” Madison asked.

“Noises? Huh?” Egg asked. “We were just hanging outside, waiting until the right moment. We didn’t make any noises….”

“Not deliberately,” Drew said.

“Boooooooooo!” Chet cried, cracking himself up. “Noises like that?”

The girls exchanged glances, eyebrows raised.

“No, dork,” Fiona cut in. “Like ‘scratch, scratch.’”

“And ‘tap, tap, tap,’” Madison said.

“What are you talking about?” Hart asked. “Egg isn’t joking around. We really were trying to be
quiet
, not make noises.”

The room got totally silent.

“If you guys are lying to us, I swear…” Ivy said.

“Take a chill pill, girlfriend,” Chet said.

Drew laughed so hard, he snorted.

“Seriously,” Madison said. “Ivy’s right. If you guys didn’t make the noises then it must be the ghosts. From the haunted cabin.”

“Haunted what?” Dan said.

“I know,” Egg replied. “Mariah told me about the haunted cabin here. When her class took its field trip a couple of years ago, they heard all these strange noises in the middle of the night, and the lights kept going out….”

“Are you kidding?” Lindsay said. She looked over at Madison.

“The lights went out here tonight,” Madison said aloud.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t a ghost,” Egg said. “Come on, Maddie, do you believe in ghosts? Do any of you really believe in ghosts?”

Every girl in the room nodded emphatically.

“It’s unanimous,” Madison said. “We all believe in ghosts.” Even Ivy and the drones believed.

“Me too,” Drew said. “I believe.”

“And me,” Hart said. “Why not? Ghosts are cool.”

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

“There!” Ivy shrieked. “Did you hear that?”

The room hushed.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

“OH MY GOD!” Aimee screamed.

“Shhhhhhh!” one of the boys said. “Mrs. Goode will hear you.”

“Sorry,” Aimee said.

“Is that the noise you heard before?” Egg asked the room.

Everyone nodded.

“You should go outside and see what it is,” Lindsay said.

“Not me,” Egg said, laughing. “I’m not going to get eaten by some monster who lives in Jasper Woods.”

“Don’t say that,” Stacey said meekly. She looked like she wanted to cry. Some other girls and boys were feeling extra nervous all of a sudden.

“You really should turn the lights out,” Hart suggested. “So someone doesn’t see us all in here.”

“Not with a ghost on the loose,” Fiona said, giggling.

Egg giggled, too. “Yeah. What she said.”

“I think the noise is coming from the haunted cabin,” Madison said.

“Well, you would think that, wouldn’t you?” Joan the drone said. She turned to a cute boy from Egg’s cabin. “Don’t you think we should just stay here and stop talking about ghosts? I do.”

Madison heard another scratching noise, only this one sounded like it was closer than the ghost cabin, on the perimeter of their own.

“We have to go and investigate,” Madison suggested. She looked over at Hart and bravely said, “Will you come with me?”

Hart’s jaw slackened. His eyes bugged out.

Madison was sure he would say no. And then he smiled.

“Totally,” Hart said.

“I’ll go, too,” Dan said. “I don’t believe in haunted cabins, but I’ll go.”

None of the other girls wanted to come along.

“I’ll watch from here.”

“I’m allergic to ghosts.”

“I don’t want to get caught by Mrs. Goode.”

Apparently the assistant principal was more threatening and scary than the haunted cabin.

Madison gulped as she headed for the darkness outside.

Ivy grabbed her arm. “You don’t have to be such a show-off, Maddie. You look really dumb, you know,” Ivy whispered.

Madison turned to face the enemy. “I don’t care,” she said calmly, and pushed open the cabin’s screen door.

“Go, Maddie!” Lindsay cheered.

Aimee took Madison by the shoulders. “What if there really is a ghost?” she asked with mock seriousness. Then she burst into a horsey laugh. “HA! HA!”

Joan and Rose laughed nervously. Madison took note since the drones were so rarely speechless.

Chet hooted. “Ghost hunt!”

Fiona made a face. “Why aren’t you going out there, brother?”

Chet made a face right back. “I like it in
here
,” he said, wearing an evil grin. He was still busy checking out the seventh-grade girls.

“Well, I won’t miss out on the fun,” Egg called out, following Hart, Dan, and Madison out of the cabin. Fiona went out the door right after him.

The air outside was thick with weird fog.

“This wasn’t here when we came by a little while ago,” Hart said. He was following Madison and the superbeam Lindsay had loaned her.

There was always pea-soup fog in horror movies like
The Werewolf
, Madison thought.

Madison had to admit to herself that she was a little scared. Every little thing that went bump in the night sent a giant shiver down her spine.

And it got worse.

No sooner had Madison, Hart, and the rest of the small group been outside together than raindrops started to fall, slowly at first. But then they were falling more steadily. Egg stood in one place and stuck out his tongue, like he was getting a personal drink from the skies.

And it got worse.

Madison heard the scratching noise again. She wandered around the cabin with the flashlight shining, but it started to blink a little. And then it went out completely. Dan yanked his flashlight out of his pocket and loaned it to her.

“Let there be light,” Madison joked.

The first person she saw in the new yellow light was Hart. He smoothed back his wet hair. The rain was starting to fall even harder.

“Hey!” a voice yelled out in a loud whisper from the cabin windows. “What are you guys doing?”

Madison shone the high beam into the cabin. Everyone ducked.

“Force of habit,” Aimee said afterward, standing back up.

The rain felt warm on Madison’s forehead. Her raincoat wasn’t doing its water-repellent thing, but she plodded onward. Hart was right behind her, like in her dream fantasy sequence, only better. All Madison needed was the kiss under the tree—and an eraser to make all these other people go away.

Egg, Dan, and Fiona were right behind them. Madison could hear them whispering.

“You really think our surprise was fun?” Egg asked Fiona.

Fiona sounded like she’d been practicing this for weeks. “You know how I feel, Egg,” she said.

Dan groaned. “Quit getting all sappy,” he said. “You guys are so weird.”

Madison wanted to turn and jump into the air in a half-split “hoorah!” over the reconciliation of Egg and Fiona but (a) she didn’t know how to do any kind of split, especially not in the rain, and (b) she didn’t want to jeopardize things between herself and her BFF any more than she already had.

“Okay, my feet are soaked. I’m going back,” Egg said abruptly.

Dan agreed. “Yeah, it’s wet,” he said. “Besides, I don’t want to get caught. The teacher cabin is just over there.”

“It is?” Madison asked. She glanced over at it. Half the lights were on.

“We should go back,” Fiona said. “Maybe the ghosts have gone to sleep.”

“Very funny,” Madison said.

The boys turned to walk away—even Hart.

“I think we’re rained out,” he said.

“Are you all leaving me here?” Madison asked.

In the half darkness, Fiona made her way to Madison’s side. “Do you want me to go all the way to the haunted cabin with you? We can do it together….”

“What!” Madison said. “Is this some kind of trick? An hour ago you didn’t even look me in the eye. And you were talking to Ivy!”

By now, the boys had wandered out of earshot, back to their cabin.

“I know,” Fiona said. “I was doing that to make you mad. I was mad.”

“Wow,” Madison said. “I was so worried.”

“I was mad about Egg before, but I’m not anymore.”

“Huh?” Madison asked. “Why were you mad about Egg?”

“I’m not sure. But now it’s over and I want my friend back,” Fiona said.

An owl whoo-whooed, and Madison nearly leaped out of her skin.

“Let’s get back,” Madison said. “This is creepier than creepy.”

Fiona grabbed Madison’s arm and squeezed so she wouldn’t fall down. But Madison knew what was really going on. That squeeze meant “I’m sorry” in BFF body language.

“I’m so glad we made up,” Fiona said.

Madison sighed. “Not as glad as me.”

FILE: Ghosts

This field trip has been SUCH an eye-opener. I thought that I would be in the dark about so many things—and the truth is that I am just as brave as anyone who’s been going to camp for a million years. Turns out that the mysterious noises last night were birds on the roof of the cabin, BTW. We saw them there this morning, nesting. They must have been rebuilding because of all the rain. Go figure.

Right now I am sitting on the cabin steps, looking out at the pine trees around us. They look a lot less scary in daytime. We made it all the way to the haunted cabin last night and were looking around for ghosts, but then Fiona got tired, so we left.

I wish I had my Ouija board or even just my Magic 8-Ball. Something to help me find out for real if there are ghosts here or not. I feel like there must be. I just have this ghost vibe. Can’t wait to write Bigwheels all about this. She’d probably say I should go ask the blowfish on TweenBlurt.com. But I can’t do that here, either. No online hookups in the middle of the woods—although there may be some other kinds of hookups, LOL!

I still miss my laptop sooo much.

“Maddie!” Fiona called out.

“There you are!” Aimee said. Their voices echoed. The stillness of the early morning air amplified every noise and motion as if the volume had been turned way up.

Madison closed her orange notebook, leaving the pen inside to mark her place.

“Good morning,” Madison said.

Fiona and Aimee sat on either side of Madison, making a BFF sandwich. They squeezed hard.