CampWHILE MOST KIDS GOT OFF THE bus at a rest stop to stretch out, Madison curled up in her seat and privately filled out her M.A.S.H. selections.
M.A.S.H. was a tradition among Madison and her friends. It was the perfect way to pass bus-ride time. M.A.S.H. could reveal future love and more. Madison was eager to know all about hers.
Aimee divided a blank page into columns and rows. At the top of each section were simple headings. After Madison filled it out, her BFFs would return to pick a random number. They would use that number to eliminate some responses while revealing one “true” answer for each category.
M.A.S.H.
GUY: CAR:
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
LIVE IN: HONEYMOON:
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
JOB: KIDS:
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
M.A.S.H. stood for: MANSION, APARTMENT, SHACK, and HOUSE. This was at the top of the page.
Madison scribbled clever things into some of the spaces. She wrote down BICYCLE, JEEP, MINIVAN, and PRIVATE JET under CAR. Under LIVE IN and HONEYMOON, she included some of the coolest places she could think of, including New York, London, Australia, the jungle, and the North Pole, JOBS were computer whiz, pop diva, movie star, and famous artist, KIDS were numbers: 2, 3, 5, and 99.
Of course Madison couldn’t really imagine herself having 99 kids, but she had to include at least one wacky number in the mix.
“What did you put down?” Fiona asked when she returned to the bus.
Aimee stood behind her. “Come on, Maddie, tell us,” she pleaded.
“I filled out most of the columns, but I don’t know who to put under GUY,” Madison said.
Lindsay, who had just come aboard the bus, too, chuckled and peeked over at Madison’s paper. “She wrote Hart, Dan, and Egg,” Lindsay whispered.
“Lindsay!” Madison said. Luckily none of those boys had come back to the bus yet.
“Did you say Egg?” Aimee teased.
“Egg?” Fiona asked, sitting back down with a disturbed look on her face.
“I just wrote down guys we know from school,” Madison said. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Then put Chet instead of Egg,” Fiona said.
“Yeah, Maddie,” Aimee added. “Or Joey. He picks his nose.”
“Just remember, Egg is not available,” Lindsay said.
Fiona gave her a teeny punch. “Don’t be so loud when you say that,” she said, looking embarrassed. “Someone might hear you.”
“Egg is not available,” Lindsay repeated, speaking barely above a whisper this time.
“Nah, Egg is FRIED!” Aimee joked.
The girls burst out laughing—even Fiona.
Meanwhile, the remaining seventh graders began to file back onto the bus. Ivy came prancing down the aisle with her drones. She paused near Madison’s seat and glared.
“Hey, Maddie, did I happen to mention that Hart and I are going to the Spring Fling?” Ivy said. The Spring Fling was a school dance coming up in a few weeks.
Madison glared right back. “No, you forgot to mention that.” She knew Ivy was probably exaggerating or lying. She always tried to make Madison jealous when it came to Hart. It was bad enough having an enemy—but it was even worse when you liked the same boy.
As Poison Ivy passed, Lindsay nudged Madison.
“You have one more name to fill in,” Lindsay said, pointing to the M.A.S.H. sheet.
“Your destiny awaits… Let’s get a move on!” Aimee said.
Madison thought for a minute and then scribbled down the fourth name of a guy for her list. She thought of writing Drew but put down Roger Gillespie, as a joke. Roger was Aimee’s oldest brother.
“Get out!” Aimee cried when she saw the name. “Roger? That’s disgusting!”
Madison laughed and filled in the rest of the page.
After selecting a random number, the girls crossed off answers until Madison’s M.A.S.H. destiny was revealed. In the final tabulation, Madison was a pop diva, riding in her private jet, living in the jungle in a shack, honeymooning in the North Pole, and having 99 kids.
Yeah, right.
Her perfect guy? Egg Diaz.
Madison immediately crumpled up the paper. As usual, M.A.S.H. came out sillier than expected. Much to Fiona’s dismay, everyone else discovered that she was destined to marry Egg. At least no one got Hart.
The bus pulled out of the parking lot, back onto the highway, and drove on for at least two hours more. Some kids dozed off, but Madison stayed alert throughout the ride.
“We are coming up to the Jasper Woods area in just a few moments,” Mrs. Goode’s voice boomed through the bus. Everyone shifted and stared out the window to see where they would be spending the next few days.
“I saw Bigfoot!” a voice from the back of the bus squealed. “Look!”
A bunch of kids bolted from one side of the bus to the other. Madison could feel the whole bus shake.
“Sit down! Sit down!” Mrs. Goode yelled. “We will be arriving momentarily. Please collect your belongings and sit…”
As the bus jerked forward, Madison grabbed the seat so she wouldn’t crash sideways into Lindsay. From the back of the bus Ivy wailed.
“Look,” a boy said, pointing out the window to a clearing with a grassy hill. “I hope we go there.”
High up on the hill, Madison saw what he was pointing to: a tall tower. Lindsay said it looked rusted, but Madison thought maybe it was just painted orange. A tower in her favorite color? Was this a good omen? The tower wasn’t that big, but it looked ominous, with its giant ladderlike steps and ropes and pulleys hanging off the sides.
As they drove ahead, a thicket of tall trees and darkness descended upon the bus. They came to a stop near a sign that welcomed visitors to the camp. Half hidden in shadows, its message was chiseled in wood.
JASPER WOODS WELCOMES YO
The U was hardly readable.
“Well, YO, it’s about time!” someone joked from the back of the bus. “We’re HERE!”
Fiona giggled. Egg had said it.
“This is fun,” Aimee squealed as they stood up. “Way better than being in school.”
Madison looked around. She wasn’t sure yet if she liked this place.
“DON’T PUSH!” Mrs. Goode said to some kids down in front. She waved her arms frantically in front of her like windshield wipers.
As they disembarked, Madison and her friends clustered together near a tree. Camp staff carted bags up to the main lawn, where they would be retrieved later.
A short, round woman wearing a whistle and a red T-shirt with the word TRUST on it called for everyone’s attention. Kids stopped chattering and looked in her direction. Everyone was handed a map of Jasper Woods. On the map, certain key places were listed and marked: Jasper Lodge, the main building; the cafeteria, otherwise known as the snack shack; a few cabins with tree names like Willow and Maple; the swimming cabana and docks on Jasper Lake; and other cabins. Madison saw a tower illustrated in the center of the map. The orange tower!
Amid the chaos of students trying to find their backpacks, several teachers tried to lead students toward the sleeping cabins to get ready for the rest of the day’s activities.
“You’ll find an agenda for the seventh-grade trip on your bunk,” the red-shirted woman yelled over the voices of the one hundred and three seventh graders who had made the trip. She said her name was Pam.
“There’s something about this place…” Madison said aloud.
“Huh?” Aimee asked. “What are you talking about?”
“Maddie, are you being weird again?” Fiona said. “Look at the trees and lake. Everything is perfect.” Fiona spun around to catch a glimpse of Egg. The boys headed toward the Elm cabin on the other side of the woods.
“I think I like this place,” Lindsay said. “Beats doing homework.”
Madison shrugged. “It’s too rustic for me,” she said. “I miss my laptop already.”
“Give me a break,” Aimee cracked.
“We better get our bunks before all the good places are taken,” Fiona said.
Lindsay led the way to Maple cabin, where they had been assigned bunks with at least fifteen other seventh-grade girls. Unfortunately, Ivy and the drones were assigned to the same cabin. They had gotten there before anyone else.
Poison Ivy stood in the center of the room, hands on her hips. “You snooze, you lose,” she said to Madison and the other latecomers. “We have dibs on these beds.”
Aimee rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe we have rats in the cabin!” she said. “Somebody call the exterminator.”
“Like, you should talk,” Joan said.
“Let’s unpack,” Fiona said, trying to make nice.
Madison glanced around the cabin. The whole place smelled like a strange combination of mothballs, antiseptic, and burnt wood. Lindsay grabbed a single bed. Madison tossed her bag up onto an upper bunk, just to be a good sport. What was proper camp etiquette?
Graffiti covered the cabin walls. Madison silently read different words and names carved and printed on the beams overhead.
Daisy-n-Jake
2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten!!!!
I Camp
On top of each mattress, the girls found an agenda.
Seventh Grade,
Far Hills Junior High AGENDA
Thursday, April 24
10:30 A.M.: Arrival
11 A.M.: Settle into cabins
12 P.M.: Box lunch
1 P.M.: Tour of property
3 P.M.: Talent show meeting
5 P.M.: Announcements
5:30 P.M.: Dinner
7 P.M.: Singdown & campfire
10 P.M.: Lights out!
Friday, April 25
7 A.M.: Bird walk
8 A.M.: Breakfast
9 A.M.: Activities
12 P.M.: Box lunch
1 P.M.: Talent show practice
3 P.M.: Scavenger hunt
5 P.M.: Talent show practice
6 P.M.: Dinner & cleanup
7:30 P.M.: Talent Show
10 P.M.: Lights out!
Saturday, April 26
7 A.M.: Morning hike
8 A.M.: Breakfast
9 A.M.: The Tower
12 P.M.: Arts & crafts/award lunch
1 P.M.: Lunch/awards
3 P.M.: Departure
“There is so much to do!” Madison said.
“What’s a bird walk?” Rose asked.
“I’m starved. Is it time for the box lunch yet?” Joan the drone whined.
Madison noticed The Tower listed twice. She wondered if this meant her tall orange tower that she’d seen looming in the field.
“I heard that we have to climb to the top of the tower,” Lindsay said.
“The top?” Madison’s stomach flip-flopped.
“We have to fix up the trails or something, too,” Rose said. “Gosh, I am so NOT in the mood for this.”
“You’re never in the mood,” Ivy snapped jokingly. Rose stuck out her tongue.
“My brothers told me that this place is haunted.” Aimee said. “One of the old cabins has a ghost.”
“Ghost?” Madison said.
“I’m not afraid of this place,” Ivy said with an annoyed sigh. “Are you?”
“There’s hardly any time for talent show practice,” Fiona said, looking over the agenda.
“Like you even have a chance of winning,” Joanie said snidely from across the cabin. She said it softly, but everyone heard.
Ivy laughed out loud.
Aimee shot Ivy a cold look. “If we’re going to be in this cabin, we might as well try to get along,” she said, crossing her arms.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ivy shrugged. “Take a chill pill.”
Aimee huffed and puffed but ultimately backed down. There was no point in getting all worked up now. The trip was only just beginning.
Madison and Fiona decided to play Switzerland and stay out of this confrontation, too. Fiona went to the other side of the room to talk with Lindsay and another girl in the cabin, Stacey, while Madison opened her duffel and unpacked the orange notebook Mom had given her the night before.
Inside the front cover Mom had taped a photo of Phinnie. In the photo, Phin wore a glitter-green bobbler Madison had purchased for him at the mall. His little pink tongue poked out. He had that happy-dog look.
Madison smiled to herself, clicked her pen, and started in on her first “temporary” file.
FILE: Field Trip
Laptop, where are you? It’s practically a washout here. Everyone’s fighting and the clouds are getting darker by the minute. I bet there are huge spiders that live in this cabin, too, which freaks me out. But I won’t mention that, because Fiona is scared of spiders and she’ll stay up all night even more freaked out than me. And my bed stinks. I can feel all the springs in the mattress. Nightmares are practically guaranteed here.
Speaking of nightmares, Ivy Daly is up to her usual tricks. And the bus ride was bumpy, hot, and looooong. Except for M.A.S.H, of course. Unfortunately, I am not going to marry Hart. That bums me out big time. I keep thinking about poor Bigwheels and her ex-boyfriend, Reggie. Maybe they’ve gotten back together? Maybe not. Sometimes I feel like bad news follows ME around like a dark cloud. And what’s with that tower in the middle of Jasper woods?
Field trips are supposed to be fun.
Are we having fun yet?
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