Lights Out! by Laura Dower

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?”