The camper was a typical bulky white motor home, with the beaker-and-gear Camp Universe logo on the side. There was a section for a driver and passenger up front. Their team made long treks between camp sites, but they took turns driving, so they each got to sleep for two-third of the travel time.

A chorus of rustling and squawking met Elena's arrival to the living area, and Winter, her Maltese dog, came running up to her, panting. Elena let out a contented sigh as she glanced around at the many animals in the camper. It was big for a motor home, but tiny for a living space. There was enough room for a little stove and oven below the microwave, a few wooden cabinets and drawers, and a single cluttered countertop, as well as a table and bench seats. Michelle slept in the back bedroom, Patrick had a hide-a-bed in the front, and Elena slept in a little loft built into the ceiling over the kitchen area.

There was a little storage space beneath the animal tanks up front for suitcases, without which they wouldn't have had enough floor space to walk without tripping, even without Winter underfoot. Three adults and ten animals sharing four hundred square feet for a summer with one bathroom and one tiny shower wasn't exactly comfortable, and the smell was pretty overwhelming until you got used to it. But waking up in a new state, a new city every week was more than worth it.

Elena had cried herself to sleep every night for the first week during her first summer, but then she'd lain awake for hours every night in her impossibly roomy dorm room the month after that summer was over.

She blinked a couple of times and kicked her shoes off, shoving them into their compartment next to the suitcases, and resisted the impulse to shuffle her feet through the fluffy beige carpet on her way to the refrigerator. She tore a few leaves off a head of lettuce, closed the fridge door, and unlatched the cage above the fridge.

"Hungry, Savannah?" Elena lifted the bunny out of her cage and placed her down on the floor of the camper beside the lettuce. Savannah hopped a lap around the camper before stopping at the lettuce and nibbling away at it.

Elena almost smiled as she made her rounds of all the cages, peeking in on each of the animals to make sure they were okay. The stacked tanks with the turtle, gecko, chameleon, and snake; the bird in the cage next to the window; the rabbit in the cage above the mini-fridge and beside the microwave; the three mice in the tube built into the upper edge of the room.

Nothing amiss in any of the cages. Normally, that would be good news. Today, it just meant she didn't have an excuse not to make that phone call.

She hadn't spoken to her mom in months. What was she supposed to tell her now? That she'd been fired? She could already feel the pain of her mom's lecture, without even hearing it. She could say she'd quit, but the thought of the I-told-you-so's and What-were-you-thinking?'s somehow stung even more. A little voice in her head told her the best option was to lie, but she couldn't bring herself to do that.

She took a deep breath. Best case scenario, Elena would never get a word in, anyway.

The phone rang four times. "Elena?"

"Hi—"

"Well, it's about time. Do you even check your voicemail anymore? No, I guess that's not something your generation does, you never stop texting each other but you can't be bothered to pick up the phone. Not even to give your own mother some peace of mind. Where are you, anyway?"

"I'm in San Francisco, but—"

"Oh, San Francisco. A couple of hours out and you're too busy to come visit, with all your gadgets and pliers and—"

"I am coming to see you."

"Oh, well—" Her mom stopped short.

"Yeah. I'm not going to work at the camp anymore. Can I come stay with you for a little while?"

A long pause. Elena picked up Winter again and went to sit down on the couch.

Finally, her mom asked, "What happened?"

"I'm just . . . I'm not going to work here anymore."

"You're quitting? Mid-summer?"

She gripped onto Winter's fur. "Yes."

"No, you loved that job, you wouldn't quit. Did you get fired?"

Elena swallowed.

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Gonna be a long summer if you're never going to talk."

Winter yelped—Elena had gripped onto her too tightly. She set the dog down onto the ground. "A lab accident. Some things caught fire."

"Wait, lab accident? I keep telling you those chemicals are dangerous! Are you okay? Is anyone hurt?"

"I'm okay, Mom, we're all okay. But I'm going to finish out the week here. There's a kid who thinks it's his fault, and I'm going to try to help him."

"Whose fault is it?"

"It doesn't matter."

Silence again, and Elena could hear her own words from two years ago echoing in her mind: This is your fault! Yours!

"Mom . . . I know. But this is different. This kid—" her voice broke— "there's something weird about him. A bunch of my equipment, it doesn't work when it's around him. I'm going to try to figure out what's going on."

"Is this another one of your little science projects?"

"I hate it when you call them that."

"Do you think he caused the lab accident?"

"I didn't, but he does. And now I'm not sure."

"You think if you can get some questions answered about the kid, you can get your job back?"

Elena sighed. A small part of her still wished that that were possible. "I really just want to know what's going on with him."

"Accidents happen all the time."

"Not like this."

"Some questions weren't meant to be answered, Elena."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, but I've got to try to help the kid. I'm worried about him. He might be in danger."

"What makes you think he's in danger?"

"He, uh, he told me."

"How old is this kid?"

"I don't know." He looked about eight, but she wasn't going to say that.

"You're going off the word of a little kid?"

Her teeth clenched. "Look, it doesn't matter, forget I said anything. I'm just going to finish up some things here, and then I'll come to your place until I can find another place to stay."

"Elena, I know you don't want my advice, but please, don't try to tackle this one on your own. You get too close to things, you let your emotions get away from you—"

"Mom—"

"—and if this kid really is in trouble, I don't want you getting mixed up in it."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"Be serious, Elena. I never thought you should work in that camp in the first place, but don't go getting yourself into even more trouble. You don't sound like yourself, talking about that kid. You're too smart for your mind to go to waste just because you were upset about a lab accident."

"Is that all anyone cares about?" Elena jumped up from her seat—a loud rustling in the cages accompanied her outburst. "Oh, you're so smart, Elena. You could do anything you want. Why would you waste your time on that? Why does everyone else get to decide what's a waste of my time? Why do you even care?"

"I only meant—"

"There's something going on at this camp. Something weird, maybe even something new, but you know what? It's scaring the life out of a little kid right now. I'm the only one who can see it, I'm the only one who cares, and maybe—I don't know—maybe I'm the only one who can fix it right now. How is that a waste of my mind?"

For a moment, all she could hear was her mom's heavy breathing and silent judgement. "I don't know what to say, Elena. Maybe you're right. Either way, I think your father would be proud of you."

Rage blurred the edges of her vision. "Don't ever talk to me about Dad!" She hung up.

A second later she regretted it, but she couldn't have stopped herself. This was usually how their conversations went.

She knew she had overreacted, but she had had more than enough of people telling her how smart she was in an attempt to control her. If she was as smart as they said, she could figure out what she wanted to do with her life without them having to tell her which things were acceptable for a smart person to want.

She dropped her phone down on the couch, then plunked down next to it. Of course, that had always been her problem. She didn't know what she wanted, not if she couldn't work at Camp Universe.

Right now, though, she wanted to help Sam. And she would make that happen. No matter what it took.