Elena's insides still felt like wet concrete as they stepped back into the multipurpose room. Patrick sat beside Sam, whose eyes were red and puffy. Dr. Baker stood off in a corner, no longer tapping on his tablet, but talking on his phone.

"Hey." Michelle knelt down to Sam's level. "How's your elbow?"

Sam lifted his arm to show her—a bandaid covered in superheroes patched the scrape.

"Hey, that's cool! Sam, I've brought my friend Elena over, but I have something to tell you before you get upset with her."

"I'm not upset with her."

Michelle smiled sadly. "Well, I'm glad, but—"

Elena knelt down before Michelle could speak. "I'm so sorry, Sam. I thought Michelle might have messed up the demo, but she didn't. She never messes up the demos. This is my fault."

"No 's not." He sniffled and rubbed his elbow.

"Yes it is. I didn't need to push you."

"I woulda messed up the science."

"No." Elena kept her voice firm. "This is my fault."

Michelle glared at her, but she just smiled a little. That was that. Elena awkwardly patted Sam on the arm. "Your parents are going to be here soon, okay?"

His eyes widened, and his cheeks turned white. "H-how did you get their number?"

"We have all the parents' numbers on the registration sheets. I had to leave a message for your mom, but she'll call back soon."

As if in response, Michelle's phone buzzed against the plastic table.

"I'll bet that's her." She tapped the screen. "Camp Universe, this is Michelle."

The volume on Michelle's phone was up high enough that Elena could just make out the words: "Hello, this is Cynthia Pierre. I'm Samuel's mom."

"Hi Mrs. Pierre. Thanks for calling me back."

"I just got your message, and I wanted to call and apologize."

"Oh, well, he's—"

"I should have called you yesterday. Samuel was feeling sick this weekend. At first it was just a cough, but by Sunday night he was running a fever, and Monday morning he was in the bathroom throwing up. He really wanted to come to camp, but he just wasn't feeling well enough."

"Well, he seems—"

"So yeah, I decided it would be better if he wasn't around the other kids, I didn't want them to get sick. We're keeping him home for now, maybe he can come in later this week—though I guess, your message said there was some kind of incident?"

"Um . . ." Michelle blinked a couple of times. "Well. It doesn't look like we're going to continue camp this week."

"Oh, that's too bad. Well, anyway, I should have called sooner. Sorry about that, I hope everything works out alright."

Michelle's face had turned an ashy pale.

"Hello?"

"Um . . . so Sam's been home with you all week?"

"In bed, poor thing."

"Where is he right now?"

A pause. "On the couch, actually. I'm sitting next to him."

Michelle's eyes flicked from Elena, to Patrick, to Sam. "Thank you for your time, Mrs. Pierre." She lowered the phone from her ear and touched the button to end the call.

Elena buried her face in her hands. She should have said something. Should have spoken up as soon as she realized something was off.

Michelle turned to Sam, and the look on her face was much like the one she had worn when she had approached Elena about the assault. "Young man, I think you have some explaining to do."

Sam's lower lip quivered, then he buried his face in his knees and sobbed.

Michelle's expression softened, and she half smile at Patrick. Your turn, she mouthed, and she walked over to stand by Dr. Baker.

Elena remained a few steps away as Patrick knelt down to Sam and placed an arm around his shoulders.

"Hey buddy, we're not upset with you." He looked up at Elena. "Right?"

Elena stammered. "Uh—right." She sat down on the other side of Sam, but a few inches further away. "We just want to make sure you're safe."

He sat up with his hands covering his face and peeked out through his fingers.

"Maybe you tell us your name?"

He said something, but

"It's—it's Planck."

"Planck?"

He nodded, his face still covered by his hands. "But I don't like it. You can call me Sam if you want. You guys have been so nice to me."

Elena and Patrick exchanged a glance. Elena cleared her throat. "What's your last name, Pl—um, Sam?"

He finally lowered his hands. "I don't have one. I mean, my social worker said I had one, but then it changed, then it changed again, but my new parents didn't want me to use theirs . . ."

"It's okay, it's okay." Patrick squeezed his shoulder.

It sounded like he'd been tossed from home to home. "Were you in foster care?"

He grabbed onto the hem of Elena's t-shirt, and his gray eyes pierced hers. "Please don't send me back!"

"I—okay, okay." She placed her fingers on the backs of his hands, and they released her shirt. "I need to talk to Miss Michelle and Dr. Baker, okay?"

Patrick nodded, and they both stood, leaving Sam and approaching Michelle and Dr. Baker.

"He's an escaped foster kid," Elena said.

Dr. Baker raised his eyebrows. "Don't you usually meet the parents on the first day of camp?"

"He ran in just as a car pulled away," Patrick said. "Camp was starting. I just figured I'd see his parents at the end of the day."

"And his name just happened to be the name of one of the missing campers?" Michelle asked.

Patrick winced. "No. There were only two kids left on the list, so I asked which of them he was. I guess he just picked one of the names."

Dr. Baker turned to Michelle. "Are you aware of any other time this has happened?"

"I can assure you it has not."

He slipped his phone into his pocket. "I'll be honest, Michelle. I've read the reports on this camp, seen the reviews. This week is nothing like I've heard."

"This week is nothing like we've ever experienced." Michelle turned to Elena. "You need to tell him what you've been seeing."

Dr. Baker turned to Elena, his expression as skeptical as ever.

Elena felt her limbs tense and cringe. "There is something weird about this kid."

"How so?"

"I know you don't think much of me as a person, but you work at a tech company, so I know you know science."

He straightened up a bit, almost imperceptibly.

"All of the demos we do at this camp show the science in its simplest and clearest form. Yes, I designed them and put together the equipment, but I can't claim the credit for how amazing they are. It's science. I didn't make it shine. It just does. And it works for everyone."

For the first time, she saw the hints of a smile playing with the corners of his mouth.

"But for Sam . . ." She shook her head. "I don't know. For some reason, none of them work for him."

"What do you mean, none of them work?"

Elena felt the same squirming inside that she had felt the night before. The stories would sound ridiculous, especially to Dr. Baker, who had never experienced the chaos of camp before. But keeping silent about the weird things she'd seen was the reason they were in this situation now.

So she forced herself to recount the things she'd seen. She started with the ones Dr. Baker had seen along with her, the colorblind room and the lens, then she talked about the light bulbs, and the chemical reaction.

His smile faded as soon as she began her story, and his face remained as blank as ever throughout her speech.

"I know, it sounds crazy," she said. "But I think that's because it is. I still don't know why this is happening, but things just weren't working for him. I wasn't going to stand by while he tried the only potentially dangerous activity at this camp."

Dr. Baker just stared at her for awhile while her heart threatened to leap out through her throat. Then he left his corner.

He walked over to the registration table and set down his clipboard, rifled through the papers one more time.

He turned to face her. Here it came. "I don't think Sam was in any danger during the bowling ball pendulum, Elena."

She tried to swallow, but she couldn't. "I know, I—"

"The demos that didn't work yesterday were the, um, the colorblind room, the lenses, the light bulbs . . . did I miss any?"

"That chemical reaction in the laser show."

He shook his head. "Nah, that one's not part of this. Patrick was playing with your chemicals while your back was turned." Dr. Baker looked at Michelle. "You're right, he's good with the kids, but he's a bit of a loose cannon. Keep an eye on that one."

Elena's jaw dropped. Patrick had ruined the first explosion? She shouldn't have been surprised, but she could have killed him. She glared at Patrick while his face turned bright red.

"I'm assuming the density activity worked for him?"

"How did you know?"

"Were there any others that didn't?" Dr. Baker asked.

Elena and Michelle exchanged a glance, and Elena took a deep breath. "Um, not really. The kids were playing with multicolored beads, and I thought Sam's were a different color—"

"Well, that does fit the pattern."

"The—what pattern?"

Dr. Baker looked her in the eyes, but it felt more like he was looking through her. "They're all light demos."

Elena's voice caught in her throat. She didn't even believe herself, Michelle only barely did, but Dr. Baker—-her enemy would be the one to save her. "So you actually believe there's something weird going on?"

"Oh, definitely. I was only supposed to stick around long enough to see if the camp was worth funding. I drew my conclusions there in the first hour. But the physical perturbations—those were worth the stay to see."

Elena blinked. "So . . ." She almost couldn't bring herself to say the words. "I'm not fired?"

He sucked in his breath through his teeth. "Not sure I can go that far yet. Let's figure out what to do with the kid. Maybe there are people looking for him, but maybe not."

"We need to call the police," Michelle said.

"I'll take care of that. Either way, I'm going to need to take you all back to headquarters. My bosses are going to want to hear your stories directly. I assume you don't have anything else to be for the next few days."

Elena shook her head and looked to Michelle. Usually so calm and unfazed, Michelle's cheeks were white, and she appeared to be winded.

"No," Elena finally said. "We'll pack up camp."