The summer before had followed a slightly different model. Elena and Michelle had picked up a different camp counselor every Monday in each new city—a high school student. The student would work with them throughout the week, join them on their Saturday outing, and return home late Saturday night so that Michelle and Elena could drive to the next place on Sunday.

This was the first year they'd decided to hire a counselor for the full summer. Patrick was the perfect camp counselor, and that was the extent of his charm. The week before, he'd ruined six of her best demonstrations, and he'd almost crushed one of the pygmy mice.

But she couldn't blame Patrick for the failure of the demonstrations in the light room. She still didn't know what to blame for that.

Patrick—or rather, the chaos that always surrounded him—made Elena nervous, but he was good with the kids. Last week, his first week of camp, he'd known everyone's name by ten in the morning on Monday. She was sure he'd managed the same feat this week. Patrick wasn't one to pay much attention to science, especially when it came to being careful with her equipment, but he did pay attention to the campers. Elena hadn't been able to keep tabs on Sam every minute of the day, but maybe Patrick would have picked up on something.

If there was one person who she could ask about a camper, with hope of getting some information but without fear of judgment, it was Patrick.

The lunch break was always a crazy time. With no structured activity, the kids ran wildly around the multipurpose room. Michelle was always busy with food distribution, so Patrick and Elena were the only ones left to keep order.

A cry rang out through the clamor, and the noise level of the room lowered for just a moment as all eyes turned to stare. A smaller boy, probably no older than eight, lay flat on his back, the toy car that had tripped him still zooming across the floor.

Elena darted over to the fallen camper. "Are you okay?"

The boy pulled himself to sit up, blinking.

Patrick trotted over to where the boy sat and knelt down. "Sweet wipeout, Tyler!" He help up a hand, and the boy grinned and high-fived him.

Elena glanced over her shoulder and skimmed the room for Dr. Baker, then she remembered that he had called Michelle aside to talk. Her nose wrinkling, Elena turned to Patrick. "Can I talk to you?"

He nodded and followed Elena to the back door. "What's up?"

"Patrick, you have to be more careful with the kids!"

"Because of that?" Patrick laughed and shook his head. "I've got four little siblings. Kids don't break that easy."

"I'm serious."

Patrick glanced over her shoulder, then back at her. "This is about that evaluation?"

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Michelle had specifically asked if anyone had gotten hurt while Dr. Baker was watching; she didn't want to have to change her answer to that question. "I did enough damage today. If a kid gets hurt, that might be the last straw for Camp Universe losing its funding."

"You worry too much."

"You don't worry at all!"

"Exactly." Patrick grinned.

Elena rolled her eyes. There was no use arguing with him about this, and besides, she'd come to talk about Sam. "Never mind. I need to ask you about something."

He grimaced. "This isn't about the circuit board in the other classroom, is it? Because I swear, it was an accident."

Her jaw dropped. "What did you do to my circuit board?"

His cheeks turned pink. "Nothing. What circuit board?"

Elena glared at him.

He scratched his ear. "So, what did you want to ask about?"

"One of the campers. Sam."

"The kid whose clothes don't match."

Elena raised one eyebrow, trying and failing to remember what Sam had been wearing. "Yeah, I guess. You notice anything odd about him?"

"He's, like, really smart. I told him we were going to make invisible ink, and he started asking all these questions about the chemicals and stuff."

Good—another experiment she could watch Sam perform. "Okay, but did you notice anything weird?"

"He's got some burns on his hands. Nothing really serious, just—"

So he'd noticed, too. "Not like that."

"Like what?"

She sighed—she should have known better than to try to talk with Patrick about this. "Never mind. It's just—"

"Actually, you know what, there was something pretty weird this morning."

"Yeah?"

Patrick stepped a little closer and lowered his voice. "I was filling in at the registration table while Michelle gave her opening speech to the camp, and we were down to a couple of kids on the list. Michelle was thinking they were going to be no-shows. Then Sam runs up to me, I mean I didn't know he was Sam, but he runs up and he's by himself. I ask him where his parents are, he just stares at me. So I just give him his name tag, he sits with the other kids, and next thing I know he's fine, he's pretty much a normal kid. Laughing and playing and all that stuff."

Elena shook her head. "Okay, that's not good, you'll have to talk to Michelle about that."

He smirked. "Yes, Mom."

Elena flinched. Something shifted in Patrick's expression, and he breathed in to speak, but she turned away. "I'll see you later, Patrick."

Elena hung back from the activities for the rest of the day. Jim already knew she had designed the materials, so her work would speak for itself without her needing to interfere with the lessons too much. The kids were as engaged as any group, and more. The demonstrations worked as well as in any class, and better.

The one exception was Sam.

The final activity of the afternoon was lighting light bulbs. Kids struggled with their batteries and wires, overheated the insulation, and one group even made smoke rise from the metal contacts. They fell into the same challenges and pitfalls as any group of campers she had seen. But Sam's lightbulb never lit up—at least, not while he was touching it. She watched Patrick tried to help him, but he ended up taking and lighting it himself. Then it worked.

She wouldn't have thought anything of it, except she could see how Sam was connecting his wires. It was flawless. Finally, when Patrick turned to walk away, the light bulb burned brighter than any in the room in Sam's hands without him changing anything about the setup. Sam didn't seem to notice anything was amiss—he and his lab parnter laughed in delight.

At least, she thought with some relief, he can't exactly mess up the planetarium show.

And she was right. The planetarium show went as planned, and Sam, along with the others, clapped and cheered. But it was the only thing that day that had gone as planned, and it was the only thing Elena had had no hand in designing.

When the time came for the kids to be picked up by parents, Elena stood by the door and waited for Sam's parents to come and pick him up, since apparently Patrick hadn't met them that morning. But she never saw them. Two of the other kids were roughhousing, and one fell. Elena went to help him up, and by the time she returned to her place guarding the door, Sam was already gone.

She stepped over to the registration table, where Michelle was busy at work sending campers off with their families. "Do you need me here anymore?"

Michelle's eyes met Elena's for just a moment. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Just wondering if you've got this. I didn't get to check on Winter at lunchtime."

"Go ahead. Catch your breath."

Elena gave her a slight smile.

"Oh, and Elena?"

"Yeah?"

"Call your mom."

Elena scowled, but she headed out to the camper.