The next day, Elena hung back from the activities a little to watch. She told herself it was because she was nervous about Dr. Baker, who was hovering in every lesson, but the truth was, she wanted to be able to watch Sam without making it obvious that she was pouring all of her attention into one camper. Not that it mattered—she didn't have a job there, anyway.

But if there was any chance Dr. Baker might be considering hiring her back, her best bet would be to stay back. Dr. Baker already knew she had designed the materials; 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.

They started the morning with color-changing beads, learning about how UV light could affect materials. The kids at the front of the room were standing in a line, each holding a string with a handful of white beads that would turn pink, yellow, and blue in the sunlight, unless they put sunscreen on them. Patrick lead them out of the classroom to the yard, and Michelle and Elena followed them out.

Dr. Baker followed them a moment later, and stood watching in the doorway, still tapping away at his tablet.

Elena took deep breaths and focused on the kids. She skimmed the bracelets of blue, pink, and yellow, and she happened to catch a glimpse of Sam's bracelet. His beads had turned purple and green.

She definitely didn't remember putting in an order for those colors, and if it had been any other kid, she never would have questioned it except to worry she might be losing track of things. But since it was Sam, her mind set to racing for explanations.

Maybe he'd brought his own beads with him? That would explain it. It wouldn't explain what she'd seen yesterday, but then again, it was easier to believe one fluke than four. The failed chemical reaction could have easily been her fault. She could have missed something with the lenses, or with the shadow box, or in the monochromatic room . . .

No. There were too many data points. It was always when Sam was around, and never when he wasn't.

Sam pouted when he looked at his beads, then around at everyone else's. He clearly believed this had something to do with him being "bad at science." Elena didn't try to talk to him. She didn't know how to begin to explain to him how little sense that made.

Michelle gave a short lesson about UV light, then the kids went inside for snack. The next activity after that was lighting light bulbs. Kids struggled with their batteries and wires, overheated the insulation, and one group even managed to make smoke rise from the metal contacts, though they laughed about it. The campers fell into the same challenges and pitfalls as any group of campers Elena's had seen. But Sam's lightbulb never lit up. Elena watched Patrick tried to help him, but he ended up taking and lighting it himself. It worked when Patrick tried it, so he gave it back to them and told them to do the same thing.

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 partner laughed in delight.

"This one works better if I focus the science!" he cried. Elena made a mental note to ask Sam what he meant by that when she could get a minute with him while Dr. Baker wasn't staring at her disapprovingly—by the look on his face, he'd been so thoroughly convinced of her incompetence that he believed a finicky light bulb was her fault.

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

And she was right. The planetarium show in the dark room with the 360 projector 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 their parents, Elena stood by the door and waited for Sam's parents to come and pick him up, since she hadn't met them that morning. But she never saw them. Two of the other kids were roughhousing across the multipurpose room, 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.

Something was different about Sam. Maybe he was doing it on purpose—messing with the demonstrations. Maybe he had some device with him, hidden on his person, that was altering things. Maybe it was something Elena hadn't considered.

If Sam had really done something during the opener show, the fire wasn't Elena's fault. She could convince Dr. Baker of that. She might even get her job back.

Of course, her word wouldn't be believed, even if she did have evidence. She didn't want to put any more stress on Michelle. That left Patrick. Elena didn't love working with him, and she was pretty sure he didn't like her much, either, but she didn't have a lot of options.

During cleanup after camp, Michelle took some time to talk with Dr. Baker outside, leaving Elena alone with Patrick. She cut right to the chase. "Hey Patrick, what color are the beads from this morning?"

Patrick raised an eyebrow. "Is this a trick question?"

"No. I'm trying to remember what colors they're supposed to turn."

"Primary colors. Pink, yellow, and blue."

"Sam's turned green and purple."

"Weird." Patrick shrugged. "Maybe a manufacturing error?"

"Maybe. Except that none of the demos worked on him. I mean, none of them."

"Wow, poor kid. Well, at least he got the cool sun bead colors."

"I mean, I guess, but . . . all of the activities worked the exact opposite of the way they were supposed to whenever he was around. I could see blue in the monochromatic room."

"The mono-what?"

"The colorblind room. I could see color in it when Sam was around."

Patrick shifted his weight. "Whoa. That's super weird. Did you get to talk to his parents?"

Elena's eyes fell closed—she'd forgotten to talk to Michelle about that. "No, sounds like they dropped him off and picked him up without checking in."

"That's not good."

"I was just wondering if you'd noticed the same thing, with the equipment failing."

"Um." Patrick scooped up a pile of legos into a bin. "Yeah, I think I saw him struggling with some of the labs. He was asking me for help with the light bulb, and he was sort of sulking in the light room by the end of the class, so I had him work with some of the computer simulations instead."

"And those went okay for him?"

"I think so. Do you think he's messing up the labs on purpose?"

Elena remembered his frustration, his quivering lips, his innocent thrill at the sight of Michelle's other demonstrations and during the planetarium show. "No, I doubt it. But I think . . ." She chose her words carefully. "He's having a tough week."

"He's not the only one."

Elena almost thought she detected some sympathy in his voice, but she quickly dismissed it—Patrick wasn't really like that. "Well, I think we should help him."

"I agree."

"We should—wait, really?"

"Yeah. Camp's supposed to be fun for the kids, not stressful."

She nodded. "Okay. Great. So, tomorrow, when we do the labs—"

"I'll make sure to keep an extra eye on Sam, and you can help him out, too, since you know the demos better than I do."

"Great." Elena smiled. If Patrick saw what she was seeing, she'd know that it wasn't just a coincidence, and it didn't have anything to do with her.

She'd know that she wasn't going crazy. And maybe, maybe, she could prove it to Dr. Baker, too.