I froze, right in front of Axl’s desk, instantly humiliated that now everyone was looking at me—including Jackie, who was way across the room, holding a clay cutting tool in midair.

In her royal-blue T-shirt that made her eyes stand out, short skirt, and loose braid, I knew she was pretty, but it was hard to see that through her lemon-faced expression.

“Use another pencil,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You totally interrupted my flow.” Louder, she added, “Karly, will you make them sit down?”

“I think we can give Tess and Sam a second,” Karly said, barely looking up from what she was writing.

“This is so lame, disrupting everyone,” Jackie went on, staring right at me. “First you’re late, and now you’re freaking out about a pencil.”

“Shhh,” Karly said. “Let’s all calm down.”

I’m not freaking out! I shouted in my head.

But no one knew how fast my heart was beating. Or that the right side of my lip felt funny, like it was falling asleep, pins and needles poking me from the inside out when I touched it.

“I know someone who needs to calm down,” Izzy said, shooting angry eyes at Jackie. Her cheeks turned pink. Izzy said to me, “I have a 3H you can borrow, Tess.”

“Problem solved!” Karly said, turning up the music. “Let’s get back to work, okay?”

I felt light-headed; I just wanted to sit down.

“Thanks, Izzy,” I said, taking the loaner pencil.

“Don’t chew on it,” he joked.

“Chewing on a pencil’s better than chewing on your fingers,” Jackie muttered, her eyes still on her project.

I don’t think Izzy meant to do it, but he glanced down at my hand, before telling Jackie to mind her own business. I rushed back to my seat, dropping hard onto the wooden chair.

My heart felt like I’d had three Cokes at a sleepover, and as I stared at the bright white paper, my right eye got blurry. Then it got fuzzy, like I was looking through a black-and-white kaleidoscope. The right part of my lip was definitely numb now, and my right hand was tingling, too.

“You guys,” I said, too quietly at first. I couldn’t get a deep breath.

“You guys!” I said loudly. Everyone looked at me again; I heard Jackie groan.

“What now?” she asked.

“You look kind of . . . off,” Boy Sam said quietly, concerned.

Izzy turned in his chair, his dark eyebrows knitted together. I could only see him clearly out of my left eye, but it hurt to look at him at all in the bright, sunlit room. I wanted to cover my head with a blanket.

“Karly?” Girl Sam said loudly. “Tess looks really pale. I think she needs help.”

Karly came over quickly, telling the other campers to give me some space. She put her hand on my forehead like my mom did.