by Laura Dower
Then came Fiona’s solo message.
From: Wetwinz
To: MadFinn
Subject: WUWC?
Date: Sun 27 Sept 11:05 PM
It is wicked late but Mom said I could work on the computer n e way and besides I owe u an e-mail right? Well, it’s a good excuse. OK so here’s what’s up: Chet is acting like the weirdest weirdo I have ever met. He started talking during dinner tonight (he never talks, just grunts) and he was asking me ALL these ?s about Madhur Singh. Ever since the movies Saturday he’s been obsessed. Does Madhur like him b/c he seems 2 think that she does? ok, I know I may be loony here but I think we should fix them up. Then maybe my bro will just shut up.
LYLAS!
xoxo,
Fiona
p.s.: If he knew I was asking u this he would KILL me so don’t u dare say n e thing.
p.s. again: Aimee called me earlier and she is still mad about Saturday, too. That GNO turned out to be way dif. than the last one we had, right? Is she ok?
Madison scanned Fiona’s note a second time. She thought again about everything that Madhur had said the day before about boys. There was no inkling of “like” for Chet, as far as Madison knew. Hart was the one Madhur kept talking about. Grrrrrr. Chet was perhaps the most annoying boy Madison had ever known, but she felt bad for him and for herself at the same time. Maybe if Madison let Madhur know the truth about Hart she would start liking Chet instead.
This was getting so complicated.
Madison glanced up at the clock. It was late! After rising early, she was now on the verge of missing homeroom. Quickly, Madison snapped the laptop shut without properly powering down. She pushed it into her orange bag along with two notebooks and a pencil case and jogged over to the closet to retrieve her jean jacket with the patches on the elbows.
“Where are you, Mom?” Madison called out from the center of the hallway. “I’m ready to go!”
Mom didn’t respond at first, but then she came dashing down the stairs.
“I was in the shower; I was in the shower,” Mom cried, hugging her bathrobe around her.
Phin danced his good-bye dance, too, around Madison’s feet.
“I have a meeting for the conference after school, and then I might hang out with Madhur in the library to work on our …”
“Okay, honey bear,” Mom interrupted sweetly. “Just don’t forget to call.”
“Okay,” Madison agreed. She walked outside and headed straight for school.
After classes ended on Monday, Madison and the other conference participants met in the auditorium. This was the day everyone had to submit their final topics of discussion. As the students walked into the room, Mrs. Wing handed out a more detailed conference agenda.
Dare to Be Aware!
Junior World Leaders Conference
Saturday, October 3
Far Hills Junior High
11 A.M. Registration and Welcome
12 P.M. World Nations Luncheon
1 P.M. 7th Graders: My View of the World
2 P.M. 8th Graders: Assigned Country Discussion
3 P.M. 9th Graders: International Debate
4 P.M. Guest Speaker
5 P.M. Closing Remarks and Awards
Madison’s friends clustered together for the start of the meeting, taking seats in various rows on the left side of the room. As usual, Fiona and Chet caused a minor scene, fighting about something stupid. It wasn’t too loud, but they kept poking one another and calling each other names, attracting the attention of at least one teacher. None of that would have mattered much if Madison and Madhur hadn’t been sitting smack-dab between the two of them.
“You guys,” Madison whispered to Chet and then Fiona, “I can’t hear what Mrs. Wing is saying. And you’re going to get us all in trouble.”
By then, a few kids had turned around to see what all the noise was, and they weren’t staring at Fiona or Chet. For some reason, they were staring at Madison. Not only that, but Hart was at least five seats (miles, really) away from her when she needed him most. And Madison needed him—or someone—to rescue her.
Madison felt frustration brew inside her like water in a kettle that was about to go shrieeeeeeeek, so when Chet flicked his pen at Fiona’s leg and hit Madison’s knee instead, she stood right up with her arms in the air as if she were surrendering to the chaos.
The room went silent.
“Madison?” Mrs. Wing said.
Papers rustled as half the people in the room turned around in their seats.
“Gee,” Mrs. Wing said to Mr. Gibbons and Mrs. Goode. “I’ve heard of enthusiastic volunteers, but this really takes the cake. Good for you, Madison.”
“Volunteers?” Madison gulped. “I don’t under—”
Before Madison could finish her thought, Mrs. Wing put her hands together and clapped. Other kids clapped, too, including Madhur, Hart, and Madison’s other friends.
“What does she mean, ‘volunteers’?” Madison whispered to Madhur. Her eyes darted from Madhur to Mrs. Wing and back to Madhur. “What did I just say … er … do?”
Madhur bit her lip. “Mrs. Wing asked who would help read the code of ethics at the start and end of the meeting.”
“And I raised my hand?” Madison asked.
Madhur nodded.
Oh, no.
Throughout all of the back-and-forth between Chet and Fiona, somehow Madison had missed Mrs. Wing’s request for volunteers from the class. So when Madison stood up all of a sudden …
“Speak to me after the meeting ends, will you, Madison? It’s really not a lot of text to read. But it’s an important job,” Mrs. Wing said proudly. She was beaming. There was no way out of this one.
Madison leaned back in her chair and picked at a loose thread on the sleeve of her sweater. If she weren’t careful, the whole sleeve would unravel. Of course, unraveling was a familiar feeling these days, Madison thought. She kept right on picking.
If Madison hated anything, anything, it was speaking in front of large groups. And now, this coming weekend, she would have to do it not once but twice? Her stomach flipped. And then it flopped.
It’s the end of the world as we know it….
“Are you okay?” Madhur asked softly. Madison hadn’t spoken for a few moments. “Did you actually mean to volunteer? Because you didn’t seem too happy, and you look a little clammy. Um … maybe you should tell Mrs. Wing that you made a mistake.”
Madison nodded. “I know I should. But I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because. You know. It would be too embarrassing to back out.”
“Yeah,” Madhur said. “I understand.”
“You do?”
“You want to look good in front of everyone.”
“As long as I don’t throw up,” Madison said.
“It won’t be a big deal,” Madhur said. “Really. You’ll probably be great being an announcer. It’s a very important job, and you’re a very important person.”
Madison moaned. “Yeah, that’s me. Very important. With a very big mouth. Yikes.”
Fiona caught Madison’s eye from a few seats away. She made googly eyes, which got Madison laughing.
Then, Mr. Gibbons and a few other faculty members took over the meeting. They asked the students making presentations to pair up and practice. Mr. Gibbons and the other faculty advisers would be walking around the room to check on the kids’ topics and outlines.
Madison turned to Madhur. “Oh, no!” she cried. “As if this meeting wasn’t already enough like a pressure cooker! I thought we could just talk vaguely about our topic. But now …”
“Stay cool,” Madhur said. “I have some notes we can use.”
“Notes?” Madison said. “You know Mr. Gibbons. He always wants details. That’s how he is.”
“I guess you’re right. We can fake it.”
“You mean you can fake it,” Madison said.
“Yes. Leave it to me,” Madhur replied confidently.<
br />
A few seats away, Fiona, Chet, Hart, Drew, Dan, and Egg all conferred with their own partners. It seemed to Madison that everyone was more prepared than she and Madhur. Why had they wasted all that time together gabbing and playing around—when they should have been studying? If they hadn’t spent all that time eating tandoori and looking at photos, would they have been more prepared right now?
“So, here’s what we should do,” Madhur explained, pulling out a fat file folder of printouts. Madison gawked at the paper stack. She couldn’t believe Madhur had done so much research—with so much backup material. All Madison had was a single page of barely legible notes.
“You did all this by yourself?” Madison asked with continued disbelief. “When?”
“I surfed the Internet last night for a few hours. You know, after we saw each other. I didn’t want to be unprepared. I found some good stuff on poverty. Really good.”
Madison glanced at the top page of the pile. She squinted to read all of the fine print. This was good stuff. It was super-smart stuff. Mrs. Wing would be very impressed.
Poverty is the state of being without the necessities of daily living, often associated with need, hardship, and lack of resources across a wide range of circumstances.
—Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
As the two Maddies pored over the pages together and talked back and forth about the ideas they liked the most, Mrs. Wing poked her head into their “think” space.
“And how are you girls doing?” she asked gently.
Madison was tongue-tied. Madhur, however, knew exactly what to say.
“Doing fine, Mrs. Wing,” she explained. “We have a lot of research on our topic.”
“Care to share?” Mrs. Wing asked. She reached for the pile of material and quickly flipped through it. “Okay, this is a good start. But where is your outline?” she asked.
“Um … outline … yes, of course …” Madhur was close to stammering. Madison had never heard her new friend sound unsure … “Um … we … I mean, I …”
“I left the outline in my locker,” Madison said. “Madhur has all of the backup material, but the specific outline isn’t here….”
“It’s in your locker?” Mrs. Wing asked. Someone called to her from across the room. “Well, that’s good. Just make sure you show it to me before the end of the week so I can review and comment before the conference, okay? And girls, from what I see of all this backup material, you may want to narrow your topic. You only have four minutes to present. Don’t forget. Keep it streamlined.”
“Of course,” Madison said quickly. “We already took care of that. We have a really short and succinct speech. I swear.”
“Absolutely,” Madhur said, smiling.
“Yup,” Madison added. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. Luckily, Mrs. Wing nodded and walked away, distracted.
Madhur turned to Madison and let out a deep exhalation of relief. “You are my hero,” she said.
Madison smiled. It was true. She had saved the day—at least partly. But this was no time to rest on her laurels.
“Hey, Finnster,” Hart was there, squatting down in the row behind them. “Did Mrs. Wing like your outline?”
Before Madison could respond (to the question that was, in fact, addressed to her), Madhur started to reply. She talked about the close call with Mrs. Wing; and she talked about the reams of material she’d gathered on their topic (of course, presenting visual aids meant to impress Hart). Hart slid into a seat to listen. Madison watched helplessly, as if she were watching Ping-Pong. Madhur wouldn’t shut up. She talked on and on and … why was she asking Hart about his topic—for the tenth time?
By now, the faculty advisers had made the rounds of the auditorium. The room was dismissed. Hart and Madhur kept right on talking. They even laughed a little bit.
“What’s so funny?” Madison asked, grabbing her orange bag from the floor.
Hart turned. “Maddie’s funny,” he said, pointing to Madhur.
Madison bristled when Hart referred to Madhur as “Maddie.” He never called Madison that. No, she was stuck with “Finnster.”
Madison was about to lose it when, at that exact moment, reinforcements arrived.
Whew.
Fiona slid into the seat next to Madison. And then Lindsay slid into a seat in front of them. Madison felt better. Now all she needed was a crowbar to pry Madhur away from Hart. Either that or she’d have to stand up on an auditorium chair and scream, “Hands off, he’s mine!”
But she didn’t do anything like that. Instead, Madison continued to watch silently as Hart and Madhur finished their conversation. Hart walked off in one direction; Madhur went the other way.
“Are you walking home?” Fiona asked Madison as they finally shuffled out of the room.
Madison shrugged. “Yeah, can we go together?”
“Of course. We do everything together,” Fiona said with a smile, throwing her arm around Madison’s shoulder. “BFFs, remember?”
Chapter 9
Madison stopped typing for a moment. She tried to imagine how she would feel if she were in Madhur’s shoes.
She wouldn’t be a little embarrassed. She’d be drop-dead mortified.
Madison and Bigwheels talked a little bit more about music and movies and stuff but eventually signed off. Mom walked into Madison’s bedroom to say it was getting late. Madhur would be coming over for supper soon.
Madison felt her cheeks flush pink. Panic started to set in. How could she possibly do this?
<
br /> “I ordered some Thai food from that new place down the street,” Mom said. “Your friend should like that, right?”
“Yeah,” Madison mumbled. She wished Mom could cook up a big meal the way Mrs. Singh had done, instead of ordering takeout.
Mom sat down on the edge of Madison’s bed. “Are you okay, honey bear? You look a little flushed.”
“Just tired,” Madison said.
“Come on,” Mom insisted. She pushed the hair behind Madison’s left ear and leaned in close. “I can tell when you’re feeling down. You’ve been acting strangely for the past day or so. Talk to me.”
“Really, it’s just nerves,” Madison said.
“Uh-huh. And …”
Madison could tell Mom didn’t believe her. She’d better fess up.
“It’s just …” Madison started to say. “Hart.”
“Hart Jones?” Mom asked.
Madison nodded. “What other Hart is there, Mom?”
“I thought everything was good with Hart. After so much time spent worrying, the two of you finally decided to be friends. Well, you know what I mean….” Mom said with a smile. “He is a good boy.”
“Yeah, Mom. But then there’s Madhur,” Madison said. She tried keeping the words in, but as soon as she took a deep breath, everything came out in a rush. “Madhur told me she likes Hart, Mom. My Hart. And I just stood there like a bump on a log. I know I should have told her that I liked him, too. But I didn’t. And now things are all mixed up. And I’m worried that Hart actually will like her more than me. And what if that happens? Then will I lose my crush and my new friend at the same time? And meanwhile, my other friends already think I’m acting weird because I’ve been blowing them off. Not a lot, but in little ways. And Aimee’s worried because she isn’t a part of our group like she used to be and … and …”
Madison sniffled loudly. Then the dam burst. She began to sob and threw herself onto the bed next to Mom.
Mom stroked the top of Madison’s head.
“Oh, Maddie,” she said comfortingly. “I knew something was up, but I had no idea you were this upset. Is this really about Hart?”