by Laura Dower
Isn’t it a small world that we both work in the industry? He does contracting work on the side when he’s not filming. Actually, Billy and I have a lot in common. Isn’t that funny?”
“Hysterical,” Madison said. She wanted Mom to stop smiling and stop saying his name. The word Billy was really bothering Madison, like a pesky mosquito buzzing at her ears.
“Can I show you my ballet pictures, Mrs. Finn?” Aimee asked, pushing her overflowing portfolio onto the countertop.
“Of course,” Mom said, clearing a space on the kitchen table. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Madison leaned in close to Aimee. Looking at the ballet photos again was the last thing she felt like doing, but it was way better than talking about the things Mom had on her mind.
Like Billy the bug.
Even with the rainstorm, the pizza-delivery guy made it to Madison’s house in under a half hour—a time frame that’s 100 percent guaranteed or else the pizza was free. Madison, Aimee, and Mom ate it with salad that Mom threw together. They had store-bought brownies for dessert, but Aimee only ate a corner of one.
By the time they’d eaten pizza, Billy had surveyed the upstairs room completely and given Mom a rough estimate of the work that would need to be done. He said that he’d come back to check on the roof and attic the next day. Mom chatted with him like he was some kind of old pal. Madison squirmed every time he grinned his gap-toothed grin.
After Billy left, Mom headed into her office to do some film-editing work while Madison and Aimee disappeared to do their homework. At least they intended to do their assignments. Instead of math books, however, they pulled out Aimee’s manicure stuff. Aimee painted Madison’s nails a perfect blue to match Madison’s rainy-day mood.
“Let’s go online and find Fiona,” Aimee suggested when she’d finished nail painting.
“But she’s at that family dinner,” Madison said. “And I can’t type or anything with my nails like this.” She blew on them to make them dry faster.
“Fiona’s dinner must be over by now,” Aimee said, looking at her watch. “And I can type for you so your nails don’t get messed up.”
They set up the laptop on the desk in the den and logged on to TweenBlurt.com. Aimee typed while Madison leaned over Aimee’s shoulder for assistance.
“You have to give your password,” Aimee said when she saw the password prompt. Madison grabbed a pencil to punch her supersecret password on the keyboard without messing up her nails.
Screen Name: MADFINN
Supersecret Password: ********
The waiting room inside TweenBlurt.com was packed with members. Aimee scrolled down the list of special rooms.
Soccer rules! !!!!!!!
(11 fish)
“I bet she’s in there,” Aimee said right away. “She’s such a soccer maniac.”
But Madison told Aimee to keep looking. She knew Fiona would wait somewhere else where they’d all be more likely to hang out.
******animal lovers here*****
(23 fish)
Keypal Kingdom
(8 fish)
Junior High—enter at ur own risk!
(41 fish)
“There!” Madison blurted. “I bet she’s in that junior-high room. We went in there once when she was over.”
Aimee glanced at the list of forty-one kids’ screen names.
Crazy_boyz
Luv4ever
HelPer
Peacefish
WillydOO
Luckyduck
987goforit
lovetoPARTY
barbeedoll
Flowr99
BryanSarah
Wetwinz
“Wetwinz!” Aimee said. Fiona was online with the screen name both Aimee and Madison knew. Fiona had selected the name to match that of her twin brother, Chet. His was Wetwins with an s. It stood for “We are twins!”
“Wait a second,” Madison said, pointing to the name Flowr99. “Look who’s in the chat room with her—Poison Ivy Daly!”
Aimee didn’t recognize Ivy Daly’s screen name. “Is Flowr99 Ivy’s screen name? She’s a poisonous flower if she’s any kind of flower!”
Madison checked her buddy list. Her keypal Bigwheels was also online. Madison and Bigwheels had first met online inside a TweenBlurt.com chat room called GO FISHY. After a few chats, Madison learned that Bigwheels was greater than great at dishing out advice—especially when it came to friendship.
But she couldn’t talk to her right now. She’d have to give her a shout-out later, after Aimee went home.
Suddenly, Fiona’s screen name appeared on the buddy list. “Look who’s here!” Aimee said excitedly. She typed a quick message and hit SEND.
Madison gave Aimee a light punch on the shoulder. “Aimee!” she said. “You aren’t supposed to ask her about that.”
Egg was the nickname of their best guy friend, Walter Diaz. Fiona liked him—a lot.
Madison wanted to erase what Aimee wrote. She knew Fiona could be a little sensitive about the whole Egg thing. She leaned over Aimee and tried to punch in a message of her own.
“Maddie, stop that!” Aimee yelped. “You’ll mess up your nails!”
Madison could barely type in the awkward position she was in. And her nails were getting a little smudged.
“Oh, Maddie, will you just let me type, please?” Aimee said, giggling. “I won’t ask about Egg anymore, okay? I promise. Cross my heart.”
Madison leaned back again. “Okay. But you promised.”
Didja get the wire ones or the ones that look like turtle shells?
“Girls!” Mom called out. “GIRLS!”
Mom interrupted their online conversation with the dangle of car keys. She was ready to take Aimee home.
“Already?” Aimee protested.
“It’s nine o’clock and it’s a school night,” Mom said.
While Aimee and Mom went to get into the car, Madison dragged Phin outside to say good-bye and get in a quick walk at the same time. Sidewalks were off-limits for pugs during lightning storms, so Phinnie stayed very close to home. He nosed happily around the front steps only.
“See you in school tomorrow, Maddie,” Aimee yelled as the car pulled out of the driveway. “Bye!”
“Thanks for my nails!” Madison yelled back. She waved good-bye to Aimee from the front porch. “I loooove the color!”
“Rowrroooooof!” Phinnie barked his own goodbye, shook the rain off his fur, and headed for the front door.
Madison unhooked his leash and went back into the den.
From: Bigwheels
To: MadFinn
Subject: School Trips
Date: Sun 25 Mar 7:36 PM
What’s up? I went shopping w/my mother and my cousin today and bought this GREAT shirt. It will look amazing this wk when we go on our school mountain trip. Everything about the trip is planned: we’re saving the whole date for hiking and writing. Sometimes my school plans cool trips. We even have classes outside once in a while! Plus we get to pick our own partners and of course I am pairing up w/my BFF Lainie.
Have u been on any major school trips this yr?
Yours till the peanut butters,
Bigwheels
P.S. I had a peanut butter for a sandwich today—my new fave food. What is ur fave food?
Madison couldn’t believe that she and her keypal were both going on school trips in the same week—or that Bigwheels liked peanut butter as much as Madison did. They had so much in common.
She looked down at her polished fingernails and smiled.
The nails were still blue, of course. But thanks to her friends, online and off, Madison wasn’t feeling blue anymore.
She could hardly wait for the week to begin.
Chapter 3
MADISON HAD TO STOP by her locker to grab all of her science books before Monday’s classes started. She wanted to be extra prepared. That way, Mr. Danehy would be impressed and would be more likely to accept her very late permission slip for the field trip.
As she was standing in front of her locker, Hart Jones and Chet Waters passed by on their way to science class.
“Hey, Finnster!” Hart yelled.
“Yeah, how’s it going, Finnster!” Chet said, making fun of Hart’s nickname for Madison.
They rushed up behind Madison, but she just made a face at them and looked in the other direction. Finnster was a name her secret crush, Hart Jones, used. But now that Fiona’s twin brother, Chet, started calling her that name, it sounded a little different.
Madison tried opening her locker, but she couldn’t remember the combination.
She watched as Hart and Chet walked away down the hall.
What was her code?
Madison pulled on the lock and tried another set of numbers. But that didn’t open it, either.
Brrrrrriing.
The first set of bells rang. She had to dash. The books would have to wait. Madison took off for Mr. Danehy’s room, still trying to remember the numbers that would open her locker. Why was she forgetting everything these days?
Luckily there were quite a few kids who hadn’t yet made it into the classroom, so Madison entered the room without anyone noticing. Mr. Danehy wasn’t even there yet. Madison sat down at her assigned seat right next to her lab partner, Poison Ivy.
“Nice nails,” Ivy mumbled. She sounded like she had a little cold.
Madison held out one hand to admire them. “Yeah, it’s a cool color.”
Ivy held up her own hand. She had the exact same color on her nails; only her nails were longer and more manicured than Madison’s.
“Ahhh … ahhhh …” Ivy started to sniffle, and Madison handed her a tissue from her book bag.
“Choooooo!” Ivy exploded in a giant sneeze.
“Nice job, Ivy!” Chet yelled from across the room. “We felt that one all the way over here.”
Ivy wiped her nose and shook her head. “Dork.”
“I know you are, but what am I?” Chet shot back.
Ivy just rolled her eyes and looked over at Madison. “Can I have another tissue? Thanks.”
Chet practiced being annoying, Madison was sure of that. She knew what a pest he was because Fiona was always complaining about him. But in science class he was the absolute worst. Chet’s favorite annoying thing to do was imitate their teacher, Mr. Danehy. He put on Mr. Danehy’s strange accent that no one understood but everyone joked about.
“Today weeee will beeee studying the life cycle of zeeee beee!” Chet announced, standing in front of Mr. Danehy’s desk.
Everyone burst into laughter.
“Do us all a favor and sit down,” Ivy yelled.
Madison grinned. For the first time in a long time, she was totally on Ivy’s side.
“Yeah, Chet. Quit acting like a moron,” one of Ivy’s drones, Rose Snyder, said from a row behind them.
“Excuse me?” Chet said, laughing himself. “I’m not the one who just sprayed snot all over the room.”
Ivy stood up. “Why don’t you just stop?” she said. “Quit acting like a jerk.”
Chet scoffed at both of them. “Girls are the jerks.”
“Yeah!” another boy yelled.
Even Hart started laughing, which Madison couldn’t believe. Most of the girls in the room booed. It was chaos as girls left their desks to gather on one side of the room and boys gathered on the other side. A kind of war had been declared when everyone least expected it. Everyone was yelling.
“What is all this ruckus about?” Mr. Danehy said as he strolled into the classroom later than usual. He slammed his briefcase onto his desk and clapped wildly. “What is going on?”
Chet dashed over to his chair. Everyone else hushed up. They all sat down close to where they’d been standing.
“I SAID … what is all this ruckus about? Does someone want to help me out here? Ms. Snyder? You were one of the girls booing. What is going on? Do you think that you can just do whatever you like when I am not in the room?”
Rose shrank into her new chair. “No, Mr. Danehy,” she said.
Ivy raised her hand from the back of the room. “We were just—”
“ENOUGH!” Mr. Danehy yelled. He yanked a stack of papers out of his briefcase and handed it to two kids in the front row. “Take one and pass it along.”
Madison glanced around. She didn’t know what to do. Her plan to gently pass the late permission slip to Mr. Danehy had been foiled by this spontaneous classroom war.
Ivy passed Madison her copy of the trip instructions sheet. Written in bold across the top was a simple heading.
SCIENCE TRIP TO FAR HILLS NATURE TRAILS:
Wednesday, March 28
Madison read down the sheet for information.
Luckily she’d read most of the textbook chapters on earth science and animals that covered what they’d be seeing at the nature center. Unluckily the list of things they had to see and record was way longer than she’d expected. This field trip was going to be hard work.
Places to Visit:
1. Field habitat
2. Forest habitat
3. Duck pond
4. Butterfly zone
5. Apiary
“Now, I want you to read this very carefully, students,” Mr. Danehy explained. “What I have organized here is a little friendly competition. When we go to the nature center, I would like two teams to gather as much information as possible about the animals and natural life in all of the places I’ve listed here. You will find more specific questions at the bottom of your sheet.”
Madison flipped the paper over. He had questions and then questions about those questions. This would take forever to complete.
Mr. Danehy continued. “The two teams will bring their results back to class for an oral presentation and debate in class. Is that clear?”
Chet had to speak. “What teams are you talking about, Mr. Danehy?” he asked. “We don’t have teams.”
Mr. Danehy paused and leaned forward against his desk. “Quite right,” he said, thinking. “No teams yet.” He raised his arms. “What’s easiest? How about this side of the room will compete against this side of the room? How’s that?”
The kids glanced around at one another.
Didn’t he notice that one side was only girls?
And the other side was only boys?
“Mr. Danehy,” a girl from the front said softly. “Do you think that’s a fair way to split up the room?”
“Yeah!” Chet yelled.
“What are you talking about? It couldn’t be more equal. There are exactly the same numbers of seats on each side.” He counted them out loud. “Numbers here are very fair. And scientific.”
Everyone sighed. Sometimes Mr. Danehy noticed little details and forgot to notice big ones. And once he made up his mind, there was no changing it. He thought he was being fair.
But without realizing it, he’d just drawn battle lines for a battle of the sexes.
“Well, that sounds like discrimination,” Madison’s school friend Lindsay Frost said in the lunchroom. Madison explained the story of science to everyone seated at the orange table in the cafeteria.
“Discrimination? What is that, exactly?” Aimee asked.
“Picking one group over another,” Lindsay explained. “But unfairly.”
Fiona piped up. She shared a far-out story about an elementary school teacher she had in California. He got into trouble because the school said he picked on girls more than boys during class. Parents thought he played favorites.
“All teachers have favorites,” Madison said. “I know mine do.”
“You are so right,” Lindsay said.
“I don’t mind it when it’s me, of course …” Aimee added, chuckling under her breath.
The whole table laughed.
“But Mr. Danehy is different. He isn’t discriminating or whatever you call it. He doesn’t think that way,” Madison explained. “I still don’t think he even noticed that one side was girls and the other was boys. He just counted heads. He’s scientific about everything.”
“Still,” Aimee said, drinking from a juice box, “the whole setup is just freaky. It’s like the Dark Ages or something. How could Mr. Danehy not notice?”
“I think it’s funny,” Madison said. “The boys in our class are total geeks. And now we have the chance to make Chet eat his words. No offense, Fiona. I know he’s your twin brother and all, but he is such …”
“A PAIN!” Fiona laughed. “I’d like a chance to show up my brother, too.”
During the course of their lunchroom conversation, Madison discovered some other surprising news. Mr. Danehy’s science class wasn’t only the one group in the entire seventh grade that matched boys versus girls. They were also the only class to have a mile-long list of things to explore, the only class that had a list of questions to answer, and the only class that had to do a presentation after the trip was over.