by Laura Dower
“Hey!” Aimee cried, running across the field. She ran over to Egg. “What have you guys been doing all morning? Playing games?”
“No way,” Egg said. “We’ve been looking at plants and birds. Same as you.”
“Did you go to the duck pond?” Lindsay asked.
Hart tossed his head. “Nope. Where’s that?”
“We skipped that part of the tour,” Drew said.
“How can you skip part of the tour?” Madison asked. “We all have to answer the same questions. Where was Mr. Danehy?”
“He doesn’t know we skipped out,” Egg said.
“How will you do your project now?” Aimee asked.
Drew shrugged. “How hard can it be?”
Wonk.
Madison was about to speak again when out of nowhere a flying disk crash-landed on her shoulder.
“Hey!” she cried. “That hurt.”
Aimee quickly looked to see who had sent the Frisbee flying. A few yards away another group of boys was laughing.
“Those guys hit you on purpose,” Fiona said. “Look at them.”
Aimee put her hand on Madison’s arm. “Are you okay, Maddie?”
Egg, Drew, Dan, Hart, and Chet started to snicker.
“Nice aim!” Egg called back to the boys.
Madison put her hands on her hips. “You’re toast, Egg,” she said. “I mean it. That goes for all boys everywhere!”
The rest of the girls nodded enthusiastically.
“What did we do?” Hart asked.
“Like you have to ask!” Aimee shouted.
“Maddie, those other guys are the ones who threw it,” Dan said.
Madison rubbed her arm and frowned. “Ouch.”
“Is everything okay over here?” Ms. Ripple asked.
“Maddie got hit with a Frisbee,” Egg said. “But it was an accident.”
“Are you hurt?” Ms. Ripple asked Madison.
“No.” Madison shrugged, not wanting to get Egg or anyone else in trouble. “It’s okay.”
“It was the boys!” Lindsay said.
“Totally! The boys!” Aimee said.
The rest of the girls cheered. “YEAH! THE BOYS!”
Madison sighed.
The Far Hills Junior High war of the sexes had officially begun.
As usual, Madison felt like she was in the middle of everything.
Chapter 8
AT LUNCH TIME, MADISON, Aimee, and Fiona sat down at a picnic table to eat with Egg, Drew, and Chet—just the way they did at their usual orange table in the cafeteria.
Normally Madison would be thrilled to sit near her friends and her crush, but today she felt the exact opposite. She looked up, down, everywhere to avoid making eye contact with the boys, especially Hart.
“Hey, let’s see where the Frisbee smashed you, Maddie. Do you have a bruise yet?” Chet asked her. “Come on, pull up your sleeve.”
“Stop being such a pest,” Fiona said to her twin brother.
“How is your arm, Finnster?” Hart asked.
Even though Hart sounded 100 percent earnest, Madison ignored him and the other boys, too. This infuriated Egg. He tried everything he could do to grab Madison’s attention, including opening his mouth when he’d chewed up some of his cheese sandwich. He went, “Ahhhhh,” in her face. Dan stuffed two brownies into his mouth at once and looked over at Madison, too. “Uuuuuuuuh,” he grunted, as though he were speaking in some secret boy code.
Fiona stood up with her hands on her hips. “Are you guys being supergross today or is it me?”
“It’s you, Fiona!” Chet said.
Drew started laughing until he snorted milk out of his nose. He gave Chet a high five. Egg couldn’t stop laughing, either. He shoved the rest of his cheese sandwich into his mouth all at once.
“Ewwwwwww!” Aimee yelled. “You’re all DISGUSTING!”
She jumped backward away from the picnic table, which sent her plastic bag of carrots flying everywhere. One soaring carrot pinged Madison on the head. She’d become a target for flying objects of all kinds today.
Some kids were sure that a food fight would break out, but it didn’t. Aimee leaned over to pick up the carrot missiles one by one.
“What are you doing?” Egg yelled. “Leave them there. Aim. The birds will eat them or something.”
“What are you talking about, Egg?” Fiona asked. Even she seemed a little annoyed now. She’d never, ever raised her voice to her crush before now. “We can’t litter—this is a park. What’s your problem?”
“What’s your problem?” Egg cracked. “Little Ms. Goody.”
Chet nodded in agreement, as did Drew and Dan.
Fiona looked ready to cry. But then Ranger Lester approached their picnic table with hands raised.
Clap, clap.
“Attention, everyone! The teachers have decided that you will all head to the next activity together, not in groups of boys or girls. Jimmy, your teachers, and I will be joint leaders.”
Clap, clap.
Madison raised her hand. “But—” she started to say.
“Yes?” Ranger Lester said, still clapping like a trained seal.
Madison shook her head and didn’t say anything more. She figured it was better to ignore the boys rather than let herself feel pestered. Of course, the whole time the ranger stood there at the table, the boys had behaved perfectly. No cheese sandwich or brownie surprises.
“Well, then,” Ranger Lester said, looking around the now quiet table. “Let’s shake a leg, then, shall we?” And with that, he shook his leg.
It was the last straw.
From out of nowhere, Aimee let out a laugh. She was trying so hard not to react to the annoying boys, the snappish exchanges, and most of all to the very strange ranger. But she couldn’t hold back anymore.
Lindsay stuffed an orange slice into her mouth so she wouldn’t laugh. All the other boys and girls at the table muffled their giggles, too. Ranger Lester didn’t have a clue about what was going on around him. He laughed along with everyone else.
Meanwhile Fiona glanced in the other direction because she still looked ready to burst into tears.
Madison put her arm through Fiona’s as they stood up to move to their next location. “Egg didn’t mean it, Fiona,” she comforted her friend. “He’s just being a show-off. I’m sure he still likes you.”
“I’m not sure I like him,” she said.
Everyone at the table got up and headed over toward the teachers, who were organizing kids into groups. Next stop was the butterfly house and the apiary, otherwise known as the bee house.
Madison figured that bees were the kind of pests she and everyone else could handle—unlike Egg, Drew, Hart, Chet, Dan, Ranger Lester, and the rest of the boys in the universe.
Most kids pushed together to get a close look at the nature center demonstrations using bees and butterflies. But Fiona just sat on a bench and said she wasn’t in the mood for nature. She wasn’t in the mood for anything. She didn’t know why.
Madison sat down to help her BFF. She could hear Jimmy explaining how the apiary and butterfly zone worked. He was speaking through a loudspeaker.
“I’d like everyone to meet Doug. He’s our resident beekeeper and butterfly keeper,” Jimmy announced.
Doug was dressed in a white outfit that looked like a sumo wrestler’s space suit. Madison could see he wore gloves and a mask that covered his entire head. He lifted off the mask and waved.
“Doug is in charge of maintaining all of the butterfly trees as well as our three primary beehives,” Jimmy continued. “We keep them in this special bee house so the bees can produce their honey at the right temperature.”
“It may be good for bees, but I say it’s too hot in here,” Egg said.
Ms. Ripple said, “Shhhhh!”
“Of course the temperature inside is also regulated for our butterflies,” Jimmy explained. “When caterpillars make the transformation to chrysalis and cocoon, they need warmth. They can also g
et protection from the sheltering plants and shrubs we have inside the butterfly house.”
“Look!” Aimee had her body pressed up against the screen so she could get a better look at a tree that was filled with yellow, orange, and brown butterflies. “It looks like they have letters on their wings!” she cried.
Doug walked over to the tree and put one of the butterflies on his index finger so he could show the group up close. “Doug is holding a monarch butterfly,” Jimmy announced over the loudspeaker.
“It’s so pretty!” Lindsay said. “And that one has blue on the wings. The spots look like eyes.”
“That’s correct,” Jimmy said. “Those spots are a decoy for predators. Enemies think those are eyes.”
Chet, Drew, and Joanie joked about two butterflies that looked like they were fighting over a flower. Ivy and Lindsay were even chatting. Madison noticed how the butterflies had somehow brought friends and enemies together.
Doug wheeled out a tall cabinet. Inside, more than a hundred butterflies were shown in different stages of development. The entire crowd of seventh graders let out an “Oooooooh.” Doug pointed to one butterfly that had just escaped its chrysalis but hadn’t yet opened its wet wings.
Mr. Danehy wandered around the room to make sure all the kids were behaving, paying attention, and, in the case of his students, checking items off their ultra-important class checklist.
“Don’t you want to see the butterflies?” Madison asked Fiona.
She shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t feel so good.”
“I thought you liked this stuff,” Madison said. But Fiona looked away.
Ivy appeared and sat down on the bench next to Madison. “Aren’t you taking notes on this?” she asked.
“Oh,” Madison said. “I forgot. I was just looking at—”
“This stuff has to be important,” Ivy huffed. “What are we going to do if you don’t have the right notes?”
“Why can’t you take some notes, Ivy?” Fiona said.
“I don’t think I was talking to you,” Ivy said. She stood up and went over to her group of friends.
“Maybe Egg should go out with Ivy,” Fiona said under her breath. “They’re both creeps.”
Madison smiled and went to get a better look behind the screen.
“Let’s take a look at bees inside the nature center,” Jimmy’s microphone voice boomed.
Doug wheeled away the chrysalis cabinet and then stood in front of one giant box. He lifted its lid. A dozen bees danced around the top.
From inside the box, Doug pulled out a slat that had an open screen on it. When he held it up for everyone to see, more bees danced around his arms and head. The slat was where some of the bees were busy making honey in a section of honeycomb.
Doug lifted up the slat that held the queen bee. Now the worker bees were moving around a little bit more than usual. They’d covered his arm and mask.
“I’m glad that guy’s in there and not me,” a voice next to Madison said.
She looked over to see Hart standing there.
“Yeah,” Madison muttered. Her chest thumped. She’d been so annoyed with him before now. But standing there, one on top of the other in a big huddle of seventh graders, she had renewed feelings of “like.”
She liked the shirt he was wearing, she liked the way his hair was parted, and she liked the way his voice sounded.
“Sorry about the lunch table thing,” Hart whispered.
Madison shrugged. “Whatever,” she said, her chest still pounding a little. She didn’t want to like him. After all, she was a girl and this was girls versus boys.
But one look at his brown hair and …
“Seeya!” Madison spun around and headed back over to the bench where Fiona was sitting. She had to leave the scene before her crush feelings took over entirely.
“Aren’t bees bad!” some kid yelled to Doug. He could hear questions through the glass, but it was Jimmy’s loudspeaker voice that replied.
“Definitely not,” Jimmy said. “Bees are necessary for all life. They pollinate flowers and other plants that are necessary for our survival. I’d say that’s good—not bad.”
“Well said,” Ranger Lester’s voice boomed. “I’d say bees are terribly misunderstood creatures.”
When Madison found Fiona again, she looked pale.
“What’s wrong?” Madison asked. “Are you still upset about Egg?”
Fiona shook her head. “Not really. I just feel a little weird.” She started itching her arm and lifted up her sleeve to reveal a blotch of brown bumps.
“What happened there?” Madison asked.
Fiona looked like she had a dozen pimples, chicken pox, and a bad rash all at the same time. She removed her new glasses and handed them to Madison, who shoved them into a pocket in her bag.
“I don’t feel so good,” she told Madison again.
Fiona leaned backward onto the bench and collapsed.
“Fiona!” Madison cried.
Everyone turned to look.
Chapter 9
“WHAT’S THE MATTER?” AIMEE asked, rushing over when she heard Madison scream.
“I can’t—can’t—breathe—” Fiona said. She lifted her head and rubbed her ears. “I feel sick. I feel—”
“Don’t move,” Madison told Fiona. She yelled at Aimee, “Go get a teacher!”
Madison tried to remember what she’d been taught at the animal clinic about responding to emergencies. She’d also taken a sixth-grade CPR course last year. Madison tried to remember all at once everything she’d ever learned.
Think fast. Stay calm. Get help.
“Ow-eee,” Fiona said, stretching out her arm. It was swollen like a log. Her neck looked like it was starting to swell a teeny bit, too. Madison remembered reading in a book somewhere that when the neck swelled, it could close up someone’s throat and stop breathing.
But she didn’t want to panic.
“I—really can’t—breathe—” Fiona could barely talk anymore.
Madison stroked her head gently. “Someone will be right here,” she said. “Please just relax.”
Aimee rushed back instantly with Ranger Lester and Mr. Danehy. A crowd of kids was gathering around the bench.
“I think she got stung, and maybe she’s allergic to bees,” Madison pronounced to everyone with authority.
Mr. Danehy leaned toward Fiona and gently felt her head for fever. “Help is on the way, Fiona. You’ll be fine.” He asked Madison to get up and step away, but she stayed.
Chet pushed his way in toward the bench. “Fiona!” he shouted. “Oh no! What happened?”
“Is she allergic to bees?” Ranger Lester asked him seriously.
Chet shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s allergic to rabbits, I think.”
Jimmy dashed over. “The medical station is coming right now. I’d advise everyone to step back.”
Ms. Ripple and Ranger Lester helped the seventh graders to file out of the butterfly and bee house. Madison, Chet, and Aimee stayed behind.
“I thought all the bees were supposed to stay behind that glass,” Madison said.
Jimmy nodded. “They should,” he said, looking back toward the room, where the hives had now been sealed up again. Doug the beekeeper was putting everything away so no more accidents would happen. No one was really sure how Fiona had gotten stung.
Aimee waited on the other side of the bench, tapping her feet. “What’s going on?” she kept saying. “What’s going on?” She and Chet stood shoulder to shoulder, watching as Fiona struggled to breathe.
A doctor and his assistant rushed in moments later. He leaned over and looked carefully on Fiona’s arm, where he quickly located the bee’s stinger. “Gotcha!” he said, pulling something out of his satchel. He started to scrape Fiona’s skin.
“Why aren’t you just pulling it out?” Madison asked.
“Because,” he said, still scraping to make sure he’d gotten all the venom, “only by scraping do you st
op the bee’s body from pumping poison into its target. Otherwise the stinger keeps on stinging.”
His assistant took Fiona’s other arm for a blood-pressure reading. She read the result aloud. Blood pressure wasn’t dropping. Madison knew that was good news. Everyone else breathed a little sigh of relief, too—until the doctor pulled out a big needle.
“What’s that for?” Chet asked.
Mr. Danehy grabbed Chet by the arm and pulled him off to the side. “Let’s go call your mom and dad, okay?” he asked, sensing the boy’s nervousness.
Chet nodded. “Is my sister going to DIE?” he asked.
Mr. Danehy threw his arm around Chet’s shoulders. “Of course not,” he said, leading him toward the door. “But we need to call your parents now. They’ll need to pick you both up.”
Madison watched the doctor ready the needle. “What’s that?” she asked.
“Adrenaline,” the doctor said. Gently he pushed the needle into Fiona’s arm. “This will stop the swelling.”
“You’ll be fine, Fiona,” Madison whispered.
Aimee was sniffling.
“I’d like to take her over to the infirmary now,” the doctor said to his assistant, raising Fiona up off the bench. Jimmy and Ranger Lester helped lift Fiona onto a stretcher.
“Is your infirmary for animals and people?” Madison asked.
“You sure do ask a lot of questions,” the doctor said, smiling. “I like that. And yes, it is an infirmary for people and critters. We usually get a lot more problems with them than us.”
Madison wished she could see it. Was it anything like the clinic at the Far Hills Animal Shelter, where she liked volunteering?
“What’s going on now?” Aimee asked Madison as a man carefully wheeled Fiona away.
“They’re helping her. She’s going to be fine,” Madison said.
“Oh-em-gee,” Aimee said, now breaking into tears completely. “How can you be so calm? She’s swelling up like a balloon!”
Madison and Aimee followed the doctors and Fiona out of the apiary and butterfly house. As they exited, the entire seventh grade swarmed after Madison with questions.