by Laura Dower
I just wish I could I could figure out the boys in my life, too. Like I’ll probably be date-phobic with Hart forever. Not that he’d ever ask me out, of course.
Bigwheels would probably tell me that I have nothing to worry about … But I can’t help it!
Madison hit SAVE and turned off her computer. She was looking forward to tomorrow. Her mind buzzed with different questions. Would Ivy be nice in science class for the presentation? Why hadn’t Bigwheels written again?
After an overdose of parents, Madison needed a superdose of friends.
Girl friends.
Chapter 12
MADISON FINISHED HER ELEANOR Roosevelt paper Saturday while Billy worked on repairing the wet ceiling in her bedroom. Thanks to his roof and chimney repairs, there were no more surprise leaks. She’d have her own room back like new very soon. Mom was busy working, too. Madison heard her talking on the phone to Paul more than once.
Sunday afternoon Madison and her friends spent some time together, but not as much as she wanted. Since Fiona was still a little nauseated after the bee sting, Madison went over to her house and hand-delivered the butterfly puzzle she’d purchased at the nature center. Fiona loved it.
By the time Monday morning rolled around, Madison was ready for things to get back to normal, whatever that was. Aimee and Fiona were ready, too.
“They gave me this cream to keep the swelling down,” Fiona explained to Madison and Aimee before classes that morning. “And I’ve been using it all weekend, but I still look puffy. I miss the old, nonpuffy me.”
“Your eyes are still kind of swollen, but everything else looks okay,” Aimee said, leaning in for a closer look. “I see little red spots, but not as many as the other day.”
“I think you look GREAT,” Madison said, trying to be encouraging. She pulled Aimee backward and elbowed her in the side. “Don’t you think she looks mostly good, Aimee?”
“Yeah, I guess now you do,” Aimee said. “I thought you were going to go into a coma or something right on the field trip. I mean, can you imagine? What would they have done?”
“Aimee!” Madison said.
Fiona giggled. “Thanks for your encouragement, Aim. And I do feel fine. Except for the puffy eyes, the itching, and this,” she said. She produced an inhaler and held it up for a hallway show-and-tell.
Egg and Drew rushed over to where they were standing. The girls immediately crossed their arms, like they were waiting for the boys to go away.
“Hey, Fiona,” Egg said, not going anywhere. “How are you feeling? Chet said you’re on all this medicine. Are you feeling better? I hope so.”
Aimee snickered a little at all of his attention, but Fiona smiled sweetly. “Thanks, Egg. I’m feeling fine.”
“How are you guys doing?” Drew asked Madison and Aimee.
Aimee just rolled her eyes.
“If you need help with that math assignment, Fiona, call me.” Egg grabbed Drew’s sleeve and headed back down the hall. “See you later, okay?”
Aimee’s mouth was flapping open. “Oh-em-gee! What was THAT?” She let out a huge laugh.
“What?” Fiona said, still scratching her arms. “Why are you looking at me like that? Stop laughing. And please don’t say anything about—”
“Did you give Egg some kind of nice potion or what? He’s being so sweet, it’s enough to make me gag.” Aimee covered her mouth in another overdramatic pose. “You sure you’ve been telling us everything about you and Egg?”
Madison opened her locker and grabbed books for English class. “Yeah, Fiona,” she said. “You guys aren’t going out or anything, are you?”
No one had ever really asked Fiona point-blank if she and Egg were dating. Had they ever held hands? Had they ever kissed?
Brrrrring.
“See you after science,” Fiona said to Madison, heading in the opposite direction. She escaped without answering the most important question.
Aimee chased after Fiona down the hall. “Yeah, see you, Maddie!”
Madison slammed her locker shut.
“FINNSTER!” Hart blurted. He was standing right there behind the locker door. “Going to science?”
“Where did you come from?” Madison asked, a little startled.
“I was down the hall. But I’m going to science, too,” he said. He rotated his neck to the side, and his tousled brown hair fell softly over his forehead. Madison felt an urge to move it away with her hand but was grateful that she didn’t do anything embarrassing like that. He would be completely surprised if she touched his head. And what if someone saw?
What was she thinking?
Chet came rushing over. He broke Madison’s train of thought.
“Hey, man, I was looking for you down the hall,” Chet said to Hart. “Where did you go?”
Madison stared at the floor, and the three walked down the corridor together. Once again she had lost her ability to speak in front of Hart, a momentary condition that struck her in the strangest places. The only good thing about its happening right now was the fact that Chet took up the lull in conversation. With two guy friends nattering on and on in their own personal code language, Madison didn’t really even have to speak.
Mr. Danehy was on time. And the trio barely made it to their seats before the second bell rang—and he slammed the door.
“Now!” he announced with great authority.
The whole class hushed.
“That’s better,” Mr. Danehy continued. “Now, preceding our bee scare last week, the science-center trip appeared to be going very well. Would you agree?”
No one said a word.
“Hello?” Mr. Danehy asked again. “Is everyone awake out there?”
“That trip was mad fun,” Chet said, looking around to his other guy friends for corroboration of how he saw the trip.
Ivy just sat there, twirling one of her loop earrings. “And we learned things,” she said. She looked over at Madison.
“Lots of things,” Madison said, without thinking.
Mr. Danehy appeared impressed.
“So when we started our little field-trip experiment, I assigned you into groups of girls versus boys. I noticed a little anxiety about this while we were out in the field. Is this still true?”
“No way!” a boy in the front of the class yelled.
“So we should continue to have presentations with boys versus girls tomorrow?” Mr. Danehy asked as if he were holding a democratic vote.
Everyone agreed.
Ivy leaned over to Madison again. In light of the classroom competition, she didn’t look like an enemy today. She was an ally—an ally against an even greater enemy: BOYS.
After science, Madison was so preoccupied with the upcoming showdown that she almost forgot her after-school trip to Mrs. Wing’s computer laboratory. She’d promised to help out again with the school Web site, even if it also meant dealing with Egg and Drew.
Busy as a bee.
Drew brought his digital camera to Mrs. Wing’s lab. He had taken dozens of photos at the seventh-grade field trip. Madison looked through them, laughing. She wrote captions for the photos he printed out and put into a pile called MAYBE. The pile next to that was REJECTS.
Madison laughed hardest when she came to a photograph of Ranger Lester looking official in his safari gear. He was leaning on a tree.
She marked that caption THE RANGER GETS LOST IN THE FOREST. Mrs. Wing made her change it later on to MEET RANGER LESTER.
There were candid photos, too, of classmates. Drew had snapped one picture on the bus ride over to the field trip. As it would happen, it was a shot of Madison and Ivy. They almost looked like friends in the photo.
“Hey,” Drew said. “We should put that one up.”
“Very funny, Drewfus,” Madison said. She used a silly nickname Chet always used. Drew didn’t like it one bit,
Drew ignored her and showed Madison more photos: a chrysalis in the butterfly sanctuary, Jimmy the field guide (looking as cute as ever), a g
roup of boys standing around while the doctor dealt with Fiona’s bee sting. He had lots of photographs of the stinging incident. It had been the highlight of the trip, after all.
After helping write more captions, Madison, Drew, and Mrs. Wing downloaded a whole new Field Trip page onto the school site.
“You both did a fabulous job,” Mrs. Wing said. She waved her arms into the air with a “Hoorah,” and her charm bracelet jangled. Madison noticed littler-than-little charms of computers and computer mice on the bracelet. It was the ultimate accessory for a computer teacher. Madison smiled. She had one just like it.
After leaving Drew in the computer lab, Madison headed back to her locker to grab her stuff. It was almost four o’clock. She looked around for Aimee and Fiona, but they were still doing after-school dance and soccer, as usual. Madison decided to hang out and wait for them, at least for a little while.
She strolled down the hall. A few stragglers were at lockers, retrieving books and bags. School was so quiet at this time of the afternoon. Madison could hear everything.
Choral practice.
A geography-club meeting.
Teachers in the teachers’ lounge.
As she headed around one corner, Madison heard two boys talking. She recognized the voices: Hart and Chet. They were talking about science class.
She was tempted to pounce on them the way Phinnie might—take the enemy by surprise—but instead she lingered at the corner and eavesdropped on their conversation. It was hard to hear everything, but Madison was able to make out the basics of what they were saying.
Madison couldn’t believe her ears.
At home that night, she couldn’t wait to go online.
From: MadFinn
To: BalletGrl, Wetwinz
Subject: YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS
Date: Mon 2 April 5:34 PM
I missed u guys at school. Waited for like a half hour but u weren’t back from soccer or wherever. Where were u?
N e way, I heard Chet and Hart talking in the hallway today and I have to tell you what they said.
1. Egg likes you, Fiona. I mean, I know you know that, but those guys were making fun of him for it. Isn’t that crazy? Are you glad? I don’t think it’s so weird anymore.
2. They think that they know everything there is to know about that science trip. But they DON’T! I heard them say that they didn’t go see the duck pond part of the trip. That means we can totally beat them at our presentation. Isn’t that cool?
3. Hart Jones is SOOOOOO full of himself. I actually heard him say that some girl in our class really, really likes him. Who do you think it is?
Madison stopped typing.
When she reread number 3, she realized something she hadn’t thought of before. She’d originally heard him and thought it must be some other girl. But what if she was the one he was talking about? Did he know how she really felt?
Madison deleted number 3. She was about to sign off and send the e-mail when she realized something else she hadn’t thought of before.
Why would Aimee or Fiona care about her science class?
Most of what she was sending in this e-mail was for the wrong people. Aimee and Fiona weren’t in her science class. Madison needed to send the secret information about Chet to a girl who would understand exactly what she was feeling right now.
Only Ivy Daly fit that description. Ivy and her drones, anyway.
She rewrote and readdressed the e-mail to Ivy, which was odder than odd since she’d never, ever sent her enemy a personal e-mail message. Of course, Madison left out the e-mail parts about Hart (what if Ivy was the mystery girl?) and Egg (Ivy would just use that information as an excuse to make fun of Fiona).
She changed the address.
To: Flowr99
Less than a minute after she had hit SEND, Madison’s computer bleeped.
Someone had sent her mail.
It was from Fiona! But something about the note looked suspicious. Madison wasn’t sure what at first.
From: Wetwins
To: MadFinn
Subject: Science Notes
Date: Mon 2 April 6:00 PM
Hi there! Do you have notes from scienc trip? It turns out my teacher wants us to do a papr on it. Can I borow yours please? I need info on the duck pond.
First, Madison noticed all the misspellings. Fiona never made mistakes like that. She was a good speller.
Madison paid a little closer attention to the e-mail sender’s name. It wasn’t from Fiona, whose screen name was Wetwinz! It was from Chet! His screen name had the s on the end.
Madison read it over and sighed. How could he think she wouldn’t notice? He was trying to get information so the boys wouldn’t lose the science challenge. Madison couldn’t believe it.
Ping, ping.
Someone was sending Madison a message.
Madison wasn’t sure she liked discovering how much she and Ivy seemed to have in common over the past few days.
Ivy’s sneaky side had shown itself, and Madison was basking in its sneakiness. She was readier than ready to make up a doozy of a story and convince Hart, Chet, and the others that it had really happened. Once they retold that story in front of Mr. Danehy, he would laugh them right out of the presentation—leaving the girls as winners.
The only question remaining was: How would she get the boys in Mr. Danehy’s class to believe such a story?
Chapter 13
“HOW DID I GET so many e-mails in five minutes? This is crazy!” Madison told herself. She looked down at Phinnie, napping on the floor, as if he’d have the magic answer.
He just snored.
There hadn’t been any messages in the mailbox when Madison had checked there ten minutes before. She figured the Web server must have been saving all the messages up to deliver them at the same time. She was busy these days, but her e-mail-box was even busier. This proved it.
FROM SUBJECT
Flowr99 Re: YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS
JeffFinn Bowling Queen
Bigwheels The Story
She wanted to save Bigwheels’s long e-mail for last so she could give it her undivided attention. Then Madison read the rest.
Ivy sent back a shorter-than-short message.
From: Flowr99
To: MadFinn
Subject: Re: YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS
Date: Mon 2 April 6:15 PM
Tell me what you decide to write Chet at lunch tomorrow. Those boys are goners.
Madison smile
d with glee at the idea of their plan.
But then she wondered what Aimee and Fiona would say if they knew Madison was e-mailing and planning secret rendezvous with Poison Ivy. She knew the moment the boys-versus-girls experiment was over, things would go right back to normal with Ivy, which meant no speaking except to say, “Hey, you, get out of my way,” or something like that.
But now, all rules had changed—at least for one more science class.
Madison clicked onto her next e-mail, from Dad. He had left a message explaining how much he loved dinner and bowling and falling asleep with Phinnie. He called Madison “the Bowling Queen of the Galaxy.”
Madison e-mailed back with a short message, too:
From: MadFinn
To: JeffFinn
Subject: Re: Bowling Queen
Date: Mon 2 April 6:30 PM
Love you Dad. I know how you feel. I miss you at home, too, especially when the roof leaks.
Madison scrolled down to the latest e-mail from Bigwheels.
It was a long one.
From: Bigwheels
To: MadFinn
Subject: The Whole Story
Date: Mon 2 April 6:30 PM
I know it has been a really long time since I wrote, and I am sorry.
And I also know I have been feeling down in the dumps.
Thanks for the {(i)}. I don’t think you know this, but butterflies are my favorite creatures. I have a poster on the wall in my bedroom with an alphabet on butterfly wings.
So here is what REALLY happened with Lainie last week. After a week of her ignoring me at lunch and us fighting in the halls at school and generally not agreeing on anything, we finally sat down to talk. Actually, we were on a bus trip home Friday. I think she did that because on the bus I was stuck and had nowhere to go if she said something that bothered me. But it didn’t turn out so bad.
Lainie told me that she thought I was the one who was different. Those were her exact words. Can you believe she said that? She thought I was the one who seemed distant, and that upset her, so she really was hanging with those other girls because she was so sad that maybe I didn’t want to be friends anymore.