by Laura Dower
One of the bystanders laughed out loud and suddenly Madison got very nervous. She looked up at Ivy.
“Well?” Ivy barked. “No more answers from the brainiac?”
Madison had to run. She cut to the left and took off down the hall.
“Crybaby!” Ivy shouted after her. By now the rest of the kids had dispersed. Ivy turned in the opposite direction. She had won.
Madison disappeared into the girls’ bathroom around the corner. She couldn’t face anyone right now, especially not eighth graders milling about in the hall. She couldn’t even look into her own reflection in the bathroom mirror.
She wished Bigwheels were here right now to tell her what to do.
From: MadFinn
To: Bigwheels
Subject: What Do I Do?
Date: Fri 15 Sept 3:19 PM
Hello? Are you out there? I haven’t heard from you.
Hasn’t been a great week. HELP!
I’m @ the school media center right now. I have an English paper due and I have not even picked the book I’m writing a report on. Can you help with that? Help (x100) is basically what I need on that and some other stuff I’d rather chat about.
Please write again. Is something wrong? I’m worried.
Yours till the ping pongs, MadFinn
p.s. Thanks in advance.
Chapter 9
IN THE CORNER OF the Waters’ living room, Chet, Egg, and Drew were firing weapons onto a target—a virtual target, of course, on Chet’s dad’s fancy tablet, all dressed up in a case that looked like a picture frame. They were busy playing Commando Missiles, a new app Chet had downloaded the day before.
“Hit it! Yes! No! Hit it!” Egg was jumping up and down. Drew was running his fingers back and forth across the screen. The tablet would be covered in fingerprints.
Chet groaned. “You shoulda cut out. Now you’re gonna die, man.”
Drew looked a little flustered. “I don’t even know how to play this. Aaaah!”
“WOULD YOU GUYS PLEASE SHUT UP?” Fiona screamed. “We’re trying to get organized over here.”
“Egg, are you gonna help with posters?” Aimee asked. “Or are you chained to your computer games?”
“Yeah, I’m thinking of a slogan.”
“Thinking of a slogan?” Madison laughed out loud. “Tell us.”
Egg put his hands on his hips. “Well, how about ‘Aimee Rocks’?”
Aimee made a raspberry noise with her lips. “That’s my vote on that slogan. Are you serious?”
Egg made a serious face. “Always, Aimee.”
“How about that?” Fiona spoke up. “For a slogan, I mean.”
“What?”
“‘Always Aimee.’” Fiona thought it was a great idea.
Aimee wasn’t too crazy about any of the slogans on the list so far.
Aimee’s Awesome
Aimee 4-Ever
Aimee Aces the Prez!
Have You Voted Aimee Yet?
Aimee’s Alright!
Awake and Aimee
Ready, Aimee, Fire
Honest Aimee
Everyone had all gone to the Waterses’ house for snacks and poster preparation. It was the end of a long week and Fiona, Chet, Egg, Drew, Aimee, and Madison were rolling up their sleeves to make Aimee’s last-minute round of campaign posters. They needed more to hang in the hallways for the week of the election. It was time to get out the poster board and Magic Markers.
The other two candidates, Montrell and Tommy, had hung a few posters here and there, but no one could match Ivy’s poster invasion.
“I think we should put posters up all over the gym, too. I mean all over. Maybe we should try gym sayings or something,” Aimee said. “Like ‘Vote Aimee: It’s a slam dunk!’”
“That’s cool,” Drew said.
“You really think so?” Aimee sounded happy to hear that Drew liked her ideas.
“And the library too, don’t forget,” Madison reminded them of another place where students would be sure to read the posters.
“What about the dance studio?” Chet spoke up. “You’re a dancer, right?”
“Everyone in the dance troupe says they’re voting for me already,” Aimee said.
“Cookies!” Mrs. Waters came into the living room all of a sudden with a tray of homemade gingersnaps. Everyone grabbed as many cookies as they could stuff into their mouths.
“Not too many at once, guys!” Mrs. Waters said.
Twenty gingersnaps each and twenty minutes later, Chet, Drew, and Egg got bored with the slogans and word games. They went back to playing Commando Missiles.
Then the doorbell rang.
“Hey, Maddie, can you get that?” Fiona yelled out. Madison was closest to the door.
Madison opened it quickly without thinking. She had cookie crumbs all down the front of her shirt.
“Finnster!”
She jumped. Behind Door Number One was none other than Hart Jones.
“Madison, what are YOU doing here?” Hart asked.
“There’s a bunch of us here making posters for the election. You know, for Aimee.” She took a breath. “You wanna help out?”
“Maybe another time—hey, what’s with the cookies?” He chuckled.
Madison brushed off the crumbs and gave him a dirty look.
“Sorry,” Hart said sheepishly.
“Okay, then.” Madison fumbled for something else to say. “Okay?”
“Yeah, okay, then.” Hart fumbled too.
“Yeah, well …” Madison grinned and turned to go back inside.
“Finnster?” Hart took a step to follow her, but by then Chet had air-boxed his way over to the door, screeching, “Watch it, Jones! Watch it! J-O-N-E-S!”
“See ya, Finnster,” Hart was still calling after Madison.
“Feeeenster?” Chet mimicked him.
All four boys vanished outside together to shoot some hoops.
As Fiona shut the door, Aimee wailed, “What about the posters? Who’s gonna finish up?”
“We are!” Fiona laughed. “Did you really expect those guys to do anything real? They were total loads, as always. Especially Chet.”
Aimee curled up on the sofa. “Hey, you guys, I have a confession to make.”
“What?” Fiona asked curiously.
Aimee tilted her head back. “I think I like someone. A little.”
Madison rushed over to the floor next to her. “Who? Oh Aimee, who? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Aimee rolled her eyes. “Because.”
“Who is it?” Fiona asked. “Is it Hart Jones, because he’s pretty cute—”
“No, you can’t!” Madison blurted out.
Aimee and Fiona looked at her in silence, stunned.
“What do you mean, ‘No!’ Maddie?”
Madison chewed on her lip—and lied through her teeth. “No, of course not! He’s a freak. He always calls me Finnster. Please. No, I only yelled that because—”
Aimee and Fiona nodded. “Okay, Maddie. If you say so.”
“I don’t like anyone and no one likes me. That’s okay with me,” Madison said.
“You know, we should finish election posters,” Aimee said, “before it gets too late. We can talk about boys later.” She had brought up the subject suddenly and now she suddenly wanted to change it.
“But you didn’t tell us. … Who do you like, Aimee?” Fiona wanted to know.
“Well, I dunno. I don’t really like anyone.”
“Okay.” Fiona gave up. “Then I don’t like anyone either.”
“That is such a lie! You’re crushing on Egg, you admitted it!”
Fiona smiled. “Egg who?”
The three girls laughed.
Hart
Rude Awakening: Crushing can be hazardous to your health.
OK, so I saw him this morning in the library media center. Is it to be or not to be??? He was wearing a nice brown sweater. I swear I don’t know how it is possible that I like him. I k
now I do. I like Hart. I CANNOT TELL ANYONE. Aimee would die. Fiona would probably say “Way to Go,” but then she’d find something wrong with him. Friends do that a lot.
Of course I saw him today at Fiona’s too. And it feels like I ate something funny just to think or talk about it. The little hairs on my arms all stand up. Is that weird? Part of what makes Hart hard to handle is that he can be so mean to me. Does that make any sense that a guy who likes you would dis you? He was ok @ Fiona’s actually, but around other school peeps he is obnoxious with a capital O.
I just don’t get boys. One minute they’re so nice and the next minute they’re so not. Does crushing on someone also mean MY heart is gonna get squashed?
Back at the Gillespies’ later on, Madison tried to finish up her science homework before the weekend. Of course it was hard to get through any science assignment without thinking about Poison Ivy, her esteemed lab partner, but Madison tried. She typed up all her lab notes from class.
As soon as she clicked off her laptop, Madison sat on the floor so Aimee could french-braid her hair. Aimee was the best braider ever—even better than Egg’s older sister Mariah, who had hair all the way down to her waist.
“Maddie,” Aimee said as she pulled the hair back, “I hope you find out tomorrow what loser is ruining your Web site. That is so messed about what happened with Ivy’s picture.”
“Yeah, it stinks.”
A second later Madison realized what she had said. The whole skunk thing stank. The two friends laughed. Madison started to laugh so much she almost forgot about the election Web site. …
Almost.
“Stop twitching,” Aimee said. “Hold still.”
“You’re pulling!”
“Not me. It’s you. HOLD STILL.”
Madison had too many tangles.
“I still have to write my campaign assembly speech, Maddie. Can you help me do it before the assembly?”
“You’re gonna be great. Aim, I know it. You’re not worried, are you?”
Aimee shrugged and twisted Madison’s hair into the tail end of the braid, while Phinnie curled into Madison’s lap. He wouldn’t stop kissing her hand and every time he did, Madison saw the little black stripe on his pink tongue. This dog was so cute. Cute and homesick, too. Madison could feel it. When she scritched behind Phin’s ears, he hummed like a motor.
“Madison?” Mrs. Gillespie knocked softly on Aimee’s door and peered inside. “There’s a phone call for you.”
It was almost eleven.
“Hello, honey.” Dad’s voice sounded like a low hum over the phone line, too. He was calling to check in because he hadn’t heard anything in a day or so. “Is everything good?”
Madison yawned. “Yeah, I guess.”
“I was thinking all day today about you but I got stuck in this meeting and—”
“Daddy?” He had been talking about his latest business venture, when Madison interrupted him.
“I lied.”
“What did you say, honey?”
“I’m really not so good. Well, I’m better now, but school is just really tough.”
“Oh, Maddie, why didn’t you tell me? Should I speak to someone—”
“No, I don’t want to make a big deal out of it or anything.”
“Okay, well, you know, maybe you should leave the Gillespies’ and come stay with me for the next day or so. Your mom gets back when?”
“Soon.”
“Why don’t you come over until she gets back?”
“Is Stephanie there?” Madison asked.
Dad took a moment to respond. “Uh, no. Why would you think that?”
“Because. You guys seem pretty close already. I just imagined that she was moving in or something major.”
“Maddie, no.” Dad put all the stress on the word “no.”
Madison wanted to see him, but the truth was that she wanted to stay with Aimee more right now.
“Daddy, I think I’m just gonna stay here so I can cheer on Aimee in the election, okay? And Phinnie’s here, so I’m okay. I can see you on Sunday, maybe. Is that okay? You probably want to do stuff with Stephanie then, right?”
“Maddie,” Dad crooned, “what’s with all this Stephanie stuff? You know honey, you’re the apple of my—”
“Eye.” Of course, Madison knew. She was just playing it safe. Just in case Stephanie did show up unannounced.
Just like that, the conversation was over.
Dad didn’t argue with Madison’s decision to stay at Aimee’s rather than go. He wasn’t an arguing kind of guy. If Mom wanted something she’d ask for it twelve times until she got it. Dad was different. He gave up easier. Of course, that made him easier to understand, too. In many ways, Dad was probably the only “boy” in Madison’s life who was the least bit predictable. He was the only boy she understood.
She couldn’t say that about Drew, or Egg, and especially not Hart Jones.
Madison didn’t get Hart one itty-bitty bit.
Chapter 10
“HEY, MMWILL YOU HELP me fix mmup my mmampaign speech tonight?” Aimee asked through a mouthful of brown rice. “I have some ideas but I could mmreally use your super-brain. I mmam so worried about the mmassembly.”
Madison looked down at her lukewarm vegetarian burrito and shrugged without taking any kind of bite whatsoever. “Okay. Sure.”
It was Sunday. She’d spent the weekend raking leaves in the Gillespie yard, working on her English essay, and playing Minecraft online with Egg. (She wasn’t very good—but then. Egg beat almost everyone.) Madison had a page of vocabulary words to memorize and now she had to help craft an election speech?
Madison didn’t want to do anything with the election right now, not even to help her best friend in the universe. She couldn’t get the gila monster and skunk episodes out of her head.
From: MadFinn
To: Bigwheels
Subject: This Weekend
Date: Sun 17 Sept 3:53 PM
Where r u?????? How is your life? I am living a life of HELP! Did you get my other emails????? I was waiting for a response. I hope you r ok.
Weekends are like reruns of Twilight Zone, this old spooky show from when Mom was a kid, and I can tell you why. There are these moments in time when people sort of float in and out of your life and set your head spinning a little. Do you know what I mean? Here is my proof:
1. Dad was supposed to come by this weekend to take me and Phinnie (my dog) out for a long afternoon. But then he couldn’t at the last minute because of work and he said he was so sorry. I say something came up with this new girlfriend he has.
2. I saw one of the other election candidates @ the mall, Tommy and some friends who were loud and not so nice to me. He thinks he’s so cute but he is wicked fake. And his friend Brendan is even worse. He called me stupid. Boys can be such DORKS.
3. My Mom is still in Paris. I think I have now told you my entire life right now. I am mainly checking in because I haven’t written much and haven’t heard from you. You give good advice. Did I ever tell you that? So please do. Okay? Maybe we can have another online conversation one of these days? I remember last week we met in the room GOFISHY.
Your messaging name is the same, right? Mine’s MadFinn like everything. C ya.
Yours till the candle sticks,
MadFinn
No sooner had she hit SEND, than Madison saw her mailbox icon blinking. She and Bigwheels had sent e-mails to each other at exactly the same time.
From: Bigwheels
To: MadFinn
Subject: I Wonder
Date: Sun 17 Sept 3:53 PM
I had a cold and wasn’t on the computer for almost three days. I had 16 e-mails when I logged on today. Three were from YOU. I hope you are not mad at me. Well, I know you are, MadFinn, but you’ll just get over it, right?
How is the election going? I wonder about other things too. I know you asked me about boys before. Are you going out with someone?
When I first
joined TweenBlurt.com, I loved the fishbowl, so I got my own tropical fish. Well, 2 of them died this weekend!!!! My father says they caught my cold. I think he thought that explanation would make me feel better about it but I don’t.
I wish you would write me again, too.
Yours till the dandy lions,
Bigwheels.
Madison opened her messaging and looked at her chat list to see if maybe Bigwheels was online right now. But she wasn’t. That was weird.
Another chat message popped up, though.
It was Fiona, also known as Wetwinz.
Fiona and Aimee didn’t know about Madison’s online friend Bigwheels, but they did know about the TweenBlurt.com site. It was kind of hard to keep that a secret. TweenBlurt.com was probably the most popular chat site at Far Hills Junior High.
Aimee never went on the computer because she thought online messaging was annoying. She thought why type when you could just talk? Wasn’t it way easier to just pick up a phone? Aimee didn’t even have a screen name.
Fiona had only just started online chatting. Her Mom had been nervous about giving her permission to do things online before junior high had started. Now, she decided to give Fiona and Chet online access. Carefully monitored, of course.
She typed a reply to Fiona.
Madison liked the way that sounded, so she named it as her private chatroom destination.
Fiona had heard daily updates on the wacky dinners Madison was eating—and not eating—while staying with Aimee and her family.