Caught in the Web

by Laura Dower

  “How could you get that meat loaf, Maddie?” Aimee asked as soon as Madison had put down her tray. “It looks dead.”

  Everyone else leaned in to look. Apparently no one had gotten the lunch selection except for Madison.

  “Do you even know what’s in that?” Aimee stuck out her tongue. “I thought you liked animals.”

  “I didn’t really think about it,” Madison said, sticking her fork in it. The fork stood straight up. She threw a napkin over the whole thing. “I’ll just eat yogurt, then.”

  Hart and Chet were laughing. Madison hoped it wasn’t at her. She opened the yogurt container.

  “Did you see the new posters for the Halloween dance?” Fiona asked. “I am so excited. Señora is calling it Cobwebs and Creeps.”

  “What is that supposed to be? Our theme?” Madison asked aloud. “I didn’t know we had a theme.”

  “That’s because you’re too busy getting gross loaf,” Egg said. Drew snort-laughed and the rest of the boys started laughing, too.

  “Who’s going dressed as what for Halloween?” Aimee asked the table.

  Egg grinned. “A rapper. Totally.”

  “You should go as Jimmie J, Egg,” Hart said. “Ladies’ man.”

  Jimmie J was a heartthrob from a popular boy band. Madison never understood why he made girls swoon. He had such hairy arms.

  “Why stop at Jimmie J, Egg? You should go as the whole band,” Aimee teased. “But then again, you can’t sing at all, so … maybe not …”

  “Not!” Egg chuckled. “Very funny, Aim.”

  “Is everyone going trick or treating this year?” Chet asked. “Fiona and I always went when we lived in California, but I thought maybe this year was the year when we stopped. …”

  “Stopped? Why wouldn’t we go?” Drew said quickly.

  Egg grinned. “Yeah. Somewhere out there is a bucket of candy with my name on it.”

  “I want lots of candy,” Fiona declared. “Last year I had an entire trashbagful of candy and it lasted through February,” Hart said. “February! It’s my own personal record.”

  “Man, I ate all my candy in only two days,” Egg said. “And then I was dog sick for like a week.”

  Madison nodded. “I remember.”

  “I hate it when candy gets stale,” Aimee complained. “I had to throw most of my candy out.”

  “What are you talking about, Aimee? You don’t even eat candy,” Drew said.

  Aimee shrugged and took a bite of carrot.

  “Don’t you guys think we’re a little old to go trick-or-treating?” Madison said. “I mean, I don’t wanna sound like I’m a—”

  “PARTY POOPER!” Egg yelled.

  Aimee slapped Egg’s shoulder. “I’m with you, Maddie,” she said.

  “Hey! I like trick-or-treating,” Fiona said. “We’re not too old!”

  “Are you saying we have to stop trick-or-treating just because we’re in junior high?” Egg said. “I intend to do it for as long as I possibly can. And after that, even.”

  “We have to wear costumes for the Halloween dance. Why not use ’em again to get good candy?” Drew said.

  “Hey, know what? If I can’t be a rapper, I wanna dress up like a mummy,” Egg said. “For my costume, I mean. For the dance.”

  “A mummy is in a wrapper. That’s practically the same thing, right?” Drew laughed at his own lame joke.

  “What if we all went trick-or-treating together?” Chet said. “Maybe we could go as a TV family or something. Like the Simpsons.”

  “I love them!” Madison said enthusiastically.

  “What did you dress up as last year, Maddie?” Drew asked.

  Madison thought for a moment. “I dunno,” she mumbled.

  Dressing up for Halloween always stressed out Madison.

  “I think I’m going to dress up as a boxer this year,” Chet said. “Or a martian. Yeah. Something freaky.”

  Fiona groaned. “You would.”

  “I’m going to go to the dance as a ballerina,” Aimee said. She picked at a lettuce leaf on her plate. Aimee was becoming the kind of person who counted peas before she ate them.

  “Ballerina? Like that’s a big surprise.” Egg made a face.

  “You should go as a wizard,” Drew said to Hart. “You have the cape and hat from The Wiz, right?”

  “Yeah, I do,” Hart said. “Maybe I should go as a wizard.”

  “You were great as the wizard,” Fiona said. “And you could do tricks at the dance. You’re really good at tricks, Hart.”

  Egg sneered. “Magic, shmagic. I’m gonna be a ninja. What about you, Fiona?”

  “I wanna be a hula dancer.”

  “Hula girl, whoa!” Egg teased. “You got a grass skirt?”

  Fiona smiled at him and tilted her head slightly to the side. She’d been crushing on him for weeks, so she didn’t mind his teasing one bit.

  “Why don’t you lend her your grass skirt, Egg!” Chet said, laughing.

  Egg made a face.

  “Remember when Egg dressed up like a doctor for Halloween?” Aimee asked the table.

  Madison rolled her eyes. “That was like a million Halloweens ago—”

  “When we were six—” Aimee said.

  “And Egg got into a yelling match with these nasty kids walking down the street and—”

  “Yeah, yeah, and I got picked off by an egg on the Fourth Street overpass.” Egg shook his head. “Get to the point, Maddie. I got hit with an egg, so that’s when you started calling me Egg. Thanks a lot.”

  “At least it wasn’t toilet paper.” Hart laughed. “T.P. would be a worse nickname.”

  The table snickered.

  Madison looked up at the lunchroom clock. The bell was about to sound. She saw Ivy getting up a few tables away, probably heading for the girls’ bathroom. Ivy looked right over at Madison and the rest of the orange table with a mean, hard stare. Madison was glad that Hart wasn’t watching.

  What tricks did Poison Ivy have up her Boop-Dee-Doop sleeves now?

  Fiona, Aimee, and Madison got up to return their trays.

  “Hey, Maddie, have you entered that writing contest on TweenBlurt yet?” Fiona asked.

  “Huh? Not yet.” Madison shook her head.

  “I’ve been going online a lot more,” Aimee told her girlfriends.

  “You have?” Fiona replied. She swallowed her last bite of chocolate pudding.

  “Since I got my screen name, anyway,” Aimee said. “It’s fun going into chat rooms and surfing around for stuff I like. You were right.”

  Fiona and Madison smiled at Aimee. Finally she was getting wired.

  “But I’m still a newbie.” Aimee sighed.

  “Don’t worry, you won’t be for long!” Fiona said, rubbing her friend’s shoulder. “Hey, did you both ask your moms about going to the mall Saturday before our sleepover?”

  “Yes!” Madison chirped. “Mom said yes as long as I clean my room.”

  “My mother said yes, too! She even said she’d take us! She needs to go to the health food outlet and run some other errands.”

  “This is going to be so cool.” Fiona grinned.

  Going to the mall was an event. Not only did it mean trying on and perhaps even buying clothes, it also meant eating tacos at the food court, being parent-free, and spying on cute boys across the atrium or on the escalators. The three girls started making a list of what stores they would visit.

  “So now that you’re online, are you going to enter the Caught in the Web contest?” Madison asked.

  “Nah,” Aimee said. “I’m just not a good writer like you, Maddie.”

  “Me neither,” Fiona said.

  “Well, thanks, but the truth is, I’m a little stuck for ideas,” Madison finally admitted. “Do you think you could help?”

  “Write about ghosts,” Fiona said. “Ghosts are the traditional—”

  “Duh! Ghosts aren’t scary enough anymore, Fiona,” Aimee interrupted. “How about zombies? They’re like
ghosts, only they eat people. Now, that’s scary.”

  “And gross.” Madison laughed. “Once upon a time there was a flesh-eating zombie named Aimee. …”

  “Why don’t you ask my brother for a good idea?” Fiona suggested as they returned to the orange table. “I mean, Chet’s a big, fat, lazy zombie!”

  The girls laughed loudly. Chet turned around when he heard his name, but he hadn’t caught the insult.

  Brrrrring.

  The lunchroom bell finally rang. All the boys bolted out of the cafeteria without saying good-bye to the girls. It was the usual routine. The girls headed for the door.

  Madison walked out slowly, waiting for a flash of brilliance. She was so impatient. She needed a perfect story idea right now.

  What was scarier: today’s meat loaf or Poison Ivy?

  Phinnie was waiting behind the front door when Madison came home that afternoon. He pounced on her with his scratchy claws. She had to take him for a long walk. Mom was busy writing.

  Madison looped around the neighborhood and wandered over to Ridge Road. Without even thinking, she turned down Fiona’s block. Phin liked this street because so many other dogs lived nearby. His little pug nose was snorting and sniffling at each tree. Madison couldn’t imagine what it would be like to smell so many things at one time.

  She looked around at houses on the street, mostly old Victorians with front porches and wide front yards. There was no one else around moving—no cars, no people, not even another dog.

  As they passed Fiona’s house, Madison glanced up. She thought about how last year Fiona and her family didn’t live there. So much had changed.

  Madison stopped short and yanked back on Phinnie’s leash. Even though Fiona’s family had repainted, restored, and added on to the side of the old house, it still reminded Madison of stories she’d once heard about the family who used to live there. People always said the old Martin place was haunted.

  “Rowrrroooo!” Phinnie barked and tugged, and Madison nearly fell over. She pulled back on the leash, but he still took off down the street to say hello to a neighbor’s poodle.

  Madison glanced back at the house and then quickly ran after Phin.

  Chapter 7

  Caught in the Web

  IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT. THE HOUSE WAS DEAD QUIET, EXCEPT FOR …

  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

  Madison stared at the monitor, stuck. Her finger was pressing the A key over and over again. She remembered something her English teacher told her once about letting ideas go. Mr. Gibbons said to just “keep writing no matter what lands on the page.” So she wrote whatever came into her head.

  Here I am on TweenBlurt and I’m frozen in the fishbowl. Like a big fish stick.

  Ick.

  It wasn’t exactly the beginning of the scary story Madison was looking for. It was late Saturday morning, and Madison could hear Mom grinding coffee downstairs. The whole house smelled like hazelnuts.

  Madison pulled her laptop over to her bed and lay down on her stomach to type. She was tired and wanted to surf the Net a little before going to the mall with Fiona and Aimee.

  “Are you kidding me?” Mom shouted, walking into her room. “Look at this mess!”

  Madison looked up from her laptop, surprised. “Mom!”

  Her mother picked up a pile of clothes from near the doorway and dumped it in a wicker hamper a few feet away.

  “Maddie, Aimee’s mom will be here in a little while! Look at this mess! I said no mall until you clean your room—and I meant it!”

  “But, Mom … I was just …” She closed the laptop lid and jumped up.

  “I don’t want to hear any excuses, Madison Finn. Pick up, get dressed, and get downstairs. And put that computer away! You have ten minutes.”

  Mom shut the bedroom door behind her.

  Madison knew what to expect when she finally did head downstairs. In addition to a lecture about putting dirty clothes away and keeping her room clean, Madison would also get a minilecture on the perils of “computer overuse.”

  Quickly Madison cleaned up. She pushed some papers under the bed and shoved sneakers and shoes into the already overflowing closet. She couldn’t miss going to the mall with friends—and without Mom. Besides, after shopping at the mall, she was going right over to Fiona’s house for their spooky sleepover. She definitely couldn’t miss that!

  Madison stuffed some clean underwear, her Lisa Simpson nightshirt, jeans, and a sweatshirt for tomorrow into her bag.

  Luckily Mrs. Gillespie was a few minutes late. It gave Madison more time to straighten up all her piles and make her bed neater. She even picked up Phin’s toys off the floor.

  When Mrs. Gillespie honked the car horn, Madison had passed the clean room test. She ran out to meet her friends.

  Aimee and Fiona were bursting with energy when Madison climbed into the car, bouncing on the seats like they’d eaten way too much sugar.

  The mall was crowded when they got there. Before Mrs. Gillespie scooted off to run her own errands, she told the girls to meet back at the North Fountain by four o’clock sharp.

  As Aimee’s mom walked away, the three friends bolted for Chez Moi—a casual boutique with faded denim skirts and lace-up boots in the window. Aimee wanted to try on what the mannequins were wearing. Madison wanted to head toward the back of the store, where the hair scrunchies and jewelry were. Fiona stopped and took a camouflage shirt off the rack.

  “For the warrior look,” she said, laughing. “Tarzan-ella.”

  Aimee grabbed it out of her hand and hung it back up. She pulled out a cropped T-shirt with sequins on the top that spelled FOXY, the same shirt the mannequin had been wearing

  “I like this one, don’t you?” Aimee asked.

  “My mother would never let me get that,” Fiona said.

  “Well, your mom isn’t here and neither is mine. Try it on,” Aimee said, pressing it into Fiona’s hand and taking one for herself and Madison. They scurried over to the changing rooms.

  Fiona came out and modeled the T-shirt. Madison could see muscles in Fiona’s stomach, from soccer, probably. Aimee had them, too, from dance. The shirt fit Fiona perfectly everywhere else, too.

  “You try it on now, Maddie,” Fiona said, excited. She grabbed Madison’s arm and dragged her into the dressing room.

  Madison slipped the shirt over her head. It looked okay around the middle even if Madison’s belly was softer looking, but the shirt hung down lower than it had on Fiona. Madison wondered why.

  “How’s it look?” Aimee asked through the dressing room curtain. “Let’s see!”

  Madison stood sideways and backways and frontways in front of the mirror. The lights in the dressing room made her skin look almost green. She also thought the word FOXY was dumb. And there was absolutely nothing filling it out on top. Not like Fiona. Madison whipped the top off and stepped back out in her own loose shirt.

  “It’s not me. You should get it, though, Fiona. It looked so good on you.”

  “Ha! You’re kidding, right? My dad wouldn’t let me out of the house in this.” Fiona put the top back on the rack. “Aimee’s the one who should get it.”

  Aimee shrugged. “I don’t have any allowance money left.”

  A salesperson meandered over toward them, so the friends turned to dash. They left Chez Moi and went to check out some other stores.

  It was over an hour before Madison, Fiona, or Aimee saw even one person they recognized, which was strange, considering malls were the number-one place to see and be seen. Madison was especially surprised she didn’t spy Poison Ivy anywhere.

  Passing the food court, Madison saw Egg’s sister, Mariah, sitting with friends. She could see the glimmer of Mariah’s eyebrow ring. Her now black-dyed hair was wrapped in a polka-dotted bandanna.

  She was all the way across the food court, so Madison couldn’t yell. She wasn’t sure if Mariah had seen her, anyway. Madison wanted to walk over and say hello, but Aimee wouldn’t budge.

 
“You don’t wanna do that, Maddie,” Aimee said.

  Madison looked puzzled. “Why not? Mariah is so nice. And she’s your friend, too.”

  “She’s all of our friends, Aimee,” Fiona added.

  “You guys!” Aimee moaned. “I know from my brothers that freshmen like her cannot be bothered to talk to lowly seventh graders like us except far away from school property, and the mall doesn’t count. Besides, she’s with boys from the high school, which makes it that much worse. It would just be too, too embarrassing, okay? Can we just not do this?”

  “Those are high school boys?” Fiona gasped. The boys dressed all in black like Mariah. “They’re not very cute, are they? I thought high school boys were hotter than that.”

  “It’s just Mariah,” Madison argued. “She’d be happy to say hello.”

  “Maddie,” Aimee moaned.

  “Okay, okay, fine,” Madison said. As she turned to walk away, Madison looked over once more, only this time Mariah spotted her. She waved. Madison felt her heart leap a little. Mariah was a friend—and not just some too-cool freshman. Mariah’s boyfriends didn’t wave, but that was okay.

  “See?” Madison nudged Aimee, who saw the wave, too.

  They both waved back. Mariah went back to eating french fries.

  “I guess I was wrong,” Aimee said sheepishly as they wandered away.

  “I guess,” Madison said. She didn’t want to make Aimee feel bad, even if she had been wrong.

  “Look over there!” Fiona yelled all of a sudden. She spotted the big sign that read PARTY TOWN. It was a supermarket for cheap Halloween stuff: costumes, makeup, decorations, and props in one-stop shopping.

  The first costume they saw was on display at the front of the store. It was a cavewoman outfit. “We probably couldn’t wear that at school,” Madison said, joking around.

  “It would make my butt look big, too, I think.” Aimee laughed.

  “Your butt!” Fiona laughed. “Aimee, you barely have a butt.”