Caught in the Web

by Laura Dower

  “Maddie!” Mom called from downstairs all of a sudden. “Telephone!”

  Madison closed the file and went to get the call. Dad wanted to know if Saturday’s sleepover had been a success. Madison told him about the power outage, the ghost, the Ouija board, and being scared silly.

  “Hey, Maddie, what happened to the ghost who went to a school dance?” Dad asked on the phone.

  “I don’t know, Dad. What?” Madison said.

  “It had a wail of a time!” Dad chuckled.

  “Daaaaad!” Madison was the one wailing.

  “Do you have a costume for Friday’s dance yet?” he asked.

  “No,” Madison moaned. “Aimee’s going to be a ballerina, Fiona’s a hula girl. Everyone else’s costumes are so cool.”

  “I’ll bet your mother can help you think of something. Why don’t you ask her?” Dad said.

  “I want to do this myself,” Madison said.

  After hanging up, Madison dragged herself back upstairs into her closet. She had to start thinking now. Was there a costume hiding inside? She thought about dressing like a hobo, but that wouldn’t be original enough. Online she’d seen a T-shirt with a Halloween message that read: THIS IS MY HALLOWEEN COSTUME. Madison thought making a shirt like that would be hysterical, but it wasn’t creative enough for a dance.

  She went to check out Mom’s closet. A blue dress in the corner caught her eye. She could go as Mrs. Martin! But being an invisible ghost wasn’t such a great idea for the dance either. She needed people to notice her—especially people like Hart.

  Then a caftan dress from a trip to Greece caught Madison’s attention. It was a little big, but Madison liked the way it looked. It was a burnt orange color. She tried it on over her jeans.

  Mom loved the dress and said Madison could use some other props to go with it for a costume. Madison thought about who she was dressing up to be. She remembered reading D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths from school. She loved Greek heroes and heroines. Madison decided she would be Aphrodite, goddess of love. She didn’t want to be a ballerina or hula girl or anything that would be perceived as ordinary. Besides, dressing up as a goddess of love meant her odds for capturing Hart’s attention were probably increased.

  Not that she had a clue what to do if she ever did get him to notice her.

  There were still four more days left before the dance, which meant four more days of worrying. But school got busier than busy that week for Madison.

  It was the end of marking period and teachers were tallying first-term reports. This meant they were also giving quizzes and tests and essays and everything else. Madison had to spend more time on homework and less time on files and ghost hunts. She’d clocked in some extra time with Mrs. Wing and the school Web site, too.

  Fiona was super busy, too. The Rangers had won each of their district play-off games. Now they were the team to beat in the entire league. Fiona was happy about it, but all the time devoted to soccer meant less time for Halloween dance committee meetings.

  Madison missed seeing Fiona at meetings. Aimee had even missed one afternoon because of dance practice.

  Even when Fiona and Aimee were there, they were busy planning for the food or music. Madison had to decorate the gymnasium and cafeteria alone alongside Poison Ivy. And the enemy was as bossy as ever.

  “What are you doing?” Ivy asked Madison, waltzing over with her hands on her hips. She was wearing a short green dress that looked like tie-dye and clunky black shoes, looking as perfect as ever. She’d been putting up balloons across the back wall.

  Madison looked down at the giant package of gauzy web material she was holding. She’d been given the responsibility today of hanging it from the ceiling to the floor in one corner of the room. She had to make a spider’s web. Her brain buzzed with the idea that maybe, just like in Charlotte’s Web, she could stretch the gauze so the web had an actual word at its center. Madison imagined a fake web with the word DANCE inside.

  “Uh … I’m making a spider’s web,” Madison said. “And I have black construction paper spiders and other bugs to put in the middle.”

  “Oh, really?” Ivy snickered. “Well, I guess it looks like a web.”

  “What are you doing?” Madison asked.

  “I put up signs for the bathrooms and balloons and other things,” Ivy said. “Let me see that Web stuff that you’re doing.”

  Madison couldn’t believe that Ivy’s motives for helping were good ones, but she agreed to let her help with the web. Working together, they could get the gauze stretched out in half the time.

  “Why don’t you attach it up to the wall there?” Ivy pointed. “I’ll hang on to the gauze here.” They’d only been at it a few moments, and already Ivy was up to her old tricks.

  But Madison agreed it was a good idea, so she leaned over toward the wall. She stretched up with some of the gauze and stretched and …

  Ooops!

  Madison fell right into the wall. Even worse, she fell right into the gauze, causing it to detach. A big piece floated to the floor. She was wrapped in webbing and she couldn’t get out.

  Ivy roared. She almost looked like she’d turn purple, she was laughing so hard. Soon enough, everyone else heard, too, and they dashed over to see what was the matter. Even Señora Diaz was laughing a little bit as she helped detach Madison from the webbing. Aimee and Egg rushed over from the kitchen and covered their mouths so they wouldn’t explode with laughter, too.

  “Oh!” Aimee cried. “Are you okay Maddie?”

  Madison wasn’t laughing at all. She looked at everyone’s faces, including her best friends’. Her stomach went flip-flop. She wanted to run.

  But she was caught in the web.

  Chapter 11

  “LET ME SEE YOU!” Mom cried. She snapped pictures of Madison in her costume from all angles. “Oh, I’m so happy that you thought of this outfit.”

  Mom had called up another one of her buddies from Budge Films, where she worked, and arranged to borrow a scepter from the props department. It was made of papier mâché, so it was light enough to carry. Madison made a crown from tinfoil that she spray-painted gold with Mom’s help. She also found some junk jewelry in a drawer in Mom’s room.

  “You look like a real goddess, honey bear,” Mom said. She put down the camera so she could adjust Madison’s up ’do. Little ringlets fell down her blushed cheeks.

  “Oh, Mom.” Madison sighed. “Please just take the picture.”

  “Just stand still, Aphrodite.” Dad spoke up. He was standing in the hallway, waiting to drive Madison over to the Halloween dance.

  “Thank you, Jeff, for being here,” Mom said.

  Madison felt weird hearing Mom say Dad’s name nicely like that. All three of the Finns were back in the Finn living room together. It was like old times; even Phinnie could tell the difference. The pug was chasing his little curlicue tail and snorting. Dad picked up the dog to calm him down, but Phin wriggled right out of Dad’s grip.

  Moments later, after several more pictures and kisses and oohs and ahhs, Madison and Dad were in the car. She took a mental inventory: scepter, crown, lip gloss. …

  The dance started in twenty minutes.

  Now that she was all dressed up, she wanted to stay looking pretty during the dance. Would boys notice her—especially one boy in particular? It was Madison’s first real dance, and she just wanted to be there already! The anticipation made her dizzy. Madison barely said two more words to Dad the whole drive over.

  The Far Hills Junior High School parking lot was a madhouse.

  One kid dressed up as a giant eyeball in a tuxedo almost fell over and someone had to lead him into the main doors. Madison saw witches, werewolves, and about four ninjas. Egg would be mad about that. He was hoping to be one of a kind. There were hockey players, ghosts, and pop singers. One group of friends had all dressed like an alien family.

  Even teachers and chaperones were costumed. Madison chuckled when she saw her substitute science teacher show
up as none other than Frankenstein himself—bolts and all.

  “Have a great time,” Dad said, leaning out the window of the car to kiss his daughter good-bye.

  “Okay, Dad.” Madison waved him off. “Okay. Bye.”

  “We’ll have dinner when I get back from Boston.”

  “Okay, Dad,” Madison repeated, backing away from his car. “Have a nice trip.”

  Madison stumbled up the curb. She was the one having the nice trip.

  “Be careful,” Dad said, pulling away. “And don’t forget to have fun!”

  Madison wiggled inside her caftan and adjusted her crown. She took a deep breath and walked carefully into the school lobby.

  “You’re here!” Aimee squealed. She twirled over in her ballerina outfit, followed by her brother Roger.

  “You look sooooo good,” Aimee said. “Who did your hair like that?”

  “Mom,” Madison mumbled. “You look good, too. Where’s Fiona?”

  “She’s not here yet,” Aimee said.

  “Hey, Roger,” Madison said to Aimee’s brother. “You’re a chaperone?”

  “Yup. That’s me. You’ve got a nice costume,” he added. “Roman goddess of the Halloween dance, eh?”

  Madison blushed under her blush. Roger smiled back.

  “Hello, all,” Fiona said, walking in the front door. She had on a Hawaiian shirt plus a grass skirt and about ten plastic leis around her neck. Chet was standing behind her on the way in, but he didn’t stick around. He just stuck his hand up for a quick wave and dashed into the gym.

  “Who’s Chet supposed to be?” Aimee asked.

  “A martian.” Fiona laughed. “What else? Didn’t you see those little bobbling antenna things on his head?”

  The school had a security guard posted at the doorway to the school and again to the cafeteria and gym. They wanted to be careful to check students’ bags to make sure no one brought anything inside they weren’t supposed to bring.

  Madison (a.k.a. Aphrodite), Aimee (a.k.a. Ballerina), and Fiona (a.k.a. Hula Girl) approached the doors to the gym, bristling with excitement. Over by the music booth, Madison saw Mrs. Wing dressed for a masquerade ball. She wore a purple dress and a paper mask that just covered her eyes with purple feathers. Standing next to Mrs. Wing was a man in a rubber mask and doctor’s scrubs. Madison assumed he was Mr. Wing.

  “This is one of my students,” she said to her husband as Madison walked over. “This is Madison Finn and—you’re Fiona and Aimee, right? I’d like you to meet my husband. Dr. Bryan Wing.”

  “Who are you supposed to be?” Aimee asked Dr. Wing.

  Everyone laughed when he said, “Wolf-Doctor.”

  “Have a nice time tonight, Madison,” Mrs. Wing said. “See you around.”

  “All our decorations look so cool,” Aimee said, whirling in her ballet slippers as they walked into the main part of the gymnasium. “The balloons look good, and that web in the corner really came out nice, Maddie.”

  “Yeah, even though I fell in it,” Madison grumbled.

  “It’s Egg and Drew!” Fiona pointed across the gym. Egg was in his best ninja gear. Drew had on jeans and a Mets baseball shirt.

  “You call that a real costume?” Aimee said to Drew.

  “It’s a costume if I say it’s a costume,” Drew said. “What’s your costume, Maddie?”

  “Yeah, who are you, Maddie?” Egg asked. “Queen of the World?”

  “Shut up, Egg. You’re only like the tenth ninja I’ve seen tonight,” Madison said.

  Madison noticed that he seemed unusually interested in Fiona’s grass skirt. “Can you see through that thing?” he asked her. Fiona giggled.

  Aimee rolled her eyes at Madison and whispered, “He’s such a geek sometimes.”

  “Hart!” Drew yelled across the gym to his cousin. “Over here!”

  Madison felt her legs get weak. Hart? He was on his way over.

  “Yo!” Hart gave all the guys high fives. He was dressed up like a wizard, just like he said he would be. He looked even better than he had looked when he played the Wizard in The Wiz at school.

  Hart told Aimee he liked her costume, and she twirled around for him. He smiled at Madison, too, but didn’t say anything more than, “Hey, Finnster,” just like always. He got distracted when some ninth-grade DJ turned on the music.

  “I’m hungry,” Hart said.

  “Yeah, let’s go check out the food,” Egg said.

  “See you guys later,” Drew said. The boys walked away together toward the snack table.

  Madison clutched her papier-mâché scepter tight. Hart hadn’t said anything about her costume. She had this weird, empty feeling inside. Everyone else said she looked beautiful. Why hadn’t he noticed?

  “Let’s go dance.” Fiona goofed around, moving her hula-skirted hips to the music.

  Aimee grabbed her arm. “We can’t dance yet. It’s too early.”

  “What?” Madison said. “Who says it’s too early?”

  “Trust me, it is. Let’s just stand here for a while. See? Kids are still walking in. You have to act mellow at first. Then you dance.”

  Madison usually didn’t question Aimee’s logic on such matters.

  “Look!” Aimee blurted. She was staring at the door to the gym.

  Poison Ivy Daly walked through. She had on a red leotard, red tights, red skirt, red shoes, and red scarf, and she had attached a red tail to her behind and red horns to her head.

  “She’s a devil!” Aimee snorted. “No way. I can’t believe she would come dressed like that.”

  “Me neither,” Fiona said, slack jawed.

  Madison could believe it. The leotard and tights accentuated Ivy’s thin body, and everyone stared. She was followed into the room by her drones, Rose and Joanie, who had on boring outfits and too much makeup. They were supposed to be backup singers, according to Aimee. She’d heard them talking about their costumes the day before.

  Ivy scanned the room, but she didn’t see Madison, Aimee, or Fiona. She did, however, see Hart right away and walked toward the food table.

  Madison watched her parade across the Halloween dance floor along with every boy in the room—even eighth and ninth graders. All eyes were on her, just the way Ivy wanted it.

  “Just forget her, Maddie. Let’s stand in the center of the room,” Aimee suggested.

  From the center of the room, Madison had a better view of the food table and Hart. She saw Ivy standing near him. At one point he even reached up and touched the horns on the top of her head. No one was really dancing yet, either, just like Aimee had said. There was an unspoken code about what to do and not to do here. Every moment counted.

  Eat. Talk. Be seen.

  Dance later.

  Madison saw another one of her friends from class, Lindsay Frost, across the room. Lindsay was dressed all in black and was holding her mask by her side. She’d come to the dance as a gorilla. Madison wanted to go say hello, but for some reason she didn’t. Lindsay was over near the wall, talking to some boys Madison didn’t really know too well.

  Girls and boys were segregated everywhere you looked, chatting among themselves. Kids were split into cliques and grades. Madison didn’t even recognize half the people in the room. Of course, almost everyone was in costume.

  Aimee’s brother Roger had been right. This was initiation night. Big time.

  “Attention, please,” a voice crackled over the loudspeaker. “Welcome to the Halloween dance.”

  One boy made a fart noise and some other boys cheered.

  Señora Diaz stood up on the podium. She was the voice behind the microphone. Madison couldn’t see Egg from where she was standing, but she imagined he was squirming in his shoes right about now. He got so embarrassed whenever he and his mother were at the same school events.

  “As you know,” Señora continued, “we have lots of activities going on this evening. And many helpful people here making sure the dance goes well. Please give a round of applause for your family and t
eachers who have come out to help us tonight—dressed in costumes, no less.”

  Kids in the room clapped loudly.

  “And to the seventh-grade students on the dance committee who helped with the very important decoration and food and music. Let’s give them a round of applause. …”

  Someone whistled. The clapping got louder. Even the eighth and ninth graders were clapping thank-you.

  “Gracias!” Señora’s voice continued. “Now, we have a line forming for the scary hallway at the far end of the gym. If possible, let’s keep the screaming contained to that area tonight, sí? We’d like everyone to have a chance inside at least once, so please don’t get out and get right back on line. Finally, some eighth and ninth graders will be judging seventh graders in a costume contest throughout the night. Everyone have a great time!”

  The clapping started up again. So did the music.

  “I love this song!” Aimee shrieked. It was hip-hop. She started bending and twisting her body to the music.

  “Aimee, you said not to dance yet,” Madison said.

  “Yeah, but that was like ten minutes ago. It’s fine now.”

  “Yeah!” Fiona shrugged and swiveled in her grass skirt again.

  Music pounded over the speakers. A few teachers grimaced at the noise, but it kept right on blaring.

  Madison bounced up and down, up and down, from her knees only. She couldn’t do much more since the caftan didn’t allow for a lot of movement. She straightened out her crown and waved her arm into the air once in a while.

  Just like that, Aphrodite was dancing.

  Chapter 12

  CHET RAN OVER TO Fiona on the dance floor, whispering something. He was laughing hysterically. Fiona motioned to Aimee and Madison to walk over to the food table.

  “Chet says Tommy Kwong put something in the food,” Fiona said. “Let’s go see for ourselves.”

  Floating in the giant fruit punch bowl were plastic flies. Even funnier than the floating flies was the fact that Tommy himself was dressed up like some kind of a bug, wearing a hat with pipe-cleaner and pom-pom antennae on top.