Caught in the Web (10 page)

She had to come up with an idea for her story!

Fiona didn’t pay attention to all the flashing stuff at the top of the page. She ignored the contest and skipped right over the skeleton fish—clicking into a chat area called “Girls Only.” Madison caught her breath when she saw the roster of members chatting there.

Bigwheels was at the top of the list.

Madison couldn’t believe it. She’d already lied to Aimee about her keypal once. She didn’t want to have to do it again. Did Aimee recognize the name? Would she ask about it?

Zzzzzzzzzzap!

Suddenly the room flashed and then went black.
Bigwheels
and everything else on-screen was gone. It got so quiet. The chugging sound of the refrigerator had turned off with everything else.

“Fiona, your computer exploded,” Aimee said, sitting there in the dark.

“I think the power just blew. Like in the wires or something,” Fiona said. “It usually only happens during a thunderstorm.”

“That’s weird,” Madison said. “It’s not raining out.”

“Girls!”
It didn’t long for Mrs. Waters to come into the kitchen with the enormous flashlight. She lit some candles on the counter. “Is everyone okay in here?”

“The computer just went poof, Mrs. Waters,” Aimee said.

“So weird,” Madison said again.

“Mommy, what happened?” Fiona asked.

“It’s just an old house. I have to flip the circuit breakers down in the basement. I’ll be right back. Will you girls be okay up here without me?”

“We’re okay as long as Mrs. Martin doesn’t come back,” Fiona said.

“Who?” Mrs. Waters asked. “Who’s Mrs. Martin?”

“A friend,” Madison said.

The three friends looked at each other and smiled.

“I see,” Mrs. Waters said, walking toward the basement stairs. As she turned around, her eyes lit up with candlelight. She looked like a character from a horror movie going off to the dungeon.

“Don’t worry about us,” Aimee called after her, laughing nervously. “We’ll be right here. Unless we see a …”

Fiona punched her jokingly. “Nooooo! The minute the power goes back on, we’re doing beauty stuff.
No more ghosts.”

“Okay! And we’ll have a pillow fight, too.” Aimee fake-punched her back.

Madison held up her hands and stretched them out to make shapes from shadows on the wall. She used her thumb and the rest of her fingers to make a “duck” quack its bill open and shut. Aimee made a bird flap its wings.

Three minutes later, the power kicked back in and everything in the kitchen surged on at once. The refrigerator hummed. Everyone cheered. Mrs. Waters came back upstairs.

Madison felt a surge, too—inside herself.

Thanks to Mrs. Martin and her best friends and the power outage, she suddenly had the most wonderful, frightful idea.

It was an idea that just might win her the Caught in the Web contest.

Caught in the Web


Rude Awakening
: You can do
anything
once the ghost is clear.


Just sent in my story. Fingers crossed. I hope I win!


Aimee said the story is superscary, and she’s pretty much of a ghost expert, especially after our sleepover at Fiona’s house.


Fiona, of course, won’t read the story. She says it’s so close to the truth. That scares her. I don’t really mind. But I will make her read it if I win, that’s for sure.


Mom liked it, too, a lot. She says I should mail one to Gramma Helen. I need to send it to Dad and Bigwheels, too. Still haven’t told Aimee about my keypal yet. I’ll do it soon.


M
ADISON ATTACHED A COPY
of the story to her file. She printed out one to mail to Gramma.

The Secret of the Old Trunk


by [email protected]


IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT. THE HOUSE WAS DEAD QUIET, EXCEPT FOR
the sound of leaves and rain on the roof. An old man stared at a picture on the wall. It was his wife. Her name was Ivy. Ivy had disappeared many years before. She had gone up to the attic before her wedding day to get an old blue dress in an old trunk. That was what she said. But she never returned. Her husband-to-be looked everywhere for her but found nothing. He didn’t look in the chest, though. It was sealed shut.

Years went by.

One summer, the man’s niece came to stay with him. Her name was Ivy, after the aunt she never knew. She found a photo album with pictures of Ivy and asked a lot of questions. The old man didn’t like her being so nosy. She asked if she could go into the attic one day, and he said no, it was off-limits. But she went anyway.

When she got up there, she saw a trunk. It was very late at night, so she tried to be as quiet as a mouse. She had a skeleton key in her pocket to open the trunk. It worked and the lid cracked open.

There was an awful, terrible smell. She raised the lid a little more. Then she heard footsteps behind her.

“Go ahead and open it,” the voice said. She knew it was the old man. He said, “Open it,” three times.

She trembled and quaked.

“I SAID, OPEN IT!” the man screamed at her.

The girl pushed open the lid, covering her nose and eyes as she did. She gasped with fear.

“Look inside,” the man said.

And so the girl did. She leaned over and peered in.

“OH!” the girl screamed when she saw what was inside.

It was a blue dress!

The man put his hand on his niece’s shoulder and squeezed tight.

“I keep this here,” the man said in a low voice. “In case my dear Ivy wants to wear it … to her GHOST ball!”

“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.

“L
ET 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.