Forget Me Not (From the Files of Madison Finn, 21) (8 page)

“Glad to hear it,” Dad said, raising his palm for a high five. “You’re getting a lot braver these days about getting up in front of people, aren’t you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far….” Madison said.

“I’m sure you’re a great speaker.”

“Oh, Dad,” Madison said, playfully swatting Dad’s arm. “Where’s Stephanie tonight?”

“Work. She works hard, too. We all do, I guess. Sorry about that.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Madison said.

“How’s that boy you like? What’s his name—Bart? No, Hart, right?”

Madison smiled. “He’s okay.”

Thankfully, Dad didn’t press for more specifics. He switched subjects.

“How’s Phinnie?” Dad asked.

“Hungry!” Madison said. “He ate another slipper this week. I don’t know what his problem is.”

“Hmmm. Maybe he’s lonely,” Dad said. “You know, most dogs need a lot of attention and love. And it sounds like you and Mom have been out of the house a lot, so …”

“Yeah, I guess we haven’t really been paying attention to him,” Madison said, instantly feeling a little bit guilty. Usually, Mom worked at home most days; so she could take afternoon walks with the dog. Sometimes after school Madison would take him to the dog run in the park. But now that Mom was coming to FHJH each day and Madison was trying hard to keep away from Mom and home, Phin was getting shortchanged.

When the meal was done, the waiter brought over a big slab of Madison’s favorite chocolate cake, slathered in whipped cream. She and Dad sat there together for a few more minutes. Madison was grateful for a little bit of silence. For the first time all day, she didn’t feel stressed out about the film shoot, or Mom’s presence, or saying the right or wrong thing. It was enough just to
be
with Dad right now.

After a long good-bye when Dad dropped her off, Madison came into the house. She expected Phinnie to rush the door as he always did.

“Phin!” Madison called out.

But he didn’t come.

Mom called out from her office. “We’re in here, honey bear, still working. Be out in a few minutes.”

Madison was surprised by the sound of Mom’s voice. She seemed in a completely different mood than she had been just a few hours earlier. Had Mom gotten over the whole grumpy grounding thing already? Madison thought about poking her head into Mom’s office—just to say hello and make sure that angry Mom was gone—but she headed directly upstairs instead.

Her orange laptop sat on the bed, still open from earlier that day. Madison had forgotten to log off before heading out with Dad for dinner. It beeped loudly—a reminder signal telling Madison to check her e-mail. The TweenBlurt.com e-mailbox flashed pink. Madison had two e-mails.

She opened Dan’s first.

From: Dantheman


To: MadFinn


Subject: Clinic Help L8R


Date: Thurs 27 Feb 3:17 PM


OK major emrgncy here WE HAVE SEVEN PUPPIES!!! Lady Marmalade cocker spaniel finally had her pups today my Mom asked me to help her contact some voluntrs to come in this wkend if u can. We need xtra help. Can u come? Lemmeknow. Bye. Dan.


Madison hit
REPLY
and sent Dan a great big “Yessssss!” message. She couldn’t wait to help out with the new pooches. The cocker spaniel in question was an abandoned dog that came into the clinic pregnant with pups. Dan’s mother Eileen and Dr. Wing, the main veterinarian at the clinic, decided they would care for the dog. Everyone named her Lady Marmalade because she had orange fur on her face, as if she’d taken a big lick of marmalade. It was also the name of a crazy song from the 1970s that was playing on the radio when Lady M was discovered.

After sending her message, Madison moved on to Bigwheels’s e-mail, but she had another one of her sinking feelings about this one. The subject line of the e-mail was a giveaway.

From: Bigwheels


To: MadFinn


Subject: My Class Pal!!!


Date: Thurs 27 Feb 3:29 PM


U would not believe how totally cool it is to have a class pal, Maddie, it is THE BEST EVER. My class pal’s from Australia, writes so dif. than we do. U would


Madison clicked
DELETE
without finishing the note and without realizing what she was doing. The e-mail vanished. Madison stared at the blank screen as Bigwheels’s words echoed in her mind. The Australian keypal … er, class pal … sounded cooler than Madison could ever hope to be.

Madison stood up abruptly from her laptop, needing a change of scenery. Distraction was key right now. Madison figured a snack might do the trick. She marched down into the kitchen for a chocolate-covered granola bar.

Downstairs, there seemed to be commotion, or at least talking, coming from Mom’s office. Madison edged closer to the door and leaned in for a listen.

The voice sounded familiar.

“When I got into the honors society, I thought it was pretty cool. I was proud. And my parents thought it was a major achievement. Except my friends, well they … It’s not so cool to be too smart. I get called names like Gecko, which is like ‘geek,’ only worse. And no girls even talk to me.”

Madison listened closer. Was that Ben Buckley?

Her BFF Aimee had only recently admitted having a major crush on Ben. Madison couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Didn’t Ben know how Aimee felt? How could he say that no girls ever talked to him?

Madison inched closer to Mom’s office door. She heard the loud buzz and squeal of Mom’s editing and audio equipment.

Then she heard a few more familiar voices. First there was Lance, the guy from tech class; then there was Brendan Lo talking about math class, Montrell Morris cracking a joke (of course), and Jason Szelewski spouting off about some bad grade he had gotten in fourth grade. It seemed as if the boys were talking about anything that popped into their heads. Or were Mom and her film editor zipping through different interviews to get material? Madison couldn’t quite figure out what was going on, and nothing seemed to make much sense.

But she kept listening.

Dan Ginsburg’s voice came on.

Madison had her ear up against the door of Mom’s office by now. She’d never eavesdropped like this before.

“No one in seventh grade at FHJH has a social life except with each other, you know,”
Dan was saying.
“But that’s cool, because my friends are the best in the whole world, and no, I don’t feel this weird pressure to ask anyone out or whatever.”

Madison smiled. She’d often wondered if Dan liked
her
more than just as a friend. But he’d only said so once, and then he’d dropped it.

These days it was Lindsay who confessed to liking Dan, despite his nickname (Pork-O) and his habit of snatching food from lunch trays that were not his own. There was a lot to like about Dan, especially his freckles and his sense of humor.

Dan was still talking on the audio recording. Madison heard Mom fast-forwarding.

“If a girl liked me for real, I would probably just hang out with her the same as I do now,”
Dan went on.
“No biggie. I mean, nobody really dates. We’re all just playing around. Um … you know what I mean. Some do more than others, I guess. Me, I just want someone to hang with. No biggie.”

Madison smiled again. Sometimes Dan said all the right things. She felt lucky to call him a good friend. Listening to Dan’s voice through the door, Madison could understand why Lindsay had developed a little crush of her own on him. If Lindsay had been standing there right that minute, she would have been swooning over Dan’s words.

The audio recording on the other side of the door clicked off.

Madison leaned forward to keep listening. What was going on? She could hear only Mom’s voice, whispers, and then a loud laugh. Who was that? Madison knew what Mom’s film editor’s voice sounded like and that wasn’t it.

She moved her hand over the doorknob and turned it. If Madison got a peek inside, she could actually
see
who was in there—and maybe even see Dan and the other boys on their video B-reel. Would Mom let her check out the rest of the footage? She wondered what Egg or Chet or Drew had to say.

Even more important to her was to find out what Hart Jones had to say.

Madison leaned against the knob. The voices got louder. She opened the door just a crack.

The room was flooded with a bluish light from the video monitors. At one computer station, Madison recognized Frankie’s back. Frankie was one of the junior techies at Budge Films. He tapped away at his keyboard, probably entering time codes. At his feet, curled up in a snug ball, Phin snored.

Dan’s face took up the entire screen. He looked almost cute, Madison thought, except for an itsy-bitsy zit on his chin.

Standing nearby, Mom watched the footage. But she wasn’t alone! Her hand was on someone’s back. Julian Lodge!

Mom reached around Julian’s waist, and he pulled her close.

Too close. What was going on?

Quickly, Madison leaped back from the doorway, shut the door, and escaped back into the brighter light of the living room.

She blinked a few times, steadying herself, unsure if she could really believe her ears … or her eyes.

Mom


The boycott is SO back.


I am trying really, really, REALLY hard not to jump to conclusions but it’s harder than hard. After all, I KNOW WHAT I SAW. Not only did Mom a) forget to tell me about the whole filming thing at FHJH and then b) lie about it, but now she c) forgot to tell me that she was also DATING the director. Um … hello?! Julian Lodge? Are you kidding me?!


I could die.


This morning at breakfast, I wanted to ask Mom what was up, but it seemed better to just say nothing at all. Naturally, Mom got so mad about it that she called me Little Miss Poutypuss. I felt like I was back in nursery school when she said it. I mean, what am I supposed to respond to that?


Rude Awakening:
When in doubt, pout. The right facial expression is worth a thousand words.


Oh boy. Here we go. Got to lunch early so I could write in the corner of our lunchroom table @ school but now the rest of the gang is coming and I can see


Madison snapped her laptop shut.

A long line of kids snaked through the serving area. Hart, Chet, and Dan were right at the front, trays already packed (of course). Madison tucked the computer into her orange bag. She’d sneaked in to the cafeteria before the other seventh graders, thanks to the fact that a meeting with a teacher at the end of the previous period, which was supposed to have taken twenty minutes, had only taken ten.

That meant extra time for Madison to work on her files. But now that time was being cut short.

Aimee, Fiona, and Lindsay waved from the lunchroom door. Madison needed her friends right now. There would be time enough later to finish up the Mom rant.

As Madison’s BFFs grabbed trays, the boys sat down.

“Whassup, Maddie?” Chet asked as he slipped on to the bench at their orange table.

“Um … clouds. Or maybe hot-air balloons,” Maddie said.

“You’ve only used that joke a hundred and one times before,” Chet cracked. “You’re so funny I forgot to laugh.”

Madison sneered. “How can
you
forget to laugh, Chet?” Madison asked. “You’re such a joke.”

“Good one!” Hart said, slipping into the seat next to Madison.

Now Chet was the one sneering.

The room filled up fast. It was super noisy, with the clatter of trays and glasses that made it hard to hear.

Dan slipped into his seat near the others.

“What’s up, Finnster?” Hart asked. His elbow nudged Madison’s side. He smelled good today, like limes. Madison guessed he was wearing cologne.

Coolly, Madison glanced over at Hart and batted her eyelashes. Or at least she tried to bat them. Unlike her nemesis, Ivy, whenever Madison tried acting coy like that, she looked as if she had a piece of grit stuck in her eye.

“What happened to Egg?” Madison asked, attempting to change the focus of the conversation to include everyone.

“Egg’s sick,” Hart said.

“Yeah,” Chet said. “He threw up. I thought everyone heard about it already. Imagine puking while giving an oral presentation!” Chet said.

“Gross,” Madison winced.

“Luckily, Señora Diaz was in the next classroom, so she took him home,” Hart said. In addition to being a Spanish teacher at FHJH, Señora Diaz was Egg’s mother.

“But it was not pretty,” Dan said, taking a big bite of his sandwich. He chewed loudly. “At least it didn’t ruin my appetite.”

“Nothing ruins your appetite, man,” Chet joked.

The three boys and Madison burst into laughter.