Only the Lonely (15 page)

Aimee just grunted “Hello.” Whenever Aimee was even the littlest bit mad, it showed all over her face. Her lip curled, her nose wrinkled, and her eyes got all squinched up. She looked that way now.

Fiona just smiled. “Hi, Madison.”

Everyone stood around for a few seconds in silence.

After ignoring Fiona in the lunchroom and turning her back to Fiona at the lockers, why wasn’t Madison getting told off?

Aimee finally made a face. “Look, Fiona, you don’t have to be nice to her just because we’re standing here.”

Egg chimed in. “No way! Let’s be mean to Maddie! It’s mad fun!”

Madison took a deep breath. Now she was going to get it.

“I really don’t want to be mean to anyone,” Fiona said. “I mean this was all some kind of weird misunderstanding, I think.”

Madison felt so guilty. “Fiona, let me explain—”

“Madison, I don’t expect to change everything in your entire universe just because we hung out for a little while this summer, right?”

Aimee made another face. “Are you for real?”

Fiona nodded. “Of course I’m for real, Aimee. Are you?”

“Whooooo!” Egg shrieked.

Madison interjected. “Look you guys, I am so sorry. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, Fiona. And of course I don’t want to hurt yours either, Aimee.”

Aimee huffed. “I know.”

Madison added, “It was a misunderstanding, all of it. So can we just go back and start again?”

“Oh, get a room!” Egg cracked. “All this girl stuff makes me want to hurl. Where’s Drew?”

Aimee crossed her arms a little tighter when Madison and Fiona leaned in to hug and make up. Madison hoped this hug wasn’t fake. Like wrestling was fake. She really wanted the three of them to be friends.

Egg put on a high-pitched girls voice. “What about
me
?”

Fiona laughed and teased. “What
about
you?”

Fiona was definitely flirting and Madison was weirded out. She remembered how Fiona had said Egg was a cutie.

Aimee put in her two cents. “Egg, you are such a dip. And you know where dips belong? With the chips!”

Fiona smiled. “I don’t get it.”

“You know, potato chips and dip, get it now?” Aimee said helpfully.

“Oh, sort of.” Fiona grabbed Madison’s arm. “Wanna play Frisbee?”

“Sure!” Madison grabbed Aimee’s arm. “What about it, Aimee?”

“Yeah,” Fiona said. “Come on, Aimee.”

Madison looked at her friend as if to say, “Come on, let’s just go play Frisbee and act stupid and forget about everything else today, okay?”

Aimee had other ideas. “Nah, you two go ahead.”

“No,” Madison said. “Aimee, we can’t play without you.”

Fiona tapped her foot. “Are we playing … or
staying
?”

Madison shook her head. “I think that I’ll pass, Fiona.”

Fiona shrugged and walked toward the lawn. “Okay. See you later then! Call me, okay?”

Madison nodded. “See you later!”

“You didn’t have to not play just because of me,” Aimee blurted out. “When I was at camp I was actually a good Frisbee player, but right now I just don’t feel like it for some reason, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop. I didn’t mean to upset you or get in between you and Fiona and—I feel like a big doofus right now. Jeesh.”

Madison grabbed Aimee’s arm. “You’re my BFF, Aimee. That means forever, remember. Who cares about Frisbee?”

They decided to go hang out by the pool instead.

Mom picked the Three Musketeers up sometime after ten o’clock, which was late, but okay because it wasn’t a school night. Phin was in the car of course, and Egg teased him mercilessly all the way home.

“Dawg fooooooood!” he tickled Phin on his soft, spotted pug belly.

“Leave my dog alone!” Madison punched Egg right in the arm.

“Ouch! That hurt!” he yelled.

“Rowroooo!” Phin howled.

Mom dropped off Aimee last. She and Madison made a pact to see each other tomorrow, Saturday. It was supposed to get
really
hot.

Later that night, after Mom thought she had already turned out the light and left her daughter in the land of Nod, Madison pulled her laptop computer into bed with her.

She owed Bigwheels a note.

From: MadFinn


To: Bigwheels


Subject: BBQ


Date: Fri 8 Sept 11:11 PM


I went. It was on this big estate and everyone was sunbathing and smiling and I waltzed in and made the friend thing work like you said I could.


Thank you for your long-distance advice.


I couldn’t have BBQ-ed without you. You know if you ever need advice from me, I’ll try to give it!


Yours till the root beer floats, MadFinn


p.s. write back sooner than soon!


Lastly, Madison went into her favorite file.

Only the Lonely


Today was Drew’s BBQ.


He had one in fifth grade, the first one he ever threw I think, but I had a cold and had to stay home from school that day. He had one last year, too, but I can’t remember exactly why I wasn’t there. I seem to remember being in the middle of some kind of personal crisis seeing as that is the time when Mom and Dad got the big D. Yeah that was definitely it. The big D got in the way a lot last year.


All I can think about is the way things used to be and how that won’t ever
change.
What I mean is that no one can ever take any of that away from me. No matter whatever happens in the future, I own every little thing that has already happened in the past—all the food fights, the pop quizzes, all of it.


Maybe worrying about being only the lonely was TOTALLY normal??? Maybe everyone is a bit lonely.


How can I possibly be lonely when everything that makes me and Aimee BFFs has already happened? No one can take that. So no matter how many Fionas I meet, no matter how my body changes, no matter how time flies, Aimee and I will never change what makes us close. No one can take away the soul sisters pact from fourth grade or the fact that I know all her secrets and she knows all of mine, right? Why is it that I can’t ever seem to


Madison’s eyes were getting very sleepy. She tried to keep writing, but she just couldn’t, so she turned off her computer and pulled up the blankets, patting the bed a few times so Phin would leap up and under the covers. Of course the dog jumped in immediately. He licked Madison’s nose. That was his puggly way of saying nighty-night.

Madison had been afraid she wouldn’t make it through the summer.

But she had
—
all the way through to September.

She was scared about starting seventh grade.

But here she was
—
and the giant pink welt on her shoulder had already disappeared.

She closed her tired eyes dreaming about how she and Aimee would spend Saturday afternoon tomorrow in the middle of the Indian summer heat wave, dancing in the sprinklers on Aimee’s lawn, getting cooled off, and laughing the way they did every summer—just like last year and all the years before that.

From now on, Madison Finn would be only the lonely no more.

And she was 100 percent ready to expect the unexpected—online and off.

Mad Chat Words:

Madison’s Computer Tip:

Whenever you are online, you have to be smart and safe, especially when you’re in chat rooms.
Never give out information about you or your family online.
This means no phone numbers, addresses, passwords, or credit card numbers. I always tell my Mom or Dad where I surf online and who I talk to. You should too.

Visit Madison online at the author’s page:
www.lauradower.com

Turn the page to continue reading from Laura Dower’s From the Files of Madison Finn series

F
IFTEEN MINUTES INTO THE
start of the school day, and Madison Finn had already chewed off all the orange glitter polish on her left hand. It was one of Madison’s thirty or so nervous habits, right up there on the list next to sweating when she tried to play the flute and fleeing the scene when she was embarrassed. She was
very
skilled at fleeing.

Mrs. Wing stood in front of the classroom. “Here in the twenty-first century, technology teacher and librarian have morphed into one happy being,” she said. “Just call me super-cybrarian, kids.”

“Uh, that’s
Mrs.
Cybrarian to us, right?” Egg (a.k.a. Walter Diaz) said aloud, his voice warbling.

Mrs. Wing smiled. “Yes, Mr. Diaz! Now, last week we talked about how a digital portfolio is made.” Mrs. Wing stood up at a lectern in front of the class. She always stood there, sometimes leaning on her elbows. The beads around her neck would jangle and clink as they hit the smaller podium. “I know everyone can text with one finger and play
Monkeyvilla
with another one. But I also want you to know how computers
really
work—how hardware is assembled and how code tells a computer what to do. Mr. Diaz has been kind enough to explain some of these things to us.”

She glanced over to Egg’s desk and he grinned a real Grinchy grin.

“Anything for you, Mrs. Wing,” he said.

Madison flared her nostrils. The only thing she hated more than Egg’s constant crushing on teachers was when he was being extra cocky. Today he was doing
both
!

Ever since Madison and Egg were kids, he had crushed on pretty female teachers. First it was kindergarten’s Miss Jeremiah; now it was the seventh-grade cybrarian.

Mrs. Wing fit into Egg’s crush category perfectly. She was prettier than pretty, Madison thought. Her long hair was swept up into a French twist and she wore a long plum-colored skirt, a neat white blouse, and a red bead necklace. She moved around the room as if she were walking on cotton balls, floating from computer station to station, beads
plink-plink-plinking
together.

“Now, what I’d like to review with the class are some basic computer skills,” Mrs. Wing continued. “And then I think we will be all ready to move ahead and test-drive some of the many terrific applications available to us online.”

Lance, a quiet kid who always sat at the back of the classroom, raised his hand and shook his head, dejected. He didn’t get computers and felt
way
left out. He was
not
ready. Not by a long jump. Or was it a shot put?

Madison shot Egg a glance, but, thankfully, Mrs. Wing said she’d explain it again
later.

“There are so many ways to manipulate information digitally,” Mrs. Wing went on. “You can build a whole universe on a web page. Just think about using technology to express yourself. Think about what that could do for all of you. Go way beyond your games and instant pics … become a technological pioneer!”

The classroom let out a cheer.

Madison chuckled at the “go beyond your games and instant pics” comment. Madison and her Mom took plenty of posed “selfies” when they were in Brazil that summer.

“Looking around, I can see already that I have a classroom filled with technological wizards,” Mrs. Wing commented. “And yes, even
you,
Lance.”

He smirked and someone on the other side of the room snorted. Madison realized it was Egg’s best friend, Drew Maxwell. He always laughed at the wrong moments. And as soon as he’d snorted, Egg snorted too. And then this kid P.J. Rigby snorted. And then Jason Szelewski, Beth Dunfey, Suresh Dhir—
everyone
snorted.