Only the Lonely (9 page)

Madison stared at what she had written and then turned off her computer. Phinnie had fallen asleep at her feet.

“Maddie!” Mom called from the kitchen. “Your father’s on the phone.”

Madison hadn’t even heard the telephone ring. Her mind was someplace else. On her way downstairs, she suddenly remembered something.

Something important.

Aimee was coming home tomorrow.

M
ADISON LOOKED AT THE
clock. It was just after eleven.

Aimee would be pulling into her driveway any moment now.

And Madison was still trying to sign Aimee’s homemade card with just the right words. She was stuck.

She scribbled down the saying from the Girl Scouts:
Make new friends and keep the old; one is silver the other gold.
But that sounded goofy. In fact, everything Madison thought of writing just sounded terrible. It was like “Return of the Brain Freeze.”

She wanted to say something important. She knew that much. Finally, she knew what to write.

This is just a card to say I missed you and I hope we will never have to be apart like this summer ever, ever again. I am lucky to call you my BFF.

Love
,

Madison

P.S. I hope you missed me as much as I missed you.

She folded the card, licked the envelope and waited for Aimee’s call.

There was a group of birds feeding just outside the kitchen window. The male cardinals were bright red. They were biting off the ends of sunflower seeds to feed the gray birds with the tufts on their heads, who must have been the females. They were sharing perfectly. Madison always marveled at how birds worked together to eat and talk and fly—and just
be.
She wished her mom and dad knew how to do that.

The phone rang. Madison spied the clock: noon. On the dot. Aimee was never late. Not even for phone calls.

“Is this you? Is this really and truly and absolutely YOU?” Aimee screeched. “I am just going to unpack my duffel bag and then I’m coming RIGHT OVER!”

Of course, she didn’t come right over. She didn’t even hang up the phone right away. She started babbling.

She said she missed Madison when she was at camp. Then she said that she had so many stories to share from camp. And then she said she wished so much that Madison had been at camp.

Camp! Camp! Camp!

Madison wanted to kick “camp” in the head. First, it took her friends away from her for half the summer and now what? Were all those same friends coming home—and camp was following them back?

Madison didn’t really feel like hearing about camp tents and lake trips and marshmallow roasts anymore. She had her own stories to tell, right? It wasn’t as if camp had a corner on the market for making new friends. Madison had met someone new and she hadn’t had to go live in a tent in the woods or attend some fancy dance camp to do it. She had met a new friend right here in Far Hills, and she was going to tell Aimee all about it.

But of course, what Madison
actually
said to Aimee was, “Cool! Can’t wait to hear all about your CAMP!”

Madison felt excitement and guilt and weirdness churning inside her belly. She sat by the window to wait for Aimee’s arrival. Was Aimee’s hair going to be longer? Had she gotten any skinnier? Aimee didn’t really eat all that much to begin with, plus she was a ballet dancer, so that made her like a total skinny-mini. And then there was that Josh guy. Madison knew Aimee would talk about the camp counselor and of course, Madison had no boy stories of her own to compare with JOSH. What if Aimee had actually
done
something with that Josh guy? What would she say
then?

That would be weird.

Of course, thinking through every possible hello and good-bye did Madison no good. The exact moment Madison saw Aimee cross the street, every nerve in her body stopped being nervous. She was just THRILLED.

Madison Finn exploded into a chorus of high-pitched shrieks.

“OH MY GOOOOOOOOD!”

She ran out the front door and Phin followed, barking.

Aimee and Madison practically squeezed each other to death on the front lawn.

“You look sooooo good, Maddie!” Aimee screamed. “I missed you so much!”

“So do you! I missed you so much too! Your hair is so long! You look so good, too!” Madison screamed back.

Their arms wrapped around each other like twine.

“Maddie, camp was like the best experience of my life so far I have to tell you absolutely every single solitary detail you just won’t believe how great it was oh I wish you could have been there. …”

Madison grinned from ear to ear. What had she been so worried about? She could survive a few of these camp stories. With Aimee in her living room again, Madison felt so much better about everything.

Seeing Aimee again, on that muggy Sunday morning after such a long dragged-out summer, was like winning first prize on a game show. It felt as good as ice cream.

“Okay-doh-kay,” Aimee clucked, “so there I was and I was so afraid I wouldn’t make any new friends or anything and oh-em-gee Madison I swear I was like one of the most popular dancers by the end of the summer I swear can you believe it—
me
?”

Madison didn’t ever remember Aimee being so full of herself, but she kept listening. Aimee looked so happy. She was glad to know her friend was proud of being a good dancer. Everyone was allowed to toot their own horn a little, right?

Aimee was dancing around the room while she talked. “So I got the lead in
Swan Lake
there can you just die? And there was this boy dancer named Willem and he was so cute and I almost forgot!”

“What?” Madison was enraptured by what Aimee was saying and by the fact that Aimee was literally pirouetting in the living room.

“You are NOT going to believe this but Roseanne Snyder was at camp too!”

“Rose
Thorn
? Get OUT!”

“Yeah, she came for the last session. I forgot to put it in my letter.” Rose
Thorn
was a nickname Madison had given to one of her classmates. Roseanne was friends with
Phony
Joanie Kenyon. They were both sidekicks to Class Enemy #1, Ivy Daly.

Ivy Daly was probably the meanest girl in Far Hills. She’d been hated by Madison, Aimee, and Egg for—well, for
ever
. She would be attending Far Hills Junior High, too.

“Rose Thorn is such a snot! Was she in
Swan Lake
too?”

“She thinks she is all that and she is NO swan,” Aimee taunted.

“And what about that Josh guy you wrote me about?” Madison asked.

“Josh? Oh well he was a counselor so that was never like a real deal or anything. And the truth is I didn’t really like him after all, he just turned out to be well, not a good teacher either. SO! Forget him. Like I was saying there was this other guy Willem and he was the best dancer in the entire place. He was there when I was on pointe for the first time and he picked me up … I think I told you that in my letter that I started pointe, right?”

“Uh-huh.” Madison nodded. She could barely get a word in. Aimee kept on talking for another ten minutes at least. Actually, she had been talking for fourteen minutes and thirty-three seconds…

Thirty-nine seconds…

Fifty-six seconds…

Fifteen minutes!

Madison hated to admit it, but at a certain point she was wishing Aimee would just shut up already. It must have showed on her face.

“Is something wrong?” Aimee suddenly asked, stopping to take a breath.

“Huh?” Madison snapped back to attention. “Keep going, Aimee. I’m listening.”

“But you have this weird look on your face. Are you
really
listening? I’ve been waiting all summer to tell you about this and oh-em-gee you would have liked all these people and the place it was so beautiful Madison it was soooooo beautiful!”

“Aimee, of course I am listening. Go ahead. I wanna know what happened, all right!”

“Okay!” she said, and spun around on her heels. “Fine!”

Madison figured Aimee must have been saving up all these words about camp. Madison
had
to let her talk or else Aimee would just bust a gut right in her living room.

I just have to be patient, Madison told herself. Aimee will listen right back when it’s my turn.

And the truth was, she did.

“SO!” Aimee said after another eight minutes and ten seconds, “What about YOUR summer?”

It now felt like
hours
after Aimee had arrived and she was finally ready to hear from the other side. Of course, Madison wasn’t really sure what to say. She could tell Aimee about Brazil and the frogs. But instead, she gently said, “Well, I missed you. It was lonely here without you.”

Aimee looked like she was about to bawl. She threw her arms around Madison. “oh-em-gee, I missed you too! You are so much like a real sister and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have you here. Thank you so much for listening to me. Thank you so much for being SUCH a good friend.”

Madison hugged her and squeezed. When Aimee said that, it made all the “camp” talk and all the pirouettes around the living room worth it.

They spent the rest of the day together, talking. Madison eventually
did
get a chance to fill Aimee in on the different kinds of South American poisonous frogs and how not to approach a snake in the rain forest. Aimee kept telling Madison how sorry she was for monopolizing the conversation and sorry she was for being a little overly consumed by camp, but somehow, Aimee never left that subject far behind.

While they were eating wafer cookies Aimee said, “We used to have these in the barn when it rained at camp.”

They painted their toenails with Madison’s special brand-new orange glitter polish and all Aimee could say was, “My feet are so callused from dancing at camp.”

They watched Madison’s favorite love story on cable TV and Aimee said, “Did I tell you that the guy Willem was the best dancer in the entire camp?”

Madison wanted to shout back, “CAMP—SHMAMP!” But she didn’t.

There was one good part about Aimee doing all the talking. The subject of Fiona never came up.

Until the phone rang—and
Aimee
picked it up.

“Hello, Finn residence,” Aimee answered, laughing as she put on a fake butler voice. “Hello? You want Miss Madison? And WHOOOO may I ask is calling?”

Madison held her breath. She got all tense about Aimee answering the phone, as if Fiona meeting Aimee were
Godzilla Meets the Smog Monster.

Madison had a feeling they wouldn’t get along.

“It’s Fiona. For you,” Aimee handed the phone to Madison. “So who’s Fiona, Maddie? Huh?”

Madison’s stomach went flip-flop as it always did under pressure.

“Fiona, hey!” she grabbed the phone. Unfortunately for Madison, Fiona was in a talkative mood too. She couldn’t hang up right away.

Aimee just stared and listened.

“What? Oh, you wanna hang out? … Well I can’t … Well, my friend Aimee … Yeah, she was the one who answered … Well, she’s back from dance camp and I … Well, we’re kind of hanging out together alone right now and … Fiona? Look, I’ll call you later.”

No sooner had Madison hung up the phone than Aimee asked her for a third time, “So are you gonna tell me who Fiona is?”

Madison couldn’t understand why she felt so guilty about Fiona
vs.
Aimee, but she did. She didn’t understand why she always felt she had to take sides with everyone: with Mom and Dad, with friends, with
everyone.
It was always about picking sides and picking the people you liked more than other people.

Like now.

“Well, Fiona’s my new friend,” Madison admitted. “I met her when you were at camp.”

Aimee brushed it off. “Oh, okay. Well, is she nice?”

“Yes. Very nice.”

“Oh, that’s cool. I can’t wait to meet her.” Aimee twirled around. “Anyway, you know, Maddie, I think I should probably go home now. Do you wanna get Egg and hang out tomorrow like we always do the night before school starts?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Madison was dumbfounded. Aimee wasn’t asking any more Fiona questions?

“So, later, ’gator!” Aimee squeezed. Madison good-bye as she made her way to the front door. She yelled out, “GOOD-BYE, MRS. FINN!” and skipped away. She really
skipped
too, which annoyed Madison a little. Aimee was a dancer.

Madison smiled and shouted out, “I’ll see you tomorrow, then!”

Of course, she realized five minutes too late that she had forgotten to give Aimee her collage card. She stuffed it into her backpack so she wouldn’t forget it tomorrow on the occasion of their pre-school party.

Right before bed, Madison opened up her Aimee File.

Aimee


I thought that I was doing all the changing around here, but Aimee has changed, big-time. She’s not the same and she’s a talking hog all of a sudden and she’s not the same person I remember. I don’t ever remember her being such a blabbermouth. Am I being mean by even
thinking
that?


Another change I noticed is her boobs! They are getting like really big. I didn’t say that to her face, but I could see them through her T-shirt. I wonder if they hurt? She always said big boobs were like doom for a dancer. I wonder if that’s true?


I hope that Aimee and Fiona can be friends. If we three get along, does that mean we have to leave Egg out? Does that destroy, like, the whole Three Musketeer thing with me, Aimee, and Egg? I had this two
-
second wish that maybe we
four
could be best pals, but I don’t know. Maybe I’m being a hog, too. I want things my way all of a sudden.


Sometimes I just want to keep Fiona to myself. Does that make me the friend hog? Or is Fiona just one of those summer friends? I am confused.