Double Dare (From the Files of Madison Finn, 14) (10 page)

Madison heard the doorbell ring and quickly hit
SAVE
. She leaped up from the desk and ran downstairs. She knew who was at the door. This person could surely snap her out of the little blue funk, right?

“Presenting … the missing ingredients!” Aimee said, twirling around with a big brown paper bag. She’d fixed her blond hair in a loose topknot and her cheeks were pink. “Sorry I’m late. Ballet class ran over.”

“Thank goodness you’re here!” Madison said, and opened the door wide so Aimee could twirl inside.

“I am so ready to bake,” Aimee declared. “And I brought chocolate frosting and a bunch of other stuff we can use to decorate the cake. Roger was a big help, actually.” Roger was Aimee’s oldest brother, and he knew how to do almost everything—including cook.

“Great!” Madison said with a smile. “This is going to be so much fun!” She could feel the blue funk fading already.

Mom was pouring herself a glass of cranberry juice when Madison and Aimee walked into the kitchen. “Hi, Aimee,” Mom said. “Are you girls all set to bake Fiona’s cake now?”

“Yep,” Aimee said, dropping her bag on the counter.

“Need any help?” Mom asked, taking a sip from her glass.

“Nope,” Aimee said.

Mom smiled. “Well, you don’t mind if I supervise the oven part of this afternoon, do you? You need to be careful.”

“Of course, Mom,” Madison said, giving Aimee the eye. “Where did we put Gramma Helen’s recipe card for Super Fudge cake?”

Mom rifled through the cards inside an old wooden recipe box that she hardly ever used. She pulled out an old, stained card and handed it to Madison. “There you go. All the ingredients should be in the cabinets and the fridge. And I bought more flour yesterday.”

“What did Mrs. Waters decide about the rest of the food for the party?” Aimee asked.

“Pizza—all the way,” Madison said. “And some ice cream for dessert with the cake.”

“Man, this will really blow my diet!” Aimee said.

“You’re on a diet?” Mom asked.

Aimee shrugged. “Well, I’m just watching what I eat.”

“Hey, Aimee, Mom says we should serve everything in twos since it’s a birthday party for both Chet and Fiona. Isn’t that a cool idea? Unfortunately, we couldn’t really come up with food that’s served in pairs.”

“That is brilliant!” Aimee exclaimed. She balanced on the tips of her shoes as though she was doing a ballet move. “Totally, positively, absolutely BRILLIANT!”

“What are you talking about?” Madison asked.

“Let’s make
two
cakes,” Aimee explained, “
Twin
cakes, get it?”

Madison threw her hands into the air and hugged her friend. “Aimee, you’re a genius! Why didn’t I think of that?”

“But you
did
think of it, silly,” Aimee replied. “I just helped you.”

“Let me just make sure we have enough to make two cakes,” Mom said as she pulled the eggs out of the refrigerator. Quickly, Madison and Aimee loaded up the countertop with the rest of the ingredients. They were almost out of baking powder, but when Mom measured it, it turned out that there was enough.

“Bummer. We’ll need more frosting,” Aimee said. “I only brought enough for one cake. Let me call my dad, or Roger. They can stop at the store on the way home from the bookstore.”

“Sounds good,” Mom said. “Why don’t I let you girls get cooking? Call me if you need anything.” She disappeared into her office.

Aimee and Madison sifted and stirred everything together for about an hour. It took so long because they couldn’t help but gossip in between.

Phin helped too, snatching up every scrap that found its way to the floor. When Madison pulled the chocolate-covered beaters from the batter and carried them to the sink, Phin followed her so intently that he didn’t see Aimee walking toward the cabinet with the bag of flour. She tripped over him and the sack of flour went flying—all over Phinnie! Even a good shake didn’t get all of the white powder off him. And he couldn’t stop snorting.

“Mom!” Madison called out, laughing. Aimee rushed around with a wet dish towel trying to get the flour picked up, but she only made things worse. The white powder turned into white, wet lumps.

Mom raced into the kitchen. “Oh, my!” she said. “Aimee, stop that! We can sweep it up, don’t use a wet rag.”

Aimee dropped the towel, which fell on top of Phin with a plop.

“Rowroooooooeeeeeee!” he wailed.

“Oh, Phinnie,” Mom said. “I’m afraid you’ll need a bath now.” She whisked him away, half-laughing at the mess. “And while I’m gone, you girls need to clean up, okay?”

Phin looked at Aimee and Madison from over Mom’s shoulder. He licked his lips but scowled when he realized the white stuff on his face didn’t taste so great. Madison and Aimee burst into a fit of giggles.

After Mom left the room, they put finishing touches on the first gooey chocolate-on-chocolate cake. Someone tapped at the kitchen sliding door. They turned around to see Aimee’s mom standing there with Blossom, the Gillespie family dog. Mrs. Gillespie held Blossom on a leash with one hand and toted a plastic bag in the other.

“Frosting, anyone?” On the other side of the glass, Mrs. Gillespie dangled the bag. “I heard that you needed more ingredients.”

“Mommy, hello!” Aimee cried.

“Hi, Mrs. Gillespie!” Madison said as she pulled open the door.

Aimee’s basset hound, Blossom, bounded inside. Madison stooped to pet the dog’s soft ears.

“Don’t worry, Blossom,” Madison said. “Phin is just getting a bath. He’ll be back in here any minute.” Blossom wagged her tail as though she understood. She really was Phin’s girlfriend.

“This cake looks great,” Mrs. Gillespie said. “Dad told me you’re making twin cakes. Who’s this one for?”

“I guess this one can be for Fiona,” Aimee said, digging a small tube of white frosting out of the bag. “Madison, do you want to do the writing?”

“Your handwriting is better than mine,” Madison said. “Go ahead.”

Aimee jumped at the chance. She used her best script to write out Happy Birthday, Fiona, and stepped back from the cake proudly.

“What is that supposed to be?” Madison asked.

“What do you mean?” Aimee said, licking a little frosting off her pinky.

“It says ‘Happy Birthday, Fion,’” Madison said.

“It does? Oh-em-gee! I ran out of room! Maddie, I didn’t even—” Aimee pulled at her hair. “I am so sorry. I ruined it.”

“Aimee, calm down,” Mrs. Gillespie said. “It’s only frosting.”

Mom came down the stairs to see what the commotion was all about. She’d given Phin a sponge bath instead of a full dunking.

“Melanie!” Mom said, greeting Mrs. Gillespie. “So they got you in on the cake baking, too, I see.”

“Look!” Madison said. “I solved the problem. We can squish in the missing ‘A’ and it looks fine.”

Phin wriggled out of Mom’s arms and ran happy circles around Blossom. Blossom, who was about three times Phin’s size, expressed her joy at seeing him by lying down in the middle of the kitchen and yawning. Everyone stopped to laugh at the odd couple.

Mom offered Mrs. Gillespie some tea while Madison pulled the second cake out of the oven.

“We need to wait for this to cool down before we frost it,” Madison explained. “Is it okay if Aimee and I go up to my room for a little while?”

“Sure, we’ll hold down the fort … er, kitchen,” Mom said.

“Take your time,” Mrs. Gillespie agreed, blowing on her tea.

“Let’s see if anyone else has replied to the e-vite,” Aimee said as she followed Madison upstairs.

“Great idea.” Madison logged onto TweenBlurt.com and checked her e-mail account. There were two new e-mails in her inbox.

FROM	SUBJECT
L8RG8R	Re: Fw: Shhh! Top Secret Party!
Flowr99	Re: Fw: Shhh! Top Secret Party!

“Who’s that?” Aimee asked, twirling a piece of hair around her index finger.

“Not sure,” Madison said. “These are some of the people Egg forwarded the invite to.”

From: L8RG8R


To: MadFinn


Subject: Re: Fw: Shhh! Top Secret Party!


Date: Thurs 28 Sept 1:14
PM


Hey, I’m definitely coming to Chet’s party. Thanks for inviting me!


Lance


“Lance is that guy who always acts like a dork?” Aimee asked. She could be hypercritical of boys sometimes, Madison noticed. But all the boys liked Aimee, no matter what she said.

“Lance is really okay,” Madison said, defending him.

“I’ll bet the other e-mail is from Rose,” Aimee said, eyeing the screen name Flowr99. “Open it.”

The note was not from a drone, however.

It came from the Queen Bee herself.

From: Flowr99


To: MadFinn


Subject: Re: Fw: Shhh! Top Secret Party!


Date: Thurs 28 Sept 2:34
PM


Nice invitation, Madison. I didn’t know you knew how to make an e-vite. Impressive.


Of course I’m coming to the party—I know it won’t be any fun for you without your seventh-grade Class President. Besides, someone has to be there to make sure Fiona has a good time.


TTFN!


Ivy


“Ivy!” Madison and Aimee exclaimed.

“So it’s really true,” Aimee said with a groan. “She’s actually coming.”

“I’ll bet that means that Phony Joanie and Rose Thorn are coming, too, even if they haven’t bothered to RSVP,” Madison said. Scanning Ivy’s message again, she added, “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

“Maybe?”
Aimee repeated, wide eyed. “Don’t look at me—I tried to warn you. Remember what she did at your third-grade birthday party?”

Madison shook her head. “Please don’t remind me—”

“I gave you that poster book,” Aimee prompted, “and she grabbed it and totally hogged it.”

“Oh, right!” Madison said, remembering. “She was kissing that singer’s photo all night. She kept saying that he was her boyfriend and wouldn’t let anyone else look at it. I remember!”

“Why were we ever friends with her?” Aimee asked, staring at the ceiling.

“I have no idea,” Madison said.

But she did remember. Ivy had been different then. Back in third grade, Ivy’s obnoxiousness had been more of a streak, and less of a stain. Back then, Ivy hadn’t needed to be the star of everything.

“I can’t believe she’s actually coming,” Aimee went on. “And there’s no way we can get out of it now … the party is only two days away!”

“I know,” Madison agreed, shaking her head. The week had flown by quicker than quick—and now everything was here. The deadline for her webpage was tomorrow!

Madison and Aimee went back downstairs and finished up the second cake. Then Aimee, Blossom, and Mrs. Gillespie said their good-byes. Mom decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for dinner. Madison went back up to her room and tested out the links for her webpage after they ate.

“Are you getting ready for bed, honey bear?” Mom asked from the hallway.

“In a few minutes,” Madison promised. “I’m just finishing this up.”

“Okay. Don’t stay up too late,” Mom said. “You have a big weekend coming up.”

“I won’t,” Madison promised. Phin came in and curled up at her feet.

When she was finally satisfied that all of her links were working, Madison logged into TweenBlurt once more and typed a quick e-mail to her webpage partner, Fiona.

From: MadFinn


To: Wetwinz


Subject: We Did It!


Date: Thurs 28 Sept 10:27
PM


Hey, U—just wanted to say good luck tomorrow! (To both of us!) :o)


I think the page looks great. UR a great partner!!!!!


Good night, sleep tight … DLTBBB!!!!


xoxoxo


Maddie


Madison logged off and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Then she turned out the lights and crawled under her comforter. Today had been a baking success. And she hadn’t really thought of Egg, or Dad, or even Ivy all day.

But lying there in the dark, familiar thoughts and worries churned through her brain. She could deny it all she wanted, but Madison needed to apologize.

But when?

Through her window, Madison watched the round, white moon. Below it was a bright star. Pulling her comforter up to her chin the way she used to when she was a little girl, she closed her eyes.

And Madison made a wish that everything would turn out all right.

“A
RE YOU READY?” MADISON
asked Fiona as she slid into a chair beside her friend.

“Are you kidding?” Fiona replied. “This webpage contest is
ours.
” She flashed Madison a confident smile, and Madison smiled back.

“All right, everyone,” Mrs. Wing said. “Let’s see your webpages. Anyone who still needs my help, this is your last chance.”

A chorus of “Mrs. Wing!”s went up, and at least ten hands shot into the air. Madison typed her and Fiona’s web address into the computer, and the webpage appeared on the screen.

In front of Madison, Egg and Chet were laughing their heads off at something. Madison tried to ignore them—until Fiona leaned over and whispered in her ear, “There he is.”

Madison scowled at the computer monitor. “I know,” she said.

“So, go tell him you’re sorry,” Fiona urged. “You said you were looking for the right time to do it….”

Madison knew that her friend had a point, but she didn’t want to tell Egg she was sorry in front of Chet and everyone else in their computer class.

Egg pointed to something on the screen in front of him, and Chet started laughing so hard that his shoulders were shaking.

Madison looked over. “What’s so funny?” she asked in her friendliest voice.