Double Dare (From the Files of Madison Finn, 14) (7 page)
Read Double Dare (From the Files of Madison Finn, 14) Online
Authors: Laura Dower
“Add Lance,” Drew blurted. “He sits with Chet at lunch sometimes.”
“Oh, yeah—he’s funny, too,” Egg added. “We can get you his e-mail address.”
“Great,” Madison said just as the bell rang. “Thanks, you guys.”
“No problem.” Egg stood up to leave.
“Now swear to me one more time that you won’t tell anyone about this,” Madison said. “No one.”
Egg snorted. “I already
did,
” he said, walking toward the door. Madison followed him, Drew right behind her.
“I mean it, Egg—you can’t tell anyone else,” Madison insisted as she stepped into the crowded hall.
“Yeah, yeah,” Egg said.
“We won’t, Maddie,” Drew promised. “It’s okay, don’t worry.”
“Hey, Chet!” Egg called. “Over here!”
Madison froze. Chet was walking right toward her. And Hart was with him! “Oh my gosh!” Madison whispered. “Egg—what are you doing?”
“Would you relax, Maddie?” Egg whispered. “It would look bizarre for me to suddenly stop talking to Chet, right?”
Madison nodded as Chet and Hart walked up to them.
“Hey, guys,” Chet said. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Finnster,” Hart said, giving Madison a smile. “How are you?”
“Oh, not much,” Madison said, and immediately wanted to kick herself. She’d expected Hart to ask her what she was up to, not how she was. “I mean, I’m not feeling like much,” she tried to cover, “you know, kind of like a four on a scale from one to ten.”
Egg stared at her. “How
does
your mind work?” he teased.
“A four?” Hart said. “That doesn’t sound so good. Are you feeling sick or something?” Madison loved the way Hart’s voice went up when he asked a question and he got a cute little crease between his eyebrows when he looked concerned. Especially when the person he was concerned about was
her.
“Maybe I just ate bad chicken tenders in the cafeteria or something,” Madison fibbed.
“You’d better get well by Saturday,” Egg said.
“Saturday?” Madison repeated. “What about Saturday?”
If Hart hadn’t been standing right there, Madison would have socked Egg in the arm. Had she not just made him swear, like, five times that he wouldn’t say anything about the party? She shot him the Look of Death.
“Yeah, what’s happening Saturday?” Chet asked.
“Oh—nothing,” Madison said quickly. “Nothing at all.”
Chet looked at her expectantly.
“Well, it’s the weekend,” Hart started to say.
“And Egg and I are going in-line skating,” Madison improvised. “In the park. Wanna come?”
“We are?” Egg asked. Madison elbowed him in the rib. “Oh, right!” he said.
“I love in-line skating,” Hart said. “Do you guys mind if I come, too?”
Madison’s heart nearly exploded out of her chest. She’d been waiting for a moment like this. So what if the plans were fake?
“Sure!” she cried. “I’ll e-mail you where and when.” He’d find out about the real Saturday plan later on.
“Wait,” Hart said. “Let me give you my e-mail address.”
Madison reached into her bag for her notebook—but it wasn’t there. She, of course, already knew Hart’s e-mail address because he had once sent her an e-mail. But she couldn’t let him know that she had saved it. And memorized it! “Drag,” Madison said with a groan. “I left my notebook back in class.”
“Well, don’t just stand there,” Egg said. “Go get it. I have Hart’s e-mail address—I’ll let him know what time we’re getting together to go in-line skating.” He gave Madison a smile, showing her that he was playing along.
“Okay,” Madison said, half-trusting Egg to keep his mouth shut about the party. “See you guys later.”
She turned and trotted back down the hall, disappointed that she couldn’t stay and talk to Hart. But then again, she really
would
see him on Saturday if he came to the party.
“Hello, Madison,” Mrs. Wing said as Madison dashed back into the computer lab. She was perched behind her desk, working on her own computer.
“Hi, Mrs. Wing,” Madison said, scanning the room. Her orange notebook sat on the desk as if it were patiently awaiting her return.
Mrs. Wing stopped typing. “I’m glad you’re here, Madison. I have something for you, but I didn’t want to give it to you in front of the other kids.”
Madison walked over to Mrs. Wing’s large wooden desk at the front of the room. Its surface was covered with funny little things—a wand full of sparkles, a purple plastic Slinky, and a bendable orange giraffe. Madison’s eye fell on a framed picture. A tall man with dark hair and a bright smile was kneeling, his arms wrapped around a wire-haired terrier. Madison knew the man in the photo—Mrs. Wing’s husband, Dr. Wing. He was a veterinarian who worked at the Far Hills Animal Clinic, where Madison volunteered.
Mrs. Wing noticed Madison looking at the photo. “Have you been down to the clinic lately?” she asked. “Fleet, one of the collies, just had puppies.”
“You’re kidding!” Madison said.
“No—you
have
to see them,” Mrs. Wing gushed. “They are so cute!”
“I will,” Madison promised. She loved Phin, but couldn’t resist other dogs, too.
“Here’s what I wanted to give to you,” Mrs. Wing said, pulling open a desk drawer. Carefully, she picked out a flat plastic box and handed it to Madison. “This is just a little thank-you for all of your hard work on the school website. I know how much you like animals—”
“It’s a panda bear flash drive!” Madison squealed. “Oh, thank you, Mrs. Wing! I don’t know what to say!” Without even thinking, she leaned over and gave Mrs. Wing a hug. “What’s on it?”
“All sorts of photographs from the animal kingdom,” Mrs. Wing beamed. “I thought you’d appreciate it.”
“I love it!” Madison said. She was luckier than lucky to have Mrs. Wing as her teacher. What teachers gave students gifts? Madison wasn’t sure what she wanted to be when she grew up. But she knew she wanted to be like Mrs. Wing.
“You’d better get to class,” Mrs. Wing said. “I think the second bell is about to ring.”
“I’ll hurry,” Madison said as she trotted to the door. She paused with her hand on the knob. “And thanks a zillion.”
Mrs. Wing waved her hand with a “Shucks, it’s nothing” gesture.
“Any time,” she said.
And Madison knew she meant it.
“Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes,” Mom called upstairs.
Madison was sprawled across her bed, working on her laptop. “Okay!” she said absently as she pulled up her latest file. Outside, rain pattered against her bedroom window. Thundershowers always put Madison in the writing mood.
Double Dare
Rude Awakening:To boot or not to boot, that is the question. So far in seventh grade, I’ve downloaded way more than I can handle.
Did I say download? More like overload. Fiona’s party is only days away, and Aimee and I haven’t even sent out the invitations yet. And now (stupidly?) I asked for Egg’s help with the guest list. I’m afraid that he’s going to go blabbing about the party all over town! Why did I ever think that he could keep his big mouth shut?
At least the webpage Fiona and I are working on is finally starting to come together. That is, I think it is. There is still a lot of work to do—and I need to add those sound bytes. But when will we finish it? This weekend is completely shot because of the party.
We
have
to pull this off. I don’t care if I have to surf every homework page on the Internet 24/7. Egg made a big mistake when he dared me to enter the contest.
BIGGER than big.
Madison closed the file and logged on to TweenBlurt.com. When she checked her buddy list, she saw Balletgrl was online.
Madison logged off. “Let’s go, Phinnie, time for dinner,” she told her dog, who was busy sniffing the backs of her legs. Pugs could be so weird sometimes.
But not as weird as some
people
she knew.
What on earth was Egg thinking when he talked to Aimee about the party? Madison wanted to call up Egg that very moment and remind him that he was sworn to secrecy—but decided against it. She’d reminded him so many times already. At this rate, Egg just might start blabbing to get on Madison’s nerves.
Even though there was work to be done, Madison was glad Fiona’s party was only a few days away. The faster the party date arrived, the less chance Egg would have to blow the surprise!
“H
I, MR. BOOKS,” MADISON
said as she pulled a pen out of her backpack. School had just let out, and she had come to the library to finish up some work.
Top-secret work.
“Hello, Madison,” Mr. Books replied. He looked at her with mild blue eyes. Madison thought that Mr. Books should have been a secret agent instead of a librarian. It was always so difficult to tell what he was thinking. He passed her the computer log-in notebook like a spy.
“Name and time,” he instructed in a low voice. “It’s three-thirty on the dot.”
Madison scribbled her name on a blank space and started to push the log notebook toward Mr. Books. Her eye spotted another name in the log—Chet Waters? Madison grabbed the notebook back toward her to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks.
“Is everything all right, Ms. Finn?” Mr. Books asked. He slammed his hand on the log protectively, as though it were something precious that Madison might try to steal.
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Madison said, sliding the book back toward him. She glanced around the room. Chet was somewhere in the library. She’d have to be very, very careful about everything she worked on up here.
Madison made her way toward the computers. Chet was nowhere in sight. But that didn’t mean anything. He may have just gotten up for a drink of water, or gone to the rest room. Moving quietly past the stacks of reference books, Madison chose a computer in the corner, with a good view of the rest of the library. She wanted to keep her eyes and ears open for Chet.
Even though the school computers were supposed to be used for homework and research only, Madison plugged in her flash drive and uploaded a file she had worked on the night before.
E-vite
Fiona and Chet’s Party
TOP-SECRET INVITATION LIST
Aimee
Me
Egg
Drew
Lindsay
Hart
Suresh
Ben
Daisy
Dan
Ivy
Joan
Rose
Lance
It’s funny, when I look at the list of people who are coming to the party, it doesn’t seem like such a huge number. But it took two of us days to come up with it—and then we still needed Egg and Drew’s help! I thought making a list was going to be the easy part, but it turned out to be the hardest. Designing the layout for the invitation is simple. Figuring out who someone’s real friends are is hard.
Rude Awakening:Friendship is like a peanut-butter sandwich. Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s just plain sticky.
I know that I’ll probably regret inviting Ivy and her drones, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. Aimee and I sent out the e-vite last night when she came over after dinner. Besides, it’s Fiona’s party—and I know that Fiona wouldn’t want to hurt Ivy’s feelings by not inviting her. I think Fiona still likes Ivy … although
why
is a mystery to me. She’ll learn soon enough about Ivy’s true colors.
So what now? All I have left to do is wait for everyone to reply. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky and Ivy won’t come. LOL. Not too likely. Ivy never misses a party.