Play It Again (10 page)

“I know. So you wanna walk home together?” Lindsay asked her.

Just then, Aimee ran into the auditorium. “Oh my God, Maddie! I felt a little sick and I went down to the nurse’s office to see if anyone was there. I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t find you! Fiona’s waiting outside. My brother is coming with the car.”

Lindsay started to walk away. “I’ll see you guys later, then.”

Madison looked at Lindsay and then Aimee and then over at Lindsay again. “Want a ride?” she asked.

Aimee jumped in. “Yeah, come with us.”

Lindsay looked at Aimee. “You sure?”

Aimee smiled. “Of course, I’m sure.”

Madison turned to Lindsay. “Come on, let’s go.”

From: Bigwheels


To: MadFinn


Subject: Hi


Date: Sat 14 Oct 10:15 PM


Thanks for sending a virtual copy of your school program cover for
The Wiz.
I downloaded it and it looks so cool.


I am feeling ok now. My mom and dad are seeing a counselor I think. I guess I have to wait and see what happens. The only problem is that I can’t get all my homework done and I’m worried about my grades. Do you study hard? I just have so much more homework than I had last year. I think teachers believe in cruel and unusual punishment. My brain hurts.


Send me more about the play. How is the guy playing The Wizard? Do you still like him? Thanks again for being my keypal and for your advice. It’s nice having you out there.


Yours till the home works,


Bigwheels


E
VEN BIGWHEELS HAD TROUBLE
at school. It was just another thing they had in common. She sounded like she was in better spirits since her last e-mail. Maybe Madison really did help her keypal. Maybe she should make Bigwheels her own special collage about being smart. Bigwheels said she liked the
Wiz
cover, which meant she’d probably
love
a collage of her own.

Madison rummaged through the piles on her floor for the right words and pictures. She found a cartoon of a computer and some pictures of flowers her mom had taken in Thailand on a business trip a while ago.

It was nice to take a break from all things related to
The Wiz.

The house was so quiet. Mom was out running errands and then taking Phinnie to the vet for his regular checkup. Madison almost never missed Phin’s trip to the vet, but she made an exception this once. Mom said it was okay for her to sleep in after the busy week.

Madison thought about staying under the covers. But she wasn’t about to waste valuable time alone—
sleeping.

She turned the stereo volume in the living room to its highest setting. She could feel the bass vibrate inside the wood floors as the radio played America’s Top 40. As her frozen waffles popped out of the toaster, Madison sang along even though she couldn’t sing. She liked the part of the radio show where people called from all over the country to dedicate songs to people they loved. One day Madison would call with her own song request. She’d dedicate her song to Hart.

When the radio show ended, she went into Mom’s office to boot up her computer. This was the best part about being alone in the house. She could sit at Mom’s workstation with all its fancy dials and knobs and imagine that
she,
Madison, was the real-life film producer. She was Madison Finn—making an important call, dashing off a quick memo, taking a meeting.

Madison loved the idea of being important.

She also liked the idea of being just a
little
sneaky.

Mom didn’t like it when Madison played video games, so she had strict rules about computer game time and kept all the games on the shelf in her office. But with Mom gone, Madison could play. Today she installed Troll Village, the not-yet-released video game software Mom got from someone at Budge Films.

In Troll Village, Madison had to trick all the trolls in the town in order to become sheriff and rule the area. It was like the Wild, Wild West with saloons and horse stables, only the gunslingers weren’t wearing cowboy hats. They had pink, blue, and neon yellow troll hair. Madison could sit and play for almost an hour without moving a muscle. She wasn’t sure she even blinked when she played.

When the phone rang, Madison jumped so suddenly that she pressed the control key accidentally and eliminated one of her troll’s seven lives.

Whoops.

“Hello, Finn residence.” She answered the phone in a special way just in case it was a work-related call for Mom.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“Hello, is somebody there? Who is this?” Madison knew
someone
was on the line.

“Maddie, is that you?” It was Drew Maxwell.

“Drew?” Madison asked. “Is that you?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Um … not much.”

Madison took the game off pause and played while she talked on the phone.

“How’s your weekend?” Drew asked.

“Um … fine.” Madison had no idea why he’d be calling her.

“I didn’t see you after the rehearsal. I wanted to tell you that all your stuff looked good.”

“Uh-huh.” Madison was half listening now.

“What do you think about the lighting?” Drew asked.

Madison had turned back to her trolls, so she didn’t really hear.

“Maddie, are you there?” Drew asked again. “Did you like what we did with the footlights?”

“Yeah,” Madison mumbled. “Oh, sure.”

She couldn’t get the least bit excited about talking to Drew. Ever since they’d been helping Mrs. Wing out with the Web site at school, Drew had been hanging around Madison nonstop. She felt bad because he wasn’t always sure what to say. She was half afraid he might say something mushy.

There was nothing worse than the vacuum of silence on the phone between them. Like now.

Drew coughed.

Madison coughed.

“So, anyway,” Madison said. “I sorta have to go.”

Drew gulped. “Are you coming over today to watch the movie?”

“The movie?” Madison didn’t know about any movie.

“Yeah, the movie.”

“What movie? Where?”

“At my parents’ guest house. We’re renting the original
Wizard of Oz
and everyone’s coming over to watch it.”

Madison was confused. “Everyone? Like who?”

“From the play,” Drew said. “We said we’d watch the movie, remember? You were there.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“You don’t know about the movie?”

“No,” Madison said again. “No one told me there was a movie.” She was repeating herself like a parrot.

“Whoa,” Drew moaned. “I guess Fiona forgot to tell you. She told me she’d ask you. I think. Yeah. We were talking about renting the movie the other day, and then I asked my mom if we could do it because we have a screening room. You know the one in the guest house?”

“Uh-huh.” Madison felt the exact same way she felt in first grade when she was the only person in class who wasn’t invited to Willie Walker’s birthday party. Mrs. Walker said the invitation had gotten lost in the mail, but Madison never believed it.

Drew was still talking. “And so everyone just sort of invited themselves. Egg has a big mouth—you know that.”

“Uh-huh.” Madison grunted.
So why hadn’t Egg told
her
?

“I guess we forgot to ask you.”

“I guess.” Madison grunted again.

“But you were
always
totally invited.”

“Why didn’t you ask me yourself?” Madison asked. “I mean, we only see each other all the time these days at the play and in computer class, too.”

“Uh—uh—uh … I know…. B-B-But…” Drew was stammering a lot now. He did that when he got real nervous. “I’m SORRY,” he said. “I swear I thought one of the girls was gonna ask you. Fiona said she would. I SWEAR.”

“What time does it start?” Madison asked.

“Three,” Drew said. “Well, can you come?” he asked. “I mean, now that you know?”

“I have one question,” Madison said. “Will Ivy Daly be there?”

“I don’t think so,” Drew said.

When Drew confirmed that Ivy would
not
be at the screening, Madison agreed to come over—no problem, no hard feelings attached.

Drew sounded relieved when he said good-bye. Madison was relieved, too, that the conversation was over.

As she hung up the phone, she felt freakier than freaky. Mom and the dog walked in the moment she put down the receiver.

“Grrr…” Phinnie nuzzled Madison’s foot.

“Will you take him for a
w-a-l-k,
please?” Mom asked as she kissed Madison hello.

“Wanna go out?” Madison asked. Phin panted as she grabbed the leash and raced him to the door. Of course, Phinnie won—sliding to the finish. Whenever he ran anywhere too fast in the house, he’d skid across the polished floors.

Madison walked around the block in a trance. She was trying to remember everything in her closet, row by row. She had no idea what she was going to wear to Drew’s place. Once she changed out of her sweatpants and oversized T-shirt from her dad’s alma mater, she had to put on something cute. Boys were going to be there. Hart was going to be there.

Maybe she could wear the skinny jeans with the bejeweled striped crop top?

Nah, too flashy.

Maybe those purple leggings with the yellow double tank top?

Madison just didn’t know what to wear.

“Will his mother be home?” Mom asked Madison when she came back from the walk. Mom didn’t like Madison going places without chaperones.

“I think …” Madison suddenly worried that Mom might not agree to let her go. She considered lying, but then admitted she really wasn’t sure. “I think so,” Madison said again, wishful.

Mom finally said that Madison could go.

“Thanks, Mom. This could be a very important movie, you know.”

“Okay, honey bear,” Mom said with a nod. “Now go change. It’s after two-thirty.”

The Movie


I was the last person to get there.


It’s weird to (1) not get invited in the first place and then (2) walk in when everyone else has already been there for a while. It’s like I had a neon sign on my head that said, “By the Way, I Was Invited at the Last Minute.”


I always have over-thoughts—today I was the afterthought.


Right away Aimee and Fiona made room for me between them on the floor, so it got better. Plus Fiona said it was all her fault for not asking me. She just spaced. After that it was pretty much normal for a while. Egg wouldn’t shut up; Drew was being Mr. Nice as always. His mom made all this popcorn and it was
everywhere
on the floor.


And then the doorbell rang. Of course it was Ivy. She decided to come at the last minute. Drew was nice to her, too. All the boys. were. She was wearing this shirt that was way too tight and jeans that were too tight, too.


I could almost pretend she wasn’t there if I sat with my back to her. But when we paused the tape for snack break, Aimee got up to go talk to her. I couldn’t believe that! Even Fiona thought that was a little weird.


Hart wasn’t there. I wonder why? Lindsay wasn’t there, either. I guess no one remembered to invite her, either.


It’s bad enough that Ivy has to win things like elections and play parts, but suddenly it’s like she has to win
people,
too. When she and Aimee started singing their duet just for fun, I wanted to RUN.


Tonight when I see Dad for dinner, I know he’ll say I’m over-thinking this whole Ivy thing. After all, it is just one play. But what if this isn’t a temporary thing? Aimee’s brothers all told her there are MAJOR changes in seventh grade. What if changing
friends
is one of them?


But how do you just
forget
to invite your BFF to the movies?


After feeling snubbed at Drew’s, the last thing Madison was prepared to deal with was Dad’s girlfriend, Stephanie. But Dad invited her along for dinner, despite Madison’s protests.

“I want you to be nice,” Dad pleaded. “Please.”

Madison tried. Dad seemed so blissed out when he was around Stephanie. He smiled nonstop and made even more dumb jokes than usual.

And Madison had to admit, Stephanie really was nice. It was just hard to see another person sitting across the table from Dad where Mom used to sit.

At dinner, Stephanie told Madison how she’d been an actress all through college. She was so enthusiastic, which took Madison by surprise.

“You were?” Madison asked.

Stephanie nodded. “I think being in a show is a terrific way to find out more about yourself. When you act, you can become anyone or anything.”

“And what about being offstage?” Madison asked. “Being a stage manager?”

“Well.” Stephanie leaned in a little closer to Madison and whispered, “Then you’re in charge—of you, of the cast, of everything.”

Madison noticed Dad’s expression as he looked at Stephanie. His eyes were shiny like wet marbles. He couldn’t stop staring.