Authors: Laura Dower
Lost and Found (2 page)
“Mrs. Wing, do I need to come after school today to help with the Web site?” Madison asked, changing the subject. She had signed on to help as an assistant school cybrarian, which meant inputting polls, answering questions, helping to keep the school data, and more. Lately extra-credit homework and volunteering at the Far Hills Animal Shelter took preference over the Web, but Madison wanted to start working even more with technology.
“I was speaking with Walter about helping with the data entry,” Mrs. Wing said. “And Drew, too. There’s always room for helpers.”
Walter Diaz, otherwise known as Egg, was Madison’s best guy friend. And Drew Maxwell was Egg’s best friend and therefore Madison’s friend, too, by association. Not only were the two boys into tech stuff as much as (if not more than) Madison, but they were building their own Web page. Madison hoped to make her own site one day soon.
“So what are we adding to the site today?” Madison asked Mrs. Wing.
Mrs. Wing smiled. “Let’s make a Winter Wonderland section with news about hockey games and winter festivals and everything else going on inside and outside the school.”
“What’s up, Maddie?” Egg called out as he strolled into the computer lab. “What are you doing here so early?”
The second-period bell rang, and Drew walked into class along with everyone else. “Hey, Maddie,” he said, sliding into a desk and giving her a wave.
While Mrs. Wing got the rest of the class settled, Egg talked nonstop about his new skates.
“I just got these killer hockey skates,” he boasted. One of Egg’s greatest goals in life was to play for the New York Rangers hockey team. “I can’t wait to try them out. They’re black with silver stripes on the side.”
“Like racing stripes,” Drew quipped. “You wearing them tomorrow?”
“What’s tomorrow?” Madison asked.
Egg gasped like he’d just been punched. “Oh, man! You don’t know about it? A whole bunch of kids are going down to the Lake Wannalotta after school tomorrow.”
“Who set this up?” Madison asked.
“Me and Chet. Didn’t we tell you?” Egg replied.
“No.” Madison rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I don’t see what the big deal is with skating.”
“What planet are you from?” Egg asked. “Skating is
way
cool.”
“My cousin used to be a hockey skating champion at his old middle school,” Drew said. “That was definitely way cool.”
“Your cousin?” Madison asked. “You mean Hart?”
Drew nodded.
“So…is Hart going to be skating, then, too?” Madison asked.
“Of course, Maddie,” Egg cracked. “Everyone is going. You can’t miss it.”
Madison looked down at her desk and sucked in her breath. She didn’t know how to skate very well, a fact that never seemed to matter before, but now it mattered a lot. She chewed on the inside of her lip and thought about her options. Could she just skip the whole skating scene without attracting too much attention? And while she was at it…wasn’t there a way she could get out of her math test, too?
Egg leaned over and pinched her shoulder before returning to his seat. “You’d better be there,” he said. “Or I’ll never let you forget it.”
Madison just nodded and tried to smile.
“S
O, ARE YOU READY
for your math test?” Aimee asked Madison as they walked home from school that day.
Madison stuck out her tongue like she’d eaten something yucky. “No. Math is my enemy. Do you think I can get out of the test somehow?”
Aimee laughed as she retied her purple wool scarf around her neck. “Yeah, sure. And while you’re at it, why don’t you get out of your English paper and all your other homework, too? And why don’t you find world peace? And then why don’t you find a cure for—”
“Ha, ha! Very funny, Aim,” Madison said, crinkling her nose with disapproval. As much as Madison loved her BFF, she hated the sarcasm that often came along with Aimee.
Aimee just giggled. “Race ya!” she said, and took off down the block.
The pair ran the shortcut route, dashing through someone’s backyard and down a side street. Then they skipped over to Blueberry Street, where they’d both lived since they were babies. The girls were breathless from running in the cold, cold air.
“So, you didn’t tell me, what are you wearing to the skating party tomorrow?” Aimee asked, still huffing a little.
Madison frowned. “What do you mean,
party
?”
“No, no, I don’t mean party like
that.
I mean…well, you know. I’m wearing my lemon-drop ski parka, and I have these great new jeans with embroidery up the sides. I think I might even wear my—”
“Oh,” Madison interrupted. “What is a person supposed to wear to a skating thing?”
“What’s the matter with you, Maddie?” Aimee asked.
Madison shrugged. “Whatever.”
Aimee came to a complete stop. “Something is totally the matter, isn’t it? I can tell these things.”
“What?” Madison said.
Sometimes best friends could be annoying even when they were trying to help out the most. Aimee was ultrapersistent.
“I have an excellent idea. Why don’t you borrow my Fair Isle sweater for skating tomorrow? It was my mom’s, and she is a wicked good ice-skater.”
“I don’t need your mom’s sweater, Aim,” Madison said. She sighed. “What I need is to learn how to skate.”
“You can skate! I remember last year, you—”
“—sat on the side of the ice and clapped for everyone else,” Madison finished Aimee’s sentence.
“Oh. Yeah.” Aimee frowned.
“And the year before that, I pretended I had a sprained ankle. Remember?”
“You mean to tell me it wasn’t sprained?” Aimee said.
Madison chuckled. “Aim, it was
your
idea to make up that excuse.”
“Oh yeah,” Aimee said. “Gee, it was so good, I fell for it.”
“Look, I gotta run home,” Madison said, smiling her widest smile. She leaned in and hugged her friend. “And I’ll probably go to the skating thing, so don’t worry.”
“Promise me you will go,” Aimee demanded, sticking out her pinky for a pinky swear. “
Promise.
”
Madison pulled off her green wool gloves to squeeze.
“Hey, Aim, are you gonna call Fiona?” Madison asked before they said their last good-byes. “I wonder if she’s feeling any better.”
“I’m going to go call her right now. Why don’t you go home and we can all go online together?”
“That’s a great idea,” Madison said. She turned toward her house.
“And don’t forget your other promise!” Aimee yelled after her.
Madison tossed her head as if to say, “No problem,” but inside, she was feeling bad already about the pinky swear. Madison had a sinking feeling she might have to break her promise to Aimee.
As soon as she’d dumped her book bag in the front hallway, Madison said hello to Mom and her cute pug, Phin, who were in the kitchen. Then she bounded upstairs to her bedroom and pulled on her favorite new woolly sock-slippers with monkeys woven on top, the ones Mom gave her for Christmas. When it was this cold outside, Madison liked nothing better than getting as snuggly as she could as soon as she arrived home.
Lying across the bed on her tummy, Madison booted up her computer. She opened a brand-new file.
The Skating Party
Once Mom and I watched this movie called Ice Castles on TV. It was really old, and it was about a girl and guy who were professional skaters and then they fell in love. Even though it was from the seventies, I loved that movie soooo much. I wish that could be me, like me and Hart skating together. Something about that makes my stomach all fluttery.
Rude Awakening:
Is it a real problem to go ice skating with someone who makes you melt?
After writing a few more pages, Madison closed the file on skating—for the time being. But she was still obsessing about the skating. Should she go…or not?
What would Bigwheels do?
Madison plugged in her supersecret online password and logged on to TweenBlurt.com to see if her keypal Bigwheels was online. She probably wouldn’t be, since she lived in Washington State, which was all the way across the country. It was three hours earlier in Bigwheels’s world at that very moment, which meant Bigwheels was in school instead. But Madison decided e-mail was better than no conversation at all.
From: MadFinn
To: Bigwheels
Subject: Ice-Skating Trauma
Date: Mon 15 Jan 4:03
PM
How is school?
Okay, so I have a very important question for you: Have you ever fallen while skating?
Well, I have. On my face, practically, so ice went up my nose. And I almost cut my hand on the blade of an ice skate, too, and that freaked out my dad. This was all when I was six or something. Since then the whole idea of SKATING freaks me a little bit.
So my dilemma is this skating thing, and you-know-who will be there. Should I go and risk mortification (is that a real word?). Or should I stay at home with my dog, Phin, where it’s supersafe? (You know my vote.)
I wish you were online so you could write back now.
Yours till the ice breakers,
MadFinn
No sooner had Madison hit
SEND
than she got a message.
It wasn’t Bigwheels, though. It was Aimee.
Madison turned off her computer just in time to hear Mom call her downstairs for dinner. They were having vegetarian soufflé, only it had “fallen” while inside the oven.
“Is it supposed to look so flat?” Madison asked Mom.
“It doesn’t look as nice, but it tastes exactly the same,” Mom said, rushing to serve it before it got any flatter.
Madison picked out all the peppers in her piece and took a bite. Surprisingly, the soufflé wasn’t that bad tasting at all. Mom’s cooking was definitely improving. Since the big D (as in divorce), Mom was trying much harder to be a better chef, a better housekeeper, and a much better organizer.
“So how was school today?” Mom asked.
Madison took another bite and just shook her head. “Mmmmfffine,” she mumbled.
“Walter called here earlier, you know. I think you must have been on the computer.”
“Egg called?” Madison asked.
“Yes, he told me to remind you to bring your ice skates to school. What’s that all about? Since when do you like ice skating?” Mom said.
Madison wanted to scream, but she calmly replied, “I don’t.”
“So why are you going skating?” Mom asked.
“Just forget it, Mom,” Madison answered. “Please.”
Mom sat back in her kitchen chair and took a sip of her water. “What’s going on, Madison?” she said.
“Huh? Nothing’s going on, Mom. Some kids are going skating and asked me to come. What are you smiling at?”
“You make me smile,” Mom said quietly.
Madison shook her head. “What’s the point of going when I can’t skate?”
“Oh, honey bear, you can skate. You can do anything you set your—”
“You just don’t understand, Mom,” Madison pleaded. “You just don’t.”
“Well, maybe not,” Mom said. “But I was only trying to help.”
Madison’s heart sank. She could tell that her mom was annoyed. This week they’d already had a few big arguments.
Just yesterday, Dad had called from Denver, where he was visiting on a business trip. He wasn’t sure if he was coming back in time for his weekly dinner for Madison. Mom didn’t like hearing about that. It upset her that Dad would extend a trip to Denver with his new girlfriend, Stephanie—and change plans on Madison. To make matters worse, Madison defended
Dad
.
Big mistake.
Brrrrrrrrrring.
Mom reached across the kitchen counter to pick up the phone.
“Oh, how are you, Mother?” Mom said, pretending to be chipper. Mom’s mom, Gramma Helen, was on the line. “What’s new? Oh? Well, nothing much. No, we weren’t watching TV. We were just finishing our dinner. Oh? Well, Maddie’s right here. Let me get her.”