Hit the Beach (14 page)

What was going on?

There would be no answers that morning. Rain slicker in hand, Madison followed Dad to his car, and they drove over to the ELC.

Madison checked her reflection in the backseat mirror. With all the rain, the air felt hotter than it had the days before, and it left a film all over Madison’s body. Her skin was part rain, part sweat, and all …
gross
. She dreaded the thought that Will would see her looking like that.

For some bizarre reason, an edgy Dad decided to accompany Madison in to the ELC—even though Madison begged him not to. Camp had been going on for a week; no one had their parents bring them inside anymore. To make matters worse, Dad insisted on meeting Madison’s camp friends. Everyone was mingling in the front when she and Dad entered.

Teeny and Ann were sitting talking. Ann saw Madison right away and waved. Half the other kids in the room were sopping wet, as though they’d been standing in the rain for a day. All the wetness, combined with the body heat, made the room downright steamy, even though the ELC’s air conditioner was running.

Madison didn’t see Will anywhere. A part of her was grateful—she didn’t want Dad to embarrass her in front of him. Another part of her was disappointed. She had wanted to see what Dad’s reaction would be.

“Are you going to introduce me to your pals?” Dad whispered. “Or are we going to stand here like totem poles?”

Madison wanted to shrink down to the size of a minnow.
Pals? Totem poles?
Sometimes Dad could be so corny.

“Hey, Mad Dog,” someone called out from behind Madison. She whipped around and saw Will standing there.

He was there.

Madison saw Dad’s eyebrows shoot up. “Mad Dog?” he repeated, a little suspicious of the name. “Is that
you
?” he asked Madison.

“Don’t ask,” Madison said, giving him the brush-off. “Long story.”

“Is this your dad?” Will asked right away. He gave Dad a flat little “Hey, what’s up?” wave.

Just then, Teeny and Logan came over to see what was going on. After that, Leonard and other camp staffers walked in.

Dad knew it was time for him to go.

“Yup, I can see you’re busy,” he said calmly. He turned to leave. Madison was pleased with Dad’s getaway. No major embarrassments had been incurred.

But then Dad surprised her. He turned on his heel, took five long strides over to Madison, and grabbed her shoulders. Dad kissed her—
smack!
—on the cheek. “Love you, sweetheart,” he growled. “Don’t forget your slicker.”

Madison saw Teeny laugh at the word “slicker.” She felt her skin flush with mortification. This was her most embarrassing moment to date—which was saying a lot, considering the number of times Madison had been embarrassed in her very short life span.

Of course, there was nothing surprising in the way Dad spoke to Madison, as if she were in first grade, not seventh. But nothing could counteract the embarrassment.

After Dad’s departure, the day went by pretty quickly, although the group spent most of the time indoors. Madison didn’t actually spend a lot of time with Will, though. She ended up hanging out with Suchita and Ann most of the time. Guys gravitated toward guys, girls toward girls.

All of that didn’t mean that Madison ever let Will out of her sights. By the time the day ended and they’d played a game of “ocean charades,” completed an underwater word puzzle, and helped to reorganize a part of the nature room, including touching up the paint on the plaster alligator, Madison and Will had had a few conversations.

Nothing seemed to connect with as much meaning as it had the previous day. Madison wondered if maybe her attraction to Will were just a blip. After all, the connection to Hart was much stronger. And it would last much longer—wouldn’t it? What would her BFFs have said?

By the time camp was officially dismissed and Dad came to pick Madison up, all she could think about was getting home to check the blogs. Why were the only people who could truly have helped Madison get through moments like this now located so many miles away? It didn’t seem fair.

And why was it still raining so hard?

Back at the apartment, Dad didn’t seem to mind when Madison decided she’d rather log on than play a game of Scrabble with him. Ordinarily, she loved playing games with Dad. He usually let her win. But today, the need for blogging was greater than the need for a board-game fix.

After an hour, the rain still showed no signs of letting up.

The first blog Madison checked was Fiona’s. But Fiona had not written in a day or more. Madison wondered why—and then skipped over to Aimee’s and Lindsay’s blogs, respectively. Aimee’s was short.

08-12


Maddie you NEVER have 2 worry about Hart. 2day I was @ the pool and I saw Ivy AGAIN trying to put her mitts on him and he TOTALLY blew her off again. The best part was the drones, who were there with her highness—Phony Joanie and Rose Thorn. I think her status as Poison Ivy has made her downright poisonous. Then l8r I was getting a diet soda at the vending machine and he came over and talked to me for like 10 mins. He never talks 2 me. But I think the way he figured—I was the next best thing 2 Maddie since Maddie is soooo far away. At least that’s what I THINK was going on. Or maybe I was just a good reason to ditch the drones. Remember when he used to attempt niceness with them. Not anymore. C U. Actually I should say something else, b/c we don’t C each other online! Duh!


Lindsay’s blog was
not
short. It was long and juicy, too, packed with zany stories about London.

08-12 (Thursday)


OK r u ready to LAFF out loud REALLY LOUD? This is the blog entry where I have to admit that even though we’ve been sightseeing like crazy and I’ve had tea every single day and crumpets, too with clotted cream, which sounds kind of gross but is really the opposite of gross. YUM! Like whipped cream only sweeter and thicker. And for all of your information (and upon BFF request) I posed for photos inside one of those red phone booths, with a beefeater (believe it or not!), on a cruise ship traveling quite fast toward Greenwich, outside St. Paul’s Cathedral, and inside (way down) the Parliament station of the underground (aka subway). There the walls look like they’re reinforced with steel twenty feet thick. Did you know that there are no garbage cans in England like there are here—on the streets, that is? There are all these precautions here because of bombings in public places. Just thinking about bombs makes me nervous of course but they have a lot of police around here so it’s cool. It’s just as many police as we see at Grand Central Station in New York. Everyone is just trying to be safe and I feel safe. Today we went off for half the day to Hampton Court. I took the day trip with Dad and his friend—this old, whiskered “bloke” (Dad says). Duff is named after the character Macduff in some Shakespeare play. Do any of you know that play? Don’t ask me!—weird, right? The train was not so long a ride and I laughed most of the way. The Duff guy is SO funny and he talks like a real English guy. Well, probably because he is one. :>P Good one, Lindsay! Anyway Duff gave me this little pamphlet with a list of British expressions. I just know you will all LOVE them. Here are some of the best ones I like. You know them probably from all those Louise Rennison books that Egg’s sister gave you, right, Fiona? She always says “ginormous” and “chum-ettes” and stuff like that. I think I’ll use one off this list in an English paper when we go back to school. LOL.


That’s aces=It’s great


don’t give a toss=don’t care


Shut your gob=Shut up snogging=kissing


Sod off=Go away


splash out=go all out


Do you think I’m learning how to fit in in London—like a crash course in becoming someone I am not? HA HA. That’s what it feels like sometimes and we are staying in these hotels that have minibars and Dad lets me eat whatever I want. I must admit I have eaten at least ten chocolate Flakes. It is the best chocolate EVER. I know I will be covered in zits by next week. But that’s ok, right? Because no one will ever see me except for Dad and tour guides and tourists from Japan and the USA and they don’t count. It’s not like DAN is here or n e thing <:-)


I have been waiting for a day or more to see yr blog, Maddie. Where did it go? I know Fiona hasn’t written either. What’s the deal, guys? I’m writing all the time and so is Aim. Come on!!!!! And pleez keep yr fingers crossed that next wk maybe I’ll luck out. If I sing “Someday My Prince Will Come” really loud, maybe he’ll just show up at the hotel. I wish but I think maybe London is just 4 sightseeing. LOL. Then again, what if a warty frog shows up and offers to be turned into a prince if I kiss him? Wait—what am I talking about?!!!


Help!!! I better stop writing now before I go on for another 3 pages. BTW: my Dad sez HI to everyone.


P.S.: Madison did u notice that today is Friday the 13th. OMG how did that happen?


Madison held her side, she was laughing so hard. It wasn’t so much Lindsay’s jokes, although they were funny. It was the kind of laughter that comes from deep inside: happy, secure laughter. Madison felt as though her friends were right there next to her. She could practically hear Lindsay’s voice.

Madison clicked around the TweenBlurt site a little bit more; and then surfed into her e-mailbox. That was when her sentimental feelings took over.

Although Madison guessed that no one read the blog other than her friends, it was still out there in view. And she wanted to make sure that this message—her attached message—was a private one, for three sets of eyes only.

She hit
NEW
on Dad’s computer and composed a private e-mail.

From: MadFinn


To: Wetwinz, LuvNstuff, BalletGrl


Subject: Walk this around pleez!!!


Date: Fri 13 Aug 10:11 PM


Just read everyone’s blogs (three times) and I am bummed b/c ur all soooo far away. I could really use u right now. In honor of my best friends in the whole entire world, read the attachment pleez. MYSM … LYLAS … BFN!


((attachment :DEARFRIEND.pdf))


It’s National Friendship Week!

Show your friends how much you care.

Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND.

If it comes back to you, then you’ll know you have a circle of friends.

And thanks for being MY friend.

Friend: calls your parents by Mr. and Mrs.

Best friend: calls your parents Dad and Mom

Friend: laughs at your jokes when they’re funny

Best friend: laughs at your jokes when they’re not funny

Friend: borrows your stuff for a few days then gives it back

Best friend: has a closet full of your stuff

Friend: always gets you a nice birthday present

Best friend: gives you stuff even when it’s not your birthday

Friend: only knows a few things about you

Best friend: could write a show on you for the Biography Channel

Friend: would delete this letter

Best friend: will send this back to me and all of their online buddies—SO DO IT NOW!!!

THANKS, FRIEND!!!

After hitting
SEND
, Madison turned off the computer and the light. Maybe it was the long day spent indoors or maybe it was just the rain, but something had made Madison extra tired. She stared at shadows as they danced on the walls of the apartment. There seemed to be a dancing palm tree outside Madison’s window. Somehow the wind had picked up, which was strange for such a muggy, wet evening.

Madison remembered the warning that Fiona had mentioned—and that she’d seen on the Weather Channel, too.
Was
a hurricane headed for the Florida coast? The tropical depression was somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean just then. Madison wondered if the next day she would wake up to torrential rain. Where were the tornadoes and waves and debris (and cows) flying through the air? Those were the hurricane images she knew from TV and movies.

Madison had all but given up on her loggerhead-turtle-counting trick for getting her to sleep. Tonight, she’d dream of gale-force winds instead. A hurricane dream was just the right thing to whip Madison’s head and heart back into shape.

Wasn’t it?

As she lay in the darkness, Madison heard voices again—coming from down the hallway. Dad and Stephanie were back at it—arguing. They seemed to be trying very hard to keep their voices down. Madison couldn’t tell what they were saying exactly, but it sounded serious. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to think of something else.

Some kind of serious stormy weather was coming. Madison knew it.

And it wasn’t the kind of storm that could be helped with some stupid slicker.

T
HE WEEKEND WENT BY
in a blur. Everyone in the county was preparing for the possibility that a hurricane might be on its way. For Madison, it seemed as if that reality had already hit. By Monday morning, her thoughts were churning. When the chirping of birds awoke her, she bounded out of bed without putting on her slippers and logged on to her computer right away.

The Parent Trap


Is this the Big D all over again?


I feel like Dad and Stephanie are talking in code. I was going to write about this in a blog or even to Bigwheels on e-mail but I don’t actually know where to start. They fight a lot more than I remember. Y is that? I can’t tell what’s normal fighting and what’s bad fighting but there’s this weird tension in the apartment and this was supposed to be the relaxing week coming up. Stephanie has cried at least twice since I’ve been here and I still don’t really know why but I know it has something to do w/Dad. Aaaaargh! He just keeps telling me “Relax, Maddie. Don’t sweat it.”


Rude Awakening:
Whenever someone says, “Relax, don’t sweat it,” why does it instantly feel a whole lot hotter?


Here’s what happened this weekend. Saturday we went shopping in the car—the three of us. When we got to the beach town, Dad wanted to go to The Lemon Drop for lunch but Stephanie and I went there earlier this week so we told Dad we’d rather go someplace else. Well, Dad had a craving for one of The Lemon Drop’s fish sandwiches and just wanted to stay there and eat on the bench and he had this little tantrum in the car—I swear. Stephanie finally talked him out of it and we went to a hamburger joint. It was this major drama for such a DUMB reason. Dad acted a little nicer after that, but I didn’t feel like talking to him.


Later on after we’d eaten, we went shopping. I saw a pair of earrings—VV cool with wooden beads and colored stones—and Dad said I could have those if I wanted. He didn’t really care. I could tell. He was bored. Then I saw something WAY better. I found this pair of identical charms—and they were alligators!! I decided that was the better thing to buy. Maybe I can give one to Aim or Fiona or Lindsay when we get back to Far Hills?? Dad told me to hurry up and pick something. He never rushes me. What’s up with that?


Sunday wasn’t much better. Dad was still acting weird so Stephanie took me to the movies alone. The sky looked dark when we came out and we worried that maybe the storm was coming AGAIN, but it didn’t. It seemed like Stephanie would start confiding in me about her and Dad, but she didn’t. Ugh!


I know I should just stay out of it. That was my problem w/Dad and Mom, too, when I always butted in. But it’s soooo hard not to want to help, since I heard all their fights and all their problems too. What am I supposed to do the second time around? This is a question for the Blowfish. Or for my BFFs. For anyone but me. Sometimes I feel like maybe this is some kind of parent trap—or test. If I just DON’T think about it, it’ll go away.