Hit the Beach (9 page)

Dad.

She started to get up to rush into the other room to say hello and tell Dad all about camp that day, but then she heard Dad yelling. She stopped in her tracks.

“Come on!” Madison heard someone shout from the other room.

The voices were like ones she had heard the night before, only louder, faster.

“Please keep your voice down,” Madison heard Stephanie say more than once.

This time, Madison could hear everything clearly. In fact, it was hard
not
to eavesdrop. She leaned against the door frame and pressed her ear to the door.

“I didn’t plan this,” Madison heard Dad say. He sounded frustrated, angry, and tired. “This client is very important. My cell battery died and I didn’t realize it, I promise you—”

“Save it,” Stephanie growled. “You should have found a way to call. Your daughter is here staying with us.”

“I know. Maddie understands.”

“That isn’t the point, Jeff,” Stephanie said.

The sound of their voices dipped a little bit, so Madison pressed closer to the door. She could hear only bits and pieces of their dialogue.

Suddenly, she heard a door opening.

“Maddie?” her dad’s voice called.

Madison shuffled backward and threw herself on top of Dad’s bed, pretending to be immersed in her work, or her laptop. She clicked a button, but nothing came on. Dad’s laptop was unplugged! She panicked: she needed to look busy. She just knew her dad was coming down the hall.

The door opened slowly, but it was Stephanie standing there, not Dad. What was Madison supposed to say? A million things raced through her mind.

Then she noticed Stephanie’s eyes. They were pink-rimmed, as if she’d been crying. The two of them just stood there and stared at each other blankly for a moment before Dad came into the room, too.

“Hey, Maddie,” Dad said.

“What’s going on?” Madison asked.

Dad put his arms around Stephanie’s shoulders and pulled her close.

“We’re okay,” he said. He kissed the top of Stephanie’s head as he addressed Madison. “Look, I’m sorry I was late tonight.”

Stephanie took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, too, Maddie. I’m just a little tense these days,” she explained. “It’s work …”

“Okay,” Madison shrugged.

She knew something was up—way up. But she didn’t ask any more questions.

D
AD ACTED SUPER NICE
for the rest of the evening. After he apologized for missing dinner, he even invited Madison to use his laptop again.

As Madison got herself set up at the computer, Dad slinked out of the room. Madison entered his password and clicked on the Internet browser key.

SERVER BUSY.

The TweenBlurt server had gotten busier than busy these days, with all of the new games and features offered on the site. The company had promised an update, but that hadn’t happened yet. While Madison waited for the server to come back online, she thought about all the crazy things that had happened since she’d arrived in Florida. This was the most jam-packed (or, as Gramma Helen would say, strawberry-jam-packed) vacation ever.

Beeeeeep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Madison looked at the screen and grinned. She was finally online.

After checking her e-mailbox—empty? Bummer!—Madison moved to some other areas of her favorite interactive site.

First stop: BloggerBlurt. There were brand-new posts there from Fiona, Aimee, and Lindsay, in that order. But Madison completed her own blog entry before checking out the other ones. She didn’t want to derail her train of thought from the day at Camp Sunshine.

08-10


I never thought I’d say this but: MANATEES ARE BEAUTIFUL. I think we should put a bumper sticker on our car back home that says that. At the end of the day, Will told me that he thought Ann and I were the smartest girls at the camp. I don’t know how he knows that, since he hasn’t even met all the other girls there, but that’s what he said and I liked the compliment. BTW for those of you in the pitch black dark here: Will is this guy at Camp Sunshine who could be a model or a TV star. He is that cute. And he’s also smarter than smart, obviously. The truth is, I can’t believe I’m actually wasting brain space thinking about him. Am I crazy? I want Hart, right? I mean, Hart is mine, right? If I had to do a total comparison of Hart and Will, I just know Hart would be declared the winner. He would have to be. No contest. So I need to put this Will guy right out of my head. Now.


BTW: I think you should aim really, REALLY high in London, Lindsay, when it comes to guys, that is. Like … Y don’t you try to find Prince Harry? LOL. And a special shout out to Fiona from moi: pleez write more. I miss u. :>). GTG.


Madison clicked
POST
. Then she hit the
BACK
browser button and selected another blog page. She clicked on Fiona’s name, and a blog page popped up with images of little soccer balls around the edges. Fiona was getting good at design—and at computer games. Madison figured it was the Egg influence. She read the blog.

08-10


Have u ever heard of Space Mountain? I hadn’t ridden it even though I lived here 4 so long. Well, it ROCKED. That’s what Chet kept saying. He waited on line and rode it SEVEN times. I only rode twice. Otherwise I would have thrown up. :>) Best ride though: soarin’ over California. You fake hang-glide over redwoods and ocean and it’s so cool. Made me miss living here. Anyway, we’re off tonight for my old neighborhood. I’m sleeping over @ my old BFF Debbie’s house and I can’t wait. I wish u all could meet her. She sounds exactly the same as when I left, but I’m still nervous about seeing her and the old group. Deb told me that everyone knows I’m coming and this guy I used to like whose name is Julio (remember, Maddie?)—well, he’s around and he knows I’m coming. He told Deb he wanted to see me. OMG. Ok. So no one can tell Egg about that one, ok? I feel a little guilty even though I know that’s dumb b/c Julio is really just a friend. Anyway, it’s nice that Julio wants to be friends again, right? Meanwhile, my mom and dad keep talking about how much they miss California. Dad says he misses his old job out here. When Uncle Ron told them about an old house, Dad instantly started talking about how he could renovate it. I don’t think anyone is serious about moving back here—it’s all just talk—but I still can’t help thinking about it. I love Far Hills and everything, you guys know that. But I love it here too. I just had forgotten how much.


Madison reread Fiona’s entry
twice
, but she didn’t want to think too hard about what Fiona said. How could Madison swallow the idea that her newest BFF would move back to her old home, all the way across the country? That would never happen! It just
couldn’t
happen.

Aimee’s blog was next. Madison began to read—slowly.

08-10


OMGOMGOMG Did u guys read Fiona’s blog? F: you can’t move back to CA!!!!!!!!!! Hello? You have us now and we need 2 stick 2gether. OMG I don’t like it that ur so far away. It’s bumming me out. BTW: dance is good. Well, it’s better than good. Someone from the local paper has been coming to rehearsals and apparently they want to do a human interest piece (whatever that is) on ME!!! I sort of laughed it off @ first but then Mom said it was a chance to show my stuff. I guess the local paper is profiling all sorts of kids our age. My fear: IVY will get her own page, too. Can u imagine how weird that would be? What is HER special talent? I can just see her red-haired ’do on the front page with a caption: “Local Girl Wins Everything, Gets All the Guys, and Never Gets Zits!” LOL. But seriously, things here are looking pretty rosy-rosy. No, I have not seen Mr. Ben Buckley, but that’s cool b/c dance takes up like 9 hrs a day and I don’t have much time 4 n e thing else EXCEPT this most excellent BLOG. Don’t forget, Fiona, ur NOT moving. Just wanted to say that again because I could. ;>)


Madison grinned at Aimee’s plea to their BFF. Then she turned to Lindsay’s page to read. Of course, Lindsay had attached photos, including one taken at the Tower of London (where she was pretending to put her head on a real, ancient head-chopping block) and one taken at their hotel (where she was, in fact, sipping from a teacup). Lindsay looked cool posing in a foreign setting. Madison noticed that in one of the photos she was even wearing a blue T-shirt (with a dog’s face on it) that Madison had lent her.

08-10 (Tuesday afternoon)


It’s later in the day & Dad and I are headed to the Tate Gallery here in London and I CAN’T WAIT! I want to see the Rosetta Stone. Do you guys remember reading about that in school this yr? It’s this stone where all language originated. It has the three original languages on it. I think. I need to do some more research on it. And of course I feel like I need to see it, considering I am the biggest reader in our class. Well, I don’t mean to brag, but reading is the one thing I’m pretty cool at. I’ve already read three books while I’ve been on vacation (mostly on the plane & at bedtime). And I read that book u loaned me, Maddie, the one called
Sixth-Grade Glommers, Norks, and Me
. Liked it a lot even though sixth grade seems so far away now. I found this other book
Trauma Queen
by Barbara Dee. Sooooo good. Of course I’ll probably re-read all the Harry Potter and Hunger Games books again. They have these huge displays for the books here, too, just like in the U.S.A. Maybe I’ll see J. K. Rowling on the street somewhere. How cool would that be? Dad let me go to this very hip bookstore near where we’re staying. I spent an hour in there. He had to drag me out. :>) But I miss u all sooo much. Do u miss me? I promise 2 send more pictures. Did I say I miss u? :>&


Madison couldn’t help smiling. She felt as if all of her friends were right there in the room with her.

Just then, the computer screen went blank. Madison gulped.

Was she causing every laptop she touched to crash?

A moment later, she realized the computer was fine. It was TweenBlurt—again. The message flashed:
SERVER DOWN
.

Madison closed the windows that showed each of her friends’ blog pages. Then she opened a word doc. The blog entry she’d composed was for everyone else’s benefit, but the files were for Madison Finn’s eyes only (MFEO!).

Of course, she’d have to save any file she created to Dad’s hard drive. But she could e-mail it to her e-mailbox later—when Dad got her orange laptop up and running again.

Hit the Beach


Rude Awakening:
Slow and steady wins the race, unless you’re talking about Internet connections or love connections. Sigh. My two weeks at Camp Sunshine would be a lot more fun if:


a) my laptop didn’t keep crashing


b) Dad and Stephanie weren’t fighting all the time


c) I didn’t miss Hart s-o-o-o much.


“Madison! It’s for you!”

Madison stopped typing and looked around the room. The clock said it was a little after nine. She hopped off the bed and stretched her arms overhead, shook out her hands, and blinked a few times.

Stephanie poked her head into the room.

“It’s for you,” Stephanie said, handing her the portable phone.

Madison’s stomach flipped. It was late. Was it Mom? Aimee? Or maybe Hart?

She laughed at herself.
Hart didn’t even have her dad’s phone number.

“Oh, it’s someone from Camp Sunshine, I think,” Stephanie said before she disappeared through the door again.

That made Madison’s head spin even more.
Someone from camp?

Was it Will?

Madison’s throat constricted. She raised the receiver to her ear.

“Maddie, am I calling too late?” a voice hollered.

It was Ann.
Of course.

“I wanted to call you, because I was surfing online and I found your name using Google.”

“You
what
?” Madison asked. Her heart sank. Had Ann discovered Madison’s blog? No, she couldn’t read that. It was password-protected on TweenBlurt.com. What had she found?

“I googled you,” Ann said. “I was sitting here looking up stuff online about manatees and turtles—you know, for camp—and then I put in your name, and it came back with all these hits.”

“What hits?”

“Well, your name is listed under the staff of the Far Hills Animal Clinic. How cool are you to volunteer for that?”

“Oh, yeah,” Madison said, still kind of dreading hearing about whatever else Ann may have uncovered.

“And I found your name in the credits for the Far Hills Junior High school website. If you surf around that site, there are pictures of you and your friends, too.”

“Really?” Madison’s voice shook a little bit. Even though it was only Ann who was revealing all of this, and even though the stuff she had found online was pretty harmless, something about Ann’s discovery bothered Madison. It was as if she’d shone a flashlight onto some secrets and now they were illuminated for the whole world to see. Madison made a quick mental note
not
to mention Ann by name—ever.