All Shook Up (From the Files of Madison Finn, 22) (12 page)

Madison smiled. “Thanks, Aim. I feel better. Do you feel better?”

“Yeah,” Aimee said. “A little.”

“I’ll let you know what happens,” Madison promised.

“Cool,” Aimee said with a flip of her braid. She twirled out of the bathroom, leaving Madison alone with her thoughts, a scrap of notepaper, and the beginnings of a note to Madhur.

Next stop: Madhur’s locker.

Madison hoped that Aimee’s idea would solve everything. She needed to get her conference partner back—and fast. Thanks to Aimee, she had a good plan that just might work.

All Shook Up


One more day until the Junior World Leaders Conference, or FWLS (Fools) conference, as Chet has been calling it. He thinks the whole thing is pretty silly, which makes it absolutely clear that the only reason he’s doing ANY of this is to get Madhur’s attention. Though we all know now that she has her eye on someone else.





Not that she’s even coming tomorrow BUT I sure hope I see her today and everything is made better. Right now I have this crummy feeling inside and I wishwishwish I had said something about Hart from the beginning. I wish I hadn’t pretended to go along with her when she admitted her crush on my crush. I was just so afraid of what she would say. I was afraid.


There. I said it. I was afraid.


So here I am sitting in homeroom before classes on Friday with one day before the conference happens, and all I can think to do is write in my files. Everything around me feels weird except the writing. Everyone’s coming into the room and staring at me, too, like they always do when I’m working on this orange laptop.


I don’t get it. I thought that by today I would be the happiest person at FHJH.


Rude Awakening:
I’m on top of the world. But where do I go from here? Doesn’t everyone know I’m afraid of heights?


Things with Madhur started out so new and exciting. And now everything seems REALLY all shook up and I’m not so high up after all and I am just SO not into falling.





“Maddie,” a voice said from across the room.

It was Poison Ivy Daly, looking as poisonous as ever. She took a seat next to Madison. Thankfully, the drones weren’t around.

“Can I help you?” Madison quipped.

Ivy snarled. “Not likely,” she said, crossing her legs. Madison always wondered how she managed to balance on any stool or chair, in her itty-bitty skirt with her itty-bitty platform sneakers (that weren’t really allowed in class anyway). But Ivy always did.

Class was about to start. Mr. Danehy clapped two erasers together to get everyone’s attention. Mr. Danehy was one of the only teachers in the building who still liked to use his regular chalkboard.

Just then, static buzzed over the loudspeaker. Principal Bernard’s voice blared into the classroom.

“Your attention! Your attention, please,”
he said.

Everyone covered their ears, because whenever the principal spoke into a microphone over the loudspeaker, there was always a surge of loud, squeaky feedback.

“Hello, classes seven, eight, and nine. Today is a special day. Everyone is anticipating tomorrow’s big event, the World Leaders Junior Leaders Conference.”

Madison giggled because the principal had gotten all the words mixed up.

Mr. Bernard cleared his throat.
“Here at Far Hills Junior High, we are proud to have several exceptional students participating in Saturday’s conference. Your faculty advisers have told me that many of you have written excellent speeches and prepared great presentations. I cannot wait to see and hear all of you in action.”

Madison gulped. Hearing the conference spoken about in such formal terms by the school principal made her nerves tingle.

“You’re doing something for that dumb conference, aren’t you?” Ivy asked snidely.

“Who wants to know?” Madison replied, just as snidely.

“Give me a break,” Ivy said. “
I
want to know.”

“I think the conference is a great chance to express opinions and learn new things about—” Madison said.

Ivy poked her finger into her mouth and pretended to throw up.

But Madison just smiled. She wasn’t going to let the enemy get her down.

“Be that way. Fine,” Madison said.

“Fine?” Ivy said. She started to laugh.

“Miss Daly!” Mr. Danehy barked from the front of the classroom. “What’s so funny?”

Ivy blanched. “Nothing,” she said, looking very, very embarrassed. One of the truly redeeming things about science class was the fact that Mr. Danehy often picked on Ivy. Unlike some of the other teachers in the school, Madison was certain that he saw through the enemy’s veneer.

Madison stifled the impulse to laugh in Ivy’s face.

Mr. Danehy invited the students to take out their textbooks. That was usually a hint—a sign, really—that he was thinking of giving a pop quiz before the period ended.

Madison groaned as she pulled out her book. The last thing she felt prepared to do was take any kind of quiz—especially not one in science. She hadn’t done her reading assignments for the last two days. Now it seemed she would be quizzed on the very sixty pages she hadn’t yet read.

Could this bleak day get any bleaker?

“I can’t believe he’s gonna give us a quiz,” Madison muttered under her breath. “He gives us help by letting us review the chapters, and then, whammo! Here comes a quiz.”

“Quiz? I don’t
think
so,” Ivy said. “Besides, even if we do have one, I’ll just look at your paper for the answers.”

Since the start of seventh grade, Madison and Ivy had been slotted into almost all of the same classes. And in
this
class, they had been made science-lab partners. Not only did Madison have to endure Ivy’s presence, she had to endure it in the seat directly facing her own. Ivy always copied the homework and cheated on quizzes. No matter what Madison did to protect her answers, Ivy would find a way to steal them. She never seemed to study on her own.

“Ladies!” Mr. Danehy’s voice boomed again. “Gentlemen! Let’s keep the talk to a minimum, please.”

Madison dropped her eyes. She didn’t want to get called on by name in the middle of this class—or any class.

As she looked up, Madison caught Hart’s glance. His eyes twinkled, and he grinned one of his
Hey, how are you doing?
grins. Next to him, Chet was grinning, too. Madison was astonished at the changes in Chet lately. It seemed as if ever since he’d developed his crush on Madhur, Chet had become cuter and way more likeable. He didn’t make a joke out of everything.

What did it all mean?

“I think this whole conference is so-o-o lame,” Ivy laughed. “For those of us who don’t care, why should we have to put up with all this disruption?”

“Maybe you should just be quiet about it,” Madison said, shooting Ivy a hard, cold stare.

Madison sat back on her stool. Had she really just snapped at Ivy like that? Somehow, talking back to the enemy got easier over time. Madison didn’t feel as threatened or bullied as she had sometimes felt in fifth or sixth grade. Had Ivy lost a little of her power?

Hart sat there, still staring and smiling. Madison liked the attention. It was obvious why Madhur thought Hart was so cute and talented—and why Ivy still couldn’t let go of her Hart fixation, either.

Hart was one of a kind.

Madison’s
kind.

With five minutes left of class, Mr. Danehy threw his hands into the air and said, “Okay, everyone, book bags away.” He started to distribute quiz sheets around the class.

Madison turned to Ivy. “Good luck,” she whispered sarcastically, and promptly covered her own quiz sheet, angling her body so there was no way Ivy could see even one of her answers.

Ivy looked steamed.

By the time the class bell rang, Madison answered all five pop quiz questions correctly. That gave her the jolt of confidence that she needed, leaving Ivy sitting there with a blank sheet of paper.

On the way out, Madison caught up with Hart.

“How did you do?” Hart asked. “I thought it was easy as pie for a Danehy quiz.”

Madison nodded. “Yeah, considering I haven’t done homework all week.”

“You haven’t?” Hart laughed. “What was Miss Ivy blabbing to you about during class?” he asked.

Madison bit her lip. “You,” she said teasingly.

“Get out of here,” Hart said. “Are you serious?”

“Kidding,” Madison replied. “The truth is that Ivy was trying to copy my notes and my quiz. And she kept telling me that I was a big geek for doing the Junior World Leaders Conference. But we know the truth: she’s the geek.”

“Geek? Freak! What does she know about anything?” Hart said.

“Not much,” Madison concurred.

As they walked into the corridor, Hart pressed the small of Madison’s back, just to the left of the bag she’d slung over her shoulder. That caught Madison’s attention, and she stopped short. “Hart,” she asked cautiously. “Um … I was wondering … Did you ever say anything to Madhur to make her think that maybe she …”

“What?”

“Well, that maybe she was …”

Madison stalled. She wanted to ask if maybe Hart knew that Madhur liked him, or if maybe he’d said something that Madhur could have misconstrued.

“Maddie?” Hart said. “Is there a problem?”

Not unless you consider being tongue-tied, jealous, and very confused a problem.

“No …” Madison replied.

“Then what are you asking?”

Madison didn’t know what to say now. So she didn’t say anything. She slowly strolled away from Hart, right down the hallway.

“Finnster?” Hart called out, very confused himself. “Where are you going?”

Without turning back, Madison stuck up a hand and waved. She didn’t want to see the bewildered expression on Hart’s face.

“Finnster!” Hart called out once again, but Madison was gone.

She zoomed around the corner, past a few classrooms, through a pair of swinging doors, and through a cluster of kids talking in the hallway, past another bank of lockers crowded with students, and up a short flight of stairs….

“Madison?” Madhur stood at the top. With a few more paces, Madison would have bumped into her.

Madison caught her breath. “I didn’t see you,” she said.

“Yeah, well, I saw you.” Madhur said. “I saw you earlier today, too.”

“Oh?”

“But I didn’t come over to talk,” Madhur said. “Sorry.”

“Oh.”

“I should have said something. I know I’ve been avoiding you.”

“Did you get my note?” Madison asked.

“Yeah, of course. I showed up at Mrs. Wing’s, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Madison said. “But then you bolted again. We didn’t really have a chance to talk.”

“I know.”

Madison was standing a few steps below the spot where Madhur stood; she climbed up so they could talk face to face. Then they turned and headed out of the stairwell and into the hallway near the lobby.

“I never should have backed out,” Madhur admitted. “I do want to go to the conference, you know. I really do want to go.”

“I figured,” Madison said. “Then why did you tell me and Mrs. Wing the opposite?”

Madhur looked away. “I was too embarrassed not to. These past couple of days I’ve been nothing but embarrassed….”

“About what?” Madison asked. Of course, she thought she knew the reason—but she needed Madhur to say it out loud.

“You know why,” Madhur said, staring right at Madison.

“I do?”

“You know.”

“Yeah,” Madison replied gently, remembering how Fiona had described the conversation at Madison’s house. Maybe she didn’t need Madhur to speak the exact words. Madison knew only too well what it felt like to be super embarrassed.

“You don’t have to be ashamed on my account,” Madison said, attempting to be comforting.

“Well, it isn’t just you. I was embarrassed in front of
everyone
,” Madhur said. “Why didn’t you tell me about you and Hart?”

“Oh, that,” Madison stammered. “I guess I got stuck. I felt weird. I assumed you knew. I didn’t want you to be mad. I liked being your friend. I … don’t know.”

“Gee, that’s a lot of reasons,” Madhur said, smiling for the first time in a long time.

Madison nodded. “A lot,” she agreed, smiling herself.

“How long do you think until my embarrassment wears off?” Madhur asked.

“Not long,” Madison said.

“We make good partners,” Madhur said. “Don’t we?”

“We?”

“Me and
you
, of course,” Madhur said, clarifying herself. “Who else would I be talking about?”

“Oh. Yeah, of course,” Madison said. Even though she knew better, she thought Madhur had been speaking of Hart. “Do you think we can pull the presentation together in less than one day?”

“Of course we can. I’m glad you changed the presentation topic,” Madhur said.

“It’s both of our ideas,” Madison said.

Kids moved past them, pushing and shoving their way to the stairwell and making their hurried way through the school lobby.

“Should we go somewhere else to talk about this?” Madhur asked.