All That Glitters (From the Files of Madison Finn, 20) (13 page)

As the train pulled out of the station, Madison gazed out at Lindsay’s mother and at Aunt Mimi, whose arms were linked as they waved back at the girls. Although the station was murky and dirty, the two sisters seemed to sparkle, standing there on the platform. Maybe it was the buttons on their coats. Maybe it was their hair clips. Madison wasn’t sure what it was. But in that moment, Aunt Mimi and Mrs. Frost glittered as brightly as anything in all of New York City.

“So,” Lindsay said as soon as they’d settled into their seats and given the conductor their tickets. “Let’s study.”

Aimee was sleepy. “I’m too tired to work,” she said. “Let’s just space out or play MASH or Truth or Dare.”

“I think maybe we should study a little bit,” Fiona said. “Just in case.”

“I think so, too,” Madison said.

“Fine,” Aimee said. “So what are we supposed to do?”

Lindsay opened a book called
All You Need to Know About Standardized Tests
. It was stamped
SEVENTH-GRADE EDITION
.

“This is the best book for us to use,” Lindsay said.

“You’re way too organized,” Aimee said. “That’s at least a hundred pages long.”

“It’s three hundred pages. But I’ve only read it through a few times,” Lindsay said.

“Are you kidding me?” Aimee asked. “You’ve already read it a few times? What are you freaking out about, then?”

Fiona giggled. So did Madison.

“Lindsay, you really are such a worrywart,” Madison said. “It’s just a practice test.”

“I know, I know!” Lindsay said. “But at least I’m a
prepared
worrywart.”

They quizzed each other on a variety of subjects: rational and real numbers; geometry; cell biology; geology; the Renaissance; U.S. history; sentence structure; and even the vocabulary of technology. Madison was especially good at the last part. She hadn’t realized that learning HTML would actually help her on a school test one day.

“I hope there isn’t too much reading comprehension,” Fiona grumbled. “I always make mistakes on those questions. I don’t know why.”

“I hope they don’t ask a lot of questions about history,” Madison said. “I get confused between the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment.”

“Oh, I hope they do ask a lot of history questions,” Lindsay said. “I’m way better at that than I am at remembering math.”

“Wait! What’s the Pythagorean theorem again?” Aimee asked.

Fiona knew that answer. “For a right triangle with legs
a
and
b
and hypotenuse
c
, the formula is
a
-squared plus
b
-squared equals
c
-squared. Right?”

Lindsay made a face. “Yeah, you’re right. Ugh. I hope I pass this…”

“I think we’ll
all
do great,” Madison said to cheer everyone up. “We’ll do better than Poison Ivy. She never studies for real for anything…”

“And don’t forget Lance,” Aimee said.

“Or my brother Chet,” Fiona said with a giggle. “Even if he studies, he probably will mess up.”

“Well, at least we tried,” Madison said. It was the kind of thing her Gramma Helen would have said.

All the practicing and quizzing made the time pass very quickly. The train pulled into the station at Far Hills around two o’clock.

As they exited the train, Madison saw the parents clustered together: Mrs. Gillespie, Mr. Waters, and Madison’s dad, too. Dad had brought Phinnie along, and the dog started tugging at his leash the moment he saw Madison appear.

The girls said their various good-byes and headed for home. Aimee and Fiona promised to e-mail Madison later. They were curious to know if Hart had sent any notes or left any messages at Madison’s house.

“I’m so glad you called me yesterday,” Dad told Madison in the car as he pulled away.

“Me, too,” Madison said.

She and Lindsay huddled together in the backseat with Phinnie, who couldn’t stop licking Madison’s hands and face. His little pug tail was wagging nonstop.

“It sounds like you had yourselves quite a terrific weekend,” Dad said, looking at them in the rearview mirror.

“It was the best,” Lindsay said, squeezing Madison’s hand. “But it’s always the best when your best friends are there.”

Wonder


It is now so early in the morning that the sun hasn’t even totally come out yet. I can see it through the window here @ Dad’s place. It’s coming in like slivers of light through the blinds. I keep thinking about the sun and all the planets out there somewhere, so far away, like our moon and the moons of Jupiter. It makes me wonder.


Rude Awakening:
This weekend we saw a thousand lights glittering in the planetarium. But somehow, I still feel like I’m in the dark.


There is SO much I don’t know—about all those stars up in the sky, about the test coming up, and even about whether or not Hart Jones really likes me enough to ask me out again.


“Maddie?” a voice croaked from the dark hallway outside Madison’s room. It was Madison’s stepmother, Stephanie. She’d just gotten up to prepare for work. She had an appointment in another county—and a long drive ahead of her that morning. Her hair was pulled up in a barrette and she was wearing only a long T-shirt and her slippers.

“Hey, Stephanie,” Madison said in a low voice. Phinnie was still asleep, on top of Madison’s bed.

“What are you doing up this early?” Stephanie asked. “You’re always on the computer, aren’t you?”

“Not always,” Madison said. “Is Dad up?”

“Not yet. He’s out cold,” Stephanie said. “The alarm will be going off in about a half hour.”

“I couldn’t sleep anymore. And then I saw the sunrise,” Madison explained, pointing to the window.

Stephanie walked into Madison’s room and pulled open one of the blinds. Beautiful morning light poured into the room, and everything was bathed in Madison’s favorite color, orange.

“Mmmm,” Stephanie cooed. “That’s a nice way to greet the day.”

Madison grinned. “I’m glad I slept over,” she said.

“So are we,” Stephanie said. “Your dad, especially. He really misses you when plans change and he can’t do the regular dinners. It was all he talked about on Saturday night.”

“Really?” Madison said.

“Well, I’d better get into the shower,” Stephanie said. She kissed Madison on the top of the head. “There’s fresh OJ in the fridge if you want to pour yourself a glass.”

“Thanks,” Madison said, turning back to her laptop. She realized, after she saved the file in which she had been writing, that she hadn’t checked her e-mailbox since the other night at Aunt Mimi’s apartment. Madison quickly surfed into TweenBlurt.com and opened it up.

FROM          SUBJECT


XMENALOT       Special Offer


GoGramma      Miss You


Bigwheels      RE: What If


Wetwinz        Egg Says…


LuvNstuff      Thank you!!!


HartUR4E       Try This FREE


She couldn’t believe that she’d received so much mail in only a day. The first one was an easy delete. It was clearly spam. The message from Gramma Helen was short and sweet. Madison would write her back later, maybe in the media lab at school, after the dreaded test. Then Madison opened the note from Bigwheels.

From: Bigwheels


To: MadFinn


Subject: RE: What If


Date: Sun 13 Dec 8:10
PM


My brother said a few words today. Not just one--but three--MAMA, DADDO, and ME-ME. We were all amazed. Madison, you don’t know how cool this is for my mom & dad. Mom says I can keep my blog going, BTW, so check back for more news--and more words YEAH!


On top of everything else, I found out that we don’t have to take any more tests @ school this week. I’m sorry you do. You will ACE THEM ALL! I know it. :-l


Write back SOON.


Yours till the hot chocolates (your frozen kind sounds so yummy!)
Vicki aka Bigwheels


Madison hit
SAVE
so she would remember to write Bigwheels later that day. She clicked on Fiona’s e-mail next, hoping for some good news about the whole Hart situation.

From: Wetwinz


To: MadFinn, BalletGrl, LuvNstuff


Subject: Egg Says…


Date: Mon 1 Dec 12:08
AM


I can’t believe I’m online right now OMG! But earlier tonite Egg called me & I had 2 share w/u. He says that the test is supposed to be super EZ. His sister Mariah took it 2 yrs ago and she didn’t have any probs. Aim--what about yr bros? Did u ask them? We should have thought of that on Friday! Ok so CUL8R.


xoxo
F.


Madison hit
DELETE
. She had hoped for a different kind of news, but apparently, Hart had not told Egg anything. Or at least, Fiona wasn’t saying.

The next e-mail was from Lindsay. Madison opened it up: the attachment was an E-card from one of those cool free greeting-card sites. It played music and had an animation of a frog leaping across lily pads. A shower of virtual confetti sprinkled across the screen once the card was read. Madison couldn’t believe that Lindsay had sent a thank-you card already.

The last e-mail in Madison’s e-mailbox looked like spam, too. She didn’t recognize the address or the subject matter. But then she looked a little bit closer at the sender’s name.

HartUR4E      Try This FREE


She couldn’t believe the coincidence. How had Hart’s name—of all names—ended up in her e-mailbox? She thought back to something Aunt Mimi had said that weekend, about not believing in coincidences. Aunt Mimi believed in destiny. Madison wanted to believe in destiny, too—as in, her destiny with Hart. So she didn’t open the message, just in case there was a virus contained in it, but she also didn’t delete it, just in case it meant something.

Morale at school that morning was low. Signs were posted all over FHJH telling students about the times and locations of their particular standardized-test practices. Most of them took place in people’s first-period classes. Madison couldn’t believe that. Her first period today was Science. That meant she had to take the test with her enemy, Poison Ivy.

Before heading off to class, Madison, Aimee, Fiona, and Lindsay met up by the lockers for a good-luck hug. They agreed that everyone would get together later in the cafeteria to exchange thoughts about what had happened during the test. Aimee made Lindsay promise them all that she would not freak out in the middle of the test if she didn’t know an answer.

Mr. Danehy stood at the front of Madison’s science classroom with a sour look on his face, waiting for the bell to ring.

Madison slid into her seat. Ivy wasn’t there! She couldn’t believe her luck. No enemy, no problem. Another reason she was glad that Ivy was missing was that she wouldn’t have to deal with any more obscure accusations concerning missing (or stolen) notebooks. That morning Madison had
not
found Ivy’s notebook in her locker.

“Please put your bags under your chairs.” Mr. Danehy started his speech about test rules. The class had heard a version of these rules at least a hundred times before.

Madison stared across the room while Mr. Danehy was speaking. Her eyes landed on something familiar. Well, someone familiar.

Hart was looking back at her. He smiled.

Madison smiled, too. Her entire body warmed up when she did that. It was a strange sensation. Normally, Hart made her nervous, but for some reason, looking at him right now, before the big practice test, she relaxed.

Everyone got settled in their seats with sharpened pencils. A few moments after the class bell rang, Mr. Danehy formally began the test with a smack of his palm on his desk. “Go!” he cried.

Most of the kids laughed nervously. Madison just stared straight down at the page. She wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.

There weren’t too many questions on computer technology, which was a bummer, but there were questions on the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. Thanks to a study trick that Lindsay had shared on the train, Madison got both questions right. Or at least, she was pretty sure she did. She zipped through most of the math section, too. Egg’s sister, Mariah, had given good advice. This was a lot easier than it seemed.

At lunchtime, Madison couldn’t wait to catch up with Aimee, Fiona, Lindsay, and the others to exchange reactions. Since it was just a practice test, the results didn’t
really
matter, except that it meant something among friends. Even if the grades didn’t count on people’s report cards, they counted when being compared with those of other kids in the class.

Madison didn’t usually feel so competitive about that kind of thing, but even she found herself wanting an excellent score so she would have bragging rights. She hoped that Lindsay, however, got the best score of all. Lindsay needed bragging rights more than anyone. Of all her friends, Lindsay was the one who counted on the A-pluses. Of course, minus signs next to grade letters were unacceptable. And after a stressful (although very fun!) birthday weekend, Madison knew that a perfect (or nearly perfect) test score would be a most excellent bonus birthday present.