All That Glitters (From the Files of Madison Finn, 20) (3 page)

Apparently, Mimi had never married, although she’d dated movie stars and big shots in business all her life. She had no children of her own, but Mimi loved to spoil her niece. She spent her loot in wild ways, especially when it came to Lindsay’s birthdays. One time she’d rented an entire circus tent (including a baby elephant) for Lindsay’s sixth birthday. Another time Mimi had hired one of the best magicians in the city to come to Lindsay’s party—and make Lindsay disappear.

“I’m glad to meet you by phone,” Madison said. “Can you tell Lindsay that I called?”

“Sweetums, you haven’t even told me your name!” Mimi said.

“Oh, I’m Madison Finn.”

“Madison! Did you say Madison? Is this
the
Madison?”

“Um, yeah, I guess,” Madison stammered, holding back the urge to giggle.

“Awww! I know you! Lindsay has told me gobs and oodles about you. My goodness! How
are
you? How’s your pooch? You’re the one with a pug, right?”

“Right,” Madison said, impressed.

“So you’ll be coming to the big glittery bash in the Big Apple!” Mimi declared. “Fah-bulous!”

“Will you tell Lindsay I called?” Madison asked.

“Hey! Does a mosquito bite?” Mimi responded. “You betcha I will!”

Madison giggled. “Thanks, Ms. Frost.”

“Call me Mimi. We’re practically related!”

Madison laughed again and hung up.

“Time to party!” Madison said.

She jumped in front of the hall mirror and struck a pose.

“New York City, here I come.”

O
N MONDAY MORNING AT
school, Madison found Fiona and Aimee near their lockers.

“Where’s Lindsay?” Madison asked.

“I haven’t seen her yet,” Fiona said.

From around a corner, Lindsay craned her neck and yelled, “Hello, party girls!” really loudly. She was grinning from ear to ear.

“There you are!” Aimee said.

Lindsay rushed over to her friends with arms extended, and the foursome squeezed together in a group hug.

“You can all come to my party, and I am so-o-o-o psyched,” Lindsay declared. “I thought for sure you would have some dance recital, Aim, or that you’d have soccer, Fiona, or that you’d have to work at the animal hospital, Maddie, or that…”

“Relax,” Aimee said. “We’re coming. All of us.”

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Fiona said.

Lindsay smiled broadly again. She held her hand up to her chest as if she were getting a little choked up, so Madison linked arms with her friend.

“Are you okay?” Madison asked.

“Yeah, I just wish it were Saturday already,” Lindsay said with a laugh.

“Hold on. I just thought of something,” Fiona said. “What do you want for a present, Lindsay?”

“Present? Gee, I don’t know,” Lindsay shrugged.

“How about hair combs?” Aimee asked. “I saw some beautiful tortoiseshell ones at the beauty shop at the mall. They would match your hair.”

Lindsay shrugged. “That sounds nice.”

“What about a book? You like to read,” Fiona said. “Did you read
The Hunger Games
yet?”

Lindsay nodded. “I read them all.”

“Wait! I know exactly what to get you,” Madison said.

The idea had popped into Madison’s head like a flash of lightning. She would buy one of those picture frames with a dozen different spots for various-sized photographs. During the weekend, Madison would take pictures with Dad’s digital camera and then print out the good ones in the right sizes to fit the different spaces. Then she could place a collage on top of the matting inside the frame. It was the perfect place to write secret messages and cut out words from magazines. Madison knew that Fiona and Aimee would probably want to help her out, too.

“You guys,” Lindsay said. “I really don’t care so much about the gifts. I just want to have a good time. I’ve never brought friends into the city like this before. My mom keeps saying it’s such a big deal. She was nervous at first, but then my aunt convinced her that everything would be okay.”

“I talked to your aunt on the phone the other night,” Madison said. “She sounds like a real trip.”

“Yeah, to the moon,” Lindsay said with another laugh. “Sometimes I feel like Aunt Mimi really is from another planet. She has the wildest ideas. I don’t understand how she and my mom could be related.”

“That’s what I say about my brother,” Fiona said. “I’m convinced that one day I’ll be able to prove that we are not actually twins. I just can’t be related to that moron.”

Everyone laughed out loud.

The bell rang in the hallway as the girls continued to talk about the party planning. All Aimee could think about was the clothes she needed to buy. She was ready for some serious shopping. Fiona wanted to know if they would be able to visit the Empire State Building, because she’d never been to the top before, not since she’d moved to New York from California. Madison wanted to visit the American Museum of Natural History and take a walk through Central Park.

But Lindsay didn’t know
what
her Aunt Mimi had planned.

“How can you not know?” Aimee asked. “It’s your birthday.”

“She told me she wanted everything to be a surprise,” Lindsay said.

“That sounds cool,” Madison said with a grin. “What’s better than a surprise?”

“I can think of a lot of things!” Aimee said. “Like knowing where we’ll be shopping, for one thing.”

Madison and Fiona both frowned at Aimee when she said that.

“It’s Lindsay’s party, Aim,” Fiona said. “Not yours.”

“Fine,” Aimee said, letting out a little huff. “Sorry, Lindsay. I guess I’m just feeling a little carried away. My mother usually doesn’t let me go into the city unless she goes, too…and I have this list of places I’ve always wanted to see…and…I guess I should just be quiet. It’s
your
party.”

“Maybe my aunt Mimi will take us to some of the stores you like,” Lindsay said. “She knows all the best places to shop. I told her you were a dancer, and she got this look in her eye like she knew
just
the place to go.”

“She did?” Aimee said. “Wow, that’s so cool.”

From down the hall, a group of ninth graders loped along toward the girls. The four friends shuffled off to the side and leaned against the locker bank.

“I hate being in the lowest grade sometimes,” Fiona said.

“Me, too,” Madison agreed.

Madison looked up at her friends’ faces. All three stood there, mouths slightly open.

“What’s wrong with you three?” Madison asked.

Lindsay just pointed. Aimee started to giggle. Fiona scowled.

“Egg!” Fiona yelled just as Madison turned around to find him holding up a sign above her head that read:
KICK ME
.

Madison ripped the sign out of Egg’s hands. “What are you doing?” she exclaimed angrily.

Egg was nearly doubled over with laughter. Meanwhile, Madison had quickly turned three shades of plum.

“That isn’t nice,” Madison said, giving Egg a little punch.

Fiona grabbed Egg’s arm and squeezed hard.

“I didn’t even write it,” Egg squealed. “Hart did! Jones wrote it. Leave me alone.”

Hart came up behind Madison and threw his arm around her shoulder. “I did write it. I admit it,” he said.

Madison froze. She could feel Hart’s hand on her shoulder.

Why was he standing so close? Could he feel her bra strap through the sweater she was wearing? Could he smell her shampoo?

He kept his arm around Madison for what seemed like an eternity—and she still couldn’t move. She could barely breathe.

“He thought you’d get a kick out of it,” said Dan Ginsburg, who had come up behind the other boys. Standing next to him, doubled over with laughter, was Fiona’s twin brother, Chet.

“That really, really wasn’t nice,” Fiona said again.

Madison’s stomach grumbled nervously. It was like thunder, rumbling endlessly, and she hoped that no one—but especially not Hart—could hear it.

He was still standing there, twenty seconds later, with his arm around her.

“You guys are so juvenile,” Aimee finally said, crossing her arms. “We were in the middle of talking, you know.”

“About what, Aim?” Egg asked. “Ballet? Like you ever talk about anything else.”

“Excuse me?” Aimee barked back. She looked a little stunned by Egg’s comment. Everyone was. Sometimes he said things like that. Usually, the group took what he said as a joke, but that comment seemed to sting a little bit more than usual.

“You ding-dong,” Aimee said to Egg. “And I suppose you have so much to say about anything other than computer games. Duh.”

Madison giggled, and then everyone joined in. Thankfully, Aimee had made a quick recovery.

“That was a good one,” Hart said.

Madison had been so distracted by the comments flying back and forth between her friends that she hadn’t noticed something very strange.

Hart
still
had his arm around her.

Soon the boys took off toward study hall, math class, and other destinations. The girls needed to do the same, but they were slower about doing it.

“What was that about?” Lindsay, Aimee, and Fiona asked, practically at the same time.

Madison shrugged. “I know. Egg was being a real jerk.”

“Egg!” Aimee yelled. “Who cares about Egg? I’m talking about Hart.”

“Oh,” Madison said.

“‘Kick me’?” Lindsay said with a slight giggle.

Fiona smirked. “He should have put, ‘Kiss me.’ He was practically doing that anyway.”

“
What
are you talking about?” Madison exclaimed.

“She’s right, Maddie,” Aimee said. “Hart was standing on top of you, like, the whole time he was here. What was going on? Did we miss something? Did you guys start dating and forget to tell us? I mean, it’s been a long time coming, but really…”

“We are not dating,” Madison asserted. “I would tell you if we were. I tell you everything.”

“Everything?” Lindsay asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Lindsay!” Madison cried. She blushed instantly.

“Hart Jones wouldn’t let go of your arm, Maddie,” Fiona said. “I think you have to accept that. Egg even noticed. I could tell. I don’t know about the other guys. Chet needs to be hit by a brick before he notices anything.”

“I think you three are imagining things,” Madison said.

Fiona, Aimee, and Lindsay stood there with their hands on their hips and looks of utter disbelief on their faces.

“Believe what you want to believe, Maddie,” Aimee said.

“He’s close,” Fiona said in a high-pitched voice. “Or, as you would say, he’s closer than close.”

Lindsay nodded. “Yup.”

“Close to
what
?” Madison asked.

No one answered in words. The three BFFs just grinned. And of course, Madison knew what Hart was close to. She’d been waiting. He’d been waiting. They’d been on the verge of this for a long time now, ever since he’d first nicknamed her Finnster, back in elementary school.

Another bell rang in the hallway. They had to dash to class but agreed to meet back at the lockers during the next free period. There was so much to talk about: the Hart incident, the party, and who knew what else.

Madison raced to her science class, which was one flight up from where they’d been standing. She readjusted the sleeve of her sweater. Hart had stretched it with all of that pulling.

“Miss Finn,” Mr. Danehy said as he drummed his fingers on his desktop. “You are late. You know I don’t tolerate lateness.”

“I know,” Madison said meekly. “Sorry.”

She slinked into her assigned seat. Everyone’s eyes were on her—including, from across the room, Hart’s. She sensed that Hart wanted Madison to turn and smile or give him some kind of acknowledgment, but she wouldn’t budge. Instead, she turned her head toward her lab partner: “Poison” Ivy Daly.

“You look awful,” Ivy growled. She held one hand up, examining her manicure. “Ever consider getting a makeover?”

Madison’s stomach was still grumbling. This time, it was heard—by the enemy, of all people.

“What did you have for lunch?” Ivy joked. “Should I be worried?”

Madison pressed her hands over her face. She felt hot and clammy at the same time. Was it possible for so many embarrassing, torturous events to happen simultaneously?

Apparently, yes.

No sooner had Ivy made her crack about Madison’s makeover and her growling tummy than Mr. Danehy clicked his ruler on his desk.

“Attention, students,” he said. He called on one of the kids in the front row to help him distribute some printouts to everyone in the class.

As the printouts were distributed, Mr. Danehy continued to speak.

“What you have in front of you is an important document,” he said. “The school district has decided to give some practice standardized tests next week, starting on Monday. This sheet has the order of the testing. There is no specific study manual, but I assume you will all do your best to prepare.”

“Huh?” Madison said aloud without even realizing it. “How can we prepare for something when we don’t know what it is?”

A couple of other kids in the class seemed to concur.

Mr. Danehy scratched his head. “I suppose you’re right, Miss Finn, but I’m afraid I don’t control the test.”

A silence hung over the room. Kids fidgeted in their chairs and absentmindedly flipped through their
Earth Science Is for Everyone
textbooks.

Madison quickly glanced in Hart’s direction to see how he was dealing with the news about the test.

Hart was looking right at her.

Madison didn’t know how to react. Without thinking, she stuck out her tongue.

She meant it as a sarcastic response to the news about the standardized test, of course. But Hart didn’t look as though he understood. He didn’t smile. He didn’t say, “Oh, that’s so funny, Finnster, hardy-har-har.”

Hart just ran his fingers through his brown hair—and looked away.

Then Madison thought of something even worse than Hart’s not understanding what she’d done.

If the big test was on Monday, what would happen to Lindsay’s special birthday weekend?

The Dilemma


Lindsay called me last nite b/c she was STILL wondering if maybe she should cancel her party. She was freaking out about this on Tuesday AND Wednesday and now it’s Thursday and she is STILL wondering!!


I know why. Everyone knows.


Lindsay takes tests really, REALLY seriously (& of course I do too). She has this thing about having a perfect grade point average. Mostly she gets A+ instead of just A. She is that smart. She’s afraid that we’ll miss studying in New York.


I tried to set her straight. I told Lindsay that even though the test was important, there was NO WAY she could cancel her amazing birthday celebration. OMG! The 4 of us have never ever gone to NYC together even though it’s just ½ hour away. This is one of those lifetime opportunities. And besides, we could study on the train, right?


But even when I begged, Lindsay still seemed unsure. I wanted to scream. What’s her dilemma?


Rude Awakening:
This is waaaaay more than just a birthday. It is a medical emergency. We practically need to take CPR to keep the life in Lindsay’s party.