Forget Me Not (From the Files of Madison Finn, 21) (9 page)

“What’s so funny?” Fiona asked, walking over to the table with her lunch tray.

“Dan’s doing stand-up,” Hart said, slapping Dan on the back.

“We could hear you laughing like hyenas all the way across the room,” Aimee added.

“Hyenas?” Chet said.

“Yeah,” Fiona added. “As in, really ugly and annoying animals.”

“That’s too cruel,” Chet gasped, pretending he’d been shot through the heart. “Even coming from you, sis.”

“Like that’s the worst thing you’ve ever been called,
bro
,” Fiona moaned.

The girls all laughed. Chet and Fiona really were going at each other like angry hyenas.

“Egg went home sick,” Dan finally said, filling Fiona in on the news. She looked one part disgusted and two parts concerned when she heard.

“So, does anyone get filmed later today?” Hart asked after a few quiet moments.

“Uh-huh,” Lindsay nodded. “They’re going to take footage at newspaper headquarters later today. I’m working on an edition of the paper. We each get to answer one question on camera.”

“Did you say, ‘newspaper
headquarters
’?” Chet said.

“More like the newspaper closet,” Hart said.

“Oh, take a leap of imagination, you two,” Lindsay said. She quickly glanced over at Maddie for support.

“Yeah, take a leap, Hart,” Madison added, chuckling.

Hart laughed and nudged Madison again. “Okay, I’m leaping.” He jumped away from the table and headed back toward the kitchen and the salad bar.

Madison followed him with her eyes. But as he walked away, Hart stopped by another lunchroom table.

Ivy’s table.

Aimee, Fiona, and Lindsay also saw him stop there. They all stared. Ivy had reached right into the aisle as Hart walked by and literally yanked him by the arm.

Madison moaned. “This has not been the best week of my life,” she said.

“What’s the matter,
honey bear
?” Lindsay asked, feigning a Mom tone of voice.

“What’s wrong? You mean, besides everything?” Madison asked. She took a breath. “It’s this whole movie, of course. But even more than that, it’s Mom—”

“You know Maddie, your mom is the best,” Fiona blurted out.

All the boys nodded.

Madison cocked her head to one side.
The best
?

“Yeah, how did
you
ever get such a cool mother, Maddie?” Dan asked.

Cool?

“Yeah, I wish my mom was as cool as yours,” Dan said.

“But your mom is cooler than cool,” Madison said.

Dan’s mother, Eileen Ginsburg, ran the office at the animal clinic in Far Hills. As far as Madison was concerned, Eileen was practically a mentor. Madison admired Eileen’s collection of animal T-shirts emblazoned with funky sayings
LIKE KITTY KAT CLUB
and
WOOF IF YOU LOVE ME.

Madison took a large bite of her sandwich. A lettuce leaf smeared with mayonnaise fell out. Madison chewed and listened to her friends as much as she could, but secretly she kept her eyes trained on the back of Hart’s head.

Hart didn’t like-like Ivy, so Madison didn’t really have to worry.

Did she?

They couldn’t be flirting.

Could they?

In the midst of her reverie, some wild seventh grader dropped his lunch tray. He narrowly missed impaling a passerby with a fork, and his plummeting milk carton exploded all over one of the teachers at the front of the room. The cafeteria exploded, too, into a chorus of banging and whistling for the kid. When Madison glanced over at the next table, she saw Ivy and Hart laughing together. Kids were making obnoxious comments.

“Way to drop it!”

“L-O-S-E-R!”

“Wait! Did you catch that shot?”

Madison turned. She wanted to say something, but then she spotted her mom and the crew.

“Whoa, that is so weird,” Aimee blurted. “Do you think your mom knew that we were just talking about her a minute ago?”

Madison rolled her eyes. Usually, she believed in all that karmic, superstitious stuff, but not this time.

He
was standing there, too.

Mom and Julian Lodge headed straight for the tables at the middle of the cafeteria. They instructed the lunch monitors on how to assist the crew in keeping the students organized. Mom carried her usual clipboard. At one point she tried making eye contact with Madison, who promptly looked away.

Julian waved his hands and prepared to make an announcement.

“Everyone, remain seated where you are, please. This is a last-minute shoot. If you did not supply a permission slip, you will need to exit the lunchroom immediately. We’re just going to pan the lunchroom and do a few close-ups and establishing shots.”

Right in the middle of Julian’s little speech, Madison got up from of her seat at the orange table, with her tray in her hands.

“Excuse me, miss,” Julian waved at Madison without quite realizing who she was. “Come back and be seated, please.”

But Madison didn’t listen. She gave Julian and the lunch monitor the brush-off and pushed her way through a set of doors at the side of the room.

The air in the hall smelled like glue. A teacher stood there on a stepladder, hanging objects from an art class. Madison stopped for a moment to clear her head. She’d never stormed away from anything before. Not like this. Not in front of
the entire school
.

The lunchroom doors banged open. Mom appeared.

“Maddie! What kind of a scene was that?” Mom asked. Lowering her voice to a whisper, she walked right up to Madison and took her by the arm. “What is going on with you these past few days, Maddie?”

“Nothing,” Madison mumbled.

“Don’t play around with me, young lady,” Mom said.

Madison could tell that this scene had the potential to get ugly very fast. “You’re ruining everything, Mom,” she said bluntly.

Mom looked surprised. “Ruining everything?” she repeated.

Madison nodded. “Yes. Everything.”

“Maddie.” Mom was confused. She changed to a more playful tone, probably hoping to get Madison’s spirits up again. “You and your friends are a part of something fun here. Why are you turning this into some kind of war?”

“Because it is,” Madison said through clenched teeth.

Mom ran her fingers across the very top of her hair, most of which had been pulled back in a paisley scarf.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” Mom said under her breath.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to
me
,” Madison said, practically spitting the words out.

By now, the lunchroom monitor had exited as well, and Madison could see kids shoving up against the cafeteria doors, hoping to get a glance of the action—her action.

Madison glanced over at them. Friends and other members of her classes stared. She’d worked so hard all week to stay away from the camera and out of the spotlight, and yet here she was, front and center of everything.

But Madison didn’t care.

“Leave me alone, Mom,” Madison said.

“Maddie,” Mom pleaded. “Let’s talk about this at home. This is certainly not the time or the place for theatrics.”

“You need to pick,” Madison said.

“Pick? What?”

“Me or the camera,” Madison said assertively.

“The camera? What are you talking about?” Mom was taken aback.

“Just pick, or else,” Madison said.

“Or else what?” Mom asked.

At that exact moment, Julian Lodge came through the cafeteria doors, along with the film crew and the cameras.

But Mom still had not answered the question. She hadn’t picked.

“Is there a problem out here? Because we need to go back inside and shoot, Francine,” Julian said. He glanced at his watch. “Maddie, why don’t you come back inside, too? Let’s work this out.”

Mom looked at Madison and then looked at Julian. Madison saw a kind of sad, faraway look in Mom’s eyes. It was the same look Mom had used to get all the time during (and after) the Big D.

“Madison, we need to have a serious talk,” Mom said in a low voice so no one else but they could hear.

“Yes, we do,” Madison said, nodding in agreement.

But instead of turning back toward the cafeteria with Mom, Julian, and the others, Madison walked in the opposite direction, toward the lockers.

And Mom didn’t follow.

O
THER THAN THOSE TIMES
when Mom had been away traveling or when Madison had gone on sleepovers, Friday night was the first time ever that Madison had not given Mom a kiss good night.

Of course, no kiss meant that Madison had gone to bed angry. And after going to bed angry, all Madison could do was toss and turn all night long. So by the time Saturday morning came around, an exhausted Madison could barely crawl out from under the covers. This morning, she was too tired even to sit at her desk, so Madison dragged her laptop on to the bed. At around ten-thirty, Madison sent a message to her keypal, hoping to catch Bigwheels online even though she knew it was early in Washington State, where Bigwheels lived.

But there she was! Bigwheels
was
online.

: OMG I need u


: Helloooooo well I’m here


: is it only 8 or something where u r?


: I woke up early b/c my Dad is running a marathon 2day even tho it’s so cold here


: That’s 2C4W


: so WTBD?


: HUGE fight w/Mom


: ONO what about?


: this school video


: &?


: I hate her no I hate IT


: Y???


: 8>} im scared of making a fool of me


: u know my new class pal told me 2day to not be afraid of stuff and I think u should try that 2


: huh? Y did yr class pal say that?


: I was chicken about something a song I had to sing in chorus


: U didn’t tell me that


: yeah Pinkie is soooo nice


: does she have a real name?


: yeah it’s Melody & we talked in school every day this week


Madison leaned back into her pillows for a second. How did Bigwheels’s class pal find her way into their online chat
again
? Weren’t they just talking about Madison and
her
problems with Mom? What was Melody doing in the mix?

: maddie???


Madison didn’t know what to say. Normally, Bigwheels would just know all the right things to say when Madison was having a hard time. But for some reason today was different. Bigwheels was only
half
there.

Phinnie jumped on top of the covers on Madison’s bed, nearly knocking the laptop off the side. Madison grabbed it in the nick of time. She glanced back at the screen.

: Hello yo? R U THERE?? DRA …


: i’m here i’m here


: whats wrong?


: I told u


: that isn’t all, I can tell


: well the truth is that I saw mom with this guy who happens to be the guy directing the movie at our school


: what were they doing?


: Standing 2 close


: Whoa


: I know it bummed me out


: Y?


Madison sat there for a moment and thought about Bigwheels’s question

Why?

Why did it bother her to find Mom and Julian together like that?

Phin’s ears perked up the way they always did when he heard a funny noise. He jumped back down off the bed and started scratching at Madison’s bedroom door.

“Maddie?”

Mom knocked softly from the other side of the door, but her voice was clear.

“Maddie? I know you don’t feel well, but you just got a call from Dan. He’s down at the clinic, and he wanted to know if you’re still coming in today.”

Madison gasped. It was Saturday. She’d completely forgotten. “Uh … I …” Madison stammered. She didn’t want to break the boycott again, but she had to talk to Mom now. “Is Dan still on the phone? Um …”

She heard Mom try to turn the doorknob, but it was locked.

“Maddie, please open this door right now. You know what I’ve said about locked doors in this house. I don’t want to have to ask you again….”

Mom started in on one of her lectures. Madison glanced quickly back down at the laptop screen.

: OMG I have 2 go


: wait but u didn’t finish


: I fogot somthg imptant I hve 2 go NOW


Madison signed off without spelling anything correctly—and without a proper good-bye to her keypal. She shut the laptop and raced over to the locked door. With a click, she turned the knob.

“… And I don’t think that you’re even listening to me when I tell you …”

Mom stood back, eyes wide open.

“There, that’s better,” she said, stopping her lecture. “Now, what’s this about going to the clinic today? You didn’t mention anything to me.”

“I forgot, Mom. Really, it’s not a big deal,” Madison said.

“Well, I think you should know—” Mom started to say.

Madison cut her off. “Look, I can’t stand around talking now,” she said, tearing through her closet. “I need to get dressed really fast and get over there.”

“Madison, there’s something important you should—”

“How about these? Do you like these? Oh, how about these?”

Madison yanked on a pair of jeans, even though they were paint-stained. She figured that grubby was better if she was going to be handling new puppies and the puppy chow and poop that went along with the job.

“How are you planning to get to the animal clinic?” Mom asked.