Save the Date (2 page)

“Next time you get one of these, give it to me right away,” Mom said.

Dingdong.

Mom threw her hands into the air.
“Now
what?” She raced over to the door and opened it with a flourish.

“Oh!” Mom exclaimed. “It’s you!”

The Dickson Fix-It guy had finally arrived, with his gray hair and clothes drenched from the rain. His shirt read
WILLIAM
on the pocket in red embroidered letters. When he smiled, Madison saw a huge gap between his front teeth.

“Name’s Billy,” he said gruffly, shaking Mom’s hand. “You must be …”

“Fran Finn,” Mom said with a smile.

Fwwwwackkkkkkkk!

Lightning and thunder flared up again, and Aimee and Madison screamed, grabbing each other around the waist. The hall lights flickered.

“Welcome to the fun … I mean the Finn house,” Mom said to Billy with an exasperated sigh. She led him inside. As he walked into the hallway, Madison noticed Mom was still smiling.

And Billy was smiling back.

“He’s kind of cute,” Aimee whispered, elbowing Madison in the side. “Don’t you think?”

Madison made a face. “Eeeeeeew,” she said softly. “He’s old.”

“Let’s go get that leak!” Billy said. “Where do I need to go?”

Mom laughed even though he hadn’t said anything funny. As they walked over to the staircase, Billy stepped carefully over the pile of stuff Madison had emptied out of her bag in the hallway.

“What is
this?”
Mom said, pointing to the pile.

“Oh. Nothing. I’ll pick it up later. Mom.” Madison groaned. “I promise.”

Madison expected an instant lecture. Lucky for her, Mom didn’t make a scene or say another word. She just turned and smiled at Billy again.

“The problem is coming from my daughter’s bedroom,” Mom said as she led him upstairs. Billy hovered behind her like an insect, his tools dangling and clanging on his belt.

“Come on, Aimee,” Madison grumbled. She grabbed Aimee’s wrist and headed upstairs. “I want to keep an eye on things.”

A
IMEE GASPED WHEN THEY
walked into Madison’s bedroom. It was wetter than wet—and the waste-basket wasn’t doing much good anymore. New leaks had started in different spots on the ceiling.

“It’s all coming from the same main leak,” Billy said, reaching up to touch the ceiling. “It’s traveling along the beams in the ceiling. You got a chimney on this side of the house? Had any problems with that roof?”

Mom shrugged. “I don’t have a clue,” she said. “I thought we were fine. We never had a leak before.”

Billy opened the window and stuck his head out into the rain. He said if he arched his back, he could see the chimney. Mom went over to the window to make sure he wouldn’t fall out.

“Please be careful,” she said, flailing her arms. She bobbed and weaved herself to avoid getting pelted by raindrops. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

Aimee thought Billy was cool.

Madison thought he was acting like a show-off.

“You got a bigger problem than one little leak,” Billy said, climbing back inside.

“How much?” Mom asked. She sat on the windowsill and groaned.

Billy smiled, and his teeth gleamed. “Well, I think your chimney is busted and some of the shingles out there need to be replaced. You have some rotten wood and corrosion. And unfortunately, with this rain, I can’t really do much until it dries up….”

“Oh!” Mom sighed. But then she smiled. “But it
can
be fixed? You can fix it?”

“That’s why we call the company Dickson Fix-It, ma’am.”

“Please. Call
me
Frannie,” Mom said.

Madison crossed her arms against her chest and made a face. How could Mom be acting so nice to this total stranger when there was a total disaster in her bedroom? And why was she still smiling?

Aimee was getting a little restless, too. “Let’s go back downstairs, Maddie,” Aimee pleaded. “I have something to show you—and we have to paint our nails, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Madison said. She didn’t want to leave all her stuff. She didn’t want to leave Mom, either.

Before they went back down, Mom asked the girls to help move some of Madison’s things out of the way and against the walls. They pushed the purple inflatable chair over by the closet, covered the bed in plastic, and made sure no clothing, stuffed animals, or posters were in a potential “wet zone.” Then Madison followed her BFF back downstairs, reluctantly.

Sharp rain plinked against the windows in the den. There was a flash of yellow in the evening sky that made the room glow. Madison counted one, two, three until a thunderbolt cracked. The storm sounded like it was churning around the house and trees in the backyard.

“I have to show you my new pictures!” Aimee said, rushing over to her schoolbag. She pulled out a fat blue portfolio. “I need you to help me pick one out for the ballet revue program.”

Aimee pulled Madison over to the couch and sat her down.

“Do you like the one with my hair in the bun or a French twist?” Aimee asked as she took out more photos. “What do you think of this one?” Aimee held up a photograph of her in a pink-and-blue pastel leotard. “I look way too fat, right?”

“Huh?” Madison sighed. She got up and wandered over by the stairway to see if she could hear anything else from upstairs.

“Maddie?” Aimee asked. She held up another photo that looked
exactly
like the first one. “What about this?”

“You always look great,” Madison said, distracted. She could still hear faint noises from upstairs.

Laughter. A hammer. More laughter.

Aimee held the two pictures up again for a side-by-side comparison. “I think I like this one better. Don’t you?”

Madison was staring up the stairway, trying to hear the conversation between her mom and Billy.

“Earth to Madison! I just asked you a question,” Aimee said.

“Sorry,” Madison said. She took the photographs from Aimee and picked one. “I like this. You look pretty in this one.”

Mom came down the stairs. “Well! We’re in capable hands with Billy. Isn’t he great?”

“Great,” Madison said, not feeling the situation was great in any way.

“Anyone hungry for some dinner?” Mom asked the pair.

Madison and Aimee followed her into the kitchen. Since pizza was the ultimate friend food, Mom ordered a large one with mushrooms and pepperoni.

“I think that Billy guy is so weird,” Madison said to her mom.

“Oh, Maddie! But he’s so nice.” Mom laughed. “Billy works as a cameraman for a film company.

Isn’t it a small world that we both work in the industry? He does contracting work on the side when he’s not filming. Actually, Billy and I have a lot in common. Isn’t that funny?”

“Hysterical,” Madison said. She wanted Mom to stop smiling and
stop
saying his name. The word
Billy
was really bothering Madison, like a pesky mosquito buzzing at her ears.

“Can I show you my ballet pictures, Mrs. Finn?” Aimee asked, pushing her overflowing portfolio onto the countertop.

“Of course,” Mom said, clearing a space on the kitchen table. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Madison leaned in close to Aimee. Looking at the ballet photos again was the last thing she felt like doing, but it was
way
better than talking about the things Mom had on her mind.

Like Billy the bug.

Even with the rainstorm, the pizza-delivery guy made it to Madison’s house in under a half hour—a time frame that’s 100 percent guaranteed or else the pizza was free. Madison, Aimee, and Mom ate it with salad that Mom threw together. They had store-bought brownies for dessert, but Aimee only ate a corner of one.

By the time they’d eaten pizza, Billy had surveyed the upstairs room completely and given Mom a rough estimate of the work that would need to be done. He said that he’d come back to check on the roof and attic the next day. Mom chatted with him like he was some kind of old pal. Madison squirmed every time he grinned his gap-toothed grin.

After Billy left, Mom headed into her office to do some film-editing work while Madison and Aimee disappeared to do their homework. At least they intended to do their assignments. Instead of math books, however, they pulled out Aimee’s manicure stuff. Aimee painted Madison’s nails a perfect blue to match Madison’s rainy-day mood.

“Let’s go online and find Fiona,” Aimee suggested when she’d finished nail painting.

“But she’s at that family dinner,” Madison said. “And I can’t type or anything with my nails like this.” She blew on them to make them dry faster.

“Fiona’s dinner must be over by now,” Aimee said, looking at her watch. “And I can type for you so your nails don’t get messed up.”

They set up the laptop on the desk in the den and logged on to TweenBlurt.com. Aimee typed while Madison leaned over Aimee’s shoulder for assistance.

“You have to give your password,” Aimee said when she saw the password prompt. Madison grabbed a pencil to punch her supersecret password on the keyboard without messing up her nails.

Screen Name: MADFINN


Supersecret Password: ********


The waiting room inside TweenBlurt.com was packed with members. Aimee scrolled down the list of special rooms.

Soccer rules! !!!!!!!


(11 fish)


“I bet she’s in there,” Aimee said right away. “She’s such a soccer maniac.”

But Madison told Aimee to keep looking. She knew Fiona would wait somewhere else where they’d
all
be more likely to hang out.

******animal lovers here*****


(23 fish)


Keypal Kingdom


(8 fish)


Junior High—enter at ur own risk!


(41 fish)


“There!” Madison blurted. “I bet she’s in that junior-high room. We went in there once when she was over.”

Aimee glanced at the list of forty-one kids’ screen names.

Crazy_boyz


Luv4ever


HelPer


Peacefish


WillydOO


Luckyduck


987goforit


lovetoPARTY


barbeedoll


Flowr99


BryanSarah


Wetwinz


“Wetwinz!” Aimee said. Fiona was online with the screen name both Aimee and Madison knew. Fiona had selected the name to match that of her twin brother, Chet. His was
Wetwins
with an s. It stood for “We are twins!”

“Wait a second,” Madison said, pointing to the name
Flowr99.
“Look who’s in the chat room with her—Poison Ivy Daly!”

Aimee didn’t recognize Ivy Daly’s screen name. “Is Flowr99 Ivy’s screen name? She’s a
poisonous
flower if she’s any kind of flower!”

Madison checked her buddy list. Her keypal Bigwheels was also online. Madison and Bigwheels had first met online inside a TweenBlurt.com chat room called GO FISHY. After a few chats, Madison learned that Bigwheels was greater than great at dishing out advice—especially when it came to friendship.

But she couldn’t talk to her right now. She’d have to give her a shout-out later, after Aimee went home.

Suddenly, Fiona’s screen name appeared on the buddy list. “Look who’s here!” Aimee said excitedly. She typed a quick message and hit SEND.

: HELLOOOOOO FIONA!


: Hi Maddie


: and Aimee too how wuz dinner???


: Boring. I wish I was there w/u guys


: did u get caught in the rain tonight


: no but lightning hit a tree on my block!


: =8–0


: it fell on Ridge Rd.


: WOW did Egg call u?


Madison gave Aimee a light punch on the shoulder. “Aimee!” she said. “You aren’t supposed to ask her about that.”

Egg was the nickname of their best guy friend, Walter Diaz. Fiona liked him—a lot.

: Yeah Egg called tonite


: HE DID??? WHAT DID HE SAY?


: he wanted homework pages. That’s all


: YR he just wanted reason to call u


Madison wanted to erase what Aimee wrote. She knew Fiona could be a little sensitive about the whole Egg thing. She leaned over Aimee and tried to punch in a message of her own.

: dont lis ten to Am ee!


“Maddie, stop that!” Aimee yelped. “You’ll mess up your nails!”

: LOL which 1 of u is writing2 me?


: Maddi so wha else gon on?


Madison could barely type in the awkward position she was in. And her nails were getting a little smudged.

“Oh, Maddie, will you just let me type, please?” Aimee said, giggling. “I won’t ask about Egg anymore, okay? I promise. Cross my heart.”

Madison leaned back again. “Okay. But you promised.”

: Aimee typing now—so what else is new


: well I ordered my GLASSES today


: Ooooooh how do they look?


Didja get the wire ones or the ones that look like turtle shells?


: tortoise AND my mom got me a special strap so I can wear them when I play soccer 2


: I bet u look groageous


: I mean GORGEOUS


: LOL I wish I was there w/you guys


: come oVER! It’s only a short walk.


: it’s raining hard


: ok then c u l8r


: LYLAS


“Girls!” Mom called out. “GIRLS!”

Mom interrupted their online conversation with the dangle of car keys. She was ready to take Aimee home.