Save the Date (6 page)

Madison hit SAVE and closed the Dating file. She realized that she was probably jumping the gun about Mom’s dating life, but she didn’t care.

In addition to keeping herself busy with school, after school, friends, the computer, volunteering, and the flute, Madison had one more thing to add to her superbusy to-do list of life.
Keep an eye on Mom.

P
HINNIE LEAPED ONTO THE
couch and pressed his little pug paws into Madison’s sides and nuzzled her neck with his very wet nose. Madison rolled off the couch, nearly taking the dog with her. It was almost seven o’clock, and she needed to dress fast.

Today was the BIG date she’d been waiting for all week: the science field trip.

“Have you seen my sneakers, Mom?” Madison yelled downstairs. She pulled on a pair of striped socks and painter’s pants. “And my light-blue T-shirt? The one with the angel on the front?”

Mom came to the bottom of the stairs and growled. “I wish you wouldn’t yell, Madison. I haven’t even had my coffee yet.”

“Sorry,” Madison said a little more softly. “Have you seen my angel shirt?”

“Yes,” Mom said. “It’s in the laundry.”

Madison wanted to kick herself for not planning her outfit the night before. Now she had no idea what top to wear. She pulled on a plain yellow shirt with embroidery around the sleeves and neck and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall …” she mumbled to herself in the bathroom mirror. She posed sideways and front ways and decided it would have to work. It was the only shirt that really went with the pants, anyway.

Downstairs, Mom was in the kitchen, making Madison a peanut-butter sandwich with a little plastic bag of chips on the side. Mom still looked groggy, too, which meant she’d been up very late working in her office.

“Do you like this shirt?” Madison asked. “I mean, do you think this is a good field trip outfit?”

Mom rubbed her eyes. “Sure, honey bear.” She gave Madison a kiss on the head.

“I’m serious, Mom,” Madison said. “What do you think?”

“I think you look fine,” Mom said, pouring a coffee refill.

“Fine? Oh no, it’s
ugly,
isn’t it?” Madison blurted. “I should change, right? I’m going to go and change.” And just like that, Madison turned around and headed back upstairs.

After three more outfit tests, she finally picked the winning combination: faded jeans and an orange cut-off t-shirt with a dancing panda bear on the front and built-in tank underneath. It even matched her striped socks.

Madison raced to get her bag together so she could meet Aimee and walk to school early. The buses were supposed to leave by eight-thirty, and Madison and Aimee wanted to get good seats.

The school yard was half full by the time they arrived. Madison didn’t see Fiona anywhere, but Chet was loafing around by the fence with Egg, Drew, Hart, and Dan. The boys looked like a team. They were all dressed in the same kind of baggy pants with faded T-shirts and baseball caps. It was like
their
field trip uniform.

“Hey, Finnster!” Hart yelled when he saw Madison.

His voice was amplified by the stillness of the morning air.

She wanted to run away, but she waved. That stupid nickname sounded so wonderful when Hart said it.

Egg was snickering, as usual. He made a face at Madison, and she stopped waving right away.

“I don’t know why we rushed over,” Aimee complained. “Only half the seventh grade is here so far.”

Lindsay ran up to both of them. She had on a droopy hat and overalls. “Hey, guys,” she said. Another two girls from their class followed Lindsay, but they didn’t say much. One of them had a cast on her arm.

Across the yard, the teachers were congregating in small groups, looking over their lists and clipboards. They looked funnier than funny in
their
field trip garb. Mr. Danehy wore blue jeans that looked like they’d been ironed.

“I can’t believe you have him for science.” Aimee chuckled. “My teacher is so much cooler than him.”

“She’s also like a century younger than he is,” Madison said.

They were talking about Ms. Ripple, another science teacher, who acted more like a friend than a teacher to her students. Kids in class liked her because she always graded on a curve and she hardly ever gave homework. Aimee wasn’t even given a prep sheet for the day’s trip, while Madison had two pages of questions to explore and answer.

As they stood there in small groups, talking, the buses finally pulled into the parking lot. The school’s principal, Mr. Bernard, came outside the school to wish everyone in seventh grade a happy field trip.

“Don’t
they
make a good couple,” Aimee teased, looking over at Mr. Danehy and Ms. Ripple.

Madison almost laughed, but then she swallowed her laughter. She had a terrible thought about Mom going on a date with someone like Mr. Danehy. What if her mom dated a science teacher from Date-O-Magic? Madison couldn’t deal with that, especially not a date with
her
teacher.

“Well, hello, there!” Fiona said, dashing across the school yard. She had her hair pulled up with barrettes and her new glasses.

“You look so good!” Aimee said.

“I think the frames are cool,” Fiona said. “The guy at the store said they made me look intelligent.”

“He said
that?
” Aimee teased.

Fiona put her hands on her hips. “Yes, he did!”

“They are cool,” Madison said. With or without glasses, Fiona always looked like a model to her.

“So do you think I look any smarter, Maddie?” Fiona giggled.

Madison giggled right back. “Total genius.”

“Whassup?” Egg said. He came over as soon as he saw Fiona standing there. “Nice glasses, Fiona.”

Fiona grinned. “Yeah. Do you really like them?”

“Sure,” Egg said, acting doofier than doofy.

After he walked away, Madison turned to Aimee and Aimee turned to Madison. They were thinking the same thing.

“What happened to Egg?” Aimee asked.

“Yeah,” Madison said. “Normally if he saw one of us wearing glasses, he’d call us four eyes or something. But not you, Fiona….”

Fiona blushed, and Aimee gave her a squeeze.

One of the teachers blew a whistle and asked the kids to line up in three lines for the three buses to the nature center. Fiona and Lindsay paired up behind Madison and Aimee. Just behind them, all the boys in their group lined up. Hart was three feet from Madison, but she barely looked his way.

From nowhere Poison Ivy Daly appeared with her drones following right behind. They cut to the front of the line. Madison noticed what Ivy was wearing. She couldn’t believe her enemy had on the same angel T-shirt that Madison had almost worn this morning. That was a closer-than-close call.

Kids piled into the trio of buses with their groups of friends. Everyone squished in two to a seat. Egg thought he was being funny when he sat on top of Hart and Chet in their row. They just kicked him off.

“What’s going on back there?” Mr. Danehy’s voice boomed.

Egg scrambled to sit in his real seat near Drew. Aimee could barely contain her laughter. Bus chaos had started, and they’d only just boarded. Madison turned around to see that Ivy had an entire seat all to herself in the back of the bus.

Of course, Ivy never played by the rules.

The bus driver was a round, short man with red hair and a mustache. He growled at the kids, “Keep it down!” and everyone hushed up.

It didn’t last long, though. The moment the bus gassed up and got going, everyone began murmuring. The noise rose slowly as the buses pulled out of the Far Hills Junior High parking lot and onto the main road.

And they’re off!

Since Mr. Danehy had taken his seat way up at the front of the bus, Chet took the opportunity to do one of his Danehy imitations. Everyone was laughing, even Ivy. Egg stood up again and wobbled as if he’d fall over into Hart again, too. It seemed fine until the bus jerked onto an on-ramp on its way to the highway.

Egg went flying and landed on someone else’s lap for real.

Madison.

“Get off me!” Madison yelled.

Fiona was laughing so hard, her glasses almost fell off her face. Aimee had her hands covering her mouth. Even Lindsay laughed.

Egg was stuck.

“I SAID, GET OFF ME!” Madison screamed.

Mr. Danehy turned around right away when he heard
that.
He stood up and marched to the back, yanking Egg from Madison’s lap and placing him back in his own seat.

“Young man,” Mr. Danehy grumbled. He didn’t know Egg’s full name. “Keep it calm back here or you’ll be sitting next to me.”

Hart smacked Egg on the back from the seat behind. “Nice going, Walt.” Sometimes kids would use Egg’s real name to irritate or make fun of him.

Egg shot a look toward Madison. “Nice going,
Finnster,
” he said.

Madison stuck out her tongue at him.

“QUIT IT!” someone else yelled from the back of the bus.

A bunch of kids whipped around to see Joanie, one of Ivy’s drones, kneeling on her seat with her hands in the air. She was leaning forward, trying to grab something one of the boys had stolen from her.

Chet tossed something to Drew. He held it over his head. Madison could see that it was a small bottle of nail polish. It looked a lot like the color Aimee had painted onto her nails.

“GIVE IT!” Joanie yelled.

Mr. Danehy didn’t hear them, though—yet.

“Don’t be a loser,” Ivy said. “Give it back. Drew.”

But Drew tossed it into the row in front of him. It landed in Hart’s lap.

“GIVE IT!” Joanie yelled again.

Hart quickly passed the bottle to Egg.

Before Egg could pass it along to anyone else, Mr. Danehy turned around. Luckily he didn’t see anything wrong.

Ivy got up and stood in front of Egg’s seat. “Hand it over,” she said.

Egg crossed his arms and made a face. “I don’t think so.” He held the bottle to the side where she couldn’t reach.

Unfortunately for him, he reached out directly in front of Madison. She leaned over and grabbed the bottle. Then she handed it to Ivy.

“Traitor!” Egg said to Madison, standing up. “What did you do that for?”

“Do what?” Madison said, acting like she didn’t know what was going on.

Meanwhile Mr. Danehy had turned around again. This time he heard and saw everything. He rushed over and grabbed Egg by the collar.

“Get your things, young man,” Mr. Danehy said. Egg would have a brand-new, front-row seat for the remainder of the bus ride—right next to Mr. Danehy. While he was standing there, Mr. Danehy confiscated the bottle of nail polish, too.

“I’m going to get you for this, Maddie,” Egg said.

Madison looked the other way.

Ivy glanced at Hart before returning to her own seat. “I didn’t know you played stupid games,” she said, acting all huffy.

Score one for Ivy.

Sometimes it seemed like Madison’s best enemy had an answer for everything.

Hart didn’t seem to care one bit about Ivy’s comment, as obnoxious as it was. He turned backward and gave Chet a high five. But boys always stuck together like that.

After ten more minutes of loud talk and commotion, their bus pulled onto a dirt road. A large sign read
FAR HILLS NATURE TRAIL AHEAD.
Another sign, a few feet beyond that, read
SLOW DOWN.

As the bus slowed, it bumped along more, and everyone held on to the seats in front of them. Lindsay said she felt like throwing up. But strangely, Madison felt calmer than calm.

It was so quiet and green.

Once the bus stopped, everyone pushed and shoved to get out. Although they were sitting all the way in the back, Ivy and her drones acted like they deserved to get off the bus first. Fiona stepped in front of Ivy before she could go any farther.

Ivy tapped her foot and sighed loudly so everyone could hear. “Nice glasses,” she said under her breath.

Fiona smiled. “Thanks, Ivy. I like them, too.” Then she took an extra-long time getting her backpack and even let Lindsay go ahead. Ivy would have to wait. And wait. And wait some more.

Fiona was so good at getting revenge
quietly.

“Way to go,” Madison whispered as they got off the bus.

“That was inspired,” Lindsay said.

Mr. Danehy blew a loud whistle, and a bunch of birds flew out of one tree. Everyone milling around outside the three buses shut up fast. They piled up their backpacks and lunch sacks by the nature center’s main lodge. These would be retrieved later.

Egg wandered over to Hart, Chet, Drew, and Dan, who were standing next to Aimee and the other girls. He pointed his finger directly at Madison and said, “I’m going to get you!” Then he pinched Madison’s arm.

Madison flinched. “Ouch,” she cried.

Dan chuckled out loud. “Pinch him back, Maddie,” he said.

But Hart stepped in between the two. “Give it a rest, Egg,” he said. Then he turned around toward Madison so close, they were nose to nose.

And he smiled.

It wasn’t a big deal. Just an ordinary smile. But Madison thought she felt her cheeks blush pink. Did anyone notice? She couldn’t believe that suddenly an annoying Hart had turned crushable again.
Like that.

A little part of her insides felt like they were melting.

Hart was still smiling.

Madison wasn’t quite sure what she was
really
feeling in that moment, but she knew one thing for sure.

The boys versus girls field trip at the science center was going to be
way
more surprising than she—or anyone else—ever expected.

“W
HO IS THAT!” AIMEE
said, grabbing Madison’s arm. They were staring at a tall, dark-haired guy dressed in green pants and a shirt with a Far Hills Nature Trails logo on the front.

“Whoa,” Lindsay said, smirking. “Cuteness.”

Even Fiona was interested. “He
is
cute.”

He wore a badge that said
MY NAME IS RANGER JIMMY,
and Madison couldn’t take her eyes off him, either. None of the girls could.

As luck would have it, he stood next to Ivy, who was doing her hair-flipping, look-at-me thing. But Jimmy directed his warm greeting to
everyone
in the group.