Sink or Swim (18 page)

Madison grinned. “Of course! That would be great!” she said happily. Dad had already created a few start-up websites. He knew pretty much everything about setting up webpages and making them work. Why hadn’t she thought of this sooner?

“So—” Dad said. “What kind of webpage are you building?”

“It’s a homework-helper site,” Madison explained. “It has to be something educational. Fiona and I want to make something that looks really cool—but the graphics we like best take forever to download. Some of them even crashed my computer.”

“Hmm,” Dad said, obviously thinking hard. “It seems to me that the most important thing is to have a webpage that works,” he said finally. “If it’s a homework helper, it’s important for it to be
helpful.
”

“Right,” Madison agreed. “That’s one of the things they said specifically in the rules. The winning entries have to be functional. Design and style are graded in separate categories. They don’t count for as many points.”

At her feet, Phin let out a low whine and looked up, sniffing the air. Madison cut off a tiny sliver of steak and slipped it to him.

“What you need is useful content, and lots of it,” Dad went on. “If you want to have special effects—like graphics and sound—just be sure that there’s a point to them.”

Madison sighed. “The only problem is, I don’t know where to start!”

“Have you checked out any other homework-helper websites?” Dad asked.

Madison’s eyes grew wide. “Umm—no,” she admitted, slightly embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of something so obvious.

Dad grinned. “Maybe we should start there. Why don’t you pull out the laptop while I take care of the dishes?”

Madison snatched the last two fries off her plate as Dad cleared the table, popping one fry into her mouth and tossing the other one to Phin. Then she pulled out her laptop.

Dad had made the webpage project sound like fun again.

After the dishes were done, Dad pulled his chair next to Madison. She typed “homework” into a search engine and waited for the number of searches to come up onscreen.

Search: HOMEWORK.

Total items found: 11,321,395.

“See?” Dad said. “There’s plenty of stuff to look at.”

“Eleven million entries? I think I’ll start with the top three,” Madison said, clicking through to a site called hellohomework. It had a list of school subjects and a complex database, including an online atlas and encyclopedia.

“This page is outta site!” Dad said, winking.

Madison clicked through to look at the atlas. “They’ve got a ton of great stuff,” she agreed, ignoring Dad’s bad pun. “But we could never make anything this complicated.”

“No,” Dad said, sitting back in his chair. “But you could provide a link to this page.”

“Oh—” Madison said. “Right!” She clicked back to the search engine and tried another site. This one was mostly science centered, and had detailed information on plants and animals. Madison added the link to
FAVORITES
and kept surfing while Dad scooped out dessert.

“Dad?” Madison called out. “I’m trying to use the search feature, but it doesn’t work.”

“Too much stuff on that page,” Dad said, slurping a spoonful of ice cream. “It’s real slow. That’s a good example of what
not
to do.”

“Oh,” Madison said. She nodded and clicked to a different page with a scrolling list of books by different authors.

“I just can’t wait to tell Fiona about all these sites!” Madison said.

“Why don’t you give her a call?” Dad suggested.

“Yeah!” Madison snatched the cordless phone off the wall and punched in Fiona’s number, grinning.

“Hello?” said a male voice on the other end of the phone line.

Madison’s grin evaporated.

Chet!

Just say hi, Madison told herself. She opened her mouth, but she couldn’t make any sound come out. She didn’t want to speak to Fiona’s brother under any circumstances. Before she realized what she was doing, Madison hung up with a slam.

Oh my gosh! Madison thought, the minute she’d clicked off the phone. Why did I just do that? She hoped the Waters family didn’t have caller ID. Even though she was at Dad’s, Chet still could figure out who had hung up on him!

“Wrong number?” Dad asked as he put their dessert bowls into the dishwasher.

“Um … yeah,” Madison lied. “I guess I’ll just call Fiona later.” She bit her lip, wondering why she’d hung up the phone like that. She felt a little more competitive about this contest than she thought she would feel when it began.

“It’s getting late, Maddie,” Dad said. “And you have school tomorrow. You should probably start getting ready for bed.”

“Can’t I just stay on for a little while longer?” Madison pleaded.

“Hmmmm. I don’t want you to get surf bored,” Dad said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Madison gave a half-laugh, half-groan. “Oh, Dad, I just want to check my e-mail,” she pleaded. “Really, really quickly.”

“Okay.” Dad relented. “Fifteen more minutes.”

Madison liked bargaining with Dad for more bedtime. Mom never sent her to sleep on the clock at home, so why should she have to do that here?

Madison decided to send Fiona a message rather than risk calling and getting Chet again. She logged into TweenBlurt.com and checked her buddy list.

Fiona wasn’t online. But Chet
was.

“Grrrrrr!” Madison fumed to herself. Why did Chet have to be such a phone and computer hog? Didn’t he know Fiona and Madison had work to do?

Since everyone appeared to have gone offline, Madison decided to send Fiona e-mail. When she opened her e-mailbox, she discovered a bunch of unread messages.

From: Bigwheels


To: MadFinn


Subject: Fw: Need Your HELP!


Date: Thurs 21 Sept 7:21
PM


Sorry I haven’t written—u’ll never believe what happened. My computer totally died! I was surfing the web for info for an English project, and the screen went blank. Can you believe it? My mom was on the phone with the tech people for an hour, but nothing worked. They said we should send the computer to them and they could get it back to me in a month (!), but my dad said that the computer was way old anyway. It was going to cost too much to fix it, so we decided I should get a new one (!!!!!)


So I’m writing you from my (drumroll PLEASE) cool new laptop. And it’s orange, which makes me think of u. We’re practically twins now! The laptop is superfast, too, so I’m sure I’ll be spending even MORE time online.


I don’t have any brilliant ideas about ur webpage, but if I come across anything that looks interesting, I’ll totally share. But don’t worry! Ur so good with computers—I know u and Fiona will do great.


Yours till the cyber spaces,


Bigwheels a/k/a Victoria


Madison smiled and reached down to pet Phin. He was lying on his back, wiggling, making happy snuffling noises as Madison rubbed his belly. “Are you going to help me, Phinnie?” Madison asked.

“Rowrroooo!” Phin howled. He scooted around on his back, legs pumping the air. He looked so silly.

Madison felt the same way. But she remembered what her Gramma Helen always said: “The best way to get help is to ask for it.” She had Fiona, Dad, and Bigwheels to ask. Madison could get all the help she needed—and make sure that her webpage would rate A+++ … right?

Bah-ling!

Madison’s computer chirped and flashed.

Another new e-mail?

The newest message downloaded, and Madison read the address: [email protected]. Her heart skipped a beat. Was this from Chet—telling her that he knew she was the one who hung up on him? Madison clicked the message icon to find out.

From: Waters


To: MadFinn, Balletgrl


Subject: Fiona and Chet Birthday


Date: Thurs 21 Sept 9:17
PM


Hello, Madison and Aimee.


Fiona and Chet have a birthday coming up, and I was hoping you would help me! I want to plan a surprise party for them. Usually I have a special dinner just for family, but I thought that it might be fun to include some of Chet’s and Fiona’s friends this year. Would you help me make up a guest list and send out an invitation?


Many thanks in advance! I will send you another e-mail soon. Write me back at this address.


Emily Waters (Fiona’s mom!)


“Five more minutes, Maddie,” Dad called from the other room.

“Okay,” Madison replied, her eyes still glued to the screen. Madison couldn’t believe it—Mrs. Waters wanted help planning a surprise party for Fiona? Of course Madison was in! She hit
REPLY
and wrote to Mrs. Waters, letting her know that she could definitely count on Madison’s help. Then she forwarded the message to Aimee with a note saying, “Did you see this? Meet me before school—we need to chat!”

Unfortunately, Madison was so busy writing to Bigwheels and getting in touch with Aimee that she never had the chance to write to Fiona about what she’d found on the Internet for their webpage project. She’d have to wait ten more hours until school started to tell Fiona the big news.

Phin jumped up on her leg so Madison could rub his ears.

“Good doggie,” she cooed, shutting down her laptop. Madison and Phin disappeared into her room at Dad’s apartment to get ready for bed.

Tomorrow was a big day and Madison needed her ZZZZs.

Author Laura Dower has a lot in common with Madison Finn: They’re both only children and they both love dogs, the color orange, and books! Laura has written more than ninety kids’ books to date, including twenty-five in the series From the Files of Madison Finn. Her other books include the new Palace Puppies series and
For Girls Only
, a guide to girl stuff. When she’s not writing, Laura loves to garden, sing (loudly), and volunteer as a scout leader for her daughter and two sons. She and her family live in New York. Want to be keypals? Drop her a note at
www.lauradower.com.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Laura Dower

Cover design by Connie Gabbert

978-1-4804-2264-3

This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com