On the Case

by Laura Dower

  Chet whacked back.

  Then Egg punched Chet in the arm.

  “Hey, guys, want to chill out? The cafeteria monitor is looking this way,” Dan cautioned.

  “Yeah, stop, or we’ll all get Detention,” Madison said.

  “You guys started it,” Egg moaned. “Making fun of my name is totally unfair.”

  Madison saw Fiona smile at Egg.

  “I don’t think Egg is a weird name,” Fiona whispered. She always tried to make Egg feel better when things were looking bad. Of course, her sweeter-than-sweet attention only made Egg feel more embarrassed than ever. He stood up and moved down to the other end of the table.

  The other guys followed his lead, moving to the side. They formed teams for spitball hockey, while the girls finished eating lunch.

  Fiona tried not to look hurt when Egg edged away.

  “Maddie,” Aimee said, changing the subject a little. “I know you’re way into this whole Crime Time mystery-puzzle thing. And I think it’s cool that you helped Dan at the clinic. But I really don’t see how it makes you a real live detective…”

  Madison took a sip of her chocolate milk. “You don’t?” she said, sounding disappointed. Aimee’s opinion mattered a lot to Madison.

  “She’s not a detective, she’s a super snooper!” Fiona said, trying to sound cheery even though she was still sad about Egg.

  “If you ask me, all this snooping around seems dumb,” Aimee added. “It sounds like a waste of time.”

  Madison sighed. “You really think so? I like it.”

  “Why is it a waste of time if she likes doing it?” Fiona asked.

  Aimee shrugged.

  “No. Maybe you’re right, Aim,” Madison thought aloud.

  Aimee shrugged again. “I don’t know. I just think you’re getting… a little obsessed.”

  Was she? Madison remembered the slip of paper she’d found in the library with the mystery address on it… and how she had been thinking about maybe stopping off at that address just to see what was happening… and how she thought maybe she’d uncover a strange and mysterious crime ring…

  Wait! That wasn’t obsessed. Was it?

  It didn’t matter. Madison realized that she couldn’t stop being a detective now. No matter what Aimee said, there were mysteries to solve. Real mysteries, right there at FHJH. And Madison was on the case.

  “Hey!” Egg popped back over to the girls’ side of the table. Fiona looked encouraged. “What are you three doing next week?” he asked.

  “Um… coming to school,” Aimee said matter-of-factly. “What are you doing? Going to Disney World?”

  “Duh,” Egg said. “I meant, what are you doing next Wednesday, when we have the day off?”

  Madison had almost forgotten about the day that they were going to get because of testing and some faculty conference. Being off from school in the middle of the week was like playing hooky, only legally.

  “Well,” Egg said dramatically. By now the other guys had come back to the end of the table to sit with the girls. “Drew’s mom offered to take all of us to the movies.”

  “Mooo-vieeees!” Hart chanted.

  The other guys let out a roar and gave Drew high fives.

  “Whoa! That is so nice, Drew!” Fiona gushed.

  Drew smiled. “My mom says we can go see Curse of the Diamond, that new thriller that’s playing over at the multiplex.”

  “Oh, I really, really want to see that one!” Madison shrieked. It was part thriller, part adventure, part mystery. In other words, it was Madison’s favorite kind of flick.

  “Me, too,” Chet said. “I like mysteries.”

  “I think mysteries are dumb,” Aimee said.

  Madison stuck out her tongue. “Hey!”

  “Curse of the Diamond got five stars on Movie Picks,” Dan said. He was always up to date on what was hot and what was not, based on what he read online.

  “Exactly who’s going?” Hart asked as he walked up to the table.

  “Let’s see,” Egg thought aloud, counting names on his fingers as he spoke. “There’s Drew, me, Dan, Hart, Chet, Fiona, Maddie, Aim, and Drew’s friend Elaine, so far.”

  Madison felt a sharp pain in the middle of her chest. Drew was inviting Elaine?

  Oh, no, Madison sighed to herself.

  That meant the movie day would be a couples thing. Even though they were all traveling in a group, they were pairing off.

  Madison glanced back over at Hart, who was working on a pudding snack. A little bit of chocolate had gotten on his chin, Madison noticed. But it made him look even cuter. How was that possible?

  Ever since Madison and Hart had sort of admitted that they sort of liked each other, things had been sort of confusing when it came to group activities. A while back, Hart had suggested that he and Madison go together when the group went to the movies. But then they never went. And he had never asked again.

  Drew and Elaine were boyfriend and girlfriend. Everyone knew that.

  Fiona and Egg would definitely stay a couple. That was obvious.

  Chet and Dan would probably pal around together, too, like an anticouple, but paired off nonetheless.

  But what would Madison do? This was Hart’s chance to make good on his original offer. For the very first time, maybe they would be declared a couple, too.

  And if Hart didn’t ask? At least Madison could hang with Aimee.

  “Too bad I can’t go,” Aimee said all of a sudden, as if she’d been reading Madison’s mind.

  Madison shot a look back at her BFF. “Huh?” she asked, surprised. “Can’t go?”

  “Because I’ll probably take some extra dance classes that day,” Aimee said.

  “Classes? What? Aim!” Madison cried. “Why? It’s our day off from school and classes! Besides, don’t you think you’re doing a lot of dance? In fact, I think maybe you’re becoming a little… obsessed….”

  Madison laughed at her own joke.

  Aimee laughed, too. “I guess I deserved that.”

  Madison threw her arm around Aimee, “Can’t you blow off dance class for once? This is going to be fun.”

  “I don’t think so…” Aimee stammered. “I don’t want to see that movie, anyhow. I told you.”

  Madison backed off. Aimee was acting so weird. How could she not want to go on a group outing with her closest friends?

  “So, everyone is cool with Curse of the Diamond?” Drew asked the people at the table.

  Everybody nodded.

  And so the plan was made.

  When the lunch period officially ended, a few moments later, everyone went off to classes. Fiona and Aimee left together. Madison found herself walking out of the cafeteria alone. But then Hart came up and tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Hey, Finnster,” he said with a smile.

  Madison swallowed a few deep gulps of air. This was it.

  “Can you help me out? I have to work on some science work sheets from Mr. Danehy’s class, but I have hockey practice…”

  Madison did a double take.

  Hockey?

  “We have such a good team this year. Egg and I think the Rangers have a shot at the division championships,” Hart said. “And we have a really big match this weekend against Dunn Manor.”

  Madison tried to read between the lines. Was there a movie invitation hidden there somewhere? Was she missing something?

  “You know, the coach says I can play right wing this season,” Hart said, as if that could have made any sense to Madison.

  “Ever watch Crime Time?” she asked, out of the blue, desperate to change the subject.

  It didn’t matter that Madison had already asked Hart about the show. Hart didn’t even hear her question. He was talking slap shots, not crime scenes.

  Maybe Hart didn’t want to go to the movies with Madison. Maybe he didn’t like her anymore. Maybe in the last twenty-four hours he’d gone back to liking Poison Ivy Daly.

  The class bell rang.

  “See you late
r, Finnster!” Hart said as he made a left turn, heading for his next class.

  “Um… Hart…” Madison called out after him.

  Hart turned and smiled. “Yeah?”

  “You have pudding on your face,” Madison said. As much as she liked him, Madison couldn’t help herself.

  As Hart stood there, struck speechless, Madison started off in the opposite direction, toward Mr. Gibbons’s English class.

  Madison fought her way through the throngs of kids in the hall. She pushed the heavy stairwell door and went up to the next floor, where there was a traffic jam of sorts on the steps. As the rest of the kids slowly shuffled up to the third floor, Madison felt her heart aching a little.

  Then she heard something. It was squeaky, and very familiar.

  Was it the voice from the library?

  Madison’s heart started to pound. Where was the voice coming from? She tried to squeeze in between two guys in front of her. But they weren’t moving fast enough.

  And the squeaky voice was receding.

  As she reached the top landing and the crowd dispersed a little, Madison scrambled to see if she could locate the source of the voice.

  But whoever it was who had been speaking had vanished. And there was no time to look anywhere else.

  The second class bell was about to ring.

  Madison gasped and leaned against the wall. She was beginning to feel as if the person she had heard in the library the day before had been merely a figment of her imagination.

  But that didn’t matter. Madison knew that Major DeMille would never have given up when tracking a suspect. And so, she wouldn’t, either.

  Chapter 7

  Crime Time

  Okay. Everything I loved about Hart and his beautiful brown hair (yes it IS beautiful and soft looking, and I can’t help staring at it) and his cool new sneakers and his brains and the way he talks and calls me Finnster and the way he doesn’t seem ever to mind when I embarrass myself--all that means nothing right now. Hockey stinks. Boys stink. Right now Hart and the rest of the world seem like a HUGE mystery to me.

  And what’s with Aimee? After the whole lunchroom thing, I sat with her in Mr. Gibbons’s English class and she was blowing off all my questions. She was blowing ME off. I asked why she wouldn’t go to Drew’s and she said she had dance class AGAIN. Then she said that detective movies like Curse of the Diamond are dumb. That really bugs me. I don’t go around saying how much I hate things SHE likes. Do I?

  Rude Awakening: Sometimes I feel like my friendship has sailed--and I’m left behind, sinking.

  Madison quickly hit SAVE when she saw Fiona, Aimee, and Lindsay walking down the hall toward her. She clicked her orange laptop shut and jumped up from where she’d been sitting on the hall floor. The halls at FHJH were filling fast with kids from all three grades.

  “There you are!” Fiona cried. “I thought we were all walking to school together this morning. It’s Friday! Where were you?”

  “Oh, no,” Madison said. “I forgot.”

  “That’s because you’re not thinking of your friends anymore. All you think about is mysteries,” Aimee said with a smirk.

  Madison stuck out her tongue. “That’s so not true, Aim.”

  She turned to Fiona. “I’m sorry I spaced about the morning walk. I feel like such a lame-o,” Madison said.

  “Oh, whatever,” Fiona said with a wide smile, quickly accepting the apology.

  “Speaking of mysteries…” Lindsay started to say. No one was really listening at first, but then she said, “I heard there’s a school mystery going on and it’s already under investigation.”

  Madison pricked up her ears when she heard the words mystery and investigation, but she tried to play it cool in front of Aimee. She wasn’t in the mood for another lecture on being obsessed—and she definitely was not in the mood to reveal anything to her friends about the scrap of paper from the library.

  “How do you know so much?” Aimee asked.

  Lindsay’s voice got low. “I have connections,” she said with a wink—and then she laughed. “The truth is, I was eavesdropping just outside the teachers’ lounge.”

  Fiona covered her mouth. “I can’t believe you did that!” she squealed.

  “I can,” Madison said with a giggle. “You were a spy in a former life, Lindsay, I swear.”

  “Anyway, I heard someone say that some precious object had been stolen,” Lindsay continued. “Whatever that means…”

  “Which teacher said that? Do you know?” Madison asked.

  “I think it was one of the language teachers… or maybe Mr. Olivetti,” Lindsay replied. “He had an accent.”

  “Mr. Olivetti!” Madison exclaimed. “My flute teacher?”

  “What does ‘precious object’ mean?” Aimee scoffed. “Sounds like a bunch of hooey.”

  “A bunch of what?” Fiona said.

  They all started to laugh.

  “Hooey,” Aimee repeated, trying hard herself not to laugh. “Hooey! I don’t know. My dad says that all the time. It’s a cool word.”

  “It sounds like something my gramps would say,” Fiona said.

  “Anyway,” Lindsay continued, “the teachers sounded really worried, like there was a thief in the building. Everyone sounded scared that their classroom might be next. And they think the thief could be a student, or a couple of students, working together.”

  “Wow, that sounds serious,” Fiona said.

  “Come on,” Aimee said. “Don’t you think if there was a major theft in the building that we’d hear about it?”

  “Maybe,” Madison said. “But maybe not. The teachers could want to keep the problem under wraps so they can trap the criminal…”

  “The criminal?” Aimee interrupted. “Maddie, you sound like one of those mystery shows you watch.”

  “So?” Madison asked. “This is a mystery, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe you can solve it,” Fiona said.

  “Yeah, the teachers should come to you for help,” Lindsay added.

  Aimee rolled her eyes. Madison saw it.

  “You don’t think I can figure this out, do you?” Madison said to Aimee directly.

  Aimee shook her head. “Whatever. Do whatever you want.”

  “Why are you so negative all the time lately?” Madison asked. “It’s really beginning to bug me.”

  Fiona and Lindsay backed off a little. At first they’d been joking, but now Madison and Aimee were staring each other down.

  “I just think you’d better be careful, Maddie,” Aimee said. “All this mystery stuff has you sticking your nose into everyone’s business and asking too many questions.”

  “Too many?” Madison said. “What, is there a limit on questions or something?”

  “I just think you should watch your back,” Aimee said.

  “Wow, Aim,” Lindsay said. “Don’t you think you’re being a little hard on Maddie?”

  “Why does she have to watch her back?” Fiona asked. “Is someone following her or something?”

  Madison crossed her arms. “You’re just mad,” she blurted out, “because I might get noticed for this and I have a guy who likes me and…”

  She stopped in midsentence.

  Aimee looked down at the ground.

  Madison felt a knot in her chest. She wanted to take back what she had said. She needed to take it back.

  Fiona and Lindsay stood there, not saying anything.

  Kids rushed all around the four of them as they stood there, dumbfounded.

  “I have to go to class,” Aimee finally said. She reached into her book bag and pulled out a tube of lip gloss, carefully applying some to her lips.

  “Aim,” Madison stammered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say—”

  “Forget it,” Aimee said, puckering her lips again to distribute the lip gloss evenly. She slung her bag over one shoulder. “Just forget I said anything, too.”

  With that, Aimee turned and headed in the opposite direction, toward h
er next class.

  “Wait!” Fiona called out. “Aim, I have the same class as you!” Fiona took a deep breath. “Want me to talk to her?” she asked Madison.

  “About what?” Madison said. “The fact that I just said the dumbest thing ever?”

  Fiona shrugged. “Don’t worry so much. She’ll get over it. See you guys at lunch?” she said.

  “Bye, Fiona!” Lindsay called out. She moved closer to Madison. “Don’t worry about Aim right now,” she said. “You have a mystery to solve, remember?”

  Madison smiled. “I guess.”

  “We should go to social studies class,” Lindsay said. “If we’re late, Mrs. Belden will throw a fit.”

  The day passed quickly.

  Aimee had dance practice and didn’t show up in the cafeteria at lunchtime, so Madison had no chance to apologize or talk or make things right in any way between them. Maybe it was just better to let things blow over, Madison decided, so she didn’t leave any notes in Aimee’s locker. She also didn’t make plans to e-mail Aimee or see her later.

  At the end of the day, Madison went up to the library again to wait until it was time for her flute lesson with Mr. Olivetti.

  She sat in the same carrel where she had been the day she’d heard the squeaky voice. But no mysterious people showed up in the library this time. It was just Madison and a couple of other seventh graders working on book reports.

  Madison tried to work on a revolutionary-war time line that had been assigned for weekend homework in social studies class, but she couldn’t keep her thoughts straight. Mostly, she was still steaming about the fight with Aimee. But Madison had other things on her mind, too.

  Today’s date was the same as the one that had been shown on the slip of paper she’d found two days before. Should she investigate it? Maybe she could stop off at Marquette Street on the way home after her flute lesson. She could scope out the location. That’s what Major DeMille always talked about. It was one of the things real detectives needed to do.

  Madison got up and walked around the library. She hoped another clue to the growing mysteries at FHJH would magically appear.

  Instead of a clue, however, Madison got the enemy.

  She spotted Poison Ivy in a corner of the library, with her nose buried in an encyclopedia. Considering the fact that Ivy hardly ever studied, the chances of Madison running into Ivy up there were about a hundred to one.