On the Case
Page 11
What am I supposed to do now?
Madison looked up from her laptop. She’d barricaded herself up in the media lab at the library during Friday’s lunch hour. The early classes of the day had gone by without much mention of the sheet music. But by lunchtime, the entire school was whispering about Mr. Olivetti’s mistake.
Madison was too embarrassed about what she had said and done to face people at lunch. She couldn’t deal with Egg and Chet’s heckling, Dan’s questions, and Aimee’s “I told you so.” And she was definitely too ashamed to look Hart in the eye.
It was better to hide out until things blew over, Madison told herself.
“There you are!”
Madison turned around. Fiona stood with her bag slung over one shoulder. In her hands were an orange, a container of yogurt, and a package of cheese and crackers.
“I knew you’d come up here. You always do. I smuggled these out of the cafeteria,” Fiona said. “I heard about the mystery. I heard that Mr. Olivetti never had anything stolen. I figured you didn’t want to talk about what happened. You must be so bummed.”
“Bummed?” Madison said. “Mortified is more like it.”
“How could you have known?” Fiona asked. “You only followed the leads like a real detective would. Like Major DeMille, right?”
“Right.” Madison shook her head. “Is everyone laughing at me behind my back?”
“No,” Fiona said right away.
Madison made a face. She wasn’t convinced. “No one is laughing?”
Fiona paused. “Okay, my brother made a few jokes. But he’s king of the obnoxious, you know that.”
“Uh-huh,” Madison said. “What about Hart?” she asked.
Fiona shrugged. “Well… I don’t know,” she said softly.
Madison knew what that meant. It meant Hart was laughing a little, too, but Fiona was too nice to tell Madison the truth.
“Want to walk home today after school?” Fiona asked.
“Sure,” Madison said.
She wished the end of the day were there already.
At the end of the school day, Madison waited by her locker for Fiona. She hoped she would see Aimee, too, but she figured Aimee probably had dance class. Aimee always had dance class these days. Lately Aimee had been missing from many of their friends’ usual gatherings. Madison figured that she was the reason why. After flunking her Crime Time experiment, was Madison now in danger of losing her friend?
The hallway was packed with kids pushing their way past other kids. Some boy with a hockey stick sent a book flying down the corridor like a puck. A teacher waving a notebook chased after two girls. A pack of boys dressed in black T-shirts, with their hands in the pockets of their jeans, skulked by the water fountain.
And then, through the crowd, Ivy and the drones appeared.
Madison turned her head away so she wouldn’t be recognized and so that she wouldn’t have to say anything to Ivy. But the enemy and her cohorts, of course, couldn’t resist making a few cruel comments on their way.
“Hey, Madison,” Ivy jeered. “How’s Little Miss Detective?”
“I heard you blew it,” Rose said.
“Yeah, you can’t solve anything,” Joanie added.
The three laughed in unison.
“Why don’t you go crawl under a rock?” Madison snapped.
Ivy tossed her red hair and put on a pout. “Oh, crybaby, what’s wrong?” The drones laughed again.
“Everyone knows what happened. You can run, but you can’t hide…” Ivy taunted Madison.
Madison was speechless.
But then someone else spoke up.
“You heard her, Ivy. Crawl under a rock.”
Madison’s eyes bugged out. That was Hart talking.
“What did you say?” Ivy said with disbelief. She glared at Hart.
“Quit being so mean, Ivy,” Hart said. “You’re always being mean for no reason.”
“No reason? I have a perfectly good reason,” Ivy snapped.
Madison didn’t say anything. Neither did the drones.
“Oh, yeah? What’s your reason?” Hart asked.
Ivy was in shock. Everyone was. Not only was Hart standing up for Madison, but he was saying everything that Madison and her BFFs thought about the enemy. Madison felt her heart pound. She had liked Hart before, but now she was ready to burst with like. Madison wondered if this was what love was—a shock to the system.
Ivy had clearly run out of things to say. Without another moment’s hesitation, she and the drones buzzed down the hall. Madison hoped that she would, in fact, go find some rock to crawl under.
“Thanks, Hart,” Madison said.
“She had it coming, Finnster,” Hart said.
Madison thought his eyes were twinkling, but she couldn’t be sure. After everything that had happened at the movies on Wednesday, the last thing Madison would have expected was this.
The crackling voice over the loudspeaker announced a full roster of after-school activities. More kids rushed past.
“So…” Madison said.
“I heard about Mr. Olivetti,” Hart said.
“Yeah… well… duh… I should have known,” Madison said. “I’m no detective.”
“I know you were wrong about the mystery, but don’t feel bad. Everyone makes mistakes, right?” Hart said. “Even me.”
Madison chuckled. “You sound like my dad,” she said.
Madison’s throat muscles clenched. What was she talking about? Her dad? This wasn’t her dad. This was Hart, the Hunk. She bit her tongue so she wouldn’t say anything else stupid.
“Er… see you around,” Hart said nervously.
“Thanks again,” Madison said. “Really.”
Hart nodded. “Whatever,” he said.
Madison wrapped her arms around herself as she watched him walk away. Then she knelt and distractedly picked at a stone that had gotten lodged inside the bottom of her sneaker.
“Maddie! Maddie!” Fiona appeared at last, running down the hall. “I got stuck with a teacher, and I couldn’t leave. Sorry. Ready to go?”
Madison nodded. “He just saved me,” she said.
“Huh?”
“Ivy came by. She attacked me. And he rescued me. It was like a movie or something,” Madison explained.
“Huh?” Fiona said again. “Who saved you?”
“Hart,” Madison said. Now, her eyes were twinkling.
Fiona giggled. “Hart?”
“Maybe this whole detective thing didn’t turn out so bad, after all. Maybe it was all meant to happen the way it did so I could have that three minutes with Hart,” Madison said.
“Oh, Maddie,” Fiona said. “You make me laugh.”
“That’s me. A regular laugh riot,” Madison said.
They walked out of the building together and headed for home.
Mom was very understanding when Madison explained to her what had happened with the school mystery. She ordered a pizza and drove to Freeze Palace for cherry ice-cream sundaes for Madison and her.
After dinner, Madison finished up her homework and went online. It was quiet for a Friday night. Usually, Madison and her friends made plans for the weekend or at least met up in chat rooms to gossip about the week. But no one had made plans at school or called Madison up to do anything.
Inside the e-mailbox, however, it was another story. Madison had a slew of e-mails from almost all of her friends—and Dad, too.
Dad had sent his love. He and Stephanie wanted to know how the mystery had turned out.
Madison wrote back, “It didn’t.” She’d fill them in on the details later.
Dan had sent an e-mail from the clinic. He told Madison to “hang in there.” Madison realized what a good friend Dan was. He always had something supportive and nice to say.
Lindsay had sent an e-mail with an apology for starting Madison on the mystery in the first place. “It’s all my fault,” Lindsay wrote. “If I hadn’t been so nosy…”
Madiso
n hit REPLY and reassured her friend that it wasn’t anyone’s fault, but it was nice to know how much Lindsay cared.
Even Egg had sent Madison an e-mail, although his was filled more with jokes and jibes than with words of support. But Madison laughed. She realized that she couldn’t just hang on forever to her failure to solve her first big mystery.
Her friends were there. With laughs or hugs, they would help.
A message popped up in the corner of her screen.
It was Aimee.
Madison almost burst into tears.
She typed a quick reply.
They went into a private chat room.
Madison logged off so she could throw her pajamas into a bag. She was positive Mom would let her go over to Aimee’s. They’d been sleeping over at each other’s houses their whole lives.
Somehow, however, that night’s sleepover felt a little different for Madison.
That night, Madison had gotten her friend back when she needed her most of all. And she wasn’t going to let go, not for Crime Time or any mystery.
This time, all the evidence pointed to one very clear thing: she and Aimee were going to remain friends for a long time.
Mad Chat Words:
:-(((
Boo-hoo-hoo
:-S
It makes no sense
:-{ }
Lip gloss kiss
INYH
I need your help
B(2)
Be square
TM
Trust me
ML
More later
J/W
Just wondering
UR2N2ME
You are too nice to me
V.G.
Very good
4get
Forget
QW
Quit worrying
LY4E
Love you forever
Madison’s Computer Tip
I use my laptop for practically everything these days, but it was truly indispensable for trying to solve mysteries. Use a computer document to make lists and keep track of pals and enemies. My own personal Crime Time files really helped me keep up with all the facts of the case, especially when the facts kept changing! I could track all of my suspects with a click of the key, and THAT was very cool. I wonder how much Major DeMille uses his laptop!
Visit Madison online at the author’s page: www.lauradower.com
Turn the page to continue reading from Laura Dower’s From the Files of Madison Finn series
Chapter 1
“READY, AIM, FIRE!”
Madison jumped out of the way just in time to see a snowball go whizzing past her earmuffs. It hit one of Madison’s BFFs, Fiona Waters, instead of her.
“Ooof!” Fiona cried, pretending to be wounded. She collapsed onto the snowy ground, hands on her chest, laughing.
“Good one!” Chet Waters said, giving Walter “Egg” Diaz a high five. Chet was Fiona’s twin brother. All afternoon he’d been aiming for his sister, but Egg was the one who had finally struck the target.
“I can’t believe it was you who threw it!” Fiona said as she stood up and brushed the snow off her grape-colored corduroys.
Aimee Gillespie laughed, too. “Maybe Egg doesn’t like you so much after all.”
Splooooch!
Another one of Egg’s snowballs scored a direct hit, on Aimee this time. The entire front of her parka was soaked.
Chet doubled over with laughter. If this was a snowball match of guys versus girls, there was no question who was winning. So far.
“You’d better run! You’re in trouble, Egg,” Hart Jones said to his friend. He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Aimee’s going to get you for—”
Splaaaat!
Hart groaned. Now he’d been hit in the face with a very cold ball of snow. He wiped off his chin and turned around to see who had thrown it.
Madison jumped into the air with glee. “Gotcha, Hart!” she said with a big grin. She pumped her arm as if to show off a muscle, which of course was invisible underneath her winter coat. “Maybe I should try out for the softball team?” she asked, still giggling.
Hart leaned over and picked up a fistful of snow. “Don’t move,” he warned Madison, pulling his arm back like a major-league pitcher.
That was when snowball chaos broke out.
Hart threw another snowball at Madison, who ran for cover behind a tree. Chet fired three snowballs in a row at his sister, narrowly missing her each time. Egg wasn’t even making snowballs anymore. He just chucked clumps of snow wherever he could, including the side of the house. Fiona and Aimee tried running away, but they tripped over themselves in the snow and fell to the ground, laughing uncontrollably.
The six friends had come over to Aimee’s backyard after school to hang out. Winter break was coming soon, and no one felt much like doing homework or taking school seriously.
“Hot chocolate!” Mrs. Gillespie called out from the kitchen door.
Aimee threw her arms into the air. “Truce!” she said, so that everyone would stop the snowball fight. “Hot cocoa!”
The friends shuffled through the snow and ice toward the house. They peeled off layers of wet clothes and their jackets, gloves, and socks inside the back entryway. Then they all planted themselves somewhere on one of the two huge, tattered sofas in Aimee’s basement—boys on one sofa, girls on the other. Mrs. Gillespie brought down cups of steaming hot chocolate.
“Your cheeks are so red,” Hart said to Madison.
Naturally, she felt them get even redder when he pointed that out. But they weren’t hot; they felt like ice cubes.
“Hey, this is even better than Mom’s special recipe,” Chet said to Fiona as he took another sip of hot chocolate.
Fiona blew on hers. “You’re right,” she said to her brother. “Thanks for having us over, Aim. This is a great time. I love snowy days like this.”
Egg stood up and surveyed the bookshelves in the Gillespie basement. “What are all these?” he said
, pointing to a large collection of record albums against one wall.
Aimee shrugged. “My dad collected those. He has this huge collection of eighties music. He says they’re worth something. But I don’t see the point. We can’t even play them anymore.”
Egg lifted up a few album covers. On one record was a photo of some odd-looking band members with red plastic plant pots upside down on their heads. The band was called Devo. Another album was called Tears for Fears. “He listens to this?” Egg asked. “What kind of a band name is A Flock of Seagulls?”
“When are you guys leaving for California?” Hart asked Fiona and Chet. Before living in Far Hills, Fiona and Chet’s family had lived in California. They were flying back that week for a family visit.
“We’re leaving after the big hockey match,” Fiona said. “When is that again?”
“You forgot already? I told you it’s on Sunday,” Chet said to Fiona.
“Gee, I’m sorry!” Fiona cracked. “What? Do you expect me to remember everything?”
“Yeah!” Egg said. He and Fiona had been “going out” for a little while, but sometimes they talked to each other as if they’d been together forever.
“Is next week’s hockey match really all that important?” Aimee asked.
Hart clutched his chest as if she’d just shot him with a dart. “Are you kidding me?” he said.
Egg gasped, too. “Yeah! Are you kidding us?”
“All hockey games are important, Aim,” Chet said. “Not that you, Maddie, or my sister would ever show up to watch us play.”
“Good one!” Egg said. The three boys laughed.
The truth was that Aimee, Madison, and Fiona had gone to a few hockey games—and practices, too. Fiona went because her brother was on the team and because she wanted to see Egg in slap-shot action. Madison went to ogle Hart in his ice skates. And Aimee went whenever she didn’t have dance practice, because Fiona and Madison were there.
“Actually,” Hart said. “Since we all have our skates with us, maybe we should head over to the lake and practice a little.”
“That’s a killer idea!” Egg said, jumping up from the couch. “Let’s go.”