Give Me a Break

by Laura Dower

  And Madison knew exactly whom she would invite.

  Chapter 2

  ON FRIDAY MORNING, MADISON couldn’t finish her cereal. Already her mind was up at the Big Mountain ski resort and Treetops Lodge.

  There she was, sipping cocoa next to her own personal lodge fireplace, skating figure eights around a packed ice rink, snow-tubing with her BFF, and skiing down the slopes at breakneck speed.

  And there was Phinnie, skiing on little doggy skis.

  Madison chuckled to herself.

  “What’s so funny?” Mom asked, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She’d been up half the night working on a deadline for her latest project with Budge Films.

  “I was just thinking…” Madison said dreamily.

  The doorbell rang.

  “Aimee!” Madison screamed, and she dashed for the door.

  When she opened it, Aimee stood there, biting her lip.

  “Well, well…” Madison said. “What did your dad say? Can you come?”

  Aimee kicked at the welcome mat. Then she looked Madison right in the eye.

  “I can come!” she said, her mouth curling into a huge watermelon slice of a grin. “I can come!”

  Madison and Aimee began jumping up and down quickly. Phin, who’d come to the front door to say hello, backed away from all the excitement.

  Mom came out of the kitchen. “Off to school, you two,” she said. “You need to face one more day of reality before the fun starts.”

  Madison kissed Mom on the cheek, grabbed her orange bag with her left hand and Aimee’s hand with her right.

  “We’re going on a ski trip together!” Madison said over and over again, as if she were repeating some kind of mantra. “See you later, Far Hills!”

  Aimee was talking so much she could hardly catch her breath. She said that the moment she had hung up the phone after Madison had called the night before to invite her, she had started packing.

  “Dad said he could really use me at the store,” Aimee said. “But then he winked and said he couldn’t let me pass up a trip like this. He says Treetops is like one of those places where people go to be seen. And now we can see them! Wahoo! I packed my parka, my favorite jeans, my blue sweater—you know the one with the little snowman on it?”

  “So you’re cool about missing dance practice next week?” Madison asked. Aimee never changed her plans to dance—not ever. This would be a first.

  “I can dance in the ski lodge,” Aimee answered. “Can’t I?”

  They gave each other a big hug and headed toward school.

  As they entered the school building, Madison and Aimee felt as if they had slammed into a force field. They had been happily bouncing down the street, but once inside FHJH the vibe was grouchy. The plague that everyone had caught was the winter blahs. Fortunately, most of the teachers understood that no one wanted to be in real classes, so they had the students play classroom games like bingo or charades. Others showed movies over two or three class periods. Gradually, as the morning progressed, people’s moods lifted.

  Just before the lunch break, Madison spoke to Aimee outside the girls’ bathroom on the third floor. As they stood there, Hart sauntered by. Madison gushed about the spontaneous ski trip. Hart was impressed.

  “Wow, I didn’t know you skied!” Hart said. “My family went up to Big Mountain once. It’s really nice there. You’re lucky.”

  “Did you hear that?” Aimee squealed. “We’re lucky!”

  “Lucky us! Lucky us!” Madison chanted.

  Hart squinted and glanced around the hallway to see who was looking their way. He obviously didn’t want to be seen next to a pair of screaming girls.

  “Um… could you guys… um… keep it down?” Hart said.

  “What’s your prob?” Aimee shouted. “I’m not keeping anything down! I’m going skiing, I’m going skiing! Wahoo! Maybe there’ll be some cute boys on the slopes.”

  Now Hart looked utterly embarrassed.

  Madison gulped. Had he heard Aimee’s “cute boys on the slopes” comment?

  “Hart,” Madison blurted out, not really knowing what to say next.

  “Yeah?” Hart said, looking right back at her.

  “Hart, you’d better… um…” Madison was stuck.

  “I’d better go?” Hart said, raising his eyebrows. “I know. I heard what Aimee said.”

  Madison’s chest heaved. Although she had made up her mind the night before to go on a Hart boycott, this wasn’t how she had wanted to do it.

  But she didn’t have a chance to make things right, because Egg showed up. And then Drew Maxwell, Egg’s friend, appeared, too. Fiona and Chet soon followed. Now it wasn’t just a few friends standing there—it was a whole cluster.

  The moment between Madison and Hart was gone, and Madison didn’t get to finish what she had meant to say. She looked over at Hart, who had moved away from her.

  “So, you’re going skiing,” Drew said to Madison.

  Madison shrugged. “Yup. Me and Aimee.”

  “Maddie, I am totally jealous of you both,” Fiona said. “I wish I didn’t have to go to California. Skiing sounds so much cooler than surfing.”

  “It does?” Madison asked.

  “Well, duh,” Egg said. “Of course it’s cooler. There’s snow involved.”

  Drew snorted. He laughed at almost everything Egg said.

  “I know! Maddie, Fiona, and I will e-mail each other the whole time we’re on the trip,” Aimee said. She’d already figured everything out: how they’d keep in touch; what she was going to wear; what they were going to do; and whom they were going to see.

  “You have to take lots of pictures, too!” Fiona said.

  Madison nodded. She looked over at Hart again. He was staring back at her. There was no doubt about it. Maybe he wanted to say something more, like: “Don’t go!” or “I’ll miss you.”

  But neither Madison nor Hart spoke a single word more to each other.

  Madison took another deep breath.

  The bell sounded in the hall, and everyone scrambled to head for their classes. Fiona pulled Madison and Aimee over to the side before they could walk away.

  “Look what I brought!” Fiona said to her friends. She pulled out a ministack of yellow letters. “I made copies of Aim’s chain letter on my dad’s scanner,” she said. “And he had some extra yellow paper in his home office—just like the original letter.”

  “No way!” Aimee said, trying to keep her voice low and shield the pages from any roaming eyes in the hallway.

  Madison was pleased. At least sending copies of Aimee’s chain letter meant they were following the scary “pass this along to five more people” rule. That meant they would have good luck. Fiona had even added a date that had already passed to the top of the letter, so that Poison Ivy would get her copy and think she’d missed the chain-letter deadline. It was a perfect plan! Poison Ivy would definitely freak out if she suspected terrible luck coming her way.

  A teacher came up to the three BFFs and crossed her arms sternly. “Excuse me, girls,” she said. “The bell rang. Get back to your classrooms.”

  Madison waved to Aimee and Fiona and disappeared down the hall. “E me later!” she said to her friends.

  “Forget E. I’ll see you later!” Aimee giggled.

  At home later that night, Madison pulled on two pairs of striped socks to keep her feet warm. Temperatures had dropped during the evening. The weather report had said there was going to be snow. Before packing her ski-trip suitcase, Madison went online to check her e-mailbox. What a surprise! There were three e-mails. Two were from a store that sold toys at half price after the holidays. Madison hit DELETE. She hated junk e-mail. At least there was one real note from her faraway keypal, Bigwheels.

  From: Bigwheels

  To: MadFinn

  Subject: I Still Have a Cold

  Date: Wed 24 Feb 6:43 PM

  It’s official. I’ve been out of school for a week. I have never had a sore throat for this long.
And I never thought I would say this, but I am actually getting sick of TV. They show the same movies over and over again.

  But that’s not the worst of it. My brother and sister r sick 2 so who do you think gets all the TLC? If you answer ME you’re wrong. Ur so lucky 2 B an only child.

  Hey r u still planning to redo your computer filing system over the school vacation? I wish we had school vacations @ the same time. Then I could come visit you and we could hang out together and talk and stuff. I would be soooo GTSY! And i could meet Hart!!! BTW: how is he?

  OMG I just sneezed all over my keyboard. That is so gross. OK. G2G!

  Yours till the temperature rises,

  Bigwheels aka Sneezy

  Madison laughed to herself and hit REPLY.

  From: MadFinn

  To: Bigwheels

  Subject: Re: I Still Have a Cold

  Date: Wed 24 Feb 8:29 PM

  Bless you! You sneezed, right? LOL I am so not redoing my filing this vacation and do you know why? I AM GOING SKIING AT A FOUR-STAR RESORT!!!

  My dad surprised me yesterday with the news. He’s taking me & my BFF Aimee to this place called Big Mountain it’s way up in NY somewhere, up near Canada almost. I heard movie stars even go there sometimes. I dunno. Maybe I’ll meet someone famous and fall madly in love and OOTB you’ll see me on the cover of Star Beat! YEAH, RIGHT!!!

  Oh yeah, about Hart. Well … I still like him. I think. He’s acting so weird lately. I just don’t think our relationship is going anywhere. For starters, we haven’t exactly established it as a relationship. I know he likes me. I think. It’s a little confusing. Aimee says I should check out other boys and get a new crush. What do u think I should do? Ur always good w/that stuff.

  I wish u had the same vacation as me. WE could have gone skiing together! U could see me fall on my face in a big snowdrift LOL b/c I am not a very good skier. I’m not a very good dresser for the ski slopes either which could be a problem considering how fancy shmancy this place is supposed to be. Right now I am about to start packing and my room is a disaster and … I better go! TTYL.

  Yours till the ski boots,

  Maddie

  p.s.: -=#:-)/

  that’s the wizard and his wand to wave all your sickness away--isn’t that fun? my friend sent it 2 me

  After closing her e-mailbox, Madison clicked on a search engine. If she was going to have any luck at all packing for the last-minute trip, she needed some ideas. Out of curiosity, she plugged in the words ski wardrobe and got 5 million hits. Were there really that many stylin’ ski ideas in the world? Madison clicked on the first three.

  SKI WARDROBE… SKI ACCESSORIES… SKI FASHION FIXES… comes with stormflap, 2 lower zipped warm lined pockets, lightly insulated for your ski wardrobe…

  SKIYOUMAMA SKIWEAR WHERE YOU BE COOL ON THE SLOPES

  Ski Wardrobe: Fleece hats, snowboards, headbands, scarves, fleece socks, mittens, and items that make perfect gifts

  GREAT LEAP SKI RESORT WEAR FOR YOUR SKI WARDROBE

  Average snow cover of 143 cm during the ski season. More Ski Runs. Length, vertical drop, difficulty, ski lift.

  “This is hopeless,” Madison said as she moved her cursor across the screen. “What’s a breathable fleece snowboard hat?”

  She glanced at the Skiyoumama home page. A flashing block of text read, “The color graphite is all the rage on the ski slopes, with moss, slate, pale gold, ice blue, and lilac also showing up.”

  “Graphite? Moss?” Madison wondered aloud, flashing a look at her own closet. She was lucky to have one jacket hanging there that she could use for skiing. And it was plain old dark blue.

  It was time to call Aimee and ask for packing advice. Madison was certain that her appearance on the slopes at Big Mountain did not have to be a major fashion event, but she didn’t want to be a complete geek, either. There must be something in her closet that would look good.

  Aimee was happy to help.

  “Okay, first…” Aimee instructed on the telephone. “First, you need to have your basics, Maddie. Faded jeans…”

  Madison wandered over to her closet and picked up a pair from the laundry pile. “Um…” she said. She tossed them onto her bed. “Got ’em.”

  “Now,” Aimee said, “what about sweaters? And dresses? And that little corduroy skirt you have? You could wear that with cable-knit tights and those cool boots you got last Christmas.”

  “Huh?” Madison looked around. “I don’t know where the skirt is. I don’t even know if it fits me anymore, Aim.”

  “That’s okay. We’ll try another look,” Aimee said, sounding a lot like a makeover expert on a reality TV show. She listed more items for Madison to pack. Unfortunately, most of the clothes on Aimee’s list were nowhere to be found in Madison’s room. Madison felt as though her closet were nothing more than a vast winter fashion wasteland.

  “Rowwoooooooof!” Phin barked at Madison and the phone.

  “Maddie? Is that you?” Aimee yelled into the phone.

  “Phin!” Madison cried as the dog barked again and buried his wet nose in one of her sneakers. It was bad enough that she didn’t have the clothes Aimee was suggesting, but to have doggy drool all over the outfits that she did have? That was too much.

  “Aim, I have to go,” Madison gasped into the receiver. “Phin’s being a pest. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll call you back, ’kay?”

  She hung up the phone and burrowed in to a pile of sweaters that had tumbled down from a shelf. Phin came over and pounced on her back. As he squiggled around, Phin caught his paws on a blue cardigan sweater with wooden buttons. It looked like something Madison might have worn in second grade. Now, it was a definite no.

  Then, from the pile, Madison saw some clothes that would work. She yanked out a zip-up red hoodie that Stephanie had bought for her at the mall. She also found an old pair of red snow pants that had been buried way in the back of her closet.

  Two items down, twenty to go.

  Her suitcase was filling up slowly—but at least it was filling up.

  Chapter 3

  “MADDIE, HONEY,” MOM WHISPERED in a groggy voice. “Honey bear, it’s almost dawn.”

  Phin was still snoring. Lucky dog. He didn’t have to get up until everything was already packed into the car.

  Madison crawled out of bed and got into the shower. She’d managed to pack her suitcase the night before but hadn’t fallen asleep until after eleven-thirty, and now…

  All she could do was yawn.

  Dad would be there in an hour.

  Madison brushed her teeth, staring back at her own glassy-eyed reflection in the mirror. Bathroom light was the most unflattering light on the planet—especially at five in the morning. Madison wanted to crawl back into bed.

  She pulled on a pair of cargo pants, a pale yellow T-shirt, and a green zip-up fleece top that Dad had bought her in downtown Far Hills. It was warm. She was sleepy. That made an ideal combination. Her hair was misbehaving, so Madison yanked it back into a pink elastic and washed her face. She still couldn’t get the taste of sleep out of her mouth, so she grabbed the mouthwash from Mom’s bathroom. Had she been up this early in the morning—ever?

  Phin followed Madison downstairs. She was moving like Frankenstein’s monster, all stiff-legged, and Phin almost tripped over her feet.

  Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

  “I’ll get it!” Madison called out, as if Mom had had any intention of getting the door. Mom had sprawled back across her own bed with the words: “Wake me when your dad gets here.”

  Madison went to the door and opened it. On the porch landing stood Aimee, her purple suitcase on wheels waiting next to her.

  “Ready, spaghetti?” Aimee said. She was awfully perky for that early in the morning, Madison thought. And her hair looked perfect, nothing like Madison’s bed head.

  “Nhhhunnnh,” Madison grunted. “Morning.”

  “You look so good! I’m so excited. Aren’t you so excited? I can’t believe yo
u asked me to go with you. You are the best!” She leaned into Madison and gave her a big hug.

  “No problem,” Madison said.

  Aimee stepped inside the front door. “Can you wait a sec? I just have to pee,” she said with a smile, and she dashed for the downstairs bathroom.

  Madison sat in a chair in the hall and cradled her head in her hands. Phin jumped up onto her lap, panting, his little tongue hanging out. She closed her eyes. It would be fine once they were on the road with Dad and Stephanie, but at the moment, Madison could still feel the magnetic pull of her bed… sleeeeeeep! She couldn’t deal with a chipper best friend and dog.

  “I love those pants!” Aimee said when she bounded back out of the bathroom. “You’ve never worn those before. Have you ever worn those before?”

  Aimee wore a purple heather turtleneck sweater, flared cutoffs, and black leather boots. Well, they weren’t real leather. The health-conscious Gillespie family only bought things made of fake leather. It looked a lot like the real thing, though.

  Madison’s mom shuffled down the stairs into the hallway. “Hey, girls,” she mumbled. “How are you, Aimee? Have you eaten breakfast yet? Why don’t I fix you both some juice and cereal?”

  Aimee grinned. “Sure!” she said. “Some OJ would be cool.”

  Madison’s stomach grumbled, but she couldn’t even think about food. The sun was barely up.

  They sat together at the kitchen table. Mom turned on the radio and a soft disco beat filled the room.

  “This is ‘Ask Me How I Feel’! I love this song,” Aimee said. “Can you turn it up?”

  Soon the room was filled with soft yellow light. As Mom turned up the radio, Madison yawned and stretched. Sleep was finally fading.

  “Come on, Maddie!” Aimee shouted, jumping up to dance.

  Phinnie chased Aimee’s feet as she moved from side to side; his little tail wagged behind him.

  Madison rubbed her eyes and laughed. “Aim, it’s six o’clock in the morning. I’m beat. How can you dance?”

  “Any time is a good time to dance,” Aimee said, shaking her hips. She pulled Madison up to dance. “Besides, isn’t this your favorite song?” she asked.