Picture-Perfect

by Laura Dower

“Maddie!” Mom yelled again. “I said get down here and eat and I mean it! Now!”

  Madison was jolted from her thoughts. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” she yelled back, turning off her light and heading for the stairs.

  Mom had dinner set out. Madison only managed to slurp down a cup of soup and half a sandwich before the doorbell rang.

  Mom grinned. “Well, there’s Aimee,” she said.

  “Oh, wow! I am psyched,” Madison said, standing up from the dinner table. “This is the best night of my life so far.”

  “You look very beautiful,” Mom said. “I’m sure the three of you will have a great time together. Give me a kiss, will you?”

  Madison hugged her mom and headed for the door. Phin followed, but Madison didn’t let his little paws or his slobber near this outfit. She petted him on the head instead, and made her clean getaway.

  Outside, Aimee was waiting on the front porch, jumping up and down.

  “Oh-em-gee I feel like I’m going to explode like a stack of dynamite or something!” Aimee said. “Hurry up and let’s go get Fiona!”

  The two friends waved back to Mom, who was now standing on the Finn porch holding Phin in her arms.

  Dean honked the horn. “Let’s go!” he said.

  Madison and Aimee squealed with anticipation.

  They really were headed to their first concert!

  Chapter 12

  MRS. WATERS WAVED TO the car as Fiona got inside. She still looked unsure about her decision to let the trio go to the concert, but it was too late.

  They were on their way.

  Much to everyone’s disappointment, Dean spent the entire ride over to the concert arena talking about Poison Ivy’s sister. Aimee, sitting next to her brother in the front seat, looked ready to slug him every time the words Janet Daly came out of his mouth.

  Madison and Fiona tried to help make Aimee feel better by changing the subject, but it didn’t do much good. Aimee seemed determined to be mad at her brother, no matter what he said. She pasted on a superpout and stared blankly out the window.

  Was the sweetest concert in the world already going sour?

  “Aim?” Madison asked from the backseat. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Huh?” Aimee said. “Of course! Why are you asking me that? Don’t I look okay?” Even though she had recovered from her fainting episode, she was still a little touchy about the whole subject of feelings.

  “You look great!” Madison said. “I just wanted to make sure.”

  “Do you think I look okay, Fiona?” Aimee asked.

  Fiona nodded. “Absolutely.”

  Dean chuckled. “Yeah, for a toady little sister,” he said under his breath.

  Aimee hauled off and punched him in the shoulder. Madison had tried to turn down some of the front-seat heat between them, but instead she’d made Aimee a little angrier at her brother. Dean screamed. Aimee screamed back.

  “You’re the toad!” Aimee shouted.

  “Why don’t you cool out!” Dean said. “I’m the one doing you a favor here.”

  “Toad!” Aimee yelled again.

  Their fight got louder … and louder … and louder….

  “Look!” Madison said, pointing. She had to find some way to put a chill on the fighting. “Over there!”

  Everyone in the car turned to see the neon signs welcoming cars into the Far Hills Concert Arena. There was a long line of traffic pulling into the parking areas. Dean honked his horn a few times, which annoyed Aimee, but she didn’t yell anymore. Madison’s distraction tactic had worked. Now all the girls could focus on was the activity going into the concert. They glanced into other cars to see what other girls were wearing; they searched the parking lot for people they might know; and they looked high and low for the truck and the stand for WKBM Radio. With their radio-won tickets, they were allowed to go collect an exclusive Nikki iron-on patch for each of them.

  Dean parked the car about a mile away from the gates, or at least it seemed that far. Aimee looked ready to pounce on him again for doing the “wrong” thing, but Madison distracted her once more with talk of Nikki.

  The concert would be starting in just ONE hour.

  Dean looked around too. “This is a bunch of little kids,” he groaned. “I can’t believe I let you three talk me into coming here.”

  “Do you see Ivy anywhere?” Fiona asked as they walked toward the stadium.

  “Yeah, Dean. Don’t forget about Janet,” Aimee joked. “I’m so sure she’s dying to see you.”

  “She will be,” Dean bragged. He had the biggest ego of any boy Madison had ever known. According to Aimee, Dean had already dated half his senior class. Finding new girlfriends was like a game for him. Tonight he was on the prowl for Janet.

  “Oh, no!” Fiona said a moment later. “There they are.”

  Madison, Aimee, and Fiona turned at the exact same time to see Ivy and Janet walking toward the arena, too. Ivy was wearing tight-fitting pants and a teeny little top with spaghetti straps. Janet had on a sweatshirt.

  “Isn’t Ivy cold?” Aimee asked. “I mean, she’s wearing practically nothing. And that shirt and pants are so uncoordinated.”

  Madison sighed. Coordinated or not, it worked. Ivy looked good in practically nothing. Madison wondered briefly if “practically nothing” was prettier than her orange kitty shirt. Probably. All at once, Madison’s earlier happiness faded a teeny bit.

  “You’re so much prettier than her,” Fiona said to Madison, wrapping her arm around Madison’s shoulder.

  Madison leaned into Fiona. “Thanks,” she said, hip-checking her BFF.

  “So let’s go get ’em,” Dean yelled, making his move diagonally across the parking lot. “What are you three waiting for?”

  Aimee moaned. “Dean! Noooo!” But it was no use. He was halfway to Janet already. Madison wondered what Ivy’s older sister would really think about Aimee’s brother once he walked right up to her. Would she laugh in his face? Or maybe she did like him a little bit?

  The three BFFs hustled across the parking lot in pursuit of Dean. He made it to the Daly sisters before they could.

  “Yo! Janet!” Dean said, nodding his head. “You look great. What are you doing here?”

  “Dean Gillespie?” Janet said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I know what he’s doing here,” Ivy moaned. She’d caught sight of Madison, Aimee, and Fiona. “He’s with them.”

  Janet turned to see the three friends approach. “Maddie!” she cried out.

  Back in the third-grade days when Ivy and Madison had been best of elementary-school friends, Madison had also taken a super shine to Ivy’s sister. Janet was a different kind of person from Poison Ivy. She wasn’t poisonous in the least. She had always been nice to Madison when her parents were fighting, as they used to do a lot before the Big D.

  “So,” Ivy said. “What are you three doing here?”

  Fiona smiled. “We won tickets on the radio.” She could finally say it now that they were here in the flesh.

  “Yeah, we won tickets in the front row. Imagine that?” Madison said.

  Ivy snickered. “Yeah, right. Let me see.”

  “Um, I don’t think so,” Aimee butted in. “We have to be going now.”

  Dean and Janet were standing a little off to the side talking. Madison realized that they were talking nicely, which wasn’t a good sign. Now she was fearful that they really would be hanging with the enemy all night long.

  “Dean!” Aimee yelled. “We want to go sit down now.”

  Dean looked at Janet and shrugged. “I’ll see you inside I guess,” Dean said.

  Janet tilled her head forward a little bit. “Yeah. When everyone goes into the aisles to dance. I’ll see you then.”

  Madison sighed to herself. They were making plans to meet up inside? She grabbed Fiona’s arm and tugged her toward a souvenir stand.

  “Can we please go inside, now?” Madison said.

  Aimee agreed. She grabbed her brother
’s arm. “Later for you,” Aimee said to Ivy.

  Ivy just snarled. “Much later,” she said.

  Unfortunately, Madison knew that wasn’t exactly the way it would play.

  Inside the arena, people were swarming in and around each other like insects. Everywhere the eye could see, pictures of Nikki smiled down upon the crowds from T-shirts, posters, television monitors playing music videos, and other memorabilia.

  Madison couldn’t believe how many people were crammed around the food-and-beverage stand. Girls had painted their faces with stars over one eye, a look that Nikki used on one of her most popular posters. The theme of this concert appeared to be “Circus.” There were dozens of belly shirts and jean jackets, but Madison was glad to see not one other girl wearing her orange kitty T-shirt. Clowns wandered in and around the concession area.

  “Let’s get a program,” Aimee shouted at her brother Dean. “Over there!”

  Reluctantly, Dean followed the three girls over to an area where two ultratall workers passed out souvenir guides from atop stilts. The program cost Madison, Fiona, and Aimee their allowances combined.

  To the left, ticket takers bellowed, “Step right up!” and welcomed concertgoers inside the main doors to the arena. One was wearing a tuxedo with a purple-and-yellow feathered hat.

  Madison wasn’t sure she liked all the noise, but it was the most exciting place she’d ever been—more exciting than a soccer game at school or a local league baseball showdown with Dad and Stephanie. She screamed right along with everyone else, including her BFFs.

  “This … is … to die for!” Fiona said, straining her voice above the din.

  “Step right up! Nikki performing in the center ring!” the tuxedo man said.

  “Nice feathers.” Dean cracked up as they passed through the gates.

  Someone shoved Madison, and she crashed into Fiona, who didn’t mind. Aimee was quick—and happy—to point out that by now they’d lost track of Ivy and her sister Janet.

  “Hurry up, you guys,” Aimee urged them on. “I see the door for our ticket numbers up ahead—B30.”

  Their gate was the main gate, so things got even more squished from there. Hundreds of screaming fans were pressing inside two wide doors, and there still wasn’t enough room for everyone.

  Madison, Fiona, and Aimee grabbed hands as they stepped through into the arena.

  “Wow!” Madison said as she looked around. There were people, people, everywhere as far as the eye could see. It was larger than life, just as she’d imagined it would be. She could hear voices coming from every corner. She could smell popcorn and perfumes mixed together. The entire room was a blur of colored T-shirts, giggling girls, and posters that read NIKKI WE LOVE YOU.

  Aimee was still leading the way. “Over here!” she called out, tugging on Fiona’s hand. Fiona tugged on Madison, too.

  Dean was frantically searching the sea of faces for Janet.

  “Wait a minute!” Aimee said as they approached their seating area. “There are no seats. No chairs!”

  Aimee was right. Madison and Fiona glanced around. The entire area in front of the stage was “open seating,” a second usher said, urging the girls to move it along. WKBM had set it up this way on purpose. The front section was meant to be a large dance area. Someone would be shooting a video of the concert and wanted lots of fans screaming and dancing in front.

  “Bummer,” Fiona said.

  Madison agreed, mostly because she had caught view of someone else by now. Ivy was standing just a few yards away. The enemy waved.

  “So I guess we have the same seats after all,” Ivy boasted with a smirk.

  When Dean hustled over to stand next to Janet, Madison knew the truth.

  They weren’t moving from that spot. By now the throng of other ticket holders had been pushed into the small area so there was nowhere left to go except right where they were standing.

  Madison turned to Fiona and whispered, “This isn’t really what I expected.”

  Fiona nodded. “Me, neither. But at least we’re here.”

  Aimee wasn’t saying much. She’d been distracted by something up ahead. Some belly dancers had come out into the circus setup onstage, and she was watching them intently as they pranced around in exotic veils. Some large man was leading a camel on the side of the stage.

  After several elbows to the side and a few more evil sidelong glances from Ivy, Madison was relieved when the concert lights finally started to flicker and then dim completely. A hush and sigh went over the crowd. Kids all over squealed and whistled. It was hotter than hot, but Madison’s pulse was racing with delight.

  The concert was HERE.

  The music started up slowly at first, with the tinkle of little bells and a sound like wind. Madison felt her feet lift up ever so slightly off the floor. She wanted to see and feel everything that happened.

  “BEEEE my LUV ma-SHEEN!”

  A group of dancers all in black rushed the front of the stage, right near where Madison and the rest were standing. They each slid in on one knee, as if they might slide right off the stage.

  A microphone boomed, and the chorus sang out the lyrics to one of Nikki’s most popular songs: “Be my love machine!”

  In a ball of colored light, an elevator came down from the ceiling in the center of the stage. Smoke billowed around it like clouds. Dean whispered something to Madison and Aimee about how that was probably just dry ice that caused the special effect. Madison was captivated by its rainbow of light; she waited breathlessly to see what would happen next.

  POW!

  All at once, the doors to the elevator blew open, and out of a cloud of colored smoke came Nikki.

  “Ooooooh!” Aimee wailed. “She looks perfect!”

  Ivy was jumping up and down by now, too.

  “BEEEE my LUV ma-SHEEN! You’re the cutest boy I’ve ever seeeeen!”

  The entire arena screamed. Madison and her friends tried to sing along, but they were too stunned by the flash and the noise to keep up.

  As Nikki danced around the stage, Aimee oohed and ahhed. Nikki changed costumes eight times; rode around the stage on an elephant; and sang every song the girls loved, from “Take Me There” to “Living on the Edge of Y-O-U,” to “Download My Heart.”

  Madison wanted to hear “Sugar-Sweet (Like You),” her favorite Nikki tune, but Nikki didn’t sing it. And too soon, it seemed that she was singing the finale. It was like fireworks in the arena. The stage show even had a man shot out of a cannon—or at least it looked that way.

  “What about ‘Sugar Sweet’?” Madison whispered to her friends.

  Ivy heard. “Maddie, it’s probably her encore. I mean, that is her number-one hit right now. Don’t they always play that for the encore?”

  Madison didn’t know that the encore was a definite thing, but Dean explained that usually stars saved fan favorites for the very, very end.

  Sure enough, as soon as Nikki had played her “last” song, the crowd roared with applause and then began clapping and chanting. “SUGAR-SWEET! SUGAR-SWEET!”

  Madison, Fiona, and Aimee chanted right along with them.

  The room went dark for just a moment, and then a squeaky electronic noise filled the arena. Everyone had to block his and her ears for a moment. Then, a computerized robot voice came on the loudspeaker.

  “Step right up!” the voice said. “The amazing, the astounding, NIKKI!”

  The crowd cheered as Nikki pranced back onstage, microphone in hand. “I could be sugar-sweet like you. Sugar, sugar-sweet …”

  Madison squealed as loudly as she could. Ivy did, too. In one fleeting moment, they were smiling at the same time, bopping up and down, singing along with their favorite superstar in the whole world.

  It was a picture-perfect moment.

  Chapter 13

  THE CHORUS OF “SUGAR-SWEET” went on and on for ten minutes. Some girls in the crowd were actually crying, they were so happy to see the number-one song being performed live.

&n
bsp; No one wanted the moment to stop. Except maybe Dean. He jokingly covered his ears, which made Janet laugh.

  As the final, final applause started up, Madison and Fiona gave each other a huge hug. Aimee threw her arms around the two of them.

  They had made it to the concert. And it was a roaring success.

  Off to the side, Ivy stood alone, looking around the room. Madison realized that the fleeting moment of bonding she and Ivy had shared had passed once again. Ivy was still poisonous; not even a sweet song could change that.

  Large numbers of people began to file out of the arena. One of the people dressed up as a clown stepped up to one of the microphones onstage and called for everyone’s attention in the front section. He was in charge of getting the designated concert-goers backstage for their meet-and-greet with Nikki.

  Madison, Fiona, and Aimee were ready to faint when they heard that. This was the moment they’d really been waiting for.

  Ivy tugged on her sister’s arm. “Can we go? Can we?” Ivy begged.

  Janet shrugged. “I don’t know if we can with our tickets,” she said. “I think it’s just for these guys. We should get home.”

  Madison wanted to shout out “Ha!” but she didn’t rub it in.

  Ivy looked away.

  Dean frowned. “So you guys are gonna take off then?” he asked Janet.

  They whispered back and forth to each other for another minute or so while the rest of the group just stood there like zombies.

  Then, in the blink of an eye, Janet and Ivy turned to walk out. Ivy didn’t say anything else. Their part of the concert was over. And she was out.

  Dean gave Janet a high-five sign, as if to say, “See you later.” Madison could tell they probably would be going on a date sooner than soon. She briefly wondered how seniors in high school like them could make a date and decide to like each other so quickly. Why didn’t that work for her and … Hart?

  “Step right up!” a funny-looking man yelled to the radio winners. It was Stevie Steves, the radio announcer from WKBM. Madison recognized his voice.

  Madison and her BFFs linked arms and followed Dean and the rest of the group toward the backstage area. They climbed up a little staircase onto the stage itself and then moved back toward huge black curtains.