by Laura Dower
After signing out of her e-mailbox, Madison wanted to rush online to visit The Wall, but she remembered a geometry homework assignment she’d forgotten to finish for Monday.
She logged off and quickly opened a file before cracking the books.
In the Loop
Rude Awakening: I’m so not in the loop. I’m just loopy.
That’s what Mom says when she gets real busy with film work, “I’m loopy!” like her head’s spinning.
This week my head is DEFINITELY spinning.
Dan tells me to chill out about the whole puppy thing, but I just can’t let go of it. I really and truly feel hurt and I can’t stop being a little bit mad at Aimee. Besides, I got a million e-mails tonight, but not one from Aimee. What’s that about? Since when doesn’t she call me on the weekend?
And where is Mrs. Wing? Doesn’t anyone else want to know?
Is it so wrong to want information or to want to be included in things?
Oh, maybe Mom is right. I do have the winter blahs.
At least my toenails are in the pink. Hot Pink Tropical Punch.
Chapter 4
UNFORTUNATELY, MADISON FELL ASLEEP on Sunday before she could finish her math homework. So on Monday before class she hid out in the girls’ room with her notebook, desperately writing answers on a page as fast as she could. She didn’t want her math teacher, Mr. Sweeney, to see her. She didn’t want anyone to see her.
The bathroom was an ideal hideout. As it turned out, it was also an ideal place to hear people whispering things that Madison was probably not intended to hear.
As she huddled in the stall, two girls walked inside and turned on the water faucets. Madison guessed they were washing their hands and putting on makeup, that kind of stuff.
Madison recognized a certain pair of platform shoes and jeggings, but it wasn’t until she heard the voice that Madison knew for sure who was in the bathroom with her: Poison Ivy Daly.
Ivy’s voice was like fingernails scratching on a blackboard.
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Ivy whined. “I mean, I didn’t really fail the test. I only got a D, you know. Mr. Danehy is such a pain.”
Joan her drone agreed. “Science is so dumb anyway.”
“And if that stupid twit Madison had just sat differently, I could have cheated off her paper, anyhow,” Ivy said. “She’s such a goody-goody.”
Madison’s jaw dropped. She wanted to barrel right out of the stall and clobber Ivy over the head with her notebook.
Instead, she took a deep breath and tried to remain perfectly still. She balanced her books on her lap and pressed her feet into the door to keep from falling over.
“Can’t you just protest the grade?” Joanie asked.
“Why bother?” Ivy groaned. “Mr. Danehy said I could make up a lab or something and get the D up to a C. That’s all I need to do. I’ll just ask Hart to help me.”
Madison bit her tongue. Ivy liked Hart, too, which meant that they fought over everything—including their crush.
“You’ll pass science,” Joanie said.
Ivy laughed. “Who really cares? I can always copy Madison’s lab notes anyway. I do it all the time when she isn’t looking.”
Madison’s eyes bugged out of her head. She’d had no idea that Ivy had been copying her answers all year. Ivy really was evil.
Thankfully, Ivy and Joanie disappeared out of the bathroom just as the class bell rang. Ivy never knew Madison was there, and Madison was able to regroup before heading off to class.
Sort of.
The truth was, she couldn’t stop thinking about Ivy all through math … and then social studies … and English, too.
Madison couldn’t focus. Everything blurred together on the pages of her textbook. Even a school assembly couldn’t shake her thoughts. Near the end of the day, when Principal Bernard and Assistant Principal Goode called everyone together for the second-to-last period, Madison spent the whole time keeping her eyes out for Ivy. She was so preoccupied that she nearly crashed into Aimee and Fiona on the walk there.
“Maddie!” Aimee cried as soon as she saw her. “Whoa!”
“Oops,” Madison said, just managing to sidestep her BFFs.
“Gee, are you still sick?” Aimee asked. “Your mom said you were sick this Saturday when I came over to see you and … she did tell you I came by, didn’t she? I was kind of hoping you might e- me or something, but I didn’t hear from you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Madison recovered. “Mom told me. But, you know … I was taking some medicine … so I don’t remember exactly when she told me. But she definitely did.”
“Oh,” Aimee said, sounding disappointed. “I wanted to walk the dogs together. Next time, I guess.”
“Next time?” Madison said. “Yeah, sure.”
Madison seemed a little distant, which registered on Aimee’s face.
“Well, fine,” Aimee said, looking a little dejected. She walked ahead of Madison and Fiona. “I forgot something. … I’ll be right back.”
Fiona, who had been just listening, looped her arm around Madison’s. “Hey, Maddie, what’s going on?” she asked softly. “Is something wrong?”
“What do you mean?” Madison asked, feigning indifference.
“What’s up with you and Aimee?” Fiona asked. “You seemed so strange, the way you talked to her”
Madison shrugged. “What way did I talk to her?”
“That way. Like you’re mad.”
“Fiona, why would I be mad?” Madison asked. It was too embarrassing for her to admit the truth about the puppies and about lying to Aimee that she’d been sick. Madison looked away. She scanned the room for Mrs. Wing, but her teacher wasn’t sitting with the other teachers.
The auditorium filled up fast with classes from grades seven, eight, and nine. People in the room hooted and hollered and tried to get settled. Spontaneous assemblies like this one in the middle of the day were always disasters. Fiona and Madison chose seats near the middle of the room. They saved one for Aimee and another for their friend Lindsay Frost. Egg, Drew, and Hart lined up one row ahead of them.
“Hey, Finnster!” Hart turned to her and said hello.
Madison smiled and said hello, quickly looking around to see if Ivy were anywhere nearby. She hoped Ivy had seen Hart’s friendly greeting. … but Ivy wasn’t looking. She was
too busy talking to her drones. The enemy sat two rows away, between Joan and Rose.
The noise in the room sounded like buzzing flies. Madison listened as kids all around her talked nonstop about one thing: the Internet. Everyone who was gabbing gabbed about The Wall. Madison could even hear Ivy Daly’s voice above the din.
“Check out the gossip page … on The Wall,” Ivy said. “There was this post … ‘best-looking classmates.’ … I think we should do that, too.”
Madison strained to hear.
“Why don’t you post … message about … like Hart?” Rose’s words came through the din.
“Shut up!” Ivy cried, much louder this time. She gave Rose a smack on the shoulder.
Madison wished she could hear everything they were saying. Sometimes eavesdropping seemed like a bad idea, but not when it came to Ivy.
“Attention, students. May I have your attention, please?”
The microphone onstage clinked and Principal Bernard stepped forward to speak.
“Thanks for coming in today. We have great news. Far Hills Junior High has been chosen as a blue-ribbon school in our district. This is the third time we’ve received this great honor. … ”
Ms. Goode led the room in a round of applause.
Principal Bernard smiled and introduced a city representative who presented him with a plaque for the cabinet in the main lobby. Madison knew exactly where it would probably hang. The city rep didn’t say more than three words: “Congratulations, Far Hills.”
Then Ms. Goode stood at the podium and read through a quick list of clubs in the school that were sponsoring special activities in the coming week. Ski Club was planning a trip. Art Club was painting a mural in one of the boys’ locker rooms.
“Okay, students, you may return to class,” Ms. Goode said.
And just like that, almost before it had even begun, the assembly ended. The whole announcement hadn’t taken more than five minutes. The room broke out in a roar.
“Wait! That was it?” Aimee cried. “That can’t be it. This is the dumbest assembly I’ve ever been to. I missed dance class for this?”
“Couldn’t they just have sent around a note or said all that stuff on the loudspeaker?” Lindsay asked.
This place is surreal, Madison thought.
Just as quickly as everyone had been called together, they were hustled out of the auditorium and sent along to their two remaining classes for the day. Madison had technology lab and science. She crossed her fingers that Mrs. Wing would be back in the classroom.
But when she arrived in the lab, Mr. Franks was sitting in the chair at the front of the room. Today, he was wearing blue horn-rimmed glasses. Madison guessed he must have them in every color of the rainbow.
Thankfully, the funny substitute didn’t ask Madison to do any additional, attention-drawing demonstrations on the school website. Instead, he spent the class time showing students tricks on PowerPoint. He didn’t seem to care that half the kids in class said they didn’t know PowerPoint.
Madison spent most of class thinking about what she’d overheard that morning. Ivy Daly was the world’s biggest cheater. Maybe it was time for Madison to confront Ivy in science class? Maybe it was time for Madison to stand up to Ivy in front of Mr. Danehy and Hart and everyone else at FHJH?
No, I can’t do that, Madison thought. Ivy was the one who was causing trouble, not her.
I need to catch her in the act, Madison said to herself. She would get her “revenge” when she could catch Ivy red-handed—and not a moment sooner.
Of course, no revenge-planning mattered much on this particular day, since Ivy never even showed up at science class. Madison did her lab assignment alone.
Since Ivy wasn’t there, Madison felt a bit more courageous about approaching Hart on the way out of class. Sometimes, she walked up to him easily, as if they were good friends (which they were), but other times, she just clammed up.
Today was a clam-up day.
The moment Hart made eye contact, Madison looked the other way.
As Hart and the other guys exited the room, she lingered behind to help Mr. Danehy put away the lab materials. By the time she left the classroom, the final bells of the day had rung and most of the kids had rushed to their lockers and bolted out of the school. Even Madison’s BFFs were long gone. Aimee had gone to her dance lesson. Fiona had headed for indoor soccer. Lindsay was working on the Art Club project, in a basement studio.
The winter blahs were coming on strong again. Mom had been right.
Madison stuffed homework, textbooks, and everything else she needed into her orange bag. Then she pulled on her winter coat, scarf, and gloves.
“Maddie!” someone yelled down the hall. Madison spun around to see Dan, out of breath, running toward her.
“Hey, Dan,” Madison said. “What’s up?”
“I am so glad I caught you,” Dan cried. “I have something really, really important to tell you.”
Madison’s mind danced. For a moment she wondered if maybe Dan had discovered the tricks Ivy was playing in science class. She’d have a witness to Ivy’s evil actions. But that didn’t really make sense. How would Dan have known any of the facts about Ivy’s spying on Madison’s notebook? She’d only just found out about it.
“What is it?” Madison asked.
“I finally found out what happened to Dr. and Mrs. Wing,” Dan said, clasping his hands together. “My mom told me last night.”
Madison felt a teeny knot in her tummy. “Told you? What? What happened?” she asked. “Is it bad?”
Dan smirked. “You are so NOT going to believe this.”
Chapter 5
Mrs. Wing
My technology teacher is a mom!!!
Mrs. Wing had a baby. Well, she got a baby. She and Dr. Wing adopted a baby last week. And she missed school suddenly because that’s how it works. They got a last-minute call to go pick up the baby and had to rush into New York to get her at the airport. Some social worker brought her on a plane all the way from Korea. Oh yeah, it’s a little girl. A little girl! I don’t know her name yet.
Wow. Dan was right. I can’t believe it.
Of course, once again, I was one of the LAST to know. But at least this surprise is too good for me to mind.
Rude Awakening: Good news comes to those who wait … and wait … and wait. …
What I don’t understand is how Mrs. Wing and Dr. Wing could keep quiet about this. Amazing! I couldn’t keep news about having a baby a secret! I’d be blabbing it all over.
One thing’s for sure: Mrs. Wing will be the BEST mom on the planet. Except for mine, of course.
Madison sat back and reread her file. A wide grin spread across her face.
What better way to celebrate the news than to post an announcement on the computer? Madison punched in the web address for The Wall. She could share Mrs. Wing’s baby news with all the other kids at FHJH on one of The Wall’s bulletin boards. That way, it would seem as though maybe she knew something before everyone else knew. Of course, she wouldn’t come right out and use names or anything. That was against bulletin board rules. Kids were allowed to use only first initials and abbreviations.
Madison scanned the list of topics once again and selected GOSSIP. That seemed like the right category for her news. This was good gossip. She carefully composed her message in her head as a long list of postings showed up on-screen. Some of the subtopic categories were the same as they had been the last time she’d checked. Others were new.
HOT TOPICS: GOSSIP
What should I do??? 7
Friends-n-enemies 12
Shut Up 10
The big joke 41
Random thoughts 8
Oh, Baby! 4
Big newz 11
Hotties 9
Madison tried to figure out which category would be the best one to use for her posting or if she should create her own. “Big newz” was an obvious first choice, but then Madison spotted “Oh, Baby!”
Her jaw dropped when she saw the four simple postings.
Posted by: Fairyprincess
Date: 5 Nov
Message: OMG our teacher had a baby and no one even knew that is so wild I think maybe she has a double life or something LOL :)
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Posted by: ChatterlO6
Date: 5 Nov
Message: so what who cares
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Posted by: Fairyprincess
Date: 5 Nov
Message: Ur not supposed to be here if u don’t want to post for this topic so get lost u probably don’t even go 2 my school FHJH so there!!! :)
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Posted by: LunaWow
Date: 5 Nov
Message: I go 2 FHJH who r u talking bout??? Mrs. W.?
Madison scrolled back to make sure she’d read the messages correctly. Had Fairyprincess really written FHJH?
That has to be Far Hills Junior High, Madison thought. What else could it be? And it can’t be a coincidence that LunaWow wrote “Mrs. W.,” can it? That has to be Mrs. Wing. Who else?
From under her bedroom desk, Phin nuzzled Madison’s bare foot with a cold, wet nose.
“Oh, Phinnie, how could those kids have learned about Mrs. Wing before me?” Madison wailed.
“Brrrrrrrrrrooooooof,” Phin snorted, rolling back over onto the carpet. He wasn’t particularly interested in the Internet right now. He wanted to be tickled.
“I wonder who these posters are?” Madison said aloud, punching the BACK button on her browser. She returned to the main menu of Gossip. This time, she selected a different category, called “Hotties,” that had nine postings. Maybe she could uncover the identity of Fairyprincess with a few more clicks.
Posted by: KraZeeCat
Date: 5 Nov
Message: who r the cutest classmates in ur class? Remember NO last names or they will pull your post
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Posted by: 99QTPIE
Date: 5 Nov
Message: no one in my class is cute … they’re all ugly LOL and the only cute guy is pretty MEAN so that makes him ugly IMHO anyhoo but I do like a guy in the other jr high named Carlo
