Off the Wall
Page 12
“Hey! Fiona! Maddie! What are you guys doing here?” a voice called out from the doorway.
Madison and Fiona whirled around to see Aimee standing there. She had her backpack and coat in her arms.
Nurse Shim grabbed Aimee’s pass, too. “Sit,” she barked.
Aimee rolled her eyes and sneezed. “I feel so-o-o gross,” she mumbled to her friends, collapsing into a chair. “Why are you here?”
“This so weird,” Madison said. “We’re all sick at the same time. What are the odds of that?”
“I’d rather be anywhere but here.” Aimee sneezed again.
“What a weird coincidence. Like fate or something. Don’tcha think?” Fiona said, rubbing her nose.
“Excuse me, ladies,” Nurse Shim interrupted with a scowl. “Miss Waters, I spoke to your father and he will be coming to school to get you. Now, what about you, Miss Finn? Whom should I call?”
“My mom is in a work meeting,” Madison said. “And I don’t know where the meeting is.”
Madison didn’t want to admit that she’d left a slip of paper with all of Mom’s contact information on the kitchen counter at home.
Whoops.
“What about your father?” Nurse Shim asked.
“He’s away on business,” Madison said.
“Can’t you call your mom on her cell phone?” Fiona asked.
Madison shook her head. “She doesn’t have it. It broke last week.”
Nurse Shim tapped her fingers on her big steel desk. “Without a parent’s consent, you cannot leave the school,” she said, clucking her tongue.
“I have an idea,” Aimee cut in. “Call your dad on his cell and then call my mom. I know he’ll give permission for her to come get us both.”
Much to Madison’s relief, Aimee’s idea was a slam dunk. Nurse Shim got the permission she needed from Madison’s dad, and Mrs. Gillespie agreed to pick up both Aimee and Madison. She told them she would meet the girls in front of the school in fifteen minutes.
Aimee, Fiona, and Madison gathered their belongings and headed toward the front lobby as Nurse Shim waved them on with a grunt. Two other kids with sniffles and hall passes were waiting for her immediate attention.
As the girls made their way to the front lobby, the bell rang for the changing of classes. Kids poured into the hallway, rushing to lockers and classrooms.
“Maddie! Fiona! Aim! Over here!” a voice called out. It was Lindsay, their other BFF, heading back to her own locker. “Where have you been?” Lindsay asked, juggling a stack of books in her hands. Lindsay was usually heading to or coming from the school library and media center.
In response, Madison, Fiona, and Aimee coughed at the same time.
“Are you three sick?” Lindsay asked.
Madison rubbed her nose. “Don’t I look like Rudolph?” she said. “My nose feels redder than red.”
“Wow. You should go to the nurse,” Lindsay suggested.
“We just left. She sent us home,” Fiona said.
“We’re on our way to the lobby….” Aimee said.
“How did you all get sick at the same time?” Lindsay asked.
Madison shrugged. “Lucky, I guess.”
Brrrrrrrring.
“That’s the bell. I’m late. Somebody call me later!” Lindsay said, dashing off to her next class.
As they turned another corner, Madison nearly collided with Ivy Daly, her archenemy, otherwise known as Poison Ivy.
“Excuse ME!” Ivy cried when Madison nearly knocked her over. “What is your problem? Oh, wait! I know what your problem is….”
Madison let out a loud, hacking cough.
“Ewwwww!” Ivy said, taking a step back. “Get away from me. I don’t want your germs. Disgusting.”
“Gee, thanks,” Madison said as the enemy turned and retreated to her own locker. Madison felt clammier than clammy. There was no question about it: she had to get out of school—now.
“She’s the one who’s disgusting,” Aimee scoffed.
“Finnster!”
Hart Jones came up behind Madison and thwacked her on the back. She turned, stunned. Madison didn’t want Hart to see her that way, looking like death warmed over.
“Hey, Hart,” Madison mumbled, staring down at the floor. Her head was really spinning now—and it wasn’t just because of the fever. Since the beginning of junior high, she’d had a huge crush on Hart. Lately the burning question was: did he feel the same way?
“Where are you headed?” Hart asked when he spied her coat and orange book bag.
“Headed? Oh. Home.” Madison coughed again. “You?” The only words she produced were monosyllables. She sounded like a computer recording.
“Me? I’m off to second period….” Hart said. He stared down at his sneakers and bobbed from side to side. “Hey, did you get that research-paper assignment in first period?”
Before she could answer, Madison felt a sneeze coming on. “Aaah … aaah …”
She quickly bit her tongue. It was a trick Gramma Helen had taught her: if you bit the very tip of your tongue you could short-circuit sneezes, itches, and all kinds of twitches.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work this time.
“Aaah … CHOOOOOOOO!”
Hart took a slow step backward and glanced down at his sweater. Madison was afraid to look.
From down the hall, Chet Waters, Fiona’s twin brother, came running. “Hart!” he cried. “Wait up!”
“Here comes bigmouth,” Fiona groaned. “We better split. I can’t deal with Chet right now.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Aimee said, tugging on Madison’s sleeve. “My mom will be waiting downstairs for us.”
Madison smiled. Hart smiled, too. He didn’t seem fazed at all by the sweater sneezing incident. In fact, he looked right into Madison’s eyes, like he was staring through her.
“Hope you feel better soon,” Hart said.
As they walked away, Aimee grabbed Madison around the waist and leaned in close. “Way to flirt, Maddie,” she whispered.
Madison gasped. “What?” she said. “I wasn’t flirting.”
“Well, so what? He was,” Aimee said, pinching Madison’s arm.
Fiona laughed. “Definitely,” she said, pinching Madison’s other arm.
Madison had kept her crush a secret for a long time, but now her friends knew everything. Lindsay knew, too. And it was better that way. It was too hard to keep big secrets from best friends. Plus, like Aimee had said, it was kinda obvious.
In the school lobby, the three BFFs sat together on a wooden bench, waiting for their parents and comparing aches and pains.
Aimee pulled out the same yellow research-paper sheet that Madison and Fiona had gotten in Mr. Gibbons’s class and waved it in the air. “What do you think about this project?” she asked her friends.
“Way too hard,” Fiona chimed in. “On top of all our other homework, too!”
“Could be fun though, especially since it’s on the web,” Madison said.
“You think everything about the web is fun,” Aimee teased. She blew her nose loudly.
Madison rolled her eyes.
“But what’s with the ‘team’ thing?” Fiona asked aloud.
“Knowing my luck, I’ll get teamed with Poison Ivy. That would be the worst,” Madison said.
“I thought we could pick our own teams,” Aimee said.
“Really?” Madison said.
“If that’s true, then why don’t we do the project together?” Fiona said.
Madison’s mind started spinning in a whole new direction.
“You mean, me, you, and Aim as a team?” Madison asked. “Cool.”
“Unless you’d rather team up with Hart….” Aimee said.
Fiona laughed so hard she started to cough.
“Very funny, you two,” Madison moaned. She wiped her nose.
“There’s Mom!” Aimee shouted, pointing across the school parking lot. Pulling in directly behind the Gillespie minivan was Fiona�
�s dad, driving their family car. He honked.
“When can we talk more about the project?” Fiona asked as she headed toward her dad’s car.
“Just E me later,” Aimee suggested.
“And E … aaah … CHOOOOO!” Madison sneezed again. “E me, too,” she said, eyes watering.
Aimee held the door open for Madison. Both girls waved good-bye to Fiona.
Warm and breezy September air blew outside the school building. Of course, Madison had chills and hot sweats at the same time, so she wasn’t really sure what the real temperature was.
Besides, Madison had other things on her mind.
Like Hart.
And all signs seemed to indicate that Hart had Madison on his mind, too.
Chapter 2
Sick
Rude Awakening: Here’s a new way to survive seventh grade: Just flu it.
After leaving school early today, I drove with Aimee over to her house. Mrs. Gillespie made this tofu broth soup thing that made me want to puke. How am I supposed to eat mystery food when I have chills and a fever? I don’t know how Aim eats that stuff. It had green strands in it called seaweed kelp. HELP!
Anyway, Mom came home late, around 2, from her meeting. She picked me up in the car even though we’re only a few houses down the block. Mom was so worried that she took me over to Dr. Pinkerton’s office pronto. Naturally, we had to wait an hour before they called me. There were so many people in there hacking and snorting and UGH. At least I cover my mouth when I hack. Ha-ha.
The news is not good. Apparently, I have acute bronchitis. That’s what the doctor called it. At first I thought he was telling me I was cute LOL but of course I just heard him wrong. Bronchitis means I have too much congestion in my chest and an inflammation of my bronchial tubes and my cough will get worse this week before it gets better. And oh yeah, my throat hurts. A LOT. Lucky for me, Mrs. Gillespie gave me homeopathic mints called Flu-Ease that help because they have eucalyptus, so whenever I swallow, my throat feels icy instead of stinging hot.
Mom couldn’t believe that Aim, Fiona, and I all got sick at the same time. But it makes perfect sense to me. Best friends stick together, right? Or is that best friends SICK together?
I feel like my head is going to explode. I’d better go ask Mom for a cup of herbal tea with extra honey. It’s funny how much I love to drink that when I’m sick even though I never drink it any other time.
“Maddie,” Mom appeared at Madison’s bedroom door with mug in hand. “I made you something….”
Madison sniffed the air. She smelled honey. Mom was a mind reader.
Madison quickly hit SAVE and shut down her computer. Behind Mom, Madison’s dog, Phin, darted into the room, too, with a squeaky, rubber, toy chicken in his jaws.
“Roooooooowf!” Phin dropped the chicken and scratched at the bedcovers. He wanted to play.
Mom pulled back on his collar. “No, Phinnie,” she said sternly. “No, no, no!”
“Mom?” Madison didn’t know why her mom was getting so angry. “Are you okay?” she asked.
Mom sat on the corner of the bed. “Aw, I’m fine, Maddie,” she stammered. “I just … I just … have a lot on my mind, that’s all. We have a major deadline next week … and this morning’s meeting didn’t go as well as I’d hoped … and …”
“Oh,” Madison said, taking a sip of her tea.
“And I was supposed to have a second round of meetings early this evening, but now … we spent all that time at the doctor’s office…. I can’t possibly make it now….”
“Sorry,” Madison mumbled. She sniffled and took another sip.
“No, don’t apologize!” Mom said. “I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all. You asked. I’m the one who’s sorry … for being so … busy.”
“Oh,” Madison said again. She pulled a blanket up over her.
“You know what? You look pale,” Mom commented.
“But I always look pale, don’t I?” Madison replied meekly.
Mom tucked the blanket snugly around Madison and moved the orange laptop off the bed. “I want you to close your eyes, honey bear. No e-mails right now. You need your shut-eye. Get some sleep before supper. Your dad is coming over tonight, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Madison said. He was planning to bring over take-out food. Dad always either took Madison to dinner or brought burgers over before heading out of town.
“I can call him and cancel,” Mom said. “If you want….”
“No, that’s okay. If Dad comes you can get more work done,” Madison suggested. “You can just leave us and make your calls or whatever.”
“That might work out,” Mom said. She sounded relieved for the first time in their conversation. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
Madison nodded enthusiastically. Ever since the Big D, when her parents got their divorce, Madison always felt strange about Dad’s visits. When the visits started, it was awkward just having him come to the front door. These days, Mom didn’t seem to mind if Dad came to the house for longer stretches of time. Madison always laughed at Dad because he knew (more than Mom) where everything in the house was located—from crayons to Scotch tape to pots and pans and the French roast coffee beans he loved.
Phin let out a low growl. He wanted to get up on the bed next to Madison.
“Can dogs catch bronchitis?” Madison asked aloud as she reached down to the floor and lifted up the pug.
“I doubt it,” Mom said. “Besides, Phinnie is Super Dog, right?”
Madison smiled. Mom kissed her forehead.
“Oh, honey bear, it feels like you still have a fever,” Mom said, sounding concerned. “You’re sure you’ll be okay if I go make a few phone calls?”
Madison nodded. “Uh-huh.”
Mom kissed her again and replaced the empty box of tissues next to the bed with a full one. “If you need something, just holler. I love you.”
“I’ll try to sleep, Mom,” Madison said. “Don’t worry so much.”
As soon as her mom left the room, however, Madison forgot all about sleep. Instead, she grabbed her laptop and powered it up again. While Phinnie curled up into a little ball and snored, Madison surfed onto TweenBlurt.com in search of a chat room and her two BFFs.
The three found one another in a room called ACHOO.
Madison clicked offline just in time to hear Mom coming back upstairs. With one movement, Madison lifted the blanket at the end of her bed and tossed it over the computer. She curled up into a knot and pretended to doze.
“Maddie?” Mom whispered as she pushed open the door.
Madison moaned in her fake sleep.
“Honey bear, your father is downstairs,” Mom said. “He came by with some food. He’s waiting in the kitchen.”
Madison opened one eye and then the other. “What?” she said, even though she’d heard every word. “Did you say something, Mom?”
After Mom told her a second time, Madison slipped out from under her blanket and pulled on a Far Hills sweatshirt.
“Let’s go, Phinnie,” she said, hoisting the pug into her arms and heading downstairs.
Dad waited in the kitchen with several bags full of goodies. The whole kitchen smelled as though it had been deep-fried. He had brought chicken and biscuits from the Chicken Coop, a new fast-food chain that had opened near his apartment building.
“Hey, Dad,” Madison sniffed the air and sneezed.
“Oh, Maddie!” Dad stretched his arms open wide. “You really are sick!”
“Did you think I was faking?” Madison asked.
Mom chuckled to herself and poured a glass of wine. “Want a glass of white, Jeff?” she asked him in a sweet voice.
Madison had noticed that with their divorce now more than a year in the past, Mom and Dad were able to get along better. Were they on their way to becoming friends?
“White wine? Fran, you know I’m not drinking,” Dad said curtly. “Ever.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “I can’t remember everything,” she said.
Dad sighed. “That’s for sure,” he said.
“Don’t start this, Jeff …” Mom started to say something but cut herself off.