Friends till the End (14 page)

Madison jumped up from the computer where she’d been sitting and typing. Hart was back on her team!

She happily wandered away from her purple notebook and the other books on the table so she could search the library shelves for a novel. Mr. Gibbons had requested one more book report for the school year, and he had given permission to the class to read
anything.

She scanned the shelves for at least ten minutes, stopping to glance here and there at books with interesting titles or covers. Being there reminded her of times when she’d been there with her BFFs, laughing about someone’s dumb crush or cramming for a test.

There really would be nothing like seventh grade ever again.

“What are you doing? Don’t we have science class?” Ivy Daly said, appearing suddenly from around the side of one of the bookcases.

Madison groaned. It was bad enough that she had to see the enemy in science class—but
before
science class, too?

“I’m looking for a book,” Madison said curtly.

“Duh, we’re in a library. I could have guessed that much,” Ivy said. “You want to walk to class together?”

“Together?” Madison asked. “Um…”

What else was she supposed to say?

“Sure, I guess,” Madison mumbled.

Ivy looked pleased with herself. Madison wasn’t quite sure why.

Madison picked up her books, and they walked down to Mr. Danehy’s classroom.

“We have to present our outline today,” Ivy whispered to Madison.

Madison looked at her dumbly. “Uh…
yeah…
I know.”

“Well, I was just making sure you did know, because we want to make a good impression, right?” Ivy said.

“Right,” Madison said as they entered the room.

“Welcome to P-Day, students,” Mr. Danehy said, his voice booming even louder than usual.

“P-Day?” Chet asked from the other side of the room.

Madison giggled.

“Project Day, Mr. Waters. And since you were our first to speak today, then go ahead and start us off. How is your project coming along? You and Mr. Jones have something to share, yes?”

Madison eyed Hart from her seat. She nodded sweetly, and he nodded back. They were speaking without words. What she was saying silently was,
I feel so guilty that I was thinking about Will, but I really do like you, Hart, I really,
really
do.

This time, she hoped he could read minds.

Mr. Danehy was pleased with Hart and Chet’s experiment and project outline. They called their assignment “A Couple of Fungis.”

Chet said it at least four times, stressing the bad joke. “A couple of fun guys? Get it? Get it?”

“Oh, yes, Mr. Waters, we get it,” Mr. Danehy sighed. Then he turned to the next pair of students for their outline presentation. All of the kids so far had their assignments in order, and Madison was beginning to wonder if she and Ivy could pull it off, too. She knew that she had done the right research and that she had the factual information to back up her claims, but would she be able to make it seem as though she and Ivy worked together? It wouldn’t be an easy task.

She shouldn’t have worried. When Mr. Danehy finally turned to Madison and Ivy, it was Ivy who spoke first. That surprised Madison. But what Ivy
said
shocked Madison even more.

“Well,” Ivy chirped, in that superior, know-it-all voice that she put on sometimes, “we did a lot of digging to find just the right tests to prove that the sky is, indeed, blue. One experiement, using soap, water, and a flashlight, will show that…”

Madison glared at Ivy when she started to explain the particulars of the experiment. How could she possibly have done the same research as Madison? How could she possibly have reached such similar conclusions? Since when did Ivy surf the Net as well as Madison?

“For experiment number two,” Ivy continued, “We’ll talk about light refraction using a safety pin, water, black paper, and nail polish…” She flashed her own polished nails.

What was going on?

“We learned in class this year that visible light is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that our eyes can see…”

Madison was ready to jump up and shout, “Say what?” Ivy couldn’t have read the chapters on that subject, could she? She hadn’t even been able to pronounce the word “electromagnetic” five minutes ago, and she certainly couldn’t
spell
it.

This was fraud, pure and simple. But before Madison could say anything to dispute—or, for that matter, add to—her partner’s contribution, Mr. Danehy spoke right up.

“My goodness, what a turn of events!” he cried.

Ivy nodded and grinned. She looked over at Madison with a self-satisfied sneer; only, no one else but Madison could see that from any other angle but her own.

“I’m astonished, Ms. Daly,” Mr. Danehy went on. “Simply astonished. You’ve certainly done your homework. Ms. Finn, I’d say you have quite a partner here. I’d like to hear about some of your contributions to this fine presentation.”

Madison started to speak—
wanted
to speak—but the words wouldn’t come out. They were like molasses on her tongue, thick and stuck.

“Ms. Finn?” Mr. Danehy asked a second time. He crossed his arms as he always did when he was starting to get impatient.

“I…I…” Madison stammered. “I have a whole outline here of facts about rays, I mean, Rayleigh scattering…I think…”

She searched in her notebook for the right notes, but they didn’t turn up right away.

“I don’t have all day,” Mr. Danehy moaned. “Rayleigh scattering is very good. What else do you have?”

That was when Ivy began speaking again.

“Well!” Ivy piped up. “It all has to do with variables in the earth’s atmosphere. Here on Earth, the sun appears yellow, but if you looked at it from space, it would actually appear white…”

Madison wanted to interrupt with a raised finger just to say, “Okay, so you’re saying all this, Ivy, but what does it
mean?
As if you know!”

Ivy continued, eyes twinkling. Madison was
this
close to throwing up.

She caught Hart’s eye again. He was frowning, but when Madison made eye contact, he smiled a little bit. It was some comfort, considering the fact that the rest of Madison’s universe was on the verge of collapse.

Mr. Danehy stood back, arms now uncrossed, still shaking his head in a combination of disbelief and pride.

“The first steps toward correctly explaining the color of the sky were taken by John Tynder…I mean,
Tyndall…”
Ivy said, elaborating on another of the points about which Madison had written copious notes in her purple notebook.

That was when it dawned on Madison: Ivy was saying all the stuff Madison had researched. Ivy was practically
reciting
from Madison’s notebook.

Madison’s brain zipped back to the moment an hour before in the library, when Ivy had mysteriously appeared from nowhere in the stacks, saying that she’d been “looking for” Madison. How long had Madison been away from her notes at that point? That had been an ideal opportunity for idea theft. Could Ivy have done it that quickly? It didn’t seem possible. Was she
that
good a thief?

Madison glared at Ivy, trying to make her squirm. But Ivy was unflappable. Then Madison spotted a clue to Ivy’s sudden genius. Under the lab table. Ivy clutched a white page—a copied page? Wait! The handwriting on the page was
Madison’s…

“You rat,” Madison muttered under her breath.

Ivy turned and sneered again. “Squeak, squeak,” she said, flaunting the copied page, at Madison alone.

“I can’t
wait
for your project,” Mr. Danehy pronounced to both girls. “And now, let’s move along to our next pair of scientists.”

Madison’s head throbbed. All that work she’d done was ruined. And even worse, this was only the preproject presentation. How could she expose the enemy before or during the real presentation? There was no way to do it without looking vengeful and angry; Mr. Danehy hated tattlers. But he hated cheaters more, didn’t he? Mr. Danehy had been on Ivy’s case all year long, and now she was lying her way through Science.

What a mess.

If only Bigwheels were there right now to give Madison a dose of clever keypal wisdom.

Or maybe Gramma Helen. She always had something wise to say.

Then Madison remembered something very important: in just one hour, she’d be off to the airport with Mom to pick Gramma Helen up.

Gramma was coming! She’d know what to do. After all, she always did.

Brrrinnnggg!

The class bell rang, and Mr. Danehy threw his hands up in the air. Students who hadn’t had a chance to present would have to do it during Mr. Danehy’s study period that afternoon, or on the following day.

Ivy had a smug look on her face as she and Madison gathered up their books and headed for the classroom door. Madison joined Hart and Chet so that she wouldn’t have to be around Ivy for another minute.

“You didn’t tell me that Ivy actually studied,” Hart blurted out as they walked into the hall.

“Ha!” Madison said. “As if. She stole all my work and passed it off as her own.”

“No way,” Chet said. Then he started to laugh. “Man, she’s
good.”

“Chet,” Hart groaned, “shut up.”

Madison smiled when Hart rushed to her defense like that. In that moment, she let go of her paranoia about her feelings for Hart. Everything would be fine, Madison told herself.

I just have to believe in myself, she thought.

“Know what? You should tell the teacher what Ivy did,” Chet said. “Don’t let her get away with all that”

“Yeah,” Hart agreed. “Mr. Danehy won’t tolerate cheaters. In fact, didn’t he say those exact words once?”

“I don’t know,” Madison shrugged. “There has to be a better way to give Ivy a taste of her own medicine. Can’t I expose her without looking like a tattler?”

“You mean silent revenge?” Hart asked. “No way. You’re too nice to do something mean.”

“Not anymore!” Madison cried.

“Look out, Ivy,” Chet said. “Madison Finn is out for blood!”

Hart chuckled, and the two boys walked a little bit ahead of Madison, trading a few more of their own jokes. Within moments, Madison had lost sight of both of them.

That was okay. She had other places to go. Namely, she had to meet the enemy so that they could review their final presentation strategy for Wednesday.

As another bell rang, Madison glanced at the digital readout on her cell phone to check the time. Oh, no! Madison had less than an hour before she had to meet Mom, who would probably be chomping at the bit to get to LaGuardia Airport to meet Gramma’s plane.

Strangely, Ivy came on time to their designated meeting spot, looking as sly as ever. They were rendezvousing in a study hall on the first floor of the school. The room was practically empty, except for a few die-hard students.

“I can’t believe you dared to show up!” Madison declared right off the bat when she saw Ivy. “You’re such a snake.”

“Yeah, boo and hiss and all that,” Ivy sneered. “Let’s just figure out how we’ll do the final presentation.”

“Well, I think you should do it all,” Madison said. “Since you were such a show-off today…with
my
notes.”

“Don’t be such a crybaby,” Ivy said. “After all, we’re both getting the same grade, aren’t we? It’s not like Mr. Danehy will give me an A and you a lower grade for the same project. Or maybe he will…” Ivy started to snicker.

Madison pulled out her purple notebook and slammed it on the desk. “Let’s just divide the topics. How about we open with a question like ‘What is light?’”

“Fine,” Ivy grunted. “You can do that. I’ll do the nail polish experiment.”

I knew it.

Madison sighed. “We need to make a poster or something that shows the color spectrum. I was thinking we could make a collage of different pieces of sky and clouds on a blue background…”

“That sounds good. Why don’t you do that, since you know what to do,” Ivy suggested.

“Why don’t I just do
everything?”
Madison cried.

“Fine with me,” Ivy said. “Like I said, it’s not like we’re getting a different grade or anything. That’s the fun of being partners, right?”

Madison felt as though her head would explode. “Fine,” she snapped. “I’ll make the poster. I’m more creative than you anyhow.”

“I wouldn’t go
that
far,” Ivy said. “You probably still use those Magic Markers that smell like fruit flavors.”

“You know, Mr. Danehy will know you didn’t really do the work,” Madison said, ignoring Ivy’s comment. “And if he doesn’t figure it out, I’ll tell him.”

“Whatever,” Ivy said. “Go ahead.”

Madison couldn’t believe that after everything that had happened between Ivy and her, it came down to this: a showdown between old friends-turned-enemies. Did Ivy know that Madison
wouldn’t
tattle on her enemy?

“Why can’t you just help and be nice…for once?” Madison pleaded.

Ivy smiled. “Why should I?”

Someone else in the study hall whispered a very loud
Shhhhh,
and so Madison and Ivy lowered their voices. It had become painfully clear to Madison that Ivy was not going to contribute in any significant way. Ivy probably knew that Madison wouldn’t let the project dissolve, no matter who did what. She knew Madison would make the best collage and find the best examples to discuss. She knew she could ride Madison’s hard work all the way to a better report card. It was what she’d been doing during Science all year.

Some things will never, ever change, Madison thought, whether they happen in third grade or seventh grade or any grade. Ivy will always be poisonous, as much as I want to give her a second (and third and fourth and so on) chance to be different.

Madison did convince Ivy to stay in the study hall with her for another twenty minutes, just to make sure they were clear about who would do the talking at what points in the presentation. But then, as soon as they’d worked their way down the list of information, Ivy grabbed her stuff and dashed off. Madison restuffed her orange bag and went out as well. Mom was probably waiting.

Sure enough, Mom’s car was one of a few lingering parent vehicles lined up outside school. She stood outside the driver’s-side door of the car, waiting for Madison to hop in.