Friends till the End (5 page)
Read Friends till the End Online
Authors: Laura Dower
“The question is,” Ivy said in her most saccharine voice, “what are
you
doing here?”
“Ms. Finn,” Mr. Danehy said, “Ms. Daly informs me that the two of you have not yet chosen a topic for the project.”
“No? Well…” Madison was completely taken aback.
Ivy held up a notebook. It was purple.
Madison’s notebook!
“I was just showing Mr. Danehy our class notes,” Ivy said, holding it up.
“Our
class notes? Wait—that’s—wait—” Madison tried to speak fast, but it came out all garbled. She was too surprised to get the words right.
“Girls, girls, girls,” Mr. Danehy said, holding up his hands like a referee. “I understand your concerns, but remember: the notes are irrelevant. Our work habits are not negotiable.”
Madison must have been making a “Huh?” face because Mr. Danehy continued with his explanation. His words quickly got a lot clearer.
“Ms. Finn,” Mr. Danehy said, “I need you and Ms. Daly to work
together.
You
do
know what that word means, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course—”
“Because I don’t like what I’m seeing. It appears Ivy here has been working much harder on the project notes.”
Madison started to reply. “But I was working—”
“We’ll figure it out,” Ivy added in her best Pollyanna voice.
“I guess…” Madison said.
“No guesswork involved,” Mr. Danehy said. “Either you will or you won’t, Ms. Finn. I know you’ll do the right thing.”
Madison bubbled up inside, like a pot ready to boil over.
“Very well,” Mr. Danehy said, rubbing his palms together. “Are you satisfied now, Ms. Daly? I assume there will be no further conflict here. Correct? After all, you do have one of the best students as your partner.”
After all of that conflict and defense of
Ivy,
Madison was further taken aback by Mr. Danehy’s backhanded compliment. At least he wasn’t totally taking sides.
No sooner had Mr. Danehy ushered the two girls out of the classroom than Madison and the enemy turned to face each other like wild animals. Ivy thrust the purple notebook right at Madison’s midsection.
“Here!” Ivy spat. “Here’s your dumb notebook. Better hang on to it, huh?”
“You’re so…so…pathetic,” Madison cried, finally—
finally!
—finding the right words. “I can’t believe you would go to Mr. Danehy and pretend that you worked on
any
of these notes. I can’t believe how low you can sink…”
“Glug, glug, glug,”
Ivy taunted, as if she were pretending to sink in reality. Then she rolled her eyes and walked away. “See you later—
much,”
Ivy said, waving her hand without once looking back at Madison’s face.
Madison pushed the notebook into her orange bag and headed for the school lobby. If she ran fast enough, maybe she could catch up with her BFFs. Or at least she could catch Aimee at home. She needed a real friend to shake off these bad feelings. After a long walk with Phin, Aimee, and Aimee’s dog, Blossom, Madison knew she would feel better.
After all, anything was better than dealing with Poison Ivy.
Mad Science
Poison Ivy is the bane of my existence, the thorn in my side, AND the pain in my neck. Wow, I sound like my Gramma Helen, who’s always coming up with those kooky sayings. Kidding aside though, today was DEFINITELY the next-to-the-last straw with Ivy.
Since Ivy doesn’t really care about this project and since she thinks LYING and passing off my work as hers is acceptable, then I can just pick whatever topic I want and DO whatever I want. So far I think I am partial to the “Why Is the Sky Blue?” question for a lot of reasons. I like blue, sunny skies more than I like rainy ones or dark ones. Plus, Dad gave me this prism charm once that refracts light and makes rainbows on my wall. I’d like to know more about how all that light stuff works.
So: no report on the earth as a cube (too hard), no basic chemistry (too impossible), and definitely no fungus (too gross). I’ll aim higher than all that. The blue sky really is the limit.
Rude Awakening:With a plan to show Ivy up, I give new meaning to the words “mad scientist.” Better make sure that I keep any rants confined to my files—just in case. :>)
Madison reread her file and pressed
SAVE
.
Sure, she’d been mad at Ivy plenty of times over the years, but she’d never steamed like this. The camel’s back really was broken. It was time to get back at the enemy for all those cruel digs, the ongoing flirtation with Hart, the nasty disposition, the mega-annoying pink cell phone case, and so much more. Maybe some of the revenge reasons were petty, but the majority weren’t—and majority ruled.
It seemed like such a distant memory—the days when Madison and Ivy had called each other friends.
Particular memories from second grade and before leaped into Madison’s head like lightning bolts. She remembered the days when the two of them had dressed alike and even talked alike. Their favorite outfits: capri pants in matching colors, T-shirts with cap sleeves and little sayings like “Cutie Pie” or “Honey Bug” printed on them. Their favorite sayings: “Getouttatown” and “No,
you’re
the bestest!”
There were a lot of good
—
no, great
—
memories.
In first grade, Ivy and Madison had been practically inseparable. They had learned to read together (along with Amelia Bedelia, Madison’s favorite misfit). They wrote their own picture books about life on a teddy bear farm (starring Madison’s own bear, Beary). Once, they had even started their own mud pie business, hawking pie tins filled with muck all over Ivy’s neighborhood. And people had actually bought them.
Back when Madison and Ivy were BFFs, Aimee had been there, too. The three of them would parade around together during school, at recess, and on the weekends, sharing a love of all things Barbie: dolls, clothes, accessories, and, of course, the Super Barbie Camper. No one had had a dog back then, but Ivy had had a cat named Paprika, with red-speckled fur and no claws.
Paprika was the trio’s mascot; they treated him as their collective pet. Ivy’s dad built a grand tree house in her backyard, and the three friends would drag the cat up there for by-invitation-only Barbie tea parties. Paprika hated it when they decorated his long fur with pink glitter. But Madison, Aimee, and Ivy loved those kitty makeovers.
It was third grade when Joan Kenyon and Roseanne Snyder (aka Phony Joanie and Rose Thorn) came to Far Hills elementary school. That was when things—including the balance of power—began to shift. The two new girls turned Madison’s threesome into a fivesome for most of their activities, including the tea parties. In retrospect, Madison should have seen the writing on the wall—and the collapse of the friendship. Ivy started to get more secretive and didn’t
always
want to hang out. She even defended Roseanne or Joan when the new girls said not-nice things.
It was a sign of things to come. A
billboard,
actually. From third grade on, it always seemed as though Ivy had something to complain about, and she started to blame Madison for all her problems. Then Ivy began spreading nasty rumors about Madison. Things never went back to the way they were.
Not that Mom and Dad (still married back then) helped much. At the time, they had chalked Madison’s big fight up to a “passing phase,” and Mom had said stuff like, “Look, Maddie, you’ll make and change friends a dozen times before middle school even starts. I don’t know why you’re letting yourself get so worked up about this.”
But of course, Madison
had been
worked up. And she was
still
worked up now, years later. It was as if Mom had said friendship was disposable. Madison hated the idea of that. She wondered why best friendships didn’t come with binding contracts and visitation rights and super glue.
Madison clicked her recent file marked
MAD SCIENCE
open again. She reread the angriest parts and considered erasing them, but didn’t. What else was she supposed to do with all those feelings? Madison scrolled down and began to type one more Rude Awakening. It hit the mark.
Rude Awakening #2: Sometimes the worst of friends make the best of enemies, but you find yourself still hanging on.
As she contemplated those words, something wet and warm tickled Madison’s left foot. It was a certain dog’s pug nose.
“Hey!” Madison cried, twisting to look. There was Phin, with his doggy grin. In a split second, Madison got her thoughts back on track; she focused again on the end-of-year science project.
She brought up the main search screen on TweenBlurt.com and entered the term “blue sky.” The initial hit returned a list of sites. There were at least three that talked about weather and blue skies. There were also several featuring such offerings as: an animation studio; a company that made lasers; and a rock band in Idaho (actual full name: Blue Sky Spaz). And there were other sites related to Madison’s scientific question. So she clicked on those web addresses for facts and figures. Eyeing the home pages of a few sites, Madison selected text she could use and then cut and pasted it (and a few diagrams, too) into her files, to be printed out later.
The surfing and searching lasted for about an hour, and Madison collected lots of good information. She was about to log off when she heard a familiar
ding
.
She had a new message!