Only the Lonely (4 page)
Authors: Laura Dower
“Ewwwch! It stings,” Madison said, dunking her legs back in the tub.
“Only for a moment,” Mom sighed. “My big girl.”
Madison rolled her eyes. “Yeah, Mom, whatever. I’m twelve, remember? You can cut out all that sappy stuff, all right?”
“Well, I’ll let you finish up.” She kissed the top of Maddie’s wet head.
“Yeah, can you go now?” Madison asked. “Like
NOW.”
“Oh!” She pulled something out of her pocket. “I almost forgot. You got a letter yesterday.”
Mom dropped an envelope on the counter, winked, and shut the bathroom door.
There on the sinktop was a letter written on deep-sea-blue stationery, Aimee’s favorite color. The silver ink on the envelope was already a little smudged from water on the counter, so Madison ripped it open right away. It felt like opening her arms for a giant hug.
Dear Maddie …
Oh I miss you soooooo much!!!!! How are you doing at home? I am sorry that I haven’t really written except like twice this summer but I have been dancing every single day and I am sooooooo tired. I actually got on pointe last week, can you BELIEVE it??? The teacher says that the toe shoes will probably make our toes ache and bleed sometimes which is awful, but I want to be a dancer so I better just deal with that.
I miss you! Did I say that already? You would love camp sooooo much, Maddie, I know you would. There are the coolest people here. Of course it is a dance camp of all kinds so there are not just ballet dancers but jazz and tap too. Everyone eats together and we do other stuff like swimming and arts and crafts and have camp nights where we sing songs and tell stories and roast marshmallows and sometimes go on skunk patrol which is this game we play and oh it is the best ever. Did I say I MISS YOU??? I do.
I have made so many new friends too and I just know you would love them. This one girl Sasha is from Russia originally and she lives in New York City. She is so cool and I think we might see each other when I get back. Then there is this other girl Chelsea and she
Aimee had only been gone a month and already she was making new best friends? Madison kept reading.
is TOTALLY cool, she’s 15 and she has a tattoo! Can you believe that?
So the funnest part of the whole camp for me is this one counselor named Josh. OK, he is to die! He is such a total hottie. He teaches modern dance and I think he looks like he should be a movie star or something. Seriously!
Anyway, I decided for the last week of camp I am going to take his lessons as a dance elective and that way I get to see him
like every single day
. I know that he is like way, way older than me but I don’t even care he is so, so cute!!! Can you imagine going out with someone like that? I think about him all the time. Sometimes I wish I was 16 already. I am like in love with him. Is that possible???? Maybe something could happen, you never know.Well, I just wanted you to know that I miss you and all that. I will be back home a couple of days before school starts and I will call you like the very second I get home. Have you heard from Egg? I miss him too even if he is a total pain in the butt. I am so glad we are
finally
starting 7th grade. Now I can qualify to be in the Far Hills Junior High Dance Troupe and that is something I have wanted forever.How are your Mom and Dad and the snuggly puggly?
Okay, I’m going now. I have Josh’s class this afternoon and I am so psyched!!! I want to look just right and act just right, right?
Bye!!! I luv you more than ice cream!
Luv, Aimee
P.S. As soon as I get home I will call you I promise!
While Madison couldn’t deal with the hives of change, Aimee was in a huge rush to change everything. How could she be crushing on a camp counselor? Madison hadn’t even given boys too much thought lately. They all seemed pretty stupid and dorky to her.
“Camp must change the way you think about stuff,” Madison mused, and put the letter in her desk for safekeeping. She’d scan it into her Aimee file later.
“Maaaaaadison,” Mom suddenly screeched from downstairs. “Are you still in the bathroom? Get moving, I need your help.”
Mom always needed something. Ever since Dad moved out, Mom needed help cleaning, gardening, organizing, and all that. She needed help so she could get her own film work done. Whenever Mom went away on an overnight business trip she said, “I need your help holding down the fort, honey.” Whenever Mom was going to be gone for more than a few days, she said, “I need your help while I’m gone. I want you be good for the Gillespies,” or whomever Madison was staying with during that trip.
The truth was, “help” was Madison’s real middle name.
Madison Francesca
Help
Finn.
“In a minute, Mom!” Madison screamed back. Of course, she should have said “In twenty-six minutes, Mom,” because that was how long it took Madison to actually get downstairs. But once they started cleaning up, the two of them accomplished a lot. She and Mom washed the kitchen floor and repotted some of Mom’s orchids.
After the general house “summer cleaning” was done, Mom raised her eyebrows and in her best Wicked Witch from
The Wizard of Oz
voice, said, “Weeeell, my pretty … now it’s time to clean your ROOM!”
Officially, she didn’t bug Madison about cleaning her bedroom until the laundry factor got out of control. Unfortunately, today was that day. Madison’s hamper was overflowing onto the floor and Mom had seen it. Mom had a mantra: Clean up your mess, say bye-bye to stress.
“Madison, my pretty,” Mom whined like the Wicked Witch again. “Go pick up your room now before I lock you up in it forever!”
Mom was such a weirdo sometimes. That’s where Madison got her weirdness—definitely.
All joking aside, Madison was happy to straighten up the piles of clothes and books and magazine clippings in her bedroom. After an hour or two, she’d even finished a collage card for Aimee.
Inspired by Aimee’s letter, she pasted a picture of some cute guy on the front of the card and drew a big arrow with the words
Josh & Aimee 4-Ever.
She even found a clipping of some ballerina that made it look better and more Aimee-like, too.
Madison wondered what Josh
really
looked like. She assumed he must be cute, because the cute boys always liked Aimee best.
Finally, Madison signed the card, “I love you more than chocolate shakes, Maddie.” They always signed letters with stuff that way. One day back in fourth grade, when they were on the swing set in Aimee’s backyard, they had decided to be best friends forever and to love each other forever more than absolutely anything else. That “anything” included ice cream and chocolate shakes, of course. Once Aimee had even sent Madison a card that said, “I luv you like a sister.” That meant a lot.
Later on, Madison went online. She’d cleaned, she’d organized, and now she figured it was a good time to check out TweenBlurt.com again.
Madison scanned the list of names currently logged onto the chat pages. A moderator (also known as a Shark) led off the list. (The sites were required to have some Web police person who tried to keep people from cursing or saying nasty things to the other members.)
Shark
TimTrav
Cuteguy87
Mystake
Wuzupgrl
PC_cake
Bethiscool
AuroraLiv
Peacefish
HelPer
Bigwheels
Bigwheels?
Madison couldn’t believe it. Her “only the lonely” chat buddy was somewhere on the site—right now. That meant Madison could IM her. IM stood for Insta-message. It was like having a live conversation on the computer.
In less than ten seconds, a message back popped up.
BRB
meant “be right back.”
AFK
meant “away from keyboard.”
Madison had learned how to text from Egg and she loved online lingo.
But Bigwheels stayed away for longer than BRB. She was AFK for at least five minutes!
Madison was forced to log off again.
That night, after Mom’s takeout sushi supper, Madison returned to her file.
Only the Lonely
Alone once again. Big surprise. This will be the file that gets filled the fastest, no doubt.
Dad called again. He thinks he might be coming home a lot later than he said in his e-mail and he was checking to make sure we were on for dinner as soon as he got back. He doesn’t want me to feel left out but he sure sounded so far away. Then again, everyone feels far away to me these days. I guess Dad’s new Internet start-up is going well, though. He has his fingers in a lot of different pies; that’s what Mom always says. He calls himself an entrepreneur (that is a huge word, I had to look it up to spell it!).
Maybe Dad can help me find Bigwheels online?
I couldn’t believe that Mom and I had sushi tonight. It’s a little more interesting than pizza even though I think raw fish is maybe the grossest thing on the entire planet except headcheese and pig’s feet, which I saw at the butcher’s once. I must admit that I did like the California roll sushi a teeny bit. It was just vegetables and rice and a little bit of seaweed, which wasn’t so bad. But forget the tuna roll!!! That wasn’t anything like tuna from the cans (Mom lied) so I spit it right out right away. Not even Phin the animal garbage disposal would eat that!
If I don’t like tuna rolls, does that mean I am not an adventurous person? If I’m not an adventurous person, does that mean that I am going to be snubbed in junior high as some kind of loser? If I am branded as a loser, does that mean I’ll be alone forever?
For Madison, all over-thoughts led back to one place: the lonely, looming doom of seventh grade. It was less than two weeks away.
Madison wished she could see Fiona again.
She needed a real friend real fast.
They had swapped phone numbers, but who would be the first to call?
T
HE NEXT DAY, WHILE
Madison was taking a predictable walk around the block, something quite unpredictable happened.
Phin took a sharp corner, got loose, and ran full speed ahead, tongue wagging along with his curlicue tail.
Naturally, he was chasing a C-A-T.
“Stop! Phin!” Madison shouted, almost catching up with him. That’s when she saw the car. Phin was on a one-way collision course with—
“STOOOOP! Phiiiiiiiiiin!”
Someone in the car must have seen Madison darting down the street like a cartoon character, hands waving in the air. The car screeched to a stop. Phin stopped too, collapsing at the curb.
“Are you okay? Phinnie?” Madison rushed over. He sputtered and sneezed, stunned by all the activity. He was probably mad that he’d missed the cat, too. Madison wrapped her arms around his furry body and guided him onto the sidewalk. He licked her hand.
The girl who had jumped out of the car rushed over, talking too fast. “Oh, Madison! Is he okay? Oh, my dad didn’t see him. He just came out of nowhere—”
Madison looked up. “Fiona?”
“Is your doggy okay?”
“Phin’s fine.” Madison smiled.
By now Mr. Waters had pulled his car to the side of the street so the rest of the traffic could pass.
“Young lady, you have one lucky dog there,” Mr. Waters said, as he also got out of the car. “I turned my head for a moment and—whammo—we almost hit the little guy. You just can’t be too careful these days, can you? Hey there, little fella.”