Only the Lonely (5 page)

Phin wagged his tail, shaking his whole butt. He got excited around strangers. No one could have guessed that Phin just missed crashing into a car. He was loving all this attention.

“Dad, this is Madison. We just met the other day, actually. We’re going to be in the same grade at Far Hills this fall.”

Madison couldn’t believe she was sitting on the pavement, holding Phin and talking to Fiona and Mr. Waters. Now she
definitely
believed that some kind of cosmic forces were pulling her together with this new girl.

And now no one had to worry about who called whom first.

“Well, Miss Madison,” Mr. Waters continued, “how about we give you and that pooch a lift back home? He’s shaking like a leaf.”

Fiona’s Dad helped lift the dog into the back seat of the car.

Madison showed him the way home.

It took thirty seconds.

“What a pretty house,” Fiona said as the car tires crunched up the gravel driveway.

“Thanks,” Madison shrugged from the backseat.

“It was very nice meeting you, Miss Madison,” said Mr. Waters in a very low voice. He sounded like Darth Vader’s brother. “And you too, little doggy.”

“Rowrooo!” Phin howled back.

Fiona called out cheerily from the car window as they pulled away, “Maybe we can hang out later? I don’t really have any—well—it would be fun, do you think?”

“Do I think?” Madison laughed and then quickly added,
“Way
too much. Wanna hang tomorrow maybe?”

“Yeah! Come to my house around twelve,” Fiona cried. “You know where I live! Bye!”

As the car made a turn onto the street, Mr. Waters honked his horn good-bye.

Madison hardly ate any dinner that night. Suddenly life had gotten interesting, or at least she hoped so. It was better than TV or TweenBlurt.com, and Phin even deserved some of the credit.

“What a good dog,” Madison cooed at him that night when she went to bed. “I am sorry you almost got run over, Phinnie, but thanks to you I get to hang out with Fiona again.”

The next day, Madison knocked on her new friend’s door around lunchtime. She got there at twelve noon
exactly
because she didn’t want to risk being late, early, or in between. It was twelve on the dot.

A boy answered the bell. He was at least a foot taller than Madison.

“Hey!” he grunted. “You here for Fiona?”

Madison guessed he was Fiona’s twin brother, Chet, since they looked exactly the same. The only difference was that he had fuzz on his face, and was a lot taller.

Chet was just back from band camp and he was in a bad mood. He yelled upstairs for his sister and then flopped back onto the sofa in front of a giant TV set until Fiona came down the stairs a minute later.

“How was camp?” Madison asked.

“Camp is what it is,” Chet said in a monotone.

Madison was certain this conversation was going nowhere. Thankfully, Fiona appeared.

“Madison! I am so glad you came! Do you wanna go for a walk and maybe get an ice-cream cone or something?”

They spent the next hour walking into the old town part of Far Hills, near the train station, past the ice cream Freeze Palace, of course; a discount shoe-repair place; a bakery; Wink’s Pet Store; and some other places. Madison gave Fiona a neighborhood tour.

“I go to Wink’s when I’m feeling bummed out,” Madison admitted. “They have cool tropical fish and actually it’s where I got Phin when he was just a baby. He’s almost four now.”

“I don’t have any pets,” said Fiona. “I’m so jealous of you. Phin is a total cutie. I love those snorty noses.”

It was the beginning of a great week.

On the second day, Madison and Fiona went to Freeze Palace for two scoops of Raspberry Bliss, a new homemade flavor.

On the third day, they skipped the cones and bought an entire pint of Cherry Garcia at the store and sat on the Waterses’ porch to eat it spoonful by yummy spoonful right out of the container. These days, for Madison and Fiona, life was just a bowl of Cherry Garcia.

Of course, day three wasn’t all cherry ice cream. That was the day when Madison saw a
very
different side of Chet. Waters. He threw a fit at his sister. “You’re such a mega-loser, Fi-moan-a!” he screeched. Madison thought at first he was a major crybaby, but then she realized that maybe he was just jealous because his sister had a new friend and he didn’t. Maybe he was only the lonely, too?

Fiona was not as sympathetic. “My brother Chet is not lonely—he’s just a load. Ever since he got home from camp, all he can do is play Minecraft and pick on me. He won’t even let me online when he’s home.”

“You go online?” asked Madison.

“Of course! I totally love computers. I gave you my e-mail, right?”

Madison made a mental note: send Fiona an e-mail soon. She didn’t want Fiona to think she’d lost her address.

On the fourth day, Madison and Fiona went clog shopping, because clogs were comfortable and Madison loved them.

On the fifth day, they sat on Fiona’s porch and made friendship bracelets from string.

On the sixth day, they went for a long bike ride and Madison met Fiona’s mother.

Mrs. Waters kept insisting how thrilled Madison must be to be starting those junior high school years.

“Aren’t you just overjoyed?” Mrs. Waters gushed.

Madison didn’t really know how to answer that. She didn’t want to admit that she was “run for the hills and don’t look back”
terrified.
She was afraid of getting lost on the first day of school. She was afraid of getting swallowed up by all the popular people and trapped in study hall with all the geeks.

“Overjoyed.” Madison finally answered Mrs. Waters question with middle-of-the-road enthusiasm. “Totally OJ.”

“OJ is short for overjoyed, Mom,” Fiona blurted.

Mrs. Waters smiled.

On the seventh and final day of the week, Madison Finn and Fiona Waters had their best afternoon ever together. That was the day when Madison spent the entire day hanging out in Fiona’s bedroom. She’d seen it before, of course, but not for such a long time.

Madison was learning a few of Fiona’s secrets. That was the surest sign that their friendship was the real deal.

Fiona was a collector, too. Up on a top shelf in Fiona’s room, Madison saw a far-out, enormous collection of ponies. They came in all shapes and sizes. Some were plush and others were plastic.

“I’m really over the whole pony thing,” Fiona admitted. “Except … I’m sort of not. I still play with them sometimes. Not a lot, but …”

“You must have like a thousand animals here,” Madison said.

“Yeah, I know it’s babyish, right?” Fiona said. “I have one hundred and fourteen and Mom says I should put them in the attic …”

“No, they’re cool. I like ponies a lot.”

Fiona grinned. “Really?”

Elsewhere in her room, Fiona had tacked up all sorts of postcards and pictures on a piece of flowered fabric that hung over her bed. Madison leaned in to read some of the cartoons. She pointed to one photo in the center. It showed Fiona and a redheaded girl. They were standing by the ocean.

“What beach is this?” Madison asked. “Who is that?”

“Pacific Ocean, Debbie,” Fiona said. She sounded a little sad.

Debbie was Fiona’s best friend from where the Waters family used to live in Los Gatos, California. Unfortunately, Fiona’s parents only let her call or Skype Debbie on weekends.

Fiona knew all about Aimee being at ballet camp, too. Madison told her a bunch of her own secrets: about Egg at computer camp, about Mom and Dad’s divorce, about hating chunky peanut butter, and about loving romantic movies on cable.

Love Story
was the top flick on Madison’s list. It was an old movie from the ‘70s that was really romantic
and
really sad. After all, if something made you cry, that meant it was meaningful.

Fiona agreed. In fact, Madison and Fiona seemed to agree on most things.

“Don’t you hate it when you miss someone and then you get, like, so bored? Do you know what I mean?”

Madison knew
exactly
what Fiona meant.

“And Mom tells me to just get over it and she and Dad don’t understand
anything,”
Madison added. “They forgot what it’s like to be twelve—”

“Almost thirteen!” Fiona laughed.

They were practically finishing each other’s sentences.

On the walk home from Fiona’s, Madison’s mind buzzed a mile a minute: new friends, new school, new EVERYTHING.

Madison powered up her laptop as soon as she got home.

Fiona


Can new friends swoop in and take the place of old friends? I don’t miss Aimee and Egg as much as I did a week ago. I don’t even miss Dad that much, even though it’s been a month since I saw him.


Okay, I miss Dad but only a little bit and only because you’re supposed to miss your parents, right?


I’m happier than happy about almost every little thing this week, even walking Phinnie, and that is just plain BIZARRO. I haven’t even been back into these files in almost


As she thought about what to type in next, Madison realized a very important thing. Her mailbox was blinking.

She hadn’t even been back into these files in almost
three
days.

Madison had ten e-mails, but of course eight of them were stupid spam or ads or unimportant chain letters. But she had two real e-mails.

The first one was from her new key pal. She was beginning to think Bigwheels and MadFinn just might be K4E (Keypals 4 Ever).

From: Bigwheels


To: MadFinn


Subject:
I’M ALIVE ARE U
?


Date: Sunday 27 Aug 4:42 PM


I hope you aren’t MAD! My uncle finally got us a wireless router that works right. That is why I kept getting disconnected for the last week so I O U an apology. I really did like meeting you in the bigfishbowl. Maybe we can be keypals after all?


BTW I’m in 7th grade now too. We started already though because I think schools start earlier out west and down south or something like that.


Write back soon or else!


Yours till the butter flies,


Bigwheels


The second one was from her old school pal.

From: Eggaway


To: MadFinn


Subject: hi


Date: Wed 30 Aug 10:01 AM


Hey Madison, where r u? I am now at my gramp’s lake house. I am totaly bored. Did you see that new movie. Tidal Wave? Say hi to your Mom and dad. See u SOON! I’ m leaving tomroow then back in Far Hills on Friday. p.s. oh yeah does Aim have a bf at camp? She wrote me this random lettr about some dude. Wuzup with THAT?


p.p.s. don’t wrtie back i will see you SOON


p.p.p.s. Drew says hi.


Madison was happier than happy that she’d finally heard from her online chat buddy
and
that Egg was on his way home Friday.

Now Aimee would be back on Sunday and then the three of them would be together again and then school would be starting and they’d be best friends all over again just like last year.

Madison opened a file.

Only the Lonely


Just when you think change is like the worst thing ever, it turns into a good thing all of a sudden.


Mom and I are getting along good for a change (considering the fact that we argued through most of sixth grade).


Even Daddy is coming home soon. Well, not to
this
home exactly, but he’s coming back to his loft in downtown Far Hills.


The stupid cliché is so true. There are gold linings in almost every cloud. Or silver linings, whatever. I just know that things are good at this very moment.


Madison read the words on her screen. For the first time all summer she was happier than happy. She had one more thing left to type.

I’m not totally alone anymore.