Thanks for Nothing (From the Files of Madison Finn, 5) (9 page)

“Por favor, siéntate!”
Abuela said to Madison, asking her to sit. Abuela had known Madison ever since she had been a little girl. Madison always loved to hear her tell stories.

“Buenos días,
Abuela,” Madison said, taking a seat. She searched her mind for the right Spanish words.

“Qué linda eres!”
Abuela cried. Madison had no idea what she had said. Just then Egg came into the kitchen.

“What did she say?” Madison giggled.

“Abuela says you’re pretty,” Egg said.

Madison smiled. “Oh.” She could tell that just saying those words made Egg a little bit embarrassed.

“Cómo está escuela?”
Abuela asked Madison. She wanted to hear about school.

“Come on, Abuela, Madison and I have to go,” Egg said, wanting to leave the kitchen.

Madison ate a small cookie from a basket on the table and racked her brain for a way to say that it was good. The only phrase she could remember was,
“Dónde está la policía?”
from last week’s Spanish class. But no one wanted to find the police, so she said nothing. She and Egg went to his room to practice the extra-credit presentation.

In a terrarium near a large window, Gato puffed out his pink lizard throat as if to say hello. Egg’s pet gecko, Gato, was named for the word
cat
in Spanish. Madison always thought it was funny that Egg would name one animal after another. She liked the fact that he had an unusual pet, though.

“So let me show you what I’ve got up on the computer,” Egg said, punching a few keys. “I’ve been working on this all weekend.”

“Whoa.” Madison’s jaw dropped as the screen came into focus.

Egg had taken the flat model of the
Mayflower
and turned it into a three-dimensional object onscreen. Madison was thrilled. He downloaded the images so they could put them into a special presentation for class.

“Wow, you can see all the rooms inside,” she said, admiring it. “Do you think this should be our whole presentation? I thought we could hand out fact sheets, too. It’s always good to pass around something.”

“Oh,” Egg said. “You think so?”

Madison let him scan through a few more pages.

“See?” Egg pointed to the page. “It has three main masts and a poop deck that’s very high up. The middle part of the ship is curved really low into the water.”

They both gigged at the mention of a “poop deck.”

Madison glanced at the computer screen and cross-referenced it with other reading materials on the
Mayflower
she brought along.

“It says here that the ship was called a ‘wet ship’ because it was mostly in the water. I didn’t know that, did you?” Madison asked.

“Huh?” Egg was too busy moving objects around on-screen to be paying any kind of real attention to what Madison was saying.

“Did you know that the place where passengers slept was called the ’tween decks?” Madison asked. “Cool, huh?”

For twenty minutes. Egg and Madison pored through books and searched on the Internet for more ideas on what to write about.

“Maybe we can make a real ship to show in class,” Madison said.

“That would be so lame,” Egg whined. “Something on the computer would knock everyone’s socks off!”

“What if we brought materials and everyone could watch the computer and then make their own
Mayflower
?” Madison suggested. “Then we’d have both.”

“You want this to be an arts-and-crafts project?” he asked. “Maddie, we need to be high-tech. Paste is for first graders.”

“No, no,” Madison said. She shook her head no. “What about the Pilgrims? They weren’t high-tech.” Madison wanted to say that sometimes she
liked
making collages and crafts and what was wrong with that?

“Fine, we can make a poster, too,” Egg finally agreed.

But they were interrupted all of a sudden.

“WALTER!” Egg’s mother’s voice bellowed from the other room. “You have another guest!”

Egg ran down the stairs.

Madison heard Egg greet Drew. She could hear Drew explain that he’d just been working on his social studies project over at Ivy Daly’s house. She cringed at the thought.

Drew came into Egg’s bedroom and flopped onto a chair. “Hey, Maddie, what’s up?”

“Um … Egg?” Madison asked. “What about our meeting? We just started. Why is Drew here?”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to finish up later,” Egg said.

“Huh? Later?” Madison felt a little knot of anger work its way up her throat. “What do you mean, ‘later’?” she asked. “Can’t Drew come back
later
?”

“Can’t we just finish tomorrow?” Egg asked.

Drew didn’t say much of anything.

“What about today. Egg? We’ve been planning this for almost a week,” Madison said. “You promised.”

Drew interrupted. “Hey, I can come over another time. You guys are working on the extra-credit thing.”

“Nah, we were mostly done,” Egg said.

The rising anger knot was now lodged in Madison’s throat. She could feel her whole body flush, like when she got embarrassed—only worse.

“Egg, you promised,” she repeated.

She wanted to run.

“I promised not to forget any more meetings. This isn’t forgetting. It isn’t the same thing.”

“Fine, then I guess I’ll go,” Madison said abruptly. She quickly gathered her books and stuffed loose papers into her orange messenger’s bag.

“Why don’t you stay and play Wrestle Showdown on the computer? You wanna?” Egg asked. “We can do team play since there’s three of us.”

“No,” she said firmly. “E-mail me later. We don’t have a lot of time to work on it anymore.”

“I know, I know,” Egg said, already a little distracted. He was loading the wrestling computer game and setting up the joysticks.

“Hey, Maddie,” Drew asked her on the way out. “What’s the deal with you and Dan?”

“Huh?” Madison stopped short. She made a face. “What are you talking about?”

“Ivy was just saying some stuff when I was at her house …” Drew said.

“Saying
what
?” Madison wrinkled her nose.

“Nothing. Forget I said it,” Drew said.

Madison had no idea what Drew was talking about. She scurried out, passing by the kitchen where Abuela, Señora Diaz, and Tía Ana sipped coffees.

“Madison, you just got here! Where is Walter?” Señora Diaz called out.

“Egg is with Drew. We’re going to finish later,” Madison explained. She smiled at Egg’s family. “See you later. I mean,
adiós.
”

“Adiós!”
Egg’s grandmother cried.

Madison lifted the bag of
Mayflower
books over her shoulder and walked toward home. It weighed more than usual, so she took slower steps. There was no big rush to get anywhere right now.

As her house came into view, Madison squinted. Dad’s car was in the driveway, which seemed strange, since she wasn’t meeting him for dinner or any special occasion.

Madison crept toward the front porch entrance. She’d sneak up the stoop and take them by surprise. What were they saying? The living-room window was cracked open, so Madison could hear voices clearly on the porch without being seen by anyone. She crouched down and listened to Mom and Dad talking. This time, they weren’t just chatting about the weather.

Mom and Dad were discussing Thanksgiving. Mom was telling Dad how she wanted to let Madison go with him and Stephanie, since that seemed to be what Madison wanted. Madison listened real close.

She could not believe her ears.

Madison couldn’t remember a recent time when they’d ever been this nice while talking about the Big D and Madison—or any subject, for that matter.

“What will you do for the holiday, then?” Dad asked Mom. “I don’t think you should have to be alone, Frannie.”

Mom quickly said that it didn’t matter and the most important thing was for Madison to be happy. Eventually Dad agreed with reluctance.

“We’ll leave it up to Madison,” he said. “She can decide what
she
wants for Thanksgiving.”

Suddenly, from the other side of the porch, Phinnie appeared. Madison smiled at him from afar and then he came over, wiggling. Unfortunately, he wiggled over while making the loudest snorts ever. Madison tried to move backward, but
then
she lost her balance.

The weight shifted in Madison’s bag, and the heaviness of all those books sent her toppling. It was her second fall in two days! Madison felt like Queen of the Klutzes.

Phin ran away. And then Dad heard. He leaned into the screen to see Madison lying on the porch.

“Maddie?” he cried out through the screen. “What are you doing out there?”

Madison sat up. “Just hanging out, Dad. What are you doing in there?”

Mom had made her way outside by then. She extended a hand to pull her daughter upright again. She helped Madison pick up her bag, too.

“Hi, Mom,” Madison said softly. “What’s going on?”

Mom crossed her arms. “Why don’t you come inside so we can all talk.”

All week, Maddie had worked herself up into a tizzy about the change in family plans for the holiday. But now Madison knew Thanksgiving would
really
never be the same again. Seventh grade was bringing big changes not only at school. It was making bigger-than-big changes at home.

And Madison was right smack-dab in the middle of it all.

Mom v. Dad (Round Two)


Two weird things about dealing with parents who have had the Big D:


1. When they ask, “What do YOU want?” something is wrong. They don’t know what to do. It’s better to play dumb.


2. Do not eavesdrop while kneeling (very painful).


Mom and Dad expect ME to decide about Thanksgiving? It seems totally unfair, since they’re the grown-ups and I’m the kid. This is like a tug-of-war and I never liked stupid tug-of-war! At second-grade field day we played that game and I fell in the mud.


My head hurts just thinking about all this stuff.


TweenBlurt.com was busy on Sunday night. It seemed to take forever for the server to load. Madison went online to find her keypal. Bigwheels would have something encouraging to say. But Bigwheels wasn’t around, so Madison went searching for her BFFs. She ended up in the middle of a three-way online chat with Aimee and Fiona.

: AIMEE!!!!!!


: I found this wicked cool ballet chat room I’ve been here like 2 hrs.


: is Fiona online 2?


: hi


: EGG is sooooooo lame you guys


: what now


: :-< he blew me off


: ur ss project? I thought u met @ his house


: WAI


: u guys always say stuff about him stop!


: what did u do today


: Dad made the plane reservations for Thanksgiving. We’re leaving a day early so I get to miss school that Wed. before. California here I come.


: you are so lucky


: I am spending it w/Dad now


: ???????


: and Stephanie. Mom said I could.


: that’s kewl


: is it weird to leave Mom alone though?


: Yup I think so YES


: maybe


: I wanna DTRT


: Do the right thing! Yeah


: I have to finish homework I’ve been on the computer for a long time bye!


: Daisy and I finished our extra credit we’re doing Pilgrims


: u guys what should I do????


: NOTHING ha ha ha ha ha


:


: peace out


Before Madison logged off, she noticed her mailbox blinking with three messages.

First Madison clicked on the note with attachments from Gramma Helen in Chicago.

From: GoGramma


To: MadFinn


Subject: RECIPES


Date: Sun 19 Nov 5:28 PM


Hello, there. I miss you very much. But your aunt is taking very good care of me here.


Since you will be spending Thanksgiving with your mother, I thought you might like to make some of my favorite recipes for dinner.


Your uncle here showed me how to attach a file to this message, so I hope that works. Write again and tell me all about your other classes.


The volunteering job sounds like fun, too.


Love, Gramma


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