All Shook Up (From the Files of Madison Finn, 22) (11 page)

“No,” Egg said, smirking. “I just thought I deleted something, but … I found it again.”

As Mrs. Wing walked back to assist another student, Madison huffed, “I’m going to delete
you
, Egg.”

Egg and Drew just laughed and snorted.

“Since when can’t you take a joke, Maddie? Lighten up,” Egg teased.

Madison rolled her eyes. Of course, part of what Egg was saying was correct. She didn’t have much of a sense of humor these days—especially not right now. But then again, how could she? There was nothing funny about standing in front of a Junior World Leaders Conference with no speech, was there?

Gulp. Doom.

“Egg, do you have your presentation ready for Saturday?” Madison asked nervously.

“Of course,” Egg replied, full of bravado.

“Of course,” Drew said, too. “But of course, we’re cool, so what else would you expect from …”

“Arrrrrrgh.”

Madison groaned. She couldn’t listen or think so hard anymore. She walked over to Mrs. Wing, head hanging low.

“Mrs. Wing?” Madison mumbled. “Do you happen to know where my partner is today?”

“Madhur?” Mrs. Wing asked.

Madison nodded.

“She’s out?” Mrs. Wing said. “Goodness, I had no idea. Which reminds me … you never gave me a copy of your conference outline. And I never gave you a copy of the code I need you to read. My goodness, but we have a lot of work to do, don’t we? And not a lot of time left to do it!”

“Don’t remind me,” Madison said under her breath.

“Oh, I’m sure we will be just fine, Madison,” Mrs. Wing said gently. “You need to have more confidence in that fact. You always shine.”

Madison forced a smile. Mrs. Wing handed her a copy of the ethics code to look over.

“Why don’t we plan to meet here tomorrow, Wednesday, afternoon?” Mrs. Wing went on. “Just you, me, and Madhur. We can settle everything at once. That gives you a teeny bit more time to prepare. An extra night should do you good. Okay?”

“Okay,” Madison sighed. What else could she say?

Mrs. Wing always understood about Madison and schoolwork, kind of the same way Mom did about personal stuff. An extra night was the bonus she needed. Madison could write up her own speech. Madhur could add whatever she wanted to it later—
if
she even showed up. And as far as the codes were concerned, Madison would just read those over and hope for the best. Although she hated standing up in front of crowds, she didn’t have much choice now. There was no running away from her responsibilities, as much as she wished she could.

Before leaving school that night, Madison stopped by Madhur’s locker. She’d been working on a note.

Maddie One

Please call me or find me at school on Wed. I need to talk to you ASAP about Sat. We have to do something FAST. Mrs. Wing wants to meet us in her tech lab Wed. after classes. I hope you can come. You have to come! And we have to talk, right? Are you OK?

Your new friend,

Maddie Two

Wednesday morning, Fiona told Madison that Madhur was back. She’d seen her at the lockers. Madison was relieved to hear that. It meant Madhur had seen the note. Or at least Madison hoped so.

After Madhur’s absence the day before, as well as five unread e-mails (which Madison had marked
urgent
), and even a phone call, Madison had begun to wonder whether Madhur Singh had just dropped off the face of the earth. She’d come into Madison’s circle of friends so quickly. Would she disappear just as quickly?

At the end of the day, Madison went to see Mrs. Wing as scheduled. As she stood outside the classroom waiting to go in, she saw Mrs. Wing working at her desk, waiting for her and Madhur to arrive. She looked rather small, Madison thought, reclining in the large leather swivel chair. Her glasses were perched daintily on the tip of her nose as she wrote something in her agenda. A plaque on her desk read:
CYBRARIAN AT WORK
. Mrs. Wing was always at work.

“I’m here,” Madison announced as she came into the technology room.

“Ready to talk?” Mrs. Wing asked.

Madison nodded. “I am,” she said slowly. “But I have one little problem. You see, I haven’t been able to find, well, I mean, talk to—”

Just as Madison was about to finish her sentence, Madhur raced into Mrs. Wing’s classroom, loaded down with books and papers, in addition to the weighty backpack on her back.

“Sorry to be so late,” Madhur said, her voice sounding hoarse. “I wasn’t feeling well, so …”

“Glad you could make it,” Mrs. Wing said reassuringly. “Now. Let’s all have a seat and talk. We have a lot to do.”

Madison said, “Hey,” to Madhur, but Madhur just shrugged without really replying. Had one embarrassing moment really caused all of this drama—and silence?

“What do you have for me?” Mrs. Wing asked expectantly.

“It was really Madison’s idea….” Madhur started to say.

Madison was on the edge of her seat.

Madison’s idea? Huh? Where was this going?

“Madison said we were going in the wrong direction with our original topic….” Madhur continued.

Madison, fearing that Madhur’s proclamations made her sound critical or negative, wanted to object.

But then Madhur said something
nice
.

“Of course, Madison is so right,” she said. She produced a pack of papers from her pile. “I did all this research on poverty and the effects of it around the world and in the United States and most especially in my family’s homeland of Pakistan, but then I started thinking about what
really
mattered to me. And it wasn’t the topic we’d chosen. I was just spitting back a bunch of facts, like you said.”

Madison was floored. What would Mrs. Wing think if she knew that all of this change had come from a confrontation between Madison and Madhur? Madison wanted Mrs. Wing to think that the two Maddies had their stories straight.

She glared at Madhur as if to say,
What are you saying? Please, just let me do the talking.
Madhur nodded, as if she understood everything Madison was thinking. “It was easier to write something for the conference when we cared about it personally,” Madison said. “Of course, you told us that.”

“No, no,” Mrs. Wing insisted. “You two came to this on your own. Like a true
team
. You found something that mattered. That’s the whole point of the world leaders summit. We want to learn about and argue about things that really and truly matter. Sometimes that means taking the long route instead of a shortcut.”

“Yeah,” Madison and Madhur said at the exact same time. Then Madison spoke again. “We wrote a short piece together about the importance of bridging our own cultural differences.”

“Hmmm,” Mrs. Wing said, “tell me more.”

“I think it’s important for kids like us to know their roots, culture, and their
ma bohlee
,” Madison went on, staring directly at Madhur.

“That’s a person’s mother language,” Madhur added.

“Nice thinking, girls,” Mrs. Wing said, nodding. “I am so eager to hear your presentation. You two seem to have worked very, very well together. It’s good fortune that you were matched up, yes?”

Madison felt a knot inside. She wanted to blurt out, “Not really,” but she said nothing; she just smiled and nodded back at her teacher and at Madhur.

“We know how lucky we are,” Madhur added, sounding as though she meant it.

Did she mean it?

After a few moments, an impressed Mrs. Wing dismissed the girls and left to go to the teachers’ lounge. They packed up their bags in silence. Finally Madhur spoke.

“Thank you,” Madhur said softly, “for covering for me. I appreciate that. I’m just sorry that I won’t be able to do the conference on Saturday.”

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t a big deal, I think—
wait
…. What did you say?” It took Madison a moment to digest the words. “What do you mean, you won’t be able to do the conference on Saturday?”

“I would really like to go, but I just can’t,” Madhur said and shook her head sadly. “It sounds like you already have the perfect speech, so you don’t need me anymore, anyway.”

“What?” Madison didn’t know how to respond. “I can’t do the speech alone. We’re in pairs for a reason.”

Just then, Egg and Drew appeared at the door.

“Pssst! Maddie,” Egg shouted from the doorway.

“Oh, Egg! What do
you
want?” Madison grumbled.

“Hart’s looking for you,” Egg said.

“He is?” Madison said. She turned to Madhur, whose gaze had shifted to the floor.

“Madhur, look …” Madison started to say.

But Madhur cut her off. “I’d better go,” She blurted out before rushing out of Mrs. Wing’s classroom in a flurry.

Madison stood back, stunned. She considered racing after her new friend, but held back. She’d only known Madhur for a short time. How could these feelings be so real and so big? Why had the whole thing imploded? It couldn’t just be about Hart—could it?

After lingering a moment, Madison grabbed her own bag and headed for the hallway. Madhur had vanished. Madison didn’t have a clue as to where.

Slowly, she walked toward the girls’ bathroom. With only a few moments before the next class, Madison needed time to calm down, breathe deep, and collect all her emotions.

Fortunately, there were no other girls inside the bathroom. Madison dumped her bag on the floor, leaned forward on the sink, and inhaled. The bathroom air smelled like sour antiseptic.

How could Madison attend—and do her presentation at—the conference all by herself? She couldn’t. Could she?

No. No. No.

The door to the bathroom jangled, and Madison turned. Knowing her luck, Ivy and the drones would probably file inside. Quickly, she ducked into a stall. She peered out from beneath the door to spy on whoever entered the bathroom.

Madison immediately recognized a pair of turned-out ballerina feet walking to the sink.

“Aim!” she squealed, pushing open the stall door.

Aimee turned pale. She nearly collapsed backward against the sink.

“Oh. My. God,” Aimee exclaimed. “You scared me stiff.”

“Sorry,” Madison said. “I didn’t mean to do that. I was just so glad to see you.”

“What are you doing in here? Don’t you have a meeting with Madhur and Mrs. Wing, to work on the conference?”

Madison shook her head. “No. It’s over.”

“Over? What are you talking about?”

“Madhur quit.”

“What?”

“She dropped out.”

“No way.”

“Yes, way.”

“That’s awful. What happened?” Aimee asked.

As Madison explained, Aimee nodded compassionately. Sometimes she could be moody or too focused on her dancing, but today—at that very moment—she was entirely focused on her BFF. As Madison talked and talked, Aimee was all ears.

“Okay,” Aimee said, when Madison had finished telling her about what happened in Mrs. Wing’s classroom. “Here’s what you need to do: tell her what you’re thinking.”

It sounded a lot like Bigwheels’s advice.

But it seemed next to impossible.

“You’re kidding, right?” Madison said in disbelief.

“Look, Madhur’s probably embarrassed because she was blabbing all that time about Hart and you didn’t say anything, and now she’s way too embarrassed to do the conference with you,” Aimee said.

“You think?” Madison asked.

“Of course,” Aimee said matter-of-factly. “And now you have to be the one to help her feel
less
embarrassed.”

“Wait a minute,” Madison said. “You don’t even like Madhur. Now it sounds like you’re taking her side.”

“I
was
acting weird about her before,” Aimee said. “But that was because I was jealous. Madhur is a very cool person. I see that. It just bugged me that you spent so much time with her, Maddie.”

Madison couldn’t believe that Aimee had come right out and admitted this.

“You know me,” Aimee said honestly. “I like having you as my friend too much to let someone else come along and take you away.”

“Take me away?” Madison asked. “What are you talking about? Where was I going?”

“For days you were spending all your time with Madhur,” Aimee said. “I think Madhur’s interesting. And I’d like to know her more. But that didn’t stop me from feeling blown off. And then I had to drop out of the conference.”

Madison didn’t know what to think about this turn of events. It was as if all these feelings were flying around the room. She had to keep ducking so she wouldn’t get slammed by them all.

“The point
is
,” Aimee said, “you need to help Madhur feel better. Right? That’s what friends do, right? You always make me feel better.”

Nodding, Madison lunged and threw her arms around Aimee. “You’re the best, Aim.”

“Yeah, I know,” Aimee said.

Madison felt a weight lift from her shoulders, even though she hadn’t done the hard work yet. Could she resolve things with Madhur? Madison contemplated her next steps.

“So now I know what I have to do,” Madison said. “How do I do it?”

“Write Madhur a note and put it in her locker,” Aimee suggested. “Tell her you want to do the conference with her or you won’t go. Say something like that. It’ll make her feel a little guiltier about dropping out. I know that sounds mean, but I bet she goes for it. I would.”

“I hope it works,” Madison said. “I need her.”

Aimee nodded. “And I need you to cheer me up, too.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Madison asked.

“Dance.”

“Dance is wrong? Why? You love it,” Madison said.

“Yeah, of course. But I’m just way too nervous to think about my performance on Saturday, and the only people coming to see me are parents and grandparents, which is a bummer. None of you. I wish more of my friends could be there. But that wasn’t meant to be a guilt trip….”

“You’re right,” Madison said. “I should be going to your dance performance instead of doing this conference, shouldn’t I? Oh, I’m so confused.”

“You’re doing the right thing going to the conference. You’re good at that stuff. That is important.”

“But you’re important, too,” Madison said.

Aimee smiled. “Just write the note to Madhur. Get her back as your partner. E me later to tell me what she says,” she said.