All Shook Up (From the Files of Madison Finn, 22) (14 page)

Madison scanned the rows. She caught a glimpse of Hart, looking in her direction; he smiled.

Mrs. Wing leaned over and whispered in Madison’s ear. “We’re almost ready to start. Are you ready?”

“No!” Madison screamed inside her head. She felt her stomach do its usual flip-flop, but steadied herself.

“Ready,” she replied meekly, and reached into her pocket for the file cards with the all-important words printed on them.

Mrs. Wing led Madison, along with the representatives from the other classes, to the front of the stage. Principal Bernard gave the welcoming remarks. Assistant Principal Goode followed up with some remarks about behavior at the school; then she introduced Mr. Gibbons and another faculty supervisor for the conference. At that, Mrs. Wing gently nudged Madison.

“This is your cue,” Mrs. Wing said softly. “Listen close. We’re next.”

“Having a conference of this importance is something Far Hills Junior High is honored to do,” Mr. Gibbons said. “And, as with model United Nations and other junior world leader events, there is a code of behavior and ethics that accompanies the procedural. We have selected representatives from the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades to explain these codes to us.”

Madison’s eyes darted out into the audience. For some reason it felt as if the floor had dropped away entirely beneath her feet. Was she sinking? Floating? Somehow she managed to wobble over to the podium with another gentle nudge from Mrs. Wing.

“Ahem,” Madison cleared her throat.

Someone rushed over and quickly adjusted the microphone for her height. Madison looked down at her cards and then looked up again. She had survived making part of a speech in Mr. Gibbons’s class. That had been more than twenty-five words. She could do this. Madison remembered a bad episode of an old TV show that she had seen once. On the show, one kid had told another kid to get rid of nervousness over public speaking by imagining the entire audience in its underwear.

Madison scanned the room again, but picturing Principal Bernard in his boxer shorts only made her feel way
more
nervous.

She imagined Hart out there rooting for her, and Fiona, too. And maybe even Chet. And of course, Madhur, her partner. They had to be sending her positive vibes.

With that, she began to speak—her voice trembling.

“I promise to respect others. I will observe the proceedings with patience, understanding, and tolerance. Every individual is entitled to his or her own opinion.”

Mrs. Wing clapped lightly, but Madison didn’t move. She half expected to see Ivy out there, leering at her the way she’d done in science class only a day before. Was it over already?

The eighth grader who was speaking next came over and practically stepped on Madison’s feet to get her out of the way. Mrs. Wing pulled Madison to the side of the stage and patted her back.

“Good job,” Mrs. Wing whispered.

Madison breathed a huge sigh of relief and made her way back to her seat.

One presentation down. One to go.

After the remaining codes had been read and the conference was officially declared open, Madison twisted around in her front-row seat, eyes back on the crowd. It was lonely sitting there all by herself.

As some of the kids stood to mingle, Madison got up and moved up through the aisle in search of Madhur. She thought she’d caught a glimpse of Madhur’s black hair. But it was someone else. Where were Fiona, Chet, Dan, Egg—where was anyone? Not even Hart came into view.

Finally, at the auditorium doors, Madison saw Lindsay.

“Hey! Did you see the others?” Madison asked.

Lindsay shrugged as if she had some kind of secret she wasn’t sharing. “The others?” Lindsay repeated cryptically. “What do you mean?”

Madison frowned. “You know what I mean,” she said, moving past Lindsay and down the hall.

Up ahead, she saw a girl with long black hair. This time, she knew it was Madhur. She could tell by the hair clip.

But then Madison noticed a boy leaning close to Madhur. They were whispering. The boy was Hart.

Madison’s stomach lurched.

Hart? Again?

The two of them were smiling and standing way, way too close to each other

Madison watched from a distance.

After all that had been said and done, how could Madison’s new friend still pursue the guy Madison
like
-liked? They’d shared everything at the sleepover.

What was Madison going to do now?

“B
OO!”

Madison jumped and clutched at her chest.

Behind her, Fiona grabbed Madison’s shoulders and jumped into the air in a twirl.

“Gotcha, huh?” she said with a grin. “I thought so. So, why are you standing here like a rock in the middle of the hallway?”

“What are you doing scaring me like that?” Madison asked, taking a deep breath. Just then, Chet, Dan, and Egg also walked toward her. Down the hall, Hart and Madhur turned around and headed in Madison’s direction, too. They were all grinning, which made Madison suspicious.

What was going on?

“We have a surprise!” Egg cried as he came nearer. He handed Madison an oversize, bright orange envelope.

“What’s
this
?” Madison asked. She smiled as she looked at the outside of the envelope. It said:
To Maddie 1 & Maddie 2
.

“It took forever to find an envelope in your favorite color,” Fiona said.

“It’s from all of us,” Hart said cheerily, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Madison looked up at him, and his eyes sparkled back at her.

Was he thinking, “I like you, Maddie, I really like you”? She hoped so.

“What
is
this? Fiona, did you do this?” Madison asked.

“I can’t take all the credit,” Fiona said. “The whole thing was Aimee’s idea.”

“She’s a really, really good friend,” Madhur said. “But you know that already, right?”

“Aimee?” Madison pronounced her friend’s name with disbelief and ripped open the envelope. Inside she found a brightly colored card. On the front was a picture of a lot of cows. All the cows were black and white except for one bright-pink cow. Inside, the card read:
You Are Outstanding in the Field (No Matter Where You Go).
The card had been signed by everyone, including Aimee. She’d written a little note, too, that read:
Break a leg and knock ’em dead. Love, Your BFF, Aim.

“It’s sort of a congratulations,” Madhur said. “I mean, I don’t know you very long, but your friends told me that you used to be really scared of standing up in front of large crowds. So today is a big accomplishment, right?”

Madison nodded. She couldn’t believe her friends had done this—especially her one friend who wasn’t even there. She felt a little like crying—but in a good way.

All at once, Assistant Principal Goode appeared. “Okay, students! Let’s get a move on! On to the next part of the conference, please! Hustle, hustle!”

Other teachers crowded the halls, shooing students toward the cafeteria.

The first event on the day’s agenda was an international luncheon. Madison wished Aimee
could
have been there for that. Aimee was the one friend who was game for tasting interesting foods—as long as no meat was involved.

Hart came up next to Madison as the group walked toward the lunchroom. Then, when no one else was looking, he tugged her arm and pulled her to the side.

“What are you doing?” Madison asked, almost tripping over her own feet. She watched as the rest of her friends kept right on walking down the hall. They didn’t even seem to notice.

“I need to tell you something, and it can’t wait anymore,” Hart said.

Madison’s heart pounded hard in her chest. She got a sinking feeling that Hart might be about to tell her something she didn’t want to hear. Disappointing news? He’d been laughing with Madhur only moments before. This couldn’t be good. Could she read his mind?

Hart pulled Madison through a set of swinging doors. They stood on the other side as the rest of the kids passed through. “Where are we going?” she asked. He looked so serious. Too serious.

“Hart? What is it?” Madison asked, bracing herself.

“I don’t know how to say this,” Hart said. “But I know I have to. And now is a weird time, I know, in the middle of school with everyone here, including teachers. I’ll probably get into trouble for this for sure….”

“What are you babbling about?” Madison asked, feeling impatient. She half expected that Mr. Gibbons or one of the other faculty advisers would walk through the doors and yell at them for being late to lunch.

“I just need you to—”

“What?” Madison cried. “We’re going to get in trouble if you can’t—”

Madison didn’t have a chance to finish her next thought.

With one swift move, Hart grabbed both of Madison’s hands in his hands. He leaned in and pressed close. Madison could feel his breath. Her mind whirred. Within milliseconds, Hart was closer than close—face to face—
right there
. Madison could actually smell his skin. It tickled.

“Finnster,” Hart said softly, sweetly,
romantically
…

All at once, his lips pressed down … well, on her cheek. He’d been aiming for the lips, but missed. Nerves. Undeterred, Hart tried again, moving even closer this time. And this time, he made direct contact. There they were, lip to lip, hands locked. Like a couple in a romantic movie.

Madison’s knees wobbled. She pulled away.

“Wait—” she said.

“Oh,” Hart said, pulling away too. “Did I do something wrong?”

Madison realized that she must have had a shocked and bothered look on her face. But it wasn’t that she didn’t like the kiss. For some reason, all Madison could think about in that moment were chapped lips and stinky breath. Had Hart kissed the chapped part?

Maybe she wasn’t a very good kisser. Would he want to kiss her again? Why was her head spinning so fast?

“Um … are you okay?” Hart asked.

Madison felt as if her tongue were made of lead. She couldn’t even form the words to say, “Yeah, of course I’m okay. I’m
more
than okay.”

She grabbed Hart’s hands tightly.

“You kissed me.” Words came out of her mouth at last. “You kissed me.”

“Yeah, well …” Hart shrugged. “I thought maybe if I did it when you
really
didn’t expect it—like at school—that maybe it would mean more. And then, when I saw you up onstage just now … I felt like it. More than ever.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Madison said, blushing.

“I really like you, Finnster.”

“I really like you, too.”

“Okay. Um … we should go to lunch now,” Hart said. “I guess if we stand here too long we really will get into trouble, and that would be bad. Besides, everyone’s waiting for us.”

Madison realized that they’d been standing there squeezing each other’s hands for so long that they felt stuck together. But neither would let go first.

Pushing open the swinging doors, Madison and Hart saw that most of the other kids had made their way toward the cafeteria. So they hustled inside, too.

Their group took over the same orange lunch table they occupied every day in the back of the lunchroom. Madison walked up and took a seat next to Madhur, who smiled as if she knew somehow what had just happened.

“Pssst. Where were
you
?” Madhur whispered, eyeing Hart.

“Nowhere,” Madison replied, feeling embarrassed and more than a little self-conscious. Had kissing Hart left some kind of evidence that everyone could now see on her face—like fingerprints, except in the shape of lips?

Madhur grinned. “You’re lucky.”

Madison knew she was lucky indeed.

Everyone ate their share of the international food. They had Lebanese falafel balls with tahini sauce, Greek salad, Italian ziti, Finnish fish sticks, and other, assorted dining choices.

“Hey, not to get anyone nervous or anything, but we have our presentations in half an hour,” Drew announced when everyone was done eating.

“I need another snack first,” said Dan. He always needed a snack—even after a big lunch.

“I can’t believe the time is finally here!” Madhur said aloud.

“You’ll be the best,” Chet said, smiling widely at Madhur.

“Thanks,” Madhur said coyly. Madison guessed that maybe Madhur was starting to flirt with Chet after all. She’d definitely given up on Hart.

Madhur glanced back at Madison. “Should we practice one last time?”

They’d come so far in a very short time. Were they readier than ever for the big speech—or did they need another run-through?

“We don’t need practice,” Madison said confidently. “We can do this. I know we can.”

Not all of the students were scheduled to present in the auditorium. The faculty had posted a list of teams who were set to appear in a variety of classrooms. Madison and Madhur were assigned to talk on the second floor, in one of the math rooms. Fiona and the others were scattered around the rest of the building.

Madison and Madhur were third in line to present.

When their time arrived, Madison took the floor ahead of her partner. She tried to shake off any leftover jitters. Her voice cracked as she began.

“One of the most important things for us to remember about being a junior world leader is to understand others. In order to be a good leader, you need to listen….”

She tried to stay focused, but her thoughts drifted.

She had just been kissed—really and truly kissed—by Hart.

“Um …” Madhur stepped in to finish that segment of the speech. “Um … My own family speaks many languages at home, like Hindi and Urdu,” she said.

Madison snapped back to attention.

“My family speaks English and sometimes doggy.”

Everyone laughed. Madhur giggled, too, and went on. “Language and all talking are a way to connect and appreciate our cultures.”

And so the two girls alternated for the next four minutes or so. Someone in the room videotaped the performance, which made Madison happy. She wanted to be able to share it with Mom and Dad. When they had finished, Mrs. Wing came over to congratulate them.

“Well done, girls,” Mrs. Wing said, all grins. “I’m so very proud of you.”