“YOU WANT GRAVY ON that?” the lunch lady, Gilda Z, asked, ladle in one hand and giant fork in the other.
Madison stared down at her tray. Was this mystery meat moving?
Gilda slopped on gravy. Most landed on the tray, not the plate. “Next!” she cried.
Madison moved along. She peered over her shoulder and saw Hart standing a few kids back. He was peeling a banana. For a split second, she pretended not to notice him. But it was too late.
“Hey, Finnster!” he called out. He’d spotted her. Even though she suddenly felt nervous to talk to him, she also felt relieved to hear his nickname for her.
“Hart? H-h-h-hey,” Madison replied. Her lips quivered like Jell-O. Crushes can make a person speak gibberish sometimes. Madison was so crushed out.
“What’s on the menu today?” Hart asked. He glanced down at Madison’s plate. “Whoa, that meat loaf looks sick.”
Madison’s helping of meat loaf didn’t look like real meat because it was absolutely the wrong color. The gravy didn’t help. Gray-vee. It had a weird brown crust, too.
“Oh … not so bad with ketchup, maybe?” Madison smiled nervously. She wanted to say the right things in front of Hart. But all she could do was defend her lunch.
Hart made a loud “yeeeeech” noise. “You have more guts than me, Finnster. I’m having a bologna sandwich today.” He cut ahead and moved down the line.
For dessert, Madison grabbed a cupcake with orange frosting. It was decorated like a jack-o-lantern on the top with chocolate chips for eyes. She asked Hart if he wanted one, too. He didn’t.
“Um … do you want to sit at our table in the back?” Madison asked. She tried to say it casually, but it came out kind of forced. “Sit. Table. The orange one.” She gestured like an orangutan who had just learned language.
Hart shrugged. “Yeah. Egg’s there already. I can see him. Sure.”
She followed him to the back of the cafeteria, past the table where Poison Ivy and her drones were sitting.
“Hey, Hart,” Ivy said.
He gave Ivy one of those guy nods and kept right on walking. She looked surprised. So was Madison.
Madison held her breath. She didn’t want to do anything stupid like burst into a merry chorus of “nah-nah-nah-nah-nahs.” She didn’t dare look back.
When they reached the orange table, Hart stuck out his hand and Egg slapped it. The table was three-quarters full: Egg, Drew, Aimee, Fiona, Chet, and a few floaters at the other end. Hart squeezed in at the opposite end from Madison. Sadly, there would be no accidental knee knocking over lunch.
“How could you get that meat loaf, Maddie?” Aimee asked as soon as Madison had put down her tray. “It looks dead.”
Everyone else leaned in to look. Apparently no one had gotten the lunch selection except for Madison.
“Do you even know what’s in that?” Aimee stuck out her tongue. “I thought you liked animals.”
“I didn’t really think about it,” Madison said, sticking her fork in it. The fork stood straight up. She threw a napkin over the whole thing. “I’ll just eat yogurt, then.”
Hart and Chet were laughing. Madison hoped it wasn’t at her. She opened the yogurt container.
“Did you see the new posters for the Halloween dance?” Fiona asked. “I am so excited. Señora is calling it Cobwebs and Creeps.”
“What is that supposed to be? Our theme?” Madison asked aloud. “I didn’t know we had a theme.”
“That’s because you’re too busy getting gross loaf,” Egg said. Drew snort-laughed and the rest of the boys started laughing, too.
“Who’s going dressed as what for Halloween?” Aimee asked the table.
Egg grinned. “A rapper. Totally.”
“You should go as Jimmie J, Egg,” Hart said. “Ladies’ man.”
Jimmie J was a heartthrob from a popular boy band. Madison never understood why he made girls swoon. He had such hairy arms.
“Why stop at Jimmie J, Egg? You should go as the whole band,” Aimee teased. “But then again, you can’t sing at all, so … maybe not …”
“Not!” Egg chuckled. “Very funny, Aim.”
“Is everyone going trick or treating this year?” Chet asked. “Fiona and I always went when we lived in California, but I thought maybe this year was the year when we stopped. …”
“Stopped? Why wouldn’t we go?” Drew said quickly.
Egg grinned. “Yeah. Somewhere out there is a bucket of candy with my name on it.”
“I want lots of candy,” Fiona declared. “Last year I had an entire trashbagful of candy and it lasted through February,” Hart said. “February! It’s my own personal record.”
“Man, I ate all my candy in only two days,” Egg said. “And then I was dog sick for like a week.”
Madison nodded. “I remember.”
“I hate it when candy gets stale,” Aimee complained. “I had to throw most of my candy out.”
“What are you talking about, Aimee? You don’t even eat candy,” Drew said.
Aimee shrugged and took a bite of carrot.
“Don’t you guys think we’re a little old to go trick-or-treating?” Madison said. “I mean, I don’t wanna sound like I’m a—”
“PARTY POOPER!” Egg yelled.
Aimee slapped Egg’s shoulder. “I’m with you, Maddie,” she said.
“Hey! I like trick-or-treating,” Fiona said. “We’re not too old!”
“Are you saying we have to stop trick-or-treating just because we’re in junior high?” Egg said. “I intend to do it for as long as I possibly can. And after that, even.”
“We have to wear costumes for the Halloween dance. Why not use ’em again to get good candy?” Drew said.
“Hey, know what? If I can’t be a rapper, I wanna dress up like a mummy,” Egg said. “For my costume, I mean. For the dance.”
“A mummy is in a wrapper. That’s practically the same thing, right?” Drew laughed at his own lame joke.
“What if we all went trick-or-treating together?” Chet said. “Maybe we could go as a TV family or something. Like the Simpsons.”
“I love them!” Madison said enthusiastically.
“What did you dress up as last year, Maddie?” Drew asked.
Madison thought for a moment. “I dunno,” she mumbled.
Dressing up for Halloween always stressed out Madison.
“I think I’m going to dress up as a boxer this year,” Chet said. “Or a martian. Yeah. Something freaky.”
Fiona groaned. “You would.”
“I’m going to go to the dance as a ballerina,” Aimee said. She picked at a lettuce leaf on her plate. Aimee was becoming the kind of person who counted peas before she ate them.
“Ballerina? Like that’s a big surprise.” Egg made a face.
“You should go as a wizard,” Drew said to Hart. “You have the cape and hat from The Wiz, right?”
“Yeah, I do,” Hart said. “Maybe I should go as a wizard.”
“You were great as the wizard,” Fiona said. “And you could do tricks at the dance. You’re really good at tricks, Hart.”
Egg sneered. “Magic, shmagic. I’m gonna be a ninja. What about you, Fiona?”
“I wanna be a hula dancer.”
“Hula girl, whoa!” Egg teased. “You got a grass skirt?”
Fiona smiled at him and tilted her head slightly to the side. She’d been crushing on him for weeks, so she didn’t mind his teasing one bit.
“Why don’t you lend her your grass skirt, Egg!” Chet said, laughing.
Egg made a face.
“Remember when Egg dressed up like a doctor for Halloween?” Aimee asked the table.
Madison rolled her eyes. “That was like a million Halloweens ago—”
“When we were six—” Aimee said.
“And Egg got into a yelling match with these nasty kids walking down the street and—”
“Yeah, yeah, and I got picked off by an egg on the Fourth Street overpass.” Egg shook his head. “Get to the point, Maddie. I got hit with an egg, so that’s when you started calling me Egg. Thanks a lot.”
“At least it wasn’t toilet paper.” Hart laughed. “T.P. would be a worse nickname.”
The table snickered.
Madison looked up at the lunchroom clock. The bell was about to sound. She saw Ivy getting up a few tables away, probably heading for the girls’ bathroom. Ivy looked right over at Madison and the rest of the orange table with a mean, hard stare. Madison was glad that Hart wasn’t watching.
What tricks did Poison Ivy have up her Boop-Dee-Doop sleeves now?
Fiona, Aimee, and Madison got up to return their trays.
“Hey, Maddie, have you entered that writing contest on TweenBlurt yet?” Fiona asked.
“Huh? Not yet.” Madison shook her head.
“I’ve been going online a lot more,” Aimee told her girlfriends.
“You have?” Fiona replied. She swallowed her last bite of chocolate pudding.
“Since I got my screen name, anyway,” Aimee said. “It’s fun going into chat rooms and surfing around for stuff I like. You were right.”
Fiona and Madison smiled at Aimee. Finally she was getting wired.
“But I’m still a newbie.” Aimee sighed.
“Don’t worry, you won’t be for long!” Fiona said, rubbing her friend’s shoulder. “Hey, did you both ask your moms about going to the mall Saturday before our sleepover?”
“Yes!” Madison chirped. “Mom said yes as long as I clean my room.”
“My mother said yes, too! She even said she’d take us! She needs to go to the health food outlet and run some other errands.”
“This is going to be so cool.” Fiona grinned.
Going to the mall was an event. Not only did it mean trying on and perhaps even buying clothes, it also meant eating tacos at the food court, being parent-free, and spying on cute boys across the atrium or on the escalators. The three girls started making a list of what stores they would visit.
“So now that you’re online, are you going to enter the Caught in the Web contest?” Madison asked.
“Nah,” Aimee said. “I’m just not a good writer like you, Maddie.”
“Me neither,” Fiona said.
“Well, thanks, but the truth is, I’m a little stuck for ideas,” Madison finally admitted. “Do you think you could help?”
“Write about ghosts,” Fiona said. “Ghosts are the traditional—”
“Duh! Ghosts aren’t scary enough anymore, Fiona,” Aimee interrupted. “How about zombies? They’re like ghosts, only they eat people. Now, that’s scary.”
“And gross.” Madison laughed. “Once upon a time there was a flesh-eating zombie named Aimee. …”
“Why don’t you ask my brother for a good idea?” Fiona suggested as they returned to the orange table. “I mean, Chet’s a big, fat, lazy zombie!”
The girls laughed loudly. Chet turned around when he heard his name, but he hadn’t caught the insult.
Brrrrring.
The lunchroom bell finally rang. All the boys bolted out of the cafeteria without saying good-bye to the girls. It was the usual routine. The girls headed for the door.
Madison walked out slowly, waiting for a flash of brilliance. She was so impatient. She needed a perfect story idea right now.
What was scarier: today’s meat loaf or Poison Ivy?
Phinnie was waiting behind the front door when Madison came home that afternoon. He pounced on her with his scratchy claws. She had to take him for a long walk. Mom was busy writing.
Madison looped around the neighborhood and wandered over to Ridge Road. Without even thinking, she turned down Fiona’s block. Phin liked this street because so many other dogs lived nearby. His little pug nose was snorting and sniffling at each tree. Madison couldn’t imagine what it would be like to smell so many things at one time.
She looked around at houses on the street, mostly old Victorians with front porches and wide front yards. There was no one else around moving—no cars, no people, not even another dog.
As they passed Fiona’s house, Madison glanced up. She thought about how last year Fiona and her family didn’t live there. So much had changed.
Madison stopped short and yanked back on Phinnie’s leash. Even though Fiona’s family had repainted, restored, and added on to the side of the old house, it still reminded Madison of stories she’d once heard about the family who used to live there. People always said the old Martin place was haunted.
“Rowrrroooo!” Phinnie barked and tugged, and Madison nearly fell over. She pulled back on the leash, but he still took off down the street to say hello to a neighbor’s poodle.
Madison glanced back at the house and then quickly ran after Phin.