Give and Take Read Free

to do it together—” Madison said, climbing over her friend.
    “The three of us?” Fiona said. “Wait. Maddie, I can’t volunteer.”
    Madison stopped short. “You can’t?”
    “Neither can I,” said Aimee.
    “I have soccer,” Fiona said.
    “And I have ballet,” Aimee said.
    “Oh, yeah,” Madison sighed. “Of course. I forgot.”
    “Why don’t you go sign up by yourself?” Aimee asked. “You like doing that kind of stuff. That would be cool if you volunteered at The Estates.”
    Madison shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. But by myself?”
    Aimee and Fiona lingered by while Madison approached the sign-up sheet. Egg and Hart were standing nearby.
    “Hey, Finnster,” Hart said, calling Madison by a name he’d made up years earlier. “You signing up?”
    Hart was Madison’s junior-high crush: cute, smart, and silly. Madison couldn’t take her eyes off him.
    “I think so,” Madison said, looking for a pencil in her orange bag. “Are you guys signing up?”
    “Well, my tía Ana, the one who’s a nurse, is super cool,” Egg explained. “So I figured it would be a good thing to help her out. I mean, I’ve got hockey practice, but my mom is bugging me to do it, so …”
    “What about you, Hart?” Madison asked.
    “Yeah, I’m doing it with Egg,” he said, smiling. “Our hockey coach said that we can miss one or two practices and still play in the game next Saturday.”
    That was all Madison needed to hear. She smiled back and leaned forward to add her name to the list. Even though Fiona and Aimee had been Madison’s first hope to join her at The Estates, Egg and Hart would be just as entertaining company.
    The list was almost filled. The name at the very top was “Hilary Klein,” a girl in Madison’s English class who always dressed up in matched sweater sets and frilly socks; carried a purse in addition to her book bag; and applied eyeliner in the girls’ room between classes. She wasn’t very friendly, so Madison wasn’t quite sure why she would volunteer to be some stranger’s friend. But there she was.
    Underneath Hilary’s name were those of Hart, Egg, Davy Miller, and Joey O’Neill, nose-picker extraordinaire.
    Then, in giant letters, was the name Ivy Daly, with a curlicue on the y. Madison groaned. Although she didn’t want to spend free afternoons with the enemy, she added her own name under Ivy’s.
    After leaving the chorus room, Madison headed to the lockers to retrieve her social studies textbook and some other papers. Fiona and Aimee were waiting there.
    “Now the three of us can walk home together,” Aimee said. She had on her lemon-colored parka with a furry white crocheted hat and gloves.
    “I think it’s cool that you volunteered,” Fiona said. She wore a baseball cap that read ANGELS , and a jean jacket with a sheepskin lining. She’d wrapped her scarf all around her braids and neck.
    “Yeah, it’s cool. Except for Ivy,” Madison said. She pulled her quilted winter jacket out of her locker and zipped up the front. “Let’s go,” she told her BFFs.
    They headed out the school doors toward home.
    As Madison approached her house, Phin saw her and made a dash for the sidewalk. But the pug couldn’t reach. He was tethered to a post in the front yard, wearing his green sweater, of course.
    “Hey, Mom!” Madison called out. Mom was bent over a hedge by the porch, wrapping it in preparation for snow.
    “Hey, honey bear!” Mom said, tying knotted rope around a wide piece of burlap. “Come and help me, would you?”
    Madison skipped over to the porch and dropped her bag. She couldn’t wait to tell Mom about her new volunteering gig at The Estates.
    Mom had other questions on her mind.
    “Did you check your e-mail today?” Mom asked.
    Madison nodded. “Yeah. Why?”
    “I was just wondering when your father is going to firm up those Christmas plans. He said he would e-mail you right away, didn’t he? I need to make reservations for myself and I can’t do it