Save the Date Read Free

the stairway, trying to hear the conversation between her mom and Billy.
    “Earth to Madison! I just asked you a question,” Aimee said.
    “Sorry,” Madison said. She took the photographs from Aimee and picked one. “I like this. You look pretty in this one.”
    Mom came down the stairs. “Well! We’re in capable hands with Billy. Isn’t he great?”
    “Great,” Madison said, not feeling the situation was great in any way.
    “Anyone hungry for some dinner?” Mom asked the pair.
    Madison and Aimee followed her into the kitchen. Since pizza was the ultimate friend food, Mom ordered a large one with mushrooms and pepperoni.
    “I think that Billy guy is so weird,” Madison said to her mom.
    “Oh, Maddie! But he’s so nice.” Mom laughed. “Billy works as a cameraman for a film company.
    Isn’t it a small world that we both work in the industry? He does contracting work on the side when he’s not filming. Actually, Billy and I have a lot in common. Isn’t that funny?”
    “Hysterical,” Madison said. She wanted Mom to stop smiling and stop saying his name. The word Billy was really bothering Madison, like a pesky mosquito buzzing at her ears.
    “Can I show you my ballet pictures, Mrs. Finn?” Aimee asked, pushing her overflowing portfolio onto the countertop.
    “Of course,” Mom said, clearing a space on the kitchen table. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
    Madison leaned in close to Aimee. Looking at the ballet photos again was the last thing she felt like doing, but it was way better than talking about the things Mom had on her mind.
    Like Billy the bug.
    Even with the rainstorm, the pizza-delivery guy made it to Madison’s house in under a half hour—a time frame that’s 100 percent guaranteed or else the pizza was free. Madison, Aimee, and Mom ate it with salad that Mom threw together. They had store-bought brownies for dessert, but Aimee only ate a corner of one.
    By the time they’d eaten pizza, Billy had surveyed the upstairs room completely and given Mom a rough estimate of the work that would need to be done. He said that he’d come back to check on the roof and attic the next day. Mom chatted with him like he was some kind of old pal. Madison squirmed every time he grinned his gap-toothed grin.
    After Billy left, Mom headed into her office to do some film-editing work while Madison and Aimee disappeared to do their homework. At least they intended to do their assignments. Instead of math books, however, they pulled out Aimee’s manicure stuff. Aimee painted Madison’s nails a perfect blue to match Madison’s rainy-day mood.
    “Let’s go online and find Fiona,” Aimee suggested when she’d finished nail painting.
    “But she’s at that family dinner,” Madison said. “And I can’t type or anything with my nails like this.” She blew on them to make them dry faster.
    “Fiona’s dinner must be over by now,” Aimee said, looking at her watch. “And I can type for you so your nails don’t get messed up.”
    They set up the laptop on the desk in the den and logged on to TweenBlurt.com. Aimee typed while Madison leaned over Aimee’s shoulder for assistance.
    “You have to give your password,” Aimee said when she saw the password prompt. Madison grabbed a pencil to punch her supersecret password on the keyboard without messing up her nails.
Screen Name: MADFINN
    Supersecret Password: ********
    The waiting room inside TweenBlurt.com was packed with members. Aimee scrolled down the list of special rooms.
Soccer rules! !!!!!!!
    (11 fish)
    “I bet she’s in there,” Aimee said right away. “She’s such a soccer maniac.”
    But Madison told Aimee to keep looking. She knew Fiona would wait somewhere else where they’d all be more likely to hang out.
******animal lovers here*****
    (23 fish)
    Keypal Kingdom
    (8 fish)
    Junior High—enter at ur own risk!
    (41 fish)
    “There!” Madison blurted. “I bet she’s in that junior-high room. We went in there once when she was