Only the Lonely by Laura Dower Page A

on one toe. She was good at showing off even in the strangest places.
    Egg made a face at Aimee’s feet. “That’s just messed. How do you get up on your toenails like that? Gross me.”
    Aimee and Madison laughed and threw their arms around each other again.
    It had been three months since they had last hung out. Madison, Aimee, and Egg were back together again at last. For a split second Madison considered whether she really should have gotten Fiona to join them, but Fiona had said she had other plans and Madison left it at that. This was no time to feel guilty.
    Outside, it was a perfect summer night, so the trio parked their butts on the Finn patio as Mom lit a few citronella candles, and passed out popcorn and root beer.
    Madison made Phin do a few stupid pet tricks like fetching the hose, rolling over in the grass, and sitting on the command “park it.” Basically Phin did whatever Madison wanted him too. It was entertaining.
    “So what are you guys most nervous about this year?” Aimee asked all of a sudden.
    Silence. The bug zapper zapped, but no one seemed to have an answer for Aimee’s question.
    “Nothing, nada, not a thing,” Egg finally replied. “What’s to be nervous about? Bunch of losers mixed in with another bunch of geeks. I’m not different from the rest of the crowd, right?”
    Madison chuckled. “Except that you’re King Geek, remember?”
    “Oh yeah. Where’s my crown, Miss Loser? Did you borrow it again?”
    “You guys are out of control,” Aimee said, interrupting. “I was talking about school stuff like classes and, you know, teachers, and I have heard some scary stories about the amount of homework—like we thought sixth grade was bad but I have a feeling seventh grade is just worse. My brothers say that it’s evil.”
    Aimee had four older brothers: Roger, Billy, Dean, and Doug. They had all been through seventh grade and survived just fine, so Madison imagined they were exaggerating for Aimee’s benefit.
    “What’s their definition of evil, Aimee?” Madison inquired.
    Egg spoke up, “Uh, I do believe that next to the word evil in the dictionary you will find a picture of Aimee herself, yeah.”
    Aimee faked being mad for a minute and then she hauled off and gave Egg a knuckle noogie.
    “Owwwwwwch!” Egg screamed, kicking her in the shin.
    “Boys and girls, please stop this fighting,” Madison announced like a flight attendant. “In case of emergency, your seat cushions can be used as flotation devices.”
    They all cracked up.
    “Hey, has anyone seen Ivy Daly this summer?” Egg asked out of the blue.
    “Oh, puke me!” Madison yelped. “Are you kidding me?”
    “I hung out with Ivy’s BFF for a week,” Aimee said. “Roseanne can’t jeté or pirouette to save her life!”
    Madison faked a scream. “ POISON Ivy? Aahhh!”
    “I don’t know how it’s possible but I almost forgot about her,” Madison said. “She is the one whose picture is in the dictionary next to evil, Egg.”
    “Madison vs. Poison. Sounds like a good wrestling match.” Egg snickered.
    Hating Ivy officially had started in fourth grade, a year after Ivy moved to town and moved into their elementary school. As third graders, she and Madison had totally bonded. They spent every afternoon together doing homework and playing at the park and all the things that new friends do.
    Then things changed.
    Egg pulled on Ivy’s braids one day in recess and she tripped him in the corridor and then he beaned her in kickball and things got way out of hand. Madison tried to stick up for her new friend, but no one listened. And that was when Ivy spread an awful rumor that Madison had cheated on a math test and soon everyone in the fourth grade was whispering and after that the principal got involved…
    Any mortal enemy of Madison’s automatically became a mortal enemy of Aimee’s and Egg’s, too.
    The worst backstabbing kicked in the year before when Madison went so far as to nickname Ivy