Play It Again by Laura Dower Page B

be calling her.
    “I didn’t see you after the rehearsal. I wanted to tell you that all your stuff looked good.”
    “Uh-huh.” Madison was half listening now.
    “What do you think about the lighting?” Drew asked.
    Madison had turned back to her trolls, so she didn’t really hear.
    “Maddie, are you there?” Drew asked again. “Did you like what we did with the footlights?”
    “Yeah,” Madison mumbled. “Oh, sure.”
    She couldn’t get the least bit excited about talking to Drew. Ever since they’d been helping Mrs. Wing out with the Web site at school, Drew had been hanging around Madison nonstop. She felt bad because he wasn’t always sure what to say. She was half afraid he might say something mushy.
    There was nothing worse than the vacuum of silence on the phone between them. Like now.
    Drew coughed.
    Madison coughed.
    “So, anyway,” Madison said. “I sorta have to go.”
    Drew gulped. “Are you coming over today to watch the movie?”
    “The movie?” Madison didn’t know about any movie.
    “Yeah, the movie.”
    “What movie? Where?”
    “At my parents’ guest house. We’re renting the original Wizard of Oz and everyone’s coming over to watch it.”
    Madison was confused. “Everyone? Like who?”
    “From the play,” Drew said. “We said we’d watch the movie, remember? You were there.”
    “No, I don’t think so.”
    “You don’t know about the movie?”
    “No,” Madison said again. “No one told me there was a movie.” She was repeating herself like a parrot.
    “Whoa,” Drew moaned. “I guess Fiona forgot to tell you. She told me she’d ask you. I think. Yeah. We were talking about renting the movie the other day, and then I asked my mom if we could do it because we have a screening room. You know the one in the guest house?”
    “Uh-huh.” Madison felt the exact same way she felt in first grade when she was the only person in class who wasn’t invited to Willie Walker’s birthday party. Mrs. Walker said the invitation had gotten lost in the mail, but Madison never believed it.
    Drew was still talking. “And so everyone just sort of invited themselves. Egg has a big mouth—you know that.”
    “Uh-huh.” Madison grunted. So why hadn’t Egg told her ?
    “I guess we forgot to ask you.”
    “I guess.” Madison grunted again.
    “But you were always totally invited.”
    “Why didn’t you ask me yourself?” Madison asked. “I mean, we only see each other all the time these days at the play and in computer class, too.”
    “Uh—uh—uh … I know…. B-B-But…” Drew was stammering a lot now. He did that when he got real nervous. “I’m SORRY,” he said. “I swear I thought one of the girls was gonna ask you. Fiona said she would. I SWEAR.”
    “What time does it start?” Madison asked.
    “Three,” Drew said. “Well, can you come?” he asked. “I mean, now that you know?”
    “I have one question,” Madison said. “Will Ivy Daly be there?”
    “I don’t think so,” Drew said.
    When Drew confirmed that Ivy would not be at the screening, Madison agreed to come over—no problem, no hard feelings attached.
    Drew sounded relieved when he said good-bye. Madison was relieved, too, that the conversation was over.
    As she hung up the phone, she felt freakier than freaky. Mom and the dog walked in the moment she put down the receiver.
    “Grrr…” Phinnie nuzzled Madison’s foot.
    “Will you take him for a w-a-l-k, please?” Mom asked as she kissed Madison hello.
    “Wanna go out?” Madison asked. Phin panted as she grabbed the leash and raced him to the door. Of course, Phinnie won—sliding to the finish. Whenever he ran anywhere too fast in the house, he’d skid across the polished floors.
    Madison walked around the block in a trance. She was trying to remember everything in her closet, row by row. She had no idea what she was going to wear to Drew’s place. Once she changed out of her sweatpants and oversized T-shirt from her dad’s alma