Free Forget Me Not (From the Files of Madison Finn, 21) by Laura Dower

editor zipping through different interviews to get material? Madison couldn’t quite figure out what was going on, and nothing seemed to make much sense.
    But she kept listening.
    Dan Ginsburg’s voice came on.
    Madison had her ear up against the door of Mom’s office by now. She’d never eavesdropped like this before.
    “No one in seventh grade at FHJH has a social life except with each other, you know,” Dan was saying. “But that’s cool, because my friends are the best in the whole world, and no, I don’t feel this weird pressure to ask anyone out or whatever.”
    Madison smiled. She’d often wondered if Dan liked her more than just as a friend. But he’d only said so once, and then he’d dropped it.
    These days it was Lindsay who confessed to liking Dan, despite his nickname (Pork-O) and his habit of snatching food from lunch trays that were not his own. There was a lot to like about Dan, especially his freckles and his sense of humor.
    Dan was still talking on the audio recording. Madison heard Mom fast-forwarding.
    “If a girl liked me for real, I would probably just hang out with her the same as I do now,” Dan went on. “No biggie. I mean, nobody really dates. We’re all just playing around. Um … you know what I mean. Some do more than others, I guess. Me, I just want someone to hang with. No biggie.”
    Madison smiled again. Sometimes Dan said all the right things. She felt lucky to call him a good friend. Listening to Dan’s voice through the door, Madison could understand why Lindsay had developed a little crush of her own on him. If Lindsay had been standing there right that minute, she would have been swooning over Dan’s words.
    The audio recording on the other side of the door clicked off.
    Madison leaned forward to keep listening. What was going on? She could hear only Mom’s voice, whispers, and then a loud laugh. Who was that? Madison knew what Mom’s film editor’s voice sounded like and that wasn’t it.
    She moved her hand over the doorknob and turned it. If Madison got a peek inside, she could actually see who was in there—and maybe even see Dan and the other boys on their video B-reel. Would Mom let her check out the rest of the footage? She wondered what Egg or Chet or Drew had to say.
    Even more important to her was to find out what Hart Jones had to say.
    Madison leaned against the knob. The voices got louder. She opened the door just a crack.
    The room was flooded with a bluish light from the video monitors. At one computer station, Madison recognized Frankie’s back. Frankie was one of the junior techies at Budge Films. He tapped away at his keyboard, probably entering time codes. At his feet, curled up in a snug ball, Phin snored.
    Dan’s face took up the entire screen. He looked almost cute, Madison thought, except for an itsy-bitsy zit on his chin.
    Standing nearby, Mom watched the footage. But she wasn’t alone! Her hand was on someone’s back. Julian Lodge!
    Mom reached around Julian’s waist, and he pulled her close.
    Too close. What was going on?
    Quickly, Madison leaped back from the doorway, shut the door, and escaped back into the brighter light of the living room.
    She blinked a few times, steadying herself, unsure if she could really believe her ears … or her eyes.

Chapter 8
Mom

    The boycott is SO back.
    I am trying really, really, REALLY hard not to jump to conclusions but it’s harder than hard. After all, I KNOW WHAT I SAW. Not only did Mom a) forget to tell me about the whole filming thing at FHJH and then b) lie about it, but now she c) forgot to tell me that she was also DATING the director. Um … hello?! Julian Lodge? Are you kidding me?!
    I could die.
    This morning at breakfast, I wanted to ask Mom what was up, but it seemed better to just say nothing at all. Naturally, Mom got so mad about it that she called me Little Miss Poutypuss. I felt like I was back in nursery school when she said it. I mean, what am I supposed to respond to