Caught in the Web by Laura Dower Read Free Book Online Page A

suddenly felt nervous to talk to him, she also felt relieved to hear his nickname for her.
    “Hart? H-h-h-hey,” Madison replied. Her lips quivered like Jell-O. Crushes can make a person speak gibberish sometimes. Madison was so crushed out.
    “What’s on the menu today?” Hart asked. He glanced down at Madison’s plate. “Whoa, that meat loaf looks sick.”
    Madison’s helping of meat loaf didn’t look like real meat because it was absolutely the wrong color. The gravy didn’t help. Gray-vee. It had a weird brown crust, too.
    “Oh … not so bad with ketchup, maybe?” Madison smiled nervously. She wanted to say the right things in front of Hart. But all she could do was defend her lunch.
    Hart made a loud “yeeeeech” noise. “You have more guts than me, Finnster. I’m having a bologna sandwich today.” He cut ahead and moved down the line.
    For dessert, Madison grabbed a cupcake with orange frosting. It was decorated like a jack-o-lantern on the top with chocolate chips for eyes. She asked Hart if he wanted one, too. He didn’t.
    “Um … do you want to sit at our table in the back?” Madison asked. She tried to say it casually, but it came out kind of forced. “Sit. Table. The orange one.” She gestured like an orangutan who had just learned language.
    Hart shrugged. “Yeah. Egg’s there already. I can see him. Sure.”
    She followed him to the back of the cafeteria, past the table where Poison Ivy and her drones were sitting.
    “Hey, Hart,” Ivy said.
    He gave Ivy one of those guy nods and kept right on walking. She looked surprised. So was Madison.
    Madison held her breath. She didn’t want to do anything stupid like burst into a merry chorus of “nah-nah-nah-nah-nahs.” She didn’t dare look back.
    When they reached the orange table, Hart stuck out his hand and Egg slapped it. The table was three-quarters full: Egg, Drew, Aimee, Fiona, Chet, and a few floaters at the other end. Hart squeezed in at the opposite end from Madison. Sadly, there would be no accidental knee knocking over lunch.
    “How could you get that meat loaf, Maddie?” Aimee asked as soon as Madison had put down her tray. “It looks dead.”
    Everyone else leaned in to look. Apparently no one had gotten the lunch selection except for Madison.
    “Do you even know what’s in that?” Aimee stuck out her tongue. “I thought you liked animals.”
    “I didn’t really think about it,” Madison said, sticking her fork in it. The fork stood straight up. She threw a napkin over the whole thing. “I’ll just eat yogurt, then.”
    Hart and Chet were laughing. Madison hoped it wasn’t at her. She opened the yogurt container.
    “Did you see the new posters for the Halloween dance?” Fiona asked. “I am so excited. Señora is calling it Cobwebs and Creeps.”
    “What is that supposed to be? Our theme?” Madison asked aloud. “I didn’t know we had a theme.”
    “That’s because you’re too busy getting gross loaf,” Egg said. Drew snort-laughed and the rest of the boys started laughing, too.
    “Who’s going dressed as what for Halloween?” Aimee asked the table.
    Egg grinned. “A rapper. Totally.”
    “You should go as Jimmie J, Egg,” Hart said. “Ladies’ man.”
    Jimmie J was a heartthrob from a popular boy band. Madison never understood why he made girls swoon. He had such hairy arms.
    “Why stop at Jimmie J, Egg? You should go as the whole band,” Aimee teased. “But then again, you can’t sing at all, so … maybe not …”
    “Not!” Egg chuckled. “Very funny, Aim.”
    “Is everyone going trick or treating this year?” Chet asked. “Fiona and I always went when we lived in California, but I thought maybe this year was the year when we stopped. …”
    “Stopped? Why wouldn’t we go?” Drew said quickly.
    Egg grinned. “Yeah. Somewhere out there is a bucket of candy with my name on it.”
    “I want lots of candy,” Fiona declared. “Last year I had an entire trashbagful of candy and it