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For the original Madison Finn readers,

this one's for you—with thanks

(and for you, too, OKD xx)

Chapter One

The pug alarm clock startled Madison awake with a
bark
,
bark
,
ruff
.

Even Madison's real-life pug, Phin, hated the clock. He wiggled across Madison's covers and knocked it over with a push of his wet snout. “
Ruf
f
!
” Phin barked as if to say, “Be quiet!
I'm
the only pug around here!”

Thankfully, it was still only Sunday. She'd forgotten to turn off the alarm. Madison could squeeze in a few extra minutes under the covers, if only her skin didn't feel like it was on fire.
Why did her whole body sting so much?

Although it was officially post-summer and the calendar month read October, weather remained taffy-sticky and the sun was still fire-hot in the middle of the day. What else could explain Madison Finn's radioactive glow?

On Saturday, Maddie had been outdoors almost the entire day with her dad and stepmom, Stephanie, on the “harvest festival circuit.” Ever since Dad got remarried, he'd been more into establishing “family traditions,” and this tour was her stepmom's idea of tradition. They roamed from farm to farm, collecting strangely shaped gourds and searching for the best sugar-dusted apple-cider donut ever.

What Madison didn't realize was this: After a full afternoon picking apples and pumpkins and hiking and sitting in the bright white sun listening to random bands play bluegrass on bales of hay, she would turn a decidedly crispy, unpleasant shade of pink. And now the pain had set in. Stinging, searing skin pain.

“Oooooow, Mooooom!” Madison called out from her bed. Even the cool sheets hurt Madison's skin. The
air
hurt her skin.

Phin jumped on top of Madison, his slimy dog tongue licking her face.

“Phinnie, noooooo!” Madison said, sitting up fast. “I love you, Phin, but your slime is
blech
.”

The puppy landed on the floor with a whimper.

“Moooooom!” Madison howled again.

Mom barged in through the bedroom door a moment later. “What is all this racket?” she cried and pulled Madison's curtains to let in the light. “Oh my stars!” Mom recoiled a little. “Madison Francesca Finn, what happened to your skin?!”

“Yeah … I guess I forgot to put on sun block yesterday.”

“Forgot? You think?” Mom quipped. “Now I have a lobster for a daughter! Fantastic. I can't believe your father didn't notice that you—”

“It's not his fault,” Madison said. “It's mine.”

Mom threw her hands in the air. “No, it's
his
. Stephanie is usually so responsible.”

“Mooom!”

This is how it had been for most of the last year. Mom and Dad were semicordial since the Big D (for Divorce), but once Dad remarried, things got strange and testy. Madison guessed Mom was a little jealous even though she and Stephanie talked all the time. Mom didn't have a boyfriend. She didn't even have a
maybe
boyfriend.

“Get out of bed so I can put some aloe cream on you,” Mom said, examining Madison's arms. “This is actually a very bad burn, honey. You're going to peel.”

“
Ewww
. Like an onion?” Madison inched out of bed slowly. “One gross layer at a time?”

“You're more like a tomato to me,” Mom interjected. “But I'm not sure tomatoes have layers.”

“Don't say anything else about tomatoes, Mom, before I have a chance to catch up … er, ketchup.”

“Ketchup? Really, Madison?” Mom raised an eyebrow and sighed. It was exactly the kind of lame, punny, perfectly awful joke Madison and Dad loved to crack. Mom? Not so much.

“This isn't funny,” Mom said seriously as she slathered on the cream.

Like magic, Madison's skin immediately stopped stinging.
Ahhhhhhh.
At least now she didn't feel like she was cooking from the outside in.

Madison grabbed some baggy, non-fall-like clothes that wouldn't irritate her skin when she put them on. Her faded yellow cotton dress with the cutout heart in the back did the trick. Madison paired it with a blue cotton cardigan she found hanging in her closet. Color coordination was not a current top priority—nothing matched with
sunburn
, right?

Downstairs at breakfast, Phinnie curled up onto Maddie's feet like he always did, his belly on her toes, waiting for cast-off Oat-Os and crumbles of bacon. Madison gulped down a smoothie, freshly made in Mom's new MegaBlend Blender. Mom was the Queen of Smoothies lately. She whipped up avocado, kale, and celery blends at a moment's notice.

Thankfully, this smoothie was strawberry-banana.

Mom stirred her coffee around and around. Madison knew she was thinking hard about something.

“You okay?” Madison asked.

“I'm always okay.” Mom shrugged. “Thanks for asking.”

Madison slurped her Oat-Os milk and got up to get herself a second bowl.

“How about you? You okay?” Mom inquired.

“Sure.” Madison shrugged. “What do you mean?”

Madison knew what Mom meant, but she didn't feel like discussing anything related to school, snakes, or boys.

“Any more dreams about a particular someone who used to live in Far Hills but moved away?”

“Mom! Are you kidding me? I only had that dream about Hart once!” Madison yelped.

“Yes, well …”

“Moooom!” Nothing was more embarrassing than Mom poking around in Madison's affairs of the heart—er,
Hart
.

Fortunately, the only one who had access to all the details about Hart Jones was Madison's laptop. Her computer files had heard about HIM all summer long.

HIM


Just when I think I have everything: straight A's, a busyfunawesome summer lineup, a killer tan, a new desk in my bedroom painted ORANGE, a dog who loves me, AND a boyfriend (vs. friend who is a boy, which is not even half as good …) Then WHAMMO, everything crashes down hard in the fall.


Let's rewind: great trips this summer. I mean, I WENT TO JAPAN!!! Mom was filming there with Budge Films, and she was allowed to bring me. My World = officially rocked! The sushi was sooooo perfect. Duh!


And I also did a road trip with Dad and Steph back to Texas. So cool, well actually HOT—it was like 110 degrees in the shade.


BUT nothing prepared me for the stuff that I would be missing then and now.


Rude Awakening:
The more things change, the more things stay the LAME.


Translation:
Madison Finn 1, Hart Jones 0


Hart wrote to me like every other day in June and July. But once August got here, he was GONZO. And September went by without a peep! Where did HJ disappear to? What is the matter with HIM??? PXT!!!


Gramma Helen once said that absence makes the heart grow fonder. But absence in this case, through the summer months, did not appear to be making Madison's Hart grow any fonder. So when Mom started in with questions about what was going on with Hart and his emails, Madison's stomach ached with the truth.

Truth was, she'd been writing to him for months.

SENT MAIL