Together Again
by Katie

PART 6

It has been almost two months since our trip. Not much has changed since then. I've just about settled into my yearly school routine, consisting of the usual; classes, cross country practice, homework, fix dinner, work in the studio, sleep. Sometimes I'd stay up until the wee hours of the morning working in the studio, but that's because I'm helping Uncle E and his band with their fourth album. You see, they asked me to take care of the technical stuff and be their co-producer and help out with mixing and recording. In return, they agreed to help me with a couple demos. Every so often, I really have to sit down and convince myself that education is my top priority and not music or sports. I train for C.C., track, and volleyball almost constantly. Whenever I'm not focusing on training, I'm busy working on my guitar skills and techniques or a few new tricks on my skateboard, which my mom STILL doesn't know I do. I've only gone to three competitions, but man, what a rush. I won gold in the girls' skateboarding all-around at Apple Wood Skate Park in NYC and right here at the Buffalo Skate Park, both last year. Just a quick note, the all-around consists of a street course, downhill, and half pipe competition, the best scores win. I really got somewhat serious about competing after I went back to spend a week with my Aunt Grace freshman year. Grace's book about the surfer/skater was such a huge success, she decided to continue the book into a series, so she gave me a lot of convincing to try out for the local Santa Monica Skate Park Girls' Competition. As soon as we left the airport we headed over to the park. I showed her some of my moves that I had been working on and I could tell she was impressed, as well as just about everyone else that was there. So I said, what the hell, I'll try it, and I guess the rest is history. When I got a gold in the street course and silver in the downhill, my aunt wanted me to come live out in Ca for a while and try to see if I wanted to pursue this, but I reclined. I knew that if my mom ever found out that I did this, she would flip out. Too dangerous she would say, so I just told Aunt Grace not to say anything. And to this day I'm almost positive that she's kept that promise, but I'm not sure. After I won those other two competitions and told her, se was seriously thinking of breaking the promise, but I pleaded with her.

"No Aunt Grace, you can't!" I yelled over the phone. My yell wasn't a mean one, but more of a loud request. Luckily my mom was at work so it didn't matter.

"Come on Maddy, I'm sure your mom won't care."

"No you don't understand. She said I could do anything I wanted to do, except for this."

"Are you sure? How do you know all of this?"

"Well, when I came back from visiting you before 7th grade and I said how cool it would be to aggressive in-line skate and skateboard, she just flipped out on me, seriously. She said she would never tolerate that."

"Oh I had no idea she felt that strongly about it." There was a short pause. "Well, how about I keep my big mouth shut and let this be our little secret, ok?"

"I can agree with that. Thanks again Aunt Grace. I'll tell her when I think she'll be ready to hear me out."

"Alright, well, I got to go, my publicist is on the other line. Talk to you later sweetie, bye."

"Bye Aunt Grace."

Anyways, things seem to be going good between Mom and Katie. I'm glad my mom's happy and all, but I just have this bad feeling that Katie might break her heart again. Maybe she's learned her lesson and realized how important my mom is to her. Things between Kelly and I are going all right, I guess. Grace and James still don't know about us, I think we might tell them soon, but now I'm not so sure. Lately Kelly's been kind of distant. School stuff has been making the both of us pretty busy lately, me with keeping my 4.0, cross-country training, and everything else and her with the fall play, schoolwork and all of her voice lessons. Something that hasn't really helped much, we only have 6th period together. Our class schedules are completely different because she's going to major in theatre arts and English while I'll probably be majoring in either math or history. I have become pretty good friends with a fellow junior, Carrie Blackstone. We have German III, Calculus, and Advanced American Studies together. I think we used to have world lit together, but I can't really remember. She's pretty cool. She's on the varsity girls' basketball team, I've heard she's pretty good too, and get this; she's an amateur aggressive in-line skater! That's so amazing. Carrie has short blonde hair that goes a little bit past her ears, it looks really cool when she puts it into those little pigtail like things while the rest of her hair hangs down. She has blue eyes, athletic, obviously, and she's about 5'4".

"Listen up class, for the weekend, you've got an assignment." Oh man, come on Mrs. Carlton, this is the first weekend that I'm not going to be over jam packed with other things to do!

"Now come on, this'll be fun, I promise. You are to partner up with someone and go around town and write a paper about something interesting that relates to the German culture."

"Does this paper have to be in German?" Wow, what a stupid question Paul! Hello! This is GERMAN III for crying out loud!

"Yes Paul, it will be a 2-3 page paper, in German."

"Now partner up and when you've done that, come up and tell me."

All of a sudden the classroom was like a mosh pit. Everyone was scrambling to find someone good to work with. Thankfully before Ralph Turner could open his mouth, Carrie ran over to my side. (Ralph has had the hots for me since I transferred up a grade. He's also known to be a real jerk, and a creep.)

"Hey Madison, want to be my partner?" She could obviously tell I needed some rescuing and besides, we've worked well before, in our other classes.

"Sure, I'd love to." Then I turned to Ralph who looked like he was going to punch the nearest locker when he got a chance.

"Sorry Ralph." And I smiled. I know, I know, it's cruel, and totally not me, but he deserves it. Besides, I would have ended up doing the whole report anyways.

After he left I turned back to Carrie.

"Thanks."

"Oh, no problem. If you're interested, I have the perfect topic for our paper, one that everyone will be stoked about."

"Cool, what's your plan?"

"Tomorrow is the 11th Annual Buffalo Skate Park tournament. Skating is huge in Germany and I thought it would be something cool to do, besides, you've probably never even been to a competition and well, and I was going anyways. What do you think?"

"That would be great. I'd love to see what new skaters try to beat my old records." OH man, this has GOT to shock her.

"Your old records? I've been skating at that competition since I was 14 and I don't ever remember seeing or hearing your name."

"Well, that's because I competed under a code name. You see, my mom told me I could never skateboard, but my aunt thought I had a lot of potential, so I gave it a try. I knew that if I won or if scouts really liked me, my mom would find out right away, so with the help of my writer aunt, we came up with a name."

"What have you competed in?" Carrie was definitely confused now.

"I competed and won the girls' skateboard all-around."

By the look on her face, I could tell she was racking her brain, trying to think of who set those records and then, the light bulb came on.

"OMG! You're Mad Marie?!"

Ok, ok, the name's not cool, but it works. Marie is my middle name, and mad is an abbreviation of Madison.

I answered with a simple nod of my head and a smile.

"Wow, that's awesome. I've seen the competition and there's no one good enough to beat those scores or all of those combination tricks you pulled, or at least in my opinion. Then again, I'm an aggressive in-liner so I just judge by the scores. Well, how about we meet tomorrow around noon-ish. My set is at 12:30 p.m. so we'll have plenty of time to walk around and get a good idea of what we're going to write. How does that sound?"

"Sure, that would be great. Do they still have open skate during the competition?" Hey, I don't have anything better to do tomorrow and besides, I've been waiting for some free time so I could practice this new trick I've been working on.

"Uh, yeah I'm pretty sure they do. Why? Are you going to skate?" She sounded pretty excited. Maybe she wanted to see if all the hoopla around "Mad Marie" was actually worth it. Or maybe she just wanted something for the two of us to bond with. Either way worked for me. I couldn't share this with Kelly. She's not really into the alternative sports, although she fully supports me.

"I was thinking about it. I've wanted to get over there but I just haven't had the time. My schedule has been so full with homework, sports, music, and being with my friends."

"Oh, you mean James Holmes, Grace Hammond, and Kelly Shipman?"

"Yeah, why do you say it like it's a bad thing?"

"I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that…you guys don't seem to really have a lot in common, do you?" Carrie did have a good point; none of us really had too much in common. I guess we just kind of found each other. Back in the days when you could be friends with anyone and it didn't matter if you didn't really have anything in common.

"Well, now that you mention it, I guess we don't, but that doesn't mean that we'd just stop being friends because of it." I was starting to get a little mad and frustrated by Carrie's words. I mean, who does she think she is? And why is she attacking my friends???

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it, I swear." The sincerity in her voice was enough to comfort me.

"It's ok Carrie, really. Sorry, I've just been really stressed out lately."

"I can relate to that. Basketball is in full swing and practices are killers sometimes. I really wish my parents would just let Danielle play and let me take my skating full on. Hey, my practice gets out early tonight, around 6:30. If you're not doing anything, maybe we could grab a bite to eat or something. If you're doing something, that's fine too, I just thought it would be something to do and all." Whoa, is she asking me out on a date or something? I seriously can't tell.

Oh, by the way, Danielle is Carrie's older sister and captain on the basketball team. I guess their parents always try to get them to be the "perfect" daughters. Danielle is a 4.0 student, most likely the senior's class valedictorian. Anyways, Carrie is smart, but not 4.0, 3.9998 but to her parents, that's just not good enough. Everyone knows how tough the Blackstone parents could be, but Danielle and Carrie never tried to let it show.

Before I could give an answer, the bell rang.

"Oh well, I got to go, if I'm late for jazz band again, Mr. Patrick's going to kill me."

"Ok, well," Carrie flipped open her notebook and quickly scribbled something down, folded it up, and handed it to me. "Here's my number, just in case you're free tonight or if you can't make tomorrow or something." Why was she all of a sudden getting really quiet and shy?

"Ok, thanks. I wouldn't worry too much Care; I'll be there tomorrow. Later." I flashed my signature mark, my smile. Everyone from family members to ex boyfriends to little kids I used to baby-sit for, they all said what an amazing smile I had. I never really believed them all, but I guess I'm just modest like that. I see myself as an average teen, but for some reason no one else sees me that way.

Carrie quickly blushed. I guess I am kind of a sweet talker, but not on purpose.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Later."

"Bye."

Well, this one's going to be fun to explain…

Because of the massive amount of rain that day, Coach Jones decided to be nice to us, for once, and cancel practice, giving me a few extra hours of free time. I didn't use it as well as the rest of the team. Burk, Mary, Ann, Melissa, Mike, Stacy, Erik, and Julie all went to the local pizza joint to celebrate the first cancelled practice of, our lifetime. I declined the invitation and went home. I had to learn three new songs for jazz band, about two pages worth of calc problems, questions from this week's lab, I still needed four pages of research for a report on a great American author and my article for the literary magazine for my lit class. On top of all that, I had to get all of the info about our trip to Germany next summer all ready because we had to go to the school board meeting in two weeks to show that our trip would be a huge help in our studies. I think it's stupid because HELLO! We're studying German, so what a better way to learn the language but to, duh, GO TO GERMANY! Some people just don't get things, but then again, maybe that's because my IQ is higher than their weight.

I got home around 3 p.m. and I finished the majority of my homework by 4:45. There was still some time before I had to start dinner, so I decided to call Kelly and tell her that we couldn't go to the city to see that play she wanted to go to because of my paper I had to write with Carrie. Man was that a bad idea…

"Hello Mrs. Shipman, this is Madison, is Kelly home?"

"Oh yes Madison, let me get her."

"Thank you."

"She's coming. So, how's your mother doing?"

"She's doing fine Mrs. Shipman. How are Mr. Shipman, Tom, and
yourself doing?"

"We're doing just fine dear, thank you for asking."

"Mother, you can hang up now!"

"Alright, I can take a hint. Talk to you later Madison dear."

"Later Mrs. Shipman."

"I can't believe my mom sometimes!"

"It's ok Kel, she's harmless."

"True, but still. Anyways, what's up?"

"Not much. You?"

"Same here. Hey wait, why are you calling so soon? Practice usually doesn't get out until 5. What gives?"

"Oh, Coach Jones decided to cancel practice. The meet tomorrow is off anyways, so he didn't see the point in practicing today."

"That's great to hear Maddy, you guys really do need some time away from running. So are we still on for tomorrow?"

"Well, that's part of the reason why I called…"

"What is it?"

"I…can't. It's not that I don't want to because believe me I do, but Mrs. Carlton assigned us this paper and it's worth a lot of points and…"

"Well, why can't you just work on it tonight or Sunday?"

"The thing is…we decided to do our project on skating and it's affect on German youth and the Buffalo Skate Park Competition is, well, tomorrow."

"I see. I guess it's ok. I know how much grades mean to you, I guess I could just see if Grace or James want to go." Oh geez Kelly, don't give me the guilt trip. I hate it when you do that because I don't want you to be sad, ever. I really can't help it.

"You know how much you mean to me, but you know my mom, my education is far more important than anything else I do."

"I know, I know, but when are you going to start living how YOU want to?" I knew what she was hinting at. Oh boy did I.

"Come on Kelly, you know I can't do THAT. My mom would die."

"You know she wouldn't. You're just scared that no one will see you as perfect little Madison Walker; the girl whose got everything. And instead they'll see you as perfect little Madison Walker who is, dare I say it, in love with a GIRL!" The tone of her voice was too intense. I didn't have time to think so I just reacted.

"How could you say that Kelly? Give me a fucking break, will ya? I don't care what people think about me and you damn well know that! I'm scared, but not that people will think differently of me. I'm scared because I don't know if I can deal with it! OK, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?" I was screaming with fury and fire. I couldn't help it.   Whenever I have to defend myself and my actions, I get a little too into it.

"Well, it's good to hear the truth."

"Yeah, well, yeah."

"Look Madison, I'm sorry. I'm just a little worked up over the fact that you can't go to the play tomorrow. We haven't spent any quality time together since the trip and I miss you."

"I miss you two. I'm so sorry that I can't go. I was really looking forward to spending some alone time with you. Do you want to do something tonight instead?" There we go Madison, doing the good girlfriend routine, hoping it'll make up for my stupidity.

"I can't tonight. I have my voice lessons in a half hour and then I have to baby-sit for the Mack twins until midnight. I'm really sorry Mad."

"It's ok. I guess we'll just have to wait for another weekend to clear up."

"Yeah, well, I got to go, my mom needs the line and I have to go get ready for my lesson."

"Alright I'll let you go." I really hoped that would have been the rest of the conversation, but no, it HAD to get worse…

"What do you have to do for your project again?"

"We're going to the annual Buffalo Skate Park competition and writing about the effects of skating on Germany's youth." I was really hoping that she wouldn't notice the "we."

"Oh alright. Wait a minute. We? Who are you doing your project with?" She was getting jealous by the second.

"First off it's whom. Second of all, its just Carrie."

"Whatever, that's a stupid technicality. Wait, Carrie…Blackstone? The recently out varsity basketball player?" Whoa! She's gay? I never saw that one coming. But then again, I didn't even notice that I was one. That and I never listen to the BDHS gossip; most of it is bull---- anyway.

"Ok, you're going to be what, an ENGLISH MAJOR and you think `whom' is a stupid technicality??? You might want to reconsider that one then. And who cares if she's gay. Where did you hear that by the way? I thought she was straight. Didn't she date that guy, what's his face? Jerry Gleason?"

"Alright, never mind the `whom' thing right now. You didn't know Carrie came out of the closet? Geez, I thought everyone knew. It's been over the school for weeks now. She never went out with Jerry, but they were always quite chummy together. So you're turning down a date with your girlfriend to do a project with some lesbian newbie???"

Ouch, that hurt baby.

"Don't put it that way Kelly. It's for school, that's it. I swear on my father's grave." I was dead serious. Even though I found Carrie attractive, I wouldn't do that to Kelly, but lately, it's just felt like Kelly was trying to find a reason to push me away and start a fight between us.

"Ok, Ok. I believe you. Now I really have to go, call me later, k?"

"You know it."

"Bye."

"Later."

Well, that conversation didn't go as badly as I thought it would have. I still can't believe that Carrie was gay. Her parents are the social elites of Buffalo. I don't know much about Carrie, but I do know that her parents were never satisfied and would stop at nothing to get what they wanted for their daughters. Psycho parents if you ask me. I heard that last year during a game her dad punched a ref for calling a foul on Danielle. But word is that he served his time and his temper is under control now. Let's hope so.

Now I have to make up some fake project for Carrie and I to work on because there's no way my mom would understand.

"Hey honey, how was school and practice today?" She asked as she sat down at the island to check the mail and look over the paper before throwing it in the recycling bin.

"School was ok and practice was cancelled."

"Oh, how come?" Her eyes and focus of concentration weren't on me, as usual. She was reading some ridiculous bill probably.

"Well because of the heavy amount of rain today and the expected rain tomorrow, the meet was cancelled and he thought we needed a break."

"That's good then. Do you have any homework this weekend?" She still didn't even look up. God I hated it when she acted like my life wasn't important to her. I still didn't blow my cool, I knew better than to blow up at Mom.

"Well, I finished just about all of it, except for a project for German."

"Oh, what do you have to do for it?" She was finally giving me more attention then today's mail, finally.

"We have to write a 2-3 page paper about something that's going on here in Buffalo and relate it to German culture."

"That sounds interesting dear. Who's your partner and what are you guys doing?"

"Well," I began. Oh geez Madison, think of something! Quick!! "Carrie and I are doing our paper on…cuisine." Wow, what a lame topic.

"Carrie Blackstone?"

"Yeah Mom, why do you ask?"

"No reason, just wondering. Well, when you see her could you ask her to stop by my office tomorrow morning before her skate competition thingy?" Huh!? Why would Carrie have to see my mom? She's a heart specialist.

"Yeah, sure. Wait. How do you know Carrie's a skater?"

"Well Maddy, I do like to know what my patients do in their spare time."

"She's your patient? What's wrong with her?"

"Oh well, I don't think I'm really at liberty to say, no offense, doctor/patient confidentiality. But she really needs to stop by my office tomorrow morning. You can tell her that I'll be in around 9."

"Alright Mom. Do you want vegetable stir-fry or spaghetti?"

"Actually, you're off the hook tonight. Katie asked me out to dinner and I agreed. I didn't think you'd be too disappointed. Why don't you call Kelly or Grace and James and see if they want to come over and order a pizza and watch a movie or something, my treat." Wow, it amazed me how Katie could put Mom in such a good mood.

"Well, Kelly's busy tonight and Grace & James are in the city for the weekend for some volunteer thing."

"Oh, now I feel really bad. If you'd like, I could call Katie and cancel, I'm sure she'd understand."

"No, no, it's alright. I'll manage. You go have fun."

"Alright, thanks Maddy. Here's some money just in case you decide to do something."

"Ok, thanks."

"Well, I better go get ready. Thanks for understanding sweetie."

Great, I get to spend my first non-hectic Friday night, alone. Just great. Wait, maybe Carrie still wanted to hang out or something. It's worth a shot…

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