Life Lost and Found

13: A Huge Mistake

Friday, July 11

"Madeline! Hey, wake up!"

Madeline woke with a start. "Huh? What the—?" She rubbed her eyes.

Gina, dressed in a sharp, black suit, appraised her with folded arms. "Forgot where you were?"

She blushed. "Possibly."

"It happens. Also, Rob will be here in ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?" Madeline snatched her little clock off the nearby desk. "Ten minutes!"

"Yeah. Sort of thought you'd be up by now."

"I forgot to set my alarm! Oh no no no!" Madeline scrambled out of bed and bounded to her closet. "I can't be late on my first day!"

Judging from her look of restrained impatience, Gina did not disagree. "I'll be riding with you two today, so..."

"Hurry. I got it."

Madeline dressed in a flash, pulling on yesterday's jeans and a black shirt ironically printed with the word pants. She tied back her long, frizzy hair and made a dash for the bathroom, grabbing toothbrush and paste from her backpack along the way. She found Sofie inside, staring blankly at the mirror with a toothbrush hanging slack from her mouth.

"Hi, Sofie. Um, excuse me. Sorry." Madeline carefully maneuvered around the little Austrian, who seemed to be asleep on her feet, and brushed her teeth like a power scrubber. "Bye, Sofie."

Madeline heard a delayed grunt from Sofie in response as she dashed to her bedroom and cast around for her sneakers. "Shoes, shoes, shoes!" Where were they? She tore up her room a little, then remembered taking them off in the living room. She hustled around the corner through the kitchen.

"Morning, Maddy!" Page was standing in the kitchen with her phone propped between her head and shoulder, filing her nails.

"You, too." Madeline slid across the floor on her socks. She found her shoes under the couch, which Megan was lying on, unconscious. She pulled them out carefully and shoved them on, then made for the kitchen again. She paused in front of her cupboard, remembering that she hadn't bought any food yesterday and therefore didn't have anything for breakfast.

Page offered her a box of cereal. Madeline reached for it hungrily but stopped. Starving as she was, she didn't have time.

"No, thanks. I have to hurry. But, really, thank you." She flashed a grateful smile then rushed back to her room and cast around again, not knowing what else she needed to take. She heard a car horn outside and hissed through her teeth. Out of time, she snatched up her backpack. Hopefully, anything else she needed would be in there. As she zipped up the bag, she saw her cup of butterscotch pudding and grabbed it. Perfect!

She almost tore off the lid, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Her hands tingled with the memory of Mark's fingers brushing against her own as he handed it to her. No. She would save it for later.

That decided, she ran. She muttered quick goodbyes to Page and Megan on her way to the already open garage, where she collided with a red convertible that hadn't been there yesterday. Page's car? She saw Gina and the Rob guy in a sporty-looking compact car in the driveway.

She was halfway to the car when she remembered the garage door, turned back, keyed in the code, keyed it in again after messing it up, and closed it.

Finally at the waiting car, she caught her reflection in the rear door window and groaned with despair. Not that she had expected to look Super Great with only ten minutes of prep, but she looked unusually ragged today with her hair unwashed and her shirt wrinkled like a paper sack. Why had it taken her till three o'clock to fall asleep? Stupid brain! She scowled and climbed into the car.