Chapter Seven: Floundering
Maddie's hand floundered on the top shelf. She refused to comprehend the fact that it wasn't there, it just didn't seem possible. She stood on her tiptoes and peeked up at the shelf. On it there lay a nice, neat, folded note. She stared at it in shocked horror. Who found it? Oh, this is horrible! Did that person know what they were doing? Oh, she felt sick to her stomach. She sat down on the spot and cradled her head in her hands. This is beyond bad. She lifted the note and clutched it in her hand.
The note was like one school girls often passed to one another. It wasn't a paper football, rather a crisp, clean, square that was comprised of four inter-locking triangles, so that only two showed. So it was probably a girl. Jazz? It had to be Jazz!
Unbeknownst to Maddie, Danny had gone ghost and slipped through the ceiling for a moment, inspecting her actions, before jerking back up and sitting on his bed. He had a walkie-talkie in his left hand and he pushed the button, ready to use one of his favorite phrases.
"This is Clueless One to Goth One, over!" He still didn't understand why he was 'Clueless One'...
"Clueless One this is Goth One, you got it?" a female voice crackled over the line.
"'The Eagle has landed!' Tell Techno-Geek One 'The Eagle has landed!' over." He loved that quote! He did want to be an astronaut, so it was fitting.
"Roger that!" the female voice was back.
"Clueless One over and out!" he whispered into the walkie-talkie.
"Over and out!" the female voice whispered with static one last time.
Danny set down the walkie-talkie and once more phased through the floor to see if his mom would read the note. He too felt nauseous. It was apparent now that she knew something was up. All that was left to do was wait. He sighed heavily.
Maddie was sitting on the floor, thinking out all of her fear, when she could have sworn she heard static, like from a walkie-talkie. Then, there was a sigh...
She slowly turned her head, inching slowly, slowly... She wasn't worried about burglars or ghosts because all the doors were locked and they had alarms for both. She was looking towards the mirror that hung on the wall, so she could see behind her.
She managed a look in the mirror and for a fleeting second and caught what appeared to be Danny (as Phantom) floating right below the ceiling staring back at the mirror and the reflection of her and himself with wide eyes. Then he must have jerked back up or gone invisible because he was gone faster than she could comprehend. She was a little freaked out at first, but then she calmed herself down. It was still weird...
She looked down at the note in her hand and decided to read it. This might be a set-up...
She pulled apart the triangles and unfolded it the rest of the way, pressing the clean, neat sheet of paper to the floor and smoothing out the folds. The writing was neat print, in black pen. The letters were all uppercase, but the letters that should have been lowercase were smaller.
"Come to the park at Midnight tomorrow night. Don't bring anyone with you, and come unarmed. We need to 'exchange' information."
Maddie snorted at the wording the note. This was definitely a set-up. How dumb did they think she was? But who was the "they" exactly? She still wasn't sure. She suspected Jazz, but then there was the stunt Danny just pulled. Plus, Sam and Tucker were here, and there's always Jack... No, Jack couldn't pull that off. She loved him, but he was just a bit too... too... well, too Jack. "That makes no sense!" She reprimanded herself. "But it does if you know him..." "I should stop arguing with myself..."
Maddie just went to bed. Her head ached, her stomach hurt, and she, for one of the few times in her life, felt just a little scared. Of what, she didn't really know, and that scared her too...
Maddie woke up feeling better, but that couldn't be said for her mental state. She shared the silence gratefully with Jazz that morning, and Jazz respected the silence. Maddie ate toast along with Jazz, even though her stomach hurt. She tried to think of a way to waste the day.
Danny came down the stairs at 11:15 (A.M.). He looked a little skittish, but at least settled down with the right ingredients for cereal. Jazz then went upstairs to work on her thesis, leaving Maddie and Danny alone in the kitchen. Maddie was washing dishes and cleaning things, but was actually focused on observing Danny. He caught her staring once or twice.
"Umm, yeah... Sam, Tuck, and I were planning a Movie Madness Marathon of horror movies at Sam's and it'll probably last past midnight, and I was wondering if I could stay the night over there. Tucker already got the okay from his parents, I just forgot to ask..." he trailed off a bit sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. He still looked skittish under her direct gaze, but he didn't squirm too much.
"Sure thing Sweetie. Remember to bring an overnight bag. Are you gonna go over there right after breakfast?"
"I was planning on it..."
"Okay then..." They might be planning something... Oh well. "Have fun honey!"