(Two days later)
(Houston, TX)
A very frantic Romero called
Maddie on the phone. "Mami, you gotta watch Entertainment Tonight, OK? I got a
friend whose boyfriend works in editing and he told me that tonight, I should
watch."
"Why?"
"I don't know, he wouldn't tell me!" Romero
exclaimed, beside himself with excitement.
"OK. Where are you?"
"Still in New York. We got that spot on the Today Show! Oh, and I booked
you for Hot Zone for that Thursday. Keep your fingers crossed, honey, I might be
able to get the Movie Awards!"
"You're kidding, right? Romero, tell me
you're kidding! The MTV Movie Awards?"
"The MTV Movie Awards! The guys
at MTV were telling me to bring you by so they could take you to lunch or
something." Romero sounded very much like a proud father.
"What guys?"
"Oh, let me see, Carson was there, Dave Holmes was there, that cute new
guy who does the news, and oh, John Norris was there."
"Oh my God,
Romie, I'm so trippin' over here!"
"You? Madison, John Norris was there,
in the flesh. I just wanted to leap over that table and grab that man and take a
big ole bit outta him! Yo se una buena cosa cuando yo veo y, ay mami, el esta la
mejor!"
Maddie laughed at Romero's candor. The two exchanged witticisms
about the good-looking men of MTV for a few moments, then hung up.
Madison sat in contemplation for a moment before exploding off the couch
into her own version of the Happy Dance.
"I'm gonna be on teevee! I'm
gonna be on teevee!" she sang as her impromptu Cabbage Patch segued into the
Kid-n-Play. She began to do the MC Hammer in circles as she sang her little
ditty. "I'm gonna be on teevee, I'm gonna be on tee--oh!" Maddie stopped
mid-Hammer as her best friend and partner in crime, Wendy, walked into the room.
"Girl, what the hell are you doing?" the petite blonde asked as she
plopped down in one of the two armchairs that bordered the living room.
"Hey, what are you doing in two weeks?" Maddie asked as she danced over
to her friend, doing turns and pirouettes in the spacious room.
"Calm
down, Spazmanian Devil. And I'm working."
"All week?" Maddie asked as
she launched herself into the air into a tour jete.
"Note to self: don't
take Madison to any more ballet classes. Yeah, I gotta work all week, some
people actually have to work every day to pay the bills, imagine that," Wendy
said in her usual sarcastic manner.
"So take off."
"Didn't I
just tell yo bitch ass that I got bills to pay?" Wendy demanded.
"No,
you said some people, not you. Wendy…" Maddie stopped dancing and turned to face
her friend. "I'm going to New York to do the Today Show. You have to come. Say
yes." Maddie lowered her chin, pouted her lips and looked at Wendy out of the
tops of her eyes. "Pleeeeaaasssee? Pretty please with Josh Jackson on top?"
"Damn you," Wendy grinned her consent, "you know I like to be on top."
"Yes! DADDY!" Maddie yelled at the top of her lungs. "Daaaad, where are
you?"
"He's not here, buttmunch," Travis, Maddie's fourteen-year-old
brother, scoffed as he walked into the room.
"Yes, he is, dorkwad, his
car is in the garage."
The three of them walked through the dining room
that was only used for Christmas and Father's Day to the kitchen. Decorated a
cherry yellow and blue, with gingham print everywhere, the kitchen was the hub
of the house. Madison's father, Ron, and her older brother, Paul, were sitting
at the table, a laptop computer between them. The mouth-watering aroma of
lasagna drifted from the oven.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the new
Goddess of Pop," Paul smiled at sarcastically.
"What?"
"Oh yeah,
I forgot to tell you!" Wendy exclaimed. "That's what MTV is calling you now!"
"MTV and VH1 and BET and every other TV station," Travis muttered.
"The Goddess of Pop? What the hell?"
"More like the new poster
girl for jerking off," Travis said.
"Travis." Ron shot his youngest
child a look.
"Oh, you should know, you always lock yourself in the
bathroom with those pinups of Bitchney Spears," Wendy smacked him on the back of
the head.
"Wendy." Ron repeated the look. He treated the girl as if she
was a part of the family.
She practically was. Since they'd met on the
first day of school in ninth grade, the two girls had been thick as thieves.
Their personalities were so similar, it was hard to tell where one girl left off
and the other began. They turned to each other for everything. When the talent
scout had first approached Maddie at the kareoke bar where she'd just won first
place at the Open Mic Nite, it was Wendy who convinced her to at least call
around and check the guy out. Wendy was the one who went with Maddie to the
initial interview with the scouting team; she was there to hold her hand through
her first audition. And she was the first person Maddie called when Jive told
her they wanted to sign her.
"Guess who's gonna be on the Today Show?"
Maddie crowed. "And Hot Zone?"
"Congratulations, punkin!" Ron got up
from the table to hug his oldest daughter.
"Why are we congratulating
Maddie now?" fifteen-year-old Nicole asked as she walked into the room, followed
by her twin, Mike.
"She's gonna be on the Today Show and something
called Hot Zone," Ron told them.
"Hot Zone? With Ananda Lewis? Aw, man,
you gotta take me with you," Mike entreated.
"It's all right with me if
it's all right with Dad," Maddie said as she set the table for dinner.
"Dad? Please, please, please, please?"
"Hey, if he gets to go,
I'm going, too!" Travis pouted.
"Nic, you don't want to go?" Paul asked
as he poured water for everyone.
"No, cause now she has a boyfriend,"
Mike said with disdain.
"He's not my boyfriend, jerkoff!"
"What
is it with you people and talking about jerking off?" Ron wondered aloud. "When
do you have to be there?"
"In two weeks. The Today Show is on Tuesday
and Hot Zone is Thursday."
"All right, let's eat!" Ron announced to his
crew. "So soon? I'd think shows like that would be booked months in advance."
"They are," Wendy said as she helped herself to some salad. "They had
some cancellations, right, Mads?"
"Yeah. Well, the Today Show did. Hot
Zone didn't."
"So who cancelled?" Nicole asked through a mouthful of
garlic mashed potatoes.
"I don't know and I don't really care," Maddie
said.
The meal progressed with all the usual chatter. Ron surveyed his
family as he ate and listened to their banter. Travis was the Ferris Bueller
type of kid; very mischievous, always getting into trouble and always charming
his way out of it. Mike was an older, smoother, more sports-oriented version of
his brother. With jet-black hair, intense blue eyes and pouty lips, Ron had
noticed that both boys got more than their fair share of attention from the
girls.
Nicole took after her father. Her curly blonde hair hung down to
the middle of her back. Her eyes were a lighter shade than her bothers and her
skin was tanner. She was the bossy one of the group, always telling her brothers
what to do. They were like three peas in a pod. Where one went, the other two
were sure to follow. It had been hard on Travis when the twins had moved on to
high school and left him in junior high. This past year, all three of them had
been in high school and Ron had been a very busy man. His main duties were as
chauffeur and cheerleader: baseball games, football games, dance recitals,
sleepovers, trips to Astroworld, the skating rink, the movies…the list was
endless. He was looking forward to the November when the twins would celebrate
their sixteenth birthday.
Wendy Lynn Morsciani was like another daughter
to him. She even had a key to their house. The only daughter of an airline pilot
and a lobbyist, she spent more time at the Morse house than she did her own. He
couldn't ask for a better friend for his daughter. Loyal to a fault, Wendy was
the cautious one who would pull the more spontaneous Maddie back whenever her
ideas got too wild, which happened often.
Maddie…Ron tried not to play
favorites, but if he'd had one, she probably would have been it. She looked
exactly like her mother but her temperament was all him. She was fiercely
independent; she would rarely ask for help with a problem but she had no trouble
giving it. She had taken the Golden Rule and made it her personal motto. But she
could be a bitch when crossed. She wouldn't be the one to start it but she would
definitely finish it.
"Aw, man!" Travis exclaimed, interrupting Wendy's
story of what had happened to her at work that day. "Mike, baseball camp is that
week!"
"Aw, hell," Mike threw the dinner roll he'd just bitten into back
onto his plate. "No Ananda?"
"No Ananda," Travis confirmed glumly.
"Ha ha! I still get to go," Nicole smiled evilly at her brothers. "Oh, I
almost forgot. Maddie, your boyfriend called. He said to tell you that he's at
home right now and that he's gonna call back cause he had to get new numbers for
his house and his cell."
"Y'all are back together?" Paul asked.
"No, we're just friends, Nic is in denial," Maddie said, checking her
watch. "What time does Entertainment Tonight come on?"
Nicole checked
her own watch. "In about three minutes, why? You never watch that kind of
stuff."
"Yeah, well, I do when I'm on it." Maddie pushed her chair back
and stood. "Or something about me. Romie told me to watch."
"You should
have said something earlier so I could have taped it," Ron admonished as they
all stood and made their way to the family room.
"Daddy, you don't have
to tape everything that I'm--hey, where's Maggie?"
"You're kidding,
right?" Paul gaped at Maddie. "You've been home for two days and you barely
noticed that she wasn't here. Talk about self-absorbed."
"Hey, lay off
your sister, she has a lot on her mind. Your step-mom is in Philadelphia for a
conference."
"You guys, be quiet, it's coming on!"
The familiar
jingle played and an attractive woman appeared on the screen.
"Hi and
welcome to Entertainment Tonight! I'm Julie Moran. Our top story of the day:
Madison Morse: Goddess of Pop or Goddess of Love?"
"Aphrodite, move
over! There's a new love goddess on the scene! Maddie Morse may be relatively
new to the music scene, but as ET has found out, she's an old hand when it comes
to l'amour. And she seems to prefer the boy band brand of love. Recently, the
singer attended a benefit dinner for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Our cameras
were on hand as Madison made the rounds. Here, she's chatting with 98 Degrees
member, Drew Lachey. Later, at the after party, our photographers found Madison
dancing with Drew's band mate, Jeff Timmons. And she didn't stop there! Less
than fifteen minutes later, this picture was taken as she talked with Justin
Timberlake of *NSYNC fame…and look at that face! He seems to have joined the
ranks of Maddie admirers everywhere! Here she is with Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey
Fatone, also from *NSYNC. Here our photographers found her dancing in the arms
of ex-boyfriend and LFO member, Brad Fischetti. Has that old flame been
rekindled? We're not sure. Who will win Maddie's heart? No one but Maddie can
say but if this picture is any indication, it won't be Justin Timberlake. Our
sources say that seconds after this picture was taken, Maddie delivered him a
thorough tongue-lashing. Boy, I would have hated to have been in his shoes! She
looks mad! I guess it was Maddie's turn to say 'Bye Bye Bye.' Madison Morse may
be the new Goddess of Pop, but she is without a doubt a boy band magnet!
Saturday Night Live star, Molly Shannon…"