Fabulous Five 022 - Melanie's Valentine

THE
FABULOUS FIVE #22

MELANIE'S VALENTINE

BETSY HAYNES

A BANTAM SKYLARK
BOOK®

NEW YORK • TORONTO •
SYDNEY • AUCKLAND

RL 5, 009-012

MELANIE'S VALENTINE

A Bantam Skylark
Book
/ February 1991

Skylark Books is a
registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell
Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and
elsewhere.

All rights
reserved.

Copyright
©
1991 by Betsy Haynes and James Haynes.

Cover art
copyright © 1991 by Andrew Bacha.

No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information
address: Bantam Books.

ISBN 0-553-15845-7

Published
simultaneously in the United States and Canada

Bantam Books are
published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and
the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New
York, New York 10103.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA

CWO      0 9 8 7 6 5 4
3 2 1

"Melanie, honey, let's go over this list. There are
lots of things I want you to be sure to remember while your grandmother's here,"
Mrs. Edwards called from the kitchen just as Melanie headed up the stairs to
her room. "She'll be arriving in the morning, you know."

Melanie stopped in the middle of the stairway, but she didn't
turn around.

"Mo
-om,
" she protested. "I already
know all that stuff. Besides, Shane will be here in less than an hour, and I
haven't even decided what I'm going to wear yet."

"I know how important your big date with Shane is, but
this will just take a moment," her mother said firmly.

Melanie rolled her eyes and trudged back down the stairs.
Sometimes she was sure that either her mother had been born already an adult or
else she had amnesia about being in the seventh grade. Otherwise, she'd
remember what it was like. And she'd understand how important it was to be
going to the varsity basketball game with Shane Arrington, who was the cutest,
the coolest, the most laid-back boy in Wakeman Junior High.

"Now, I want you to remember to keep your stereo turned
low enough so that it doesn't disturb Grandma Dee . . ."

"I know, I know," insisted Melanie, "and don't
hog the bathroom. We've been over all this a hundred times. Why don't you just
give me the list and let me tape it up in the middle of my mirror?"

"Great idea," her mother said brightly, holding
the list out toward her.

Melanie groaned under her breath and took it. Couldn't her
mother tell when she was just kidding?

When she got to her room, Melanie started to toss the list
onto her desk, but her conscience was nagging at her. Instead, she got out her
tape and centered the list in the mirror above her dresser. She knew it would
please her mom if she came into the room and saw it. She hadn't meant to be so
crabby. And she really was glad that Grandma Dee was coming to stay with them
for a while. It was just that this was such an important night.

She had had a crush on Shane Arrington ever since their
first day at Wakeman Junior High. He had always been friendly and sometimes
acted as if he liked her, too. But it wasn't until she'd followed the
instructions in the love test that her cousin from California had sent her that
Shane had liked her enough to ask her out.

Melanie smiled to herself as she remembered how the love
test had almost ended in disaster. She had done everything her cousin had told
her to do to make Shane her one true love. She had handed out copies of the
test to six girls, waited four days, and then drunk a glass of water and
started to say Shane's name, which was supposed to make her romance come true.

But it was just then that that jerk Richie Corrierro had
stuck a rubber frog in her face and yelled, "Kiss me—I'm a prince!"
And instead of saying Shane's name, she had done something absolutely awful.
She had screamed,
"Richie!"
From that instant on, she had been
sure she was doomed to spend the rest of her life dodging Richie Corrierro. But
somehow, even without her saying Shane's name, the love test had worked, and he
had asked her to go to the basketball game tonight.

Melanie sighed and threw herself across her bed to dream
about Shane, but then she bounced straight up again as she caught sight of the
clock on her bedside table.

"Oh, my gosh! He'll be here in half an hour!"

Twenty-nine and a half minutes later, she came tearing back
down the stairs. Shane was here. She had seen his father's ancient orange
Volkswagen Bug with flowers and butterflies painted on the sides sitting in the
driveway beside her mother's red van.

"Mom! Dad! I'm going! I'll be home early!" she
shouted as she grabbed her coat and tried to catch her breath. She opened the
front door just as Shane was raising a fist to knock.

"Oh, hi," she said, suddenly feeling shy.

"Hi," said Shane, giving her an easy smile that
made her knees turn to putty. "Ready to go?"

She nodded, and they climbed into the backseat of the VW
Bug. Mr. Arrington nodded hello from the front seat and backed the car into
traffic, heading for the junior high gym. With his winter coat buttoned up, it
was hard to tell that Shane's father was a former hippie, who still wore mostly
jeans and sweatshirts with hand-painted peace signs on them.

Melanie racked her brain for something to say. It was always
awkward to try to make conversation with a boy in front of one of his parents.

"Did I tell you that my grandma is coming to stay with
us for a while?" she asked over the sputter and chug of the ancient car. "She's
coming tomorrow, and she'll be here at least a month."

"Really? That's nice. Where does she live?" asked Shane,
and Melanie was amazed that he seemed genuinely interested.

"Florida," she said. "But she's not like all
those
retired
people who live in Florida. She's really neat. She does
fun things like waterskiing and scuba diving. Last month she wrote me that she'd
been para-sailing!"

"Hey, she sounds terrific," said Shane. "I
can't wait to meet her."

Melanie swallowed hard.
Shane wanted to meet her
grandmother?
Maybe he
did
know he was her one true love, after all.
Usually boys didn't talk about meeting girls' grandmothers unless they planned
to practically become part of the family.

Just then Shane's father pulled the Bug up to the curb in
front of the gym. Melanie thanked him for the ride as she and Shane got out.

The line to get into the game between the Wakeman Warriors
and the Black Rock Buccaneers was half a block long, but Melanie didn't mind.
Usually she wasn't a show-off, but tonight she was glad that everyone would see
her standing outside the gymnasium with Shane Arrington and know they were on a
date together. It made her tingle with excitement to think how many girls would
like to be in her place.

"Want some popcorn?" Shane asked nonchalantly when
they finally got inside.

"Sure," said Melanie. "The concession stand
looks crowded. I'll wait for you here."

"Hi, Mel!" came a chorus of voices from behind her
as soon as Shane had walked away. Melanie knew before she turned around that
the voices belonged to her friends in The Fabulous Five, and she waved happily
to Jana Morgan, Katie Shannon, and Christie Winchell, noticing that Beth Barry
wasn't with them. The Fabulous Five had been very best friends since elementary
school, and they almost always did everything together.

"Hi, guys!" she sang out. "Come here a
minute." She was bouncing up and down with excitement as her three friends
approached. "Can you believe this! I'm really on a date with Shane!"
she gushed before any of them could say a word. "Doesn't he look handsome?
I can't
believe
this is really happening!"

"Well, I believe it," Christie assured her. "And
so does everybody else. You should have heard some of the girls in the ticket
line. They were so jealous of you that they were about to die."

"Right," said Jana. "You two were just about
the only thing anyone was talking about."

Melanie beamed at her friends. "That's music to my
ears," she said. Then, frowning, she added, "Where's Beth? Didn't she
come to the game tonight?"

"She's working at the concession stand," said
Katie. "It's the Drama Club's turn tonight. She said she could probably
sit with us after the half, though."

Melanie nodded. The school allowed a different club to work
at the refreshment stand during each home game, and the profits from that night's
sales went into that club's treasury.

"Speaking of the concession stand," Katie said in
a confidential voice, "would you look who's waiting on Shane."

Melanie shot a glance toward the stand. The crowd had
thinned enough for her to see into it. Unfortunately, Beth was on the other
side waiting on a customer, because she could see Shane leaning against the
counter and waiting for his order as Laura McCall hurried toward him, giving
him a flirty grin. To Melanie's horror, Shane was grinning back.

"That rat!" Melanie said between clenched teeth. "Shane's
my
date. What does she think she's doing?"

Jana sighed. "Oh, you know Laura."

"Right," said Katie. "She's only happy when
she's making trouble for one of The Fabulous Five."

"
And
trying to steal someone else's boyfriend,"
added Christie. "I don't know why Mr. Levine lets her be in Drama Club
anyway. The Halloween production proved she couldn't act."

Melanie nodded, keeping track of Laura out of the corner of
her eye. "Look at that," she muttered. "Laura's the biggest
flirt in the entire world."

Now Laura was holding out a box of popcorn, but each time
Shane reached for it, she laughed and pulled it away.

"How disgusting," said Katie.

"Uh-oh. Here he comes," whispered Christie.

"See you later, Mel," said Jana as she and the
others turned toward the bleachers.

Melanie watched her friends go as half a dozen emotions
battled it out inside her. This was supposed to be her big date with Shane. The
most fabulous night of her life. So should she let Shane know that she had seen
him flirting with Laura McCall and that she was angry? Or should she just act innocent
and pretend that she hadn't seen a thing? Why did Laura McCall have to spoil
things by waiting on him in the first place? Why couldn't it have been Dekeisha
or one of her own best friends, Beth Barry?

She glanced at him as he sauntered toward her, a box of
popcorn in each hand. He was smiling at her, looking cool as usual, and she
could feel the thumping of her heart grow louder and louder inside her chest.
Surely she had been imagining things. Or had she?

"This place is filling up fast," Shane said. "We'd
better get a seat. I told some of the Riverfield kids that we'd sit with them."

"Riverfield?" Melanie asked in surprise. She and
The Fabulous Five always sat with their friends from Mark Twain Elementary. Of
course, Shane had gone to Riverfield Elementary, but so had Laura McCall and
the rest of The Fantastic Foursome, The Fabulous Five's biggest rivals. Was
Laura why he wanted to sit with that crowd?

"Sure. Why not? Hey, there's Bill Soliday and Tony
Sanchez waving at us. They said they'd save us some seats."

Shane took her arm and steered her in the direction of the
Riverfield section. Melanie looked helplessly toward her friends from Mark
Twain. Katie and Jana had started to wave in her direction, too, but let their
arms fall back to their sides in disappointment when they saw Melanie and Shane
heading up the bleachers toward the other group of kids. Melanie saw Scott Daly
sitting with the Mark Twain kids, too, and looked away quickly before he
spotted her. Scott had been her unofficial boyfriend since sixth grade. She
still liked him, but not as much as she liked Shane.

The first half of the game went quickly, and Melanie almost
forgot about Laura's flirting with Shane. She was glad that it was a varsity
game and she and the other seventh-grade cheerleaders weren't on the floor.
Usually Melanie loved being with the squad, but tonight she had fun yelling for
the team and doing cheers with Shane and the rest of the crowd.

When the buzzer sounded for the half, Shane jumped to his
feet. "Want something to drink?" he asked. "They've got ice
cream, too."

A stab of jealousy went through Melanie as she thought of
Laura at the concession stand, but Shane had been so much fun during the game
that she brushed it aside. "A cola," she answered.

As soon as he was gone, Katie, Christie, and Jana slid
across the bleacher seats to join her.

"We're going down to keep an eye on Laura," said
Christie. "Want to come along?"

"I don't know," said Melanie. "If Shane saw
me, he'd know I was spying."

"No, he wouldn't," insisted Jana. "You could
just say you were going to the girls' room with us to comb your hair."

Melanie made a face. She wasn't sure how convincing that
story would be, especially if Shane caught her standing around watching the
refreshment stand. Still, she was dying to know what Laura would do when Shane
came back for drinks.

"Okay," she said. "But you guys have to help
me out if Shane sees me."

"Hey, we're The Fabulous Five," Katie reminded her
with a wink. "Best friends forever, right?"

Melanie hung behind her friends as they headed toward the
front of the gym. Maybe if Shane looked her way, she could duck behind them.

The refreshment stand was crowded again, but Melanie managed
to spot Shane as he inched his way to the counter.

"Oh, come on, Beth or Dekeisha. Please wait on Shane
before Laura sees him," she pleaded softly.

"Would you look at that!" Katie snorted. "There
goes Laura."

Melanie narrowed her eyes and watched Laura make a beeline
toward Shane. But fortunately, Beth got there ahead of Laura. Melanie and her
friends exchanged glances of relief. Still, she couldn't stand to watch
anymore. "I'm going back to my seat," she mumbled.

"Don't worry. We'll keep an eye on Laura," said
Christie. She gave Melanie a sympathetic look.

How could tonight be turning out so awful? Melanie wondered
as she headed back to the bleachers. Shane is supposed to be my one true love.
So why was he flirting with Laura McCall?

Just then she felt a soft tap on her shoulder. Turning
around, she was surprised to see that it was Scott Daly.

"Hi, Mel," he said. "I didn't know you were
here. Why aren't you sitting with your friends?"

Melanie gulped hard. Apparently Scott hadn't seen her come
in with Shane after all. As far as he knew, she might be here with some girls.
Her mind started whirling. If Shane was her true love, then she wouldn't be
going out with Scott anymore. But Shane was flirting with Laura. Maybe after
tonight he would never ask her out again, and she would be glad that Scott
still liked her.

Melanie crossed her fingers behind her back. "Oh, I'm
sitting with some kids from Riverfield," she said, feeling terrible for
telling only part of the truth.

"Okay . . . Well, I'll see you around," Scott
said.

Melanie breathed a sigh of relief and turned to go up to her
seat when she had the eerie feeling that someone was looking at her. She knew
who it was before she even looked his way. Shane was standing not four feet
away with a drink in each hand and a questioning look on his face.

Oh, no! thought Melanie, trying not to panic. He saw me
talking to Scott. What if he thinks
I
was the one doing the flirting?

Shane's eyes flicked toward Scott, but he didn't say
anything. He just handed Melanie her cola, and they went back to their seats in
silence.

The awkward silence hung between them through the rest of
the game. A hundred times Melanie started to turn to Shane and ask him what was
wrong, but each time she lost her nerve. Instead, she watched him out of the
corner of her eye and prayed that he would say something to her. A couple of
times she thought he was going to. But he didn't.

Was he mad at her for talking to Scott? Or was he sorry he
had come to the game with her instead of Laura? The questions churned in
Melanie's mind. But worse than that was the big ache in her heart.

The Arringtons' Technicolor Volkswagen was waiting by the
curb when they left the gym after the game. Melanie ducked into the backseat
with Shane, and the car sped away.

They rode along in silence for a few blocks, and then Shane
leaned close and whispered to her over the noise of the engine, "I saw you
talking to Scott Daly. He's your old boyfriend, isn't he?"

Melanie was startled. "So, don't accuse me of anything.
I saw
you
flirting with Laura McCall."

"Flirting?" Shane burst out. "I wasn't
flirting
with Laura. But maybe you were flirting with Scott. Is that it?"

"Of course not," Melanie insisted. "Scott and
I are just good friends."

"But you used to go out, didn't you?"

Melanie nodded, but she didn't say anything.

"Well, I've never gone out with Laura. No matter what
you think, I like you."

"You do?" Melanie whispered. She thought her heart
would burst.

"Sure. Laura's okay, but that's all."

Melanie wanted to laugh. She wanted to giggle, and bounce up
and down on the seat, and shout how happy she was. Instead, she smiled at Shane
as sweetly as she could and said, "That's the same way I feel about Scott.
He's okay, but I like you, too."

Shane took her hand. Then he leaned toward her in the dark
backseat and kissed her.