Fabulous Five 022 - Melanie's Valentine (6 page)

Melanie stuffed her hands into her pockets and trudged
angrily toward school. The cold wind was biting her nose, but inside she had
reached the boiling point. Grandma Dee was spoiling everything. She was
interfering, plain and simple.

"She may be cool and with it around the other kids,"
Melanie muttered under her breath, "but she's old-fashioned and
overprotective when it comes to me. So what if I didn't eat breakfast or
bundle
up,
as she put it? And so what if I faint in class—which, of course, I won't
do. It's not her problem!"

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she almost didn't
notice the boy near the curb. He was bending over, inspecting the back tire of
his bicycle.

Melanie did a double take. "Shane!"

Shane looked up and gave her a lopsided grin. Then he
straightened up and turned to face her. "It's flat," he said, and
shrugged. "I must have ridden over a nail or a piece of glass."

Melanie didn't say anything for a moment. She was doing a
frantic mental check of her appearance. Nose—red. Hair—windblown and messy. It
wasn't going the way she had planned, but she would have to make the best of
it. At least Shane was here—and they were
alone.

"So, what are you going to do?" she asked.

Shane shrugged and glanced toward the traffic that was
whizzing by. "Walk it the rest of the way to school, I guess," he
said. "There's nothing much I can do until this afternoon after school."

Shane began pushing the wobbly bike down the street, being
careful to stay near the curb, and Melanie fell into step beside him.

"Isn't it awfully cold to be riding a bike in February?"
she asked. She had wanted to add, "so near to Valentine Day," but she
had decided in the nick of time that it would be too obvious.

"It's not much worse than walking," he said, "only
it's faster."

"But isn't the wind colder, too?"

Shane raised an eyebrow and gave her a sideways look. "Not
if you bundle up."

It was all that Melanie could do to keep from bursting out
laughing. That was her grandmother's phrase—bundle up. And here was Shane,
wearing a knit cap pulled over his ears, heavy ski mittens, and his coat collar
turned up around his neck.

"Hey, you're the one who ought to be cold," Shane
went on. "You aren't even wearing gloves."

"Gosh, I guess I forgot to put them on," she
sputtered. In a flash, she whipped her hat and gloves out of her backpack and
put them on. In another instant, she wrapped the scarf around her throat. So
what if she looked like a snowman? Shane was giving her an approving nod.

"That's more like it," he said. "After all,
you wouldn't want to get sick and miss the Valentine party at Bumpers, would
you?"

Melanie's eyes got big, and she almost tripped over her own
feet. What was happening? Was he actually asking her to the party? Or was he
just making conversation? This was the moment she had been praying for. She
couldn't blow it. She had to keep him talking about the party.

"So you heard about it, too?" she asked, trying to
sound casual. "My friends said that Mr. Matson told everyone after the
game Friday night. He even said we kids could decorate Bumpers in a Valentine
theme. Isn't that great?"

"Yeah,'" said Shane. "As long as it isn't too
lovey-dovey-looking and stupid, if you know what I mean."

Melanie nodded, but the lump in her throat was too big to
speak around. She wanted to look at him, but she was afraid to, so she stared
straight ahead.

Neither of them said anything for almost half a block. Then
Shane made a soft sound as if he were clearing his throat. "Did you really
mean what you said about you and Scott just being good friends?"

Melanie's heart nearly jumped out of her chest. "Yes,"
she whispered. "That's all we are now, just good friends."

The pounding in her ears was so loud that she wasn't sure
she would be able to hear Shane if he spoke again.

He didn't say anything for a long, agonizing moment. Finally
he nudged her softly with an elbow and grinned. "Would you like to go to
the Valentine party with me?"

He said the words so quickly that Melanie knew he was trying
to get them out before he lost his nerve.

"Sure," she replied, and gave him her biggest
smile. "I'd really like that."

"Me, too."

For the rest of the way to school, they talked about classes
and tests and the usual school stuff. Melanie tried to carry on the
conversation with half of her brain, while the other half imagined being with
Shane for the Valentine party. The lights would be low. The dance floor would
be crowded with other couples, bumping into them and pushing them closer
together. Maybe he would even kiss her right there. . . .

"Well, I'll see you around." Shane's words cut
into her daydream and brought her back to reality.

They were inside the school ground gates already, and he was
steering his crippled bike toward the bicycle rack and waving to her over his
shoulder. "Right," she called after him. "See you."

As soon as he had gone, Melanie took off running, making a
beeline for the spot by the chain-link fence where The Fabulous Five met before
school every morning. Her four best friends were already there, and she began
jumping up and down and shouting as soon as she reached them.

"He did it! He did it! Shane asked me to the Valentine
party!"

"Oh, Mel. That's wonderful!" cried Jana, grabbing
Melanie and giving her a big hug. "I told you everything would work out."

The others crowded around excitedly, taking turns hugging
her.

"What happened? When did he ask you?" asked Beth.

Melanie told her story, beginning with the three calls from
Scott the night before and her ducking into the bathroom to avoid answering
them.

"I'd love to have been there when you faked throwing
up," said Beth. "I'll bet that was a riot."

Melanie nodded. "The worst part was that Jeffy knew I
was faking. He tried to tell Mom, but she was too busy being sympathetic to me
to pay any attention to him," she admitted. Then she told them about the
disastrous scene with her grandmother at breakfast, ending with missing Shane
at the corner, only to happen upon him again when his bike had a flat.

"That was when he asked me to the Valentine party. It
couldn't have worked out any better if I had planned it that way," Melanie
said in a dreamy voice.

"So, what are you going to do now when Scott asks you
to the party?" asked Christie.

"Just tell him that I already have a date, that's all,"
she said.

"I thought you didn't want to hurt his feelings,"
said Katie.

"I don't," said Melanie. "This way I won't
have to tell him I don't like him anymore. Don't you see? He'll just think I'm
popular."

Katie gave her a skeptical look, but the bell rang before
Melanie could say more. You'll see, Katie Shannon, she thought smugly as she
headed for her locker. Now that Shane has asked me to the party, everything is
going to work out just fine.

To Melanie's horror, Scott Daly was leaning against her
locker, waiting for her. By the time she saw him, it was too late to duck away.
He had seen her first.

"Hi, Mel. Gosh, I'm glad you're here," he said. "When
your mom told me you were sick last night, I was afraid you'd have to miss
school today."

Melanie's heart melted at the worried expression on Scott's
face. His sad eyes were looking at her as if he thought she might have
something terminal. An instant memory popped into her mind. It was the time a
few months ago when she'd had mononucleosis—the kissing disease, or so she had
thought at the time—and how worried she'd been that she might have given it to
him. She remembered also all the terrific times they had had together and how
it had been Scott who had given her her very first kiss.

"Thanks, Scott," she said softly. "I just had
an upset stomach, that's all. I'm fine this morning."

"Great," he said, and a smile spread over his face
like the sun breaking out of the clouds.

Scott stepped aside so that she could open her locker and
get out the books for her morning classes. Even though she was looking into her
locker, she was seeing pictures in her mind of her and Scott holding hands in
the movie, listening to music on her stereo, and doing all the other fun things
they had done together. Melanie glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He
was one of the cutest boys in the seventh grade. Not only that, he
liked
her. A rush of guilt filled her heart. How could she possibly hurt someone as
special as Scott?

When she closed her locker and looked back at him, he was
still smiling.

"Say, Mel. Would you like to go to the Valentine party
at Bumpers with me?" he asked.

Like a runaway elevator, Melanie's stomach dropped toward
her shoes, and there was a funny crackling sound in her ears. The moment she
had been dreading had arrived, and Scott was actually asking her to the party.
She was going to have to turn him down. Maybe he wouldn't just think she was
popular after all. Maybe he would be hurt. Still, she had to do it. There was
no choice. She already had a date with Shane.

She took a deep breath and started to speak, but everything
seemed to be happening in slow motion.

"Gosh . . . Scott . . ." she finally managed to
get out. "I'd . . . love . . . to . . . but . . ."

The rest of her words were drowned out by the bell.

Scott's eyes lit up. "You'd love to! Great! I've got to
go. I'll talk to you later." He whirled around and disappeared in the
crowd of kids slamming their lockers and pushing their way to their homeroom
classes.

"Wait!" Melanie shouted, but it was too late. He
was gone. She looked around helplessly. "But I . . ." she protested,
but no one in the noisy mob of kids racing past heard her. "I didn't mean
. . . Oh, no! What am I going to do
now
?
"

Melanie marched to her homeroom like a zombie. It was too
incredible to be true. She had meant to say,
I'd love to
, but I
already have a date.
But when the bell rang, and the noise in the hall
drowned out all but
I'd love to
, Scott had thought she was saying yes.

She sank into her seat, not even hearing the roll being
called so that Mrs. Clark, her homeroom teacher, had to say her name twice
before she answered, "Here."

She would have to talk to Scott and explain that there had
been a terrible mistake, she decided. And she would have to do it immediately,
before he told anyone that they had a date for the party. It was too awful to
imagine what would happen if
both
Scott and Shane started telling other
kids that they were going to the Valentine party with Melanie.

"But how am I going to do it?" she whispered to
herself as she hurried through the halls to Family Living, her first-period
class. She bit her lower lip and tried to imagine the conversation.
Scott,
when I said I'd love to, I didn't really mean I'd love to go to the party with
you. What I meant was
. . . No, that was all wrong.

She stopped at the drinking fountain and tried again, but
her mind was blank. There's absolutely nothing that will work, she thought.

Scott was already in his seat when she got to Family Living
class. She waved at him and took her seat, glad that she didn't have to talk to
him now. She needed more time. And she definitely needed to talk to the rest of
The Fabulous Five. They always stuck by each other in a crisis, and this
certainly was a crisis.

Just then Shane came sauntering in the door. Melanie's heart
skipped a beat when she saw him. He always looked so cool and sure of himself.
Of course she wanted to go to the party with him instead of Scott. How could
she have forgotten, even for a moment, how terrific he was?

"Hey, Melanie," he whispered as he went by her
desk. "Are you going to Bumpers after school?"

"Sure," she said, aware as she said it that she
hadn't given it a thought until this moment.

"See you there, okay?"

Melanie nodded. She'd be there, all right. Wild horses
couldn't keep her away.

Just as Shane moved away, she suddenly felt someone looking
at her. Glancing up, she locked eyes with Scott. He wasn't smiling now. But he
didn't look angry either. Just puzzled.

Eeeek, thought Melanie. This is getting more complicated by
the minute.

"You did
what
!
" Katie shrieked.

The Fabulous Five were having lunch in the cafeteria, and
Melanie had just explained her latest predicament.

"I didn't mean to," moaned Melanie. "It just
happened, that's all."

Katie shook her head. "I can't understand for the life
of me how you keep getting into these totally weird situations. You've got to
do something. You can't let Scott go on thinking you're going to the party with
him."

"I
know
that," insisted Melanie. "That's
why I'm telling you all this. I need your help figuring out what to do."

"It seems to me that there's only one thing to do,"
said Beth. "You've got to level with him."

"Right," said Christie. "Just explain that
you'd like to go with him but that you already have a date."

"He'll understand," said Jana when Melanie's
expression turned to panic.

Melanie took a deep breath and looked around the table at
each of her friends. "Okay," she said. "I know you're right. It's
going to be hard, but I'll do it. I'll go to his locker after school and talk
to him then. Wish me luck."

The five best friends slapped hands over the center of the
table.

"You can do it, Mel," said Katie.

"Right," chorused Beth and Jana.

Christie touched her arm. "You'll feel better as soon
as it's over."

Melanie smiled weakly. She'd have to feel better, she
thought. Nothing could make her feel worse than she did right now.