Fabulous Five 022 - Melanie's Valentine (7 page)

The rest of the day, every time Melanie saw Scott in the
halls, her knees got wobbly. How could you let yourself get into such a mess in
the first place? she asked herself over and over again.

When the dismissal bell rang at the end of the day, she
slowly headed for the lockers, feeling like a condemned prisoner going to her
execution.

If she had been any slower, she would have missed him. Scott
was slamming his locker and twirling the combination lock when she walked up.

Melanie took a deep breath. "Scott, can I talk to you a
minute?" she said. Her voice sounded thin and whispery, and she had
trouble making the words come out.

"Sure," he said.

He was obviously glad to see her, which made what she was
about to do all the more awful. He's going to be so hurt, she thought, cringing
inside.

Melanie looked around the hall as if help might be standing
nearby. Instead, the crowd was thinning as kids closed their lockers and left
Wakeman for the day. By the time she turned to speak to Scott, they were almost
alone.

"I really need to talk to you," she began. "Do
you remember this morning when you asked me to go to the Valentine party with
you, and I said I'd love to?"

"Of course," he said, looking confused. "What
about it?"

"Well," she said, and then hesitated, swallowing. "The
bell rang before I could finish what I was saying."

Scott narrowed his eyes. "And?"

"And . . . the truth is . . ." she looked at him
with pleading eyes, "I'd really love to go to the party with you, like I
said, but I have this
problem.
I already have a date with Shane."

Scott didn't say anything for a moment. He stared at the
floor as if deep in thought, and then he raked his fingers through his hair.
Melanie's heart was pounding. What was he thinking? Was he angry at her?

Finally he looked at her again, fixing her with solemn eyes.
"Well, if it's a problem, why don't you just tell Shane that you don't
want to go with him?"

His words startled her, and she knew she must have a strange
look on her face. "But . . . I . . ." she fumbled.

"I mean, he must know about you and me and how long we've
been going out together. Doesn't he?" Scott asked.

Melanie nodded mutely. She was totally flabbergasted. How
could he have misunderstood her so badly?

"So it won't come as any big shock to him or anything,"
Scott went on.

"You mean break my date with Shane?" she
whispered.

"Of course," said Scott. "I mean, you were
the one who said it was a problem. There's no reason you
have
to go with
a guy who's a problem. Not when you want to go with me and I want to go with
you."

Melanie stared blankly at Scott. She felt as if she were
drowning in quicksand.

Just then there was the clatter of footsteps in the empty
hallway, and Bill Soliday popped around the corner. "Hey, Daly. Come on.
The guys are waiting," he yelled, jerking his head in a motion for Scott
to follow. "Oh, hi, Melanie," he added, and grinned.

"Yeah, I'm coming," called Scott. Then he turned
back to Melanie. "Don't forget. Just tell him. And if you lose your nerve,
I'll tell him for you."

Scott was gone in a flash, and Melanie stared at the spot
where he had been standing.

"Scott Daly, why don't you ever stay in one place long
enough to hear the whole story?" she cried angrily, knowing he was too far
away to hear. "Why don't you let me explain . . . or something . . ."
Her words broke off as tears of frustration filled her throat.

Melanie went to her own locker and got out her
peach-and-white jacket. It seemed more like days than hours since she had
pulled the jacket out of her closet, hoping to look especially nice when she
accidentally
met Shane at the corner before school. So much had happened since then that the
mere thought of all of it made her head spin.

She shivered as she stepped out into the cold, even though
she had put on her hat, gloves, and scarf. As she hurried down the sidewalk
away from the school building, she thought she heard someone call her name.
Turning toward the bike rack, she saw Shane, and he was waving her over.

"Hey, Mel. I'm not going to be able to go to Bumpers
after all," he said, motioning toward his crippled bike. "I totally
forgot about this flat."

"That's okay," she replied. "I probably
should go on home, anyway. Big test in math in a couple of days."

They said good-bye, and she headed for home, feeling terribly
depressed. What was she going to say to Scott now? She had put her foot in her
mouth twice. If she leveled with him after all that had happened, he not only
would never believe another word she said, but would probably hate her, as
well. And even if she got everything straightened out, she would have a hard
time having fun at the Valentine party after all the trouble she had caused.

Why had Mr. Matson decided to have a Valentine party,
anyway? she wondered as she turned for home. If he hadn't, none of this would
have happened.

Grandma Dee must have been watching out the window, because
as soon as Melanie started up the back steps, her grandmother threw open the
door.

"I'm so glad you're home," chirped Grandma Dee. "Wait
until you hear what I have planned for all of us after supper."

Melanie's shoulders sagged as she sighed and looked at her
grandmother. What now? she thought.

"We're going ice skating in the park!" With that,
Grandma Dee began gliding around the kitchen floor as if she were skimming across
the ice. "Won't it be fun? I went through the box of old skates in the
basement and found a pair that fits me perfectly. Your mother says that the
rest of you have good skates, so we're all set."

She looked so proud of herself that for an instant Melanie
almost let herself get excited, too. Skating on the pond in the park on a
winter night was always fun, and there were usually lots of families there with
kids she knew. There would be a warming fire on the bank, and her mother would
bring a big thermos of hot chocolate. But still, she thought, and sighed, she
needed the time to work on her problem. And she really did have homework.

"Gosh, Grandma Dee, I'd love to go," she said
apologetically. "But this is a school night, and I have a big math test in
a couple of days."

Her grandmother's face fell. "Can't you get away for a
little while?" she asked. "We won't be out late. I want to show you
some tricks on the ice."

Melanie shook her head. "Afraid not. I'll go with you
some other time. And I'll bet you're a terrific skater."

Grandma Dee's eyes twinkled. "Debbie Thomas and
Caterina Witt
—look out!
"

After supper her parents bundled up Jeffy, and then everyone
except Melanie piled into the teen taxi and headed for the park. As Melanie
watched the van pull out of the driveway, a lump the size of a snowball crowded
her throat. She felt so lonely. Perhaps staying home to work out her problem
hadn't been such a good idea after all.

Just then she heard a soft whimper, and she looked down to
see Rainbow sitting at her feet.

"Oh, Rainbow, you're just the person I need to talk to,"
she said, kneeling and stroking the dog's soft head. "If only you could
really help."

Rainbow looked up at her with sympathetic eyes and then
trotted along behind her all the way back to her room. Melanie stretched out on
her carpet, and Rainbow snuggled up beside her. They lay there quietly for a
while, and then Melanie said, "I just don't know what I'm going to do,
Rainbow. I'm trying so hard not to hurt Scott, but everything I do just makes things
worse."

Rainbow rested her chin on Melanie's outstretched arm and
blinked her understanding.

"And I
can't
break my date with Shane just to
keep from telling Scott that I don't want to go out with him anymore."

A sudden noise caught her attention. It was the garage door
opening.

"They're back?" Melanie whispered in amazement. "They
just left a little while ago."

Rainbow's ears had perked up, too, and she scrambled to her
feet and hurried down the stairs, barking a happy greeting. Melanie followed
close behind. She couldn't imagine why her family had come back from skating so
soon. They had scarcely had time to put on their skates and go once around the
pond.

Jeffy was the first one into the kitchen from the garage.
His face was red, and he looked as if he was about to cry.

"Mellie! Mellie!" he cried. "Grandma Dee fell
down!"

The next instant Mr. and Mrs. Edwards came sideways through
the door, forming a pair of human crutches for Grandma Dee, who was limping
along between them. The ski cap with the pom-pom on top that she had borrowed
from Melanie was askew, and the twinkle was definitely gone from her eyes.

"What happened?" cried Melanie. "Grandma Dee,
are you hurt?"

No one said anything for a moment as Melanie's parents
helped Grandma Dee into the family room and lowered her onto the sofa. Then
Mrs. Edwards shook her head and said, "She took a hard fall almost as soon
as she stood up on her skates."

"I'm okay," said Grandma Dee, waving a hand as if
to dismiss it all as a lot of nonsense. "I just twisted my ankle, that's
all. Thank goodness I didn't break my sunglasses." She pulled off the ski
cap to reveal her sunglasses with the earpieces firmly stuck in her hair. "It's
been a while since I've been on ice skates, you know. In Florida we don't do
much ice skating."

Mr. Edwards shook his head as he knelt beside his mother and
began examining her ankle while Melanie's mother got ice and a towel. After a
moment her father pulled a footstool under Grandma Dee's ankle, sighed, and
said, "Well, it just seems to be sprained. We can be thankful for that."

"But you'll have to keep ice on it and keep it elevated
for a while," warned Mrs. Edwards.

Melanie felt a flood of relief. "Here, Grandma Dee. I'll
fix the ice pack for you," she said, rushing to her grandmother's side. "Don't
worry. You'll be up and around in no time."

"You bet I will," Grandma Dee said with
determination. Giving Melanie a big wink, she added, "You don't think I'm
going to let a little thing like a sprained ankle keep me away from the
Valentine party, do you?"

Melanie avoided both Scott and Shane at school the next day.
It wasn't easy. She got to school just as the first bell was ringing so that
she wouldn't have to talk to either of them on the school ground. She turned
about-face in the halls three times to avoid bumping into Scott twice and Shane
once. She ducked into an eighth-grade social studies classroom between second
and third periods when she saw Scott just ahead at the drinking fountain. By
lunchtime, when she met her friends in the cafeteria, she was frazzled.

"Melanie, you jerk, you're going to lose both of them
if you don't fix things—and fix them fast," chided Katie. She was smiling,
but Melanie knew from the look in her eyes that she wasn't joking.

Melanie sighed with exasperation. "Okay," she
said, "if you're so smart, tell me what to say to Scott." She dug
into her backpack and pulled out a pencil and a scrap of paper and posed as if
she were ready to write. "Go ahead," she urged. "I'm ready."

"Get real, Mel. You have to say it in your own words,"
said Katie.

"She's right, you know," said Christie, and the
others nodded.

Melanie knew Katie was right. But couldn't they understand
how she felt about hurting Scott? There was no use talking to them about it
anymore. She would just have to do it her own way.

When she got home after school, she found Grandma Dee on the
family room sofa, with her foot propped up on the footstool again. Crossword
puzzles and magazines were scattered around her, and the television was tuned
to a game show, but it was obvious to Melanie that her grandmother was bored
out of her mind. The least I can do is keep her company for a while, she
thought.

"Hi, Grandma Dee," Melanie called out as she
dumped her books and hung up her coat. "I'll come in and have my
after-school snack with you. Do you want some, too?"

"You bet!" said Grandma Dee, beaming at Melanie. "Doing
nothing has given me a terrific appetite."

Melanie giggled. Grandma Dee was really something. She
hurried to the kitchen and poured two glasses of milk and dug two chocolate
brownies out of the cookie jar. She put each brownie on a paper napkin and
carried all of it into the family room.

"Here you are, Grandma. Chow down."

After they finished their snacks, Melanie inquired about her
grandmother's day. It had been exactly as Melanie suspected. Bor-RING!

"I've had lots of time to think about things, though,"
Grandma Dee admitted, "and I started wondering if you have a date for the
Valentine party. Have you talked to that nice Scott Daly yet?"

Melanie cringed. That was a question she didn't want to
answer. Maybe if she just tried to blow it off, her grandmother would be
satisfied and let the subject go.

"Yeah, I've talked to Scott," she admitted,
casually picking up brownie crumbs from her lap and dropping them into her
napkin. "And to another boy, too. I haven't decided whom I'm going with
yet."

"Do you mean that you'd actually consider going with
someone other than Scott?" Grandma Dee asked crisply. She leaned forward
and looked straight into Melanie's eyes as if the idea were simply too bizarre
to comprehend.

"Grandma, there are a lot of nice boys out there,"
insisted Melanie. "Scott's just the only one you've really met so far."

"Well, I've met the boy with the lizard," grumped
Grandma Dee.

Melanie looked up at the ceiling, praying silently for
patience. "That's Shane Arrington, Grandma Dee, and he's a very nice boy.
In fact, he just might be the nicest boy in Wakeman Junior High."

Grandma Dee didn't reply. She simply folded her arms across
her chest and sat back against the sofa.

Melanie saw her opportunity and went on talking about Shane,
almost tripping over her words in her hurry to convince her grandmother of
Shane's worth.

"I know Mom and Dad told you that his parents used to
be hippies, and you probably think he's some kind of weirdo since he has a pet
iguana, but he's not. And he's not like his parents, either. Not that there's
anything wrong with them. He's just himself, that's all. And he's friendly, and
nice, and cute, and . . ."

She could see that she was getting nowhere with her
grandmother. Frustration bubbled up inside her. Why did Grandma Dee have to
dislike Shane? Why couldn't she mind her own business and stay out of things
like a normal grandmother? Her mother's words echoed in her mind.
Remember,
dear, she doesn't mean any harm. She just wants to be involved.

Well, she
is
causing harm, Melanie thought
stubbornly, terrible harm to my social life. Why doesn't she get involved with
Jeffy? But then she remembered that her mother had also said that Grandma Dee's
children had all been boys and that Melanie was her first granddaughter.

Melanie bit her lower lip and thought that over. Okay, she
decided. So she wants to be involved. It's up to me to think of some other part
of my life for her to be involved in so that she'll leave my love life alone.
She needs something else to think about besides Scott and Shane.

"Grandma Dee," she said slowly as an idea started
to form. "You were pretty good in school, weren't you?"

"Oh, my, yes," said her grandmother, brightening
up again. "Why, I made all A's."

"Terrific," said Melanie. "Could you do me a
favor and help me with some math problems?"

Grandma Dee looked startled. "Well," she began, "I
suppose these days they do math a lot differently than we did in my day."

"Oh, it's just simple algebra," Melanie assured
her. "The same old stuff. It's just that with all the excitement around
here last night, I didn't get much studying done. Now I have homework
and
a test to study for tonight, and I can't do both. It would really help a lot if
I could leave my problems down here with you. It wouldn't be cheating, since I
know how to do them. I just don't have time."

Grandma Dee shrugged. "I guess I could try. If it would
help."

"Oh, it would save my life," said Melanie as
dramatically as she could. "You don't know how much it would mean to me."

"It's settled then. I'll do it," said Grandma Dee.
Melanie pulled out an old problem sheet from her notebook and handed it to her
grandmother with a couple of pencils, and some paper. She'd done this
assignment weeks ago, but Grandma Dee didn't have to know that. It would keep
her busy and feeling involved.

"Thanks a million, Grandma Dee," said Melanie. "After
supper, I'll study for my test, and you can do homework."

As soon as the supper dishes were cleared, Melanie excused
herself to study. She headed upstairs, and Grandma Dee waved the problem sheet
at Melanie and then gave her a victory sign.

Melanie was feeling a lot better about Grandma Dee as she
closed the door to her room. All it had taken was a little thought. If only my
other problem could be handled so easily, she thought.

With a sigh she opened her notebook to the math section and
tried to study her notes. She had heard that the math test was going to be a
killer, so she had no choice but to study. She shuffled through the pages.
Something was missing. The classwork they had done today.

Uh-oh, she thought. It must have been mixed in with the
stuff I gave Grandma Dee. At this rate, I'll never get ready for the test, she
thought in exasperation as she jumped up from her desk and went racing down the
stairs.

Melanie started to enter the family room and then stopped at
the door. Blinking, she stared at her grandmother, trying to understand.
Grandma Dee was bent over the problem sheet, working the math homework in the
light from the table lamp, all right, just as Melanie had expected. But it was
her sunglasses that caught Melanie's attention. They weren't stuck on the top
of her head anymore. Grandma Dee was using them to read!