by Betsy Haynes
"Yeah, Melanie. You're pretty lucky," said Jana.
"Hi, Dee! Hi, Dee!" sang a chorus of voices.
When Melanie glanced around, she saw that Dekeisha, Alexis, and two or three other girls who had been in Bumpers on Saturday were passing the table on their way to the tray return.
"Hi, girls. How are you doing?" Grandma Dee called in response. "What a nice school," she said to Melanie and her friends when the others had gone on past. "Everyone is so friendly."
Melanie smiled weakly and took a bite of her tuna salad sandwich. So far, so good, she thought, but she couldn't help feeling nervous about what her grandmother might do.
To Melanie's relief, they finished lunch without incident. Grandma Dee entertained The Fabulous Five with stories about her trip to the Daytona 500 automobile race in Florida the year before and some of the handsome race car drivers she had met.
"I'll have to miss the race this year because it's always held in February," she told them. "But that's okay with me. I'd rather be here."
Melanie sighed, wondering if her grandmother ever ran out of stories about her adventures. So far, in addition to parasailing, she had told everyone about scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, and, now, going to the Daytona 500. At least she didn't race one of the cars, Melanie mused.
Suddenly she felt a nudge in the ribs. "Look," her grandmother whispered, pointing across the cafeteria. "There's that nice Scott Daly over there. I'm going to see if I can catch his attention."
To Melanie's horror, Grandma Dee stood up and began waving in Scott's direction.
CHAPTER 8
"Oh, Dee! There's someone I'd like for you to meet," Jana shouted before Melanie's grandmother could call to Scott. Jana quickly turned and flagged down Funny Hawthorne, who was crossing the cafeteria toward the tray return.
Melanie nearly collapsed with relief. "Thank you, Jana," she murmured under her breath.
"Oh, hi, Jana," said Funny. "What's up?" Funny was in her usual sunny mood, and her smile lit up the table.
"This is Melanie's grandmother," said Jana.
"Just call me Dee," Grandma Dee interjected. "I'm glad to meet you. Put your tray down for a minute and tell me how you got the name Funny."
Funny giggled. "Oh, it's just a nickname. My name's really Karen Janelle, but I was a pretty happy baby, so my parents started calling me Funny. I guess it just stuck."
Grandma Dee clasped her hands in delight. "That's wonderful," she said. "Sit down and tell me more about yourself."
"I'd love to," said Funny, "but I have to go. Laura and the others are waiting for me by the door. It was nice meeting you, Dee. Bye."
Melanie glanced toward the swinging doors leading out of the cafeteria. Laura McCall's face was a storm cloud as she and Tammy Lucero and Melissa McConnell watched Funny leave The Fabulous Five's table.
"Uh-oh. Funny's in trouble now," Melanie mumbled.
"Gosh. I hope not," said Jana. "But you're probably right. I didn't mean to get Funny in trouble."
Grandma Dee's ears perked up at the word trouble.
"What's going on?" she asked. "I saw that girl with the long braid giving all of us dirty looks. Who is she, anyway?"
"That's Laura McCall," said Melanie. "She's the leader of a clique called The Fantastic Foursome. They hate The Fabulous Five. I think they're probably just jealous," she added with a toss of her reddish-brown hair.
"To make matters worse, Funny is a member of The Fantastic Foursome, and she and I got to be friends at the beginning of school," Jana explained. "Laura's never gotten over it."
"Poor Funny," added Christie. "The rumor is that Laura makes the girls do what she tells them, or else they can't stay in her club."
"That's right," said Katie. "She can make their lives miserable."
"What!" exclaimed Grandma Dee, raising her eyebrows in alarm. "That's terrible. She'd better not do anything to Funny, or she'll have me to answer to."
"It's okay, Grandma," Melanie insisted. "Funny can handle it. She's been friends with Laura for a long time."
"What in the world for?" Grandma Dee asked indignantly. "I can't see any reason why she would want to stay friends with someone like that when there are nice girls like you five to be friends with. Where did she go? I'm going to have a talk with her."
Grandma Dee rose dramatically from the table, standing up so quickly that the sunglasses on top of her head bounced. She frowned toward the door, but Funny, Laura, and the rest of The Fantastic Foursome were already gone.
"It's okay, Grandma," Melanie said again. "Honest. Funny likes Laura, or she wouldn't stay friends with her. After all, nobody's perfect."
"Humph," said Grandma Dee. She sat back down, but she kept her eye on the door, and Melanie had a feeling that she had better keep her grandmother from bumping into either Funny Hawthorne or Laura McCall in the halls this afternoon, or there really would be trouble.
When the bell rang ending lunch period, Melanie and her grandmother headed for biology class. Usually Melanie couldn't wait to get to biology. Shane not only was in her class, he was her lab partner, and they always had lots of fun.
But today, with Grandma Dee beside her, Melanie felt her palms sweating as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. What if Grandma Dee said something horribly embarrassing to him about his bringing Igor to Bumpers? And what if Shane got really mad about it and never asked Melanie out again?
Shane saw Melanie and her grandmother come into the room, and he gave them a friendly wave and headed in their direction.
"Hi," he said, directing his greeting to Grandma Dee. "Welcome to Dracula's castle."
Grandma Dee's eyebrows shot up in alarm.
"There's Dracula over there," he said, pointing to Mr. Dracovitch. As usual, the tall, pale science teacher was wearing the shiny black toupee that inspired his nickname.
Grandma Dee glanced his way, and her look of concern deepened.
Melanie bit her lower lip. What was Shane up to, anyway? She didn't like the way this was going. Her grandmother obviously wasn't the least bit impressed with his calling Mr. Dracovitch "Dracula." In fact, she was quieter than she had been ever since she arrived for the visit. Melanie was sorry now that she had made such a big deal to Shane about Grandma Dee's being cool.
But Shane was on a roll. He glanced around as if to be sure no one was listening and then went on, "You should have been here when we dissected cows' eyeballs."
Grandma Dee gasped, but Shane didn't give her time to speak.
"That's right. Cows' eyeballs." Shane rubbed his hands together, completely ignoring Melanie, who was making frantic signs behind her grandmother's back for him to stop.
"You see, I think old Dracula sneaked into a farmer's pasture by the full moon. Then he sucked all the blood out of the cows and popped out their eyeballs."
Shane made a popping sound with his mouth, and Grandma Dee jumped three inches off the floor.
"Young man!" she roared. "I don't know what is wrong with you, but I'm certainly not impressed. First you bring that disgusting lizard into Bumpers, and now you try to scare the daylights out of me with some grisly story about a vampire teacher and cows' eyeballs!"
Shane seemed to shrink under Grandma Dee's angry words.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," he said in a soft voice. "I was just making jokes. Melanie said you were really cool, and I thought . . ."
His voice trailed off, and he gave Melanie a helpless shrug. It was the first time in her life that she had seen Shane at a loss for words.
"It's okay, Grandma. Honest," she said hastily. "Everybody calls Mr. Dracovitch 'Dracula,' and we really did dissect cows' eyeballs. Shane thought you'd think it was funny, didn't you, Shane?"
"Yeah," he mumbled, still looking totally embarrassed. "I guess I was wrong, though."
Grandma Dee took a deep breath and looked sternly around the biology lab. Most of the kids were in the room now, and some had even stopped to see what was going on.
"Well, I think I've seen enough
of Wacko Junior High for one day," she grumped. "I think I'll go on home now, Melanie. Good-bye, dear."
"Bye, Grandma Dee," Melanie whispered.
As her grandmother left the room, Shane touched Melanie on the shoulder. "Gosh, Melanie. I'm really sorry," he said. "I wanted to make a good impression on her, but I guess I got carried away with my jokes. I don't suppose she'll ever like me now."
Melanie smiled sympathetically, but in the back of her mind she was thinking exactly the same thing.
CHAPTER 9
"But everybody likes Shane," argued Beth.
"Not my grandmother," Melanie assured her. The Fabulous Five were in Bumpers after school, and Melanie had just finished telling her friends about the disaster in the biology classroom when Shane's jokes had backfired.
"But your grandmother seems so with it," said Katie.
Melanie shrugged. "Sometimes she is, and sometimes she definitely is not. I mean, you've seen how sometimes she's practically one of us, joking and laughing and talking about her big adventures. Then, all of a sudden, some teensie little thing happens, and she turns completely around and acts like a normal grandmother."
Jana nodded. "Yeah. My grandmother wouldn't be impressed with the cows' eyeballs story, either. She hates anything gory or gruesome."
"Right," agreed Christie. "My grandmother would probably think Shane was another Freddie Krueger."
"So what am I supposed to do?" wailed Melanie. "I'll just die if Shane's too chicken to ask me to the Valentine party because of my grandmother."
"I still think you ought to have a talk with her," said Christie. "Explain that things look different than they are. I'll bet she'd understand."
"But what if she didn't?" asked Melanie, poking her straw into the ice in her glass. "What if it only made things worse? I can't take that chance."
"Well, you're going to have to do something," said Jana. "It's less than two weeks until the Valentine party."
"Speaking of the party," said Beth. "Has anybody seen Dekeisha? She wants to get together with us and talk about the decorations."
"There she is," said Katie, pointing toward a green bumper car, where Dekeisha sat talking to Sara Sawyer. Katie caught Dekeisha's eye, and the two girls hurried over to join The Fabulous Five.
"Does anyone have any ideas for decorations?" Dekeisha asked as she scooted into the booth beside Beth. "I hate to do the same old hearts and Cupids routine."
"What's wrong with that?" Melanie asked indignantly. "We want it to be romantic."
Sara made a face at Melanie. "I agree with Dekeisha," she said. "It's okay to be romantic, but let's be original at the same time."
"Maybe we could make it a costume party," offered Melanie. "Couples could come as famous lovers, like Romeo and Juliet or Kermit and Miss Piggy."
"Get real," said Katie. "Do you know how hard it is to get boys to dress up for a costume party? It would end up with nobody here but girls."
Melanie gave Katie a hurt look. "It was just a suggestion."
"And I've got a suggestion for you," whispered Jana. "You'd better become invisible if you don't want to talk to Scott. I think he's headed this way."
Melanie's mind was whirling. What was she going to do? She couldn't talk to Scott. She just couldn't. If he asked her to the Valentine party, she would probably end up saying yes just to keep from hurting his feelings. But then what would Shane think? Besides, Shane was the boy she liked. She wanted to go to the party with him.
"Hi, Mel. Can I talk to you a minute?"
Melanie looked up into Scott's smiling face. "Oh, hi, Scott," she said weakly. "Gosh, I . . ."
"She can't right now," Jana piped up. "We're having a meeting."
Scott made a face. "A meeting? Here in Bumpers? What kind of meeting?"
"Of course," Jana said, sounding as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "We're the decorations committee for the Valentine party, and we have to have this meeting—today."
"Oh," said Scott, and then he shrugged. "Well, I'll talk to you later, Mel. Okay?"
Melanie could only nod because of the lump in her throat, and as soon as he had gone, she clutched Jana's hand and said, "Wow! You've rescued me again! That's the second time today. You're the best friend in the world."
"Yeah, well, I can't keep doing it forever," Jana chided gently. "You're going to have to tell Scott the truth, you know, and the sooner the better."
"I know. I know," Melanie insisted. "I'll think of something."
Scott had gone by the time The Fabulous Five left Bumpers. So had Dekeisha and Sara, and the girls still hadn't agreed on decorations for the Valentine party.
But that was the last thing on Melanie's mind when she reached home. She tiptoed in through the back door, hoping to sneak up to her room without having to see her grandmother.
"Hi, Melanie! Hey, Grandma! Melanie's home!" shouted Jeffy at the top of his lungs. Her little brother was lying on his stomach on the floor, propped up on one elbow over a coloring book. Rainbow was stretched out beside him.
"You little fink," Melanie muttered under her breath.
"Melanie? Is that you?" her mother called. "We're in the family room. Come in and join us."
Melanie groaned and scuffed into the room. "Hi, Mom. Hi, Grandma Dee."
"Hello, sweetheart," said her grandmother. "I was just telling your mother about that dreadful boy and his stories about vampires and cows' eyeballs. I can't help wondering what kind of home he comes from."
"Who was that, dear?" her mother asked. "It doesn't sound like any of your friends."
Melanie gritted her teeth. She couldn't lie.
"It was Shane," she said. "He was just trying to be funny. Actually, it was my fault," she added hastily. "I told him how with it Grandma Dee is, and he just thought . . ." Melanie shrugged helplessly as her voice trailed off.
"Oh," said Mrs. Edwards, nodding her head as if she understood. "I should have thought of Shane." Then chuckling, she said to Melanie's grandmother. "Shane Arrington's parents used to be hippies, and they have a little different view of life. I'm sure Shane got his offbeat sense of humor from them."
"Mom, that's not fair," Melanie protested. "Shane's not a hippie, and he isn't offbeat. He's perfectly normal. Grandma Dee just didn't understand that he was joking, that's all."
"Well, I'm sure everything's going to be just fine, dear," Grandma Dee said soothingly.
Melanie excused herself and stormed off to her room. How could everything be just fine as long as her grandmother disliked Shane and her own parents were prejudiced against him because his parents used to be hippies? It was just one big fat lost cause!
A little while later there was a tap at her bedroom door. "It's me, honey," her mother called. "May I come in?"
"I guess so," Melanie grumped. She was still angry about her mother's attitude toward Shane.
"I want to talk to you about your grandmother," Mrs. Edwards said, sitting down on the edge of Melanie's bed. "I know you're angry with her."
"That's the understatement of the eon," mumbled Melanie. "She's absolutely ruining my social life." She went on to tell her mother how Grandma Dee had embarrassed her in Mr. Bell's office and then again in the cafeteria at noon, wanting to talk Funny out of being friends with Laura McCall. Next she explained how Shane had been trying so hard to make her grandmother like him that he had tried too hard, and Grandma Dee had practically caused a scene in biology class. "I just don't know what she's going to do next," Melanie confessed.
Mrs. Edwards was quiet for a moment. "I think I understand the problem," she said.
"Well, I wish I did," said Melanie.
"It's because she loves you so much," her mother said quietly. "You see, all her children were boys, and you're her first granddaughter. She wants to be with you as much as she can while she's here and be involved in the things you're doing."
When Melanie didn't respond, her mother patted her hand and moved toward the door. "Remember, dear, she doesn't mean any harm
. She just wants to be involved."
Watching the door close behind her mother, Melanie thought, Grandma Dee's not just involved. She's interfering!
CHAPTER 10
Grandma Dee didn't say anything about Shane at supper, and Melanie relaxed a little. But upstairs, as she was doing her homework in her room, a new worry began to grow. Scott. How could she have forgotten that he had said he would talk to her later? Later had to mean one thing. He was going to call her tonight.
Melanie drew little doodles on the notebook page and tried to plan what she would do. Maybe she could ask her parents to say she wasn't home.
"Fat chance," she mumbled under her breath. They would never do a thing like that. They would consider it lying, and besides, they had always insisted that the only way to handle a problem was to face it. But how could she face this one?
If only he would start liking someone else, she thought. Then I wouldn't have to hurt him. The idea had possibilities, but she knew it was just a dream. There was no way she could find someone else for him to like.
What then? Tell him I don't like him anymore? she asked herself for the zillionth time.
Suddenly she heard the phone ring, and panic lifted her straight out of her chair. "Oh, my gosh!" she whispered. "It's him!"
Melanie raced to the door and opened it a crack. She could hear her father saying hello. The bathroom was across the hall from her room, and she made a mad dash into it and closed the door behind herself. She stood there in the dark for a moment, listening to her heart pound. Then she switched on the light and pressed her ear against the door.
"Melanie," she heard her father call from the bottom of the stairs.
She bit her lower lip and waited.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Her father's heavy footsteps were coming up the stairs. Then all was quiet for a moment. He was probably looking in her room.
"Melanie?" he called again. "Where are you, honey? You have a phone call."
"In here," she answered. "Who is it?"
"Scott," said her father.
Melanie swallowed hard. This was it.
"Um. I can't come to the phone right now. Okay?" she said, crossing her fingers behind her back.