Fabulous Five 022 - Melanie's Valentine by Betsy Haynes Read Free Book Online Page B

she was too nervous to
concentrate.
    All she could think about was Scott. She had had a crush on
him in fifth grade, but he hadn't been interested in her then. Or any other
girls, for that matter. But finally in sixth grade, things had changed, and he'd
started talking to her on the playground at Mark Twain Elementary. Next had
come the rumor that he liked her, and finally they had gone to a movie
together.
    Being Scott's girlfriend had been so much fun, and she had
continued to like him even after she and her class entered Wakeman Junior High.
But then she had met cool, laid-back Shane Arrington. And eighth-grader Garrett
Boldt, the photographer for the yearbook, who sometimes let her be his
assistant. She had even been interested in Derek Travelstead for a while. But
gradually her crush on Shane had grown until she hardly thought about any boy
but him.
    Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the phone
again. "Oh, no!" she whispered. "He's calling back!"
    Melanie zoomed out of her room and into the bathroom,
slamming the door and looking around in a panic.
    "The shower," she mumbled. "I'm taking a
shower."
    Turning on the water full blast, she plastered her ear to
the door again, but the shower was making so much noise behind her that she
couldn't hear a thing outside the bathroom.
    She held her breath and waited until steam fogged the room
and her face disappeared from the mirror. Surely if it had been Scott calling
again, he had hung up by now. She pushed a damp strand of hair out of her eyes
and peered into the hall, feeling like a fugitive.
    All was quiet, but when she crossed the hall to her room,
she found a yellow square of paper stuck to her door with the message "Scott
called again" written on it.
    Melanie breathed a gigantic sigh of relief. She had
escaped—one more time. But how much longer could she keep this up? Forever, she assured herself, if that's how long it would take.
    She started to sit down at her desk again but stopped to
measure the distance from the chair to the door with her eyes. She had been
able to make it to the bathroom without any problems both times the phone had
rung. But why take chances? she thought. She sat down cross-legged on the
floor, her back against the door frame, and listened. There was no use even
trying to do her homework now.
    Melanie looked at her watch. 8:15. Still plenty of time for
Scott to call again. How long had it been since he last called? she wondered.
Ten minutes? Fifteen? She had no idea how long it had been between the first and
second calls.
    "Rats," she mumbled. "If only I'd looked at
my watch then, I'd know when to expect him to try again."
    Suddenly a sound caught her attention, and it wasn't the
ringing of the phone.
    "Come on, Jeffy. Quit dawdling around," her mother
was saying. "It's time for your bath."
    Melanie's eyes bulged in horror. Jeffy couldn't take his
bath now! Where would she hide when Scott called?
    But two sets of footsteps were coming up the stairs, and
Melanie knew she was doomed.
    "Wait till I get my toys," Jeffy shouted, and
scrambled down the hall to his room.
    Melanie listened to her mother hum as she began drawing
Jeffy's bathwater. This could take forever, she thought. If Jeffy took his
plastic dinosaurs into the tub and played sea monsters, he'd turn into a wrinkly
sea creature himself before Mrs. Edwards could drag him out.
    Melanie buried her head in her hands. "What am I going
to do?" she wailed. "Scott's going to call, and I'm going to have to talk to him."
    The minutes ticked by. 8:18. 8:27. 8:32. She could hear
Jeffy splashing happily in the tub, but the phone didn't ring. Maybe Scott had
given up. Maybe she could put off talking to him until at least tomorrow. At
8:33 she stood up and stretched her arms high over her head.
    "RIINGG!" The sound of the phone startled
her so badly that she almost tripped over her feet. She looked around her room
in a panic, but there was no place she could possibly hide.
    "Why, yes, Scott.