Fabulous Five 002 - The Trouble with Flirting (3 page)

Melanie struggled to pay attention in her morning classes,
but her thoughts kept focusing on her boy troubles instead. What was she going
to do? She kept seeing pictures in her mind of Taffy Sinclair flirting with
Garrett. There was only one thing to do.
Flirt.
If Taffy could do it,
now she could do it better.

She got her first chance during lunch period. Stepping into
the cold-drink line, she was amazed to see Shane Arrington standing just in
front of her. She took a deep breath and mentally ran down the list of seven
tips for flirting that she had read in the magazine. 1. Make eye contact. 2. Be
self-confident and friendly. 3. Use positive body language. 4. Give
compliments. But Melanie never got to number five, because just as she was
wondering how she could possibly get up enough nerve to pay a compliment to
Shane, he turned around and looked at her.

"HI!" she said, gazing straight into his eyes and
gMng him her best smile. She couldn't help worrying that her voice had been too
loud or her eyes were bugged out, but it was too late now. She was into it, and
she had to keep going. "That's really a great-looking shirt you're
wearing. I just love plaid."

"You do?" Shane asked, and then he smiled so big
that Melanie felt certain he couldn't have been more pleased if she had
announced that she loved
iguanas.

Her mind was whirling.
Use positive body language.
Stepping
closer to him, she put a hand on his arm just the way the girl in the magazine
picture had done and said, "Doesn't the hot lunch smell gross? I always
bring a sandwich from home. I think they must use ground-up lizard in their
meatloaf." Melanie gasped, suddenly realizing what she had just said. "I
didn't mean iguanas," she sputtered. "Honest! I meant things like
crocodiles and alligators. They're lizards, aren't they?"

Shane was laughing and nodding his head at the same time. "Actually,
alligator meat is supposed to be pretty tasty. You can get it in restaurants in
places like Florida and New Orleans. It's stuff made out of iguana that you
have to watch out for. YUK!" Then his face got serious and he added, "You
don't have an iguana sandwich in that lunch bag, do you?"

"Nope. Just plain old peanut butter and jelly."
She tried to match his serious expression, which she knew was fake, but her
mouth kept slipping into a grin.

By now the line had moved forward, and Shane was paying for
his milk. As he started to walk away, he turned and smiled at her again. "Your
name is Melody, isn't it?"

"Melanie," she corrected. "You were close."

"Okay, Melanie. See you later."

It had worked!
She wanted to jump up and down and
shout the good news to everyone in the cafeteria, but of course, she didn't.
Instead she bought a carton of chocolate milk and drifted over to the table
where the rest of The Fabulous Five had already gathered and sat down, feeling
too dreamy and romantic to eat.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Katie.

"I just had a super conversation with Shane Arrington,"
she said. "All about crocodiles, alligator meat, and iguanas."

"Sounds dMne," said Beth, crossing her eyes and
making a silly face.

"You would have to have been there to understand,"
Melanie sniffed. Then breaking into a grin, she said, "I actually flirted
with him and he flirted back."

Melanie scanned the crowded cafeteria, trying to catch sight
of Scott. She was on a roll now, and she didn't want to stop. Even though she
was still semi-angry with him. Unfortunately, she would have to wait to flirt
with Garrett because he ate lunch next period with the eighth-graders.

She finally found Scott at the end of the hot-lunch line. He
was talking to Tony Sanchez and Bill Soliday, two seventh-grade football
players who had gone to Copper Beach Elementary. Not only that, but Laura
McCall and Tammy Lucero were only a little way ahead of him in line, and both
girls kept turning around and looking at the boys. That could spell trouble,
Melanie thought. Gulping down her chocolate milk and stuffing her unopened
lunch bag under her bulky sweater, she jumped to her feet.

"Anybody for hot lunch besides me?" she asked.

Her friends looked up at her in amazement.

"Are you kidding?" said Jana, waving a half-eaten
cream cheese and jelly sandwich in the air. "We never buy hot lunch."

"I thought you brought your lunch today, too,"
said Christie.

"I did," Melanie confessed, "but I suddenly
have a mad craving for mystery meat. See you guys in a few minutes."
Tossing them a smile, she hurried to get in line behind Scott and silently
rehearsed the tips for flirting as she went.

"Hi, Scott," she said sweetly. She opened her eyes
wide and looked directly into his, wishing that she was wearing mascara and eye
shadow to make them more noticeable.

He seemed a little surprised to see her as he shifted his
attention away from Tony and Bill. "Oh, hi, Melanie. How's it going?"

"Super." Frantically she tried to think of a
compliment. "That's really a great-looking shirt you're wearing. I just
love solid colors."

As soon as she said that, she felt foolish. Nobody
loved
solid colors. It had sounded dumb, but Scott was smiling anyway, as if he
thought she had wonderful taste. Flirting was working for a second time! The
idea made her ecstatic.

The end of the hot-lunch line had reached the steam tables,
and Scott was loading his tray with a giant submarine sandwich, fries,
chocolate cake, and milk. She grabbed a tray and skimmed it along beside his,
aware that Laura and Tammy were trying to hear what they were saying. It was
time to try flirting tip #3, use positive body language. She leaned toward
Scott and rested her hand gently on his arm. "I was so impressed with that
great tackle you made in the soap game that I've been telling
everybody
about it."

It wasn't quite the truth, but Scott beamed at her so
brightly that she forgot about feeling guilty.

"Really?" he asked. "I didn't think you liked
football that much."

"It depends on who is playing," she said coyly.

Scott was still smiling at her, and she could feel Laura's
and Tammy's eyes boring holes into her. This was a double whammy—flirting with
Scott and making Laura and Tammy jealous.

Laura and Tammy paid for their lunches and stomped off to
find a table, sticking their noses in the air to let her know how they felt
about her flirting with Scott. He followed Tony and Bill away from the cashier,
leaving Melanie to gaze after him and feel triumphant. This is almost too easy,
she thought with a giggle.

"So, what's the big idea? Are you eating, or what?"
The lady behind the cash register was glaring at her, and it took a few seconds
for her to realize why. She had gone the whole length of the steam tables
without putting a single thing on her tray.

Melanie fought down a wave of embarrassment. How could she
have forgotten to get any food? Glancing around quickly, she saw that Laura and
Tammy were on the other side of the lunchroom and Scott had his back turned.
She was safe.

"Not today," she said, flashing a bright smile.
Then she reached under her sweater and pulled out her lunch bag, plopping it
down on the empty tray. "I brought my lunch." She tilted her chin
triumphantly, and then she picked up her tray and went gliding across the
cafeteria toward her friends, leaving the puzzled cashier staring after her.

After school Melanie joined the crowd of girls shuffling
into the gymnasium for the first meeting of seventh-graders who were interested
in trying out for cheerleader. She looked around, just in case Jana or Beth had
beaten her to the gym and saved her a seat, but they hadn't. The sight of so
many girls competing for the eight positions on the seventh-grade squad made
her more nervous than ever. Taffy Sinclair had managed to get a seat in the
center of the front row, and beside her were Alexis Duvall and Sara Sawyer. In
the second row Laura McCall twirled her long, blond braid and listened to Tammy
Lucero, who was busily pointing out other girls in the bleachers and whispering
to her. They were gossiping again, Melanie thought indignantly. A few rows
higher Mandy McDermott waved when Melanie looked her way. Mandy had gone to
Copper Beach Elementary and had been in the modeling class with her that was
held at Tanninger's Department Store last spring. There were dozens of other
girls sprinkled across the bleachers. Some she knew, but most she didn't.

She sat down in the fourth row and spread books on either
side to save seats for her friends, thinking about how badly she wanted to be a
Wakeman cheerleader. Over and over again she had lain in bed at night, gazing
into the darkness and imagining herself in one of those darling little red pleated
skirts and matching gold letter sweaters jumping around in front of a cheering
crowd and waving her pompoms. And now, she realized, cheerleading would also
put her near the three boys of her dreams. She could see it all. Garrett on the
sidelines taking pictures for the yearbook and maybe even getting her into a
shot or two, and Scott and Shane on the field of battle, inspired to victory by
her enthusiasm and by the excitement she and the other cheerleaders could whip
up among the fans. She had to make the squad, she thought. She simply
had
to.

A moment later Beth stumbled breathlessly through the row
and sank down beside her. It was obvious she had been hurrying. "I waited
around at Jana's locker for ages before I remembered that she won't make this
first cheerleader meeting. The yearbook has its first meeting today, too, and
she and Funny Hawthorne are applying for seventh-grade coeditors."

Melanie nodded. She had forgotten, also. She started to ask
Beth if she thought Miss Wolfe would count the absence against Jana in
competition when the gym teacher strode into the room and held up her hand for
silence. Gitta Wolfe was tall and slim with hair the color of ripe wheat and
with a fun-loving personality. She had moved to America from her native Germany
as a child and pronounced both her own last name and the name of the school as
if they began with
V
's instead of
W
's. What's more, she didn't
seem to mind the occasional giggles that her mispronunciation inspired.

"Good afternoon, ladies," she said with a smile. "As
you know, I am Miss Volfe, and I vill be coaching the seventh-grade
cheerleading squad. At today's meeting I vill explain the categories you'll be
judged on, and also the Vakeman varsity cheerleaders vill demonstrate some of
the cheers and the gymnastic moves that you'll be required to do as members of
the squad. Before you leave, you'll each get a set of mimeographed sheets
containing the cheers so that you may study and practice them before tryouts on
Friday. Any questions?"

Melanie was too awed to ask questions, and so, apparently,
were all of the others since no hands went up.

"Then, good luck to each of you."

For the next hour they watched as the experienced eighth-
and ninth-graders went through intricate routines full of finger snaps, foot
motions, claps, straddle jumps, cartwheels, walk overs, splits, and pyramids,
and all without missing a beat or garbling a word of the cheers.

"Impossible," said Beth as they collected their
mimeographed sheets and filed out of the gym. "We've got to learn all that
plus concentrate on the judging points: pep, execution of routines,
personality, eye contact, personal appearance. What does she think we are,
anyway?"

"Don't forget recovery from mistakes on the list of
judging points," said Melanie. "That's going to be the biggie as far
as I'm concerned. I can tell already."

Grinning, Beth pulled herself up to her full height and said
in her best imitation of Miss Wolfe, "If you vant to be a cheerleader for
Vacko Junior High, you
vill
recover from your mistakes!"

Both girls broke up laughing as they made their way down the
hall, and Melanie couldn't help thinking that although she had lots of hard
work ahead to make the squad, one thing was certain: with Beth around, it was
going to be fun.

After supper she was in the living room going over the
cheers on her sheets and self-consciously practicing the motions in front of
Jeffy when the phone rang. "I get it! I get it!" Jeffy screamed as he
dove to answer it. Melanie glared at him, thinking what a pest he was, as he
put the receiver to his ear and announced proudly, "Edwards residence.
This is Jeffy." Slowly his smile drizzled away as he listened. "Okay,"
he said dejectedly, and thrust the phone toward her. "It's a boy."

Melanie brightened. "Hello."

"Hi, Melanie, this is Garrett."

Of course it is, she thought as the sound of his husky voice
turned her knees to mush. Backing up to the wall and sliding slowly down to a
sitting position on the floor, she said, "So, how's the world's greatest
sports photographer?"

"If you really want to know, not so great," he
said. "Only about half of the pictures I took at the soap game turned out.
Can you believe I was shooting at the wrong shutter speed? I don't know what I
was thinking about when I did that."

ME!
Melanie wanted to shout.
You were so dazzled
when you saw me in the crowd that you couldn't think straight anymore.
But
instead she said, "Gee. That's too bad."

"That wasn't what I really called about, though,"
Garrett assured her. "I just wondered how the cheerleader meeting went."

Melanie's jaw dropped almost to the floor. "How did you
know that I went to the cheerleader meeting?"

"I saw you in the hall afterwards. Remember? I waved,
and you waved back."

"Oh, yeah," Melanie said softly. When had she seen
Garrett? She racked her brain. Had she been clowning around with Beth and
missed seeing him? Had she been acting so goofy that he thought she was waving?

"So, aren't you going to tell me about the meeting?"

Melanie laughed nervously. "Sure. It was fun and
interesting and definitely scary. I think at least half of the girls in seventh
grade are trying out, and there are only eight spots on the squad."

"You'll do great," said Garrett, sending her heart
soaring. "You probably know all the cheers already."

"As a matter of fact, I was practicing when you called."

"I'll let you go in a minute, then, so you can get back
to your practicing. But first, there's one more thing I wanted to ask you."

This time, Melanie's heart burst through the ceiling. This
was it! He was going to ask her out.

"I was wondering if you're going to Laura's party
Saturday night?"

His words shot through her like an electric current. She was
too much in shock to answer at first. Finally she swallowed hard and said
softly, "Sorry. I'm not invited."

"You're kidding. Why not?"

"Because I'm a girl and because I went to Mark Twain.
Laura invited all of the boys from Mark Twain but none of the girls."
Melanie tried not to sound catty, but she knew she did, anyway. "I guess
she's afraid of the competition."

Garrett laughed softly. "Sounds like Laura. Listen, I
know her pretty well. I went to Riverfield. I'll just remind her that's she's
missing a great chance to show off. Believe me, there's almost nothing she
likes better than showing off. I'll bet you'll get an invitation tomorrow."

"Not just me!" Melanie shrieked. Then regaining
her composure, she added, "What I mean is, I'd feel self-conscious if I
hardly knew any of the other girls."

"Okay," said Garrett. "I'll convince her to
show off to
all
the Mark Twain girls."

After they had hung up Melanie sat on the floor for ages,
dangling the phone from one hand. One minute she was thrilled over Garrett's
wanting her to be at Laura's party. And the next she was in a total panic over
actually going. What on earth am I getting myself into? she wondered over and
over again.