Young Writers Society

Eric watched with clenched jaws while Mrs Bing ran through lines with Melody and the piece of scum, all the while resisting the urge to knock the life out of him. Inside his head he was already thinking of all the different ways he could hurt Jeffery. Suddenly, Eric was rudely interrupted by Ruby who chose at that moment to walk up the stage towards him. She had her trademark smile flashed across that plastic face of hers.

“What’re you so happy about?” Eric asked her, genuinely intrigued. Ruby had no friends, no status and no power. Basically, there wasn't really anything for her to be happy about.

“Well...” she said, coyly, tilting her head to the side. “I was thinking that since you and Melody are now over-”

Eric cut her off right there. “An’ who told you that we’re over?”

Ruby’s face fell instantly. “But, I thought that-”

“You thought what?” he asked her, “That by tellin’ me that Jeffery kissed Melody that would somehow make me dump her?” he shook his head in dismay and carried on watching Melody and Jeffery rehearse. “Trust me, it’s gonna take a lot more than that to get to me...”

Ruby was silent for a few seconds. She just stood there furiously glaring darts at him. “Oh, yeah?” she finally snapped, a muscle twitching under her eye. “Well....did you know that the Duqaine’s have a niece at this school?”

Eric eyed Ruby with a frown. How the heck did she know that?

Seeing the look on his face, Ruby continued. “Do you know who she is, hmm?”

Eric was getting more and more confused by the minute. “No, I don’t...” He paused for a moment and let his eyes narrow in on her. “Do you?”

Ruby let out an annoying girly laugh. “Wow, this is too perfect...” she said, clapping her hands in excitement.

“What the heck are you talkin’ ‘bout?” Eric asked her, clearly not finding any of this funny.

“Oh, Eric...” she took a step forward and ran a seductive finger down the line of buttons on his shirt. “You’ll find out soon enough...”

And with that, she left, leaving Eric just standing there watching her strut off. Crazy blonde. He wondered what the heck she was up to and how she managed to find out about the Duqaine’s having a niece in their school. Sure, her old man and my old man are business partners but still Eric doubted that Ruby’s dad would’ve told her that piece of information. It was totally classified. Eric suddenly had a very bad feeling in his gut. His instincts were telling him that something didn’t feel right. He definitely needed someone to keep an eye on Ruby, because usually his instincts were right. Lucky for him, he happened to know the perfect person for the job.

As if on cue, Eric spotted Mrs Bing lead Kelley up onto the stage.

“What’re you doin’ here?” he asked her, half-surprised and half-confused at the same time.

Kelley just shrugged playfully. “I needed the extra-curricular.”

“Eric, let me introduce you to another new addition to the team...” Mrs Bing explained with an excited smile. “Kelley, here, will be playing the character of Rosaline.”

“An’ who’s Rosaline s'posed to be?”

“Romeo’s old flame,” Mrs Bing answered, handing Kelley a script. “Now, in Shakespeare’s version of Romeo and Juliet we hear about Rosaline but we do not actually see her. However, in our version, Rosaline will be a prominent character –like the female version of Paris if you will...”

Eric pretty much zoned out the rest of Mrs Bing’s sentence. He waited until the woman gave him and Kelley their lines for today and then left before narrowing in on Kelley.

“Look, I need you to do somethin’ for me,” he said to her quietly.

She flashed him an annoyed look. “Can’t it wait, we have rehearsing to do...”

“No, it can’t, it’s Ruby...” Eric replied, keeping his voice low just in case anyone heard. “She’s actin’ strange...”

“Well, duh, she has no friends, Eric. Of course she’s gonna act strange.”

Eric rolled his eyes. Stupid cheerleaders. “I mean stranger than usual...” he pressed. “She’s up to somethin’ an’ I want you to get your li’l minions to find out what it is.”

Kelley closed her script and arched one of those girly ‘oh no you didn’t’ kinda eyebrows. Eric would know, Lauren gave him enough of those. “What do I look like to you, you’re slave? I’m Head Cheerleader; I have way more important things to do than spy on your crazy ex-girlfriend.”

Eric arched a brow of his own. “Have you forgotten who made you Head Cheerleader in the first place?” He smirked as he watched her face fall. “You think I did that outta the kindness of my heart?” Kelley glared lasers up at his sarcasm but Eric was unfazed. “You owe me, Kellz...”

She sucked her teeth and pulled a face like she’d just sucked on a lemon. “Fine,” she finally said, like the words left a bad taste in her mouth, “but after this, me and you are even, is that clear?”

Eric gave her his trademark smirk. “Crystal.” he winked.

From the corner of his eye, he could suddenly see Melody walk off the stage. From what Eric could tell, she didn’t look too happy. His eyes narrowed in on Jeffery dangerously. What the heck had that douche-bag said to her now...

Melody was in the backstage room thinking about how she was going to tell Eric what Jeffery said. But she wasn’t so sure she wanted she wanted to tell Eric-at least not yet. He’d just recovered from a car wreck, and the last thing he needed was to get worked up over Jeffery. Melody was still debating whether or not she should tell when the door swung open, and Eric walked in. At that moment, she made the decision not to tell Eric- at least for the time being.

“Mel, I was wondering if I could take you out to lunch. I want to make it up to you for getting angry…” Melody was touched that Eric was making such an effort. She really wanted to go but she had detention for two weeks and her aunt grounded her for a month. Thanks a lot, Mary. These days it seemed like she had a lot to ‘thank’ her aunt for.

Melody sighed. “I can’t, I have detention today...and for another two weeks.”

Eric smiled. “Don’t worry; let me take of that. Do you know which teacher has detention duty this week?” Melody thought about it for a minute. It was this woman that always bright lipstick.

“Mrs. Wells, I think.”

Eric smirked wickedly. “Perfect. This is too easy.”

*
Melody was sitting in the detention room anxiously watching the clock waiting for Eric. Mrs. Wells was on her phone talking to who Melody assumed was her boyfriend from the way Mrs. Wells giggled and blushed. Without her iPod Melody was bored to death. It didn’t help that waiting for Eric made her more bored. Just when she thought she was about to crack, the door opened as Eric stepped into the room. At that moment she had never been so glad to see Eric. When he caught her eye, he winked at her.

When Mrs. Wells heard someone enter, she looked annoyed. But when she saw it was Eric, she immediately brightened.

“Eric, what are you doing here?”

“Mrs. Bing needs me and Melody to work on the play.” With any other teacher, they wouldn’t have bought it. But Mrs. Wells nodded and impatiently motioned to Melody for her go to with Eric, which meant she was glad for to have one less brat to babysit. But Melody was as glad as Mrs. Wells to get out of detention. As she walking out of the room, she had to bite her bottom lip to keep from smiling. Melody couldn’t help but wonder if Mrs. Wells would believe that same excuse tomorrow and for every other detention…

“Nice lie, I almost believed you,” Melody said as she followed Eric to the parking lot.

Eric smirked. “Practice,” he replied, shrugging.

“So where are you taking me?” Melody asked getting into the passenger’s seat of Eric’s car.
Eric winked at her playfully. “It’s a surprise.”

*
Twenty minutes later, they were walking into a surprisingly crowded pizzeria. As soon as they walked into the restaurant, Melody could see why it was so popular. The pizzas smelled so good. The smells of: tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and baking dough filled Melody’s nose. A minute later Eric led Melody to a booth.

“What kind of pizza do you want, Mel?” Eric asked. Normally Melody would say cheese or pepperoni but she was in the mood to try something new.

“Surprise me,” she said. Eric smiled and left to order their pizza.

A few minutes later he returned with their pizza. Once Melody saw it, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to eat it. It had at least four types of meat on it and a looked like a lot of food to eat. She could practically feel herself getting full just staring at it.
“What kind of pizza is this?” she asked.

Eric didn’t answer, instead he said, “Trust me Mel, you’ll like it.” I guess I’ll take his word for it.

Picking up a piece of pizza, Melody took a small bite of it. She had to admit that it was good. The smoky flavor of the different types sausage and ham went well with the spicy flavor of the pepperoni, and the rich tomato sauce finished it off nicely. This was one of the best pizzas Melody had ever had. That was the only way to put it.

“You like it?”

“Yes,” Melody said sheepishly, making Eric laugh as he dug into a slice of pizza.

“Thanks,” Melody said.

“For what?” Eric asked, looking confused for a second.

“For bringing me here,” Melody replied.

Eric smiled and Melody did to. This is way better than detention…

That pretty smile...Eric almost got lost in it and it was only when the bad boy still inside him told him to suck it up, did he manage to get a hold of himself.

Get a grip and act cool for Christ’s sake! Eric winced slightly as a surge of pain suddenly exploded in the temples of his head. He’d hoped that the doctor from the hospital had been exaggerating when he told Eric about the possible side-effects from his concussion. But as the pain in his temples became more sharp, he realised that unfortunately for him that wasn’t the case.

“Does it still hurt?” Melody asked him softly, noticing his sudden change in expression.

“Nah,” Eric lied, making her roll her eyes.

“Liar.”

He let out a tired sheepish smirk. “Okay, maybe a little...”

Melody chuckled but then her expression became serious. “I’m really glad that you’ve recovered,” she said, her voice quiet. “Seeing you like that at the hospital was...like bringing up a bad dream...”

“How’d you mean? Eric asked, taking a wolfish bite from his pizza. His headache was growing but he was trying his best to ignore it.

“My parents,” Melody replied sadly, “they both died in a car crash...”

“Oh,” Eric swallowed hard, not knowing what to say. “I’m sorry, Mel...I didn’t know...”

To her credit, she tried to lighten up the tense atmosphere. “It’s fine,” she smiled, “Like I said I’m just glad that you’re okay-”

But Eric wasn’t listening. “Come to think ‘bout it,” he interrupted her, his brows furrowed in contemplation, “there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know about you yet.” It only occurred to him now that that was the case and he wasn’t happy about it. He didn’t want what he had with Melody to be like all his other relationships, the ones where he barely knew the girls he went out with and only stayed with them for a week, got what he wanted from them and then happily moved on. No way. What he had with Melody, what he felt for Melody, it was different...and special. “I got an idea, how ‘bout you tell me something about yourself?” he looked down at his watch and then back at her again. “We got at least half an hour of our lunch break left.”

Melody looked pleasantly surprised by this. “Uh, okay, sure, what would you like to know?”

“Whatever you want me to know,” Eric replied. “What’s your favourite colour, favourite movie, biggest fear, life ambition...everything that a guy should know about his girlfriend.” Eric wanted to know it all.

Melody couldn’t help but be a little surprised when Eric had called her his girlfriend. Deep down, she knew it was kind of obvious, but it was still surprising said out loud. But if felt nice to hear that. She guessed it was something about Eric saying it aloud that made it truer.

“My favorite colour is black, which you can probably tell from my clothes,” Melody said, gesturing to her clothes, which made Eric laugh.

“Even though you won’t believe it, my favourite movie is Angel Eyes with Jennifer Lopez in it. I know it’s weird that me of all people would like that kind of movie, but I guess it’s the message of the movie that I like. That anyone has a chance for love…even if they don’t know it or can’t see it…”

“As for my biggest fear-” Melody stopped mid-sentence. She wanted to say it, but Eric would probably think it was stupid and unreasonable. It was to her.

“Mel, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Eric said softly. Though the earnest expression on his face assured her that whatever she was going to say wouldn’t be stupid to him. Melody took a deep breath. Here goes nothing…

She shook her head. “It’s okay. It’s just that what I’m about to say will sound stupid. As you know, it takes a while for me to open up to someone and trust them. But even when I do open up to that person, I’m always scared that they’ll hurt me…”

“Mel-” Eric said, as if he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure what to say. This is why Melody didn’t want to say anything. He looked a little worried, like he thought that Melody was specifically talking about him. Nice going! Now he probably thinks that I’m a paranoid freak. But she couldn’t blame Eric. How could anyone say something like that and not expected to be seen as anything but paranoid?

“I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable,” Melody said. “And now you probably think I’m a paranoid freak.” Which I guess I pretty much am.

“Don’t worry about it, Mel. To me, that makes a lot more sense than stupid fears like spiders. ” Melody slowly relaxed. Eric did have a point.

“And as for my life ambition, I’m not too sure about it,” Melody said, glad to finally have something else to talk about. “At first, I thought I wanted to be an actress or even sing and play the guitar. I’ve always had this thing for performing. I guess it’s in my blood. My mother was an actress, and my father played the guitar and taught me how to play when I was nine, and I went to acting camp for five summers. At my old school I was even a cheerleader-”

“-You were a cheerleader?” Eric asked both shocked and amused at the same time. “Did your parents force you?”

“No,” Melody said rolling her eyes and laughing. “I actually enjoyed it…but after a while I guess it just got old. But now I don’t want to be an actress anymore or play the guitar and sing.” She paused to think about what she would want to do. After her parents’ deaths, Melody hadn’t really thought about it until Eric had brought it up. She actually started to wonder what she would do once she graduated. Go to college? But she wasn’t the academic type and she didn’t know what she’d want to study. It’d definitely involve music though… That’s when she got an idea. “Though now, I’d probably go to college and earn a degree in marketing and open up a music shop.”

After saying it, Melody felt more certain that’s what she wanted to do. It felt good to finally have a goal that she wanted to achieve. Like she had something to live for, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. And it was all thanks to Eric who helped her figure it out, even if he didn’t know it.

“You should go for it, Mel,” Eric said.

“I am,” Melody replied, smiling. She made a promise to herself to try harder in school-especially math. She wanted this.

Something’s definitely up.

Eric couldn’t help but just stare at her the whole time she talked. Whenever she'd throw her head back to laugh, whenever she’d glance up at him with that cute look in her eyes, it made his heart pound fast, and that was weird for a guy like him. The only time that ever happened was in a situation that didn't even involve a girl – as a matter of fact it was after he won his first ever championship game.

“Anyway,” she said suddenly making Eric snap back to reality like a rubber band, “enough about me, it’s your turn...”

“Okay,” Act cool. Eric leaned back in the booth and raised his arm. “Well, my favourite colour is red, ‘cause it’s bold, daring and dangerous... like me...” he winked making her roll her eyes in a ‘yeah right’ kinda way.

“My favourite movie’s The Godfather...1,” he added sternly, “‘cause 2 and 3 absolutely sucked. I still haven’t forgiven Coppola for ruining the trilogy...Scarface is pretty awesome too, an’ very appropriate if y’know what I mean...” he added with a smirk, pointing at the scar running down the left side of his face. This time Melody shook her head making Eric chuckle.

“As for my biggest fear...” he furrowed his brows in contemplation. He’d never thought about it much until now. At first he wanted to say death, but he figured that would be a little too dark, so he decided to go for no. 2. “I guess its failure...”

Melody looked genuinely surprised by this. “Really?” she asked. “How come?”

Eric shrugged, not really sure himself. “Maybe it’s ‘cause I come from a tough family. My ol’ man is constantly on my case an’ my older brothers expect a lot from me...” he trailed off, noticing that the atmosphere suddenly tensed a little. He didn’t want to look up and see Melody feeling sorry for him or something like that. He hated people feeling sorry for him. It was the main reason why he’d never talk about his family to anyone before. But, then again Melody wasn’t just anyone. She was his girlfriend, he’d meant it when he called her that, and even though he didn’t know much, or hardly anything, about relationships, he did know that chicks dig the whole ‘sharing’ thing.

Deciding to quickly lighten the mood, Eric easily moved on to the last question. “As for my life ambition, I think that’s kinda obvious...”

To her credit, Melody decided to follow. “Let me guess. You want to be the best quarterback the world’s ever seen?”

“Damn right I do,” Eric nodded with a wolfish smirk, “but not for the money,” he was wealthy already, and an heir to a multimillion dollar fortune, “...or the girls,” he added with a cheeky wink. “But ‘cause Football is really one of the only things I’m good at. When I’m wearin’ my jersey and leading my team out onto the field on game nights, it’s the only time I feel alive...an’ in control...” it was the only time his old man ever paid him any attention too, but Eric decided not to mention that part.

Melody knew just how Eric felt. The only time she ever felt alive was when she was playing her music...and when she was Eric. Not that she would say that. She wasn't sure how that would make him feel. Instead she went for what she knew would Eric would like to hear.

"I'll be sure to come to your games for now on," Melody said.

"Great, you can cheer lead for me. And maybe you could show the other girls a thing or two," Eric said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes. Why did I ever tell him I was a cheerleader?

"As much as you're for that idea," Melody said raising her eye brows and making Eric laugh," hell no. And everyone would be looking at me when all the other cheerleaders mysteriously disappeared." Eric shook his head and chuckled.

"You're right, Mel, if you were a cheerleader...I almost feel sorry for the other girls..." This time it was Melody's turn to laugh.

Eric checked the time on his watch. “We still have about twenty minutes before we have to go back to school. How about you tell me a little more about yourself?”

“Sure,” Melody said. “What do you want me to tell you?”

Eric thought for a minute before answering. “Your favourite song, most prized possession, favourite memory, and your greatest achievement.”

“My favourite song is Careful by Paramore. I don’t know what it is about I like about the song, I guess it’s the edgy tune and feel to it.”

“As for my most prized possession, though you proabaly think it’s my iPod it isn’t,” Melody said, seeing the confident look on Eric’s face that he knew what it was. He looked both surprised and amused at what she had said. “It’s a tie between the guitar my father gave me and a necklace my mother gave me on fifteenth birthday.” Melody pulled out the silver chain with a star pendant on it from under the collar of her T-shirt to show Eric. “My father gave it to my mother and she passed it on to me.”

“This will probably sound corny, but my favourite memory was after I learned to play the guitar and my dad gave me the first guitar he ever had. It was his favourite so I knew how proud of me he was, and that was one of the best feelings in the world. Music was how my family was close.”

“Do you still play?” Eric asked.

Melody shook her head. “Not really. I just kind of stopped…” She didn’t need to go on.

“I think you should,” Eric said. Melody knew Eric’s right. My father would have wanted me to continue playing. But after the car accident, she’d hardly touched the old battered guitar. Sometimes she would open the guitar case up just to look at the instrument but she hadn’t played in over a year. But suddenly, she felt the urge to play. She knew she could do it again now.

“I think I will later today,” Melody said at last. Eric smiled at her and she returned it.

“And ironically, though I haven’t played the guitar in a year, learning how to play was my greatest achievement.”

“Really?” Eric asked. “How come?”

“It took me three years before I was finally able how to play the guitar. I’m still not sure why it took so long for me to learn, considering everyone in my father’s family was naturally gifted at playing. Someone told me that the guitar is the hardest instrument to learn how to play. While it may not be true for most people it was true for me. I think after two years of music lessons my dad was starting up all hope that I’d ever be able to play. I don’t know which one of us was happier when I finally succeeded, him or me.” Eric laughed.

Melody was about to ask Eric the same questions he’d asked her but he looked down at his watch again and said, “Our lunch break is almost over. We better get back to school.”

After paying, they left. Melody felt better than she had in a long time. Though she hadn’t gotten to learn as much about Eric as she had wanted, she still learned a good bit about him, and he’d definitely learned a lot about her. And though Eric didn’t know it, he had helped Melody learn more about herself. On the way back to school while Eric was listening to a rap song on the radio, Melody was thinking about the songs she’d play on her guitar later today.

A few minutes later, Eric pulled up outside school and he and Melody got out of the car.

“Thanks again for today,” Melody smiled, closing the door and walking up to him. “I had fun...”

Eric blushed a bit. “Ahh...it was nothin’...” he shrugged with a slight grin rubbing the back of his neck. Damn it, why the heck am I blushing again? For some reason his facade of being a tough lady-player seemed to disappear when he was alone with her. He quickly turned back to his normal cocky self. “I had fun too...” he winked.

The bell for the end of lunch suddenly rang behind them and some of the students who'd been eating outside started getting their books together. Melody grabbed her school-bag and gave Eric a quick hug. “I’d better get going. The last thing I need is another detention...”

Just before she could walk off, Eric grabbed her arm gently and pulled her towards him until she was close enough for him to wrap his arms around her waist. “What, no good-bye kiss?” he smirked down at her, cheekily.

Melody bit her bottom lip and blushed hotly. A few seconds later, she slowly leaned forwards until her soft lips met Eric’s in a warm little kiss that made his heart beat like crazy. She pulled away just in time for Eric to see some of the girls in his class that were passing them glaring darts at Melody like she was enemy no.1.

“They're are probably gonna give you hell in class...” Eric told her, his strong arms still wrapped around Melody’s tiny waist.

“Let them, I’ll give them hell back,” she said with a hint of attitude in her voice that made him chuckle.

“I’m sure you will...” with that, he let her go. As much as he wanted Melody to stay, he didn’t want her getting into trouble for being late. Especially because of him. “You should get going...”

Melody nodded. “I’ll see you soon,” she smiled, before turning and walking up the steps to school.

Eric watched her go for a few seconds before grabbing his backpack and slinging it over his left shoulder. He had Health class next period. Snore. Pocketing the car keys, he headed up the steps to school, his mind replaying everything he’d just learned about Melody in that lunch. The most shocking thing he’d found out was that she used to be a cheerleader. That put a mischievous smirk on Eric’s face. Too bad she stopped. She’d look much better in the uniform then Ruby or Kelley ever did.

Suddenly, he bumped into Lauren in the hallway.

“Hey, where were you at lunch today?” she asked him. She must’ve been at Art club or something because she had paint all over her fingers. “Casey said him and the guys were looking for you.”

Oops. “I took Mel out for a bit... guess I forgot to let 'em know...”

“You took Melody out? Really?” Lauren arched a mischievous brow, “what for?”

“Just to apologise for how I reacted with the whole Jeffery thing...”

Lauren flashed him big girly smirk. “Aw, isn’t that sweet?” she jibed.

“Shut up, alien,” Eric muttered, quickly brushing past her before she could see he was blushing.

*

Luckily, he managed to get to class just before the bell for fifth period was over.

“Eric!” smiled his Health class teacher, Mr Sims, one of Verona High's youngest teacher's who had a friendly face and was known for setting up bets with other teachers to see if Eric would make it to his class on time or not. “How wonderful of you to show up on time...”

“Ah, well,” Eric grinned cockily before taking his seat at the back, “I wouldn’t wanna give you an excuse to win money now, would I?”

Mr Sims shook his head with a chuckle before turning to the board behind him to begin class.

“Right, today is a very exciting day because we'll be starting a special class project that I like to call ‘Married Life’. In this project I'll be pairing you all into married couples, some of you guys will be rich, others will be poor, but all of you will have one thing in common; a baby to take care of.” Eric watched as Mr Sims picked up one of those freaky real-life baby dolls that Marcus's daughter liked to play with.

“Now, before we do anything, let's start picking our couples...” Mr Sims eyes scanned around the classroom. Eric tried to avoid his gaze but he was too slow. “Eric,” Mr Sims boomed, “Congratulations, you are now married too...” his eyes scanned around the classroom again, “...Kelley...”

Oh Jesus. Eric expected Kelley to moan but for some reason she didn’t seem to look all that angry. Weird. So, Mr Sims happily carried on. “Kelley, will play the role of a CEO of a major business corporation while Eric will play the role of an unemployed stay-at-home dad.”

Eric processed his words for a second before bursting out laughing. “Good one, Mr. Sims,” he chuckled, but he stopped quickly after seeing the look on Mr Sims’ face. “Oh, wait, you’re serious, aren't you?”

“Very serious, Eric,” Mr Sims replied, handing Eric one of the doll’s. “Allow me to introduce you to your new baby girl, Jenna.” He continued addressing the rest of the class.“Each of you will be given a doll like this to look after over the course of the next few weeks.”

Eric furrowed his brows in confusion. “But, it isn't real...” he said, looking down at the doll on his table like it was a fungus.

“How very perceptive of you, Eric,” Mr Sims answered dryly. “Yes it isn't real, but inside it there is a special device that tracks how well the doll’s being taken care of. Your baby must be fed, put to sleep, burped, carried and diapered on schedule in order for you to pass this class. But, if you drop your baby, ignore it, shake it or throw it – yes it has happened before – the device inside will register it as abuse and you will be one step closer to summer school. Is everyone clear?”

The entire class just stared at him like he was insane.

“Excellent!” Mr Sims was clearly enjoying himself. He handed Kelley a brown envelope. “This is your occupation envelope. Inside are details regarding your jobs, timetables, your residence, your finance...” He trailed off and picked up another doll. “Now, let's pick our next couple!”

Soon the bell rang for sixth period and Melody hurried off to her next class, Health. Boring, but slightly better than history class. She wondered what stupid project they would be doing today. When she walked into the classroom she noticed a box full of what looked like baby dolls sitting on the teacher’s desk. Do I even want to know what we’re going to be doing with those things?

Melody took her seat as, Mr. Thompson, a middle aged and somewhat dull teacher turned to face them. “Today, we will be beginning a new assignment that all the other Health classes are doing. Two of you will be paired up as married couples and will have to take care of one of these-” Mr. Thompson reached into the box and held up a baby doll for the class to see.

Everyone groaned, including Melody. Great, I wonder what loser I’ll be paired up with. I think I’ll just take the F. Mr. Thompson held his hand up, silencing the room.

“-As I was saying you will have to take care of a baby. The whole point of this assignment is to show you what the married life is like. It will be your responsibility to make sure your baby is fed, put to sleep, burped, and diapered on a regular basis. If you neglect your baby, shake it, or beat it, I will know. Inside each doll is a video camera that will record everything you say and do. Any questions?”

One girl raised her hand and asked, “How much of our final grade will this assignment be worth?”

Mr. Thompson smiled. “Good question. This assignment will be worth half of your final grade. If you do not do it or if you do not try, you will fail this class. And if you fail this class, do you know that means?” Though he didn’t need to say it, he added, probably just because he was enjoying himself too much, “Summer school.” Crap! So much for just taking the F. The whole class groaned again.

“Now I shall call out the pairs. Melody Grey and Jeffery Williams-” The rest of the names Melody didn’t hear. She was too horrified to pay attention to the rest of what Mr. Thompson had to say. Jeffery caught Melody’s eye from across the room and smiled at her sheepishly. She rolled her eyes and glared darts at him before turning to face the board. They both sighed simultaneously. Ugh, this is going to be a long week. Right now she didn’t know who she wanted to smack more, Mr. Thompson or Jeffery. It was probably a draw, though.

“There is more to the assignment. You will get a folder with information about your jobs and finances. Now everyone can meet with their partner while I pass out the folders and dolls.”

Wordlessly, Jeffery got up and stood next to Melody as Mr. Thompson approached them. “Jeffery, Melody, meet your baby boy, Luke.” He handed the doll to Jeffery. Then he handed the folder to Melody. “Inside this folder are information about your jobs, finances, and worksheets for you to record your progress with the baby doll. Good luck.” I’m going to need it.

Melody opened up the folder. There was one sheet with her name on it and another one for Jeffery about their jobs. Melody looked at hers. Stay at home mother. Awesome, I get to spend even more time with my bundle of joy.

“What did you get?” Jeffery asked when the silence became unbearable.

“Stay at home mother,” Melody replied uninterestingly. “You?”

“Sanitation engineer.” Very ironic yet appropriate. But why did he look smug about his job? Realization slowly dawned on Melody.

“You do know what a sanitation engineer is, right?” Melody said. “It doesn’t actually mean an engineer; it means garbage man.” I sure know how to pick them.

“Oh,” Jeffery said sheepishly. Melody rolled her eyes. Honestly, what did I ever see in him. Certainly not intellect.

Suddenly the baby doll started to cry. Sighing, Melody took the doll from Jeffery and rocked it, trying to shut it up. After thirty minutes of trying to shut the doll up, it went to sleep. Melody let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t know how much of the doll’s screams she could take. Also, her arms were tired from thirty minutes of constant motion.

“It doesn’t look too hard,” Jeffery said. Melody glowered at him.

“That’s because you haven’t done anything to help,” she retorted.

“Okay, then let me try,” Jeffery countered. He started to reach for the doll but Melody stopped him.

“Don’t, Jeffery, you’ll wake the-” Too late. As soon as Jeffery had taken the doll from Melody’s arms, it woke up and began to wail again. Frantically, Jeffery tried rocking the baby doll like Melody in an attempt to calm it down. Helplessly, he looked at Melody. If this is what married life is like, I’d rather stay single.

“Nice going,” she said as she took the doll from his arms.
*
As soon as Health class was over Melody stormed off to her locker. She still had the baby doll. Thanks to Jeffery it took her thirty more minutes to shut the doll up. Now it was sleeping. She had to carefully shift it to one arm so she could get some books out of her locker.

“Need help?” Jeffrey said from behind her. Melody rolled her eyes. She was so not in the mood.
“No I don’t,” she snapped. “Every time you ‘help’, you just make things worse.” Jeffery sighed.

“Come on, Melody, how long are you going to stay mad at me?” She knew he wasn’t just talking about the assignment.

Melody turned to face him. “We may have to work together but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it. Just do me a favor and stay out of my way.”

“You’re not being fair,” Jeffery said. “I’m trying my best. You obviously have more experience with this sort of thing. It’s a girl thing.” His eyes widened as soon as he realized what he had said.

But Melody just smiled. Payback. “You know what, Jeffery, you’re absolutely right. If a girl can do it, a guy can do it better.”

“No, wait Melody, you know that’s not what you meant,” Jeffery protested as Melody dropped the doll into his arms. Immediately the doll’s eyes flew open and it began to cry.

“Have fun,” Melody said, enjoying herself. She laughed as she walked down the hall and could still hear the doll’s screams.

As soon as the bell rang, Kelley strutted over to Eric.

“So, this is our baby, huh?” she said, picking up the doll and looking at its plastic face with distaste. “She’s not very pretty. I guess I'm gonna have to work on that...”

Eric looked at her incredulously. “It’s not real...” he reiterated, not understanding why no one else seemed to get it.

Kelley looked up at him stupidly. “I know that, Einstein, but, we need to play along to pass this stupid class...”

“Whatever...” Eric shook his head, easily changing the subject. “Did you get a chance to do that thing that I asked you to do?” he asked her.

“Hmm, and what 'thing' was that?” Kelley asked uninterestingly, placing the doll in her left arm and opening up the brown occupation envelope to read what was inside.

Eric gave her a stern look.

“Oh, relax will you,” Kelley said, rolling her eyes at his impatience. “I’m still working on it. Ruby’s been very mysterious for the past couple of days...I'm finding it hard to keep up with her...”

Eric didn’t like the sound of that. His brain started recalling the last conversation he had with Ruby...

“Did you know that the Duqaine’s have a niece at this school?”

He was seriously starting to wonder what that crazy chick up to. “Just keep tryin’, alright?” he told Kelley, before getting up from his seat and heading out. He couldn’t be thinking about all this right now. He had way more important things to worry about - like what Coach Clancy was going to do to him when he realised that he’d got himself injured in a car wreck.

“Hold on, Eric, where do you think you’re going?” Kelley snapped, stopping him dead in his tracks. “You have to keep the baby.”

He raised a quizzical brow at her. “What? Says who?” he frowned.

“Says the timetable,” Kelley pressed, showing him one of the papers inside the occupation envelope. “It says in here that you have to keep Jenna until five o’clock.”

Eric’s face almost fell. “No way, I got football practise!”

“Yes, Eric, and I have cheerleading practise,” Kelley said, failing to see the problem. “What's your point, exactly?”

“My point...” Eric pressed, an annoyed expression playing across his face, “is how am I s'posed to look after a stupid doll while I’m out on the field?”

Kelley shrugged, handing over the doll to him. “You’ll think of something.”

Eric held up the doll by the toe like it was some kind've disease. “But-”

“Do not hold our daughter like that, Eric, we’ll fail!” Kelley interrupted him sternly, before picking it up and placing it in his hands properly.

Eric was just about ready to explode. “Stop callin’ it that, it’s not real!”

Kelley rolled her eyes, ignoring him. “I’ll see you at five...” she said, and with that, she strutted out’ve class. Five seconds later, the doll started crying. Great!

“Soothe your baby, Eric...” Mr Sims instructed him before heading out too. Eric just glared darts at his back before frantically turning the stupid toy upside down to try and find the off button. Unfortunately, there was none. The doll started crying louder.

“Hey, E, you got one too!” Eric turned around to see Bobby, Logan and Casey walk up to him. They all had a doll in their hands too and, apart from Casey, none of them looked all that unhappy about it.

“Who’d you get paired up with?” Logan asked, holding his boy-doll like it was a football.

“Kelley,” Eric muttered, heading for his locker.

Logan and Bobby chuckled.

“I got your sister,” Logan said, before grabbing Casey into a friendly headlock and scruffing his hair. “This one isn’t too happy ‘bout it, are you, Case...?”

“No, I'm not,” Casey whined, shoving Logan away with a frown. “I wanted to be with Lauren...”

“Jesus, am I the only one who gets that none of this is real?” Eric growled into his locker.

“No, we know it's not real,” Bobby smiled, looking down at his girl-doll. “But, we might as well have fun with it, right...?” it was a rhetorical question. “Anyway,” he said, changing the subject. “You ready to face Coach Clancy?”

Eric sighed as he grabbed his gym bag. “Not really...”

“Just be confident, do the drills and act like everything’s normal,” Bobby advised him. “If he see’s you struggling ‘cause of your injuries then he’ll put you in second-string for sure.”

“And then you’ll miss the game against Hamlet Academy,” Casey added.

Eric nodded, his brows furrowed in determination. He'd do today's practise, and he'd do it well. He had to.

“C-mon, we should get going...” Logan suddenly said, looking up at the clock just above the lockers.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Eric agreed, swinging his gym bag over his shoulder. Suddenly, he paused and looked down at his doll before glancing up at his friends. “I got an idea, how ‘bout I just leave it in my locker?”

“I wouldn't do that if I were you, E,” Bobby said, “it might register as abuse and you’d fail.”

Eric slammed his locker shut with a frustrated sigh. "Way to ruin my whole plan, Bobby..."

“Oh, by the way, E,” Logan said suddenly, as the four of them made their way to football practice. “I almost forgot to tell you who Melody got paired up with...”

Eric almost forgot about her. He glanced sideways at Logan. “Who?” he asked.

“Some dude called Jeffery...”

Jeffery leaned against his locker, listening to his iPod. It had been ten minutes since Melody had left him with that stupid piece of plastic. It still hadn't stopped crying. Unable to take it anymore, Jeffery just gave up on trying to shut the doll up and turned on his iPod to drown out its screams. He was still pissed off at Melody. Why does she have to be so stubborn? He had never met anyone so hardheaded in his life. That was one thing that he liked about her and annoyed him all the same time. But right now it was just irritating. It'd be easier for both of us if she'd just cooperate. After all this is both our project.

Jeffery was also still pissed off that she was still with Eric. What did she see in him? And why did she think that butthole really cared about her? Jeffery guessed it was the same with all the girls that had dated Eric; he gave him his stupid trademark grin and they were his-until he dumped them for the next girl on list. How could he show Melody he truly cared about her? Then again he had been trying for weeks He was starting to think it’d be easier to just give up. [ i]If[/i] Melody ever came around it would only be when Eric screwed her over, and she would finally see that he cared about her. He shook his head. He’d wasted enough time thinking about her; he had to get to his music class. Jeffery glanced down at his watch. Crap! He was already a few minutes late.


Shoving his iPod into his pocket, Jeffery hurried off to music class. Fortunately, the doll was getting a little quieter. Maybe eventually it’ll shut up completely.[,i] As he got closer to the class, Jeffery could hear the band playing. [i]Great, they started without me! The minute he walked into class, all eyes turned towards him. The teacher stared at the doll in his hands like it was a rat. Jeffery almost preferred a rat to the stupid doll. At least you could get rid of a rat.

“Jeffery why are you so late?” the teacher asked.

“…I lost track of the time,” Jeffery finally answered. The explanation: “I’m late thanks to my ex-girlfriend who now hates me” probably wouldn’t be excusable.

“Just make sure it doesn’t happen again,” the teacher said sternly. Jeffery was surprised that the teacher didn’t ask why he was walking around with a plastic boy-doll. Then again, the teacher probably didn’t want to know. Not that Jeffery blamed him.

Walking over to his desk, Jeffery placed the doll on it before taking his place in front of the drums. As soon as he picked up his drumsticks, the teacher gestured for the band to start playing. It took a few seconds before Jeffery fell into rhythm with the rest of the band. Not too long after Jeffery started getting into the music, the doll started to cry. Fantastic! Apparently my ‘son’ doesn’t like music. At first the band tried ignoring the doll, but as the doll’s screams became louder, the teacher held up his hand, making the band stop.

“Jeffery, I don’t why you brought that doll here, but since it is disturbing my class, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Now Jeffery was even more ticked off at Melody. Music class was the only time he actually liked school.

“Yes, sir,” he replied before picking up the stupid thing and exiting the room. He went to go and find Melody. He couldn’t take this anymore. Now it’d be her turn to take care of the stupid thing. It took Jeffery a few minutes to find her. He bumped into her in the hallway. When she saw Jeffery looking like he wanted to pull his hair out, she smirked at him in a “I told you so” kind of way.

*
It took all of Melody’s self-control not to burst out laughing. Jeffery was glaring darts at her and he looked like he wanted to bang his head against a locker-or do that to the doll. From the expression on his face, she assumed the doll hadn’t shut up.
Wordlessly, Jeffery handed the doll to her. After a few minutes of rocking it, the doll finally shut up, which surprised both of them. Jeffery looked relived that it had finally shut up but annoyed that he couldn’t get it to be quiet. I guess it likes me more than him. This made Melody want to laugh even more. It was sad when even a plastic baby doll didn’t even like you.

“I guess you were right, Jeffery,” melody said, smiling smugly. “It is a girl thing.”

Jeffery was not amused. “That’s why it’s your turn to watch it now.”

But Melody shook her head. “Sorry but you’re wrong Jeffery.” Taking the folder out of her schoolbag, she showed him the schedule. “Actually, you have to watch it. You already covered my time, so thanks. But now you have to keep it for three more hours. Tough luck.” Thank you, karma! Jeffery watched disbelievingly as Melody handed him the doll before walking off.

Eric was finding it very hard to concentrate during today’s football practise. Never mind the stupid doll-baby bawling constantly in the background and the sound of Kelley and her cheerleaders waving pompoms and chanting lame cheers, Eric was still taking in the fact that Melody was paired up with that douche-bag Jeffery for the stupid health class project. Cheers, Mr. Thompson.

“VAN HOLDEN!” Coach Clancy barked suddenly, making just about everyone on the field jump out of their skins, including the cheerleaders. Eric’s attention snapped back like an elastic band.

“Yeah, Coach?” he asked, looking around him wondering what he’d done wrong.

“What the hell are you doing?” the man looked like he was in an even worse mood than usual, which was saying something. “Logan is wide open, why the hell aren’t you passing him the damn ball?”

Eric lifted a confused brow and looked down at the football his hands. Oops.

“My bad, Coach,” he said sheepishly, before throwing a long forward pass over to Logan. He winced slightly as he felt a sharp pang in his ribs.

“Don’t 'my bad' me, boy!” Coach Clancy quipped, “You’re lucky you didn’t get sacked by our defenders.”

And that wasn’t the only mistake Eric ended up making that practise. His injuries were making it hard for him to do even the most basic things as a quarterback. Not only was making forward passes a painful experience for him, but even important things like scrambling past the defence or avoid being tackled and put out of bounds was proving impossible. It was like the harder Eric tried to push his body, the more his body fought back. He was hurting all over and if Coach Clancy was mad at him before, it was nothing compared to how mad he was now. It quickly became obvious to Eric that he wasn’t going to get away with pretending that he wasn’t injured.

“You’ve been made second-string,” Coach Clancy told him straight after practise.

Eric’s face fell. The rest of the team sounded their anger.

“But, Coach-” Eric pleaded.

“No ‘but’s’,” Coach Clancy quipped, “That was one of the most pathetic displays I’ve ever seen from you, Van Holden. Now, I don’t know what’s happened to you and quite frankly I don’t care. We are at the most important part of the playoff season and the last thing I need right now is my star quarterback underperforming. Get yourself back into shape before we face Hamlet otherwise you’ll no longer have a place on this team, is that understood?”

Eric’s jaw clenched in anger.

Coach Clancy’s eyes narrowed in on him dangerously. “Is that understood, Van Holden?” he repeated.

“Yes, Coach,” Eric finally said through gritted teeth. He was so angry he couldn’t even look the coach or the rest of his team in the eye. As soon as practise was over, he stormed out, pushing and throwing anything in his way, before heading home.

Once he got home, he trudged up the stairs, ignoring anyone and everyone in his way, and headed straight into his bedroom. He was too tired and angry to even close the door. He just pulled off his shirt and collapsed onto his bed.

Eric's mood didn’t exactly improve the next day. If anything it just got worse. The realisation that, for the first time he’d been made second-string, made him feel like total crap. He felt like kicking himself, but he was determined to make things right. He needed to get himself fit again, he didn’t know how, but he knew that it had to happen. There was no way he would end the season second-string and there was no way he’d miss the game against Hamlet. The best scouts from the best states would be coming to see him in that game and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to be there to play in it.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, E,” Bobby said to him, reassuringly during lunch. “We’ll help get you back to first-string, won’t we, boys?”

“Hell yeah, we will,” Logan nodded, taking a wolfish bite from his burger.

“Definitely,” Casey joined in.

“Hey, Eric...”

Eric looked up to see Melody suddenly come up to their lunch table.

“Hey, Mel...” he said back quietly.

An awkward silence fell around them, making Eric’s friends quickly get up from their seats with their trays. “We’ll see you in class, E,” Bobby winked, ushering the rest of the boys away so Eric and Melody could be alone.

Melody waited until his friends were out of ear shot before she sat down. She pulled out her plastic doll from her bag and settled it on the table next to her.

“This is Luke,” she said dryly, “I’d introduce you to him but he’s a doll.”

Eric gave a small smirk. Silence fell around them again before Melody broke it. “Is everything okay?” she asked him cautiously. “You look angry...and upset...”

At first Eric didn’t want to answer, but then he realised that he didn’t want to keep stuff from her. “Coach Clancy put me in second-string,” he said bitterly.

“No way!” Melody’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Why?”

Eric picked at his food with his fork, irritably. His arms were still aching. “I couldn’t play properly at training yesterday ‘cause of my stupid injuries...” not that Coach Clancy knew that.

Melody gave him a sympathetic look and placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry, Eric, you’ll be fine, you just have to be patient. I know it sucks right now but injuries happen to athletes all the time, right? Just use the time you have to slowly get your level of fitness back and you’ll be back on first-string before you know it.”

For a moment, Eric just looked up at her, taking in her words, before shaking his head with a chuckle.

Melody looked puzzled. “What?” she questioned.

“Nothin’...” Eric said, rubbing the back of his neck with a small smirk, “It’s just that you’re very good at comfortin’ people...”

Melody looked pleasantly surprised by that. “Really?”

Eric nodded. “Well, yeah, you must be. I mean you always seem to know what to say to make me feel better...” Crap, that probably sounded really sappy. But it looked like Melody didn’t seem to mind. She just smiled at him in thanks before turning to her lunch.

Eric watched her tuck into her sandwich and looked back at his plate in a daze. He didn’t have the energy to put anything in his mouth right now, let alone to pick up his fork and try.

“You need help?” Melody asked.

Eric scoffed. “No,” he lied; lifting his arms and feeling the familiar sharp pain hit him. He tried to pick up his fork again but his arms were weighing him down. They felt like bricks.

“Liar,” Melody said, before grabbing his fork for him and digging it into his plate. Eric just stared at her raising an amused brow as she picked some fries up and aimed it at his mouth. “Open wide...”

Eric blinked. “You're not serious...”

“I totally am!” Melody cocked her head to the side with an amused expression on her face. “What's the matter, are you embarrassed?”

“Uh, yes...”

Melody rolled her eyes. “Well, don’t be, you have to eat and if you can’t feed yourself then someone has to. Come on, open wide...”

“No way!” Eric chuckled, moving his face away like a little kid.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by Jeffery's appearance. The smile on Eric’s face instantly disappeared as he remembered what Logan said about Jeffery being paired up with Melody for health class. Seeing Jeffery come up to him with that smug look on his face made Eric’s blood boil. He quickly oh-so-subtly shifted his position so he was closer to Melody before finally opening his mouth to let her feed him. Eric noticed, to his delight, how that made Jeffery’s jaw clench. Eric just threw him one of his trademark smug looks. Take that, you sleaze...

“What the hell d’you want?” Melody growled at Jeffery, making the corners of Eric’s lips pulled into a smirk.

Jeffery looked like he was trying to contain his anger. “It’s my turn to take care of Luke, remember?” he smiled, glowering at Eric making him fume. There it was again. That pang of jealousy running through his veins...

He watched carefully as Melody picked up the doll and hand it over to him un-interestedly. "Be my guest..."

Jeffery just stood there with the doll in his hands, his eyes moving from Melody to Eric. He looked like he wanted to say something.

"You can leave now," Eric told him bluntly.

Jeffery clenched his jaw again before finally deciding to leave.

"I can't believe Thompson paired you up with that jerk..." Eric said to Melody as he watched Jeffery walk away.

Melody pulled a face. “I know, right, it sucks...” she fed Eric another fork of his lunch before caryying on. "So who did you get paired with, let me guess, Ruby..."

Before Eric could even answer, Kelley strutted over to their table.

“Hey, husband...” for some reason she emphasised that word, flashing her pearly white teeth with a Ruby-like dazzling smile.

"Don't call me that," was Eric's only reply.

She ignored him and handed over their plastic doll. Eric just stared at it. "What the hell have you done to it?" The doll was dressed in a white designer dress, it's nails were painted bright pink and Eric could swear there were diamonds on it's ears.

"I think it makes her look pretty, don't you..." Kelley smiled.

Eric looked incredulous. "Oh my god, Kellz, when are you gonna get the fact that IT'S NOT REAL!"

"And when are you gonna get the fact that there's no harm in pretending it is real!" Kelley flicked her hair in annoyance with a scoff before returning to the subject at hand, "Anyway, according to the timetable it's your turn to take her."

Eric gave her a stern look. "No way, I've got an Algebra test-"

Kelley ignored him again. "See you at five!" she sang, patting Eric on the cheek with a cocky smile before strutting off.

Melody watched Kelley walk off with a mixture of anger, frustration, and maybe...jealousy. The uncanny way she looked like Ruby when she smiled. Well she did learn from the best. And the way she had touched Eric's cheek as if she were the one who was Eric's girlfriend made Melody's blood boil. She had the urge to wrap her hands around Kelley’s skinny little neck and strangle her. She is sooo lucky we're at school where I can't do anything to her. Also, though as much as that would satisfy her right now, the last thing she needed was to get into even more trouble. Next it probably wouldn't be a detention but a suspension. More importantly, she didn't want Eric to see that she was jealous. But the thing that annoyed Melody the most was when Eric had called her Kellz. Though she knew Eric had meant nothing by it, his pet-name for Kelley made Melody's stomach churn sourly.

An awkward silence fell over them. Melody stared at her tray while Eric stared straight ahead. Even though the cafeteria was noisy, it seemed like they were the only two people not talking. Soon, the silence became unbearable.

“So Kelley’s your partner,” Melody said at last. Only when she had said it, did she realize how stupid that sounded.

Eric nodded miserably.

“What’s up with dress, nail polish-and earrings?” Melody asked, not only in an attempt to get him talking, but also out of sheer curiosity.

Eric shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s acting like the stupid thing is real.” Wow, that girl has been spending way too much time with Ruby.

“I think Ruby brainwashed her…”

But Eric shook his head and chuckled. "First she'd have to have a brain for that to happen." Melody laughed, feeling the tension between them fade away.


"Good point," she replied. Melody just stared at the doll. Somehow Kelley's efforts of trying to make it look "pretty" just made it look uglier. It kind of looks like a miniature version of her, she thought with a smile.

“What?” Eric asked, staring at Melody with a puzzled look on his face.

“Nothing, it’s that it kind of looks like Kelley.


Eric smiled, and so did, Melody relieved that she had finally gotten him to smile. “All it’s missing is a designer purse,” he said.

“Maybe that’s for tomorrow,” Melody joked.

“With her, who knows?” Melody couldn’t help but agree. The thing would probably be wearing a whole new outfit by tomorrow.

Melody fed Eric another forkful of lunch. After a few more bites Eric turned his head away and said, “Okay, that’s enough, Mel.”

But Melody gave her best stubborn look. “Just one more bite.”

After a minute of staring at Melody, Eric gave up. “Okay, you win,” he laughed.
As soon as Melody had given Eric the last bite of his lunch, the bell rang, ending the loud chatter in the cafeteria. All around them, students were dumping their trays and gathering their things for classes. Melody stood up and hugged Eric. before kissing him. As Eric kissed her, the noise around them faded into the background and Melody's heart was beating wildly. She wanted to stay in Eric's arms but as she watched the last students leave the cafeteria, she forced herself to pull away.

“I’ll see you later,” she told Eric before taking his tray and dumping it for him before he could protest.
***
Ruby was leaning against Melody’s locker when she want to get some books for her next class. When Melody saw Ruby in front of her locker smirking at her, she just rolled her eyes and pushed her aside.

“Hey, Melody,” Ruby sneered. Melody just ignored her. If I don’t pay any attention to her, maybe she’ll go away.

“I heard something very interesting today. You should know Eric and Kelley were paired up for the Married Life assignment in Mr. Sim’s class,” Melody rolled her eyes at Ruby’s fake nonchalant tone. So this why she’s here. Why can’t she just get it though that thick skull of hers that Eric doesn’t like her and move on?

“Actually I already know,” Melody replied, not even looking at her. “Eric told me. And just to let you know, I’m not jealous. It’s going to take a whole lot more than that to get to me.” Not a total lie. It wasn’t Ruby Melody was worried about, but Kelley. She was just not-maybe even-stranger than Ruby.

“Oh yeah?” Ruby retorted. “You should know that Kelley has major crush on Eric.”

Whatever Melody had expected Ruby to say this wasn’t it. Ruby smirked as Melody’s impassive facial expression changed to one of surprise before her usual indifferent look settled on her face. Melody didn’t want to believe what Ruby was saying but it did explain Kelley’s weird behavior. Like when she patted Eric’s cheek and was acting even more like Ruby’s clone.

“Don’t you think they’d make a cute couple for the Winter Formal? I hear it’s just a few weeks away,” Ruby said.

Melody rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Ruby. Even if Kelley likes Eric, he doesn’t like her, probably about as much as he likes you.” Ruby’s face fell and it was Melody’s turn to smirk.

After a minute Ruby regained her composure, a startlingly calm look settling on her face. “Well it doesn’t matter. Soon, you won’t be able to date Eric anyway.”

“What are you talking about?” Melody snapped, tired of Ruby’s games. She had the urge to slam her head a few times against the locker until she actually started making sense.


“You’ll find out soon enough,” Ruby replied mysteriously as she turned to walk away. “Let’s just say you’re not Eric’s type and he’s not yours.”

What is wrong with that girl? No, a better a question to ask is what isn’t wrong with that girl?

Eric was panicking. He knew he’d just failed this week’s test. He hadn’t even got to the second page when his math teacher said that the time was up. To make matters worse, Mr. Plus was now handing out the results from last week’s test. Eric felt like banging his head on his desk. Not only was he second-string in football but now he was about to fail in class. God, he hated math, most of all he hated algebra. Damn letters, who’s stupid idea was it to turn them into numbers anyway?

“Eric...” Mr. Plus handed him his paper with a solemn expression.

Eric looked down at the grade and deflated like a balloon. “C-?”

“I can’t say I was too surprised,” Mr. Plus commented.

“But, sir, I can’t go home with this grade. My dad will kill me!” Eric could just see the reaction on his ol’ man’s face.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to. It’s either that or you get yourself a math tutor ASAP. Maybe if you do better in next week’s test you can pull your grade up to at least a B-.”

Math tutor it is then. Eric’s brows furrowed in contemplation. Where the heck am I supposed to find one in such short notice? He watched Mr. Plus hand Kelley her test paper and saw a big fat A written on it. A wild smirk suddenly played across Eric’s face signalling an idea falling into place.

“Congratulations, Kelley,” smiled Mr. Plus. “As usual you’ve managed to outdo pretty much everyone in this class.”

Kelley shrugged smugly. “What can I say, Mr. Plus, I’m just a natural.”

Eric waited till their math teacher moved on before pulling up a chair next to Kelley. The smirk on his face and the mischievous glimmer in his eyes made her frown.

“What do you want now?” she asked un-interestedly.

“So, here’s the thing,” Eric began, “you seem to be pretty good at math and I seem to be...”

“Pretty bad?” she offered, spotting his C-.

An annoyed expression played across his face. “I was gonna say not so good...” he frowned, “Anyway, I was thinking maybe you could tutor me?” it was a long-shot, he knew that for sure. In fact, he wouldn’t be all that surprised if Kelley flat-out refused.

“Sure, I’ll tutor you,” she smiled.

Eric blinked, not expecting that. “Really?”

“Uh huh,” she nodded, her blond ringlets bouncing. “I’ll come round yours at about five?”

“Perfect,” Eric smiled to himself. Well, that was easy. Weird, but easy... As an afterthought he quickly added, “Just don’t tell anyone, alright?” the last thing he needed was people getting the wrong idea, especially Melody. He made a mental note to give her the heads up about the whole thing just in case.

“Aw, Eric, you’re not worried about what your girlfriend might think, are you?” Kelley asked like she could read his mind.

“Well, duh...” Eric replied. He noticed how Kelley seemed to be leaning forward towards him when she spoke and how she had a Ruby-like smirk plastered on her face. Then again, maybe he was just seeing things. He wouldn’t be all that surprised considering the fact that he was still recovering from the stupid car wreck.

“Fine, I won’t,” Kelley said, returning to her original position.

Eric only stared at her with a look of scepticism. Yeah right, you won’t. If experience with dating cheerleaders taught him anything it was this: expecting them to keep a secret was expecting a pig to fly across the sky – not likely.

As Melody walked down the hallway, she passed Kelley at her locker. Standing next to her was one of her little followers. Melody bet they were gossiping. Though it was hard to hear what they talking about over the noise of the crowd of students, Melody heard Kelley say Eric’s name. She stopped to hear what they were saying. Even though it went against everything Melody believed, she pushed her way through the crowd so she could hear them. Maybe it would explain why Kelley was acting so weird-Ruby weird.

“Wait you’re going to Eric’s house after cheerleading practice?” Kelley’s friend asked in disbelief and envy. What?!

“No so loud!” Kelley snapped. “Do you want the whole school to know?” Too late, Melody thought bitterly.

“Sorry,” her friend said sheepishly.

Kelley shrugged uninterestedly, ignoring her friend’s apology. “It’s just to tutor Eric in math.” Melody would buy that if she was stupid. Yeah right. All hell just froze over. She just saying that because she didn’t want Melody to be suspicious. A little too late for that.

Her friend didn’t buy it either. In fact she looked at Kelley like she was insane. Kind of like the way they looked at Melody. “Do you like Eric?”

The question caught Kelley off guard. For a second, she looked uncomfortable before just shrugging it off. "Maybe he’d be a good date for the Winter Formal.”

Melody couldn’t believe it but Ruby was actually right. Her words echoed in Melody’s head Don’t you think they’d make a cute couple for the Winter Formal? I hear it’s in a few weeks.But even if Ruby was right, Melody wouldn’t let that happen. To go to the dance she’ll have to be alive.

Her hand instinctively clenched into a fist. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to go over there and rearrange Kelley’s plastic face. But common sense told Melody this wasn’t the time or place. Besides if she got in trouble again, it wouldn’t be a detention. It’d be a suspension, maybe even expulsion.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” her friend warned. “You don’t want to mess with Eric’s girlfriend. After she trashed Ruby’s reputation, she’s been getting pretty popular.” Though the last part wasn’t true, Melody smirked. This blonde has some sense. Who knew?

It was Kelley’s turn to smirk. “Actually, Melody didn’t trash Ruby’s reputation. Eric did. And I wouldn’t worry about her much longer.”

Melody strained to hear the rest of what they said as they hurried off to class. But she never got to hear the last of the conversation because their voices faded into the background. Kelley is so lucky I don’t know where she is right now! Though even if she found Kelley, sadly, killing her wasn’t an option. Though Melody still didn’t completely know what was up, she knew two things: For once Ruby had been right, and that Eric had some serious explaining to do.

Eric was at his locker dumping some of his books with Bobby.

“Me and the boys are gonna meet up at Casey’s for a game of pool after school, you in?” he asked, taking a swig of his soda.

Eric was fighting to keep all the junk from falling out. “Can’t, Kelley’s comin’ over to help me study for the stupid Algebra test on Friday...”

Bobby nearly spluttered into his drink. “What?” he asked, his eyes all wide in shock. “Y’sure that’s a good idea, E?”

“No,” Eric answered truthfully, “but it’s the only one I have...”

“Does Melody know ‘bout this?”

Eric nudged his locker shut with his shoulder before answering. “Not yet, but she will...once I find her...”

At that moment, Bobby looked over Eric’s shoulder and cleared his throat. “Speak of the devil...” he whispered so only Eric could hear.

Eric arched a quizzical brow before turning round to see Melody standing behind him.

“Mel, I was just lookin’ for you...”

“Kelley’s coming over to your house?” she snapped, her hands on her hips in a defensive posture and an annoyed expression across her face. “Is it true?”

Oh boy... Eric rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Kelley told you didn’t she?” Eric had never hit a girl before but that cheerleader was really starting to tempt him.

“No, I heard her bragging about it to her friends!”

The little- Eric met Melody’s stern gaze with an apologetic look. “I was gonna tell you about it, I swear,” he looked to Bobby for support, “right, Bobby?”

To his credit, Bobby nodded, “It’s true.”

Melody said nothing; she just looked away from him and folded her arms across her chest defensively. Eric knew what that meant. She still wasn’t convinced...was she jealous? And then it hit him. Of course she was jealous...

“I’ll call you later, E,” Bobby said clapping him on his shoulder in a supportive way before walking away to leave the two of them alone to work things out.

Eric nodded and waited until Bobby disappeared down the hallway before turning his attention back to Melody. Letting out a sigh, he took a couple of steps towards her and looked her dead in the eye. “Kelley’s just helping me pass Algebra, that’s it...I promise...”

She didn’t step back from him but she was still avoiding his gaze. “Is she getting something in return?”

Eric’s brows furrowed in confusion. “No.”

“Then why would she just agree to help you like that?”

“’Cause she still owes me for helping her become head cheerleader...”

Melody rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Oh, come on Eric, even a blind person could see there’s more to it than that. She likes you.”

“Who, Kelley?” Eric erupted with a roar of laughter. “Where’d you get that crazy idea from?”

“It’s not crazy!” Melody snapped. “I heard her talking to her stupid friends about how she’d want you as her date for the Winter Formal...”

“Not because she likes me, Mel...” explained Eric, unfazed. “It’s probably so she could use my popularity to be voted homecoming queen...” it was typical Kelley. No wonder she’s been acting all weird around me. Eric was surprised he didn’t catch on sooner. He noticed a part of Melody still looked unconvinced and couldn’t help but feel annoyed. It meant she didn’t trust him, but could he really blame her? His track-record with girls in the past didn’t exactly do him any favours.

In his last ditch attempt to try to convince Melody that he was telling the truth, Eric took both her hands gently in his and looked her dead in the eye. “Look, Mel, I’m really sorry you had to find out like that. If it bothers you that much I can just tell Kelley it’s cancelled-”

Melody looked embarrassed now. She was looking down at her boots. “No, don’t, its fine...” she struggled for a moment, “...I trust you...”

Eric looked down at her with an inward smile. He knew she didn’t trust him really, but he was determined to change that. With everything a girl like her had been through over the years, her parents dying, moving to a new school, Jeffery using her...Eric knew it would be a long time before she trusted anyone. He just had to be patient and try his best to show her how much he was willing to change for her. How much he liked her...

Deciding to lighten up the tense atmosphere, he pulled Melody closer to him and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Y’know...” he said, cocking a seductive brow, “you look real cute when you’re jealous...it’s something about the way you’re...”

“I’m not jealous,” she interrupted, blushing hotly and giving him a weak push on his shoulder.

Eric only smirked. "Sure you’re not..."