Fabulous Five 007 - The Kissing Disaster Read online

  "Hi, Mel. Sorry to keep you waiting."

  Beth's chirpy voice lifted Melanie's spirits slightly, and she said, "Would you like to sleep over at my house Saturday night? I don't know what we'll do. Everybody else is busy, and it will probably be boring."

  "Great. What time?"

  Melanie frowned at the phone. Had she heard wrong? "What did you say?" she asked incredulously.

  "I said, great. What time?"

  "How does six-thirty sound?" Her heart was pounding. Beth was actually saying yes.

  "It sounds terrific. I'll be there."

  Melanie danced around the room after she hung up. Maybe it wasn't too late for The Fabulous Five after all. She would make Saturday night so much fun that Beth would talk the ears right off their other three friends.

  "What should we eat?" she whispered as she got paper and pencil and plopped onto the stool at the end of the kitchen counter. "Pizza? No, that's too common. Hamburgers? Too much trouble to fix. Lobs-tah Newburg and cavi-ah, dhaling?" she drawled, and began to giggle.

  Just then the phone rang. Stifling her laughter, Melanie picked up the receiver. "Hello."

  "Hi, Mel. It's Beth again. About Saturday night . . ."

  Melanie's heart dropped into her shoes. "What about it?" she asked softly.

  "Gosh. I feel awful," Beth began, "but I just looked at Mom's calendar, and I'm supposed to stuff envelopes that night."

  "Stuff envelopes?" Melanie shrieked.

  "Yeah, at the Indian mission. They're writing letters to Congress about some land they say was stolen from some tribes over a hundred years ago. I promised I'd help. You understand, don't you?"

  "Of course," Melanie sniffed.

  She hung up and stared at the kitchen floor for a long time as she slowly finished the brownies. Jana was going bowling. Katie was having pizza with the Teen Court. Christie was going to a television taping. And Beth was stuffing envelopes! Everyone was busy. No one had time for her or for friendship or for The Fabulous Five. It was awful. After all they had meant to each other. Now it seemed as if they didn't have anything in common anymore.

  Well, I'll show them, she thought, and headed for her room. I'll change, too. After all, this is junior high! A plan was already beginning to form in her mind.

  CHAPTER 3

  When Melanie got to the media center the next morning, it was crowded with seventh-graders who wanted to help with the dance. She counted eleven girls, including herself, and nine boys. That ought to be plenty of kids, she thought with satisfaction. Enough to get the dance organized and enough to get her plan into action.

  She had decided last night that the only way to get The Fabulous Five's attention was to become so popular and so busy with new friends that they couldn't help noticing. Then they would realize how much they missed her friendship, and they might even be a little bit jealous. Melanie smiled to herself and surveyed the crowd. Working on the seventh-grade dance was the perfect place to start.

  There were several cute boys, including Derek Travelstead. He had dark brown hair, and he had the neatest freckles she had ever seen sprinkled across his face. When he smiled, he looked just like Kirk Cameron.

  She also noticed Scott Daly and Shane Arrington standing together. Scott had been her boyfriend in sixth grade, and she still liked him and went out with him sometimes. In fact, she loved to daydream about the night a few weeks ago when he had taken her home from Laura McCall's party and kissed her good-night. But she liked Shane, too. He was one of her new crushes now that she was at Wacko. Her heart fluttered as she wondered if Scott and Shane could possibly be talking about her.

  Jana and Randy and Christie and Jon were talking quietly together. Jana and Christie were the only other members of The Fabulous Five there besides herself, and she looked away quickly before they saw her and noticed that she was looking at them. They might think she was jealous that they were with boys and she wasn't.

  She was just about to call out to Alexis Duvall and Jill Weinberg when Curtis Trowbridge dragged a chair into the center of the room and climbed on it. He put fingers into the corners of his mouth, whistling loudly for attention.

  "Okay, everybody. Grab a chair." He waited for everyone to find a seat and then continued, "Listen up. We don't have much time, so we have to get started."

  "The first thing we need to do is get a dance chairperson," said Taffy Sinclair. She looked gorgeous, as usual, with her long blond hair falling softly over her shoulders.

  "She just wants to be the one picked," grumbled Dekeisha Adams, who was sitting right behind Melanie.

  Melanie frowned at Taffy. Rats! she thought. Why didn't I think of that? My friends couldn't help noticing if I were the chairperson and everybody had to report to me.

  Just then Laura McCall spoke up. "I think we should elect a chairperson."

  "I vote for Laura," called out Melissa McConnell.

  That made Melanie even angrier.

  Curtis called for quiet again as kids started talking among themselves about which girl should be chairperson. "As class president, I have decided to be dance chairperson," Curtis said, "and I have already made out a list of committees that we'll need. They are: music, decorations, refreshments, and publicity." He waved a sheet of paper in the air as he announced each committee. "I am going to put these sheets on the media center bulletin board, and I'd like for you to sign up for whichever committee you'd like to be on."

  "What a hard choice," Melanie mumbled to Dekeisha. "They all sound like fun."

  Dekeisha nodded as Curtis went on talking. "Since I'm the dance chairperson, I will attend all the committee meetings, which means that each committee will meet on a different night. Refreshments on Monday. Decorations on Tuesday. Music on Wednesday. And publicity on Thursday. Since this is Tuesday, the first meeting of the decorations committee will be here in the media center tonight at seven p.m. If anybody has any questions, see me."

  Kids began talking among themselves, discussing which committee they wanted to join, but Curtis wasn't through talking. "The next thing we have to discuss is a theme for the dance."

  "What about a fifties sock hop?" suggested Chandra Sharp.

  "Naw," said Brad Eisenhauer. "The eighth-graders had one last year. Let's do something different."

  "I know!" shouted Joel Murphy, waving his hands in the air. "I have the perfect idea. Let's have a monster party."

  Several girls made faces and a few boys groaned, but Joel wasn't finished.

  "Come on, guys," he insisted. "Listen to this. Everyone could dress up as something weird. There are all kinds of monsters. And we could use that old song 'Monster Mash' for our theme song. I think I know somebody who has the record."

  "Wow!" Scott Daly and Steve Hernandez shouted in unison.

  "We've even got the perfect person to be one of the chaperons, Dracula!" added Whitney Larkin.

  "Terrific," said Jon Smith.

  Even some of the girls were smiling and nodding.

  Melanie thought about it. It could be fun, especially if she could find the perfect costume. Maybe she could be Elvira or some sort of strange creature from outer space. In fact, the more she thought about the idea, the better she liked it, except for one part. How would Mr. Dracovitch feel about being a chaperon at a monster dance?

  When a vote was taken, the monster party passed. Someone suggested calling it Wacko Wonderland, and everybody liked that, too. As the meeting broke up, Melanie joined the group that was swarming around the bulletin board to sign up for committees.

  "Which one are you going to be on, Melanie?" asked Alexis.

  "I want publicity," said Dekeisha. "Sign up for that one."

  Melanie shrugged. "I haven't decided yet." She hung back purposely. She would decide when she saw who was on each committee. If she was going to use this dance to help her impress the rest of The Fabulous Five, she had to plan very carefully.

  When the crowd thinned enough for her to reach the sheet for the music committee, she saw Shane's name on to
p of the list. I'm definitely on that one, she thought with a smile. She added her name under the others': Joel Murphy, Jon Smith, Laura McCall, and Brad Eisenhauer.

  The next list was for decorations. Naturally, Taffy Sinclair had signed up for that one. But so had Jill Weinberg, Chandra Sharp, and Alexis Duvall. Even though there was only one boy on that committee, it was Derek Travelstead. It might be fun getting to know him better as well as becoming better friends with Alexis, Chandra, and Jill.

  Melanie couldn't resist signing up for refreshments. Her own mother made the world's best brownies. She knew she could talk her into baking some for the dance, which would make Melanie a big hit with everyone. Christie and Melissa had signed up for that committee, too, and so had Randy and Steve Hernandez.

  That only left publicity. Maybe I should skip that one, Melanie thought. I'm already on three. Just then she caught sight of the list. Jana's name was at the top, but so was Scott's. She couldn't pass up a committee that Scott was on. Besides, it would be the only chance for Jana to see how popular she was . . . or at least how popular she was going to be. Whitney Larkin and Dekeisha were on that committee, too.

  When Melanie finally left the media center, her mind was whirling. She had signed up for all four committees. She couldn't believe she had done a thing like that. It meant that in addition to going to cheerleading practice a few days after school, she would have to go to a meeting every single night of the week. But each committee was important in its own special way.

  "Get set, Fabulous Five," she whispered under her breath. "Look out for your old friend, Melanie Edwards!"

  CHAPTER 4

  Shane caught up with Melanie in the hall on the way to biology class after lunch. "I've come . . . to bite . . . your neck!" he said in his best Dracula voice.

  Even though his words made her shiver, Melanie couldn't help giving him a wide smile. "Whoever heard of a blond, blue-eyed Dracula?" she joked. "You're a fake."

  Oh, my dear, that's where you're wrong," he said with a sinister laugh. "Vampires come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Why, for all I know, even Igor may be a vampire."

  "Now that I could believe," Melanie answered, and then flinched as Shane slugged her playfully on the arm.

  "Seriously, though, where do you suppose Mr. Dracovitch got all the cows' eyes for our class to dissect?" Shane asked. He wasn't smiling now, but Melanie could detect a slight twinkle in his eyes. "Do you suppose he went out into a farmer's pasture at night when the moon was full? Do you think he sucked all the blood out of the cows and then popped out their eyeballs?"

  "Shane!" Melanie cried. "Knock it off. That's disgusting."

  His eyes widened and his voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. "And then he brought them here to Wacko and put them into the refrigerators in the cafeteria for safekeeping until time for his classes to dissect them."

  "Shane, I'm warning you," said Melanie.

  "But alas! Something went wrong! The cooks found those eyeballs and ground them up and made them into meat loaf and"—he paused for dramatic effect—"served it for lunch today."

  "Gross! Gross!" cried Melanie, but Shane was doubled over laughing. She ignored him, trying to keep her stomach from turning flip-flops. Why on earth had she gotten hot lunch today? she wondered. The meat loaf wasn't ground-up cows' eyeballs, of course, but thank goodness she had covered it with ketchup just the same.

  She slipped into her seat in the biology lab, hoping that at least one of The Fabulous Five had seen her walking in the halls with Shane. That was part of her plan. Pretty soon they would realize that since they didn't need her anymore, she didn't need them either. She had plenty of friends—especially cute boys like Shane. But even if The Fabulous Five hadn't seen them together, Tammy Lucero certainly had. She was glaring at them as they entered the classroom, and Melanie knew she would run straight to Laura with the news.

  Mr. Dracovitch was calling the class to attention and taking roll. Melanie tapped her pencil absently as he launched into a long list of instructions for the dissection. She could get all that later. Right now her thoughts were on Mr. Dracovitch and the seventh-grade dance. At the meeting this morning she had wondered how he might feel about being the honorary chaperon, and seeing him now, she wondered the same thing all over again. Did he realize how weird that shiny, black toupee made him look or know that kids called him Dracula behind his back? Would he think it was a pretty funny joke? Or would his feelings be hurt?

  "All right now, class," he was saying. "It's time to take your places at the dissecting tables. Find your partners and choose a table."

  Forgetting about the dance, Melanie scrambled out of her seat and made a beeline for the dissecting tables, almost stumbling over Whitney Larkin in the process. Shane sat nearer to them and was ahead of her, motioning back over his shoulder for her to follow him to a table at the back of the room. Fantastic! she thought. It was so much more private back there.

  "Hi, Shane," she said brightly. "Are you ready for this?"

  Shane nodded, rubbing his hands together and licking his lips as if in anticipation of a feast. "I've come to drink your blood," he said, arching his eyebrows at her.

  "Shane! Cut it out!" she insisted, trying not to let it show that she loved his teasing.

  It took forever for the whole class to get settled at tables. Melanie noticed with dismay that almost no one chose tables at the front of the room; everyone seemed to want to get as far away from Mr. Dracovitch's desk as possible. Shane's and her table wasn't going to be as private as she thought. Also, Tammy and Chandra's table was almost close enough to overhear their conversation.

  "You will find a pan on your table," Mr. Dracovitch began in a tone that made the last few whisperers shut up.

  Melanie glanced at the table. Sure enough, there was a small metal pan in the center. There was also a drain, a spigot, which she guessed was for water, and a gas jet. She shivered. This is getting serious, she thought. I'd better pay attention.

  "Each pan has a number on it."

  Shane looked the pan over and pointed to the number seven on the side. Melanie nodded, thinking that seven was always a lucky number. Being Shane's partner was meant to be.

  "Remember that number," Mr. Dracovitch went on. "When you receive your specimen, it will go into the pan, and each day you will get your own team's pan from the refrigerator and resume working on it. Any questions?"

  "What's that awful smell?" asked Shawnie Pendergast.

  Melanie had smelled it, too, and she agreed with Shawnie that it was pretty awful.

  Bill Soliday piped up, "Cows' eyes, what else?"

  Laughter broke out in the room, but Mr. Dracovitch held up his hand for silence. "What you smell is formaldehyde," he said patiently. "It is a preservative. Actually, I find the odor rather pleasant, myself."

  Next Mr. Dracovitch walked among the tables carrying a large metal bowl. Stopping at each table, he used a pair of tongs to extract a large, round object and drop it in the pan. Melanie closed her eyes. The closer he got to her table the more she knew she didn't want to look at the awful thing, much less touch it. If she could just get Shane to . . .

  THUD!

  She opened her eyes without meaning to. There in the pan was an enormous eye. It was wet and slimy looking, and it was staring straight at her. The room started to spin. She reached out to grab the table, but she felt arms close around her instead. She looked up into Shane's face.

  "Are you okay?" he asked, holding on to her tightly.

  "I think so," she said. "It's just so . . ."

  Shane was nodding. "Gross," he said, finishing her sentence. "I think so, too, but we'll get used to it."

  Melanie smiled gratefully. The room had stopped spinning now, and she noticed Mr. Dracovitch standing beside Shane looking awfully worried.

  "Are you sure you're all right?" he asked. "Maybe you'd like to sit down or step out into the hall for some air."

  "I'm fine," she insisted, and then smiled at Shane, who had moved back t
o his side of the table now. She couldn't believe how quickly he had rushed to take care of her. And what was just as super, Tammy Lucero had seen it all.

  CHAPTER 5

  With Shane's help Melanie managed to get through the rest of biology class. She made herself look at the specimen, as Mr. Dracovitch had called it, which was almost as big as a baseball. The white part and the pupil looked like any other eye, only bigger, but the rest of it was covered with a sort of bluish-black gel. "Gross," she whispered over and over again, and she could hear other kids reacting the same way.

  All that the class was supposed to do the first day was weigh and measure the eyeball, which fortunately Shane did for both of them. He even wrote the results in both of their notebooks and whisked pan number seven into the refrigerator and out of her sight.

  When the bell rang, Shane was out of the classroom door ahead of her, and she hurried to catch up.

  "Thanks a million," she said. "A zillion, actually. Igor would have been proud of you."

  The mention of Igor always made Shane's face light up. "Do you really think so?" he asked, flashing a big smile and slowing to walk beside her.

  That was just what Melanie had planned. "Why don't you ask him?" she said. Crossing her fingers behind her back, she went on with the rest of her plan. "By the way, did you write down all of Dracula's instructions? You know, the stuff he was saying at the beginning of class."

  Shane nodded.

  "Great," she said, beaming her best smile straight at him. "I missed some of it, and I really want to get a good grade in this class. Especially since I embarrassed myself in front of Mr. Dracovitch by almost fainting." She paused a moment and lowered her eyes, hoping that he would remember putting his arm around her and rescuing her. "Anyway, do you think I could look at your notes and copy the parts I missed?"

  "Sure," he said, opening his notebook to the section marked BIOLOGY. "You can take them with you and give them back to me later."