A/N: A random, bored story that sprung into my mind from watching Rugrats in Paris on Netflix earlier. I couldn't help but think of what it was like to know Melinda before she mysteriously passed away out of Chuckie and Chaz's lives. Gabor and Arlene Ksupko owns everyone, I only own characters that are not in their possession. Read & Review. The story will get dark as it goes on, because, well, this is Chuckie's missing mom. No flames!

Melinda Cavanaugh was the new girl in town. She wasn't sure what to make of her new home. Her father was given a new job and a personal family matter which moved the family. Melinda stared out the window as she saw several unfamiliar faces and wasn't sure if she would like this moving experience or not.

"Now, Melinda, isn't this better than the farm?" Mr. Cavanaugh, Melinda's father asked as he drove his daughter away.

Melinda looked back. "Daddy, why did we have to go?"

Mr. Cavanaugh heaved a sigh. "I know you'll miss the animals, but I promise, my old friends going to take care of them from now on."

"Why couldn't Mama come with us?"

Mr. Cavanaugh paused again.

"Daddy?"

Mr. Cavanaugh didn't want to tell her truth, but he thought of a way to lie, but not in a way to hurt her feelings. "Melinda, you know your mama's been sick in bed a while and needed to stay... She had to spend a lot of nights in the hospital and couldn't come home. Mama's in a better place, you'll understand when you're older."

Melinda sighed and continued to look out the window. Grown-ups always said stuff like that. 'You'll understand when you're older', they would say when they wanted to know why their lost family members wouldn't come home. 'She's in a better place now'. If that was true, why wouldn't Mrs. Cavanaugh take Melinda and her husband with her? Melinda slowly shut her eyes, thinking of her mother and opened them again once the car stopped.

"Come on, Mel, we're ready." Mr. Cavanaugh told his daughter.

Melinda sighed and stepped out of the car. She held her old sock monkey. Her mother made it for her on her first birthday. Melinda wanted to learn sewing from her mother, but now it seems it's too late for that. The girl helped and watched her father unpack. Mr. Cavanaugh saw that his daughter was weary and bored.

"Mel, why don't you go see if you can make some friends?" he offered. "I'll unpack for you and get your things ready. Your new room and house will be something to look forward to."

Melinda heaved a gentle sigh and left her new yard. She looked all around her new neighborhood for some children her age. She saw a rather large group of kids together.

"Stu, I don't think this is such a good idea..." the red-headed boy whined.

"Aw, Chas, don't be such a baby!" the purple haired boy, Stu, told him as he looked around with a magnifying glass.

"Well, I'm bored of standin' around here, why don't we have a tea party?" the blonde girl asked.

"That sounds lovely!" the other nervous boy said.

"Pass..." the brown-haired girl who wore boys clothes rolled her eyes.

"Hey, there's a weird girl starin' at us!" the brown-haired boy in glasses pointed to Melinda.

The kids stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

"Umm... Hi..." Melinda greeted, nervously and shyly, holding her sock monkey close as if it had some kind of security to protect her from bullies.

"Who are you supposed to be?" the blonde girl asked, wrinkling her nose.

"I-I'm Melinda, I just moved here." the strawberry blonde girl introduced herself, still a little nervous around a large group of kids.

"Moving can be scary, we moved a lot when I was growin' up." the red-headed boy said.

Melinda smiled at him. She felt a bit happy that someone was talking to her and acknowledging her shyness. "Who are you all?"

"My name's Stu, and that's my brother Drew," the purple haired boy introduced. "That's Betty, and that's Howard, and that's Charlotte."

"And I'm Chas." the boy blushed as he was really close to Melinda.

"Hello, Chas," Melinda greeted. "That's an interesting name. I hope fall comes soon."

"Why? We'll be in school!" Betty looked at her.

"Oh, I know, but fall's my favorite time of year," Melinda explained with a sheepish smile. "Jumping in the leaves, celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving, carving pumpkins..."

"I guess she has a point." Drew shrugged, agreeing.

Melinda smiled.

"Well, I had enough mysteries, I'm going home if you guys don't wanna play." Betty sounded bored and walked off.

"Mystery?" Melinda grew interested.

"Yeah, Chas lost his inhaler and we're lookin' for it." Stu explained. "I'm the detective."

"Detective games are so boring!" Charlotte whined. "Let's do our nails or something."

"You can do that, princess." Betty looked at her hard.

Charlotte looked back at her, growling.

"Can I help?" Melinda asked.

The boys looked at her. They hadn't heard a girl interested in their detective games. Betty wasn't into dressing up or fashion shows like Charlotte, but even she found detective games boring.

"If you really w-want to... I re-really need to f-f-find it!" Chas nearly wheezed.

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, MAN!" Stu started to shake Chas.

Chaz screamed in his clutches.

"Stu, stop scaring people." Drew glared at his younger brother.

Melinda started to look around. Though she had clean-cut clothes on, she got on her knees on the ground and looked about. "What does your inhaler look like, Chaz?"

Chaz came out of the shaking and adjusting his glasses. "Let's see... It's kind of blue like the sky and it has a picture of Saturn on it," he chuckled a bit with a snort. "I love science fiction."

Betty and Charlotte looked at each other and rolled their eyes from Chaz's comment. What a geek.

Melinda looked around, but still found no help to get the inhaler. "Where did you last have it?"

"Well, I took it before we decided to play baseball at the park, and we left Stu and Drew's house. We then came here in my backyard to for some snacks, then I realized I didn't have my inhaler anymore." Chaz explained.

Melinda stood up and snapped her fingers. "Stu, Drew, where's your house?"

"Why?" Drew asked.

"I have an idea that might solve this mystery." Melinda told him.

Stu and Drew shrugged and led the new girl in town to their house. Chaz came with them to see if Melinda's instincts were correct. They went around and looked around for it. They still couldn't find it.

"Chas, where did you leave before you came to play baseball?" Melinda asked, sounding like a true detective.

"The front door, but..." Chaz stopped himself, feeling like he knew where this was going. "Wait!" he thought back, remembering. "I took my inhaler at the door while Stu and Drew were getting ready too. Then I ran off with them to play and my inhaler must have fallen out of my pocket in that bush!" he pointed to the bush near the front door of the Pickles house.

Melinda followed his finger to the bush and went to it. She dug her hands in and took out the inhaler.

"That's amazing!" Chaz gasped in shock, then wound up gasping a lot more.

Melinda saw he needed it really bad right now and handed it to him.

"Thanks..." Chaz wheezed, then inhaled to take a deep of fresh breath. He finished and caught his breath. "Thank you, Melinda..."

"Sure thing, Chas," Melinda smiled.

"I can't believe she actually found it!" Betty gasped.

"I guess that girl does have a brain along that beauty!" Charlotte added.

"Oh, unlike you?" Stu teased.

"Stuart Pickles, I'll kill you!" Charlotte hissed.

Stu laughed cheekily and immaturely.

"It's simple," Charlotte struck a pose. "I'm very beautiful, Didi has brains, Melinda just got lucky."

"Who's Didi?" Stu asked.

"Another friend of ours, she doesn't live in this neighborhood, but she goes to school with us." Howard explained.

"Melinda! Come home now! I got food for you!" Mr. Cavanaugh called from the distance.

"Guess you gotta go home now." Chas frowned.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I can go back, it was nice to meet you all," Melinda smiled, then rushed off.

"Goodbye!" Chaz called, then frowned a bit more. "I hope she'll be alright..."

Stu and Drew looked at him, then at each other, smirking. They noticed how attached Chaz seemed to the new girl. "Melinda and Chas sitting in a tree!"

"Hey!" Chaz snapped at the brothers.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Howard, Betty, and Charlotte joined in the teasing.

"Stop it, I don't like her!" Chas snapped back. Wrong, he didn't like her, he liked her liked her. As in childhood love. He hoped he would see more of Melinda in the future.