Disclaimer: All hail Marc Brown, creator of the Arthur series.


The next week, Francine was busy painting her toenails when her cell phone began to ring. She didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Frensky."

"Binky?"

"Yeah, Muffy gave me your number. I hope that's okay."

"Uh, sure," Francine rolled her eyes. "So what's up?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to come to Rattle's party."

"No. I wasn't invited."

"That's why I called, dufus," Binky teased. "You should go with me. It's on Saturday night."

"Oh. I dunno…"

"You don't have to answer right now. 'Just thought I'd give you a heads up in case you were interested."

"Alright, uhm, thanks. I gotta go, okay?" Francine hung up the phone thoughtfully. If Rattles was throwing a party, that meant it was going to be rough. But she couldn't help wondering from time to time if she should start acting more like Muffy, more sophisticated; whatever that meant.

"…Don't be such a child…" Francine could still hear the other girl say in her mind. It wasn't the first time her friend had said that to her either. After a moment's pause, she grabbed the phone and dialed Binky's number.

"Hello?" the boy answered.

"I'll do it, Binky. I'll go with you to the party."

"Cool! Pick you up around 6:30?"

"Sure, 6:30 it is."

"Hop in," Binky insisted, unlocking the passenger side door with a button on his armrest. Francine climbed inside of the car. He looked at her up and down before laughing to himself. "Only you…" he trailed off.

"Only me, what?"

"Could pull off wearing a pair of combat boots with a skirt."

"Oh," the girl smiled. "I gotta be back by 10:00, alright?"

"Yeah, no problem. I've got work tomorrow, so I'm leaving the party early anyway."

"You have a job?"

"Duh! How do you think I'm able to afford this car? Gas isn't cheap, ya know. And it doesn't hurt to work in a mechanic's shop. That's a big plus."

"So what kind of engine does this thing have?"

"V6," Binky smirked. "You know about cars?"

"Maybe a little," Francine shrugged. "My dad teaches me a lot."

"You're alright, Frensky," the boy nodded. "You're alright…"


Music could already be heard blasting from inside once they pulled up to the curb at Rattles' house. A few people were lingering around the front door, smoking cigarettes and laughing with each other. Francine felt uncomfortable at first, but sticking with Binky made things a lot less scary. Her only regret was not being able to find Muffy.

"Where is that girl?" she asked herself. Then she saw her. Muffy was standing against the wall with Rattles, casually lifting a plastic red cup to her mouth for a sip.

After noticing Francine, Muffy waved to her and walked over.

"I'm so glad you decided to come! It's okay that I gave Binky your number, right? Has he been nice to you?"

"Yeah, he's been cool…So is Rattles your date tonight? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I've seen him talking with a lot of other girls too."

"Rattles? No. I'm so over him. I thought I told you that I'm into Romeo now."

"Romeo? Oh, you mean DJ Romeo?" Francine rolled her eyes with amusement. "He's just some guy from the radio. You'll never meet him."

"Oh, really?" Muffy asked with a smug grin. "Then how come he asked me to meet him tonight?"

"What? Okay, now this is going way too far. It's one thing to have a crush on this guy, but meeting up with him? That crosses the line!"

Suddenly, someone changed the music and a familiar dance song began playing.

"Oh, I love this song!" Muffy squealed as an older boy came up and grabbed her by the waist.

"Let's dance!" he said.

"Here, hold my drink," the redhead handed over her cup to Francine. The other girl just watched as her friend had a good time dancing, laughing, and acting carelessly. Francine hated the fact that she cared so much, but Muffy was her best friend. How could she not?

Looking around at everyone else who seemed to be having a good time, Francine started to feel bad. Was she really just being uptight? If everybody else could manage to have fun, maybe it was time to loosen up a bit. The girl sighed. Her best friend was off partying the night away while she just stood in the middle of the room, looking like a dork.

"Cool party," said a voice from behind her.

"Huh?" Francine replied as she whipped around to see who was talking to her. "Oh, Arthur. It's you," she blushed.

"I said, cool party," he repeated and took a sip from his cup.

"Yeah," Francine nodded, taking a sip from the cup in her hand out of nervousness then, grimaced after remembering that it wasn't actually hers. But at least the punch tasted better than what she had expected.

"Hey, wanna go sit up on the roof and talk? It's mostly flat up there."

Francine blinked. Muffy seemed safe for the moment, the punch wasn't bad, and now her crush wanted to spend time with her. Maybe this party wasn't turning out to be so bad after all.

"Sure. Let's go!

There were a few other kids on the roof, but everyone seemed to be minding their own business. So Francine felt as if she and Arthur were enjoying a very private moment as they gazed up at the darkening sky. It was sort of romantic.

"Fool moon tonight," the girl said. "They said strange things can happen under a fool moon…" She was hoping that superstition was true. She was hoping that Arthur might kiss her.

"Francine…" Arthur began slowly. "I brought you up here for a reason. I wanna talk to you about something important. I have a question for you."

"Okay," she responded, but in her head she was saying "Yes, yes, of course I'll go out with you!" Here they were, under the stars, alone…sort of, and Arthur was acting nervous, acting strange. Francine looked up at the moon and smiled. "What is it, Arthur?"

"I have a crush on someone, but I don't know how to tell her."

"Do I know this person?" the girl asked and tried to disguise the smirk on her face by quickly swallowing a large gulp of more punch.

"Yeah."

"Really. Hmm… tell me about her."

"Well, she's really fun and outgoing. I guess she's kinda tomboyish, but that's okay with me. Oh, and her hair always smells really good. It's kinda short and playful, I just wanna drag my fingers through it."

Francine turned to face Arthur directly. For some reason she was feeling more daring than usual.

"I know who you're talking about," the girl said softly. "And it's okay, she likes you too."

"Francine…Would you mind if I—,"

"Not at all," Francine shook her head. Impulsively, she closed her eyes and leaned in, only to feel Arthur's pant leg brush across her face. Her eyes opened quickly. He was standing up. "Wait, where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm gonna talk to Molly," Arthur explained, looking confused as to why Francine didn't seem to already understand that.

"Oh, right, right…I knew that," the girl nodded. "Yeah, I was just checking. Go ahead."

As soon as Arthur left, Francine broke down into tears. Molly? He had been talking about Molly? She was feeling upset and lonely and her head was swimming. She took one last sip of punch before angrily tossing the empty cup off of the roof.

"Hey!" called a stray voice from down below.

"Sorry," she mumbled, curling up into a ball and slowly feeling herself fall asleep.


"Frensky! Wake up, Frensky…"

The sensation of cold water being splashed on her face brought Francine back into consciousness. Then a dry paper towel wiped her wet skin. She tried to sit up, but she felt dizzy.

"Are you okay to walk?" asked a voice. It was Binky.

"I guess."

"Just hang onto me, okay?"

Binky led the two of them off of the roof carefully.

Once they were on the ground floor, Francine felt herself wobble around.

"What's wrong with me? Why do I feel so...so…"

"Drunk?" Binky provided. "Somebody must have spiked your drink. Who made it for you?"

"It wasn't really mine," the girl shrugged. "How long was I unconscious for?"

"Not long. I came up on the roof to pound whoever hit me in the head with a cup, but then I saw that it was you. You were only passed out for like ten minutes tops, before I finally found a way to wake you up."

"That damn, Muffy…" Francine said under her breath while dragging a hand through her hair. Her friend had obviously been drinking the spiked punch all night with no problems. What else was she doing that she shouldn't be?

"Have you seen, Muffy?" Francine asked with a sigh.

"Yeah, but she left like half an hour ago. 'Said she had to meet up with some guy at a coffee shop down the street."

"What? Oh, no!"

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I need to find that coffee shop, Binky," the girl began to swear frantically. "It's a long story, but—,"

"You can tell me on the way there," the older boy said while digging the car keys out of his jacket. "C'mon, let's go find her."

TBC...