"Melina, sweetheart, you need to get out of bed. You have school in an hour."
Melina only groaned back at her foster mom Rebecca. She did not want to get up and go to school today. Kelly had kept her up way too late talking on the phone. She loved her best friend to death but the blonde talked way too much for her own good. "I don't want to go," she complained.
Rebecca grinned and pulled the covers away so Melina couldn't hide beneath them. "I know but you have to sweetheart. Now come on. Shawn's downstairs making pancakes."
Normally Melina jumped right out of bed at the mention of Shawn's pancakes. She didn't always get along with her foster dad, but he could cook like nobody's business. But today it was all she could do to pull herself out of bed and throw some old clothes on. When she was tired she started thinking about her parents and doing that only led to her feeling depressed and lonely. Her parents had been killed in a car crash about a year and a half ago, and she still wasn't quite over it. She doubted she would ever be over it completely.
Shawn was doing his best to get his real kids Cameron and Cheyanne fed and ready, so Melina went ahead and served herself the food. "Do you need a ride to school today?" Shawn asked her as he tried to convince Cheyanne that her pancake had to be eaten by her, not the dog.
Melina shook her head. "I'm walking with Kelly."
The doorbell rang at that moment. "Speak of the devil," Melina said to herself. She took her plate with her as she went to answer the door. Kelly was indeed at the door and their other friend Brooke Adams. "Oooh pancakes!" Kelly said happily.
Melina quickly moved her plate out of the way before her food could get stolen. "Uh uh. Mine. You get your own."
Kelly pouted as she and Brooke came in. "Your no fun."
"Well I was up till three in the morning because somebody doesn't know when to shut up and let people get some sleep."
Brooke laughed as Kelly rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen. "I don't think you got through to her."
Melina shook her head. "Nobody gets through to that girl. She's been like that for years now." She and Brooke followed Kelly into the kitchen. "Kelly, why are you always eating our food?" Cameron asked. "Don't your parents feed you?"
"Cameron!" Shawn scolded. "There's plenty of food to go around."
Kelly giggled. "My parents are out of town for the week Cam. There's nobody there to feed me."
"And you can't even trust your own cooking," Brooke added.
"Exactly. That's why I steal everybody else's food."
That and your kind of a pig, Melina thought to herself. She and Kelly finished up their food and then left for school. Brooke and Kelly started talking about the pep rally that was scheduled for that afternoon but Melina wasn't really excited about it. She wasn't a cheerleader like Brooke and Kelly and she could care less about the sports teams. She used to care a little bit when she dated Dave Batista, who was the quarterback of the football team, but they had broken up several months ago because she had refused to sleep with him. She had thought about doing it, but he kept trying to rush her so she had just dumped him completely. She didn't put up with that kind of crap.
A black car cruised slowly up the street and Melina could see the driver looking at them. A sudden chill went down her spine. "That guy is watching us," she said nervously.
Kelly and Brooke looked over at the black car. "EW, it's probably some pervert," Kelly complained. "Make him go away Melina."
Melina glared at her. "What am I supposed to do Kelly? I don't have anything to hit him with!"
Brooke grinned. "I'll take care of this," she said with a grin. She leaned over and exposed some of her cleavage. "Hey perv, like what you see?" she yelled loudly. "Yeah, you can look but you can't touch because my daddy's the sheriff!"
Melina hit her. "Brooke! What the hell are you doing?"
The car pulled over to the side of the road and the driver's side door actually opened. "Oh God, run!" Melina exclaimed. She grabbed Brooke and Kelly by the hands and the three of them took off as fast as they could. They ran the rest of the way to school, not noticing they hadn't been followed and also not knowing that the man in question was a lot worse than the standard pervert.
XXXXXXXX
James got back in the car and grinned at Stacy. The three girls had been rather amusing. "That was fun."
Stacy rolled her eyes. "I thought we were looking for Jeff's new girl, not looking for teenagers to torment."
"Oh but I did find somebody for Jeff," James informed her. "I think that black haired one will be good for him. What was her name again?" He had to stop and think for a minute. "Oh yeah, Melina. That was her name. Yeah, she'll be good for him."
"Why her?"
"Because she was the only one of the three that didn't look like a dumb bimbo." He reached into his pocket for his cell phone. "Now that we've got that done, it's time to call Mark and--wait, where's my phone?"
XXXXXXXXX
"Haha, I have James's phone," Jeff sang under his breath. He had taken it upon himself to steal it for no good reason. "I have it and I'll never give it back because I'm evil Jeff now!" He started messing around with it and ended up dialing the third number that was on the speed dial.
"Hello?" Mark's gruff voice growled.
"Marky!" Jeff said happily. "How ya doin? I'm bored so you have to talk to me."
"Jeff?" Mark said in disbelief. "How in the hell did you get my number?"
"I stole James's phone." Jeff picked up his knife and examined it closely. Then he looked down at the girl that was tied up in front of him. Her name was Madison and she had been screaming until he cut her tongue out with a pair of scissors. Then he had given the tongue to Umaga, who ate it and ran off. That had been really gross and it made Jeff decide that he would not trust the Samoan savage near any of his body parts. "Nobody will play with me Marky. Dwayne and Miz are sleeping and Cactus is pretending to be Dude Love again and Roxxi won't come away from her tarot cards."
"Who's Roxxi?"
"The Voodoo Queen. We're staying with her."
"And where does she live?"
Jeff's eyes widened. "Hey, none of that now you bastard! You can't trick me like that. If you were here I'd stab you again for that." He took the knife and chopped three of Madison's fingers off. She tried to scream and that made him laugh. "Now see what I did? I had to cut Madison's fingers off because I can't get you."
"I will find you Jeff," Mark said dangerously. "And when I do, we're going to have ourselves a little confrontation."
"Blah, blah, blah!" Jeff said as he rolled his eyes. "You know, I don't know why you're still mad at me. Sure I killed Trish and then I stabbed you with a unicorn and tossed you out a window, but that's in the past Marky! This is the here and now. And the reality of the here and now is that I'm an orphan and it sucks. I'm going to ask Roxxi if she'll bring my family back as zombies. Zombies are cool. They eat brains you know."
Mark was silent for a good couple of minutes. "Why are we having this conversation?" he finally asked. "Why would you even call me? I don't have the patience to hear about the weird ass thoughts that go on in your brain."
Jeff pouted his lips. "You're mean Mark. I'm going to tell James you're mean."
"Go ahead and do that. I hope he tries to do something about it. He can't take on the whole Ministry."
Jeff began bouncing up and down. "You have a ministry? Can I join?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"You're annoying."
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not and you can't argue with me because I'm the baby here, so there!" Jeff stuck out his tongue and hung up the phone. "Mean Mark can't tell me what to do. I'll get in his little group whether he likes it or not." He looked down at Madison again. "God, why did I pick you? You're not as fun as you look." He stabbed her in the throat and sliced all the way down past her belly button. "There, that's better." He got up and opened the door so Umaga could come back in. "You can eat the rest of her," he told the Samoan Bulldozer. His eyes widened and he quickly ran back and scooped up the fingers he had chopped off. "Except for these. You can't eat these. These are going in Miz's lunch."
Umaga cocked his head to the side and then let out a primal scream.
Jeff gave the man a thumbs up. "Right on brother." He had no idea what the scream was supposed to mean, but he would work with it. Besides, he had a Chick Magnet's day to ruin, so until that was accomplished, nothing else mattered.
