"Thus, the transcontinental railroad spelled the end of the Pony Express." Melanie carefully eyed Mr. Feeny while Shawn passed her a note, "Mail service faster, more reliable. Letters no longer had to be passed hand to hand," Mr. Feeny snatched the note out of Melanie hand and made his way to the front of the room, grabbing other notes, "These just in. Ms. Wilder wants to know what Ms. Harrington thinks she should wear to her party. Ms. Harrington wants to know what makes Ms. Wilder think she's even coming."

Melanie silently 'oohed' as she watched the Wilder girl glare at Melissa.

"I'm not invited," The Wilder girl hissed and Melissa rolled her eyes.

"We'll just see, ok?" She flipped her hair over her shoulder and Melanie turned her attention back to Mr. Feeny.

"Mr. Hunter wants to know if Miss. Strong is going to the party," Melanie gave Shawn a shrug, she hadn't been invited to the party yet so she wasn't sure if she was going to go, "And Mr. Matthews wants to know 'Is this going to be a make-up party?"

"Well, sure, Cory." Melissa battered her eyelashes, "You can borrow my lip gloss."

"Out!" Cory quickly fixed as he fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat, "Not up. A make out party."

Melanie watched as Mr. Feeny examined the paper closer before nodding in agreement, "Ah, so it is. Mr. Matthews wants to know if this is going to be a make out party."

"Not for him," Shawn smirked and Cory gave a groan, burying his head into his arms.

~8~

"I blew it, Shawn," Cory panicked as he walked down the hallway with Melanie on his left and Shawn on his right, "There's no way Melissa's gonna invite me to her party now."

Shawn shrugged and sat down on a bench, "So Feeny cut you off at the knees. People will forget. You'll get invited to the next party."

"You think?" Cory asked hopefully.

"This is high school, Cory." Melanie pointed out as she took a seat next to Shawn and looked up at Cory, "People are too busy to remember one tiny, little mistake."

"Don't think I forgot about you, baboon." Melanie rolled her eyes as she saw Harley grab Cory by the arm. Of course, she thought with a sigh, Someone's always gotta prove me wrong. "Don't think I forgot about last Tuesday—you sat in my chair in the cafeteria."

Cory sighed, "I'm sorry, Harley. I didn't know it was your chair."

"Everybody knows that's Harley's chair." Joey said as he stood behind Frankie, "Everybody knows it's always been Harley's chair and it's always gonna be Harley's chair every year that he's a senior. Ain't that right, Frankie?"

"What are you sayin? I like my sister?" Melanie gave Frankie a confused look at the sudden turn of events and looked at Joey.

"No, no! I'm not sayin that. I'm just sayin that you have a very close family."

Melanie watched as Frankie walked towards the telephone and scratched her nose.

"Hey, where ya goin?" Joey asked, confused.

"I wanna call home," Frankie sighed and Joey rushed over to him.

"Is he gonna be ok?" Shawn asked as he watched Frankie and Harley nodded.

"He's got a few issues. I, one the other hand, have one issue and that's you, baboon." Harley grabbed Cory's face and squeezed his cheeks, "I don't like you. I look at your face and wanna hit it. Is that so wrong?"

Melanie rolled her eyes and walked over to her locker, emptying her useless books and putting in her needed books.

"Mel, don't you agree that this is the most important time of our life." Cory asked as he walked over to her, Shawn following him, "I mean, if I don't get invited I might as well grow a hump and find a tower and ring the bell."

Melanie slammed her locker shut—not in an angry way—and looked at Cory, "Listen, in the end you meet a beautiful girl and get married or something. So why are you complaining?"

"She has a point, Cor. Besides, there's always room on our couch for you." Shawn added as he shifted his bag onto his shoulder.

"I thought your Uncle Franke was on the couch."

"No, not anymore. He won the lottery and stopped talking to us."

"Really? What did he win?" Cory asked.

"Six bucks." Shawn looked up and froze, "Don't look now, but the Pony Express just pulled into town."

"Oh, no!" Cory panicked, quickly turning around, "She's handing out the invitations."

Melanie watched as Melissa gave some kids letters and ignored other kids. It was just a party, there will be millions more thrown so who cares if you got invited to one and not the other. Raising her eyebrows, she watched as Melissa handed Cory and envelope and passed right by her and Shawn.

"Shawn, Mel, there's been a miracle!" Cory exclaimed as he raced over to them.

"Yeah, whatever," Shawn shrugged, pulling his bag tighter over his shoulder, "We're gonna be late for class."

"Class?! We don't need no stinkin class. Our future is set. We are high school gods." Cory started dramatically into the distance as he placed his arms around Shawn and Melanie's shoulders, "Come, let us retire to the gym and rejoice in our invitations."

"It's gonna be kinda hard, since I didn't get one." Shawn admitted and Cory's face dropped.

"What?" He asked, shocked.

"I didn't get an invite." Shawn shrugged, "No biggie."

"Hey, I didn't either. High five," Melanie smiled held her hand up, watching as Shawn meekly smiled back and gave her a weak high five.

"There's gotta be a mistake." Cory furrowed his brows as he looked between his two best friends, "Shawn, you're the coolest guy in school. Mel, you're, like, the nicest girl in school. You've got to be invited."

"Yeah, well, looks like I'm not." Shawn sighed.

"I'm gonna go find out what happened." Cory announced and Melanie gave a smile.

"Let it go, ok?" Shawn stated, "Just let it go."

"You want me to ask her?" Cory asked and Shawn meekly nodded.

"Yeah, would you?"

Melanie watched as Cory pranced over to Melissa and talked to her about it, surprised when Melissa walked over to them and held out and invitation.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I must have forgotten to give this to you." Melanie cautiously took the letter from Melissa hand.

"My name's Melanie. Not Melania." Melanie stated and Melissa gave her a fake smile.

"Really? I was pretty sure it was Melania."

Melanie raised her eyebrows and gave a fake smile back, "I'm pretty sure I know my own name."

"Yeah, well, I hope to see you at the party, Melania." Melissa flipped her hair over her shoulder and quickly walked away.

Melanie turned to Shawn, "I guess you really weren't invited to her parry."

"But I'm cooler than Cory."

"Hey!"

"You know it's true."

"So, are you gonna go to the party?" Cory asked and Shawn sat down on the bench.

"Nah, I'm probably going to grab a burger from Chubbie's."

"What about you, Mel?" Cory asked.

"Can't, won't, got better things to do."

"Like what?" Shawn scoffed.

"Going to Chubbie's and grabbing a burger with my best friend."

~8~

"Okay, Shawn, here's the plan," Cory whispered as he watched Melanie walk down the hallway, towards her class, "You're not gonna go to Chubbie's."

"And why am I not going to go to Chubbie's?"

"Because I'm cool, which means I run with a very influential crowd. Which means all I do is pick up this telephone, pull a few strings, and get you invited to the party."

Shawn raised his eyebrows, "Who are you gonna call?"

"Well, normally I'd call you." Cory admitted as he looked at Shawn.

"Cor, it's fine. You go have fun at the party, and I'll go have a burger with Mel." Shawn said, brushing his hair back.

"But it will be no fun without you…"

~8~

"Cor, you okay?" Melanie asked as she walked over to where he and Shawn were standing. True to her word, Melanie didn't go to the party and went to Chubbie's instead. It was weird though. One moment, she was talking to Shawn about how funny Stephanie had been when she tried to leave, and the next, she was squished next to Shawn (who had proudly thrown his arm over her shoulder) and a mob of people were suddenly at their table.

"No! I'm a geek!" Cory explained as he looked between her and Shawn, "You should go back to you friends."

"What are you talking about?" Melanie asked, confused, "They're not my friends; you guys are."

"Yeah, Cor. What are you talking about?" Shawn questioned, leading Cory over to a booth.

"I'm the worst kind of geek. I'm a geek who didn't know he was a geek." Cory admitted.

"Cory, does this have to do with the party?" Melanie asked, sliding onto the seat next to Shawn so that she was facing Cory.

"Yeah. It was a geek party. Melissa's parents took all the cool kids off the list; except you, Mel. She said her parents heard that you were a charming, young girl who didn't let popularity control her."

Shawn sighed before he gave a small smile, "Cory?"

"Yeah?"

"Do I hang out with geeks?"

"No. That's why I'm leaving."

Shawn grasped at Cory before he could leave, halting him in his place.

"Come on." Shawn said, pulling Cory down to his seat, "You're my best friend. You gotta loosen up."

"You don't think I'm a geek?" Cory asked meekly.

"Of course not."

"You think I'm cool?"

"Of course not."

Cory sighed, "Then what am I?"

"You're Cory. He's Shawn. I'm Melanie." Melanie stated and Cory rolled his eyes at her response.

"Just like it's always been." Shawn added, "What else do you need to know?"

"I need to know how to be cool like you guys."

"I'm not cool." Shawn stated just as Melanie asked,

"When did we become cool?"

"Mel, Shawn, look around you. I mean, this is the cool party. You guys are the center of the cool party."

"This is the cool party?" Shawn asked as Melanie looked around.

"Yes."

"Let's bail." Melanie shrugged, getting up and grabbing her jacket.

"What?" Cory gaped.

"It's too busy here. Let's go somewhere else." Melanie explained as Cory and Shawn got up.

"Oh, I got it. You're trying to teach me how to be cool."

"Huh?" Melanie cocked her head to the side as she stared at Cory.

"You're trying to show me that it doesn't matter where you go because if you're truly cool, where you go is the cool place to be. Right?"

Melanie and Shawn looked at each other.

"Cory?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"A very cool thing to say." Cory stated as he followed the two out.

~8~

"See, isn't this much better than Chubbie's?" Melanie asked as the three of them sat in her basement.

"I never knew your family owned so much ice cream." Cory groaned as he tried to spoon another scoop into his mouth.

"I never knew your sister was so cute." Shawn said as Stephanie sat in his lap, playing with one of her dolls.

Melanie gave a laugh and ruffled Stephanie's hair.


It has finally arrived. Sorry it took so long.

Should Mel and Shawn be Maya's parents?

Some say yes, some say no.

So let me know what you think and I'll tally up the votes.

Thank you for all the reviews!

Please don't be afraid to review or PM me. It can be about anything: the plot, Melanie's character, a question about the future.

Also, let me know if I accidentally missed one of your reviews and didn't respond to it.

See you soon,

Ana