"Turnaround Dance, huh." Shawn said as he examined the flyer on the wall, "Girls ask the guys. Merry Christmas to me." Rubbing his hands together, Shawn walked down the steps and headed for his locker. He totally knew who was going to ask him; there was no question in his mind.
"Ah, it's about time the girls had to worry and sweat and write out a list of topics to talk about on their hand." Cory smiled to himself as he thought about how simple this dance was going to be for him, not noticing Shawn's look of concern.
"You do that?"
"No," Cory shoved his hands into his pockets, "Never. I'm just glad the pressure's off. You know, know we've got to sit back and wait." Cory smiled as he leaned against a locker.
"Is that what you think? The pressure's off?" Eric said as he overheard Cory, and smiled, "Dream on, girls."
As he turned to leave, Cory reached out and grabbed Eric's arm, "Wait, wait! Come back, come back, come back."
"Look," Eric started as though he were about to reveal his deepest, darkest secret, and Cory and Shawn leaned in, "A turnaround dance tells you where you stand. I mean, the type of girl who asks you who you are."
"Well, who are you if nobody asks?" Cory folded his hands together, nervously.
"Then you're you." Eric stated.
"Well, how do you get asked by a cool girl?" Cory asked as he gave Eric a smirk.
"Positioning."
"Huh?"
"Look, you wanna cool girl, hang near her locker. Stand in her direct vision. If she can't see you, she can't ask you." Eric said, "Remember positioning."
Okay, Shawn thought as he looked around for a certain figure, positioning. All I gotta do is get in the right position.
~8~
"Hey Cory, Shawn." Melanie greeted as she walked towards them next to Topanga, "What are you guys doing?"
"Oh, you know, just standing." Cory said as he dropped his arms and threw his bag onto his back, "And being here."
"Really? Are you sure you're not looking for a date?" Melanie wasn't stupid. She saw the conversation the boys had with Eric and she totally saw that Shawn was trying to stay in her line of vision. He would always move so that Cory wasn't blocking him.
"Could be," Cory nodded.
"Well, I'm not going." Topanga said and Melanie noted the look of panic and fear after she had said that.
"My only hope." Cory dramatically motioned towards Topanga and Melanie laughed lightly. She saw through Cory's sarcasm and knew that he was worried that no one was going to ask him, "I mean, why?"
"It's a protest. The concept of a turnaround dance implies that all the other times only the boys can do the asking. That's destructive, gender-biased thinking and we have to get beyond that."
"Why?" Shawn panicked as he looked at Melanie, who was staring at Topanga in awe. It was no secret that Melanie admired Topanga for her feminist thinking and if she agreed with Topanga, then who would ask him… okay, lots of girls would ask him, but not the one he wanted to.
"Besides, that weekend my daddy's taking me New York for Christmas shopping." Topanga smiled at the two boys in front of her, "I'll see you in class."
As Melanie turned to leave she felt a hand grab her arm and turned to see Shawn staring at her, his face slightly flushed.
"Um, hey, Mel…" Melanie raised her eyebrows as she looked at Shawn, waiting for him to continue, "Are you going to the dance?"
"I'm planning on going, yes."
"Ah, cool. Do you have a date?"
Tilting her head to the side, Melanie looked at Shawn, "No, not yet."
Before Shawn could ask another question, Melanie had already turned and pulled her arm out of his grip, gently. Shawn could only watch her walk away, pouting, not seeing the small smile on Melanie's face. Oh, she did have someone in mind to ask to the dance… she just didn't know how to ask him.
~8~
The lecture that Mr. Turner was giving the class was pretty cool to Melanie. Reaching down to grab a piece of paper from her backpack, Melanie flinched when she felt something hit the top of her head before landing on the floor in front of her. Staring at the small piece of crumpled up paper, Melanie lifted her head to look at Shawn, who was looking at Mr. Turner with an intense focus. She immediately knew that he did it.
Sighing, Melanie opened the paper and grabbed her pencil, ready to respond to the question he asked. It wasn't unusual for Shawn to pass notes to her during class… in fact, it was completely normal. Whenever Shawn had a question about what they were learning, he would pass notes to Melanie; sometimes getting their whole row to pass them to her if they weren't sitting close to one another.
Readily prepared to write down an explanation to what Mr. Turner was talking about, Melanie froze, a pink blush rising to her cheeks.
Who you going to the dance with?
A boy. Melanie scribbled down before tossing the piece of paper towards Shawn, missing the disappointed look on his face when he read it. Again, the piece of paper landed on her desk.
Which boy.
A certain boy.
Before Shawn could respond Mr. Turner was walking down their row, talking to the class.
"What if day one, I walked into this classroom." Melanie nearly laughed at Mr. Turner's impression, "Aye, 'ow ya doin. My name's Mr. Turner. I'm gonna be learnin yous guys some good English. Okay? What would you think?"
"I'd have a shot at an 'A'," Melanie cracked a smiling, knowing that was true. On the note he wrote her, he wrote who you going wit instead of who are you going with.
"How you speak, how you look effects peoples' perceptions of who you are." Mr. Turner sighed as the bell rang and Melanie quickly packed up her books, stopping when she heard Shawn's words to Cory.
"Cory, I just figured out how to make your date with Ingrid work."
"It's okay, Shawn." Cory looked down at the books in his hand, "I've excepted my average fate."
"What are you guys talking about?" Melanie asked as she walked over and stood next to Shawn, noticing how he positioned his body so she could see his face.
Shawn ignored her, "No, look. You'd be happy to go the dance with her if she were cool."
"Yeah, but she's not cool." Cory stated and everything suddenly clicked for Melanie. Of course, Cory was upset that he hadn't been asked out by the hottest girl in the school (or Topanga wasn't going), and the person who did ask him was a nerd. Melanie knew who Ingrid was. She had math with the girl and it was amazing to watch how quickly that girl did math. Seriously. She could have a two-sided paper done in under five minutes.
"So, we make her cool." Shawn explained as he gave Cory a smile.
"Is that possible?"
"it's all here in the pig play," Shawn held up the book Mr. Turner had assigned them for homework, "You know, we change her clothes, her hair, her whole look."
"Shawn, we're guys. What do we know about girl's clothes?" Cory stated and Melanie tensed as she felt Shawn's arm wrap around her shoulders and pull her close to his side.
"That's why we've got Mel."
~8~
It wasn't until Shawn opened his backpack in the middle of science that the piece of paper fell out of his bag. Slowly picking it up, Shawn unfolded the small paper and smiled at the sight of Melanie's loopy handwriting that littered the page.
Wanna go to the dance?
Shawn swore that he felt his heart jump in his chest and tried the best to not get out of his seat.
Eric was right, Shawn thought as he reclined in his seat, still holding onto the paper, it's all about positioning.
~8~
"I'm sorry about this, Ingrid." Melanie said as she pulled the large curlers out of Ingrid's hair, "Personally, I think you're already pretty."
"Thanks, Melanie." Ingrid flinched as Melanie began to brush eye shadow onto her eye, not used to being dolled up, "But it's the least I could do for Cory. He did agree to go to the dance with me."
"Melanie," Morgan's voice rang throughout Cory's bathroom as the little girl slowed to a stop and held out the piece of paper in her hands, "This is from Shawn and Cory."
Melanie looked at the paper in her hands before crumpling it and throwing it into the trash.
"Come on," Melanie opened the door for Ingrid, "Let's go show the boys your new look."
"Here she comes," Morgan began for them and Melanie was the first to walk down the stairs.
"Wow," Shawn said as he looked at Melanie in awe, "She looks just like Mel."
Melanie rolled her eyes before stopping next to Cory, "That's because I am Mel."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Melanie announced, "Ingrid Iverson."
"Wow," Cory said as he watched Ingrid walk down the stairs.
"Is it okay?"
"Yeah!"
"Nope." Melanie frowned at Shawn's answer. She had not just spent two-hours of working on Ingrid for Shawn to say that she wasn't 'good enough'.
"What the heck do you mean?" Melanie fumed as Cory stared at Shawn, shocked.
"I'm telling you we missed. It doesn't work. It doesn't work at all."
"What do you mean it doesn't work, Hunter?" Melanie stalked up to the table towards where he stood.
"Melanie said I looked pretty." Ingrid stated as she looked at Cory in confusion.
"Yeah. Shawn, she looks gorgeous." Cory defended Ingrid, not noticing Melanie roughly packing bag.
"Yeah, and what does that give you?"
"Pretty much everything."
Shawn sighed, "Cory, we're going for cool here. Cool is more than just looks… it's an attitude."
Melanie, who hadn't heard a single word of the conversation going on, stopped at the door to the patio and turned to Shawn, who had finally noticed Melanie at the door.
"Do the makeover yourself next time." Melanie fumed as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and went out the door, slamming it lightly behind her.
"Now that is a gorgeous and cool woman."
~8~
Melanie nervously pulled at the dark blue dress that she was wearing as she stood inside the gym waiting for Shawn. Before Topanga had left, she had helped Melanie with her hair and makeup since Melanie seemed incapable of putting it on herself. Her long, brown hair was pulled back into a French braid and she had purposely left out some strands. Her makeup was very natural, only eyeliner, mascara, and foundation.
"Hey, I'm meeting a gir-" Melanie turned around to come face to face with Shawn, "Mel?"
"Hey, Shawn." Melanie nervously twirled a piece of her hair around her finger.
"You look… amazing." Shawn breathed.
"Thanks," Melanie blushed, "So, do you wanna head inside now?"
"Yeah."
As they entered the gym, Melanie noticed Cory sitting alone at a table, with no Ingrid, and turned to look at Shawn.
"Where's Ingrid." There was no question in the matter that Shawn had arrived at the dance with Cory and Ingrid.
"She dumped him," Shawn replied as he took a sip of some punch and Melanie frowned. Making her way through the crowd, Melanie pulled back a chair, startling Cory, and sat down.
"Tough day, huh?" She asked as she looked at Cory, hearing Shawn take a seat next to her.
"You hear it from the women's network?" Cory looked at her and she shook her head.
"Shawn told me. He was here when it happened."
"Hey, girls." Melanie slightly turned her head to see Eric approaching them with a drink… and no date.
"Eric, not now. Any time, but not now." Cory said as he tried to shoo Eric away. Melanie couldn't help but frown again. She didn't understand why there was such a need to be cool. It didn't make sense. Did it really matter how you dressed? Or how you did your hair? The only person Melanie wanted to impress was herself.
"Why? Cause you got dumped twice?"
"Three times." Shawn corrected.
'Wow."
"I don't see you with your date," Cory retaliated and Eric sighed as he sat down next to Cory.
"Yeah, where's Jaqueline?" Shawn asked.
"Funny thing." Eric said, "her old boyfriend came to town, it turns out things aren't over between them, she hopes I'll understand."
"Do you?" Cory asked.
"Oh, yeah." Eric said and Melanie could see that he was lying through his teeth, "Completely relaxed about this whole situation.
"No, you're not." Melanie stated and gave Eric as smirk as he glared at her.
"Hi," Melanie turned to see an older boy holding a camera looking at them, "Would you like a picture to remember the dance?"
"Drop dead!" Eric barked and Melanie held in a snicker.
"Yeah, so relaxed." Cory teased before turning to the frightened boy who was trying to leave, "No, no. Wait. Come back. Take a picture. A picture of the three coolest guys at the dance and the prettiest girl at the dance."
Melanie couldn't help but blush at Cory's words.
"Yeah, we're all sitting at the losers table," Eric snipped and Cory shushed him.
"Smile now, and in twenty years, if anyone asks, are dates were in the bathroom."
"Hey," Shawn said as he pulled Melanie over towards Cory and Eric, "My date is right here."
Eric laughed as they all positioned themselves in front of the camera, "Shut up."
"Alright, everybody say cheese."
"You gotta say dumped." Shawn stated with a chuckle.
"Dumped."
"Dumped."
"Cheese."
"Cheese."
Do you guys want another sneak peak? I think it has been a while since my last one.
Thank you for all the reviews!
MarvelWorksWonders: It makes me so happy that you look forward to reading this story so much. The older version of Melanie in Girl Meets World is still undecided. I have a picture of the person but I don't know who they are. Plus, I'm not sure if I want her to be the set older Melanie. Let me know if you have any ideas!
narelclollie: Thanks!
slug sage: I'm not positive on who I want to play older Melanie. I think I have an idea, but I'm not sure. Let me know if you have any ideas! and thank you!
Guest(Pippythewriter): Thank you! What Melanie and Topanga were both thinking was that Shawn and Cory got 'dumped' for playing with Linda and Stacy. I'm really excited to write Career Day and Home because I feel like they're going to give a lot of insight on how Melanie's character is growing.
Guest(Winter kiss): Thank you!
I'm trying my best to respond to everyone's reviews so please let me know if I missed yours. Also, please don't be afraid to review or PM me. Any review/ idea is appreciated.
See you soon,
Ana
P.S. I published a Benny/OC (Sandlot) story. Please check it out and review it if you're interested.