"This really isn't good." Lisbon whispered to Jane as they got out the plates for dinner.

"Tell me about it." Jane agreed, casting a glance at the doorway, concerned Melody would sneak up and hear them talking. "She's moping. She almost never mopes."

"Yeah, well, Ellie almost never flakes on plans with Melody. At least, not without a good reason."

Jane nodded. Ellie was supposed to have been sleeping over that night but in the morning she'd texted Melody and said she wasn't coming because she didn't feel good and then, according to Melody, was pretty much unresponsive after that. "I mean, not feeling well is a good reason to cancel plans, but she's never ignored texts from Melody even when she wasn't feeling well."

Lisbon sighed. "This is going to be one long weekend. You think we should call the Fallon's? See what's going on? If they know anything."

"Somehow, I have the feeling they're just as in the dark about this as we are. Maybe more so."

Lisbon pinched the bridge of her nose. "Teenagers are exhausting."

"But we're still going to miss her when she goes off to college." Jane kissed Lisbon's head. He went to the bottom of the stairs and called up to Melody. "Melody! Dinner's almost ready." Jane went back to the kitchen and a few moments later Melody shuffled in. With the exception of the frown on her face, she looked ready for a slumber party in her pyjamas and fuzzy slippers. She mumbled a greeting to her aunt and uncle before grabbing a plate, putting some food on it and taking her seat at the table.

Jane and Lisbon looked at each other across the table. Oh boy, this was going to be a difficult dinner to navigate.

Melody poked at the food with her fork a bit.

"So…" Jane started. "I guess we're not going to talk about it."

Melody sent him an annoyed look. "What? You want to hear about how my best friend hates me? That's what you want to talk about at dinner?"

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you, Melody." Jane placated.

Melody just blew air out of her nose while raising her brows and rolling her eyes. She picked up some food on her fork and shoved it in her mouth to give her an excuse to not talk for a bit. She'd already said too much. She'd engaged with her uncle's line of questioning and so now he was encouraged.

Lisbon trying to defuse the tension in the air tried to change the subject. "Maybe we can find a movie to watch after dinner."

"I'm just going to go to bed." Melody responded after her mouth was empty. "I'm pretty wiped from gymnastics."

"Okay." Lisbon nodded agreeably. "Well, how about we do something fun tomorrow? We could see if there's anything interesting playing at the theatres."

Melody shrugged, putting more food in her mouth to avoid having to actually respond.

"That's an idea." Jane piped up. "There's that new one out you wanted to see, right Melody? Blood and Valentines?"

Lisbon and Melody both looked at him, shocked. It was a horror movie and Lisbon didn't like that Melody had picked up Annabeth's love of horror movies. She almost always refused to take Melody to see them. Jane looked from Melody to Lisbon, raising his brow to encourage her to say something.

Lisbon looked at Melody, "well, it's...an idea…"

Melody looked between her aunt and uncle. "Oh, my god. You think I'm so sad I need you to take me to see a horror movie. Am I really that bad?"

"No, Melody. It just might be nice to spend some time together." Lisbon defended.

"Well," Jane put in, reaching out to pat Melody's hand. "You are moping just a little bit."

Melody sputtered. "I am not moping!"

Jane shrugged and held his thumb and index finger close together in a gesture that said, okay but maybe just a little bit moping.

"Jane!" Lisbon chastised.

"Okay, wow." Melody straightened in her seat a bit. "Fine. Maybe I am being a little mopey. I will accept your offer to see the horror movie tomorrow, but not because I'm that type of mopey and pathetic, but because I want to see that movie."

Jane looked at Lisbon. "I call that progress."

"It's a rated R movie!"

"So, you were lying about taking me to go see it?" Melody's frown deepened.

"No." Lisbon said.

"So, we are going to go see it?"

"N-ye-can I think about it?"

Melody wrinkled her nose. "That sounds kind of fishy, like you're going to say no and you're just procrastinating."

Lisbon looked at Jane, annoyed, willing him to jump in any time and help her fix this mess he made in the first place.

"Well, if you're fine and not mopey, do you need to see the horror movie?" Jane asked conspiratorially.

"What?"

"We were going to take you because it would have maybe helped you feel better but

now you say you don't need to feel better, so do you need to see the movie?"

"So, if I tell you I'm sad, I can go see the movie?" Melody countered.

"But now we know you're not sad. You've shown us your hand already."

This time Melody's eyebrow raise was amused. "You think you're clever."

"I know I'm clever. You think you're clever." Jane grinned teasingly.

Lisbon rested her elbows on the table and pressed her palms into her forehead. What was she going to do with these two?

Melody snorted. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

The phone rang and Lisbon all but sprinted for it. Anything to get away from the possible food fight about to start.

"Well, you're smiling now." She heard Jane say. "So I was clever enough to make that happen."

"Hello?" Lisbon picked up the phone.

"Hi Miss. Lisbon! It's Bella from gymnastics. Is Melody there? I know it's dinner time, I'll be fast." Bella said cheerily.

"Sure." Lisbon said. "I'll get her." She walked back to the table. "Melody, it's Bella." Lisbon handed the landline to her niece.

"Oh?" Melody took the phone and went to the living room.

Lisbon looked at Jane, hand on her hip when Melody was gone. "Really? A horror movie?"

"We wanted her attention, didn't we?"

"Not like that." Lisbon hissed.

"Well, she's feeling better, isn't she?"

Lisbon just rolled her eyes and sat back down.

"Okay, you guys are lucky. You're getting out of taking me to see Blood and Valentines." Melody announced when she returned a few minutes later. "Bella wants to go skating tomorrow."

"That is something I will always agree to let you do." Lisbon said.

-Mentalist-

Melody was feeling much better Monday morning, but she was still anxious about seeing Ellie. She and Ellie greeted each other as Melody took her seat next to Ellie in first period.

"I guess you're feeling better." Melody said, keeping her anger out of her voice, sounding more concerned.

Ellie swallowed nervously and smiled. "Yeah, it...was something I ate...I think."

Melody saw the guilt but didn't bring it up. "Well, I'm glad you feel better." Now she just felt awkward, but still hurt and annoyed. Drake's oblivious presence on her other side made the class feel even more unbearable with his attempts to talk to her and Ellie like nothing was wrong. To his case, he didn't actually know anything was wrong.

"Hey, Ellie!" someone called as Melody and Ellie both entered the hall. They turned to see Gigi running up to them. Gigi gave Melody a judgmental look before looking at Ellie and smiling sweetly. "You forgot this at my house Saturday." And handed Ellie her English notebook. "I just wanted to make sure you had it for your class, like a good friend. See you later!" She gave Melody the side eye and then pranced off down the hallway.

Ellie stood perfectly still, holding her English notebook, unable to move. Standing next to her, Melody felt her heart was going to explode. Melody's vision began to blur and her body began to ache.

"Well." Melody said finally. "I'm glad you finally found yourself a good friend."

Ellie looked at Melody, her own eyes glossy. "Melody, I-"

"You're sick of being my 'sidekick', so you'd rather be Gigi's. Got it." Melody spat and stormed off down the hallway, through the throng of students rushing to their classes.

"No, Melody!" Ellie tried to follow, but got lost in the crowd.

For the rest of the day, Melody ignored Ellie entirely in their remaining classes and wasn't at the lunch table. She rushed out of the school to her aunt's car at the end of the day so Ellie wouldn't catch her.

"Melody?" Lisbon said, seeing Melody's expression as she shut the door.

"Drive, Teresa. Please." Melody did up her seat belt.

Lisbon did.

They were a block away from Melody's school when Melody started to cry.

"Melody." Lisbon said gently, trying to console her niece, but also preoccupied with driving. She looked for somewhere to pull over. "Melody, what's wrong?"

"I'm so mad! Ellie is such a snake! How could she!? I hate her!"

Lisbon saw a grocery store and pulled into a parking spot as far from the other cars as she could find. "Whoa, whoa, Melody! What's this about? What happened?"

"She blew me off for Gigi! I knew she wasn't sick! She was hanging out with the meanest girl in our grade."

"Ellie?" Lisbon was shocked.

"Yeah!"

"How do you know that?"

"Gigi came up to her and gave her back her notebook that she had forgotten. Right in front of me! Of course it was right in front of me. She hates me. She's doing this to mess with me! But Ellie…." Melody buried her face in her hands and sobbed harder.

Lisbon reached over and pulled Melody as close as she could over the space between their seats. "I'm so sorry, sweetie. That's not fair. What did Ellie say about it?"

"I don't care! I don't care what she has to say about it! I'm mad. I don't want to talk to her! I don't want to see her again! I want to change schools. I want to go home."

"Ssshhhh…"Lisbon soothed, running her hand over Melody's hair. "It's okay. I know you're upset, but it'll be okay. I can take you home. I'll tell gymnastics you can't make it today."

"No." Melody hiccupped. "I need to go to gymnastics."

"You said you wanted to go home." Lisbon said.

"I know." Melody pulled away and sat up in her seat, calming down and wiping at her eyes. "But first I want to go to gymnastics."

"Melody if you need to skip a day-'

"No." Melody interrupted, determined. "Gigi won't mess with me enough to make me slack in my favourite thing. This is mine. I'm going to nationals and I'm not going to let anyone, especially not Gigi take that from me."

Lisbon and Melody held eye contact for a moment. "Okay." Lisbon nodded and gave Melody a small smile. "I love you."

Melody smiled back. "I love you, too."

Jane had been home and almost done with making Melody's favourite spaghetti for dinner. Lisbon had told him everything while Melody was at gymnastics. Melody showered and changed for dinner and Jane even had some cookies for dessert that Lisbon didn't object to.

There was a knock on the door as they were putting the dishes in the sink, all three looked at each other, confused.

"I'll get it." Jane volunteered.

"He just wants to get out of cleaning the dishes." Lisbon joked to Melody, who laughed.

Jane opened the door and was stunned for a moment, blinking at the person on the doorstep.

"Hi." Ellie said nervously. "I know Melody is mad at me, but - well, I - can I talk to her?"

"Melody?" Jane called over his shoulder. "Could you come here for a moment?"

Melody came out of the kitchen. "If you're planning to scare me, Patrick, I-" She stopped and her face fell when she spotted Ellie.

"Are you willing to talk to her?" Patrick asked gently.

"Tell her I'm not home." Melody said to Patrick and then turned to leave.

"Please, Melody!" Ellie called, voice shaking. "Even if you're still mad at me after. Please."

Melody turned back, eyes watery. "Give me one good reason why."

"Because you want to know why. And because I need to tell you. And because I'm really sorry."

Without another word, Melody just pointed to the stairs. Jane stepped aside and let Ellie in. Melody was already halfway up the stairs by the time Ellie got her shoes off. Ellie headed for the second floor as well, leaving Jane and Lisbon in the hallway, exchanging looks. There was a second knock at the door. Jane, again, opened the door. Sandy was there this time. "Hi. Sorry to bother you guys so late, but Ellie said it was important. I'm not totally sure what's going on, but I hope there's nothing delicate in whatever room they've gone, too. It doesn't look good."

"Come in." Lisbon said. "You'll probably be here a while."

"Would you like some tea?" Jane offered.

-Mentalist-

"Okay. What is it?" Melody said, sitting cross legged on her bed when Ellie entered and shut the door behind her.

"I'm sorry."

"Mhm." Melody rolled her eyes.

"It's hard to be the not as cool friend sometimes." Ellie blurted. "I just...I was jealous. You're going to nationals and you're doing well in school and you're on the soccer team and boys like you. And sometimes I actually heard people say 'you know, the blonde one. The quiet one that hangs out with Melody'. And the first time it felt weird but I ignored it but then I heard people keep saying it and it really started to hurt." Ellie took a few shaky breaths with her eyes squeezed shut because she could feel the tears coming. "I didn't want to hurt you, Melody. And I know I shouldn't have done what I did-"

"Why didn't you even talk to me?"

Ellie opened her eyes to look at Melody. "I did! And you said exactly what I knew you would. That you think I'm cool and that other people do, too, but you never mention anyone else."

"You wanted me to list everyone we know that likes you?" Melody huffed. Ridiculous.

"No. I don't know what I wanted you to say." Ellie's voice cracked. "Maybe there was really nothing you could say to fix it. But it - I just...It felt like a dismissal. Because you don't think people see me that way then I'm just wrong. My feelings about it are wrong. And of course you don't see it that way. You and I are different. And I know that's not your fault or my fault. And I know I should have done something else about it...But I was weak. And Gigi...she agreed with me. And it felt like everyone else was just going to tell me I was wrong. And a part of me knew it was probably her way of getting to you but another part of me wanted to believe that maybe it wasn't. So I agreed to study with her and her friends...but I hated it. And the whole time all i could think was 'this was a terrible mistake. What have I done?' I agreed because I thought it would show me I could hang out with people by myself. I could be the fun one by myself. But that was not the place to do it. She was not the person to want to hang out with." Ellie was now fully crying. "I missed you the whole time. But then I didn't know how to go back from it. How to undo the decision I made in a moment I felt really weak. And I know I can't...I can't undo it. But I can try and make up for it. I can try to show you that I am a good friend, still."

There was a moment where the only sound was Ellie's sobs before Melody spoke, her voice uneven and barely a whisper. "So, you've resented me this whole time?"

"No!" Ellie interjected. "No, that's not what I meant. I haven't resented you, but I don't know...when Mike wanted to talk to you - and I was already just feeling insecure and - it just really got to me. And I just didn't know what to do. But I know what I decided to do wasn't right. And I am really, really sorry."

Melody and Ellie held eye contact for a long and tense moment.

"I don't want to be the reason you're insecure. I want you to feel good about being my friend."

"I do!"

"That's not what it sounded like."

"No. Melody. We just need to figure it out. Like I'll maybe do more stuff by myself sometimes. And Gigi was totally helping manipulate me and I overreacted. We can't not be friends. I don't want us to not be friends. I want our slumber parties and our teasing at school. You've been the most supportive and encouraging and I want to keep going to your competitions in that horribly tacky t-shirt I had made with your face on it that we both hate but I wear it there anyway because it's funny and I know you really feel flattered by it."

"I don't feel flattered by it." Melody mumbled.

"You totally do."

Melody rolled her eyes. "I just don't want to be the reason you feel insecure."

"I think Gigi was the biggest player in that. Now that I think about it most of the people that started making me think the way I did had a connection to her."

"So…" Melody said thoughtfully. "Maybe we just need a game plan."

A hopeful smile tugged at the corner of Ellie's lips. "Yeah. Friends?"

"Friends."

"Best friends?"

"Maybe… But you should also know, if we're confessing things, that I didn't accidentally overhear the thing about Mike having a crush on a girl in his English class."

Ellie's brows furrowed. "What do you mean? Like, you were spying on him?"

"Uh, no. I asked Drake."

Ellie's mouth dropped open and she had to stop her voice from coming out completely shrill. "You asked Drake about me!?"

"No, I didn't even mention you. Specifically. I just asked Drake if Mike had a crush on anyone and he wouldn't give me a name so I asked for a clue and that was his clue."

"Melody! Oh my god! How could you!?"

"How could you blow me off for Gigi?"

Ellie looked down at her feet. "Okay." She said quietly. "You have me there."

"I guess our first next step is figuring out how we're going to pay back Gigi, then."

"Yes. I'm on board with this revenge."

-Mentalist-

"They've been up there a while. Should one of us go check on them? It's been oddly quiet? Is one of them dead?" Sandy Fallon asked as she sipped her tea Jane had made her.

"I didn't hear any bodies hit the floor, so we should be okay." Jane commented. "I agree it's suspiciously quiet.

"Maybe we should try and be optimistic and believe they've worked it out calmly." Lisbon suggested.

"Teresa, they're teenagers." Jane said. "Nothing about teenagers is calm." Jane pointed out.

"Well, we can hope at least!" Lisbon threw her hands up exasperated.

Jane laughed. "Anyway, Sandy. Seems unfair Andrew got to skip out on the drama and stay home."

"No, Andrew left for a business thing earlier today. He came by the hospital on his way out of town. Some conference about a budget for something. I don't know which one of us has it worse."

"I'll go up and check on the two of them and then maybe you'll have your answer." Lisbon joked as she got up from the couch to head upstairs.

"Maybe I should go with her?" Sandy asked Jane.

Jane shrugged. "If she needs us she'll call. She has a lot of experience with squabbling girls. You should see Lisbon between Melody and her cousin Annabeth."

Sandy smirked. "Ah yes, I've heard recounts of those famous squabbles. Mostly from Melody's point of view."

"They are very intense. I can confirm."

Lisbon returned to the living room and happily informed Sandy and Jane that both girls were in fact alive. She had found them huddled over Melody's desk talking in a conspiratorial fashion while Melody scribbled down their 'ideas' for something neither would specify in a notebook. They weren't 100% yet, but they had informed Lisbon they were working on it.

"We'll see you guys later." Sandy said as she and Ellie put their shoes on. "We should get together for like a double date." She said to Jane and Lisbon. "Been a while."

"That sounds nice. If we can get our schedules to line up. What with mine and Andy's wives both being workaholics." Jane said.

"Hey!" Lisbon and Sandy protested at the same time. Lisbon smacking Jane's arm.

"You should hurry up and get out of here before the adults get too dramatic." Melody told Ellie.

"Don't have to tell me twice." Ellie nodded and quickly headed out the door calling a goodbye to Lisbon and Jane.

"Oh, we're dramatic?" Jane raised his browns at Melody when Lisbon shut the door.

"How long did you brood in that CBI attic?" Melody responded smoothly and headed back upstairs, leaving her aunt and uncle stunned.

"We should ground her for that." Jane said.

"You want to start grounding her now?" Lisbon shook her head. "It's been a long day. Let's just go to bed."

Author's Note: Hello! Sorry for the wait. Time has really just gotten away from me. Thanks for everyone still here and supporting the story. I have been thinking about it still and would like to finish it, like I said before it will probably just take me a while. But thanks again! I hope you enjoyed!