Chapter 12

Alan took a deep breath, puffing out his cheeks before knocking on the green door of house number 42. He heard a bustle of noise coming from inside, and then, a short, rather plump woman answered the door. She had brown hair, and Alan could tell by her green eyes that she was Melody's mother.

"Hi," she said, holding the door open and ushering Alan inside. "You must be Alan."

Alan nodded, "Hi Mrs. Clover," he said, remembering his manners.

"Come on in, and make yourself comfortable, Melody will just be a second." Mrs. Clover said, rushing up the stairs.

"Kids! Someone go talk with Alan!" she yelled over her shoulder and she disappeared around a corner upstairs.

Alan watched her go, and peeked around the corner into what must have been the living room. There, the room was overflowing with kids, all with brown hair and green eyes. They were perched everywhere, on the arm of the couch, stretched out on the floor.

Alan smiled, almost laughing to himself. He counted the kids slowly and came up with seven. Counting Melody, eight. The Clover's had eight children. Three of them under the age of four. A girl looked over, caught his eye and then whispered to the boy sitting next to him. Slowly, they stood up from watching the TV and walked over to him.

"Hi," the little girl said shyly, coming up next to Alan's arm. "I'm Ruthie."

"Hi Ruthie, I'm Alan," he answered, deciding she must be about eight. Close to Sheryl's age.

The girl was like a miniature copy of Melody. She had curly brown hair and those deep green eyes. When a boy came up too, bearing the same green eyes and the same brown hair, Alan smiled. You would always be able to pick out the Clovers in a crowd.

"Hi, I'm Jimmy." said the boy.

"Hi," Alan answered, waiting.

"Do you want to see my dolls?" Ruthie asked suddenly.

Alan didn't get a chance to think about how to say no without being rude before Jimmy broke in:

"You idiot, he doesn't want to see your dolls." Ruthie made a face and then Jimmy stuck out his tongue. "He's a football player."

Ruthie said, "Yes he does!"

"No he doesn't" Jimmy returned.

"Yes he does!"

"No, wait, how about I see, just one doll?" Alan said, wanting to keep the little girl from letting loose tears she was obviously holding back.

"Alan!" Melody's voice drifted down from upstairs.

"Yeah?" Alan called back.

"Do me a favor and bring me up those green shoes at the bottom of the stairs!" Melody yelled.

"Okay," he said, getting up and taking the shoes upstairs.

While he walked up the steps, he examined the shoes. They had a high heel, and were made of dark green velvet that was smooth to the touch. Alan noticed that he was now by a slightly ajar door, and wondered if it was Melody's door or not.

"Alan? Is that you?" Melody asked, from inside the door.

"Yeah."

"Come on in, dear," Melody's mother invited.

Alan pushed the door open to see Melody's room. It had peach carpet, a nice feather bed, a desk and a set of drawers next to a closet. The curtains and walls were a light blue. It was a pretty room. Melody and her mother were both sitting on the bed, Melody's back was turned to him. Her naturally wavy hair was now curly and falling down her back. Melody's mother turned to face him, reaching her hand out for the shoes. Alan handed them to her.

"Thank you, Alan," she said, with a bit of finality in her voice.

Alan knew that mean he was supposed to go back downstairs now. He did, and waited on the couch for a few more minutes until Mrs. Clover came downstairs. Alan stood up, as young men were always supposed to do when a woman entered the room.

"She'll be just a minute, dear," Mrs. Clover said as she walked through to the kitchen. As Mrs. Clover promised, in a short while, Melody came to the head of the stairs. Alan didn't see her at first, but then he looked up. Alan couldn't help himself from staring. She looked amazing! The dress she was wearing was green, the exact green of her beautiful eyes. It had thin straps on her shoulders, and was tight to the waist down. Then the skirt was made of a different material that was free to movement. Melody smiled at Alan as she stepped off the last step. Her shoe caught on the loose rug on the steps and she fell forward. Luckily, Alan was there to catch her.

"Darn shoes," she whispered, looking up at him. Alan took a deep breath. He just looked at her, thinking, You look beautiful.

"What?" Melody asked, slowly, watching his face.

Alan remembered that Melody said she could always read his face. He wondered if she could read it now. It had to say, You look beautiful. So beautiful. She had better be able to read it, because he couldn't find the words to say it right. Melody just looked at him, not reading his expression.

Alan sighed, whispering, "You look beautiful."

Melody smiled, obviously liking the compliment. Her smile showed her gratitude so there was no need for her to say it. Alan opened up the corsage box that his father had reminded him to take. Alan hadn't even looked at it yet. He grinned when it was no other color than green and white.

"Oh," Melody breathed, "It's wonderful!" Alan grinned sheepishly and helped tie it onto her wrist.

Mrs. Clover came in, "Now, come on you two, get together for a picture." She held up a camera, waiting. Melody turned sideways so that she was facing Alan.

She smiled up at him, whispering, "Sorry, my mom is kind of obsessed with pictures and things."

Alan grinned back and then both looked at the camera.

---

-Alan laughed with the rest of the group around him. Everyone at the dance was enjoying themselves very much. He was very relieved to notice that even though Ronnie had a date, he was still very friendly with Melody, and there was no tension between the two of them. Emma was sitting in a chair next to Gary, who was in his wheelchair.

A photographer came by, "Let's get a picture of you kids!" he said.

They all leaned in around Gary and Emma. Alan and Melody were standing behind them, along with The Rev and his date. Julius and his girlfriend stood next to them on one side, and Ronnie and his date stood on the other. Seeing their friends posing for a picture, more of the football team, including Petey, Louie and Blue, rushed over, trailing their dates.

"Smile!" the photographer instructed them all. They all did smile and then they hung around, all talking and joking.

A slow song came onto the speakers. Nearly everyone took their date out onto the dance floor. Alan didn't move. He noticed that Gary and Emma couldn't dance, and had to sit on the sidelines watching everyone else. Melody met his eyes and nodded. She had been thinking the same thing. Both walked over to Gary and Emma, pulling up a chair.

"Hey," Alan greeted them.

"Hi," Emma said, then, she turned to Gary, "I'm going to go to the bathroom, I'll be back in a minute."

Gary nodded, "Okay." He smiled widely at Alan and Melody. "This is some great dance, huh?"

Alan smiled back. It was so like Gary to act like it was just a normal thing. He was trying to act like he didn't care that he couldn't dance. Alan admired him all the more for this attitude. As they talked, two people walked up to them. It was obviously a guy and his date.

"I would tell you to dance with Gary here," the young man said, "But, um, you need to use legs to dance so..." The guy and his date laughed hysterically.

Alan stared at them. He felt like punching that guy out, but decided he wouldn't, just because he didn't want to ruin the dance. Gary was obviously angry, he looked like he would've killed that guy right then. Melody, her face twisted with rage, ran up to the guy and slapped him hard across the face.

The guy, surprised, hit her back, hard. Melody fell to the floor, holding her face.

Alan, angrier than before and shocked that the guy had hit a girl, stood up and punched the guy hard in the face. The guy held his nose for a moment, squeezing his eyes tight in pain, then, with a punch, he shoved Alan out the double doors in the back of the gym. Alan stumbled backwards, and lost his balance. He rolled down the long flight of stone stairs. After a long roll of bumping and scraping, and hearing a little torn material, Alan landed, face down on a stair. He wished everything had gone black and he had gone unconscious because then, he wouldn't have to deal with the pain, especially in his nose.

After a moment of lying there, he heard footsteps that sounded like high heels.

"Oh my gosh Alan!" he recognized the voice instantly as Melody's. She came over and knelt beside him, turning him onto his back. came over and knelt beside him, turning him onto his back.

"Oh, are you okay?" she sighed, her face stricken with worry.

Alan nodded, "I think so." He tried to sit up, but his head spun and felt like it weighed a ton. He lay back down. Melody took his head in her lap to help it from hurting. Then, to his disgust, his aching nose started to bleed. Melody pulled out a handkerchief and held it under his nose.

"Thank you," she whispered, her face close to his. Her long hair fell around her face, and around Alan's too. Even though he was full of pain, having Melody's face so close to him drove him crazy. He could smell her sweet shampoo and he smiled before his head started pounding again.

"No problem," he whispered, closing his eyes to try to stop the headache he had.

She stroked his cheek, "You're such a good friend to me."

Alan nodded, opening his eyes, but when he did, her face swirled around in front of him. He grimaced and closed his eyes again. Melody pushed some of his hair out of his eyes. Alan felt comforted at her touch. He sighed and leaned harder against Melody, his head completely limp in her lap.

"Alan?" They heard Gary Bertier yell down the stairs.

"He's okay," Melody returned, holding Alan's head steady. "He'll be just fine."