kaligirl05: Yeah, Melissa is going to be an odd character. I wanted to make her…the uh…comic relief! Yeah. Someone to lighten the mood sometimes. I wanted to bring a mean girlfriend into the story and I thought "Who better than Sandy!"

Sodapop's#1gurl: I have a reason for making Soda act like nothing ever happened but I can't tell you yet. You'll find out in the next chapter though. Not this one, but Soda's birthday on the next one. Oh yeah! I really wanted to bring Melissa in to help her with her love problems…plus I needed someone to make Joey a bit happier at times. I think it was a good idea and I hope you guys like her.

Dess: I love dogs too. I have a pug. He's so adorable. Lol. I thought pugs were ugly until I got him. He's gorgeous.

LividDream: I know! Puppy/good. Sandy/gross! Ha ha. I don't have a problem with you telling me about my grammar and stuff. I was just joking about that. I know it needs a little work but Microsoft word doesn't tell me where commas go and that's the main issue. I never really understood commas. It's always too little and too few. It's pretty funny that I can manage A's in all my classes and not know how to use commas. There's public education for you! I do my best and I'm working on it. I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. I've read through this chapter a few times and I don't see any errors. (Any that I'd know how to fix anyway.) Ha ha. Thanks for the reviews. Oh yeah, I figured I could make Sandy the mean girlfriend in my story because she really wasn't talked about too often in the book. The only person who ever really described her is Soda so I figured I could play the whole "She's a witch behind my back" thing. Thanks for your support.

blondie0589: I know! I hope she goes down too! Ha ha. Thanks for the review.

DallyxSodaJDLuvinHoods: Seriously! But if I got Dally to kill her off then I'd have to put him in jail (to clear my conscious) and I'd have to find somebody else to play the witch. We'll just have to tolerate her…for now. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha! Always good to hear from you!

angeloves1: Why thank you! Its always good to hear from you too! Thanks for all the support.

Who really cares about pennames anyway: I know…I had to resist making Joey slap her. Ha ha. Thanks for all the reviews you've left. It means a lot to me.

WoPo12: Sandy is blonde? Crap! Crap! Crap! Um…She dyed her hair! Yeah! That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Ha ha. Thanks for the reviews.

Rugrats101: Hey yeah! What am I gonna name the puppy? I'll figure it out…hopefully it will have a name this chapter if I don't forget. Ha ha. Thanks for the reviews.

st.elmo-lover: Thank you! I wasn't sure if I should let Sandy be the mean girlfriend I had in mind but I think it'll be okay. The book didn't talk about her too much so I figured I could get away with shaping her character to my liking. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Thank you guys for all the reviews. You all are so awesome!

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Joey's POV

The next week was very interesting. Melissa had squealed when she saw the house. She said it had "possibilities". I didn't want to know what that meant. Probably work.

We had spent the next couple of days eating at her restaurant on the East side and scraping paint off the walls. Inside and out. It was a bit weird going to the East side and being treated like a high class soc, but I didn't mind. I though it was kind of funny, actually.

Melissa wanted to re-do the entire house. At first, she wanted a white house with pink shutters and a white picket fence, but I told her a picket fence would probably get us killed in this neighborhood. She finally settled on a white house with blue shutters and no picket fence.

She was a very entertaining person. She saw beauty in everything and she acted as if she didn't have a care in the world. Actually, she didn't. All she had to do was make sure her restaurants were taken care of and that I was kept track of. I made myself easy to take care of. I cleaned up after myself, did the dishes, and everything else she asked me to.

She didn't ask for much though. All she every really wanted me to do was help her fix the house up. She loved making things pretty. She even liked doing my hair. She has a strange obsession with braided pigtails so I wore them sticking out of my baseball cap a lot.

Today we were finally painting. We were just going to paint the outside. I don't know how she figures we can get it all done in one day, but I humor her anyway.

"Joey! Let's go buy some paint!" It sounded like she was hollering from the kitchen. I laughed.

"But we've been three times to buy paint! Don't we have enough yet?" Every other day she would think of a different color she wanted to paint the living room or her room. It was pretty comical.

"The more the merrier!" She laughed.

I chuckled slightly and made my way down the hall. It was a bit hard maneuvering around the dozens of paint cans, but I managed. Melissa was already waiting at the door.

She tugged on one of my braids and handed me one of my hats so we could be on our way.

Melissa couldn't drive so we always walked or called a cab. We only took a cab if it was dark though.

I hadn't been spending much time with the boys lately. Not since my little encounter with…ugh! Sandy. Her name turned to ash in my mouth. I felt disgusted even thinking about her.

I've never been in a fight before, but something tells me that wouldn't be the last time she got to me.

Soda's birthday was in two days. I couldn't think about it without remembering my birthday. The birthday only made so 'great' when Soda left for one of his girlfriends.

Whoever that girl was, I'm sure I would have liked her more than Sandy.

"What's the matter kiddo?' Melissa was laughing at me.

"What do you mean?" Gosh. Was this lady psychic?

"You look angry." We walked into the home decoration store.

I didn't see the harm in telling her.

"Okay…We'll my best friend has a girlfriend and she jumped all over me saying I was trying to take Soda away from her when he wasn't in the room and I was like-"

"You're that mad about some girl accusing you of taking her drink?" She had her brows furrowed together. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Soda is my best friend's name." I had a feeling she already knew that and was just trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh, right." She looked through the various paint colors as she took a long pause. "Well, are you?" She glanced up at me for a moment.

"What?" I absently flipped through the color booklets.

"Trying to take him away from her?" She looked at me with a smirk on her lips and her hands in her hips.

"No, of course not." I shook my head and began searching through the colors myself.

"Uh-huh." There was an odd tone to her voice, but I let it slide.

"How about this?" I picked up a light yellow color.

She shook her head before she wandered to the right and her eyes lit up.

"This!" She picked up a little card with a light blue color on it. "I'm going to use this color for the shutters…and for my room!" She was very excited. I laughed again. She had a tendency to make me laugh a lot and I sure as hell wasn't complaining.

We got two cans of the color mixed for us and we headed back home.

"What should I name the puppy?" I scratched my chin as I pondered names.

"You haven't named that poor thing yet?" Her voice rose slightly, still I knew she was kidding.

"I can't think of anything." I shrugged.

"Well, you'd better think of something soon. If you call it puppy long enough it won't answer to anything else." Melissa seemed amused. Hell, she was always amused.

We finally made it back home and we immediately started getting brushes and things we would need to paint.

It was very sunny outside and it was only twelve o'clock.

We spent the entire afternoon painting and having paint wars. After four hours of brushing paint on the outside of the house, we only had about a third of it done.

"We'll get it done in one day she says!" I mocked her as I dipped my brush back into the white paint.

"Ah, shut up!" She punched my shoulder lightly and flicked a bit of paint on me. I didn't really care. I was already covered in other paint she had gotten me with. I laughed when I saw she had more paint on her than the house did.

I started thinking of me and Soda again.

"Melissa," I didn't really know what words to use "how do you know if you're in love?"

"Who are you in love with?" She looked down from her position on the porch and cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Soda" I mumbled.

"Huh?" She was laughing at me again.

"Soda." I said it loudly and clearly so she could hear me. She laughed again. What a crazy lady.

"I thought you weren't trying to steal him from his girl?"

"I'm not." I proceeded to tell her all about mine and Soda's relationship. From the day I met him to now.

I watched the puppy run in big circles around the yard as Melissa thought long and hard about everything I'd just told her.

"So what was the question again?" Man, did she have a short attention span.

"How do you know if you're in love?" I felt hopeless and now I was even debating if what I felt was real.

"You tell me what you think love is like, make sure it fits the picture, and I'll tell you if it's love or not." She sat down where she stood and stuck her head through the railing of the porch to look down at me.

"Okay…" I didn't really know what to say so I just started talking about how I felt about Soda. "You constantly want to be closer to him. You can't picture yourself with anyone else, not even movie stars…um...Its not when you're looking at each other…more like when you're looking at the same thing together. It hurts so bad to see him with another girl my chest even burns-" She cut me off.

"That sounds about right." She smiled at me and stood up to resume painting as if I'd never said anything.

"So I'm in love?" I always believed I was in love, but I really wanted to hear it from her.

"Sounds like it." She turned on one foot and looked at the puppy playing in the yard.

"How about Cody?"

"What?" Who was Cody?

She rolled her eyes.

"A name" She was getting impatient, but I was even more confused now. "For the dog!"

"Oh," I raised my shoulders sheepishly and nodded.

Melissa got a triumphant smile on her face.

"Cody it is!" She proclaimed loudly as she continued watching the puppy. Cody wasn't a bad name for him. It was kind of cute.

"Hey," I hated bugging her about advice so much today, but I couldn't help it. "Soda's birthday is in two days…any ideas?"

"Walk out halfway through it?" It was supposed to be funny, but as I thought about it more, it seemed like an alright idea. He did do it to me. I'd never do that though.

"I meant a present." Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Oh…um. How about a bag full of candy and a huge chocolate cake? We could even make the cake at the restaurant." It wasn't a bad idea.

"Yeah!" Melissa was so smart. "Great idea."

"Well, it was my idea so it had to be good." She laughed at her own joke and continued painting.

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Hey guys. This chapter was more or less pointless, but I think it was necessary. Maybe…I don't know. The next chapter will be Soda's birthday. He'll be turning seventeen.

Let me know what you guys think about this chapter.