Author's Note: Hello everyone! And you guys probably thought you weren't going to get another chapter! Hahaha! Well, here is another chapter. Thanks for your patience. I'm doing my best to make sure that I will get these stories done...at some point. It's a bit of a slow go right now, but I am trying, friends! Anyway. Here's the new chapter. Enjoy!
Melody smiled at her reflection in the mirror. Lisbon had let her wear eyeliner and mascara with some lip gloss for her first day of high school. Melody threw her hair over her shoulder and headed downstairs. She was aware her enthusiasm about getting up early for school would not last very long, but for today she was excited. Jane was placing some eggs on a plate with some bacon and home fries for her.
"Morning." She said to Jane and Lisbon.
Lisbon was pouring Melody a glass of orange juice and placed it on the table for her as Melody sat down at her place at the table. "Good morning."
Jane placed the plate of food in front of Melody and then Lisbon's plate at Lisbon's spot before going to get his own plate of food. "Good morning, Melody. Your outfit looks very nice."
Melody grinned at him. "Thank you." She had painstakingly picked it out after tearing through her whole wardrobe, much to Lisbon's chagrin. Finally she'd settled on a dark blue T-shirt and a pair of dark jean shorts with sparkle stud designs on the pockets and a pair of socks with images of smiling watermelons.
"Is your practice bag packed for after school?" Lisbon asked as she sat down.
"Mhm." Melody nodded, cheeks stuffed full of the eggs she had just shovelled into her mouth.
"Slow down, Melody." Jane laughed. "You're not late."
Melody swallowed the mouthful of eggs. "No, but I am hungry."
"Should I come home early and make you more eggs before I take you to gymnastics?" Jane joked.
"What about pancakes, instead?"
"You can't eat that heavily before gymnastics." Lisbon reminded Melody.
Melody huffed.
"What's your school schedule for today?" Lisbon asked to change the subject.
"I have English, Science, Math, Geography, Spanish, and Gym. Ellie is in four of my classes!"
"Which ones?" Jane inquired.
"English, Math, Geography, and Spanish. Which is good because I'm terrible at Geography and Spanish, but she's really good at them."
"Well her parents certainly do like travelling." Lisbon commented.
"Ellie and I want to go to Brazil together after high school! Maybe during college."
"Already thinking about college, hm?" Lisbon raised a brow interested. "And what are you planning to study in college between your summer vacations?"
"Uh…I haven't gotten that far yet."
"Of course. First you have to plan what you're going to do during the summers of college before you figure out what you study, Lisbon. At least, that's how I think it works." Jane joked.
"Hush, you." Lisbon said to him, but not really mad.
Jane just grinned across the table at her.
They made light conversation as they finished breakfast and Melody headed out the door to meet up with Ellie to take the bus to school. Jane and Lisbon watched Melody and her rainbow coloured backpack disappear down the street toward the bus stop. Melody and Ellie both could have gotten rides, but they decided they really wanted to go together without parents – or in Melody's case, guardians.
-Mentalist-
Lisbon finished another report and filed it away, looking at the time. It was now noon, Melody would be having lunch some time around now. She'd gotten some texts from Melody throughout the day from Melody while Melody had breaks – at least Lisbon really hoped Melody was on breaks – usually saying something like "survived English. Girl in the front of the class had really nice hair. Can I dye my hair neon pink?" or "Why did that guy in that math problem need 60 watermelons?" Usually to which Lisbon replied with "Should we send you to school with a teddy to make the battle easier? No, you may not dye you're hair pink, young lady." And "he was just really hungry. And unlike you, he decided to have something healthy."
-Mentalist-
"Was your aunt always that sassy and I never noticed or did this sass just start happening?" Ellie laughed as she and Melody made their way to their lockers at lunch.
"She has her moments." Melody laughed. They reached their lockers and opened them. Melody had switched with a boy in her class so that she could have a locker next to Ellie, but was satisfied with the fact that this locker was much cleaner than the one she had originally been given. The boy didn't seem to mind the rust on the other one. He also hadn't noticed the sandwich odor that had mingled with the scent of the old metal. Melody cringed just thinking about it, grabbing her lunch bag quickly and put away the textbooks she'd gotten from her first classes to go with Ellie to the cafeteria.
"Seriously, though, Mrs. Bunsen is such a drag. I don't mind math, but even I hate how boring that class is. Also, I think she got all her word math problems out of textbooks from, like, the 80's."
"Tell me about it." Melody nodded. "Suzy didn't need 20 perms. She really shouldn't have gotten the first one, from the look of that picture."
Ellie burst into laughter. "Right? What a horrible decision!"
They entered the cafeteria, looking around. A group of friends they had made in geography waved at them from one of the tables in the far corner by a window and the two girls made their way over, smiling and waving back. They took two of the open seats and put their lunch bags on the table.
"Hey, guys!" Melody greeted.
"Nice table." Ellie commented.
"Thanks." Erin grinned, despite her darker skin tone and hair, Melody felt she had a cheerful demeanor that made it seem like she glowed. Erin was quite thin and tall, she was planning to go out for the volleyball team, and rightfully so, Melody believed. "I hurried in here to find a good one since my locker is just down the hall. I thought the window would be nice."
"It looks great." Anthony smiled at her. Melody and Ellie shared a very quick and knowing look. Anthony totally had a crush on Erin. Crush at first sight, is what they had joked to each other. Anthony was also quite tall to Melody, but Melody was sure her judgement of height was impaired by her own shortness. Anthony had light hair and round glasses with white frames that stood out against his medium skin tone. Upon another student hearing his last name, Rodriguez, and snickering something about Mexicans Anthony had informed him that his dad actually was Mexican and his mom was white and that they both worked in the courthouse, which is "super cool" because obviously his dad is an illegal immigrant despite the fact he was born here. Melody had been sitting behind him at the time of the incident and howled with laughter and echoing Anthony's retort with "oooooo you got told!" Which had almost gotten her kicked out of geography class.
"We should totally claim this table or something." Danielle said. She was a short girl with long blonde curly hair and a sweet heart-shaped face. Melody believed that she was the stereotype posterchild of "America's Sweetheart." Because not only did she look like a doll, she was also really nice.
"Well as long as I'm not away at a game or something when I make the volleyball team, I can try to hurry here to claim this table." Erin said. "But if I'm at a game, one of you guys will have to do it."
"Maybe Melody and I could save it." Ellie said. "I can just grab her lunch while she comes here from class."
Melody shrugged. "Seems like a good idea. We can do that."
Everyone opened their lunch boxes, except Anthony who had bought his lunch, and dug in. Melody pulled out the little ziplock baggies of fruits and veggies she knew Teresa had picked out with some ranch dip for the veggies. Underneath those was a bigger ziplock bag with four sugar cookies – her favourite – with a note from Jane reading I hope this helps spice up your lunch a bit. Have a great day at school! – Uncle Patty. Melody bit back a smile and started on her lunch, deciding to leave the cookies for after.
The little group was laughing and telling stories when a girl came in from one of the cafeteria entrances behind them without them noticing. The girl kept her head down and eyes on the floor, shoulder length brown hair partially covering her face.
"Ew, who said you could be here!?" A blonde called at the girl, interrupting a story Danielle was telling about her summer vacation and their whole table turned to look. "Get out of here!" One of the guys at the blonde girl's table threw a banana peel at the standing girl who was now turning to leave. "Yeah, that's right! You leave because you're disgusting!"
"Shut up!" Melody yelled, standing up. "Who do you think you are? She just wants some lunch!"
The blonde girl turned to Melody, eyebrow raised. "Excuse me? Who do you think you are?"
"Figure it out for yourself since you think you're so smart and all-knowing." Melody left her seat and walked over to the girl who the banana peel had been thrown at. Melody picked up the banana peel, standing to look at girl in the face but the girl averted her gaze again. The blonde continued to shout at Melody, but Melody ignored her, talking instead to the shy girl. "That girl sucks. Don't listen to her. I'm Melody. You look like someone that enjoys cookies. I have some that I can share with you."
The girl met Melody's eyes, surprise written all over her face.
"What's your name?"
"…Tammy."
"Tammy." Melody repeated, smiling. "Tammy, I would like to formally invite you to sit with us."
Tammy looked at the others sitting at Melody's table, everyone smiling and waving, before looking back at Melody. "Thank you. I just…I'd rather not." She looked away.
Melody's smile went to a look of concern. "Okay…well," her smile returned, "at least let me give you some cookies."
"No, really. It's fine-"
"I insist." Melody said, touching Tammy's arm gently.
"Oh my god. You're, like, gay for each other or something, aren't you?" The blonde girl was stalking over to them when she realised Melody wasn't paying attention to her shouting. However, Anthony got up and blocked her path.
"Cool it." Anthony told her. "My friend can talk to whoever she wants and doesn't need you to shout at her."
"Move out of my way, you tall scrawny freak."
"Well that's totally uncalled for." Erin stood next to Anthony, basically the same height as him.
"Ugh, you losers aren't even worth my time." The blonde rolled her eyes and returned to her table.
Melody gave Tammy her cookies as Erin and Anthony returned to their seats. "If you decide you want somewhere to sit in the caff on your lunch, you can sit with us anytime."
"Thanks." Tammy nodded, trying for a smile.
"And if you need someone to walk with in the hallway, I have a lonely stretch between English and gym if you're classes are near there in the morning." Ellie added cheerfully.
"Thanks." Tammy smiled. "I'll head out before I cause any more problems."
"You weren't causing problems." Melody told her. "That other girl was. I wanted to throw that banana peel back at her, but if I get start a food fight on my first day, my aunt will totally lose it. I promised I would wait until at least the second week before inciting any food related fighting."
"Good luck with that." Tammy's smile seemed genuine. "Thank you, again. I'll see you guys around, I guess. Bye." And with that, Tammy left and the group settled back into their table.
"That was super weird." Danielle said. "You think they came from the same middle school or something? Carried a middle school feud here or something?"
"If it were a feud wouldn't have both of them been angry at each other? Tammy just looked really sad." Ellie pointed out.
"I think that other girl is just a bully who was fortunate that their target goes to the same high school." Erin frowned, glaring behind her briefly at the blonde girl.
"Probably." Melody nodded.
"At least she knows she has friends now." Anthony pointed out. "She has us."
"It doesn't seem like she wants to be friends.' Danielle sighed.
"She'll probably come around." Ellie told her. "We just need to keep showing her that we're nice and she'll stop being so worried and then we can all be friends."
"She's probably just scared." Erin agreed. "Her idle school tormenter is here and we don't know what the girl put Tammy through in middle school, so we'll just show her that we're not like that girl."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Melody tied up her sneakers before heading out of the change room and into the gymnasium and she wondered, not for the first time that day, why this school was considered so special when it looked so ordinary. She had to keep reminding herself that it was their academic and sports team reputations that had made her want to come here. College is expensive and sports scholarships can help a lot. She's overheard Lisbon and Jane talk about how they were going to afford her after high school education when they thought she was upstairs sleeping. The college fund her dad had started for her wasn't exactly raking it in considering all the other things he'd had to put his money into. Her dad was far from poor and so was Lisbon and Jane, but college or university were not anywhere close to cheap. Melody was considering where she could get a job so that she could have some of her own money, too. Melody took a deep breath and joined the class, standing awkwardly on one of the side lines of the gym, taking a spot with some girls she'd met in her other classes and murmuring with them until the teacher approached them.
"Okay ladies." The teacher, Miss. Matthews, said to them in a booming voice that made even the other gym class pay attention. "Today we're out on the field. We will be learning soccer. Mrs. Doran's class will be inside today and then we will switch tomorrow. While the weather is nice, we think we should take advantage of it. Come with me."
Melody and the rest of her class followed their teacher out of the gym. Glancing over at the other class of girls, Melody noticed Tammy awkwardly leaning against one of the walls and only half paying attention to a conversation she might have been a part of with two other girls. Tammy looked over and noticed Melody, Melody smiled and gave her a little wave before crossing the threshold of the gym door and stepping outside.
-Mentalist-
"So, how was the first day at school?" Jane asked as Melody walked into the kitchen after ditching her backpack at the front door.
"It was good. Very interesting." Melody replied cheerfully.
"Good?" Jane raised a brow. "You seemed so excited for school and your only words for your first day are 'good' and 'interesting'?"
"Well, my math teacher is pretty lame." Melody elaborated.
"Oh, math, your arch nemesis." Jane joked.
"Yeah!" Melody picked up a carrot, dunked it in the dip and then popped it into her mouth.
"Surely my cookies were a highlight for your first day." Jane grinned.
"Of course they were." Melody said around the carrot, even though it was a lie. She'd given them all to Tammy before she'd gotten to them. "Sugar cookies are my favourite!"
"Did you notice how they tasted a little bit different?" Jane looked at her, pleased. "I got a tip from a lady who came into the office on how to make them sweeter but not up the calories and also it makes them melt in your mouth more.
Melody's heart skipped a beat. She hadn't because she hadn't eaten them. How was she to respond? Thank Melody! "I thought they seemed even more sweet meltier than normal." Meltier? Nice, Melody, she chastised herself internally.
"I'm glad you liked them!" Jane smiled, figuring something was up. Melody always commented when he made the cookies a different way. He wouldn't mention it now, though. He finished making their sandwiches and placed them both on the table. "You better eat or we'll be late to your gymnastics."
Melody nodded and picked up her sandwich, talking to Jane about her new friends and her classes until they both finished and had to head out.
-Mentalist-
"So, I take it that Melody didn't like your new technique for making those sugar cookies you put in her lunch box today." Lisbon said, pulling off her socks and throwing them in the laundry hamper.
"What? You knew about- You took them out of her lunch, didn't you?"
Lisbon looked at him, brows furrowing. "Excuse me? Of course I knew. Honestly, sometimes it's like you forget I'm a detective. And no, I did not take them out of her lunch. Why would you accuse me of such a thing? It was sweet you put them in there."
Jane sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just that Melody didn't comment on my new technique."
Lisbon raised a brow. "Seriously?"
"That's why I asked if you took them out. I thought may Melody didn't get them and I figured it might have been because they were taken out. You're the only other person that might have done that."
"She really didn't say anything?"
"No." Jane shook his head. "And she quickly moved on to another subject after."
"That's not like Melody at all." Lisbon sat on the bed.
"You know, she didn't seem confused about the cookies, either. So she must have seen them and know I'd put them in the bag, otherwise she wouldn't have pretended to have eaten them. She would have been disappointed that she didn't get them."
Lisbon nodded, thoughtfully. "That does seem suspicious. We'll have to monitor how she's doing. Do you think…do you think she was forced to give her lunch up? Do you think she might be getting harassed at school?"
Jane tapped his chin. "No, I don't think so." Jane finally said. "She told me about her day and she seemed genuinely pleased with most of it. She made new friends, like she said. I believe her. There's got to be something we're missing. Maybe she's telling us the truth, but she's probably not telling us everything."
Lisbon sighed heavily as she lay down on the bed. "High school isn't as awesome as people make it seem. I just hope Melody's experience doesn't suck completely."
Jane leaned over the bed to look at her. "I think she's off to a decent start. Not that I would know. We could home school her, if you want. Van Pelt could teach philosophy, Rigsby could be the gym teacher, but Cho would have to teach her nutrition. We shouldn't leave that to Rigsby."
Lisbon chuckled. "As good an idea as that sounds, I think we'll leave her enrolled in normal kid school for now."
"Probably a good call." Jane grinned and kissed Lisbon gently on the lips. "Go to bed. That Moorefield case won't solve itself tomorrow, my detective."
Lisbon smiled and pulled the blankets over herself as Jane turned off the light.
Author's Note: So, I know it seems maybe a little cheesy right now but I have a plan for this, I promise. Just trust me, guys! Anyway. That's it for now! I hope you liked it. Leave a review!