Disclaimer: I still do not own El Goonish Shive.

Shy Girl Effect

Chapter I: Building Bridges

Rhoda's ride to school had been much the same as it had been the morning before; she spoke only once allowing someone to sit next to her. The only difference between today and the day before was that she couldn't help but look back at Justin, sitting there next to that girl. He looked exasperated as she made googly eyes at him the whole way to school. It was like she knew that Rhoda wished she could be back there talking to him, and she was rubbing it in her face.

The bus stopped at the school, and Rhoda went immediately to her first class, she had no reason to stop at her locker as she had no books. She sat at the desk, getting herself just as organized as she had the day before, and started thinking about what had happened yesterday. No sooner did she finish examining Justin's every word from the day before for malicious intent, he sat down next to her.

He looked down at the desk, too embarrassed to look her in the eyes when he spoke, "I'm really sorry about yesterday. I really did want to have lunch with you to get to know you better, but when I told Melissa she went a little crazy. She's the jealous type, and since I'm her "boyfriend" any time I talk to another girl, she makes them out to be a hussy trying to seduce me. Those are her words there, not mine."

Rhoda tried to ignore him. She had no intention of speaking to him, but she could tell that his apology was heartfelt. "I was pretty hurt when you didn't show up yesterday Justin, and then you completely ignored me on the bus! That's not going to go away just because you say it's your girlfriend's fault."

She found herself speaking with a confidence she never knew that she had before, "So don't think that you can apologize and make it all better."

"I know that I was wrong Rhoda, and I never meant to hurt you, you've gotta understand that. If I had known that Melissa would go crazy like that then I wouldn't have gotten your hopes up."

"I understand that Justin, but you still could have said something to me yesterday. I went home thinking you were a big jerk! Do you know how much it hurts to think that you might finally have a real friend and then have them ignore you?"

Justin shook his head, "No, and I doubt I ever will. I've always made friends pretty easily, and even when I didn't have a lot of friends I always had Melissa around to keep me from being alone."

"Justin, I really want to be your friend, but you're going to have to learn to stand up to her and let her know that you aren't going to leave her. So, are we gonna be friends now?"

Justin looked up at her and smiled, "I'd like nothing better than to be your friend Rhoda. But, you may have to convince Melissa that you aren't going to try and steal me away from her."

Rhoda giggled a bit, pushing the glasses up on the bridge of her nose, "You leave that to me. I'll see you at lunch today, okay?"

He nodded at her, and then turned back to his book bag to get out his notebook and pencil for the class. It was going to be a long morning for Rhoda if she was going to convince Melissa that there was no threat that she would steal Justin from her, especially since Rhoda didn't like the idea of them dating. The thought of being with Justin made her stomach flutter, and the thought of him with her made it churn. She shook her head, trying to banish the thought. Nobody could know she felt this way; not Justin and especially not Melissa.

Luckily for Rhoda, Melissa was in her next class. She took a deep breath. The two had never needed to talk to each other before; in fact they had barely noticed each other's existence before. Melissa was already in her seat when Rhoda walked in, doodling in her notebook.

Rhoda went over to her and spoke very weakly, "Umm, excuse me, Melissa?"

Melissa looked up at her, a smile across her face, "Yes is there something I can do for you?"

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe, you could stop trying to keep Justin from hanging out with me. I mean, we've only just met and I'd like to be his friend."

The smile left Melissa's face, and was replaced with a look that was dead serious. "So, you're the hussy that's trying to steal my man huh? Well listen here sister, there is no way I'm going to let you steal him from me!"

Rhoda's confidence from her discussion with Justin came back, "You listen to me. I'm not trying to "steal" your man!" Her voice grew weaker after that and she looked down at her feet. "He's just the only person that talked to me yesterday in any of my classes other than the teachers, and I was really hoping that he could be my friend."

Melissa felt bad for her. Even if she was a hussy, it must be hard to be that lonely. "Fine. You can join Justin and me at lunch, but this is purely a trial thing, you got that? If you even try to make a move on my man then it's over! Okay?"

Rhoda looked up and nodded. She had accomplished her mission and discovered that she could have a lot of confidence if she needed to have it, but she still preferred being shy; it was a lot easier to just ride to boat without rocking it.

When the bell rang for lunch, Rhoda waited by the door with her brown lunch bag yet again. She watched the other students, laughing with each other, talking, generally having a good time and ignoring her. She felt more and more self-conscious as time passed. The other kids must have thought she was nuts, waiting for people that would never come. Finally, just as she was giving up hope that they would show up, Melissa and Justin walked through the cafeteria door.

Relief washed over her like a waterfall as she stepped over to them. Justin looked around, obviously not realizing that Rhoda was standing right next to him.

"Hi Justin," she said meekly, she didn't want to startle him.

He was a little shocked to hear her. "Y'know I was expecting you to already have a table Rhoda. You didn't have to stand here waiting for us."

"I know, I just wanted to make sure that you didn't miss me somewhere in the crowd of people," Rhoda replied as she looked at the floor. There was a rather interesting piece of gum down there she would be sure to avoid. Justin didn't seem to notice this.

Melissa still didn't like this girl, but she still had to act as though she did. "You know we almost missed you anyway, right?"

Rhoda blushed a little, still intimidated by this sort of banter with people. "Well, this way even if you missed me, I knew that I'd still see you. It's not like I just wanted to stand by the door so I could spook people coming in by popping out and shouting "boo.""

Justin laughed at her. "Rhoda, you couldn't scare a kitten if you did that. Come on, let's go get a table and eat."

Melissa was getting aggravated. No girl but her was allowed to be that chummy with her man; still she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Rhoda after what she had said earlier in the day. She took a seat at the table, making sure to show that Justin was hers by grabbing his arm and leaning her head on his shoulder.

Justin was clearly uncomfortable with this, but said nothing, he just started eating his sandwich quickly, shooting odd glances at Melissa all the while. He really didn't understand why she was so clingy, but he had found that girls were very strange creatures. Besides, he didn't want to bring it up and cause a fuss. Despite his attempts, lunch turned out to be a rather awkward experience. Rhoda didn't speak unless she was spoken to first, and even when she did speak it was in a very shy, quiet voice. Melissa dropped a few snide comments and clung to Justin's arm with a ferocity he didn't know that she had.

Even though Rhoda wasn't speaking she found that eating with these two was somehow... fun. She was rather surprised by it. She watched how they would interact with each other, Melissa making passes at Justin while he tried to eat his lunch nonchalantly. Rhoda found herself more and more curious about why Justin was simply putting up with Melissa's behavior. She wanted to know more about him; no, she had to know more about him.

The three of them continued to meet for lunch everyday for the next month. Rhoda was opening up more and more, she found herself starting conversations and really getting involved with them. She had never met anyone like Justin before, he was so easy to talk to. However, Melissa wasn't making open conversation easy, often shooting down Rhoda's conversation topics. She was also continually drawing more of Justin's attention to herself. It was rather awkward, but being near Justin and being his friend made it all worth it.

One Friday, just as they were finishing lunch, Rhoda finally found enough courage to ask Justin something she wanted to ask for a long time.

"Um, Justin I was wondering, would you like to come over to my house after school today?"

Melissa gave her a look that would kill someone with a weaker heart and Rhoda shied back, blushing like crazy and terribly intimidated by the glaring woman. Justin sensed the tension and stepped between the two young women. "I'd really love to Rhoda, but I've got a date with Melissa tonight. How about we do it another night?"

"S-sure, maybe next Friday?"

"Great. I'll see you on the bus then." Rhoda grabbed her backpack and fled the cafeteria. It seemed that things were always getting put off in her life, but with Justin she didn't care, she just looked forward to seeing him again. He had quickly become the best friend that she ever had, and she wasn't going to let anything ruin that, come hell or high water she wasn't going to lose him.

Justin knocked on Melissa's door. He didn't know why he had agreed to go on this date with her. He knew that he didn't feel the same way about her that she did about him, but he knew her his whole life; he wanted to try to make those feelings. He knocked on the door again.

Melissa was sitting in her room when she heard a knock on the door. The butterflies in her stomach flew into a fervor, it was finally happening. Justin was here for their first date, and if she had her way it would lead to them spending the rest of their lives together. She checked her make-up in the mirror before heading down to answer the door.

The door opened, and Justin was now facing his fate. Melissa's father was standing in front of him, this could go very well or very badly. He looked down at Justin and smiled, "So you're finally taking my daughter out? It took you long enough boy, if you had waited much longer someone might have stolen her right from under you. She's quite the catch."

Justin put on a big smile and looked up at him. "Well I figured I had to act soon or miss my chance."

Melissa walked out the door past her dad. "Daddy, I'll be back home by ten okay? So don't worry about me. Besides, it's not like Justin is just some random guy, you can trust him."

He nodded and closed the door, leaving Justin and Melissa alone on the front porch. There was an awkward silence as they stood there. "So, where do you want to go for dinner Melissa?"

"I dunno, it's not like we can go very far since neither of us can drive."

"Well, my parents are out of the house tonight, since they were expecting me to be gone. We could go there and I could order us a pizza or something." Justin hit himself mentally after he suggested it, taking her home was a bad idea. It was too late though, Melissa was beaming.

"Then what are we standing here for? Let's go!" She put her arm around his shoulders and started walking towards his house. Justin had no choice now, he would either walk or be dragged, but she wasn't going to let him leave this date. She would die before she let him go.

The night was like most any other night that Melissa would come over, they ate pizza and watched television. Melissa clung to him, as he tried his best to feel comfortable with it. Justin put a lot of his effort into focusing on the TV, it made it easier to stand her being so clingy.

Melissa couldn't have been happier. It didn't matter what they were doing as long as she was with Justin it was all good. She could have stayed like this forever, just enjoying a nice relaxing evening with him. But, it wasn't meant to last forever, and before she knew it it was almost ten o'clock. Just like that her forever was being set aside and she had to go home.

Like a true gentleman Justin walked her home. The date looked like it was going to end the same way it began, an awkward silence on Melissa's front porch. Melissa started walking towards the door, as her hand reached for the knob she froze for a second.

Justin wasn't sure what had happened until it was too late to stop it, she turned around a planted a big kiss on him. As the shock wore off he returned her kiss, but something didn't feel right.

She pulled away and smiled at him, "Good night Justin. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, good night." Justin walked home with this kiss on his mind the whole way. He had his suspicions for awhile that he might be... 'No, that can't be it. There must be some other explanation.'

Justin spent the whole next day thinking about the night before, trying to find an explanation about why that kiss didn't feel right. He wanted to make something with Melissa, sure he wished that she weren't always so clingy, but he still wanted to be with her. One explanation kept coming back to him, and he couldn't deny it any longer. He picked up the phone and dialed. "Hi Melissa. I need to talk to you, in person, do you think you could come over?

"Yeah, right now.

"Thanks, I'll be waiting for you in my room. Just let yourself in." Justin hung up the phone and took a deep breath, he had to tell her the truth.