A/N: Song by Wham! Extremely catchy and soooo 80s. Hope you enjoy this late chapter - a bit of Sheila's brothers are showcased in this.

Chapter 8- An Eighth Grader Thing

or:

"A Ray of Sunshine"

September 1986

Things were beginning to look up. Over the summer, the twins managed to successfully be able to climb their way up the tree house. However, they could only do it with their siblings supervising them. Although Sheila was positive that they could do it, she was still amazed by them. They were absolutely fearless, not even looking down. In fact, Sheila thought they were a lot braver than she was. Sheila wondered if she and her older brothers were the same way at their age. She very much doubted it. Now, she was entering the seventh grade. Melvin had told her that seventh grade brought out the true colors in people. Sheila made a mental note that of course her brother would reference a Cyndi Lauper song to get his point across. He loved Cyndi Lauper almost as much as she did.

"School starts tomorrow," Henry remarked to Sheila and Melvin in the treehouse. "Are we excited?" Neither sibling was excited. Henry, in typical Henry-like fashion, just had to give an uplifting speech. "C'mon, guys. Things can actually look up, you never know, maybe something will surprise you in a pleasant way!"

"They're all terrible," Sheila remarked dryly. "Sometimes I want to blast them in the face."

"Blast them?" Henry chuckled at this. "With what?"

"I want them to explode under my glare," Sheila deadpanned.

"Amen to that," Melvin agreed.

"You should be more like the twins," Henry advised, watching the twins run around in circles. "They're happy over anything."

"That's because they're three," Melvin argued. "Finding a rock on the ground would make them damn happy."

"Hello!? Is anyone up there?!"

Sheila, Melvin, and Henry frowned at the voices chorused together. They would rarely get visitors, only if something needed to be borrowed from others or vice-versa - it was just commonly neighborly things. But they usually could recognize the voices of their neighbors. There was Bill, an old man who insisted on shouting profanity every morning toward people that did not look like him. Then there was crackhead number one who claimed he saw Jesus in the middle of the night. Crackhead two was not "spiritual" like crackhead one, but did occasionally bang on doors asking if anyone had chocolate chip cookies. The Go family never did. There were a few others, who were just a bit sane.

So this was new.

Sheila immediately turned to Henry. "Tell them we are not interested in learning about Jesus Christ, we already do that on Sunday's."

Henry peeked his head out the window and squinted. "It's... oh, they're not Jehovah's Witnesses. I mean, they look like some but I know they aren't."

"Who are they then?"

"It's three of the Harris sisters." Sheila raised an eyebrow at this. She didn't know much about the Harris sisters. They were blonde and there were many of them - seven, specifically, with no brother. Sheila checked to see that it was the three eldest. The eldest one had been involved in some scandal of some sort, but that's all Sheila knew.

Oh, and that she would occasionally see them at church.

"What do they want?" Sheila couldn't help but ask.

"We're here to return some supplies!" The eldest had answered. At that instant, Henry rushed down the ladder to get to meet the Harris sisters face-to-face. Melvin and Sheila followed, along with the twins who were not taking their time at all despite Henry telling them to slow down.

"Thanks Sarah," Henry replied to the eldest; she had a shorter haircut in comparison to her two younger sisters. He took the supplies. "What did you need it for again?"

"She wanted to work on dad's new car," said one, scowling and inspecting her fingernails.

"It's cool that she can do that, you know..." said the other unnamed sister, rather defensively. "Maybe you can try something with your life, Jessica." Sarah looked between his two sisters who looked ready to get into a round of bickering.

"That's Amanda..." Sarah started off. "She's a year younger than me." Amanda smiled genuinely, offering a wave to the Go siblings. "And..." She eyed the other sister, who looked bored and disinterested in this meeting. "That's Jessica, she's three years younger than me."

"Nice to meet you guys," Henry offered kindly.

"Puh-lease, you see us in church all the time," Jessica put bluntly. "Also Henry, you were in my science class, because you were behind by a year..."

"Wow, I can just tell you are a ray of sunshine," Melvin said sarcastically, with a fake smile.

Two can play at that game. "And you are? You look like you want to drown yourself," retorted Jessica.

"Thanks for that," Henry said, with a sigh.

Jessica turned to Sarah. "Can we go now? There's a party later at Evan's and I'm not going to be late."

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Jessica, can you be anymore superficial?"

"I am not superficial, it's called being punctual."

"Fine, we'll go now," Sarah told Jessica. Before leaving, she turned to the Go siblings. "Thanks again. By the way, nice treehouse." As they were leaving, Jessica looked back briefly at Henry, locked curious eyes with him for a mere second, then turned back around.

"The Harris sisters," Melvin marveled, rolling his eyes. "That Jessica one is a bitch, I'm telling you now."

"Seven girls living in one house, must be interesting," Sheila marveled; especially since they were on the more affordable end. They weren't crazy rich, but they weren't dirt poor in the slightest.

"Actually, I think they have a sister that's around your age, Sheila." Sheila hummed to herself at this revelation Henry made. She had seen one of them in church, and had seen her passing the halls at school. A chipper girl that was on the student council in sixth grade; Sheila had forgotten her name.

"It's time for get ready for tomorrow," Henry told his siblings, to which they groaned.

Melvin tried to hold the narrative that eighth grade would be good if he thought positively. He really did try. But the moment he walked in his new homeroom, he saw three of the most common bullies in there. They stared him down, like they knew something about him. Slowly, he made his way to a chair and avoided the eyes of the bullies on him. Melvin's mind was screaming. It was just his damn luck that the three most common bullies just so happened to be in his class. This was supposed to be his last year of middle school, could he get through it in peace?

He hoped he would be standing by the end of the year.

As the teacher went on to explain the rules of her class, something caught Melvin's eye. At the threshold of the homeroom, a boy that he hadn't seen before stood there. Melvin blinked at him as he felt something flutter in his chest. The boy spoke to the teacher: "Hi, my name's James Sheffield, I'm new." He looked down at his paper in his hand. "I'm supposed to be in this class?" His voice was soft and melodious. Melvin's eyebrows rose in interest. There hadn't been a 'new kid' in his years at school since he was in the third grade. Maybe, just maybe, he could be friends with him before the bullies converted him.

The teacher looked down at her list of students and smiled at James. "Yes! You're registered in this class." She pointed at the chair next to Melvin. "There's an empty seat over there you can take." James casually strolled over to the chair next to Melvin and sat there. Melvin did his best to act completely natural and not out of place. He caught James' eye. But instead of James scowling at him, he actually smiled, friendly-like. Melvin smiled back at him. Maybe he actually was lucky this year.

...James had pretty nice smile.

...What?

While Melvin was facing his own dilemma, Sheila had hit the jackpot. Three of her friends, Lucy, Amber, and Felicity, were all in the same homeroom as her. However, on the other hand, when Sheila mentioned her name, her homeroom teacher's face fell. That's when Sheila realized that word spread around among her teachers that she was considered a "bad apple" because she made witty and sarcastic remarks to them. She knew that this year's teachers were going to keep an eye on her. Sheila resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Just great. She had promised Henry that she wouldn't get herself into trouble this year. She didn't know how to keep her explosive temper in check, but it looked like she was going to have to learn.

"Did your brother get even cuter this year?" A familiar voice behind her whispered.

Case and point. Now Sheila didn't care anymore and was openly rolling her eyes. She turned around to face her best friend with a face of disgust. "Felicity, I don't need to hear about your obvious crush on my brother."

"He's so clueless," Felicity said with a sad sigh. "Hopefully he'll come around."

Sheila's face flushed from embarrassment. "Barf me out. Why do you do this to me?"

Felicity was highly amused and shrugged. "You can help me get with him! We can hold hands and..."

"Melvin may be a snarky know-it-all, but he also gets scared a lot," Sheila interrupted. It was true. If anyone had laid a finger on him, he would easily flinch. That's what happened when you dealt with bullies at school and at home. "I don't know if he wants to hold your hand. I don't even know if he likes you."

"You haven't asked him?" Felicity looked hurt. She probably was. She was always one for the dramatics. "What the heck Sheila! Why didn't you ask him?"

"Your name never came up," Sheila replied without a care. "I don't get why you're so obsessed... at this point just tell him yourself."

"Sheila, I can't just do that," Felicity said, as if talking to Sheila like she was a small child. "I would die from embarrassment."

"Like I'm doing right now just from listening to you," Sheila quipped.

"Ladies," the teacher called from the front of the room. Sheila and Felicity immediately turned their attention to the front. "Save your talking for lunch." Sheila bit her tongue to prevent herself from snapping at the teacher. The last time she had that happen things did not go well for her.

"Sorry," Sheila said, without really feeling sorry whatsoever. She turned to Felicity. "I'll talk to you after the period is over." Felicity actually managed to keep her mouth shut for the rest of the period. It was a miracle, really.

"Alright, I'm going to pair you guys up so you can get to know each other a little more... Lucy, you'll be with Timothy..." Lucy looked horrified at this news. "Amber, you'll be with Eddie... Felicity you'll be paired with Kathy..." The teacher kept going down the list. "And Sheila? You'll be with Chloe."

Huh.

Sheila had just realized the chipper blonde was in her homeroom. Chloe smiled, and amongst the crowd of people that were now moving to sit with their respective partners, she hurried over eagerly. That's how Chloe was. Eager. She sat down across from Sheila.

"...Hi," Sheila said cordially.

"I'm Chloe," said, well, Chloe. "What's your name?"

"I'm Sheila," Sheila supplied. "So what are we supposed to talk about?"

Chloe merely shrugged. "I'm not sure. We can start about talking about our summers." Her eyes lit up. "I've been working on becoming student president. Wouldn't that be wicked? To have the first seventh grade president? It's not like anyone else cares about the position anyway."

"...I'll be sure to vote for you then," Sheila said awkwardly.

"Thank you. So how was your summer?"

The darker-haired girl looked down at her desk. "We built a treehouse, it's like our game room. We keep magazines in there, too."

"That's so cool. What magazines do you like?"

"Anything that has Princess Diana in it," Sheila told her honestly.

Chloe's eyes, if possible, got bigger in excitement. "Really?! I love Princess Di. I have a bunch of magazines of hers."

For the first time today, Sheila let a small grin. "Really?"

"Yeah! Remind me to show you some of them. Who doesn't love Princess Di?"

"Fascists," Sheila answered flatly. Chloe furrowed her brows. "My older brother. My brother Melvin says that. I don't know what he means by that, but it must be bad."

"It sounds bad," Chloe agreed. "So does he like her too? I've never heard of a guy liking her."

"He loves her just as much as I do," Sheila answered. "He'd like to see the magazines, too." She watched to see if she would give any sort of reaction to that information; when some guys found out about Melvin's love for Princess Diana - and well, of anything that was considered girly - they would laugh in his face for weeks.

But she didn't get that from Chloe. "Well I'll be sure to lend them."

Sheila's smile grew bigger. "Well, uh, thanks."

"Oh for sure, no big..." Chloe rattled off.

By the time the bell rang was when Felicity decided to open her mouth again, along with Lucy and Amber following her.

"What were you two whispering about?" Lucy asked, ready for the gossip. "It seemed secretive." She smirked, leaning in the small circle as they walked to their next class. "Dish, now."

"Nothing important," said Sheila, glaring at her best friend who was smiling in a daze. Suddenly she missed talking to Chloe. "Just Felicity crushing on Melvin again." Speak of the devil, Melvin was passing by. But to Sheila's surprise, he wasn't alone. He seemed to be having a conversation with a boy she had never seen before. He must have been new. Lucy and Amber were looking at the new kid like he was the best thing to happen to planet earth. To be fair, Sheila noted to herself. He was decent to look at.

"Who is that?" Amber asked, a broad smile with her eyes gleaming in interest upon the new kid. She waved to Melvin and the boy. "Melvin! Get over here."

Felicity began to blush immediately. "Amber, stop!" She whispered fiercely.

"I don't care about Melvin, I care about that cute boy next to him!" Amber quipped playfully. She looked up and saw Melvin and the cute boy approach their group. Amber smiled at the new kid. "Hi! My name's Amber. Why don't I know you?" She turned to Melvin. "Aren't you going to introduce us Melvin?"

Melvin sighed at the group of girls. He turned to his new friend. "James, that's Amber. The girl next to her is Lucy. That's my sister Sheila, and her best friend Felicity." Sheila's best friend blushed even harder at the sound of Melvin saying her name. "They're all seventh graders. Guys, this is James. He moved here from..." He paused, turning to his alleged new friend for the answer.

"Wisconsin," James applied.

"Wisconsin," Melvin repeated.

"Nice to meet you guys," said James.

"How's it going Melvin?" Felicity said, with a giggle. Melvin blinked at the seventh grader, not saying anything. At this, Felicity giggled even more for whatever reason. "Cat got your tongue?"

Sheila was currently dying from second hand embarrassment.

"I'm fine," was what Melvin said. "I'm just showing the new kid around. Being nice, you know?"

"You're so kind!" Felicity said with a little squeal that made Melvin jump. "Always thinking of others before yourself!"

Awkward silence immediately followed.

Melvin cleared his throat. "Well..." he said, rather uncomfortably. He turned to James. "We should get to our next class." Melvin's eyes go to Sheila. "Meet me in front of the gates after..."

"School, yeah, yeah," Sheila finished for him, having heard this a million times before. "To pick up the twins. Bye." With that, she sent the two eighth graders away from her. Once they were out of earshot, Sheila slapped Felicity on her arm. "Could you be anymore embarrassing?"

"Forgive me for being in love!" Felicity said haughtily. She sighed dramatically. "He's just so..."

"Dreamy," Amber finished with an eye roll. "I don't get how you like Melvin when James was right there."

"Shut up and let's get to our next class," Sheila said, but laughed to show that she was joking and playfully shoved her friends in the right direction of the next classroom. They laughed along in amusement.

Meanwhile, James and Melvin were having their own conversation.

"Thanks for showing me around," James said earnestly. His eyes lingered over the size of the hallway. "My old school wasn't this big. There's so many people here. I never felt so out of place."

"Well you don't have our signature accent, so you'll stick out," Melvin said playfully with a little chuckle, however he stopped when he saw James had a straight face. He ran a distressed hand through his messy hair. "Uh... I was only joking, sorry."

James chuckled a bit, waving it off. It made Melvin smile even more. "No worries, man, I know." He opted to change the discussion. "What music do you like?"

"Madonna," Melvin said instantly without thinking about it. He felt his anxiety skyrocket after that. What normal guy liked Madonna?

Luckily the new kid didn't seem phased. "Oh yeah, she's cool. She's really hot," noted James.

Melvin's face was flushed and nodded. "She is." Hot wouldn't be the word that Melvin would use to describe Madonna. He tried to think of the names of bands that his older brother liked. Alas, a few popped up. "I really like Bon Jovi and Queen. My brother has been getting into Guns N' Roses so I might check that out." He paused just for a minute. "What about you?"

"I like Bon Jovi too," James said. "My dad listens to Queen a lot. Guns N' Roses are okay." His pupils dilated as another singer came to mind. "You have to love Michael Jackson though. I went crazy over his song Thriller for about two weeks."

"Everyone likes Michael Jackson," Melvin agreed. They didn't realize the time that had passed because they were at their next class. "Oh... we're here."

"Time flies by when you're having fun," said James, with a winning smile. "Is the teacher nice?"

"My sister said she had her last year for history," said Melvin. "But she thinks every teacher is awful, so I wouldn't go by what she said..."

Henry wasn't having a good day in the slightest. All of his teachers his first day of junior year of high school went into a ten minute speech on why junior year was the most important year of high school. A few of his friends were already talking with each other about the SATs for colleges. You had to pay a fair amount of money in order to take that exam. Even then, he didn't know how good he would do on it, and if it was even good enough to get into college. Even if it was good enough to get into college, he couldn't even afford college. So the idea of him going to college was thrown out the window. However, he did not want the same fate for his siblings. He knew that they were smart. They were smart enough to get a scholarship if they applied themselves.

Sometimes, Henry wondered why he was still in high school.

"Henry? Earth to Henry?" The eldest Go sibling blinked rapidly at Lindsay's hand moving up and down in front of his face to break him away from his thoughts. Lindsay stopped the movement and smiled when she saw him blink. "Are you okay? You've been staring into nothing for a good minute now."

With the amount of noise in the cafeteria right now, it amazed Henry on how easy it was to block it out to focus on his own thoughts. Lindsay had probably been trying to get his attention for a good minute.

Henry waved it off dismissively. "I'm okay. I barely got any sleep last night." There was a lot of thinking involved. He had laid down in his bed and stared at the ceiling. All he kept thinking about was that tomorrow - which is today - would be the first day of junior year. It's not like the things he was learning would help him in the real world. The way things looked for him, the highest job that he could get would be the manager at Bueno Nacho.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Lindsay asked, with a flirty smirk.

"Are you taking the SATs?" Henry asked in return.

To this question, Lindsay laughed aloud and shook her head. "No way. I could never... I mean, what's the point?" She saw Henry's troubled expression. "Are you going to?"

"No," said Henry. "I can't afford the test. Even if I could, there's no way I can afford college." He looked at her with vulnerability that no one else had seen. "Is any of this worth it? Should I even bother continuing with school?"

Lindsay thought about it for a minute. "What do you want to do for the rest of your life?"

"It doesn't matter what I want to do for the rest of my life," Henry reminded her. "All I'm saying, it matters about how I'm going to provide for my siblings. What if something happens? I need to be there for them."

Again, with each pause from Lindsay, was her thinking about how to handle the situation. "I know life's tough because of your mom being unwell, and your dad being..." She did not finish the sentence, instead she stopped awkwardly before continuing her point. "But you deserve some happiness too."

Henry kissed the top of her head. "You're always thinking of me, you know?"

"Someone has to," Lindsay said seriously. She crossed her arms like she usually did, with that damnable left eyebrow of hers which was always raised when she was skeptical about something, or whenever she disapproved of something. Her lips formed a thin line. Yes, Henry thought. She definitely disapproved of something, and he was going to hear about it. "Henry," she started off, her voice laced with worry. "I mean it. When was the last time you thought about yourself? When was the last time you thought, 'Hey, I need to think about me for a second?' You put so much time and energy thinking about your siblings that you barely take care of yourself. One day, you'll burn yourself out."

"Because someone has to," Henry answered, repeating her words from before. It was filled with irony. "My dad being... the way that he is... and my mom not being right in the head, who else is going to take up the role? It has to be me. My siblings aren't old enough to get jobs unless they consist of a paper route, which is not happening in this neighborhood, or babysitting, but I don't know anyone who needs one lately. And would Melvin or Sheila be considered old enough to babysit?"

"They should be. Besides, they have experience with the twins. I mean... while you're out working at Bueno Nacho, the twins would often be picked up by Sheila and Melvin, right? They always look after them."

"Yeah," Henry said sadly, thinking of their parents.

For the first two months after the twins were born, their mother was at her absolute worst mentally. She couldn't take care of the twins at all, and often cried about it. Most days and most nights, that's pretty much all she did, along with laying in bed all day - sometimes accompanied by a faint smell of whiskey. So since their father was obviously no help, this left Henry and Sheila to care for the twins, while Melvin insisted on staying with their mom to make sure she was okay and wouldn't do anything drastic like last time. The last time she was alone with the twins during that period, she had left them on the table face-down and they were right on the edge and nearly fell over. Sheila had screamed at her mother that they could've been killed, but she just... didn't react.

That's how Henry, Sheila, and Melvin decided that neither of their parents could be trusted with the twins for the time-being.

Lindsay put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "You'll get through this," she said earnestly. "I promise. Don't look so sad, Henry. I believe in karma. Something good has to happen because you're doing so much good, and you deserve the credit for that."

God, she was beautiful. Henry didn't even realize he was smiling and that his pupils were dilated. "Did I ever tell you how much I love you?"

"You told me seven times this morning when we walked to school," Lindsay answered with a wink. "But I can hear it again, it'll give me an ego, though."

He would've cracked up at this, but he was just so mesmerized by her. "I love you."

She sighed in content, giving him a loving peck on the lips. "I love you, too."

"Lindsay!" Someone called out from across the cafeteria. Lindsay and Henry both looked up at the same time.

Henry recognized him immediately. His face fell as he turned back to his girlfriend. "I thought you were done with that stuff?" Henry whispered to her.

"It's not a big deal," Lindsay whispered back, reassuringly. "Everything's under control." But was it? Ever since the day Lindsay had to stay over at Henry's, she hadn't stopped partying hard like she did. Whenever Henry went to these parties with Lindsay, she was either too coked up or too drunk to function. There are times where he wished she would smoke weed instead, and this was coming from someone who didn't smoke very often. In fact, he was trying to quit all together. He knew that he couldn't completely stop this crazy side of her, but it was still very concerning. "Henry, it's not like I do it everyday. Only at parties."

"I didn't know the cafeteria was considered a party," Henry said dryly.

Lindsay frowned at her boyfriend and stood up. "It's for the party later. It's not like I'm going to trig high as a kite, am I? I'm not Christina Campbell." That was a girl in their year that would always show up to class under some sort of drug. Henry hoped that Lindsay wouldn't have the same fate. He watched in defeat as the girl he loved walked over and did their exchange. To the untrained eye, it looked like they were talking, but of course Henry knew better.

Two minutes later, she returned back to her seat. "I don't know why you won't try it."

He could've definitely tried it if he wanted to. There were many, many opportunities for him to try it. It was a trend in his high school. Although he was considered popular, and popular people followed the latest trends, this was one of them that he could never do.

"I'm called the responsible one for a reason," was Henry's incredibly vague answer. He was still really worried. He knew he shouldn't have been enabling her to do this, but what could he do? It's not like she wanted to stop, and there was no stopping her once she got started. While most girls in his school had a reputation for being sleazy and slutty - those silly girls stated they wanted to be stars in those rated X movies shown on 42nd street - Lindsay had a reputation that was different - she partied hard.

One day, it just might kill her. "Lindsay," he said softly, almost like he was begging. "Please be careful."

"I will," Lindsay quipped, a natural sing-song tone in her voice. "I promise."

He hoped so.

"What took you so long?" Sheila barked at Melvin, glaring at him. Melvin did not say anything, instead pretending that she didn't ask a question and walked past by her. Sheila raised an eyebrow. She was not ignored so easily. She ran to catch up with him. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Melvin did his best to hide a grin. "We need to pick up the twins and you're slowing me down."

Sheila sighed and smiled at his cheekiness. "Hey! What is up with you? What's this new 'confident' thing you have going on? Is it an eighth grader thing?"

"Not really," he answered, though he loved the mysteriousness that possessed around him. He was going to take advantage of it, indeed. "At least I don't think it is." Sheila's smile slowly disappeared as a thought entered her mind, recalling the events of today.

"You didn't sit with me at lunch," Sheila noted, with a bit of a frown. Melvin slowed down just a tad to hear more of what she had to say, listening intently. "I was worried at first, but then I saw you with that new kid. What was his name, James?"

At the mention of his name, Melvin's face immediately lit up and he couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, from Wisconsin." Another pause followed. He turned to her with a look of awe as he began to talk about James. "I actually have a friend, Shelly. A male friend. And he's... he's just so nice. It scares me how nice he is."

"Oh... that's nice. So, what did you guys talk about?"

If possible, Melvin's smile grew wide as another flutter was felt in his chest. "We talked about music mostly. He's really obsessed with Michael Jackson, and-"

"Who isn't obsessed with Michael Jackson?" Melvin glared at Sheila for interrupting. She burst into laughter at his annoyed facial expression. "Oh sorry about that. Continue."

There was silence for a second with Melvin glaring at her before he softened it and did continue. "...Michael Jackson, and Bon Jovi. He also thinks Madonna is really, really hot-"

Sheila couldn't help but cut in again. "What guy doesn't think Madonna is hot? Okay, besides you Melvin, but to be fair, you don't describe any girl that way."

"If you could let me finish..." Melvin said, now getting very annoyed. Sheila blinked at him and her silence was meant for him to go on. "Thank you. So we were talking about sports and other things and it was nice."

"Melvin, you hate sports."

"I can learn to pretend to love it."

Sheila didn't like the sound of this. "But why would you pretend in the first place?"

"Because," Melvin began coldly, but with a desperate look in his eyes. "This is the first time I can actually have a friend, instead of hanging out with you and your friends... I can find my own crowd."

"What's wrong with my friends?" Sheila asked defensively. "You've never had problems with them." Her eyes grew wide in realization. "This is an eighth grader thing, isn't it? You think you're better than me, don't you?" She shot back accusingly.

"I never said that!" Melvin exclaimed. He wasn't bothering to hide his frustration anymore. Sheila stopped walking and stood in front of him. Melvin rolled his eyes at her. "Oh what now!?"

"We're going to talk about this," Sheila said, matter-of-factly. Her arms were crossed. For some reason unknown to Sheila, this made Melvin very nervous and trapped. She took a breath. "The Melvin I know likes Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. The Melvin I know hates sports and hates having guys as friends and prefers the company of girls. The Melvin I know is a history nerd." A pause, her cold eyes staring into his nervous ones. "All of a sudden you find one guy that isn't beating you up and you latch onto him? What's up with that? It's like you're forgetting about me already and it's only the first day!"

"So you're jealous? Big whoop," said Melvin, not looking at her anymore.

"I'm not jealous," Sheila said, her voice cracking slightly that sort of disproves the point. But she still stood her ground. "It's great that you made a new friend, but what you're doing to keep that friend is just... weird." Melvin swallowed a nervous lump in his throat as his sister continued. "All of a sudden you like sports? All of a sudden you talk about music that you've never listened to? Because I know you, Melvin, and you wouldn't even go near Bon Jovi's music, and you barely listen to Michael Jackson - which I never really understood - but anyway, it's just not you. You're changing yourself in order to please someone and that's not good."

"Oh, and you never did that? Yeah... like Lucy and Amber would be friends to you if you hadn't lied!"

"Lying about our family drama is way different than lying about your interests and likes to keep a friend!" Sheila exploded, her eyes dangerously red. Melvin's jaw was clenched, as if trying to keep his emotions inside. They stood there for a good twenty seconds, waiting for the other to talk. Finally, Sheila's cold hard gaze broke and she sighed in defeat. "Look, we're late to pick up the twins. We should pick up the speed."

"Yes," Melvin said quickly, thankful the argument was over. There were too many buried secrets in his words. So much that he wanted to say, but couldn't. If Sheila had kept digging, she would've eventually found it. He wasn't ready for it, and he was still in the depths of denial and fear. He knows that he won't have acceptance from anyone that was outside of his family. But could he risk it with his family? Not right now. It would be too painful. "We should."

The rest of the walk was silent. Sheila kept sending worried looks his way. She knew something was wrong. She was going to open her mouth and ask, but they had already gotten to the building where they picked up the twins. Wes and Wen ran into their arms. Sheila picked up Wes while Melvin picked up Wen.

"I missed you!" Melvin said with false cheerfulness.

Sheila detected it right away, but the twins wouldn't notice.

Something's changed. Sheila mentally noted, while looking at Melvin. It was like she was trying to send that message to him. And the nervous and apprehensive look on Melvin's face, it was like he could read it. And I'm going to find out what it is. She didn't say anything else directed at Melvin, instead focusing her attention on her little brothers, who were giggly and chippy over their day at daycare. They were chatting Sheila and Melvin's ears off.

Something had changed...

...Or maybe it was there all along?