Chapter Twenty-Six

Melody knew after her tirade at the Christmas party that she was no longer completely welcome in her hometown. And that was all right with her. She had burned far too many bridges, made far too many enemies, and had far too many bad memories to go back now. She had said exactly what she wanted to, to whom she wanted to say it, and she didn't care what they thought of her or if they ever spoke to her again.

The month in Bluewater had also strengthened the bonds Melody held with her closest friends, so that now they considered themselves a family in and of itself. They were a tight-knit bunch who would go to the ends of the earth to protect each other.
Wanda and Harmony waved good-bye to Melody and her friends, and Melody to them. "Make us proud," was Wanda's last words to her in the midst of a tearful embrace. If she could just take her mother and sister with her, it would be perfect.
Melody had returned to Academie Le Tour from Bluewater a changed person. That much was clear to most of the people who stayed in her dorm. And it was a lot more than the fact that she'd grown out her hair and the shape and style of her glasses was different. Something monumental had occurred there, even though Melody herself wouldn't tell. But they knew.
She waltzed back to the dorm with her head held high and more confident than ever before. It was a confidence born of struggle and pain and aided by the security of her high intelligence and her new status as the Tinker toy heiress. She happily immersed herself in her coursework and research, and faithfully attended her classes. After facing down the whole of Bluewater and learning she was heiress to a growing toy company, surely facing the esteemed Dr. Hyden was no longer beyond her grasp.

Her growing confidence caused her to one day, after seminar, to walk into Dr. Hyden's office.
"Ah, yes, Melody --" the dean greeted beneath his paperwork, his lips pursing into a sudden smile.
"Dr. Hyden --"
"I know our situation is quite unusual and quite uncomfortable --"
"When are we going to take the DNA test?"
Dr. Hyden sighed. "Melody." He had noticed the changes in her too. No longer shy and awkward, a determined young woman now stood before him, demanding answers.
"When are we going to take the DNA test?" Melody repeated her question, even more forcefully than before.
"I've told you, the astronomers' convention is next week, probably after that."
"I want the test done this week. All you need to do is submit your DNA. It won't take long at all." "Melody, I'm sorry, that's impossible --" Just then the phone rang, and Dr. Hyden answered, disappearing into the world of his telephone call. "I've got to take this."
"I'll be back later," Melody vowed as she walked down the hall to her next class.

The phone rang in Aldrich Dormitory that evening, and Marla answered it. "Hello, may I speak to Melody?" said the female voice on the other end.
Marla was confused. "May I ask who's calling?"
"I'm -- an old friend -- of Melody's. Is she there?"
Marla hesitated. "Yeah, she just walked in from class." She then called Melody to the telephone and walked away.
Melody, walking toward the phone, picked up the receiver. "Hey, Mel, do you know who this is?"
Melody shook her head. She didn't recognize the voice right away.
"It's me, Sarah. Sarah Rodiek."
Melody took deep breaths in disbelief. On the other end of the phone was the only person on the planet she'd completely, totally surrendered her heart to.
"I can't hear you. You're not saying anything."
"What am I supposed to say, Sarah?" asked Melody.
"A simple, 'hi, how have you been?' would suffice. You haven't changed a bit, have you, Mel?"
Melody was frozen. "I ask again, Sarah, what am I supposed to say? I'm supposed to welcome you with open arms back into my life after you hurt me?"
"Oooh, Mel, touchy!" Sarah said. "But if anyone hurt anybody, you hurt me first."
Melody was puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"You stubbornly refused to admit that you loved me, even in the face of overwhelming evidence."
Why does Sarah always do this to me? Melody asked herself, choking back tears.
"That was all I needed you to do, Melody Tinker, was to say you loved me -- the way that I loved you." Sarah's tears were evident on the phone, but she calmed down. "I just started at Sim State. It's okay so far. How's Academie Le Tour?" Sarah asked, careful to enunciate 'Academie Le Tour' in a snotty manner.
"Oh, it's great, wonderful. I've made quite a few new friends."
"Any new girlfriends? What about that chick who answered the phone?"
"She's my suite mate. Sweet girl."
"I see. Well, I'm gonna let you go, we'll keep in touch. Bye."
As Melody hung up the receiver, Marla grilled her. "Who was that?"
"Who was what?"
"That was your old girlfriend, wasn't it, Melody?"
Melody shook her head. It wasn't an accusatory tone in Marla's voice, just matter-of-fact, but it sent uncomfortable tingles through her body. "We -- kissed, but we never went out or anything like that."
Marla was amazed. "You kissed a girl? Wow."
"It was nothing." Melody shrugged it off.
But Marla was emboldened. "What would you do if I kissed you?"
Melody couldn't help but chuckle at this notion. "You?" she asked Marla, amazed. "I never would have thought. I'd have imagined you the wholesome white-picket-fence with a dog, a husband, and 2 kids type of person."
"But you're so beautiful!" Marla cried. "And you don't even know it."
Melody looked at Marla with disgust. "What is it you see in me? I'm skinny, I wear glasses, I'm a geek to my core --"
Marla shook her head. "I'm in awe of you, Melody."
Melody laughed a sarcastic laugh. "You -- in awe of me?"
"Have been since the day we first met. I'm so plain -- and you're gorgeous without even trying. Then there's the fact that you started college at sixteen, and you're into stuff I'd never be able to understand in a million years. I've seen you buried in those quantum physics and calculus books. You gobble them up like candy."
"Believe me, Marla, they're not as easy as they look."
"No, Mel, they're definitely not as easy as you make them look. The point is, you're on the dean's list despite taking 22 credit hours of coursework and some honors courses."
Melody couldn't believe Sarah had contacted her. And she was even more incredulous over the mousy Marla's brazen admission that she was attracted to her. For the second time in her life she found herself the object of another girl's adoration and affection. And like the first time, she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about it.
She hadn't come to college for this type of attention. All she'd wanted to do was learn everything she could, about as much as she could, while she was there.
Melody tried hard to figure out how on earth she'd gotten herself in this mess to begin with. She'd dealt with Sarah in high school, but that was high school -- and this was college. Too much time had passed, too much pain had been inflicted. And then there was Marla. Marla was a sweetheart, Melody thought. But she knew, deep down, that a romantic relationship would make both of them feel incomplete, and they were better off being just friends.
She needed to call someone to help her sort out this complicated situation -- and all of a sudden the answer came to her: her mother.
This was a notion that would have been improbable just a year earlier, but such was the progress the pair had been making on their relationship that nightly chats over the phone were now commonplace.
"Hi, mom," Melody began, walking through the common area in the dorm.
"Hey, sweetie. How are you doing?"
Melody took a deep breath. This was not the kind of thing she wanted to be discussing in the common area of Aldrich Dorm. "I -- I just got off the phone with Sarah."
Heaving a sigh, Wanda shuddered at that name's significance. She knew Melody meant "that" Sarah, the one who had hurt her so badly. What was Sarah doing trying to weasel her way back into her daughter's life all of a sudden?
"She started at Sim State this semester," Melody began.
"That's nice. Glad to hear she's getting her life together."
"She wants to see me again."
"Are you going to let her?"
"I don't know -- I don't feel like dredging up all those memories. But that's not why I'm calling. I'm calling about Marla."
"Marla -- the girl that was here?"
"Yes. Marla just said -- Marla just said she was attracted to me."
Melody could hear Wanda drop the receiver. "Marla?"
"I know, it's a shock to me too. I surely was not expecting that. I didn't know what to say -- and I certainly don't know what to do."
"Well, have you talked to Marla about this?"
"No, she just said it, right after I got off the phone with Sarah."
"Well, first of all, love, you need to sort out how you feel about both Sarah and Marla."
Melody sighed. "That's the problem, I don't know how I feel."
"Well, there are several ways you can interpret Marla's comment. It doesn't have to necessarily mean she's in love with you. She could just mean she admires you."
Melody nodded. "I'll try to talk to Marla and figure out what she means. It's definitely got me confuddled."
"Okay, sweetheart, I'm gonna let you go. I love you."
"I love you, too, mom." Melody tentatively hung up the phone.

Melody returned to Dr. Hyden's office the next day after class. This time, he wasn't as charitable. He pretended to be busy in order not to see her.
Melody decided that this was unusual behavior for him, so she waited for him to look up and see her before she said anything. "Shoot," he muttered to himself amidst his papers.
"You still haven't answered my question," Melody said.
"Not now, you know about the convention. I have to present my findings on black holes."
You're the only black hole I see here, Melody thought to herself.
Dr. Hyden looked up finally, this time with a smile. "Which reminds me, I can take a student representative to the convention. Would you like to go?"
Ordinarily Melody would leap at the chance to attend this convention, and especially with Dr. Hyden, who had been one of her idols growing up. But now, with all she had on her plate, she could only mutter, "I'll think about it," to him.
Dr. Hyden made an attempt to convince Melody to come with him. "It'll be a great opportunity for you to present your research on paranormal activity."
The website, Melody thought. I've been so busy I haven't checked up on it in ages. "I would need to compile all my data before presenting it to anyone."
"Well, when you've thought about it, please tell me so I can prepare accordingly."
Melody still wouldn't budge from her position. "So after the convention we'll do the DNA test, right?"
Dr. Hyden shook his head and sighed. "Well, we'll see, Melody." He tersely returned to his work.

Because of a central heating malfunction in the lecture hall where Melody was supposed to have her class, Melody stayed in the relative warmth and comfort of Aldrich Dormitory with Marla, whose biology class came much later. Melody plucked the glossy magazine, Sim City Living that usually came with the Sunday editions of the Sim City Times, from Marla's hands. "I can't believe you read all this rubbish," she said, shaking her head.
"It's got some really good stories in it," protested Marla, blushing furiously.
"Gossip, more likely," came Melody's tart reply. "Look, if you wanted gossip, you should have lived in Bluewater. The place is teeming with it."
Melody's eyes fell on an article that stood out from the rest. It announced the wedding of actress Emily Livingston, one of the 'in-girls' from her old school. Apparently the man she'd married, Ricky Cormier -- the former school heartthrob no less -- had been caught cheating on her. It had been a messy divorce indeed, complete with a nasty custody battle over their two children. "Hmm," mused Melody, "I guess she had it coming to her after all. She chased after that guy all through school even though she knew about his reputation."
Melody turned to Marla, and without thinking about it, opened up a little bit to the astounded girl. "I was in the seventh grade at Sim City Junior High..."
Melody's mind traveled back. She was peacefully doodling in her sketchbook underneath a shady tree. When she wasn't in the library, art room, or science lab during her lunch and recess breaks, this tree was where she'd be. On most days she'd be alone, but on this day a group of kids with perfect hair, perfect makeup, and perfect clothes encircled her. "What do you want?" she asked them, looking up at them.
"Let us see what's in that notebook, weirdo," asked Meadow Thayer, flinging her shiny blond hair back.
"No!" Melody cried, holding it close to her chest. "I'm not letting you see it!" She showed them the word "private" scrawled on the front of it.
"Oooh, touchy!" whispered Emily Livingston.
"If you don't let us see what's in that notebook," Brittany Lipman threatened, "we'll yank it from you and show it to the entire school."
Melody refused, so the girls ganged up against her. She hadn't yet started working out, so she was hopelessly outnumbered, and her notebook was taken from her. "Hmmph," decided Emily, flipping through the pages, "nothing in here but drawings of ghosts and aliens and machines."
"Drop dead, lesbo," shouted Meadow as she tossed the notebook into one of the muddy puddles.
"Give it back to me!" pleaded Melody, rising in anger against the girls. Later, after the girls left, Melody walked to the puddle to pick up her notebook to try to salvage the pages within.
Returning to the present day, Marla grabbed her hand. "Melody."
Melody hesitated in reciprocating, freezing a bit, but then placed her hand right underneath Marla's. It was difficult for Marla to fathom such incredible isolation, having grown up in a household of five burly brothers plus her father. Marla had gone through her own fair share of teasing in school for being shy, wearing glasses, burying her nose in books, and being overweight, but even her struggles seemingly paled in comparison with Melody's.
What she didn't realize was that at least some of Melody's struggles had been her own doing.

The rain fell down in sheets as Malcolm Landgraab left his mansion to go to the electronics store he'd inherited from his father and grandfather. "So the kid wants to play hardball, eh?" he muttered to himself as he strode to a waiting cab, trying in vain to avoid getting himself wet. "Well, we'll just see about that."
When he reached his shop, a striking woman with brown hair in an upsweep and a red spandex dress that hugged every curve on her body walked in. She introduced herself as Elise Livingston, the consumer affairs editor for the Sim City Times. Coming in the guise of an average customer, Elise had come to review the electronics store.
Malcolm watched and waited as Elise took out her notepad and began writing. Working his considerable charm on her, he broached the subject of Tinker Toys.
"Its owner died last September, right?" asked Elise.
"That's it," replied Malcolm. "I gave the Tinkers a generous buyout offer a few months ago, but Stephen's meddling daughter got in the way of that."
"You're kidding!" Elise exclaimed. "I thought she was just a teenager."
"Apparently this teenager is in charge over there." Malcolm sighed, half in frustration and half in disbelief. "I'm hearing she reopened the toy shop too. Here's what I need you to do. I need you to go down to the Tinkers and find out what you can. I need to know everything that's going on there."
"They would have been wise to take you up on your offer, Malcolm."
"Yes," he agreed, scratching his chin, "and now, they shall have hell to pay. Especially that meddling little Melody."