Chapter Thirty (Part Two)

Edwin was awakened by the sounds of hammer, screwdriver, and nails coming from across the hallway. He drowsily rose from his bed to see what was the racket -- although he suspected he knew what was causing it. It was Melody at her workbench. He shook his head in disbelief. "What are you doing?" he asked. "It's three-thirty in the morning!"
Melody grinned. "I couldn't sleep," she said.
"And you have to wake up the whole dorm?" As he said it, he couldn't hide the chuckle on his face. "Couldn't you pick a quieter activity, like reading a book or something?"
Melody grinned again. "I'm trying to build us a sentry bot."
"What's a sentry bot?" Edwin wondered.
"Think of what a sentry does. It's a guard," Melody explained. "Well, this is a robot that kind of does the same thing. It uses laser technology to zap its victims."
"Oh," Edwin mused. "Why are you making a sentry bot?"
"For the silly cow mascots and cheerleaders. They're so annoying!" Then Melody added, "The cheerleaders scream the school cheer in your face and the cow mascots play all kinds of tricks."
For Edwin, the sight of a woman happily hunched over a gray bench with a screwdriver and a hammer was a bit jarring, even if he knew Melody was a different sort of woman with a different background from the ones he'd met. Oh, he knew about her family, the famed toymakers the Tinkers. He figured they probably spent hours hunched over benches. But still, to him, seeing it was a bit surprising.

Dr. Hyden was sitting in his classroom going over his assignments when he stopped Melody as she was leaving. "Melody Tinker," he called as she was heading for the exit, "may I see you, please?"
Melody shrugged. "Sure, Dr. Hyden." She motioned to Chester, waiting at the door, that she was coming in a few seconds.
"I've carefully examined your profile and have discovered some very interesting things in it."
Leaning forward with interest, Melody asked, "What do you mean, interesting things?"
"I didn't realize you were an artist as well. My niece Delilah is an art major here and is also quite talented."
"I wish I still had time to paint," Melody admitted. "I'm so busy now I hardly have time to breathe. What I wouldn't give to commune with my canvas again."
Dr. Hyden continued. "A few years ago you were the Quigley award winner, and the winning painting is very interesting to me."
"Oh? In what way?"
Dr. Hyden leaned forth with a color-printed copy of Melody's painting on a sheet of paper. She barely recognized the girl in the painting -- the only way she realized it was her was the Hanover uniform she was wearing. But there were other details too, like the telescope and the bright blue beam and her backyard in the background.
Melody took a deep breath as she knew she'd been found out. Now would her dean be astute enough to discern her big secret?
"Is this your painting, Miss Tinker?"
Melody closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. "Yes."
"I must say myself, it's an intriguing painting. It seems to depict an abduction, am I correct?"
Melody reluctantly nodded her head.
"Are you the girl in the painting?"
Melody couldn't lie to her dean, but she couldn't tell him the whole truth, either. "Not exactly," she fibbed.
"What do you mean, 'not exactly'?"
"Well," Melody began, shocked that she'd have to answer this question again, "the whole scene is a dream sequence, a 'what if' type scenario. It's asking the question, what happens if aliens are out there? Would they want to establish a line of communication with humans?"
Dr. Hyden shook his head. "An interesting take on the age-old question, Miss Tinker," he said. But he wasn't sure he believed her story. "You say it does, in fact, depict an abduction -- is this one of your own imagination, or does it have basis in reality?"
"There really is no additional analysis needed," Melody said, getting more irritated. "It's just a painting depicting a dream sequence. Nothing more, nothing less. Why, did you think it was real?"
Dr. Hyden decided to change the subject. Filing his suspicion in the back of his mind for now, he had another matter he wanted to discuss with his star pupil. "Miss Tinker, I'm well aware of your demands for a DNA test."
Melody was firm. "It's the only way we're going to answer the question once and for all."
"I'm hearing you've been doing your own experiments with DNA."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, the plant growing at the back of your dormitory. I did a check of the list of students staying at Aldrich, and you're the only one I teach -- and the only one I could see doing something like this."
Melody shook her head. "So you think I'm growing this plant?"
"Miss Tinker, I've questioned everyone else who lives in your dorm. There's a girl who says she's actually seen you go off in the direction of the greenhouse in the back, so I know the plant is yours."
Melody immediately knew who had been the snitch -- Jessica McClellan. And she knew why, too. She knew Jessica was the only person in Aldrich who hated her enough to snitch on her.Just then Chester emerged. He had been at the door, listening. He couldn't allow Melody to take the fall for this alone, it wouldn't sit right with him.
"It's my plant," Chester said, with surety. "We grew it together as an experiment."
Melody was astonished. "Chester!" she exclaimed, half-whispering. "You don't --"
He put his finger over her mouth, looking into her eyes and grabbing her hand. The gesture did not go unnoticed by Dr. Hyden.
"How did you -- how did you come across such a strange hybrid?"
Melody spoke up. "I cannot disclose that information."
"You are going to tell me where you got the instructions to grow that plant -- or you will be expelled from school."
Melody and Chester looked at each other and took deep breaths. "We were doing this as a research project," Melody began. "We were attempting to see if plant and animal DNA could be combined to create something else entirely."
Dr. Hyden shook his head. "I have been teaching for many years, and I don't think I've ever encountered students like you two."
"What do you mean?" asked Chester.
"I've had students with curiosity and a passion for learning, but not on the level of you two."
"Coming from you," Melody said, "I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not."
Dr. Hyden shook his head. "I'm having the biology dean, Dr. Straight, take a trip to Aldrich to get a look at the plant. But since the two of you are in my department, I'm the one who's going to ultimately decide what to do with you." His tone grew more ominous as he directly addressed Melody. "But I will say this -- it would be in your best interest to hand over your notes."
"Can we at least have time to consider our options?" asked Chester, acutely aware of Melody trembling beside him.
Dr. Hyden removed his bifocals and wiped them thoughtfully, apparently weighing up the odds. "And give you two the time to hide or destroy the evidence?" he replied squinting at them, "I think not."

Later that afternoon, Chester decided to play pinball in the Le Tour student union. Melody, coming from the press room, spotted him and decided to join him. Seeing her out of the corner of his eye, he broke out into a wide grin. But Melody was deadly serious. "Hyden's outrageous!" she cried. "He thinks he can beat me."
"Well," Chester replied, "he's got the doctoral degrees and the position as dean of the department. He can do whatever he wants."
"Not if I can help it," Melody sighed.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you see what he's doing, Chester?" asked Melody. "He's trying to blackmail us into giving up our work. You think I'm going to allow him to get the credit? That's not going to happen. I don't care what I have to do."
Chester stopped and looked at Melody. He knew she was serious and he knew her tone was ominous. He knew the last time he saw that look -- just before she returned to Bluewater Village over Christmas break. She hadn't told him what happened there, but he knew something had occurred. He put his hand on hers. "Don't do anything rash," he warned.

Melody had a hard time paying attention in Dr. Hyden's Principles of Astronomy class. While listening to him lecture on quasars, she realized that this was the same man attempting to blackmail her into giving up her pet project. Not in this lifetime, she said to herself. She also wondered how many other students he'd done this to over the years.
Chester, sitting in front of her, had hastily scribbled a note and passed it to her. "Hey Mel," it began, "meet me in the student press room after your next class."
Folding it up and putting it in her notebook, she looked again at the diagrams and formulas Dr. Hyden had put on the chalkboard. She decided she was going to focus on the material and not on the person teaching it.
"Tonight's the lunar eclipse, isn't it?" asked Melody.
Chester shook his head. "Goodness, Mel, are you a computer? I forgot all about that."
"How could you have forgotten? They've been saying it on the news for the last two weeks. We're not going to see another one for two more years."
"You've been looking forward to it for the last two weeks, I bet," Chester chuckled.

That evening Chester and Melody had found their way to the top of the observatory tower in the astronomy building. "What time did they say the lunar eclipse was going to start?" Chester asked.
"The almanac said it starts at eight seventeen and ends at ten thirty."
"Two whole hours." Chester took a deep breath. "Is that how long it takes for the sun's shadow to completely obscure the moon?"
Melody adjusted the knobs on the telescope. "Hey, this is one of those that's supposed to take pictures, right? Is there a way to set that up?"
"Dr. Hyden was showing us," Chester said, leaning over to press a button on the bottom, "I think you turn that knob there and press that button to take pictures."
"Oh," Melody said, shaking her head. "I think I'll take a few practice shots of the Milky Way."
Chester gazed longingly at Melody, thinking to himself that on a night like tonight, he'd like to wrap his arms around her. But right now he wanted to wrap his hands around one of the tuna fish sandwiches he'd packed. "I'm hungry," Chester said between bites. "Do you want one?"
Melody looked at Chester holding the soggy sandwich in his hand. She liked him -- liked him a lot, but sometimes she found him ingratiating. "Uh, no thanks," she replied. "I'm not hungry. Besides, according to my watch the eclipse is supposed to start in two minutes and twenty seconds."
"How about a drink?" Chester popped open a can of soda and the fizz could be heard for awhile afterward. While he took a sip, he managed to spill some on his shirt.
Shaking her head, Melody responded, "Two minutes."
Chester hurriedly packed his food, but left out his tuna fish sandwich. Between bites, he couldn't help but glance back at Melody. My goodness, she's the brightest star out here, he thought to himself.
"One minute," Melody said, aiming the telescope to the northwest sky. Satisfied that the sky wasn't going to be cloudy, as forecasted on the news, Melody decided to sit on the blanket, next to Chester, and watch this natural light show. Her hand briefly brushed against Chester's, causing an electric bolt through his arm, straight to his heart.
He gasped weakly, and glanced across at her.
She drew her hand away. "Oops, sorry," she muttered distractedly, "did I catch you just then?"
"No," he panted, feeling his fair skin tingling as the blood rushed through to his scalp. Thank goodness for the velvety darkness surrounding them.
He leaned towards her, lightly brushing against her arm, the excuse being that his leg was in cramp.
Her skin felt soft, yet cold.
"Oh my," he exclaimed loudly, "you're freezing. Let me get you something to keep you warm."
Touched by his generosity, Melody only smiled. "I'm fine, really," she replied, her hands slid up and down her arms.
Realizing they'd only brought the blanket they sat upon, and it would take at least an hour to run back to the dorm, Chester removed his favorite sweater and draped it over Melody's shoulders. There was a moment, just then, when their eyes locked. He peered through his glasses and past hers.
He leaned forward only fractionally, hoping that she wasn't about to skitter away. When she didn't move, he tried again,using the excuse that his sweater was falling off her shoulder and needed adjusting. Those brown eyes were intense, deep pools of determination he could drown in. He could feel her warm breath in short gasps as he kept approaching. "SQUELCH!!"
As Chester had leaned across, he needed a little balance and he'd put his hand out to steady himself right into the middle of his now soggy tuna sandwiches. "EWWW," he groaned, sitting back, trying to inspect his hand.
Melody stifled a nervous giggle, quite out of character for her. She got up, dusted herself off, and returned to the telescope to get pictures of the eclipse.

Melody was still stargazing when a limousine pulled up in front of the astronomy building. She stopped and looked around, and a blond girl with braids got out and eyed her warily. "Okay, hands up!" said the girl in a meek voice.
Melody was perplexed. What's going on here? she wondered. When she tried to return to her telescope, the blond girl cleared her throat. "You're coming with me."

"Me?" Melody asked, shrugging her shoulders. "What did I do? I'm telling you, I didn't do anything!"
The blond girl jammed her hands firmly on her hips and scowled. "Yeah, right," she muttered, "where've I heard THAT one before? Just come with me, Tinker." The girl struggled to handcuff Melody, who was fit and strong from working out and lifting weights, but managed to lead her to the limousine.
They rode in silence until Melody's insatiable curiosity kicked in. "Where are we going?" asked Melody.
A man's voice from behind a tinted black window responded, "You shall see for yourself."
Finally they arrived at an imposing older building that resembled a castle, complete with a moat. It was like Melody had stepped backwards in time. Waiting to greet her were Robin Simpson from one of her math classes and another girl she didn't know, who wore her hair in two black buns. As the rain drops began falling steadily, Robin stepped up to Melody and handed her a black blazer with a llama crest on it.
"Go ahead, put it on," squealed the other girl. "You're one of us now!" Melody squinched, but eventually she put on her blazer.
Her mind began to wander. Examining the medieval decor, she gazed upon the grim reaper phone, a special phone with an amber glow. Could it be possible, she thought, rubbing her chin, that one had the power to control death itself? Melody was familiar with itches, and like all the rest, this one tickled at her, refusing to go away.
"Don't even think about it," came a whisper.
Melody whipped around to come face to face with none other than Jessica McClellan, Chester's girlfriend.
"What do you want?" Jessica asked, her voice taking on a sinister cadence. "I've been watching you, Tinker."
"Likewise," came the tart reply.
Jessica blanched at the thoughts of being 'observed.' Even though they were wearing the same colors, there was no love lost between them.
"I love him," Jessica replied, "and there's nothing you can do or say about it."
"I know your type," Melody shot back, "you don't love anyone but yourself. Does he know about you and Chaz?"
"Oh, please!" Jessica cried. "I wouldn't touch Chaz Whippler with a ten foot pole!"
"That's not what I've heard."
"Oh really. And where exactly did you get your information? The guy himself?" Jessica chuckled. "He's so in love his his car, I'm surprised he hasn't married it by now."
It was a cruel shot, and Melody winced at Jessica's crudeness. But she was not done. "And what the heck do you know? You're no different. You're so in love with your robots and telescope, you make no time for anything or anyone else."
Melody took a deep breath. Her mind flashed back, to the insults hurled at her by Sarah and the girls at Hanover Academy. Jessica's rant and Sarah's became indistinguishable. "That was harsh, Jessica."
"Demi told me, she found you stargazing!"
Melody shrugged. "What can I say, I love astronomy. Have since I was a little girl."
"You're an oddball, Tinker," Jessica chuckled. "I wonder what the heck Chester sees in you, he talks about you constantly."
"Just because Chester's your boyfriend and all, doesn't give you the excuse to belittle everyone else in his life!"
"Because I'm his girlfriend, who else does he need?"
Melody fumed. "Listen, sister. I've been in his life long before you even sauntered into the picture, and I'll be around long after you've sashayed your little way out of it. So let me give you a little piece of advice. Get used to it, okay?"