They'll Never Hear a Word We Say: Part Ten

"Come on, Mel!" Sam urged, as she pulled the yellow Usul along through the store. "It's not so bad, trust me..."

    "But... I don't want to..."

    "You're so silly, Mel," Krystal said. "It's the best thing a girl could ever wear!"

    Mel groaned as she walked down a long aisle of cosmetics. There were eye shadows and lipstick in every shade imaginable. There were hundreds of bottles of nail polish too, even in colors like dung and snot, which Mel thought was disgusting. Sam grabbed some Hoof Polish, and Krystal took a few containers of Krawk Compact to purchase, along with some Krawk Bubble Bath, Krawk Claw Polish, and Krawk Hair Lotion. Mel was hesitant to buy anything.

    "Well, Mel, if you're not going to buy any makeup, at least get this hair clip and these earrings. They're, like, super adorable!" Sam exclaimed, holding up a Superstar Hair Clip and a pair of Superstar Earrings. "They'd look really cute on you."

    Mel tried to smile. She took the clip and earrings from Sam and stuffed them in her shopping basket. She wasn't really comfortable with wearing makeup yet. Sam had told her that now that they were in seventh grade, they were supposed to wear makeup. But Mel didn't believe that. Only the popular people, and the 'Popular Wannabes' (as Sam and Krystal called them) wore makeup. But then again, Mel was popular, so naturally, Sam and Krystal tried to get her to wear it.

    Sam had also told her that wearing makeup made you feel really pretty. But Mel was happy with how she was. Although, she did agree that it made Sam look prettier when she wore it.

    While Mel was debating whether or not to buy any makeup, Krystal and Sam were having fun picking out all sorts of things for Mel to try wearing. The yellow Usul rolled her eyes and finally decided that she would try some. How could a little makeup hurt, after all?

    "Oh, yay!" Sam squealed when Mel told her. "All right, here's some stuff for you to get." The blue Uni dumped a pile of eye shadow, lipstick, and nail polish into Mel's basket.

    "Thanks..." Mel murmured. Then the three friends went off to the checkout line to buy all of their makeup.

    Mel was a little excited about wearing makeup to school when she got home. The only problem was, she wasn't sure how to put it on. She frantically looked through all sorts of magazines, in search of some makeup tips, and finally she found out exactly how to apply eye shadow. The lipstick and nail polish were self-explanatory, however.

    Seventh grade was much different from sixth. Mel liked it, though, because she had classes with all of her friends. They didn't just have one teacher now, either. Now they had multiple, so Mel and all of her friends were quite pleased. She was especially happy that she had the most classes with Sam. They rarely ever fought anymore. And Mel finally trusted Krystal. The red Krawk now seemed like a very genuine friend to Mel.

    Melanie wore a light pink eye shadow to school the next day, along with her new earrings and hairclip. She got many compliments, and actually did feel much prettier. Not only had it made her gain a lot of confidence, she had also gotten a lot of attention. And she loved it.

    "H-H-Hi, Mel," Garret, Chad, and Mikey would say when she and Sam walked by them in the hallways. Then they would watch the girls walk all the way down the hallway, until they were completely out of sight, before they would start talking again.

    Many more people sat by Mel at lunch now too, and she noticed that after she started wearing makeup, they wore it too.

    "Wow, I love how you're such a trendsetter!" Sam giggled, taking a huge bite out of her sandwich. "This is pretty awesome."

    Mel soon started wearing makeup to school every day, and soon she was almost as popular as Sam. Everyone in the seventh grade knew who they were. Mel even sometimes wondered if everyone in the seventh grade wanted to be like them, too.

Jealousy

    Mel had never been jealous of anyone before. Well, besides Krystal, when she stole Sam from her, but she'd never actually been jealous of her best friend. She didn't want to be jealous of Sam either, but now she found it very hard not to be. After all, Sam's owner had just bought her a Faerie Paint Brush, and she was now sporting a pair of dazzling pink wings. Not much else had changed appearance-wise, besides the fact that her horn was now a beautiful light blue instead of a bright yellow.

    "Ohmigosh!" Krystal screamed when she first saw Sam in her new Faerie coat. "I almost didn't recognize you. But wow, it looks so great, Sam! I'm, like, so jealous!"

    But of course Krystal wasn't jealous. That was just what someone said when they liked something about another person a lot. If Krystal really had been jealous, she wouldn't have said it. Which is exactly why Mel didn't say those words.

    "Yeah, it's really pretty," Mel agreed, when Sam was smiling at her, obviously waiting for a compliment. Crowds of other pets were swarmed around Sam, marveling at her new majestic wings. While Sam was bragging to Krystal about how her owner spoiled her so much, Mel sulked off towards her classroom.

    Over the next few weeks, Mel just wasn't feeling herself. She didn't feel like going anywhere after school or doing anything with her friends. She just wanted to stay home and have some alone time. After all, she rarely ever had any time to just be with herself. Sam and Krystal always came to her Neohome after school, or she would go to theirs. Her whole life was friends and school. She couldn't even remember the last time she did something by herself.

    Mel just felt like she needed a break from everything. Especially now that Sam was acting like she was better than everybody else.

    "Hey, Mel, we're going to the Bruce Ice Skating Championships today... you want to come?" Sam had asked one day after school. Mel just really didn't feel like going at all, though.

    "No, thanks... I, uh, I'm doing something else tonight," Mel replied softly.

    "What! But going to these things is your favorite... we'll have a blast. Come on, you have to come," Sam pleaded. She made her best puppy dog face, but Mel shook her head.

    "I bet she's doing something with Garret," Krystal cooed, smiling mischievously.

    "Yeah," Sam chimed in. She and Krystal giggled insanely.

    Mel felt her face burn. "I am not! And anyway, it's none of your business what I'm doing tonight. Good-bye," Mel told them, her voice quavering. Then she stormed off before Sam and Krystal could see her crying. She turned into a hall that was usually deserted so she could dry her eyes and cool down, but to her dismay, a green Shoyru, yellow Eyrie, and a red Lupe were standing in a circle at the end of the hall. Mel, alarmed, turned around and tried to run away without being noticed. She froze, sighed, and tried to dry off her eyes as fast as possible when she heard her name being called.

    "Hey it's Mel, dude," she heard Mikey say. "Come over here."

    Mel spun around, frowning miserably, and went over to Mikey, Chad, and Garret. "What," she said flatly.

    "Dude... your makeup's all messed up..."

    Mel frantically rubbed around her eyes, embarrassed about the fact that she must've looked like a mess. "That all you wanted to talk to me about?" she inquired, biting her lower lip.

    "No," Chad grinned.

    Mel eyed the red Lupe, waiting for him to talk, but he just nudged Garret in the stomach with his elbow.

    "Ow," Garret whined, clutching his stomach. Then he straightened up with a nervous look on his face and started to blabber. "Er, well, uh, yeah, I, I think I was, uh, kinda, kind of, wondering, no, wait, we were all wondering if, uh, you, like, well, will-you-come-with-us-to-the-Ice-Arena-on-Friday?"

    "Huh?"

    "He means, will you come with us to the Ice Arena on Friday?" Chad told her slowly. He glared at Garret, and then elbowed him again.

    "Oh. Uhh..." Mel was silent for a few moments. "Alright. I guess."

    "Sweet," Mikey said. "See ya later," and then the three boys walked off.

    The next few days quickly came and went, and soon it was Friday. Mel was throwing a few books into her backpack after school when Sam and Krystal walked over to her again.

    "Want to go to the mall with us this afternoon?" Sam asked hopefully.

    "I can't. I'm already doing something," Mel replied. She kind of felt sorry that this was the second time in a row that she had said no about doing something with her friends. But at least this time she had a real reason.

    "What? Are you serious?" Sam spoke like someone had just thrown a rock at her head. "Fine, then. C'mon, Krystal." The Faerie Uni shot a dirty look at Mel before she walked away, tugging Krystal along.

To be continued...