Melinda’s Story

Since it was so snowy in the morning, Mrs. Evans decided it was not safe to drive to church and we instead watched Mass on television. Afterwards, she made breakfast for everyone except Larry, who was still asleep.

Mrs. Evans brought a stack of pancakes to the table. “I’m going to call you girls’ mothers this morning. I don’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to be driving in this storm. I’ll see what they say, but I think you should stay here today.”

Walter passed Lily the plate as she asked, “What should we do?”

“Weddas!” Pat suggested.

“It’s still at school.” Walter piled pancakes onto his plate.

Pat winked at me. “We can use my blanket.”

“What blanket?” asked Mrs. Evans from the stove.

“I’m so confused.” Lily looked at Sarah for an explanation.

“They all play some weird vocabulary game, but Walter left it at school.”

“How is a blanket involved?”

I shook my head. “I made Pat a blanket for Christmas. It can be used as a game board.”

Sarah sent me a quizzical look. “But I saw you working on it. The pieces were like this big.” She held her hands a couple of inches apart.

“Those are the tiles.”

Mrs. Evans brought a bowl of scrambled eggs to the table. “Why didn’t we play it the last time you boys came home? We had to play Walter’s stupid paper version.”

“Hey!” Walter obviously took offense. “It’s not my fault they broke up and Pat didn’t want to use it.”

“Walter!” Sarah looked at me cautiously. I suspected she expected me to burst into tears. Pat smacked his brother.

“What?”

Mrs. Evans must not have noticed the altercation. “Well, I think it sounds like a great way to spend a snow day. If the storm dies down, maybe you boys can clear the driveway and everyone can play in the snow.”

---

After breakfast, we got dressed and Pat brought his Weddas blanket to the game room. The boys moved the octagonal table out of the way and laid the blanket on the floor. Larry came into the room as everyone gathered around it.

“You having a picnic?” he asked sleepily.

Sarah smiled and gestured for him to sit beside her. “They’re playing that weird game of theirs. Making me join them. Want to be on my team?”

Mrs. Evans replied sharply. “There are no teams.” I was a little surprised at how much she sounded like Walter when he was losing.

Pat sounded slightly annoyed as he chastised his mother. “Mom, if you can’t play nicely, you won’t be allowed to play. Some of these people have never played before.”

Mrs. Evans sent Pat a look that suggested he was on thin ice, but Pat didn’t seem to care. He sent the tile bag around the circle as he gave instructions.

“Okay. Everyone pick one tile to see who goes first.”

Mrs. Evans took a square, turning it around in her hand. She looked up at me. “You made this? It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks.”

Walter explained the directions to the newcomers and Mrs. Evans went first, placing the word ghastly on the board. Walter, Lily, Sarah, and Larry all took their turns. Then,  I made a combination. I had never managed one before. Using the t in ghastly, I formed think, which also made the word oh, from the o in Lily’s so.

I looked to Walter for praise, but Pat put his arm around me for a quick squeeze. “I seem to remember someone saying she would never be able to make combos.”

Smiling, I could feel my face grow warm as Pat released me and declared the practice round over. Everyone returned their tiles to the bag, and we started over.

Somewhere in the middle of the game, I drew a q from the bag. I had the letters to place Pat’s favorite word. I just needed a spot for it. When I found it, I smiled.

“What?” Walter asked in a panicked voice. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry, Pat.” I spelled the word backwards to add a little suspense, forming  twin  and  pasta as I formed the word qat.

“Eleven points!” Mrs. Evans pronounced.

Pat pulled me close, kissing the top of my head. “Good job.”

I suddenly felt uncomfortable, not because of Pat’s affection but because of the four gaping mouths staring at me with wide eyes. I thought Pat might have been uncomfortable as well, since he examined his tiles studiously. Taking three new tiles from the bag, I followed his lead.

“Umm . . .” was all Sarah could manage to utter. It was more than anyone else.

Mrs. Evans, who had already proven to be as competitive as her sons, looked at Pat. “Come on, Pat. Take your turn. Everyone’s staring at you.”

“That’s not why we’re staring.” Sarah quickly covered her mouth with her hands with a squeak.

“So, he kissed Melinda. He does that all the time. Will you take your turn?”

Pat put down his word as Larry voiced what I assumed all my friends were thinking.

“Yeah, but they broke up.”

Mrs. Evans took her turn. “Oh, that’s old news. They got back together last night. Your turn, Bub.”

I made a mental note to ask Walter about the nickname that made him turn bright red. He looked at Pat, smirking slightly. “When?”

“Before supper last night,” Mrs. Evans replied.

Pat must have finally reached his breaking point. “Can we please change the subject? Walter. It’s your turn.”

Walter had a horrible poker face. He was just too competitive. I knew he was about to get a high score as he picked his up his tiles.

Someone had placed the word temp on the board. Walter added letters at the beginning and end of the word to make extemporize. Mrs. Evans tried to challenge Walter.

“Can’t do that. It hits employ.”

“Yeah, to make employe.”

Mrs. Evans shook her head. “That has two e’s.”

“It’s an alternate spelling.”

“You can’t make up your own words.”

Pat placed his phone in front of his mother’s face. “He’s right.”

“Yup,” Walter agreed. “So, that’s eleven points for extemporize, plus seven for employe, plus an empty rack bonus.”

Everyone groaned as Walter wrote his score.

After Walter beat his mother by five points, she asked, “Who wants another round?”

“No!” I shook my head. I hated playing more than one game in a row.

“Cartoons?” Larry asked Sarah. I had to smile at their Sunday morning tradition.

“That sounds fun,” Lily said.

“Not one of mine,” Walter added.

“Fine by me,” Larry said as head headed out of the room. “I’ve already seen every episode of C.I.Amy.”

“No. I meant NONE of the cartoons I’ve done.”

Mrs. Evans frowned at me and Pat. “I need to go call everyone’s parents, but I don’t like leaving you two alone together.”

I wanted desperately for her to trust us. “Mrs. Evans? That time you found me in Pat’s room? You know that was an accident, right?”

“Yes, sweetie, I know. But still–”

“Can we go play that video game I like? You can stay in the room to call our parents.”

Mrs. Evans seemed to approve of the idea and followed us into the playroom. Pat and I sat by the television while Mrs. Evans made herself comfortable in the back of the room, obviously watching our every move.

I was still surprised that I constantly beat Pat. The more he struggled, the more he yelled at the television. After I won, he swore.

“Watch your mouth,” I warned.

We both looked to see if his mother had heard, but she had disappeared. Pat spoke slowly.

“I don’t believe it. Mom has been abducted by aliens.”

“Or I went into another room because you were screaming so much,” she said as she came back in.

“I liked aliens better,” Pat said under his breath as we began the next race.

Mrs. Evans again left the room, although not before threatening to wash Pat’s mouth out with soap. I had pity on him and swerved off the track just before the finish line, allowing him to pass me. He threw his hands above his head.

“Yes!”

“Good job.” I smiled.

Pat narrowed his eyes at me. “Did you let me win?”

I knew he would see through the lie, but I tried anyway. “No. Of course not.”

“You did.” Pat sat upright. “You let me win.” He poked me in one of the more ticklish parts of my belly.

I giggled. “Stop! That tickles!”

“Where? Here?” He poked just to the right of my belly button.

“Stop!” I started poking him back, finding he was extremely ticklish under his arms.

“Oh, no fair!” He retaliated by tickling the same spot.

When we were both laughing so hard we were crying, Pat grabbed my waist and pulled me into his chair, ending the tickle fight with a long kiss.

He rested his forehead against mine. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I made myself comfortable beside him. “I don’t wanna race cars anymore. What next?”

Pat didn’t have time to answer, as his phone began playing the theme song to Zombie High. I raised my eyebrows.

“What is that?”

Pat didn’t answer. He simply removed his phone from his pocket and answered the video request, holding the screen so I could also see.

“Hi Meghan.”

She started to say hi, but it turned into a squeal. “Are you guys back together?”

“No.” Pat smiled, pulling me closer.

“You let me know if he stops behaving himself again.”

I smiled. “I will.”

“So, I have a question I need to talk to Pat about, but it can wait.”

“No. I’ll leave.” I kissed Pat on the cheek and stood. “I’ll go chaperone the cartoons.”

Mrs. Evans had already parked herself behind my friends. She was playing on her phone, not watching the show, but she did glance at the couples in front of her at least twice in the time it took me to walk down the aisle and sit beside Walter. He looked around.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Pat’s on the phone.”

Walter leaned over to whisper something to Lily, and Mrs. Evans cleared her throat loudly. Walter glared at her as he stood, gesturing for me to follow him. We went to the board game room, sitting on the floor against a wall.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“You and Pat? Why didn’t you guys say something last night?”

“We wanted to see how long it would take you guys to notice. I think you were a little too preoccupied.” I bumped my shoulder against his.

“Has he told you about his relationship rules?” I nodded and Walter continued. “And you think you’re ready this time?”

“Something’s different this time. When I kiss him, I don’t feel like I need more. So, what’s going on with you and Lily?”

“We’re just talking. She goes back to California tomorrow. Besides, I’m not ready for another relationship right now.”

“But, you like her.”

Walter gave a goofy grin. “Yeah. Maybe I do. So, how did you get Mom to leave you and Pat alone?”

“I’m not positive, but your brother has a very dirty mouth when he plays video games. I think if she weren’t on the phone, he would have been in a lot of trouble. Are Larry and Sarah behaving themselves?”

Walter smiled. “So, I thought watching cartoons was a euphemism for making out. They are really into these cartoons! It’s like us with NeoGenesis!”

Melinda giggled. “Are you in any of them?”

He nodded. “It was a small guest role. I didn’t even recognize it until Lily said it sounded like me.”

Melinda’s Journal

Sunday, January 28

Snow is falling all around
Wintertime delight
Crystal flakes land on the ground
Everything is white

When I was little, I used to love snow days. My brother and I would sled down the driveway until our father started the snowblower. Then, we would build snowmen and have snowball fights and make snow forts. After lunch, we would go to my elementary school and go down the sledding hill with all our friends and classmates.

When we moved, we stopped doing that. I used to think I was too old for such antics. Sometimes, I wish I were five again.

Pat’s Story

“You guys are going outside?” Lily asked as Walter and I warmed up in the gym Sunday morning. “It’s a blizzard!”

Walter shrugged a shoulder. “It’s just a little snow.”

“You two are crazy.” She popped headphones in her ears and started programming the treadmill.

The snow had already coated our track by the time Walter and I got outside. After two laps, we were up to our ankles. We were wading, not running.

I shook my head. “Can’t do it, man.”

“But, I don’t want Lily to think we wussed out.”

“You go right ahead. I’ll pull your frozen body out when we go to church.”

Despite his determination, Walter followed me inside. The pool deck was nice and warm. Mom found Walter and me defrosting there.

“You two didn’t actually go outside?”

I smiled at her. “Do you want to know the answer? Or are we supposed to lie?”

She pursed her lips. I think she was trying to decide whether to laugh at my joke or scold my impertinence. She opted to ignore the comment completely.

“Neither your father nor I are comfortable driving to church in this snow. And we don’t want you driving, either,” she added before I could offer. “We are not going to Mass. We will watch the televised service at ten. Tell your friends they are welcome to join us. You two don’t have a choice.”

She left before we could respond. Walter started playing on his phone as we headed to the gym.

“You’re not texting Melinda, are you?”

He never looked up from his phone. “No. I wanted to see the forecast. It’s supposed to be like this all day. They’re saying over a foot of snow.” He looked at me, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “I think the girls are stuck here another night.”

“In that case, I recommend you run an extra mile.”

Walter looked at Lily on the treadmill before heading towards the weight bench. “Two.”

Melinda joined us for the televised service. Afterwards, Dad went back to bed. Since the housekeeper had Sunday mornings off, Mom made breakfast. Sarah and Lily joined us, but Larry slept in.

Mom placed a stack of pancakes on the table. “I’m going to call you girls’ mothers this morning. I don’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to be driving in this storm. I’ll see what they say, but I think you should stay here today.”

“What should we do?” Lily asked as she took some pancakes. Walter, my gluttonous brother, actually passed her the plate before taking some for himself. Is it possible he was learning manners?

I gave everyone else a chance to respond, but I guess no one had any ideas. After a moment, I stated the obvious choice.

“Weddas!”

Walter didn’t even look up as he placed half the pancakes onto his plate. “It’s still at school.”

I winked at Melinda. “We can use my blanket.”

“What blanket?” Mom asked.

Lily raised her eyebrows at Sarah. “I’m so confused.”

Sarah rolled her eyes, not that I could understand what she was saying. “They all play some weird vocabulary game when we’re at school, but Walter left it there.”

“How is a blanket involved?”

Melinda spoke softly. “I made Pat a blanket for Christmas. It can be used as a game board.”

Now it was Sarah’s turn to look confused. “But I saw you working on it. The pieces were like this big.” She held her hands a couple of inches apart.

“Those are the tiles.”

Mom placed a large bowl of scrambled eggs on the table. “Why didn’t we use it the last time you boys came home? We had to play Walter’s stupid paper version.”

Walter was very proud of his travel edition. “Hey! It’s not my fault they broke up and Pat didn’t want to use it.”

“Walter!” The look Sarah sent Melinda almost had me burst out laughing. I think she was watching for tears.

“What?”

I smacked him on the head. Thankfully, Mom’s back was turned. She kept talking. “Well, I think it sounds like a great way to spend a snow day. If the snow dies down, maybe you boys can clear the driveway and everyone can play in the snow.”

---

An hour later, we were all sitting on the floor of the game room. Walter had helped me move the octagonal table to make room for everyone. We were just about to pass out the tiles when Larry came into the room.

“You having a picnic?”

Sarah smiled and gestured for him to sit beside her. “They’re playing that weird game of theirs. Making me join them. Want to be on my team?”

Mom pointed a finger at Sarah. “There are no teams.” Her voice was a little harsh.

I sighed. “Mom, if you can’t play nicely, you won’t be allowed to play. Some of these people have never played before.”

Walter smirked as Mom glared at me. I suppose my tone had been somewhat patronizing. I passed the tile bag around.

“Okay. Everyone pick one tile to see who goes first.”

Mom selected a tile, then turned to Melinda. “You made this? It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks.” Melinda blushed beside me.

I let Walter explain the directions briefly, and Mom went first. I reminded her three times it was a practice round and didn’t count.

Mom smiled as she put her letters on the blanket. “Ghastly. Seven points plus the bonus for clearing my rack.”

It was Walter’s turn to remind her. “We’re not keeping score, Mom.”

“Why not?”

I sighed. “It’s a practice round.” Four times.

“So, why aren’t we keeping score?”

“Mom, if you’re gonna get super competitive, we won’t let you play.”

Walter took his turn building off Mom’s g, then Lily placed a word. She put an o under the s in ghastly to make so. Walter pointed to it.

“That’s not bad, but it will be really hard for someone to build off it.”

 Sarah and Larry both built off Walter’s word. Then Melinda took her turn. She used Mom’s t to make the word think, which also made the word oh, from Lily’s o. She beamed at Walter.

I squeezed her into a quick side hug. “I seem to remember someone saying she would never be able to make combos.”

Mom looked at me. “Come on, Pat. It’s your turn.”

“Nah. I’m good. Let’s shuffle these up and play for real. Mom can still go first.”

The game was very exciting and Lily proved to have almost as impressive a vocabulary as Walter. But the highlight of the game came when Melinda started smirking.

“What?” Walter asked in a panicked voice. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry, Pat.” She picked up three tiles. I knew what word she had, but didn’t see where she would play it.

She put a t on win to make twin. Then, she put the a before it under past to make pasta. Lastly, she put the q in front of it all to make qat.

“Twelve points!” Mom exclaimed.

I squeezed her close and kissed her head. “Good job.”

I was aware that everyone was staring at me, except Mom. I looked at my tiles. Melinda had refilled her rack and was examining her tiles studiously. I tried to remember what word I had wanted to play.

Sarah was the first to say what I know they were all thinking. “Umm . . .”

Mom looked up from her tiles. “Come on, Pat. Take your turn. Everyone’s staring at you.”

“That’s not why we’re staring.” Sarah quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

Mom shrugged. “So, he kissed Melinda. He does that all the time. Will you take your turn?”

As I put an s on twin and made snow, Larry replied to Mom.

“Yeah, but they broke up.”

“Oh, that’s old news.” Mom placed her tiles on the board. “They’re back together. Your turn, Bub.”

Walter turned red, but I don’t think anyone else caught Mom using her nickname for him. They were too busy glancing between me and Melinda.

Walter smirked at me. “When?”

Mom must have thought the question was directed at her. “Before supper last night.”

“Can we please change the subject?” I looked at my brother. “Walter. It’s your turn.”

Walter stared at his tiles. I knew that look. He was going to earn a bunch of points, probably using some esoteric word.

The word temp was already on the board. I had played it near the beginning of the game. Walter placed an e and x in front of it and orize at the end.

Mom pointed to the board. “Can’t do that. It hits employ.”

“Yeah, to make employe.”

Sighing, I pulled out my phone as Mom continued to challenge the word. I wasn’t sure how he knew, but apparently, it was an alternate spelling to employee. I showed Mom, putting the phone a little closer to her face than I probably needed to.

“He’s right.”

Walter nodded and calculated his score.

---

Walter won, of course, although Mom was not far behind him. Mom shook the tile bag as she looked around the room.

“Who wants another round?”

Melinda shook her head. “No!” She hated playing more than one game in a row.

Larry turned to Sarah. “Cartoons?” Apparently, it was some Sunday morning tradition of theirs.

“That sounds fun,” Lily said.

“Not one of mine,” Walter added.

“Fine by me.” Larry helped Sarah to her feet. “I’ve already seen every episode of C.I.Amy.”

Walter shook his head as he followed his friend out of the room. “No. I meant NONE of the cartoons I’ve done.”

Mom frowned at me. “I need to go call everyone’s parents. I don’t like leaving you two alone together.”

Melinda sent Mom an apologetic look. “Mrs. Evans? That time you found me in Pat’s room? You know that was an accident, right?”

“Yes, sweetie, I know. But still—”

“Can we go play that video game I like? You can stay in the room to call our parents.”

Mom smiled, and I went to go set up the game.

---

“Nonono!” I yelled as Melinda used an oil slick power-up to make me lose momentum. It was the last lap and just what she needed to pull ahead. “Die! Die!” I added as I threw poisoned darts at her.

She swerved to avoid them and crossed the finish line ahead of me. I swore.

Melinda smiled at me. “Watch your mouth.”

We both glanced at the back of the room where Mom was making phone calls. She wasn’t in the room.

I spoke slowly. “I don’t believe it. Mom has been abducted by aliens.”

“Or I went in another room because you were screaming so much.” Mom had reappeared in the doorway.

“I liked aliens better.” I muttered under my breath as Melinda and I prepared for the next race.

Mom left during the second race, pausing her phone conversation long enough to threaten to wash my mouth out with soap. I won the third race, but only because Melinda seemed to lose control of her car at the last minute.

“Yes!” I hissed.

Melinda smiled at me. “Good job.”

There was something about that smile. I narrowed my eyes at her. “Did you let me win?”

“No. Of course not.” She was a horrible liar.

I sat up in my chair. “You did. You let me win.” I accentuated my accusation by poking her belly.

“Stop! That tickles!” She giggled.

“Where? Here?” I poked just to the right of her belly button.

“Stop!” She started poking me back. She found that spot under my armpit where I was super ticklish.

“Oh, no fair!” I tickled her armpits.

When we were both nearly in tears, I grabbed her waist and pulled her into my chair. I ended the tickle fight with a long kiss.

Eventually, I rested my forehead against hers. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” She snuggled beside me. “I don’t wanna race cars anymore. What next?”

As if on cue, my phone started playing the theme song to Zombie High.

Melinda raised her eyebrows. “What is that?”

I dug the phone from my pocket and Meghan’s face filled the screen.

“Hi Meghan.” I angled the phone for Melinda to see her, too.

She started to say hi, but it turned into a squeal. “Are you guys back together?”

“No.” I pulled Melinda closer.

Meghan looked towards Melinda. “You let me know if he stops behaving himself again.”

Melinda smiled. “I will.”

“So, I have a question I need to talk to Pat about, but it can wait.”

“No. I’ll leave.” Melinda kissed me on the cheek and stood. “I’ll go chaperone the cartoons.”

Meghan waited until we were alone. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

I nodded. “I was talking to Walter about his ex and—”

“Which one?”

“The one he was almost with at Christmas.”

“They got together?” Meghan looked a little upset that she was out of the loop.

“Briefly. You should talk to him about it. Tell him about you and Jarrod.”

Meghan made a sour face. “He’s too little.”

I shook my head. “No, he grew up when we weren’t watching. But that’s not why you called.”

“I need your advice. Didn’t you tell me you had a crush on a girl and she had a boyfriend?”

“You like Kyle!”

“Yes. How did you get past it? Your crush?”

“I kissed her and made her my girlfriend.”

“Patrick!”

I shook my head. “They broke up. I had a crush on Melinda. You already know the story.”

Meghan pouted. “I was hoping you would have better advice than that.”

“Oh, I have brilliant advice. Let me introduce you to Pat’s Relationship Rules.”

Attention Hammerheads

Melinda is always trying to build her vocabulary. What were some words in this episode that were new to you? She will add them to her vocabulary journal.