“Hey, Manders, catch me at my locker after class, huh? I gotta talk to you about something.”

Manders? What was going ON?

Mandy hurried up to lunch, desperate to talk everything over with Beck, but to her disappointment the only person sitting at their lunch table was Melinda. But Melinda was better than nothing, and she did have a very astute knowledge of everyone’s business, so Mandy sat down and got right to it.

“Melinda, what can you tell me about Neal Rowan?”

Melinda’s eyes widened. “What do you want to know about Neal Rowan?”

“Well, he sort of…held my hand in the hallway today.” admitted Mandy, shamefaced. Now that she was calmer, she was furious at herself for not slapping him or at least walking away in a huff. After all, he’d only talked to her for about the first time that morning, he had no right to claim ownership of any of her appendages.

Melinda did not appear to share in this opinion, however, as evidenced by her high pitched squealing.