Fabulous Five 002 - The Trouble with Flirting Read Online Free Page B

Maybe I'll go
out with him. And if you want me to, I'll ask him if he has a friend for you."
    "I don't want to go out with anyone but Randy,"
said Jana, and Melanie couldn't be sure, but she thought Jana was crying again.
    After they hung up, Melanie thought the situation over. She
liked Scott, but if he was going to do something as rotten as going to Laura
McCall's party, she would just have to concentrate on the other boys in her
life, Shane and Garrett. Shane was difficult. She only had biology class with
him, and she had already asked him about his pet iguana, Igor. She would have
to think of some way to get his attention.
    And then there was Garrett. Gorgeous Garrett, she thought as
she closed her eyes and pictured his handsome face with the big dimple that
always appeared in his left cheek when he smiled. He wouldn't be much easier
since he was an eighth-grader and didn't even have the same lunch period. She
would have to depend on his phone calls, at least for now.
    She picked up the new teen magazine that had come in the day's
mail and sank onto her bed again. She was depressed from Jana's call about the
boys' going to Laura's party, and she certainly didn't feel like writing her
name plus the boys' names or picking names for the children anymore. She made a
face at the smiling model on the magazine cover and turned to the table of
contents. Reading quickly down the list of articles, she was jolted by the
title of an article on page 49: "Seven Tips for Flirting" by Miriam
Dunmore.
    "Seven tips for flirting!" she whispered
gleefully. "That's just what I need." She turned to page 49 and began
skimming the article, not taking time to read the entire piece, but looking for
the numbered tips and jotting them into her notebook.
    "This is terrific," she said out loud as she began
repeating the tips over and over to memorize them. "(1) Make eye contact
with the boy you are flirting with; (2) Act happy and self-confident; (3) Use
positive body language; (4) Give compliments; (5) Show genuine interest in him;
(6) Ask him questions; and (7) Be a good listener."
    Wow! she thought. That's all there is to flirting? This is a
piece of cake. Look out, guys. Here I come.
     
    By time for school Monday morning, Melanie had practiced the
seven tips for flirting until she was sure could recite them in her sleep if
she had to. Also, she had almost forgotten her anger at Scott over Laura McCall's
party and was feeling ecstatic again over Garrett's phone call.
    "You should hear his dreamy voice over the phone,"
she bragged to her friends as they waited in their special spot by the fence
for the first bell to ring. She had spent at least half an hour on the phone
with each one of them over the weekend talking about Garrett's call, but she
couldn't resist bringing it up again. "And he said that he actually looked
for me at Bumpers. Thank goodness he didn't catch me sitting with Scott."
    "Do you think he'll ask you out?" asked Beth.
    "Yeah," said Christie. "Maybe he was just
being friendly."
    "Of course he'll ask me out," said Melanie. "I
mean, a guy doesn't ask for your phone number just to call and say hello. He
was probably just getting up his nerve."
    "I think you're right," said Jana.
    " I think you're boy crazy," snipped Katie. "You
ought to get involved in something worthwhile for a change. School elections
are coming up in a few weeks. Have you thought about running for an office?"
    Melanie frowned at Katie instead of answering. She could
never understand Katie's attitude. How could any girl be so uninterested in boys and so interested in boring things such as school elections?
Besides, once she put her flirting tips into action and got results, Katie
would see that she had been wrong.
    Melanie looked around the school ground for someone else she
knew. She was bursting to tell everybody about Garrett. She spotted Alexis
talking to Sara and Kim near the gum tree. Its bark was polka-dotted with wads
of gum stuck there by students when the