Taffy Sinclair 008 - Taffy Sinclair and the Melanie Make-Over by Betsy Haynes

CHAPTER ONE
    "W here ' s Melanie? " I asked. I had just joined Katie Shannon, Beth Barry, and Christie Winchell, three of my best friends, at our special spot by the school fence where w e always meet to talk privately. " She ' s usually the first one of us to get to school every morning. "
    Christie and Beth both shrugged, but Katie frowned and said, " I don ' t know, but if you ask me, she ' s been acting awfully funny for the past couple of days. "
    " Yeah, " said Beth. " Awfully funny. "
    Now it was my turn to frown. Melanie Edwards was the other person in our self-improvement club, The Fabulous Five, and we have all been best friends practically forever. In our club we try to find ways to become the most gorgeous and most popular girls in school. We meet in my bedroom every Saturday, and we even have blue T-shirts that say The Fabulous Five across the front that we wear to our meetings. " What are you talking about? " I asked. " I haven ' t noticed her acting funny. "
    " Jana Morgan, have you been walking around with your eyes closed? " said Christie. " Melanie ' s been avoiding us all week. "
    " You can say that again, " said Beth. " She ' s been acting as if we have a contagious disease. "
    " All I noticed was that she seemed a little quiet, " I mused.
    " Speak of the devil, " muttered Katie. "H ere she comes now, and she ' s with you know who ."
    " You know who " could only mean one person— Taffy Sinclair. We swiveled around and stared in the direction Katie was looking. Sure enough, there w ere Melanie and Taffy walking onto the school ground together, and they were deep in conversation. They were talking and giggling as if they were terrifically good friends.
    I couldn ' t help scowling. Taffy Sinclair has long blond hair and big blue eyes and is the most beautiful girl in the sixth grade at Mark Twain Elementary. She is also the most conceited person in the entire universe. Taffy and I have been enemies for as long as I can remember, and she is always up to something. We had clubs against each other in fifth grade, and once not so long ago she tried to blackmail me. Not only that, she is constantly trying to steal my boyfriend, Randy Kirwan, away from me. Even though Taffy and I are each other ' s worst enemy, my four best friends are her enemies, too. That ' s why the instant I saw her with Melanie, I couldn ' t help wondering what she was up to now.
    " Would you look at that, " Katie grumbled. " I don ' t believe it. "
    " That traitor! " muttered Beth.
    " I wish I could hear what they ' re saying, " I said. " She had better not be telling Taffy anything private about any of us. "
    " Or about The Fabulous Five, " Christie added. " I wonder why she ' s talking to Taffy anyway? She knows what kind of person Taffy is. "
    I shrugged. Melanie used to be overweight from eating too many of her mother ' s homemade brownies, but lately she had gotten a lot thinner and a lot prettier—almost as pretty as Taffy Sinclair. Not only that, but the two of them had started talking to each other a lot more ever since they got each other ' s names in the computer matchup during the Romance Machine Disaster. But I didn ' t say anything out loud.
    " Look out! " Beth whispered. " Here she comes! Don ' t let her kn ow we saw her talking to Taffy." The four of us whirled around in perfect unison. The Radio City Rockettes couldn ' t have done it with more precision. Then we pretended to be having a casual conversation and watched out of the corners of our eyes as Melanie rushed toward us.
    " Guess what! " she cried. " You ' ll never believe what Taffy just told me. "
    Melanie looked from face to face as if she expected us to catch her excitement. Instead, we all stared at her blankly.
    " So what ' s the big news? " I asked after a minute.
    " I ' m going to become a model, " she gushed. " I mean it. Taffy just told me about this modeling school for girls our age that ' s going to be held at Tanninger ' s Department Store, and Taffy says