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

laugh, but instead, I flashed a big smile in her direction and said, " Hi, Taffy. Is something wrong? "
    My friends were trying to keep from laughing, too, but they joined right in saying hi to Taffy the same as I did. Only Mona didn ' t speak.
    By then Taffy had recovered from her shock. " Of course not, " she insisted. " What could be wrong? " Then tilting her head and giving us a superior look, she said, " Melanie and I are going to a photographer after school to have pictures made for our modeling portfolios. My mother talked to Laura yesterday, and she thinks the two of us are ready to get modeling jobs. "
    " Oh, yeah? " I said. " I ' ll bet! "
    " It ' s true, " said Taffy, stamping her foot and glaring at me. " My uncle is the photographer, and he takes portfolio pictures of lots of famous models. Of course, YOU probably haven ' t heard of any of them. He ' s going to take at least a dozen pictures of us in different modeling poses, and my mother has already got each of us a regular portfolio to put them in that is made of real leather. Then, as soon as we get our pictures back, we ' re going to fix up our portfolios and take them around to Tanninger ' s and lots of other department stores. Just wait. You ' ll believe me when you see our pictures in the Bridgeport Post! "
    I glared right back at her. I knew that she was probably telling the truth, but I didn ' t want to let her off the hook that easily. " Big deal! " I said, spitting out the words.
    " It is a big deal, " Taffy countered. " Isn ' t it, Melanie? "
    I looked at Melanie for the first time since the two of them had stopped to talk to us. She had a funny expression on her face, and I could tell that she wasn ' t listening to what Taffy was saying. Her eyes were darting from one of us to another, stopping every so often to rest on Mona. Suddenly I knew what she was thinking. She was wondering if Mona had replaced her in The Fabulous Five!
    I hadn ' t actually thought about that myself. If we started hanging around with Mona all the time, would she expect to be invited to join our club? And what would we do if Melanie came to her senses and wanted to be our friend again? You couldn ' t have six people in The Fabulous Five.
    I knew I had to talk the situation over with Katie and Beth and Christie, and I couldn ' t do it when Mona was around. I didn ' t get a chance to signal my three friends that I had something important to talk about because the bell rang right after Taffy and Melanie walked away. I also couldn ' t help noticing that Melanie looked back over her shoulder at us a couple of times. I didn ' t get a chance to talk to my friends at morning recess, either. Mona came along and stood with us by the fence. By lunchtime I was getting frantic. I had to talk to them before the situation got out of hand, and it was too late.
    " I have to get something out of my locker. I ' ll meet you on the playground in a few minutes, " Mona said as we were getting ready to leave the cafeteria. I couldn ' t believe it. She had saved my life. I was going to get to talk to my friends in private, after all.
    " Sure, Mona, " I said. " Come on, guys. Let ' s stop in the girls ' bathroom before we go outside. "
    I guess they could tell by the sound of my voice that I had something urgent to say, because they hurried after me without any arguments. Once we were in the hall and away from Mona, I told them what I had been worrying about.
    " Gosh. You ' re right, " said Christie. " We were so busy trying to get even with Taffy that we forgot everything else. "
    " What are we going to DO? " I implored. " We can ' t just drop Mona. Do you realize how badly her feelings would be hurt after the way we ' ve started treating her? Besides, she ' s awfully nice. I really like her a lot. "
    " So do I, " said Beth. " If you ask me, we should drop Melanie and ask Mona to join The Fabulous Five. Melanie is acting like such a jerk. And if she and Taffy really do get modeling jobs, she won ' t