Excerpt: What's Become of Us

"Are you...Charlotte MacGregor?" A hesitant voice asked from behind Charlie as she was reaching for her Algebra I book. She tensed, and her right eye twitched as her temper rose. Grabbing the book and tossing it into her messenger bag, she slammed her locker door shut in the hopes of calming down. It didn't help. Melanie sighed loudly from beside her, knowing exactly what was going to happen next. Charlie ignored her. Whirling around, she stabbed a finger into the surprisingly solid chest of a geeky-looking boy-man.
"If you know what's good for you, never call me Charlotte again," She hisses, her narrowed green eyes flashing angrily, daring him to say otherwise. Gulping nervously, he nods vigorously, causing his over-sized glasses to slip down his nose. "Good. Call me Charlie." Her attitude does a one-eighty, and now she smiles warmly at him. "So what's up?" Waiting for his not-so-forthcoming answer, Charlie looks him over from habit. She takes note of his floppy brown hair that's a tad long and cut horribly, his blue eyes that look so much larger and freaky behind his huge glasses, his surprising height, he's even taller than her, and she's taller than most at 5'10", she estimates that he's at least three, if not four, inches taller than her. His taste in clothes is horrible. Nothing matches, and everything is too baggy and over-sized, including his glasses. She already knows he is fairly muscular for such a studious looking guy, so he should show it off. He had a lot of untapped potential. Looking him up and down and lost in her thoughts, she only just realizes that he has spoken when Mel jabs an elbow into her side, and her gaze goes back to his face, more specifically, his mouth.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that," She tells him apologetically, smiling as reassuringly as she could make it at his scared countenance. Rubbing the back of his head nervously, he restarts.
"I...I heard from some, um, people, that you help transform people like me?" Charlie stares at him, amusement visible in her eyes.
"People like you?" She asks, though she clearly knows what he is talking about. His nervousness increases, and his eyes shift around, searching for an escape. But he is desperate, and they both know it. So he takes a deep breath, and hangs his head to murmur, "You know, fre-" He is cut off by Mel, who finally takes pity on him.
"Enough, Charlie," Mel says firmly, placing a placating hand on Charlie's shoulder. "You're scaring the poor boy." Charlie glares at Mel for ruining her fun, but relents after a short staring contest.
Turning to the teen, Mel says gently, "Sorry about that, but her bark is truly worse than her bite, I promise. What's your name?"
"Um, Daniel," He says shyly, blushing profusely when Mel bestows a beautiful smile on him.
"Well, hello Daniel, I'm Melanie!" She says brightly, offering him her hand for a handshake. "And this grouchy beast is Charlie." She waves her hand in Charlie's direction, ignoring the glowering figure behind her completely. "Of course we'll help you transform yourself. You had only to ask. Actually, you did ask, but Charlie bullied you a bit. Hehe. Whatever. You survived, right? So we'll get down to business now." Just then, the late bell rang, and the three noticed that they were totally alone in the usually crowded hallway.
"Whoops. Time flies when you're facing a temperamental tomboy!" Mel jokes to Dan, winking at him conspiratorially. He gives her a tentative smile, because he is still wary of Charlie, but can't help but respond to Melanie's infectious cheerfulness.
Charlie just growled. "Come on, Mel. You know Leary's gonna kill us if we're late, again!" She grabs Mel's arm and begins to drag her off. "We'll have to figure out a time to get together to get the details ironed out. Here's my phone number." A business card that appeared out of nowhere is shoved into his hand. "Call me when school's out, and we'll figure out a time and place to meet. I would normally give you Charlie's but she's in a fine mood today, so you'll just have to get it from her later."
With that, both Charlie and Mel rapidly disappeared. He stood there for a good minute. Daniel could still hear Charlie's angry muttering and he could still see Mel's angelic smile in his mind. Shaking himself out of his feminine-Melanie-induced stupor, he looks at the paper clutched in his hand. Even her handwriting is the epitome of femininity. It is smooth, beautiful, and neat. Glancing at, he memorizes the number by heart. Glancing at his watch, he sees that he'll be ten minutes late to the bus that takes him to the local high school. Luckily, because he's the only one who rides, the bus waits for him. But that mean's he'll be late to his Pre-Calculus class that he takes at the high school, which means he'll get a ribbing from the high schooler's there. They already resented having a seventh grader in a class made up mostly of sophomores and juniors. This gave them another reason to hate him. Groaning, Dan takes off in a sprint down the opposite hall and out the doors. Still, he can't help but drift back to the thoughts of how pretty Mel was, and for some reason, Charlie's green eyes haunt him.
Meanwhile, after making their apologies to an exasperated Mr. Leary and sitting in the back, Melanie was quietly chastising Charlie for scaring off a potential client.
"I don't see how you want me to transform him," Charlie complained, sulking with her hands crossed over her chest in petulant defiance. "It would take a miracle!"
"Well, that's what you do, Charlie. You perform miracles." Mel responded patiently. She was used to dealing with her best friend's mood swings, and had become an expert at overcoming them. The trick was to not be cowed by Charlie's fierce temper, and to not lose your cool, two things Mel herself was great at. "And I deal with the details," Mel added, knowing it would cheer Charlie up to think about all the stuff she could make Mel do. Charlie huffed.
"Fine," she grudgingly agreed.
"I knew you would see it my way!" Mel cheered, pumping her fist into the air in victory. Suddenly they noticed that the whole class was watching them, and Mr. Leary's face was turning extremely red in anger.
"Oops," Mel chuckled nervously while Charlie just glared.