Jesse was riding by Cricket Creek when he heard someone crying. He saw a figure down below, and he recognized it as Melissa. She had her head bowed between her legs, and she was sobbing very loudly. Jesse hesitated for a few minutes. He wasn't sure whether Melissa would be angry if he approached her, or if he could help her feel better, and she would become happy. He decided to take his chances.

He spurred his horse on down the hill and stopped Express by Braids. He swung down and walked over to Melissa. As he stood in front of her, Melissa looked up. Her eyes were red and her face was moist from her tears. "Melissa what's wrong?" Jesse asked as he stooped down to be eye level with her.

He whipped out his handkerchief and handed it to her. She blew her nose. "Thanks Jesse."

"What's wrong?" He asked again.

"Jacy is so mean." Melissa replied.

"Oh . . . how so?"

"She hates me."

Jesse shook his head. "No she doesn't. She couldn't hate you. You're her sister."

"She does. She hates me." Melissa blew her nose again.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because she won't let me choose my own friends. She tells me who I can see and who I can't see, and I don't like it. I'm thinking of running away. I hate her." Melissa said in between crying.

Jesse raked his brain trying to figure out what to say to Melissa. He didn't want her to run away. That wouldn't solve anything, and he would miss her. "Who is that she doesn't like for you to see." When she didn't answer, he asked, "Is it Michael?" He really didn't think it could be, but he was the only one that Jesse could think of that Melissa spent a lot of her time with.

"No, not Michael." Melissa blew her nose again and bowed her head.

Pressing the issue Jesse said, "Then who?"

"It's Jake."

"That fake traveling salesman. Gee Melissa, why would you like him. He gave Cody a bottle of love potion, but I sure don't see Jacy madly in love with him. She barely speaks to him. She's even got the necklace that Cody lost, but still she doesn't seem like she likes him very much. What's with her anyway? Cody loves her a whole lot, and I thought she loved him."

"I don't know why she doesn't love him any more. I don't understand her any more. Ever since she came back to Dreamville, she's been different, hard to live with. I wish she had never come back." Melissa sniffed.

Jesse didn't know what to say to that, so he went back to the topic of Jake. "Why do you like that phony Jake? He's only out to get rich. He doesn't care about anybody but himself."

"That's not true. That's not true at all. He does care. He cares about me. Stop talking about him like that. He's wonderful. You just don't know him."

"Melissa he's a liar, he's a,"

"Stop it! Stop it!! I'm not going to listen to you any more." Melissa put her hands over her ears, ran over to Braids and galloped off with Smoke chasing behind her.

Well, I sure made a mess of things. Now Melissa hates me, Jesse thought as he mounted and rode back to the waystation.

Today was Melissa�s birthday, but nobody cared. Nobody had even wished her a happy birthday. All they cared about was for her to stay away from Jake, but she wasn�t going to do that. Right now he was the best friend she had.