Jesse was bummed out. Both of his two best friends hated him. Michael wouldn’t let him apologize because Melissa was still mad at them, and every time he tried to get near Melissa to explain, she would walk off. Rose wanted to know what was wrong with him, but Jesse wouldn’t open up. Well, Rose was getting fed up with all three of them always heading to the opposite sides of the playground. She was determined to find out what was wrong, and since Jesse wouldn’t talk she would see if she could find out from Melissa.

"Hi Melissa, how are you today?"

"Fine." She said without any enthusiasm.

"Ok, tell me what’s wrong. Why are you, Michael, and Jesse avoiding each other?"

"You mean he hasn’t told you yet?"

"Nope he’s zipped his lips, won’t say a word. So please tell me what’s wrong?" Rose sat down and waited for Melissa to begin. Finally Melissa informed her of what the boys had done. Rose listened patiently without cutting in once. After Melissa finished she expected Rose to sympathize with her.

But Rose wasn’t about to join sides until she heard what Jesse had to say. There had to be some mistake. Jesse was so nice with Rose that he couldn’t have possible done what Melissa said. She had to hear his side of the story, and she would but not on this break.

After eating lunch Rose talked to Jesse and then led him over to Melissa. "Now, Jesse tell Melissa what you told me. He shuffled his feet and then said, "I’m sorry Melissa, but we didn’t do what we did to hurt you or Michael. I know you both like each other, and we were trying to get you two together. I thought if Michael heard you say you like him then he wouldn’t be so shy, and he would ask you to go for a ride or something. You can be mad at me, but please don’t be mad at Michael. He knew nothing about it. He didn’t know that you and Javier were going to be there."

"Please forgive Jesse, Melissa. He was only trying to do something good. It just backfired on him. Michael hates him for doing it." Rose said.

Melissa frowned. She was still upset about the whole thing but she hated being mad at Jesse and Michael, and now that she knew that Michael had not been in on it there wasn’t a reason for her to be mad at him. If anything he probably didn’t like her. "So I thought . . . now . . . I’m . . ." She couldn’t put into words how she had made a fool out of herself.

Rose pulled Jesse away. "Go and get Michael."

"He won’t let me get near him." Jesse replied.

"Oh yeah, I’ll get him." She went over to Michael and told him that Melissa felt awful that she had assumed that he had been conspiring with Jesse and Javier, and now she didn’t know how to apologize to you. Taking Michael by the hand, Rose pulled him over to Melissa.

Melissa glanced up and then looked at the ground. Barely above a whisper she said, "I’m sorry." Michael sat down next to her. He motioned for Rose and Jesse to go away and they obliged.

"Melissa you don’t have to apologize to me. I understand why you thought what you did, but I’m really glad now that you know that I didn’t have anything to do with it. If I had known what they were up to, I would have told them not to do it. I don’t want to play tricks on you. I like you too much for that."

"You do?"

"Yes!"

"I like you, too." Melissa raised her head and smiled.

The bell rang, and Michael stood up and held out his hand. Melissa stood up and put her hand in his, and they walked into the school house together.