I was eight years old, hanging out with my best friends, Lily, Liz, and Erin.
Now, Erin had a puppylove crush on a short British boy down the block, Davy. Although Lily wouldn't admit it, I figured she kinda liked Mike, a tall Texan who lived next door to Davy. And Liz, Lily's twin, well, it was obvious that she liked my brother Pete. But me? Hah, I was all alone. Then again I was only eight, so I didn't notice.

A new family moved in next door...my mom said it was a lady with a boy and a girl. I asked about the father. "He died a few years back. Now don't say anything, though, because you wouldn't want to upset anyone."

A year ago my dad had run out on my mom, and everyone knew not to mention my dad...they'd get whipped somethin' terrible...Pete and I both would beat kids up for mentioning things like that.

I nodded in agreement and went out to play with Lily, Liz and Erin. Mike, Davy, and Pete were already out there with waterguns, spraying each other to death. Lily and Liz broke out in some squabble, and life was chaos, as usual. Then I glanced back at the house, and there on the porch was a boy...about my age...and his baby sister, who was probably about three.

Even at eight, I fell instantly in love. Maybe it started out as a simple severe case of puppy love, but as I grew older it became more. I froze, right there, just sort of staring at him. Lily and Liz resolved their argument and Lily pushed me gently. "Melanie?"

He was amazing...he had these chocolate brown eyes and this fuzzy brown hair...about my height (I was quite tall for my age), and, well, I'm not sure what it was about him.

He noticed me, hesitated, then walked over. "Um...hi...I'm Micky," he said quietly.
"I'm...um..." I nudged Liz in the ribs, "What's my name again?"
Lily burst out laughing as Liz snickered and said "You're Melanie."
I turned bright red. "Oh yeah, that's it. I'm Melanie...Melanie Rose Frances Naomi Tork."
"Long name," he said, smiling.

Well, of course, Peter, as always, came and ruined it. "Hey Mick, c'mon and meet the guys! Oh...by the way, that's my twirp sister, the one I was telling you about." He snickered, I glared and leaped on him and we wrestled around in the street as usual until a car came by, we moved the fight to the sidewalk, and the guys gathered around and watched. Finally, for the first time in my life, I had him pinned. He never won, but I beat him, finally.

It didn't last long. He still outweighed me by a good 20 pounds, rolled over, and pinned me right back. I groaned. "Alright, alright."

The next few days we spent getting to know the Dolenz family. Micky's little sister Coco turned out to be adorable, and his mother was really nice. Little did I know this was only the beginning in a long saga of adolescence...