The Grabber's Daughter (A TBP Fanfic)

Chapter Nine: April Showers Bring May Flowers

It had been about six and a half months since walking home with Griffin and Vance. Fall had turned to winter and now it was springtime.

Her little friend group consisting of Finney, Bruce, Robin, and Billy had only grown closer. She was brought fully out of her shell, revealing a caring but extremely sassy girl. She had a dry sense of humor mainly consisting of sarcasm that never failed to make the boys laugh. They still sat at the same lunch table and had a few more park excursions. It was nice having friends, and she felt like her life wouldn't be the same if she hadn't bumped into Finney that one morning.

Speaking of Finney, he could almost be considered her best friend. They were very similar and as the first one to meet her, he felt that earned him 'best friend rights' (Robin argued with this all the time). He was the only boy she didn't share a class with, but he made up for it by meeting her halfway through their walks to school and finishing it off together. He was the only one out of all of them that had an inkling into her home life; he had seen a couple more bruises and asked her outright. He had admitted to his own home life and they were both sworn to secrecy. Since then, he was easily the boy she considered her closest friend.

Bruce was still the boy who had the closest personality to hers, and due to this they got along great. They were both high achievers and had on multiple occasions little contests between them to see who was better at a random academic skill. They could also both be considered the 'mom friend' and constantly got after the other boys for arguing or not taking care of themselves (Robin and Finney looked at her in horror after she said 'be careful' at the same time as Bruce after they did something mildly dangerous. They wouldn't stop repeating 'There's two of them now" for over 10 minutes).

Luckily for her and Bruce, Billy was much more calm and level headed. There had been a couple more instances in which Melinda received a newspaper to the face, and most times it was usually an accident (once or twice it was on purpose). They laughed at it though and usually made jokes about it to the other boys. With both of them being the newest editions to the friend group, they bonded quite a bit over it. Sometimes the other three would have inside jokes or stories they didn't understand; it made them both feel a little better that it was both of them on the outs rather than just themself.

And Robin... she still couldn't decipher the way she felt about him, even after almost seven months of being around him. She was just as close to him as she was Finney (hence the fighting over 'best friend rights'). Sometimes if she got up early enough for her to miss Finney on the walk to school, she would sit on the bench and talk to him before the doors would open. It was one of her favorite things. She adored spending time with him, almost more than she did with the others. He still made her face feel warm for unknown reasons, especially when along with calling her 'Mel' he had taken to calling her nicknames in Spanish too. It only served to confuse her (and if it made her stomach do flips hearing him call her nicknames that was no one else's business).

Unbeknownst to her, the other boys teased Robin relentlessly for his very, very obvious crush on Melinda. He didn't try to hide it, which made it even more amusing to the boys how oblivious she was. Robin felt down about it sometimes, privately thinking that there was no way Melinda felt the same if she wasn't noticing his behavior. He tried his best to not let it bother him too much.

Other than Melinda and 'her boys' (a nickname dubbed by Bruce), she still interacted with Vance and Griffin quite a bit. She walked home with them at least once a week, Griffin always having the same amount of excitement each time. The third time walking home with them she had met their mom, Laura Stagg-Hopper. She was a very sweet lady and any time she had seen Melinda she always greeted her warmly. Melinda didn't know how to handle the motherly affection half the time, not used to any kind of parental interaction that wasn't negative. It was noticed by Laura, who kept her concerns to herself. She had a feeling Melinda's home life wasn't a happy one, but there was no proof of it.

Griffin was still the happy-go-lucky boy she had met those months ago. He still didn't get a lot of attention unless it from her or Vance. He seemed to be okay with that though, resolving to talk their ears off instead. He had taken to calling her Mellie, a nickname she loved. In return, she called him Griffy; it was their little thing. Most times when Vance would have detention she would wait with him until he got out (unless of course she thought her dad would be home early). They spent a lot of time together that way, which neither was complaining about. Griffin had started looking up to her as a big sister the more time he had spent with her.

Vance on the other hand still didn't fully know what to think of her. He had warmed up considerably since the first walk home, but he was still prickly and easy to piss off. Griffin still continued to be his soft spot, and secretly he started placing Melinda in that spot as well. He would never admit to it though. If you knew how to look, you could see it in his actions. The way he would make sure her and Griffin walked on the inside part of the sidewalk, giving her a jacket "reluctantly" if she was shivering from the cold, bringing her a snack if he felt she looked 'too skinny.' Vance would never once admit that he cared, but his actions did show that he did. He had always said when he was younger that he wanted more siblings... and maybe, maybe just a tiny part of him believed he got that wish when Melinda came into his life via his little brother.

All of the boys were a highlight in her life, but that didn't mean things still weren't hard. Her father was still her father. Recently, it felt like he was looking for any excuse to punish her; occasionally even making up a transgression just to hurt her.

The last 3 months had been especially rough. If her father wasn't working on some unknown project, doing constant grocery shopping and spending time in an unknown part of the house, he was hurting her. He was extremely easy to set off, it was obvious he was stressed about something. She never knew where he was 'working.' Whenever she would look for him she couldn't find him. She didn't know how he was hiding where he was going in and out of, but he always was creative. That was evidenced in all the different punishments he had for her.

Even when she was doing her best to stay out of his way and be good, she somehow screwed up. Recently, he had been favoring 'the room,' isolating her for hours, sometimes days if it was the weekend. The only good thing about her father being like this is that he was more distracted. Because of this, it made it a bit easier to get food. But other than that, it was hell at home recently.

Her friends were able to make it seem like life was better than it actually was. They had ways of distracting her, and she was so thankful for it. Other than her father being her father, things were going good. She was as happy as she could be. She didn't love life, but it was 10 times better with her friends in it. Melinda felt like things were as good as they would ever be, and other than her dad, nothing was bad.

Until Billy went missing.