Elaine Zuckerman’s parents are definitely not glamorous—her dad does something boring with computer chips, and her mom is a dentist whose office is in their house. They’re nothing like her friend Melodie’s family. Melodie’s mom, Constance King, is a beautiful Broadway star, and her dad, Trevor Ashford, has a thrilling British accent. Even Melodie’s name is glamorous! And Elaine would trade her oblivious older brothers for Melodie’s little sister in a heartbeat.
But glamour won’t keep Constance and Trevor’s marriage together or make them stop fighting in front of their daughters. And Elaine isn’t sure how to help the friend who’s always had everything, especially when the Zuckermans get caught in the middle.
What will it take for Melodie’s parents to behave like the grown-ups they’re supposed to be?
Elaine Zuckerman’s parents are definitely not glamorous—her dad does something boring with computer chips, and her mom is a dentist whose office is in their house. They’re nothing like her friend Melodie’s family. Melodie’s mom, Constance King, is a beautiful Broadway star, and her dad, Trevor Ashford, has a thrilling British accent. Even Melodie’s name is glamorous! And Elaine would trade her oblivious older brothers for Melodie’s little sister in a heartbeat.
But glamour won’t keep Constance and Trevor’s marriage together or make them stop fighting in front of their daughters. And Elaine isn’t sure how to help the friend who’s always had everything, especially when the Zuckermans get caught in the middle.
What will it take for Melodie’s parents to behave like the grown-ups they’re supposed to be?
eBookDigital Original (Digital Original)
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Elaine Zuckerman’s parents are definitely not glamorous—her dad does something boring with computer chips, and her mom is a dentist whose office is in their house. They’re nothing like her friend Melodie’s family. Melodie’s mom, Constance King, is a beautiful Broadway star, and her dad, Trevor Ashford, has a thrilling British accent. Even Melodie’s name is glamorous! And Elaine would trade her oblivious older brothers for Melodie’s little sister in a heartbeat.
But glamour won’t keep Constance and Trevor’s marriage together or make them stop fighting in front of their daughters. And Elaine isn’t sure how to help the friend who’s always had everything, especially when the Zuckermans get caught in the middle.
What will it take for Melodie’s parents to behave like the grown-ups they’re supposed to be?
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781497682757 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Open Road Media |
| Publication date: | 01/06/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 123 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
| Age Range: | 12 - 16 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Starting with Melodie
By Susan Beth Pfeffer
OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 1982 Susan Beth PfefferAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4976-8275-7
CHAPTER 1
Just like always, Tuesday night I had supper at Melodie's.
I don't know when I got into the habit, but I've been doing it for years now, maybe for as long as Melodie and I have been best friends, and that's since third grade. We've shared a lot of suppers together, Tuesdays at her house and Fridays at mine, in the past seven years.
"Ritual is important to Melodie," my mother said once to my father when he said it would be nice to see me for supper some Tuesday night. "Especially now."
We all knew what she meant by "now." Last year, Melodie's parents decided to get a divorce, and things have been shaky at her house ever since. Not just for Melodie, but also for Lissa, her little sister.
It's not that people don't get divorced where we live. Couples split up all the time. Parents, teachers, older brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, doctors, even the owners of the little Mom-and- Pop candy store. But when they split up it usually isn't in the papers, the way it's been with Melodie's parents. And usually the divorce follows a normal course. Husband moves out, wife keeps the kids, gets a job, and sometimes moves out of town because she can't afford to live there anymore. I've lost a lot of friends that way.
There was no question that Melodie's mother could afford to continue living in Morganville. Even without Melodie's father's income, they wouldn't suffer financially. Melodie's mother is Constance King, the big Broadway star. She starred in three different Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals (one was a revival, and everybody said she was better than the woman who starred in it originally, thirty years ago), and she's done five TV specials, as well as a couple of movies. Right now she's starring in Shooting Stars! on Broadway. The reviews said it was just a vehicle for her, but it's been sold out ever since previews, and if Connie wants she can play in it forever.
I used to like visiting Melodie when her parents were still married. Connie is so pretty and she always makes a big fuss about me, just because I'm Melodie's friend. And Melodie's father is a lot of fun. He's Trevor Ashford and he's from England, so he has this wonderful accent. Melodie can talk like that if she wants.
Trevor is a producer who does lots of big movie work. He's always getting international casts together and putting them in war movies. Melodie says that if he'd stayed in England he'd have been knighted by now, but she doesn't think that if he were Sir Trevor Ashford she'd be Lady Melodie, so I can't see the point.
The thing about Melodie is that she could really carry being Lady Melodie Ashford. I guess I've always been just a little jealous of her. For starters, there's her name. Melodie St. Clare Ashford. It sounds like it fell out of a Gothic novel. Melodie almost never uses the St. Clare, which is some sort of old family name, but I think it's just wonderful. I personally am named Elaine Marissa Zuckerman, and even with the Marissa in the middle, there's no comparison.
"Maybe you could drop the Elaine," Melodie suggested once. She's always been very sympathetic about my name. "You could just be Marissa Zuckerman."
"That sounds good," I said. "Especially if you leave out the Zuckerman. Maybe I could just be Marissa. I could design jeans with a name like Marissa."
"Or sheets," Melodie said. "Like Mama."
That's what I mean about Melodie's family. One day a big fabric company called up Connie and asked her to design sheets for them. So now people can go into department stores and buy Constance King sheets. I don't like them all that much, because they have lots of little flowers all over them and I like geometric designs better, but even so. Can you imagine having sheets named after you in bedrooms all over this country? Who would buy Elaine Zuckerman sheets?
Melodie's little sister, Lissa, is really named Melissa Penelope Ashford, which I don't think is quite as good as Melodie St. Clare, but it's a pretty good second. Penelope is Trevor's extremely British mother. She comes to visit once a year for two weeks and makes Connie a nervous wreck, but Melodie and Lissa and I like her. She insists on tea every afternoon, the way the British do it, and she tells us stories about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip as if she knew them. Connie swears up and down that Penelope never met the royal family, but it doesn't matter. Connie met them at a command performance once, but her stories about them aren't nearly as interesting.
My own grandparents live in Florida and California, and when they come up to visit, things get a little more crowded and a lot noisier. When we go to Florida or California to see them, it's even worse because they live in apartments and there isn't nearly enough room for all of us. We end up scrunched together, and soon we're all screaming at one another, and then we cry, and then we make up, and then we scream all over again. Each year my mother swears we aren't going to do it again, and each year we do. I can't be sure how it is when Melodie visits Penelope in England, but I can't picture Penelope ever screaming.
Another reason I'm jealous of Melodie is her house. I love where she lives. It's a mansion, with a genuine music room and tons of antiques. I love my own house, too, but Mom has her office on the side of the house, and when she gives her patients a shot of Novocain, sometimes you can hear them shriek. Even under the best of circumstances, having a dentist for a mother lacks glamour.
And Dad's business is no better. He's in computer chips. Lots of times he tries to explain what he is in computer chips, and I know I should pay more attention, but there's no way I'm ever going to go into computer chips for a living.
Trevor is always traveling around, going to London and Paris and Hollywood to make deals and get all those international stars together. Dad travels almost every week to Pittsburgh. His company had its corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh. What can you say about a business that makes Pittsburgh its corporate headquarters?
I rang the doorbell to Melodie's house that Tuesday night, and Miss Hardwick answered the door. She's Lissa's governess. She was Melodie's and when Melodie outgrew her Lissa was born, so she stayed on. "Hi, Elaine," Miss Hardwick said, smiling. "Come on in. Melodie is in her room."
"Thanks," I said. Even though I didn't know Miss Hardwick when she was Melodie's governess, she's one of those people I always associate with Melodie's life. A governess. She takes the girls to their doctors' appointments and has supper with them and helps them with their homework. Connie spends Tuesdays in New York City so she can be fresh for her Wednesday matinee, and she spends weekends there, as well. Having Miss Hardwick means she doesn't have to worry about the girls being home alone.
Alone means with Hans and Marta, the live-in couple. Hans is the chauffeur and gardener, and Marta does the cleaning and cooking. They scare me, but I love the idea of having live-in servants. We have a once-a-week cleaning lady who makes the house stink of cigarettes, even though she isn't supposed to smoke on the job. I always spray the house with Lysol after she leaves.
Since Melodie was upstairs, I went right up to her bedroom. Sure enough, she was lying on her bed, looking miserable. Melodie has spent a lot of time looking that way since her parents split up.
"What's happening?" I asked, sitting down on the bentwood rocker. Melodie's bedroom is very pretty, with lace curtains and pale blue walls, but I prefer my bedroom, which has lots of books and my mother's old desk—and geometric sheets.
"It's awful," Melodie said, barely looking at me. "Elaine, it's so awful. I just don't know what I'm going to do."
"What is it now?" I asked with a sigh. Being a best friend means putting up with a lot of complaining.
"It's Daddy, of course," Melodie said. "And Mama, for that matter."
All of Melodie's problems lately were Daddy and Mama. I missed the good old days when Melodie got hysterical because she made only an 89 on a test or because Karen Steiner said something mean about her in gym. Karen Steiner still says mean stuff, but Melodie doesn't seem to hear her. And her grades have fallen even below 89, but she doesn't care anymore.
"What is it now?" I asked, because Melodie expected me to. To be perfectly honest, Melodie has asked me her share of expected questions over the years. It isn't as if she never listens to my complaints.
"Daddy was supposed to be in town this weekend," Melodie said. "At his new apartment in New York City. And he asked Mama if Lissa and I could stay with him for the whole weekend. Maybe even take Friday off from school, so we'd have plenty of time for a visit. He's just back from Rome, and we haven't seen him in a couple of weeks."
"So what's the problem?" I asked.
"Well, things got complicated in Rome," Melodie said. "And Daddy called last week and said he didn't think he'd be back in New York this week, after all, and told Mama he couldn't see us, and we should make plans to see him next weekend instead. Only Mama got annoyed about that, because we were supposed to go to Boston and see her parents next weekend. Mama was supposed to fly there after her Sunday matinee and join us, and we were going to take Monday off from school and have a long weekend together."
Melodie never missed this much school when things were normal. No wonder her grades were slipping.
"Did your father get mad?" I asked.
"Sure," Melodie said. "But that isn't the problem."
"No?" I asked. Trevor has a fierce temper. I saw him lift a genuine Chippendale chair once, in a fit of anger, and throw it clear across the room. It cost a fortune to get it repaired. That day he was angry at the entire Yugoslavian army for taking too long filming a war movie.
"The problem is that Daddy called this morning from Rome," Melodie said, "and told Mama he was leaving Rome this afternoon and would be home tomorrow. He said he wanted Lissa and me to spend the weekend with him the way we'd originally planned. So Mama started shouting at him that he was unreliable and she couldn't trust him with us, and she wasn't going to let us anywhere near him this weekend, and if he tried to see us in Morganville she was going to get guard dogs and train them to kill him on sight."
Connie didn't need guard dogs as long as she had Hans and Marta. "I bet that really made Trevor angry," I said.
"We were in the breakfast room," Melodie said. "And Mama was on the phone in the den and I swear I could hear him shouting. I could certainly hear her. It was awful."
"Did Lissa hear?" I asked.
Melodie frowned. "She heard everything. She ran upstairs, crying, and it took Miss Hardwick hours to get her calmed down. Lissa didn't go to school today, she was so upset. And that made Mama even angrier, like it was all Daddy's fault, and she called her lawyer and said she wanted to get the custody situation settled immediately, so that Lissa and I would see Daddy only one weekend a month and for two weeks in the summer. And no trips with him to Europe, like we'd been promised."
"That's awful," I said. I knew how much Melodie's weekends with Trevor meant to her, and she'd really been looking forward to spending July with him in London. "Can she do that?"
"If she proves Daddy's really irresponsible," Melodie said. "At least that's what her lawyers say."
"But Trevor isn't irresponsible," I said. "Just busy."
"I know," Melodie said. "But Mama will call in all sorts of people who'll say Daddy is a terrible influence on us, because of all his women and everything. I like Daddy's girl friends, just as long as he doesn't think about marrying them."
Even my parents, who never gossip about Trevor and Connie when they think I can overhear them, admit Trevor is a terrible womanizer. I'm not sure that's the only reason he and Connie split up, but it's been a convenient excuse for everything Connie's been doing ever since.
"Your father won't let Connie get away with that," I said, trying to soothe Melodie. I never felt comfortable when she started talking about her parents' problems. I'd already had a couple of years' practice and it still didn't feel right. "He can afford good lawyers, too, and they'll prove he's perfectly responsible and should be able to see you every weekend and all summer, just the way it was supposed to be."
"I'm really scared," Melodie said, sitting up on her bed. The bed had a big lace canopy, and she looked like she was sitting under a giant frilly tent. "Daddy's getting angry about the whole situation, and you know what he's like when he's angry."
If Trevor ever got really angry, even the guard dogs would be in trouble. I nodded.
"He and Mama have been fighting about when he can see us ever since he moved out," Melodie said. "And I know how much he wanted to see us this weekend. There's a benefit preview of his new movie on Saturday. It's for the Heart Fund, and Lissa and I were supposed to go with him. He's planned it for ages. And then Mama just arbitrarily decided we can't go because Daddy didn't give her enough warning that he was going to be home, after all."
"Maybe she'll change her mind," I said.
"Maybe," Melodie said. "But even if she does, Daddy'll stay mad. He doesn't like it when Mama changes her mind any more than she likes it when he does."
"They'll work it out," I said. "Maybe it'll take the lawyers to do it, but they both love you and Lissa, and that's the important thing. Everything will be okay. And I bet you get to go to London this summer just like you planned. Connie won't keep you from seeing your grandmother."
"I don't know," Melodie said. "She hates Penelope."
"My mother doesn't like Dad's mother, either," I said. "I think it has to do with being in-laws."
"At least your parents love each other," Melodie said. "And even if they didn't, they'd never act like this."
Last week I walked into the kitchen and found Mom and Dad kissing right in front of the refrigerator. So I guess they're not about to get divorced.
But even if they did, the stakes wouldn't be as high. I have to admit I wouldn't be devastated if Mom refused to let me spend July in Pittsburgh with Dad.
So even though I knew Melodie was miserable, I still couldn't help being a little bit jealous.
CHAPTER 2One thing I have that Melodie doesn't is a boyfriend. His name is Steve Miller, and he's also a sophomore.
We met last year, when his family moved to Morganville from Portland. His father is a veterinarian, and his mother is a housewife. As far as I can tell, all she does is stay home and bake. She bakes all the time—cookies, cakes, brownies. My mother says she's God's gift to dentists.
Steve and I have been dating for a couple of months now, nothing too serious because my parents won't allow it, so only weekend dates—parties, movies, football games. I really like having a boyfriend and I especially like Steve. He's about five feet ten, with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. He does well in school and he wants to do something meaningful with his life. I don't know what I want to be yet, except that it won't have anything to do with teeth or computer chips.
"How about a movie Friday night?" Steve asked me, the day after I'd been to Melodie's. He and I were walking home from school, a parentally approved activity.
"I can't on Friday," I said. "You know that."
"What do I know?" Steve asked.
I couldn't tell whether he was being deliberately dumb or whether he really had forgotten. "Friday nights Melodie and Lissa always have supper with my family," I said. "And they spend the night at our house. Sometimes Melodie spends the whole weekend with me. Her mother is in the city, so there's no reason for Melodie to stay home."
"Sometimes I think you live with Melodie," Steve grumbled. "Besides, if she's over every Friday, she wouldn't mind skipping one. So how about it?"
"Why not Saturday night?" I asked.
"Because I can't Saturday night," he said. "My cousin Jenny is getting married and my whole family is going out of town to the wedding. We won't be back till late Sunday. It's Friday night or nothing."
"Then it's nothing," I said.
"Oh, come on, Elaine," he said. "One Friday night won't kill Melodie."
"You don't understand," I said. "This Friday night it's really important for Melodie to have a place to go to. She and Lissa were supposed to spend Friday night with their father, only there was a mix-up and her mother got angry, and now she won't let the girls spend the weekend with him. Melodie's really upset about it. If I tell her she can't stay at my place Friday night it'll be like everybody's betraying her."
"I think you're exaggerating," Steve said. "So she spends the night alone. She has her sister, and all those servants."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Starting with Melodie by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Copyright © 1982 Susan Beth Pfeffer. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.