"Operation what?" I asked Dean as our cell connection crackled.

"Bathsheba. You know, King David and Queen Bathsheba, from the Bible. Meet me outside the Splash at 10:45. I'll explain everything then."

"Thanks for your help, Dean."

"Anytime, Jasmine, um . . ." He paused as if uncertain what to say next. "I remember what today is. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, except for one problem: I don't own a bikini."

"So buy one, I dare you. I'll see you on Saturday. Bye."

I gave the phone back to Melaney and plopped on her bed. "Dean is meeting me outside the Splash at 10:45 on Saturday. He wants to go swimming instead of going on rides. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure. Swimming sounds better than standing in line all day." She sat down beside me. "What is Dean helping you with now?"

"Just some family stuff." My reply was deliberately vague.

Melaney looked suspicious, but she didn't ask any more questions. I wanted to tell her that I had paid Dean $300 of my babysitting money to spy on Tyler, but Dean made me swear not to. He knew Melaney would disapprove of our less than legal eavesdropping.

Dean's mom, Diane, worked for an international phone company. Somehow (I didn't ask for details) Diane put spyware on Tyler's cell. All of his text messages were sent to Dean's phone. For the past three months, Dean had read each one to help me discover the perfect time and place to properly reintroduce myself to Tyler.

Summer was almost over. Saturday at Picnic Creek Park could be my last chance to get him to notice me before school started. This Operation Bathsheba had to work!

I glanced at the alarm clock on Melaney's dresser. I should get home before Hannah woke up. It was my job to take care of the foster kids every Saturday morning while The Rents slept in.

"I'll see you later," I told Melaney before climbing out the window and down the tree. I hurried home to the weathered, white Cape Code at the dead end of Dogwood Street. 

I carefully opened and closed the back door without a squeak and quickly prepared breakfast for myself and Hannah, a shy, tiny three year old, who was living with us until her mother finished rehab. Hannah didn't speak - to anyone. She reminded me of myself after Daddy died. I was too sad to talk.

I heard the pitter-patter of her bare feet on the wooden stairs and poured milk on our oat cereal and blueberries. "Good morning, Sunshine. Are you hungry?"

Hannah smiled and nodded. For a few seconds, I saw dimples in her cute rosy cheeks and happiness in her big brown eyes.

She sat down beside me at the oval oak table for six. In the past, every seat had been filled with The 'Rents, Dean and me, and another foster boy and girl, but lately there were only four of us. The empty seats made me miss Dean even more.

After Hannah and I ate our cereal and put our dishes in the sink, we went upstairs to our bedroom. I helped Hannah put on a pretty pink dress and brush her long blonde curls, and then we preceded to the couch in the living room and watched princess cartoons until Mother woke up.

Mother plodded into the room in her worn slippers and faded bathrobe which was the same shade of slate blue as her tired eyes. When Daddy was alive, she was so bright and vibrant. Now she was dreary and forlorn, just a shadow of her former self. Even the gold highlights in her hair had turned to gray.

"Good morning, girls. Did you sleep well?" she asked, yawning.

Hannah nodded, and I sighed. I hadn't slept well in nine years, but mother always asked that same question, expecting a different answer. Wasn't that Einstein's definition of insanity?

Mother had to be out of her mind to have married Jonathan Jones. He was as plain and mundane as his last name. Short and stocky with dull mud-brown eyes and hair, Jonathan was always so somber. He seldom smiled and never sang, not even in church.

I went upstairs, took a quick shower, and then dressed in denim shorts and an indigo t-shirt. Blue was my favorite color, especially midnight-blue, the color of Tyler's eyes. I grabbed my wallet off the desk and slid it into my back pocket.

I located my mother and stepfather in the kitchen eating brunch. "I'm going to Melaney's house. I'll be back by 5:30 for dinner."

"Call us before you go anywhere else with Melaney," Mother ordered in her prison warden voice.

"Of course," I conceded while walking out the back door.

Melaney was the only peer I could visit without having to endure a prolonged parental inquisition. We were in the same grade at school and in the same Sunday school class and youth group at church. She had been my best friend since she moved to Milltown in kindergarten. I raced to her house in just under three minutes.

I knocked on the front door of the Miller's two-story brick home. Melaney opened it and led me into the living room. She wiped flour off her hands and onto an aquamarine apron covered in lots of other dusty white splotches. Something smelled delicious.

"Laney, can I borrow a bikini?" I asked, slightly embarrassed by the request.

She rolled her eyes at me. "Like I would own one."

Melaney and I were both slender, but she was too modest to ever reveal her abdomen or realize how pretty she was - petite and tan with curly, shoulder-length, dark brown hair. Her eyes were the color of black coffee. In contrast, I was tall and pale with long, straight hair that was the same color as an old copper penny. My eyes were emerald green like my daddy's.

"Dean sort of dared me to wear a bikini to the pool. Could we go shopping today? Pleee-ease!" I pressed my palms together like a steeple and closed my eyes for a quick prayer.

"You two are so juvenille," Melaney scolded. "When are you going to grow up?"

"Never!" I resolved with a stomp of my foot.

"You hate shopping."

"True, but I need to buy school clothes sometime. There are only three weeks of summer left."

"Okay. I'll ask my mom if we can go to the mall." Melaney headed to the kitchen.

I plopped on the plush sofa, opened up the humongous Miller Family Bible on the coffee table, and leafed through the pages of the Old Testament until I found the chapter about King David and Queen Bathsheba, 2 Samuel: Chapter 11. 

Dean David King was fascinated with the history of his middle namesake, from a simple shepherd boy slaying the giant Goliath to a powerful king pursuing the beautiful Bathsheba.

I quickly read the passage. From the roof of his palace, King David saw Bathsheba bathing and thought she was beautiful. Was it love at first sight? Would Tyler think I was beautiful? I closed the Bible just as Melaney returned. 

"Mom gave me some money for clothes and for lunch. I'm going to change into another shirt. You better let your mother know we're going to the mall." She handed me her cell and went upstairs.

I called home.

"Hello," Jonathan answered.

"Jon, can I talk to Mother?" He hated it when I called him Jon instead of Jonathan, and I hated being called Jones instead of Austine.

"She's in the shower."

"Please tell her that I'm going to the mall with Melaney. Thanks." I pressed the button to end the call.

Melaney came down the steps and pointed to her teal-blue shirt and khaki shorts. "I want to find a khaki skirt to match."

I returned the phone to her, and she placed it in her leather purse.

Recalling the story about King David and Bathsheba, I asked Melaney, "Do you believe in love at first sight?"

"I believe you can be attracted to someone based on appearance, but that isn't true love. It's just lust."

She and I walked into the kitchen. Her mother and younger sister, Megan, stood at the counter peeling zucchinis. I inhaled the sweet aroma of zucchini bread baking in the oven. Yum.

"Mom, we're leaving now," Melaney said. 

"Why can't I go with you?" Megan whined. "I need new clothes for middle school."

"Next time, I promise." Melaney drew a cross over her heart with her fingertip.

"Drive carefully," Mrs. Miller instructed.

"I will." Melaney gave her mom a hug goodbye.

"Bye," I told Mrs. Miller. "Thanks."

Melaney and I strolled out the back door and down the sidewalk to her car, The Tan Sedan. She unlocked the doors, got in, and put on her seat belt. I opened up the passenger's side, snapped the buckles together, and then sat on top of the straps so the buzzer wouldn't beep. Ever since the accident, I refused to be trapped in a seat belt again, which was why I didn't have a license. For some unfair reason, the police officers at the testing sites insisted that all drivers wear one.

Melaney merely sighed. She was used to my strange quirks. She turned on the engine, merged the car into the street, and drove toward the mall.

"So, in your opinion, because Tyler is so handsome, my crush on him can only be lust, not love," I surmised from her previous comment about love at first sight.

"I admit the boy is beautiful on the outside, but what about the inside? Is he kind or cruel, generous or selfish? You don't know very much about his character or personality. You have to really know someone to be truly in love with him," she explained with her usual caution.

I was determined to know Tyler, up close and very personal. One major obstacle stood in my way: Mimi Holt, his girlfriend. She resembled a life-sized Barbie doll with her long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and voluptuous body. How could I compete with a girl who looked like that?

Mimi was also a drama queen who always had to be in the spotlight. If she ever discovered my plan to steal Tyler's attention away from her on Saturday, she would probably bruise a rib from laughing so much or just bruise me. Even though she attended the same church as Melaney and I, Mimi had a mean streak longer than the Susquehanna River. Only Tyler was exempt from her cruelty.

"Do you think Mimi will invite Tyler to Picnic Creek Park for WGJC Day?" I asked.

"She usually does," Melaney replied with a lack of enthusiasm.

"Are you going to invite Shawn?"

"Yeah. I probably will, since you invited Dean."

Shawn McDonald was a mutual friend of ours, who wanted to be more than just Melaney's friend, but she was too busy trying to save the misfits of the world to have a romantic relationship. I was her first rescue mission.

After Daddy died, I was a total mess. I couldn't eat. I cried all the time. I had nightmares every night about the accident. When I fell asleep in class, Melaney took me to the nurse so I could rest for a few hours. At lunch, she tried to persuade me to eat something, anything. When the other kids teased me for being a cry baby, Melaney defended me and told them to leave me alone. If I needed to escape from school, she distracted the teachers, so I could sneak out a back door. I would not have survived that winter without her. Melaney had always been there for me when I needed help. Even now, she was taking me shopping.

At the department store, the only bikinis left were on clearance. I picked out a black one. After searching for school clothes for several minutes, I finally located a navy-blue long-sleeved shirt, dress pants that matched, and two pairs of my favorite brand of jeans.

Melaney found a khaki skirt that went perfectly with her teal shirt. She also discovered a cobalt-blue sundress that she liked. It was sheer and shimmery.

I snatched it off the rack and another one for myself. "My treat, for taking me shopping."

We went to the dressing room to see how they fit. The silky material felt marvelous on my skin. "I feel like a movie star."

"Me, too," Melaney agreed. "All we need are the sunglasses."

We posed in front of the tall mirror.

"Ready or not, Picnic Creek Park. Here we come!"

A/N:  Video above is Voice of Truth by Casting Crowns. Melaney is Jasmine's voice of truth.

Do you have a best friend as awesome as Melaney? Let me know in the comments.

If they write on Wattpad, I'll check out their story and yours.

Forever Remember to Live, Laugh,  and LOVE! - 3L