She got out of bed and whipped open her family studies book to the page with the warning signs of suicide. Brian had gotten drunk last night and nearly gotten in trouble! Melissa saw with horror that he had displayed two more warning signs! Drug abuse and Taking Risks! The book said if a person showed even one or two of the signs that family members should be concerned. Brian was up five! What was she going to do?

Suddenly Melissa had a horrible thought, what if it was too late? The books said that a lot of times suicide victims seemed suddenly happy right before they decided to kill themselves, because they were relived about supposedly finding the solution to their problems. Brian was talking to everyone last night in a way he hadn't done since…well, he never talked to her that way but he used to be friends with Pat a long time ago. And she heard Brian and Troy talking after everyone else went to bed. Brian was never nice to Troy, everyone knew that!

Melissa jumped up and scurried down the hall to her brothers' room. She burst through the door, nearly tripping on clothes and shoes that were left in the floor. She was momentarily relieved to see Brian in his bed, but then was immediately worried that he didn't wake up at her loud entrance. The fact that Troy, whose bed was closer to the door, didn't wake up either didn't occur to her. She rushed over to Brian's bed, hoping against hope that he didn't try to take any sleeping pills. The book said taking them with alcohol could kill you.

Melissa grasped Brian's T-shirt through the covers and yanked. "Brian! Brian, get up! Brian are you…she started to say "alive" but that sounded too horrible….awake? Brian?"

Brian at least moved and made some kind of noise, but Melissa wasn't going to be satisfied until she saw him open his eyes.

"Bri-yan! Wake up?" She wondered how much longer she should wait before calling 911.

"Melissa, shut up!" Troy said from his bed. Across the hall, the girls' door slammed shut. Typical that she, Melissa, was going to be the only one smart enough to save Brian's life.

Then Brian swiped at the general direction of Melissa's voice. He turned over, annoyed. "What do you want? I'm trying to sleep."

"Same here!" said Troy.

"What?" Brian snapped again as Melissa, silent in her relief watched him talk. He seemed normal. She struggled to come up with a good excuse, then hit on the perfect one.

"The car, you told me to remind you about the car," she said. Actually, he didn't, he told Pat and Yolanda, but she was betting on him not remembering too many fine details from last night. "I set the alarm so we could get up early," she added. Little details like that got to people sometimes.

And it worked here. Brian stopped scowling at her, groaned at sat up. "Ugh," he said, grasping his forehead.

"Remember, you and Pat have to walk back to Danny's."

"I heard you, I heard you," Brian said, rubbing his temples. "Oh man, I need drugs."

"I'll go get you some aspirin," Melissa said, eyeing him.

Brian looked up at her. "Look, go get Pat, okay?"

"Okay," Melissa went across the hall, happy to do something for an alert Brian. She knocked on the girls' door and peeked in. Pat and Yolanda were two lumps, curled up on the opposite sides of their bed. Melissa went and poked at the longer lump on the left.

"Paaat…" she said more gently. There was no need for emergency here. "Time to go get the caaar…" She pulled the top of the covers down to uncover her sister's head.

"Melissa, quit it, I'm sleeping. Go away, you're waking up the whole house," said Pat, in a voice that sounded perfectly alert.

"I'm supposed to, you guys told me to remind you to get the car.

"It's too early."

"No it's not, it's seven-thirty."

"Seven-thirty?" Pat sat up. "It can't be, I set my alarm. "

"Probably for seven-thirty PM," Yolanda said, "she does it all the time."

"I do not." Pat said, picking up her alarm clock.

"Yolanda's awake?" Melissa asked.

"Duh? Who isn't now?" Yolanda rolled over and sat up.

From across the hall, the girls heard Brian calling Pat. "Come here!" he said.

"Oh yeah, Brian wants you," said Melissa to Pat.

"Why do I have to get out of bed?" asked Pat, still fussing with her alarm clock.

"What time is it set for?" asked Yolanda.

Pat ignored her. "Melissa, go tell Brian to come in here."

"Hey Pat, what time did you set the clock for?" Yolanda asked again. She suddenly reached for the clock and Pat grabbed her arm.

"Shutup, Yolanda," Pat said.

Yolanda started laughing. "Pat I told you a million times, when the dot is next to the time that's PM."

"I'll be right back," said Melissa, feeling forgotten.

Across the hall, Brian was still in bed.

"Brian, Pat says you have to come in there."

Brian rolled his eyes. "Melissa, just tell her to quit playing and come in here. I can't move; have a killer headache."

"I wonder why," said Troy.

"Shutup dink."

Melissa went back across the hall to her sisters' room and delivered her message. Pat raised her voice to carry across the hall.

"Melissa, tell your brother I'm not going to get the car by myself!"

From across the hall, the girls heard Brian's voice, "Melissa, tell your sister I didn't say she should, I just wanted her to come here a second!"

"Melissa, tell your brother he can come in here because he's the reason we had to leave the car at Danny's!!!" called Pat.

Melissa sighed and sat on the girls' bed as the other two got into the game.

"Tell your sister he has a hangover!" yelled Troy.

"Tell your brother that's his problem!" Yolanda shot back.

"You ALL have problems!" Melissa yelled in general.

"Shhh!!!" Pat said.

"Why me? You all were the ones yelling first," Melissa said.

Yolanda nudged her. "No, is that the phone?"

"Tell your sister's she's got a big butt!" yelled Troy.

"You guys, shutup, is that the phone?" Pat said.

They all listened as a distant ring sounded from downstairs.

"Yes, it's the phone," said Melissa.

"You think it's Mom and Dad?" said Yolanda.

"How should I know, ESP?" said Melissa.

"Shutup, Melissa."

"Well, somebody get it!" yelled Brian.

"God, it is so stupid that we can't have a phone up here!" Yolanda said.

"I know," Pat said.

"I'll get it," Melissa finally said.

"Don't say anything Melissa," warned Pat.

"Then how am I going to answer the phone?" Melissa said on her way out.

"Don't be such a pain the butt, you know what I mean!" Pat yelled out of the door as Melissa made her way downstairs.

Heather and George had so far refused to put a phone upstairs. Their argument was that they were heading off the fight about whose room it would go in, since no matter what room the phone went in, the others were bound to feel cheated. The boys and girls all had excellent reasons for why the upstairs phone should be in their room, but both sides wanted the privilege without having to grant the other side unlimited access to their room. And neither side trusted the other to take messages.

For awhile everyone was hot on the phone being in Melissa's room, which everyone considered neutral territory. They almost had Melissa convinced that they wouldn't be a bother. Then Troy remarked, "Why didn't we think of Melissa's room sooner? It 's not like she ever gets her own calls anyway." Angry, Melissa reneged on the whole agreement.

Pat thought she had the solution when she pointed out that each of the upstairs bedrooms happened to be equipped with phone jacks, so they could all have a phone in their rooms. United in their quest, Pat, Brian, Yolanda and Troy laughed at how simple the solution was and unveiled their great plan at dinner one night.

"That's true," Heather said casually, "but who's going to pay for all these phones?" The silence around the dinner table had told her all she needed to know. She and George looked at each other and smiled.

"Of course," George said, "if two roommates bought their own phone, it stands to reason that said phone would be not be considered a family phone." The children perked up at this answer.

So the latest agreement was that if Brian and Troy or Yolanda and Pat got together and bought (no borrowing from Julia or Stacy-Heather put in) their own phone they were free to have one in their room to use at their discretion. Family rules still applying of course.

Pat and Yolanda had a snicker about the idea of Brian and Troy having to actually work together and imagined themselves talking far into the night while the boys remained in stubborn silence. But as the weeks went on, they didn't get any farther along on their phone fund than the boys were.

George and Heather also suggested that all of the kids pool their money to pay for a new jack for a community hall phone. But money negotiations had stalled on that as well. So the empty phone jacks waited, and everyone still had to run downstairs to get a call.

Melissa picked up the phone. "Hello?"

It was Julia. "What took you so long to answer the phone?" she asked.

"We were all upstairs asleep, remember?"

"Oh Lord, you all and that phone." Julia had heard the parents' end of the great phone debate. She told Melissa what time to be ready for math meet. In a flash of inspiration, Melissa insisted on walking over to meet Julia at the Aarons' house. She though that was pretty clever, it kept Julia away from the house and gave Brian and Pat more time to go get the car. Melissa hung up with Julia and went back upstairs, prepared to bask in sibling admiration. People always did say she was the smart one.

Apparently Brian had convinced Pat to come over, for they had all gathered in the boys' room.

"Was that Mom and Dad?"

"What'd they say?"

"It was Julia. And guess what I did, I told her I would meet her over there at her house so she wont come over here," Melissa said. She sat back, pleased with herself.

"What'd you do that for? Now she'll think something's up," Pat said.

Melissa was taken aback. She'd thought her plan was a good one.

"Well hold on, how'd you say it Melissa?" Yolanda asked.

"I told her I would come over there so that it wouldn't be out of her way."

The other four groaned before she finished her sentence.

"What?" Melissa snapped. She was getting sick of all her efforts being wrong.

"Melissa, how is it out of her way if she has to pass our house on her way out? She's going to be suspicious you guys, I'm telling you," Pat said.

"Pat, let her alone, if she doesn't come to the house she wont see that the car's not here," Brian said.

"Yeah," said Melissa, even though that thought hadn't even occurred to her.

"I guess," Pat grumbled.

Brian and Melissa nodded at each other, then Brian said, "Good thinking Melissa. Go get ready okay? If you get over there early enough she won't be able to think of a reason to come over here."

"You don't know Julia," said Pat.

"Excuse me? I've known her as long as you've known her. A year longer in fact," Brian answered.

"Brian, I'm telling you, you're not over there as much as I am."

"Whatever," said Brian, he shook his head at Melissa, who smiled back.

"Is that aspirin?" Melissa pointed to the white pills in Brian's hand. Better safe that sorry, she thought.

"These?" Brian held up the tablets. "Yeah, got them, thanks. Go on and get ready."

Melissa nodded and headed to the bathroom. She went in and shut the door and turned on the water in the sink to make some noise. Then she crept back by the bathroom door to hear if they said anything about her.

"I'm telling you Brian, Julia's going to know something's up."

"Fine Pat, but don't yell at her, if she gets pissed off she can rat us all out, she saw everything. Just be cool and be nice to her until she leaves."

Melissa straightened up and turned back to the sink as they all began talking about the fastest way to get back to Danny's neighborhood on foot. She continued getting ready, taking as long as possible in order to make her brothers and sisters wait. So they were going to be nice just so they could stay out of trouble? Fine.

"Melissa?" Yolanda knocked on the bathroom door as Melissa came out of her bath. "How are you doing in there?"

"I'll be out in a minute!!" Melissa yelled.

"Okay," said Yolanda.

Melissa listened with satisfaction as she heard her sister scurry away.