Melody wasn't actually a bad person. She was just a little bit misguided is all.

 

Like many villain's in novels or manga, her faults were that she loved too hard and that she wouldn't take no for an answer. Melody was like a princess in this world. She was pampered with the most lavish of products and given the royal treatment. Naturally she grew spoiled and anything she desired would immediately become hers.

 

That also seemed to apply to the male lead. Or at least that's what she thought. Like most upper-class ladies, she was groomed to become someone's wife and as the best of the best, it was assumed that she would end up with the male lead. It wasn't a question of if she would end up with him, in her mind it was a matter of when.

 

I'm not trying to justify any of her novel counterpart's actions, but Melody was truly not evil. Just a poor lovesick girl who would grow up learning certain ideals that would be pushed on her throughout her adolescence. She only did what she thought was right. It was wrong, but she didn't know. If a puppy was taught to play bite when they are young and their behavior isn’t corrected, then when they grow up, they’ll continue that same behavior and may eventually hurt someone. They wouldn’t have meant any harm, to them it is just playing, but without any discipline then causalities are soon to follow.

 

I think another way to explain it would be cognitive dissonance. Melody was told she belonged with the male lead and would end up marrying him one day and even built up an imaginary life she would have with him. But when she realized that wasn’t going to happen because he was with the female lead, she wanted to try and correct the behavior by splitting the pair apart.

 

But that's later Melody's personality, as of now she was still very moldable and had not become her scheming and villainous self yet. And most importantly, she hadn’t met the male lead yet.

 

A week after my release from the hospital, I got to see Melody in person.

 

Her family had invited me to a tea party with just Melody and I to celebrate my good health.

 

The tea party was held outside in the garden, the pride and joy of Melody's mother. Colors were bountiful with reds, pinks, blues, and many different shades of green. We were sat a little bit away from the fenced Koi pond. The fence hadn't been there the last time I was here so I could only assume that after the Serenella family heard about my fall that they decided to build the fence to comfort me during my visit.

 

Truth be told, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit annoyed at the new fence despite it being built with good intentions. I don’t usually fall into bodies of water, okay? And I most certainly know how to swim now that I have my past memories back. If I took a dive right now, I’m sure I would be just fine.

 

"Faye, why are you so quiet?" My gaze went back towards the blonde-haired girl right in front of me. Her emerald green eyes were bright and outshone any of the flowers that were behind her. "What are you thinking about?"

 

The edge of my lips quickly curled upwards and I smiled at her as if I didn’t have a care in the world, "I'm thinking about how the garden pales in comparison to your eyes and how it must envy you." After I finished spreading clotted cream on my scone, I took a big bite out of it that wasn’t very ladylike at all.

 

The scone was somewhat dense but also had a lightness to it with pieces of fruit mixed in. My current scone was strawberry and with the cream it was absolutely decadent. For grade-schoolers, this type of tea party felt like way too much. Even the tea had been carefully brewed and was extra strong. The cream that I insisted to have in my cup was also full and fatty and was something I had never had before in my old life, but which seemed to be abundant now.

 

The table Melody and I sat at was covered in a sky blue and lacy tablecloth with silver platters. There were strawberry scones of course but also blueberry, persimmon, orange, lemon, and even a fig scone! Besides scones there were petit fours in three flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and raspberry. And my absolute favorites, fig and goat cheese macarons. Unlike the other sweets, there was only once flavor because Melody couldn’t stand them for some reason. I didn’t care all that much though considering that just meant more for me. There was also a chocolate raspberry cake with a lemon glaze drizzle that just had the right amount of tartness. My parents always had me bring something every time Melody and I had our tea parties despite the fact that we could never even eat half of the things on the table. If we had tried, I’m sure we would both fall asleep in the soft grass with sugar comas.

 

Melody laughed at me softly as she reached up with her napkin to wipe the excess cream off my cheek. "You're so silly Faye. You always say something that I never expect from you."

 

While I was certainly not lady-like, Melody was the complete opposite and her manners were impeccable. We were only four (okay, she’s five and not four but the sentence would sound so much more coherent if we were both the same age), and yet she was prim, proper, and acted nothing like a usual five year old. Even her response to what I said did not add up. Most children her age wouldn't have been able to comprehend what I had even said. Is this the world of a manga? Are all children this bright here? Even my siblings acted far older then their actual ages.

 

Besides the astonishing aptitude Melody had, it also felt as if she was nothing like her novel counterpart. I saw no malice, no deceit, and none of the deviousness that was supposed to be there. I felt completely at ease here with her. Her aura was one of innocence and comfort and I felt safe and protected.

 

That's not to say that she was weak though. Even now, I could feel the power that she had. She was the person that drew others to her. When she spoke, her words were carefully chosen, and she could break you if she wanted to probably.

 

She felt like someone I could follow for the rest of my life.

 

But I was no follower of hers. I'm her equal. At least I hope I was.

 

The Cotheran's don't hold the prestige that the Serenella's hold, and neither do I have the aura of a leader like Melody has. But unlike Faye from the novel, I won't be someone who blindly follows Melody. I'm her friend, not her devout pilgrim.

 

"Melody, do you help other people?"

 

She pursed her lips, taking a sip from her teacup as she mulled over her answer. "I supposed so, we hold fundraisers all the time."

 

"But what else besides fundraisers?"

 

"What else? What more is there that isn't a fundraiser?"

 

"What about volunteering?" I suggested after pretending to think about it for a minute.

 

Her eyebrows wrinkled in confusion, "Volunteering? What's that?"

 

"It's… where you go out and help people. You give your time instead of just your money. I want to go to my Uncle's hospital to entertain other children who are there."

 

"Does this have to do with your recent visit to the hospital?"

 

I nodded eagerly, reaching out for her hand. "Yes, while I was there, I was so bored. I had to stay in a white room all by myself with only Mama or Papa. I wasn’t even allowed to get out of the bed for most of the time I was there. But there were volunteers who came to play with me. There was an older girl who came to read stories with me. She also had a younger brother who I played with. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

 

"I don't know…" Melody trailed off, looking slightly worried as she frowned.

 

"Melody please! Will you at least think about it before giving me your answer?" I opened my eyes wide, a few tears welling up as I tightened my grip on her hand that I had trapped earlier. I wasn't a very good actor, but I hoped I was convincing enough.

 

"I…" She sighed, looking me over before nodding, her tight curls bouncing slowly "I will think about it. I'll also have to ask mother about this matter as well. It does not exactly sound safe when we will be meeting complete strangers, especially some of whom may be sick."

 

I grinned at her, my mood being extremely raised. She hadn't outrightly said no. "Thank you Melody! I hope you say yes! I promise it will be okay. Uncle Waldo will help set it up. And there’s no need to worry about safety or getting ill. Uncle Waldo wouldn’t let us get hurt and we wouldn’t be visiting anyone who would be contagious. On the contrary we would actually be threats for other children since many of them at the hospital are immunocompromised, but they’ll make sure we only see children who can handle it.”

 

Melody’s eyes opened wide, staring at me with her mouth open.

 

Ha! So even she is not totally perfect at staying calm and unaffected.

 

“You seem to know a lot about this Faye. I thought you weren’t in the hospital for that long?”

 

“I certainly wasn’t, but I’ve been visiting Uncle Waldo for a long time while he was at work. Besides he likes to tell us about his days and Metis has her own fascination with the medical industry as well. You remember all the medical textbooks she has.”

 

I swiftly picked up a macaron and popped it into my waiting mouth and immediately took a bite of the chewy, soft goodness. It was sweet, but not too sweet and had just the right amount of fig preserve and goat cheese. I felt completely satisfied. I had gotten Melody to agree to think about volunteering and that was enough for me for the moment.

 

If I wanted to steer Melody to the path of light, I would have to start instilling good values in her and teaching her how to be a good person. I’ve never had to teach anyone to be good but I’m sure volunteering is a great step towards that. It allows the person volunteering to look past their current views and their bubble of life and see what it’s like for other people. Better yet, it also ends up helping people in the end and I’m sure she’ll like that feeling and want to continue doing volunteering when we’re older.

 

And since we’re so young we can only do something simple like play with sick children, but when we’re older we can broaden our selection and go pick up trash on the beach or at a park, plant seedlings, or maybe even help at an animal shelter or sanctuary. Those are much more exciting, and it doesn’t matter which one we do. We can do any of them as long as Melody like’s it the best.

 

I trust that I’ll be able to help Melody become a benevolent person in the future. I just need to be wary of any obstacles in that may pop up in the future. Her parents may be well-meaning in their encouragements and what they want her future to be like, but it’s not their future. It’s hers and she should be making her decision about what she wants it to look like.

 

Now I just need Melody to figure out what she wants.