Melissa

"Oh, and girls? Do us a favor and get out of our room."

- Melissa, to Sabrina's Group

Melissa Hunter is a student at San Diego Public High School that befriended Crystal when no one else would. She pretends she is rich to impress everybody, but reveals that she is actually poor and tells Crystal not to tell anyone, which prompts Crystal to tell her off, claiming that Melissa might have it bad, but she has it worse. Melissa seems sincerely sorry about what she did, and Crystal leaves San Diego the next morning after her parents send her a ticket to Hawaii. Melissa is not seen or even mentioned again until the final chapter, where we learn that she and Crystal have made up and are friends again.

Appearance
Melissa has white skin, straight blonde hair that goes down to the middle of her back, and blue eyes. She is also said to be pretty. She is 5'6, slightly shorter than Crystal.

Personality
In the first book, Melissa is a minor character and her personality isn't really explored. She seems like a nice girl that has to lie to everyone to feel secure.

Melissa seems to develop more as a character in the second book. We learn she is gullible, but not stupid. We learn that she is very kind, and doesn't like to hurt others, but will only do so if someone hurts her or her friends. By the beginning of the third book, she has developed to the point where she yells at Malibu and Jasmine when they insult her, instead of just taking it like she used to.

Trivia

 * While Melissa is a minor character in Crystal Covell's Story, she has a larger role in Crystal's College Years, bumping her up to a main character. She will most likely remain a main character for the rest of the series.
 * She is the first character known to get a role upgrade, the second one being Tina, who was bumped up from a minor character to a secondary/main character.
 * According to MBTI, Melissa is an ENFJ (Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging).
 * Melissa is very similar to Malibu and Jessica in appearance. However, she is the opposite of them in personality.
 * Chapter 16 of the second book confirms that Melissa got into USC on a scholarship, thus meaning that she is actually very smart and is simply gullible rather than stupid.
 * Emily claims that if she had not decided to put Melissa in the second book, she would have just been a throwaway character with no real importance or impact on the plot. Emily put her in because she liked Melissa and wanted to do more with her.
 * She was basically the Ensemble Darkhorse of the first book, as she had actually become quite popular with people who had proofread the first book. She then becomes a Breakout Character starting in the second book.
 * Melissa wears a necklace with a cross on it in her official artwork, implying that she is Catholic or at the very least, Christian.