Book 12: Campaign chaos

This book should be called "He was a sk8ter boy, I said see you l8ter boy"


Haha, what a ridiculously simple graphic. Not too hard to guess which the two candidates are. Not much to say about the other cover pics, sorry for the huge bend on the back cover, I think my book got it when it was mailed to me.

Tori is on 15 pictures, 2 of them alone.
Nichelle is on 15 pictures, 1 of them alone.
Ana is on 11 pictures, 2 of them alone.
Chelsie is on 13 pictures, 3 of them alone.
Barbie is on 15 pictures, 2 of them alone.
Lara is on 10 pictures, 2 of them alone.
Seems like the cover photographer aren't too fond of Lara and Ana :/ Which is a shame, because they're the two arguably best looking girls.

Woohoo, now the student council book is up, I'm allowed to talk about my personal experience with trying out for student council. They said it was up for everyone, and that they wanted different people to try out, but the exact year me and other "underdog" candidates tried out, the teachers changed the rules so the same girl who was the best known girl in the school was allowed to try out again and again, and of course she got all of the votes then. So, most schools are ruled by cronyism, I guess.

Even Wikipedia says that democracy is all about popularity. I don't think the intention of democracy is that only popular people are allowed to vote and express their opinion, though :/ See, if they hadn't treated me that way, my dream career wouldn't be dictator for the rest of my life, would it?

Oh well, back to the MIH weirdos. Nichelle complains about her piles of homework. She says that Tori is a math whiz, but Tori reminds her that Nichelle is only tenth of a point behind. Nichelle is complaining about how hard the work, but how much it is piling up. Her friends will support her, and Nichelle will just turn herself into a homework machine. She doesn't look like one though, but an up and coming teen model. Barbie tells them that Matthew Choy, vice president of the student council, is moving to Brazil. They need someone who cares about issues, not just one of those who wants it to look good on their college application. So a strong person, not one of the "I'm so cool" slacker types. I c what u did thar. Barbie has to write a farewell piece about Matt for the school newspaper. Nichelle meets Thomas Garie, one of the few guys that makes her feel short and flustered. He's a great dancer, a track star, one of the coolest guys in school and a future Ivy league student. He apologizes for not seeing her much, but he has been busy with college applications. Nichelle says that she has very much to do in Mr. Budge's class herself. Thomas suggests that she goes with him to the library to include information from original pioneer maps. For once Nichelle is not the popular one, Thomas is and he's greeted by everyone outside. Andy, one of the pants boys, greets Nichelle. Thomas asks her if she hangs out with those geeks. Nichelle gets angry, but Thomas explains that he was just joking. Nichelle loves the library and the old pioneer maps. Thomas takes her out for tea afterwards and they have tea, sandwiches and scones in a cute little teahouse where the owner knows Thomas' mother. Thomas talks about his exchange year in France, his sailboat, his summer internship, travel plans, and famous older brother. He also tells funny jokes. They had a lovely time and Thomas says that they should do this again soon. Nichelle finishes her homework, then she writes a letter to Niecy, wondering if tea and the library just counted as a date.

Nichelle still takes the subway with her mother to school. She doesn't think Nichelle put all her hopes on Thomas as he's a senior and will leave seen. She has met his parents sometimes and his mother is very sweet, but his father is quite standoffish. Nichelle says that Thomas wasn't that way last year at least, and he's very handsome. So Thomas is supposed to be a stereotypical snooty upper class boy then? Principal Simmons make an announcement about Matt's leave. Not only has he made a great contribution to the school, he was the only one who knew all words to Louie, Louie. To choose Matt's replacement, they'll hold a special election. Everyone is allowed to elect anyone, and the four students with most votes will be asked to campaign until next Friday, the 13th (oh!). They'll debate the issues, then the votes will be counted later that day. Nichelle will meet up with Tori at Eatz after class. She's tired but smiles wide when she sees the pants boys. Evan and Andy are both good students, honest and eager and enjoys life to the fullest. Andy distribute his complicated electronic music compositions for free over the internet. Evan, the shyer one is a techical whiz who could make a computer from a ball of string and a box of donuts. Hi MacGyver. Why are Evan and Andy suddenly so profound and so good at hiding their profoundness? Nichelle looks over at cute Thomas, who is sitting in another booth with some kids from the debate team. All the girls have had a terrible day. Thomas asks Nichelle if she's running for student president. She doesn't have the time. Andy suggests Tori, but she hasn't time either. Rick, a guy at the next table says that someone has to do it, and it would be terrible if a dweeb filled that position. Thomas suggests that Rick should do it, but he has his time filled with debate team, mixed chorus and basketball. Tori laughs and says that they're all talk and no action. Rick replies that everyone on his table whould be better suited to student government than everyone on theirs. Tori says that she and Nichelle are the only ones with any experience, so they would be better suited for the position than any of you illywhackers(which means braggart and conman). See that Tori had got herself a new favorite word besides boofhead. Thomas suggests that they solve this by drawing straws at each table, and the one who draws the shortest straw has to submit his or her names for elections. They do so, and Megan draws the shortest straw at the debater's table, and Andy at the sophomores tables. Skaters vs Debaters. Chelsie has been given this lovely old William Blake poetry book by her mum. Barbie will go and film for a zit commercial, as if she'd ever had a zit in her life. Nichelle goes home with her mother. The family makes dinner together. After that, Chelsie calls. She's in tears as she has lost the poetry book. As she'd checked her room and backpack, Nichelle suggests she has left it in the cab. So Chelsie will call the cab company. She remembers that her driver was named Muhammad Ali, same as the famous boxer. Nichelle hopes that Andy won't get hurt by the election.

Everyone is busy at school. Nichelle thinks about Thomas' feelings for her and the election issue. She tok time to drop off her vote for Andy. The four final candidates are Ashley Burt, Andy Groebner, Megan Graham and Max Sklar. The debaters, even Thomas, act quite smug about Andy as a finalist, but he wants to keep running. He's still quite shy, but he wants to make a point that the school is for everyone. Ana suggests that Nichelle should be his campaign manager as he's quite inexperienced. When she calls him, she hears a lot of strange noises in the background. Andy thinks that would be great. Nichelle buy supplies and the girls make posters, following Lara's artistic ideas. Nichelle is all "Yes, we can." Everyone is in great spirits, they have big hope in Andy and makes up the slogan "MIH is for us all".

Nichelle shares a cab with her family. She'll get early to school to hang up the posters with her friends. The school looks like it should be Megan international high. A huge banner with Megan&Manhattan is strung across the escalators. The M&M logo in a classic skyline shape. Huge posters with Megan's face on them. Loudspeakers blasting a cool rap about her. And they give out giant cookies with M written by M&Ms on them. Megan herself gives out colorful buttons. How and why would anybody put this much money and effort into a school campaign? They still hang up their posters, which Barbie thinks have a real distinctive and real look. The whole school talk about Megan though. At lunch, Nichelle overhears two debate club girls talking about if Megan is getting back together with Thomas. Nichelle is unsettled by this, as she didn't know they had been together in the first place. At home, she has two notes. One asking her to call Chelsie back, and one about from her agent asking her to call back if she agrees on doing a photoshoot at 3 PM tomorrow with Michael Morse, a famous fashion photographer. She calls back and then she asks M'dear to go with her. So Nichelle calls Chelsie back. Chelsie has been to the taxidrivers agency, and a woman there will get in touch with the driver for her. Chelsie was afraid he would call her at home, so she gave them Nichelle's contact details. Nichelle wonders if it's wise to date Thomas, which is running her enemy's political campaign.

Nichelle is sitting in Mr. Budges class, her mind on the photoshoot. What a day she's been having. It's pouring, she has a bad hair day, two pop quizzes, the election stuff, and she had to eat the awful cafeteria food in two minutes because of a surprise Generation Beat Meeting. At the way out, some debaters tell her that her candidate was busted by Merlin for skateboarding in the hall. Nichelle wonders if it's true, but just says that gossip has no place in this campaign. Nichelle takes a cab to the shoot. Monique Dutou, a famous makeup artist, will be doing Nichelle's hair and makeup today. Nichelle was a bit stressed and tired, but Monique made her look amazing. Then Nichelle gets the idea of giving Andy a makeover so people would take him more seriously. The photoshoot were such a lovely experience. At home Nichelle is talking with her parents. She think she started to love modeling when she played dress up in the attic as a kid. She talks about her makeover idea. Her parents hope it won't take too much time from her school work. Shawn says that Andy could use a lot of work before he looks like the candidate for the ages. The Shawn starts talking about the flooded library at his school, but Nichelle keeps thinking about her plans for Andy. She calls Barbie to ask her if she can give Andy speech lessons, Tori if she can set up a website where they could email Andy questions and read about his view. She must work on the website so it's ready by tomorrow afternoon. Then Muhammad Ali calls her, saying that Henry Chu who shares a cab with him found the book and they could pick it up at his place in Chinatown. Nichelle will go with Chelsie to Chinatown after school and Chelsie will join the makeover project.Thomas calls Nichelle, asking her if she wants to go to the library with him again tomorrow and go out for dinner after that. She says the she has something to do after school, but could meet him at four. Then Nichelle has the weirdest dream, the school has become a big carnival, mr. Budge sells cotton candy, there's an arcade game with little mechanical skateboarders to knock down, all resembling Andy, Megan is standing at the counter wearing the beautiful dress Nichelle wore at the photoshoot and throwing baseballs which is getting closer to hit the little mechanical skateboarders, which is ducking and screaming "MIH is for us all". Nichelle is standing to one side in her pajamas, not sure if anyone could see her. She wants to yell "MIH is for everyone", but she can't speak.

Nichelle picks out clothes for herself, then she borrows some of Shawn's clothes for Andy. She asks Barbie to go with her to soften the makeover idea so Andy won't be offended. Andy is in secret a good writer and has written five logical paragraphs about his campaign issues, which Tori will present on the website. Community-service incentives, a student-sponsored antismoking campaign, a scholarship fund for studying abroad, a club for helping struggling students with coursework, and a student council-run workshop on how to get into the college of your dreams. He agrees a bit reluctantly on changing his style for two days, and they lead him to the band room. He looks great in a suit, Nichelle thinks that he would look even better with a haircut, but maybe that's going too far. Then they say that so everyone can understand what he says, Andy has to be given speech lessons. I'm picturing Ladette to Lady here. Ana says that Megan is going to give out cookies with her pictures on them on election day, so to counter that they will make rubber stamps with Andy's name and website address, and stamp that on colorful sticky notes they'll hang up over the whole school. Nichelle thinks about how weird it is to date her political enemy. On their way to Chinatown, she and Chelsie taste Asian pears and admire embroidered clothing. Mr. Chu has given the book to his girlfriend for safekeeping. They get her name, Maria Fuentes, and her address, so they'll go to her place tomorrow.

Nichelle meet Thomas at the library. They work for about two hours, then he take her out for dinner at La Petite Maison. They have onion soup, chicken breasts, a green salad and chocolate mousse. Thomas will go to an Ivy League college, Nichelle hopes to combine school and modeling. Then he says that he wants to save Andy from a humiliating defeat and help Nichelle make him a strong second. Nichelle gets up. She's angry and speaks it out with her mother at home. She calls Andy, and for the third time it's those odd sounds in the background. He has a surprise for her and will meet her tomorrow in the band room.

They put up notes over the school and Andy's webpage has been visited by more than four hundred students already. His speech lessons are going better and Andy's surprise was that he got his hair cut into a neat style. They also got some news from the poll that Andy's currently frontrunner! Many students congratulate Nichelle on her campaign. She and Chelsie go to East Harlem to find Maria Fuentes, which is going backpacking in Europe. She gave the book to her friends son, Vittorio De Franco, which goes to MIH too. He knew who Chelsie was from the newspaper, so he'll give the book back to her.

Friday the 13th. Nichelle is nervous as she would hate to see Andy lose because he isn't part of a popular clique. So our girls aren't the cool gang then? I could see Barbie as a popular preppy girl in no time. Maybe Nichelle as popular, but not that preppy. Lara as the bright, preppy, well-liked but not extremely popular type, as she would get along with many people, and she's EUROPEAN. Who could have made the election more interesting as a not very popular type? Maybe Chelsie, she's cute, and would probably have a breakdown or something. She calls Andy to ask if his speech is ready and Tori to make sure that she and Evan will be moral support backstage. Each candidate will have eight minutes to speak, then there will be time for rebuttals. Megan looks cool and confident, but speaks only about making money for clubs by things like bake sales. Still, the audience cheers. This is sort of a joke, where supergirl Megan doesn't have ambitions for more than a bake sale, and everything is backwards. Max and Ashley have short and clear speeches, but the audience is indifferent. Andy comes in, with a briefcase and suit, showing off his new haircut, which he had kept hidden under his hat. He asks students not to vote for him unless they think high school students can aspire to anything more than a bake sale and believes that the school shouldn't be ruled by certain groups. He thinks that the school should include, not exclude and that students forget important issues like homelessness. Andy says that students should work together and remember what links them to others. To start this, he has created a cd with his best friend and ten procent of the earnings will be donated to MIH charities. He wants everyone to get involved and participate, and they can do that by voting for him. The audience cheers and Thomas give Megan a consolation hug. Nichelle casts her vote, and Andy is back in his regular clothes, skateboarding with Tori and Evan. Of course Andy wins and he thanks everyone, especially Nichelle for helping him deliver a boarders message dressed in Ivy League clothing. "MIH for everyone!", "Mih is for us all"!.

They have a victory party for Andy. So all the jungle sounds in the background were caused by the production. Profits will be donated to a school charity, and he has even dedicated the album to Nichelle. Lara has framed one of the campaign posters and Chelsie really likes Vittorio and will go to a poetry reading with him. Even Thomas and Megan, which are together now, come over to gratulate them. Next day, Nichelle goes running with Ana and some of her friends, even a new cute guy, Mikel. Nichelle writes to Niecy that Mikel is a great guy and the might even start an ecology club at school together.

The point is to not judge by appearances. I can judge by writing only, and the books have not left hints about their smartness. In fact, there has been no such thing in the earlier books, and all of a sudden Andy's almost perfect and extremely intelligent. Why did he cut his hair and wear a business suit if the point is that looks don't matter?

An election article, and for the last time. Writing=honesty=truth!

This book in one word: Unrealistic.

Book 11: First Crush

Lara and Barbie look good, altough more like twentyfive year olds, and I totally remember those styles around the new millenium. Lara looks nice here. Nothing else to say. Hey, that's totally Barbie taking a picture of the Spice Girls! Ana as Sporty, Chelsie as Ginger, Lara as Posh, Nichelle as Scary, and Tori as Baby.

It's nearly Valentine's day. Ana tells Chelsie that Blaine asked her to the dance. Lara will help Evan and Andy, which has a small cassette player in his back pocket, with their secret plan. She meets Max, which compliments her on the scool Valentine website. He like the cupids, especially the one with Mr. Budge's face. Max wears arm braces, and cultural difference here, that didn't completely make sense(easy to play the violin, but your arms are wrapped in metal braces), but I googled and arm braces can be the same as crutches(?). He's sophisticated, witty and charming, speaks several languages and is a big reader. Sounds like my type of boy. And I thought of violin players as stereotypically pretentious, snobby and overly intense until, but now my slighly prejudiced opinions has been challenged after I heard about Alexander Rybak, and Emilie Autumn, so I could live with that Max is a violin player. He comes with them as Lara will help the pants boys surprise Tori and Chelsie. She finds them in biology class and says that she needs to speak to them. (Lara and Max have a substitue, so they are allowed to be some minutes late for class.) Evan and Andy's music doesn't work, so Max agrees to accompany them on violin. They've made a rap to ask Chelsie and Tori to go to the dance with them. Max starts improvising with his violin to accompany Evan and Andy and actually makes it sound good. Tori and Chelsie collapse in laughter and say yes. Lara goes with Max to the chemistry lab. He started playing violin a long time ago and likes chamber music best. Lara would love to hear him really play, and he wants to see some of her art.

Lara literally bumps into this handsome boy after class, when she's eager to find Tori and Chelsie. She feels a large bump in her head and reverts into French, as she always do under stress. She wonders how she could have missed a cute boy with a renaissance angel's face, a wrestler's body and silky brown hair, in school. Lara is slightly embarrassed. They boy helps her up, and Max, which has come out of the classroom now gives her a hand. He asks them both if they're okay, but Lara flees before the boy, Chris has time to ask her name. Lara has started living part time with each parent. She is in the kitchen, shredding lettuce when her mother asks her if she should put some ice on the bump on her head. Lara's mother is practicing speaking more English instead of Italian at home. They talk about the MIH-student only website made by Tori and Lara, where the kids can leave each other valentine messages, signed or anonymous. It even has a countdown calendar with pierced hearts and little cupids with teacher faces. Lara isn't sure if she she's going to the dance. She asks her mother how she knows if she likes someone from the first moment.
Lara says "I just want a relationship that challenges me. And one that is dramatic. And romantic. Someone who will shake me up and wake me up. Someone I can respect and who will respect me. Is that too much to ask?" "Yes. But you should want it anyway." her mother replies. Aww, sweet. After dinner, Lara climbs up to the bedroom to look at the fire and ice collage she's making. Then she checks the website for messages. Lara clicks on her screename, eurogirl. How original. I wonder what the other girls screen names are? Probably Nichelle will be mizzmodel, Chelsie britchick, Tori xxxtremeaussie, Ana swimmerbabe, and Barbie sunnyactress, or something. She has seventeen messages, five from her closest friends, some from other friends, some anonymous and general, and one last, mystery message, from "justme", a secret admirer hoping that she'll be his valentine". It says something about a chance encounter, so Lara hopes it's from Chris.

Lara keeps thinking about Chris and the valentine at school tomorrow. She'll ask Max about Chris, since he's sweet and mature and clearly knows Chris. So he'll meet her in Latin Class, and then he'll give her the real story on Chris. Lara is worried that Max isn't here today, but he eventually come to class. She stops him after class. Max is not busy as he has lunch after that, Lara wonders why she never sees him in the cafeteria as she also has third period lunch. He says that he does other stuff... He has known Chris since they were very little, as they live in the same building. He's a wrestler, but very nice and sincere. Max says that Chris should speak for himself about what he thinks and cares about. Lara meet Tori in the cafeteria. Lara answers that she isn't going to the dance with anyone. She does admit that she's a little interested in Chris though. Tori points him out in the cafeteria. Tori, who is really spontaneous thinks Lara should go over to him, or at at least go over to Melanie, a nice girl they know who sits at the same table. When she goes up to Melanie, Chris taps her on the elbow and asks if she remembers bumping into him yesterday. He asks about her name. It's obvious that he likes her. Lara goes over to Melanie and chat with her for a couple of minutes. Lara goes back to Tori, feeling stupid and embarassed. She tries to look at Chris without seeing him staring, then she rushes downstairs to the art room. She hears a beautiful violin sonata coming from the next room. It's Max sitting there playing. He lets her in and she sits there listening to the music. Now she has discovered what he does in early lunch. He even offers to let her share his sandwich. They talk about the dance and Lara says that she received this lovely email, and she hopes it's from Chris. Max suggests that she writes back to get to know the emailer back. She types a reply back, asking him some questions about what he loves and what makes him cry.

Lara still thinks about the letter she wrote back. Max joins her and Tori for lunch. Chris and the other wrestler guys talk to him and they all sit together. She and Chris speak about Mr. Budge, she mentions checking her email, Chris doesn't react and says that he wish he was better at English. The wrestler guys are being silly. Tori ask them if any of them are into extreme sports. Mike says that wrestling is pretty extreme and he'll arm wrestle Chris for his dessert. Mike loses in front of the girls. He gets grumpy and wrongly interprets Max's smile as making fun of him. "Little you know about it" he says to Max. The others wants him to apologize to Max, but Max fights his own battles and challenges Mike to arm wrestle him. Loser buys tickets to a Knicks game. Mike feels awful, but loses again to Max. Max says to that he gets very strong arms from going around on arm braces all day, and that they could forget the bet as his father has good seats to the Knicks games. In fact, he invites Mike to go with him next Wednesday. At the end of the day, Lara drops by the art room and she hears Max putting his soul into a violin piece again. She's so glad they've become friends. She has a lot to learn from his fearless outlook, and she realizes she has more in common with Mike than she thought, as they're both afraid to look stupid in front of his friends. She asks Max if he can find out if Chris is the email admirer and if he likes her. Then she spontaneously throws her arms around Max. And by the way, is he going to the dance with someone? He's not sure.

Max sits at home in his room covered with Rock'n'roll posters, books, cd and recovers. He plays a Back sonata. His most prized possession is a signed photography from when he met Yakov Brin, a fellow gifted violinist who walks with the aid of arm braces. Music is Max's wings, and he has been dealing with people like Max, who doesn't know any better, his whole life. His flips over his notes, where he has written drafts for the email Lara received in the margins. He couldn't compete with Chris anyway, and now Lara even asked him to help her find out if the secret admirer is Chris. He is sure that Chris also likes Lara. Max can't write a reply as himself, as Lara hopes it's Chris who is her admirer. But he can't write a reply as Chris either, as Chris has no idea of his role in this drama. If Lara talks to Chris now, she would end up feeling hurt and betrayed. He has to do what makes Lara happy, even if it breaks his own heart. Max calls Mitzi, a friend.

Mitzi has had a crush on Chris for ever so long time. She's very disappointed to hear those news. Mitzi is a close friend of Max, and as a gifted pianist, she often plays duets with him. She thought she has made progress with Chris as he had sat next to her at the subway some times and he shone up when he saw her in her beautiful concert dress and she accepted coming by later to help him with his homework. Max goes over to Chris' apartment and fifteen minutes into their conversation, he understands that Lara likes him. So Chris is blissed out as he thinks Lara is lovely and beautiful. Max pulls a story that he created a Valentine and sent it to several girls at MIH. He used the words chance encounter, so Lara thought and hoped it was Chris. Lara sent a reply before Max had the chance to explain. Lara had asked Max, as he lived in the same building as Chris, to find out if Chris was "justme". He gives Chris a printout of Lara's email to show him the questions. Chris panics, as he can't write, and asks Max to log onto the school website with him to help him make a reply. The make a letter describing babbling around Lara and wrestling with words that won't come. He loves challenges, and he sees that in art and Lara's beauty. After that, Max and Mitzi are so depressed that they go out to drown their sorrows in butterscotsh ice-cream soda.

They keep exchanging emails between justme and eurogirl, but none of them mentions the dance. All the girls meet up at Eatz. Another kinky passage, quoted word for word. "She paused, trying to think of what large item could fulfil her needs. "We might not want to know" said Nichelle." And if you're wondering, it's Ana who is hungry after swim practice and need something filling. They order cheese fries. Ana is going to the dance with Blaine, but as he's going to deejay, so they can't dance the whole time. Chelsie and Tori are going with the pants boys, Barbie is going with Randall again, and Nichelle might go to a broadway show with her mother instead. They advice Lara to get more one-on-one time with Chris so her secret admirer can ask her to the dance. So she waits for Chris by the history classroom after last period. Lara is just going to do homework and work on her collage, maybe go to a movie with Chelsie and Nichelle. Chris asks her if she wants to come along and watch his wrestling practice. Lara will never been interested in wrestling, but she admires the grace and team spirit Chris brings to the sport. Chris offers to walk Lara home. On the way, they talk about Italy and food, Chris isn't very adventurous when it comes to food, he's only adventurous in climbing things. They stand outside Lara's building for a while. He doesn't want to go, and Lara doesn't want to go up. They don't say much until Lara asks him if he wants to go out with her sometime. He says yes, happily. Lara suggests tomorrow at seven, but she wants Chris to surprise her and decide where to take her.

Chris knocks on Max's door. He doesn't have a clue where to take Lara, as he thinks she'll be too refined for a Knicks game. Max suggests a concert, not rap, but classical. Chris couldn't sit through that, so Max suggests a museum. Like combining music and art, at the Guggenheim museum there will be jazz music playing tomorrow and an exhibit from Picasso's blue period. He advices Chris to just talk about things he's interested in and to be interested in her.

Lara is nervously pacing around the loft waiting for Chris. She jumps at the doorbell, then she lets Chris in to show him the flat and let him meet her mother. Lara is happy to hear about the Guggenheim plans. She promises to be home before ten. Chris treats her to a cab. They sit in silence before they both start speaking. Lara starts talking about books. She just read Emma by Jane Austen. The latest book Chris read contained thought-eating, slug-like aliens. Aww, I'm not by any means a literature snob(if you ever thought so by reading one of my blogs...) so I would have a good time talking about thought-eating aliens with the guy. Lara loves the Guggenheim museum, which is built like a spiral. She had never been her when they have music before. Chris gets her a club soda. They sit and listen for a while before Lara just has to go and look at the paintings. She's surprised that Chris have never been here to look at the Calder paintings before. They go up and look at the Picasso paintings. Lara really enjoys them, but she won't spend too long time as she sees Chris looking bored and studying his watch. They walk a bit outside, then they take a cab the rest of the way. Lara feels strange after the evening, almost like she isn't speaking to the same person as in the emails.

Lara is not having a good Monday morning. She's at her father's noticing that she forgot her Physics notebook at her mother's house, and she feels awkward around Chris even if she still thinks they like each other. So she decides to avoid him and rather go and listen to Max practice at lunch. He's playing this beautiful heart-wrenching sonata which really relates to Lara's feelings. She wants to see the sheet music he's playing. She sees the notes that are identical to her emails. She thinks that Max has written this for Chris for the boys to have a laugh at her. She runs out, almost blinded with tears to get Chris. He explained that Max sent her the email first, and they didn't want to disappoint her. It was not their intention to make fun of her at all. Chris still really like Lara, but the paintings and music were not his style at all. She forgives him a little. He asks her if she wants to go with a hockey game with him and she believes that he didn't mean to hurt her. Before going home, she buries her feelings in paint. Lara is still mad at Max. He has called two times, but Lara asks her dad to say she isn't home. She falls asleep reading Emma on her bed, then she has Chinese takeout with her father. He says that he and Lara's mother has agreed to go out on a dinner date on Valentines day. Barbie calls and advices Lara to sleep on the situation. She's going to write a essay, so she check her e-mail(one message from Chelsie, one from Melanie(author self-insert?) in her English class), but the e-valentines are still on her mind. She opens the page. Five from her friends, six ridiculous ones, and one from "justme", just called "please".

She hesitantly opens the message. She couldn't believe that sweet Max would deliberately make a fool out of her. Max says that he's sorry he hurt her most by doing what he thought would hurt the least. He understood that she would never be into him, so he helped Chris to get her instead. He just hopes she will remember that it was he who wrote her the first message. Tears stream down Lara's cheeks. She feels awful, as she hasn't cared about how Max felt and didn't give a thought about his emotions in this. She calls him, apologizes for hurting him, and asks him to go with her to the Valentine's dance. He says yes. They're sitting at the dance, talking after they've had a few dances. Ana is helping Blaine choose music. Randall and Barbie are practising swing moves. Chelsie and Andy are doing the "funky chicken", Tori and Evan are just goofing around, and Nichelle is at the Broadway show with her mother. Lara asks if she can ask him what's wrong with his legs. Max says that he has a mild form of cerebral palsy, probably caused during the pregnancy. He can use his legs some, but the arm braces makes it easier for him. Chris is dancing with Mitzi, happy to just be himself. Lara and Max discuss "Emma" and she tells him about her parents on a date. They dance some more with each other and their friends and friend's dates, then they talk some more. Lara has had a great time and don't want to leave. She says "All the time, it was just you I was meant to be at the dance." "Yes, just me." says Max.

Article in the back of the book is about the school dance and email etiquette. Hturt=ytsenoh=gnitirw.

This book in one word: Predictable and cute.

Book 10: Taking Charge

Chelsie is good-looking, but not the stunner I pictured her as when I read the text. And I saw her hair more like auburn ringlets(which it's describes as) than red and frizzy. She looks young here, and when she looks young, she looks more than a sligthly grown up Mallory Pike than my dance club leader. And that stressed editor pose is so Mallory in a few years. I can see the name Morelli-Strauss on the front page. Heh.

Chelsie runs quickly out, missing breakfast, and missing James with limo, as she prefers taking the subway to school. She has a lot to do on Mondays, since it's newspaper staff meeting that day. Maria, the editor-in-chief asks her to check why Randall hasn't dropped his new cartoon off, as Jonathan, the managing editor isn't there to check it. Chelsie adds it to her to-do-list. She's a bit messy and disorganized, but wants to make her best expression as the youngest member of the editorial board. Barbie is a rowing reporter and delivers here feature where she asked students where they would like to go to get out of the cold. Ana hands her the latest baskeball stats before she goes the track meet. Tori prints them out for her. Chelsie is really interested in Jonathan Kleig. He's smart, fun to hang out, is interested in music, clothes and literature, wants to change people's lives with his writing and his eyes crinkle in this cute way when he smile. She hopes that it won't be a repeat of last week, when he asked her to meet him early at school. She had Nichelle help her pick out a cute outfit, but Jonathan arrived in the middle of the regular meeting. He strolls in now. Chelsie gives him an update and Jonathan says that he's so lucky to have her around. He asks her if she can type in the story on the new Spanish teacher for him. She says that it just looks like the notes, and Jonathan says that the right pages must be lying at home. Chelsie will still do this. Jonathan runs to the pre-college board workshop, he'll talk to Chelsie about the layout later after school. Chelsie wonders if being helpful is the way to capture his heart.

In history class Chelsie looks at her to-do-list. She still has to write Jonathan's article, review the layout, proofread the editorial page, and make headlines for the features section. She hurries to lunch with Nichelle, who says that Chelsie always pulls through. She can't join her at Shawn's, Nichelle's brother's basketball game today. That reminds her that she has to find something else that can cover that game, as Matt Allens, who usually does it, is sick. She hints if Nichelle and Ana can make some notes, as they're going to the game anyway. Ana replies that Chelsie always choose the hard way to impress a guy. She promises to this if Chelsie buys soda and popcorn at the next game.

Chelsie meets the new Spanish teacher, Miss Rodriguez. Chelsie thinks that she's a very interesting person, as she's also speaks Italian and Portuguese in addiction to English and Spanish and dreams of being a Broadway actor. They talk about the theatre. Chelsie feels that writing down the interview, called "teacher feature", flows smoothly. Most staff members arrive. Chelsie compliments Lara on her dress, and they talk about last night, when Lara's father has taken them to a club to see a band some of his students played in. Lara, Maria and Nichelle talk about doing a four page supplement on a special theme. Maria wants this to be on something of bigger significance. Jonathan comes in, shouting "peace" (obviously to some kids in the hallway, Chelsie and Lara notices). Maria thinks that this is an interesting theme. They take a vote. A few kids vote for animal rights, Tori only votes for extreme sports, and many kids want to focus on peace. Naturally, since MIH's students are very aware of political issues and global events. Maria, Jon, and Chelsie will work with some ideas. Ana, Lara, and Tori will meet for a walk in Washington Square Park in an hour. Chelsie has too much homework to join them. They'll feature the timecapsule project, where Tori and Nichelle are cochairs. Maria and Jon are fried from writing college essays. Maria wants to get into Yale or Columbia. Jonathan are hoping to get a scholarship to Princeton, but his good grades are slipping. Chelsie doesn't know what she will do without them at the newspaper. Maria says that the Miss Rodriguez piece is strong writing, but she credits it to Jonathan... She has to go, so she asks Chelsie and Jonathan if the can come up with some ideas. They'll catch a bite after school tomorrow.

Chelsie is in the library, finishing her English essay fifteen minutes before the game. Everyone is described as tall and maths and science experts except Ana and Chelsie. Are all of the girls supposed to go under that description since we don't hear anything else, or should we guess that they're probably short and suck at maths? She meets the other girls, except Tori, who isn't into spectator sports, as she stayed at the school anyway. They're happy to see her, and start to giggle and say the guessed she would bring up Jonathan's name in less than a minute. MIH play really well, and are leading over The Chargers. Chelsie tells them that she's going out with Jonathan tomorrow. The other girls think that this sounds like a date, and she'll borrow Lara's scarf. Chelsie is waiting outside school next day, thinking of what to say to Jonathan, when he suddenly arrives. He asks her if she wants to go to one of his favorite restaurants, a very cool teahouse Chelsie has never noticed before. She thinks that Jonathan didn't give her enough credit on the text not on purpose, as he didn't know that his notes weren't readable and she had to do it from scratch. Jonathan says that Chelsie could home when his band are going to play here at the end of the month. Chelsie wonders if she sounded too enthusiastic when she accepted the offer. She orders peppermint tea and a chocolate chip scone, Jon orders a cappuccino and a blueberry muffin. He also plays guitar, but wasn't involved in Sing Out, as he was involved with the paper and other personal stuff. His band was supposed to open for Accidental Housewives that night, but it got cancelled. Jon is excited to work with Chelsie on this as she probably knows a lot about this with her diplomate father. Chelsie think that young people's opinion on peace is too often overlooked. She thinks that they needs to get comments about peace from teenagers from all over the world, and they could do that by getting comments from high school students from all over the world on the school website, which Tori can help them with. They already have many kids from different parts of the world at MIH, and they could help them contacting students from their old schools. Jonathan will get an early start on the time capsule feature. He makes Chelsie make a list of story ideas and assign them. Jon has to leave for a study group and almost collides with a woman on his way out the door. Chelsie understands that Jonathan has been under a lot of pressure. She wonders if this was her first real date...

Chelsie is delighted to cover the time capsule meeting for Jonathan on Tuesday, hoping that he'll appreciate her more. She has a lot to do, later she'll write a history essay and work on the peace supplement. She's slightly disappointed that she and Jonathan doesn't share the byline for the Miss Rodriguez interview. Nichelle briefs her, saying that this probably won't be a twenty minute-meeting as it's the committee's first open meeting. They've found a company that makes affordable time capsules, they've got school and city approval to bury it, and they've filled out most of the paperwork, but they can't agree on what to put in the capsule. It's up to the students to decide what goes in it. The classroom fills up with about a hundred people and it's hard for Nichelle to be heard over the noise. Tori whistle to make them quiet down. Chelsie is impressed with how confident and poised Nichelle is when she gives a summary of the work with the time capsule. Chelsie hates public speaking. Barbie thinks that they should include some news articles. A freshman suggests putting a couple of clothing items and their pricetags in. Ivan thinks they should include results of the science projects, Lara some paintings made by MIH students. Damian suggests that they leave the box empty to shock future kids. They discuss for two hours, but no decision has been made. Chelsie think it was fun, but she's tired from writing all the suggestions down.Nichelle gets an idea that the kids should email their suggestions to the MIH website and vote on them, then they'll put the top choices in the capsule.

Maria thinks both the article and the website idea are great. Chelsie is passive aggressive again and feels sad that she has so much to do and that Jonathan is getting compliements on her work. Chelsie brings her own chicken curry sandwich to table, when the others are eating the school cafeteria's sorry excuse for tacos. She's losing her appetite and the other girls thinks she seems less happy. Then Chelsie hears Jonathan talking with Maria and taking the credit for her website suggestion. Chelsie comes in and join them, but doesn't say anything. Maria asks Chelsie to write the main editorial "Is peace possible"? Jonathan looses his balance on the chair. Chelsie thinks he deserved more than a bump to the head. And she's supposed to like the guy? I smell a possible serial killer.

Chelsie catches Tori by the half-pipe and asks her to work on the website so students can send in their thoughts. Her dad is home a week early from Egypt and he got tickets to Ursula and the Happy Inch? Is that supposed to be a family friendly version of Hedvig and the angry inch? How can Chelsie do her homework, work on the copy for the webpage, the editorial and proofread five articles? She tries to call Jonathan to make him give her a day more to proofread, but an old woman answers and Chelsie wonders if she got the wrong number. She grabs her favorite hat on her way out the door. The show is great. After that, Chelsie takes some hot chocolate and biscuits when she's going to work on the editorial. She goes to find a better lightbulb, but stops to laugh at a photo of her and her father wearing ponchos in Peru. Her mother comes out and asks her why she's looking for a lightbulb in the middle of the night. She follows Chelsie back to her room and Chelsie explains the newspaper situation. Chelsie goes to bed, but she sneaks up to write more later. Chelsie can barely hold her eyes open. She finishes her draft, but when she turns on the computer, she makes five new last lines and three opening paragraphs. In the end, she's made five different versions of the piece.

Chelsie asks the girls at school the day after which version they prefer. The all seem to like the first one she wrote best. She even does a quick rewrite after getting her friends perspective. Later she'll stop by helping Tori and Nichelle counting the votes they received and checking how much of the stuff that will fit in the time capsule. Jonathan feels bad about the time capsule article taking up so much of her time. They've received hundreds of ideas on the webpage, half of them not serious and from Damian. Much easier when they remove those, as they're silly and students were only allowed one vote each. They have it under control now, so Chelsie goes to see Jon as she needs to talk to him. He seems upset as he has so much to do and his grandmother is sick. Chelsie feels guilty for being secretly mad at him. Chelsie is a bit anxious about Jonathan's opinion about her editorial, but he hasn't even read it yet.

Chelsie has replayed the conversation with Jonathan in her head all weekend. On Monday she has to get the basketball scores from Ana, and go over the layout for the features section. She finds out that she needs to take all of her books home. Lara came to talk to her about the essay. She's in Ms. Hong's class with Jonathan, where they were supposed to write an essay very similar to Chelsie's editorial. Ms. Hong read out an essay very similar to Chelsie. You guessed it, Jonathan's. Lara recognized this as she read all five versions, so she asks Ms. Hong to give her a copy of the essay, and as Chelsie reads it, she discovers that Jonathan has stolen her essay. She thinks that there must be some sort of explanation. Lara and Barbie thinks that Chelsie shouldn't let Jonathan get away with this. They urge her to speak to him.

Chelsie search Ground Zero, the cafeteria, and the newspaper office for Jonathan. She nearly gives up when Maria says that he is leaving right now. Chelsie follows him downtown, where he walks into what looks like a broken down apartment building. She follows him five floors up and knocks on Jonathan's apartment door. He can't let her in, so they go out to talk. Jonathan's mother died a few years ago, and his father left him, so he moved in with his mother's mother. His father stopped sending money a while back and now his grandma, who lives to see him get a scholarship to a good school, is sick. Chelsie tells Jonathan that she discovered his plagarism. He didn't intend to steal it, but he felt like he couldn't write as good as her. Chelsie says that everyone writes in different ways. Jonathan has had a really tough with college applications, his grandma getting sick, so he had to take up a part-time job. He only wanted to take inspiration from Chelsie's story, but it was so late, so he ended up copying it. He says that he'll talk to Ms. Hong first thing tomorrow. Chelsie ends up talking about everything he has been taking credit for her efforts and the work he keep loading over onto her. Now she has said everything she needed to say. She puts away the Generation Beat notebook and does her other homework. She break down in tears when Barbie calls and explain everything, and that she still don't think he's a bad person. Chelsie will go ice skating with her friends this weekend. Her mother remarks at the dinner table that it's nice to see Chelsie happy again. Aww.

Maria shows Chelsie this strange note she got from Jonathan where he resigns from the paper. He says that's he's not worthy of his position, so he thinks Chelsie should be managing editor instead. Chelsie needs to talk to Jonathan herself, as it's too much to get ready till Tuesday on her own. She finds him washing dishes at Ground Zero. He failed the assignment, but isn't going to be kicked out of school. He felt horrible and like he didn't deserve to be managing editor. He should really work on his college applications, but he can't decide which version of it to use. Chelsie says that her friends helped her decide and she still consider him a friend. Jon decides to be more honest with Maria and tell her all the great things Chelsie has done. And then he gives Chelsie a hug. Mr. Toussaint says that he's surprised by Jonathan admitting that he did something immoral like stealing Chelsie's essay. Chelsie accepts the apology, and says that the Generation Beat shouldn't suffer without him as he made a mistake. Maria speaks to Mr. T. in private. She makes Chelsie senior editor, which gives her a nice position with less work and more options to do her own writing. All her friends congratulates her. Jonathan wants to take her out to eat to celebrate. Chelsie suggest they go to Eatz this time. Jon thinks the menus are really dirty and gross, and as they don't serve coffee, he takes a chocolate milkshake, the same as Chelsie.

Time capsule burial. The ground is frozen, but Damian gets a woman with a earthmover to help out. The box is filled with letters, cd-s, newspaper articles, clothing, books, science projects and art. They let Tori put one inline skate in the capsule. Jonathan stops them, saying that they has to put the first issue of Generation Beat where Chelsie's listed as a senior editor in the capsule too. Tori will rearrange the box, but it overflows when she takes off the lid. Jonathan says that he's a walking disaster. Chelsie replies that she will miss that walking disaster next year.

The article is about the time capsule burial, and it teaches kids to out sources on their work and never copy anything. I had a class mate who could get away with copying articles straight from Wikipedia. Annoying for those of us who put in some effort. And I hate writing exact page numbers of sources. It's just boring, when you've used one tiny paragraph or large parts of the book. Writing=lies=distrust in this example.

This book in one word: Aww.

Book 9: Hitting the slopes

Apologize for the cover bend(bought this book used). Looks very idyllic and simple here, but at the backside it gives spoilers about the blizzard and Dead Man's drop.

Ana runs around the track. The snow is falling and she thinks that she has to find a new sport. She takes a warm shower before she goes up to her locker at the second floor. She meet Mr Pugasjov(is it just me, or was his English better in the early books?) and he comments that she might need shoe-snows. Tori, which sits next to Ana in Mr Toussaint's class, is late to class. She has scrapes on knees and elbows and has torn her jeans when she fell over trying to inline skate in the snow. Mr T. writes At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth; But like of each thing that in season grows. on the blackboard. Ana is asked to read it and says that they shouldn't complain about the changing seasons. They meet Barbie and Chelsie after class. Barbie tell them about the big ski trip next weekend, and says that they, Randall, Blaine, Nichelle, Lara and the pants boys should fill the last spaces. The others can't believe that neither Ana or Tori, the sport crazy ones, have been skiing before. They agree to sign up, but Ana is still a bit worried about finances.

Ana almost nods off in Mr. Budges history class. He says that a map is wonderful, because it shows not only where we are, but where we are going. Blaine asks Ana if they're going to Eatz together. She can't, as she and Nichelle will meet Barbie at the newspaper. Blaine skis, and Nichelle will give Ana some pointers. Lara thinks the snow is fantastique. Ms. Krieger, a gym teacher is going, and Toussaint will be one of the other chaperones. Eh. I find teachers willing to spend any time with any student(s) a little weird. I'm not apposed to any student-teachers contact outside classes, for example a teacher holding a graduate from middle school-party for the entire class, which she has been mentoring for five years, for example, when she have never invited the kids to her home earlier and likes to keep her sparetime private. Or a teacher talking to a kid during a difficult time, like illness or family problems, I think they will probably have a little more contact than you have with just everyone and form sort of a bond. I think the difference between this lays in the boundaries, like the appropriate "After knowing those kids closely for years, I've grown quite fond of them, through I in no way treat kids like they were my family or lovers." and "The time spent with my students is the best time I could spend." The last shows that you either have no life and few adult friends, or that you're a creeper.

Ana talks to the man who operates the elevator from the subway, Roy. Back home, she and her family puts decorations on the newly bought Christmas tree, including Rosa's favorite ornament, a little elf on a deer, which is the only ornament left from those her parents bought on their tenth anniversary to Vermont. Ana looks up Vermont in the atlas and hopes she'll be allowed to go there.

Friday. Tori and Ana are in the newspaper office again. Chelsie went home as she isn't feeling too well. They look up the ski resort, Powderpeaks, and find a map of the trails. "Dead man's drop" used to be a trail, but is now closed for safety reasons and only offers a beautiful scenic. They print out some maps and enlargements. Barbie got them all in on the ski trip, as long as they have paid by Monday. When Ana gets home, Rosa is really sad as she tried to pretend to make Rudolph fly by helding him out of the window, but she accidentally dropped him and now he's lost. Ana herself is upset as she doesn't have enough money for the trip. She tells Rosa a lovely bedtime story to comfort her. Barbie calls Ana to tell her that Chelsie has a fever and can't come, and Ana must be there with the others. They can lend her money if she doesn't have enough. Leap and the net will appear. Her father overheard the conversation and says that his business is going so well, so they have money enough that Ana can go. Ana is very touched that she can go after all.

They're on the bus. Blaine sits across the aisle from Ana. Everyone's there, Randall, Fletcher, Melissa, Evan and Andy. Mr. Toussaint says that they must be on their best behavior as they're representing the school. Blaine should give them some ski pointers. He says that Ana and Tori should stick to the bunny slope so they won't get hurt.

Barbie and Ana admire the beautiful view. Tori thump Barbie with a snowball, insisting that they came here to ski. They start at the chaotic bunny slope, as Blaine insisted. He's really serious, but Nichelle thinks that they could move on later. Blaine teaches them how to snowplow, and make their skis into a pizza slice shape. He says that they could try other techniques once they've went down the hill in snowplow position a couple of times. Tori grab the rope for going up the hill for a fast start. She almost fall going down the hill, but she laughs and says that it was fantastic. Then there's Ana who won't wait for more instructions from Blaine. She speeds down the hill, snowplows, and are grabbed by her friends, so they all end up in a pile in the snow. Blaine is slightly sour and heads over to the blue intermediate slope.

They'll try the next slope, with is twice as steep as the bunny slope, with Nichelle. Nichelle says that if they don't stop at the first drop-off here, they'll be taken to the advanced black diamond trail. Tori gets an excited gleam in her eyes, but Nichelle says that she has to do the intermediate slope before she can think of that. From the ski lift, they watch Mr Toussaint go down a hill. Nichelle says that they should get into the position he's in, almost sitting on his skis, if they feel like they're losing control. Then they see Lara gracefully zip down the slope. When it's their stop, Tori doesn't get off, but keep going to the black diamond trail. Ana will follow her, as she can't let Tori go alone. She sees Tori approaching the drop-off and keep telling herself that she can do this. Ana holds her breath, zipping past the others. She crouches down, gaining speed and catching up on Tori.The both made it down the trail without falling once. Barbie suggests going for a hot chocolate break, but Blaine has turned sour and skiied away.

Ana skis after Blaine. He thinks that she's too impatient. Ana replies that she came on this trip to have fun and she won't let Blaine spoil it. Ana feels better after some hot chocolate. Barbie will go snowmobiling. Tori will try snowboarding, but Ana's who is more of a long distance runner, so she'll rather learn cross-country skiing. Nichelle will try to go on the black diamond trail tomorrow, so she can't go cross country skiing with Ana. They watch Tori fall and tumble down the hill as she tries to go down on her snowboard, then Tori is lying silently and unmoving in the snow. Paramedics come over. Luckily they don't seem to think that Tori has broken anything. Ana sits at her room thinking of what happened to Tori. On impulse, she calls Chelsie. She tells Chelsie about what happened to Tori and apologizes for leaving a mess of maps on her editor desk. Then Ana asks if she could bring her anything, and Chelsie says that she could bring a holiday story as she's too sick to make it herself. Ana was looking forward to this trip, but it doesn't feel as good anymore when Chelsie's sick, Tori has had an accident, and Blaine's not talking to her. Tori comes in, bruised but happy, and says that she's had enough of snowboarding, so she'll be Ana's cross country partner.

Ana and Tori are taking the way leading to Dead Man's drop. They're halfway to Eagle's point and stops to eat an apple. They can see the rooftops at Powderpeaks from here. They toss their apple cores to a bunny and say that if it doesn't eat it, there will be two apple trees there next year. Ana keeps asking Tori if they're going too fast. When they reach Eagle's Point, the air's colder and the sky's getting cloudy. Barbie and Ana are shivering. It's going to snow, so they agree to have some hot chocolate after they've gone down the black diamond slope. It's snowing where Tori and Ana are, and they're talking about going skiing back in New York. Barbie, Lara and Nichelle meet up for a hot chocolate. Blaine wonders if Ana's back soon, as he was going to apologize to her. He hopes that she won't get caught in a snowstorm. Barbie suggests to they should check her room before worrying. It's about 3 PM now and snowing heavily. They have their "snowskis", so they should be okay. Ana and Tori plan and heading back, but it's snowing so heavily that they can't see the trail. They can't go back, so they have to seek shelter under some trees. Nobody has seen Ana and Tori since they left this morning. Mr Toussaint will call the ski patrol and the police to make them search for the girls. Some of kids have lots of ski experience, like Blaine and Lara, and wants to join the search party.

Tori and Ana take off their skis and hide under some thick pine branches. Barbie gets an idea and calls Chelsie to ask her if Ana and Tori has been saying anything about where they're going on the hike. Chelsie feels sick and tired and only remembers clearly that Ana told her about Tori wiping out on her snowboard. There's something in the back of her brain that could be useful, but she can't remember exactly what. Tori and Ana study a map in the light of Tori's mini flashlight. They have to do Dead Man's Drop. They hope that there will be people in the cabin shown of the map. They'll head North through the woods, and they'll intersect Elk Run, which leads straight to Dead Man's Drop. After they're down DMD, it's a short hike to the cabin along Beaver Pass. Chelsie remembers that Ana told her about the maps she left at Chelsie's desk, so she goes to school to see if they've left any clues about their route.

Tori and Ana stops over the very steep DMD. Ana feels a little insecure, but Tori truly believe they can do this. A lot of thoughts races through Ana's brain, but she stops at "Leap and the net will appear". Ana held her breath, crouches at her skiis and speeds down, almost loosing balance as she goes over a bump. She lands well, but as she slides over a later bump, she feels her skiis go out under her on and now she's sliding in full length down the mountain side. Chelsie is at school, begging Poogy to let her in. Ana and Tori has both come down alive and well. They have to keep skiing and hopefully they'll get to the cabin. They're numb with cold when they finally see a lamp.

Chelsie finds the highlighted maps. Now she just has to find a way to give the search team this information so they'll know where to go. Tori and Ana knocks on the cabin door, before they tumble in and collapse on the floor. They old man think that they're eskimos. Haha. He and his wife help them take their skis off, then the girls defrost in front of the fire. The woman gently pulls their hoods back and exclaim that they're two girls. Ana is too frozen to speak, so the old couple assumes that they are tourists who don't speak English. They're so tired that they fall into heavy sleep. Barbie and Blaine are really worried. Chelsie calls Barbie on her cell phone. Ana is awake. She sees that the ornaments on the tree are all handpainted and similar to the little deer and elf Rosa lost. The old man tries to pantomime eating as they don't think Tori and Ana would understand if they asked them if they wanted something to eat. Lol. His jaw drops when they reply in clear English, or let's say clear Aussie, as it's Tori speaking. Chelsie explains what she has found and Barbie asks her to fax it. Chelsie freaks out and says that she doesn't know how to work out a fax machine. Seriously, how hard can it be? But if I were hard pressed, I'd probably worry that I'd break the machine or anything myself. Poogy have no experience with fax machines himself. Barbie says that it's just leave the map on the tray, pick up the phone, deal the number and press send. See, even dummies like me understand that? Chelsie doesn't even know which way the paper goes in. Poogy states the obvious, that if it doesn't work, she should put in the paper the other way. Thank you, Poogy. Chelsie follows Barbie's instructions. Nothing happens, then she realizes she hasn't turned the power on. And Poogy has unplugged the machine when he mopped, so he plugs it in again. Then she almost cries when it still doesn't work, but she hasn't clicked the send button. Duh.

The man's name is Lionel Romano. He has made all the ornaments on the tree himself, and he gives sleigh rides. He don't have a telephone, but when the storm blows over, he'll give them a ride back in his sleigh. Barbie has received the highlighted map and will show this to Mr. Toussaint. Tori and Ana have eaten banana-walnut pancakes,
It's still windy outside, but it has almost stopped snowing. Mr. Romano says that he'll taken them straight through Beaver Pass, and they'll be back in no more than half an hour. They have a very Christmassy sleigh ride, but then a huge tree has fallen over their path and they have to get around it somehow. They'll help the horse getting around it on the left side, and Mr Romano will borrow a chainsaw and cut through it on the way home. Ana and Tori and their friends will come back to help him. The three of them push the sleigh up the hill, the horse leading. They slip a little, but have almost pushed the sleigh up when they hear the hissing of a bobcat. The horse rears up, and Mr Romano slide down with the horse and sleigh down into the ravine where they crash into a tree. The sleigh is wedged between two trees, Mr. Romano just had the wind knocked out of him, but the horse have hurt one of it's hooves. Ana has to ski for help, while Tori, Mr. Romano and the horse stays there. Ana gets Tori's little flashlight to bring with her so she'll be seen. Barbie talks to Mr. Toussaint. The search party has unfortunately been focused on the other side of the woods, but Mr Toussaint, and Lara, Barbie, Blaine, and The Pants Boys, who all know how to drive a snowmobile, go out. Mr Toussaint and the pants boys take the high trail to Dead Man's drop, Barbie, Blaine, Lara and Nichelle the low trail. They've brought blankets with them and shout Ana and Tori's names. Ana has lost track of time. She concentrates on planting and pulling, but has almost slipped down to the ravine a couple of times. The trail splits in two. Ana's freezing cold, but she turns on Tori's little flashlight and turns right. She's numb with cold, but then she hears voices calling her name. She sees the beautiful sight of four snowmobile lights, and Barbie, Blaine, Lara and Nichelle helps her taking her skis off. She can just say "Tori" and point up to trail, when someone has fired a flare gun.

Ana and Tori have called their families and now they're gulping down hot soup. Everyone has gathered in their room to look at the two girls who where saved. Ana and Blaine apologizes to each other. Chelsie is feeling better and want to do a interview with Tori and Ana for the holiday issue. They both received a box of beautiful ornaments made by mr. Romano, so they'll send him a thank you-present when they get home.

Back home in NY. Ana spontaneously buys a poinsettia, but she doesn't know who she'll give it to. She gives it to Roy when they wish each other a Merry Christmas, and he gives her Rosa's little deer ornament, which he has found.

The article in the back is about the big scary ski trip. And, say it with me: Writing=honesty=truth.

The book in one word: Somewhat a letdown.

Book 8: Taking a stand

Chelsie looks like my new dance club boss here, I guess it's the angle, as well as they have similar smiles and hair. Hey, she's probably a Brit too, so .... I could have found Chelsie's mum ;) What is the girl in the background doing?
I thought Chelsie and Nichelle were really short until I saw that they were walking on bleachers.

Or Generation Girl goes hypocritical.
In all the other books, the idea "We're such a tolerant and understanding, multi-culti PUBLIC school where everyone is allowed to be themselves, so lets hold hands."
In this book, the school board shows proof of their suckiness by going all controlling instead of their usual loose ways.

First Katarina's personal views *gets on soapbox*
I think school uniforms are good because there will be one peer pressure area less, allowing kids to wear anything is good because then they're allowed to choose a personal style if they are gutsy enough, but I think dress codes are absolute crap. It takes away the possibility to express yourself if only one or a few types of clothing are allowed, and it still has the same, if not more pressure to conform and dress like everyone else, and pressure on parents to buy their kids brand name or designer clothing.

Tori shouts "Kangaroo! Platypus!" out in pleasure over that the new stuff she added to the school homepage works. She's working alone in the newspaper office an early Wednesday morning. Tori has added some cool graphics which links to skateboarding pages. She's going to be late, so she runs to English class. Tori loves her new wacky hat, which was a gift from Aunt Tessa. Aunt Tessa finds it ugly herself, but as an artist she appreciates Tori's own taste. Tori slides into her seat. Ana compliments on the hat, but it's not her style. Ana asks if Tori and Tessa wants to come over to the Suarez family for thanksgiving. Tori will have to check with her aunt first. This is probably Toussaint's best, I mean only good, moment in the series. He will tell the class about Henry David Thoreau. But first, he asks Tori to borrow her hat. Then he asks everyone to take out a dollar and drop it into the hat, when he will send it around the classroom. The pupils start to take out their money. Tori raises her hand and asks why they are doing this. Mr. T(which I'm going to call him in the books where his name are mentioned often, so I wont have to spell out his name every time) says that the coffee machine in the English office are broken, so they'll have to chip in for a new one. Students start to put their money away, and a girl named Lucy says that she doesn't think it's right that they have to pay for the teachers' coffee. Mr T says that what if he, who makes the rules in the classroom, thinks so. Tori says that she would still not pay anything. What if she was threatened with detention then? asks Mr T. Then he says he wouldn't take a cent from them, but the point was to demonstrate the predicament Henry David Thoreau faced. Because of his principles, he refused to pay a tax he could afford to pay and would rather go to jail than support that policy. He refers to when Ralph Waldo Emerson came to visit him and was asked "What are you doing out there?" Thoreaus friends pays his taxes for him, so he's soon let out of jail. Props for that, as I think this is an interesting exercise, and refusing to pay certain types of tax on principle, I have the same thoughts myself sometimes, so I can relate to this. Lucy says that nobody would do anything if they could just stop following a law when they think it's not fair. What to do if you consider a law unfair? And how can you decide if a law is unfair?

As Nichelle, Tori is a maths and science whiz, so she spends the class going over some advanced algebra. Nichelle actually heard Tori humming while working. She compliments Tori on her hat, then tells her that Fletcher asked Melissa to the dance. Principal Simmons could joke around with the students. Yeah, I'm sure it's easy to respect a principal that's just one of the kids. She, Merlin and an unknown man passes the girls. The last man is named Mr Klench. He is from the board of education and will be doing some um, observing. Why the um infront of observing? Is he really doing blackmailing? And now he has the photos of Mrs S. licking tequila off the abs of a male stripper. Tori opens her mouth to say that they have a wallaby of a good time, and they could show him around. Mr Klench is writing on his notepad with his back turned to the students. I bet he's writing MUST BUY MORE TRANQUILIZERS. To use on the kids, or himself, as appropriate. Mrs S. has got her HDU, douche look on because he's rude to her sweet students, but she doesn't say anything. Think of the snaps, madame. She explains that Mr. Klench will take a tour of the school on his own. Then she compliments on Tori's hat. Tori answers that it's from her aunt. Merlin explains for mr Klench that her aunt is the famous artist Tessa Steinmetz. Mr. Klench remarks that her aunt probably wouldn't mind if she took off her hat indoors, as it's discourteous. Tori goes all "Why can't I do it when all the other kids are doing it?" and points to a boy with a blue mohawk and a girl with a teeny miniskirt and platform boots. Mrs S. is all uncomfortable at the thought of some sort of confrontation and says to the girls that the bell will ring soon. They hear a piercing scream and see a group of students gathered around the girl with the miniskirt, now crumpled on the floor in tears. "He broke my ankle!" the girl in miniskirt cries, pointing to the boy with a leather jacket covered in chains.

The girls are at Eatz and debate who is to blame for the accident. Lara think the guy was a jerk if he pushed the girl. He didn't technically push the girl as one of his chains got caught in her long hair and when he tried to unhook it she couldn't keep her balance on her tall platform boots. Tori think the girl is really dumb and that it was her fault. This reader finds their reactions totally moronic. Well, guess what girls are also blamed for when they have short skirts and long hair? The boy isn't the delinquent he's presented as in the last chapter, but it was the girl that was hurt. Tori says that she must be a fashion slave with very long hair to get caught in one of his chains. Pot, kettle, Tori. You must have waist length hair yourself. Chelsie takes out the new school paper with the article on our earlier mentioned burial ground. But what she actually wanted to show them is "School board considers uniforms for all public schools". Lara saw Mr. Klench give the pants boys a lecture about proper clothing. Heh. Melissa went to the school board meeting last night, originally to write an article if they were going to cut funding for school clubs, but instead the issue on if school uniforms should be mandatory in all public school in New York. Mr Cecil Klench supports the idea as students who use uniforms has been rapported to get higher test scores, and he thinks it will cause less disruption and reduce fashion pressure. The school doesn’t want to make this public until they've made a decision. Mrs Simmons "personally doesn't favor the idea(she doesn’t want any form of discipline)", but she's "keeping an open mind(she's still under Mr. Klench's thumb). Nichelle remarks that she's never noticed any "fashion-related competitiveness" at the school. Of course will fashion victims not notice this. Ana mentions the two guys who got into a fight over who had the coolest design on their leather jackets. I guess it was Ninja Turtles vs. Pokemon. And then there's the guy who kicked in his locker door with his steel toed boots. And the two girls who had their gold chains stolen(Why aren't doing a mystery where Barbie finds the poor soul's chain and makes the thief return it?) .... And the aforementioned girl with platform boots... Tori thinks uniforms are terrible. They had them at her old school, she felt like she was in the army, and now matter how hard they tried to be different, their uniforms made them look all the same. Tori. No room for being a speshul little snowflake them. Tori think that everyone should be allowed to dress how they want and that uniforms are for little kids. Tori thinks that Barbie is obviously crushing on Randall, the shy cartoonist who draws the superhero cartoon “Steele crazy” for the newspaper. This time, Jake wants to ask a beautiful girl to the school dance, but he’s afraid that his secret identity as a super hero will be revealed. Barbie promised to give Fletcher some swing lessons. Nichelle will come and watch. Fletcher is over his crush on Barbie now, so he has asked Melissa to the spring dance. Ana will come to, as she knows how to dance salsa, but not swing. Blaine asked her to the dance! Chelsie will come too, Lara will have to feed her cat (is this a new cat, or just a continuity error, as there’s no mention of a cat in the Lara books?) before she goes to dinner at her dad’s. Tori can't come, because she will check out some skaters in the park before she goes home to her dog. Tori spins happily around on her blades, thinking about all her reasons to be happy. Her dog, her aunt, her friends and her phat new hat.

As Tori comes into Mr. Toussaints class, she sees copies of the memo laying on each desk.
They decide to forbid inappropriate clothing after some incidents. No platform shoes, skirts or shorts shorter than mid-tight, chains thicker than one-eight-inch, deliberately ripped clothing(how can they know if it’s not been ripped on purpose), underwear worn as outerwear, steel-toed boots, facial piercings, or hats of any kind. No "bare bellies not allowed"? The dolls wore some serious short crop tops. “Students wearing any of the above articles will be asked to remove them(so take off their short skirts and shorts? I’m sure pervy teachers will be delighted.) or go home and change. If students repeatedly or deliberately violates the policy, they’re in danger of being suspended or expelled. Tori couldn’t believe that Mrs. Simmons would have approved of these rules. Had Mr. Klench something to do with it? Why is she so whipped around him? Must be some more photos. The classroom is quiet. Some kids are nervously playing with their piercings. Mr. Toussaint hasn’t heard anything about this, but maybe it’ll be explained in the morning announcement. Mrs. S gives the announcement instead of Merlin. She says that they have give the issue a lot of thought and they don’t think the uniform suggestion is appropriate for their school, but they think dress codes is a “good compromise”. Bull. So they’ll try it as a one-moment experiment and hope that their students will cooperate. The kids make it totally unfair. Tori thinks that this is worse than at her old school, where they sure know they had to wear the uniform at all times .
MIH’s motto is “Respect individuality “. Now they’re telling the kids how they’re allowed to be individual and which forms of individuality that are forbidden. So the school drops into hypocrite theory. Mr T. can’t do anything. He has some views of his own, but he won’t interfere as he’s sure that Mrs. S. has her reasons for doing this. He suggests that Tori writes an editorial for the school newspaper to get her points across. Tori is unsure, as it seems like a big thing to do. Damian thinks that this is ridiculous. Will they stop and measure people’s shorts? He has a plan to show the teachers that they won’t follow those stupid rules. Ana and Tori won’t participate as they don’t think it’s worth getting expelled over. They don’t trust Damian and thinks that he could act this way because his mother is principal and his father left when Damian was just five years. Tori wonders if Damian could stop the dress code. In Mr. Budge’s history class, she asks if it’s legal to tell the students how to dress, as it’s a free country. Mr. Budge hates straying from his lesson plan. He says that students don’t have the same rights as adults, but they won’t abandon their rights as they walk in the school door. It’s not clear how far their rights to self-expression go, but the school should be careful not to violate their rights when they make their rules. Mr. Budge is unusually passionate about this issue. Then he becomes a little self conscious and goes back to the lesson. Tori thinks about the issue all afternoon. She decides to hear what Damian’s plans are tomorrow. That night she dreams that the new school uniforms will be pink bunny costumes. She can’t fit her hat over the bunny ears and her zipper keeps getting stuck. Lol. Tori is early at school to catch Damian before the lesson. The goth kids have to wear regular sneakers which don’t look right with their long black clothing. Everyone has taken out their piercings. The pants boys have non-saggy pants and have taken off their baseball caps. Even their wallet chains have to be removed. Damian is not there until halfway through the class. Then he comes in wearing a silk half-slip where his boxers are hanging out at the bottom, orange spandex tights under those, big platform boots, a mad hatter-like hat and two thick chains around his neck. Everyone is silent until Damien says “You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to run in platform boots.”

Mrs. Simmons and Merlin have been talking in her office all day after Damian got sent home this morning. The students have been very interested in the outcome. Tori is glad she wasn’t part of Damian’s plan, but she still thinks he’s brave. Tori has been to the headmaster several times back in Australia for things like singing in the hallways. She wonders if they’re rethinking the dress code. Tori comes along to Barbie’s swing lesson after school. Barbie is in the music room, looking at Randall’s newest comic strip. An evil army has stolen Jake Steele’s cape, the source of his superpowers. The only way to regain his powers was if his dream girl accepts his invitation to the dance. Tori says that Randall practically asked Barbie to the dance. Nichelle bursts in. Thomas Garie, handsome debate team captain has asked her to the dance. They start singing and mucking around with the instruments. Fletcher enters the room with a loud crash as the laces of his shoes tangle around a desk leg. Tori says that she saw the desk grab him. Nichelle snort that the school will probably ban shoes with laces. Fletcher isn’t as opposed to the dress code idea. He thinks that the first amendment was made for people to have the freedom to speak their mind, not to look cool, and the students could think less about how they look. The girls are surprised that shy Fletcher express this different opinion. Barbie teaches Nichelle to dance and Tori dances with Fletcher. They do the jitterbug. Barbie spins Nichelle away and quickly pull her back. Fletcher tries to copy it, and drops Tori into the bongo drums.

Friday. Tori hits the snooze button, remembering that she skipped her shower last day amd has to take one today. Then she knocks over a carton of milk, and almost forgets her keys, making her twenty minutes late. Tori apologizes to Mr. Toussaint. Ana tells her that Damian is suspended. Tori can’t stop thinking about Damian during the lesson. She admires his nerve and feels like it she should have been her standing up for something she believed in. Then she wants to write an editorial, pointing out that students should be allowed to express themselves with clothing, they made the decision too quickly, and it will affect kids in the future. Again she thinks that it’s unlike Mrs. Simmons to make this kind of rule. Because she’s a big fat hypocrite who says anything when she’s pressured. Tori wants to discuss this with Lara, as she hopes to get an European perspective. Lara thinks Tori’s acting all jumpy like Bart Simpson. Lara thinks Damian is too sneaky. A guy in the queue agrees and thinks the jerky cheater deserved what he got. But Lara thinks he was punished too good for making his point. Like her mother, when she was training to be a designer, her boss wanted her to dress in his designs and use the same styles as he did. She was fired when she came to work in clothes she had made herself, but now she's a successful designer. All weekend, Tori works hard on her EdiTORIal. Heh. She only takes some breaks to skate with the pants boys, play with Bagel and go climbing once. Tessa is really encouraging her. Tori's editorial are one and a half page long and called "Fashion is expression". In short: The kids get treated like criminals, fashion is an important way of expressing yourself, the school take away a way of expressing yourself, students have their rights to freedom of speech too. Chelsie is very impressed with the editorial. Tori decides to run it by Mr. Toussaint before putting it up on the school's webpage. Mr Toussaint think that's well written, but Mrs. Simmons will have to see it before it gets published. Tori thinks that this is like letting the enemy see your strategy. Mr T. says that the principal is not an enemy. Mrs. Simmons has denied publishing the article! Because "she's under a lot of pressure from the board of education(more like Mr. Klench, which threathens to publish the photos of her smoking a joint... and that's the least vulgar thing she's doing in that photo.)" and it's "too delicate of a topic to open a debate upon", meaning that she's a wuss who do not like people questioning her decisions. "This is war!".If you think Toussaint has been awesome this book, think again. He can't print the article and sinks down to Terri's lameness level again. Unless all this stuff had been mind games from the staff, to use almost reverse psychology to make the students appreciate freedom of speech. Then I would have a whole new level of respect for them, but I think it's sadly not the case.

The next morning, the school's homepage has been switched with the word "censored" across a huge black X, and the text "Students are being stripped of their right to free speech. For more information, go to studentrights on the web". When they click on the link, they're redirected to a quote from the First Amendment and the situation are summarized. First, MIH kids have been stripped of their right to dress how they want to, one student has been suspended for challenging this, and now their free press is been taken away because the principal refused to allow an editorial on issue on the school website. Meet at the lawn 7.30 AM tomorrow so we could discuss peacefully what we can do to keep our rights. Tori has stayed up all night creating the website. She's pleased that she's standing up for herself, but slightly worried that she could get suspended and sent back to Australia. As Tori walks by to check her email, she hears a crash of cymbals and Lara's voice exclaiming "Mon Dieu". Fletcher dropped her into the cymbals when he wanted to practice at lunch. He's getting worried as he still can't dance, but he told Melissa that he can. Fletcher and Lara go outside to practise. Nichelle is the only who has left Tori a message on the website. Barbie meets Tori in the hall. She's very excited about tomorrow, she just hopes Tori won't get into trouble. Randall asks Barbie to the dance. All the girls will come over to Barbie's house after school to give Fletcher one more dancing lesson.

Barbie has pushed all the furniture away to make room to dance in the middle of the floor. Ana admires some of Terri's photographs. She thinks it's really unfair she has never travelled around like the other girls. Tori think it's cool that she's a native New Yorker. They start with Jimmie Lunceford. The girls are reluctant to dance with Fletcher as they all have various injuries from trying to teach him how to dance. Barbie will be the Ginger to Fletcher's Fred Astaire. Nichelle dances with Lara, Chelsie with Tori, and Ana sits this one out. They practise for some time and are pretty good, except for Fletcher. They get some international snacks from Sam's restaurant and Tori dares to try a prune wrapped in bacon. Ick. Fletcher slips on the floor and takes Barbie with him when he fell down. Melissa finds Barbie lying in a heap on top of Fletcher on the floor. Lol. I could have put a dirty joke here. She runs out, screaming that she should have known Fletcher still liked Barbie, but she though Barbie was her friend. Tori catches Melissa, and they explain they were just trying to teach Fletcher to dance. Fletcher gracefully wipes her tears away and admits that he didn't know how to dance. They start laughing and Melissa says she can't dance either. She came over to make sure that Fletcher met her at the rally. Tori says that she has to go home and prepare it. The others can make petitions against the dress codes, which will be passed around. All her friends will be there to support her, even Fletcher, who doesn't share her opinion.

Tori has had little sleep the night to Wednesday. She stayed up doing last-minute research on the internet, but she found an article that was just right. Tori crosses her fingers that Barbie and the rest will be there, but she couldn't be prepared for the scene that meets her. There's so much people there that they're spilling into the street from the front lawn. People have put their piercings back in, there's lots of guys in kilts and skirts there, kids have blue hair, temporary tattoos, short shorts, black nails and leather jackets. The more normally dressed kids have borrowed whacky clothing, and they're holding up signs like "Down with censorship!" Mr. Budge is even there, and he wears a cap with a little propeller. Budge, you naughty boy. Barbie, wearing a rainbow clown wig, hugs her and congratulates her. Nichelle wears a silver wig and silver boots. Chelsie a miniskirt and combat boots. Lara a kimono. And Ana a hat like Tori's. They started a telephone chain telling everyone to dress up. Damian is back, dressed more down and simple. They have a group hug before Tori goes up on stage. Tori meets Mrs. Simmons eyes before she starts speaking. She thank them all for coming. She explains that back in Australia most people found her quite unusual and weird, so she was looking forward to go school in New York and express herself. America is the free country and their constitution protects everyones rights. The artists who wants to create something ugly as well as those who make beautiful things. America respects the right to be different. Tori thought she was so lucky to go to MIH where they're encouraged to be individuals. Where they're told that their views matter, that it's important to communicate with each other, that art is important and ideas should be expressed. Students should self choose their ways of self-expression. Tori tells them that the editorial she wrote about the dress code were refused. So she will read them another article... Young people learn best in an environment which promotes creativity and personal expression. They need to feel that the school is their own, respects their values and opinions and have their best interests at heart. Learning only occurs when there's a free exchange of ideas between teachers, pupils and the administration. This paragraph she just quoted was from an article written about MIH by Principal S. herself. Some kids mutters "so much for encouraging creativity". That's right, call the hypocrite out! Tori says that Mrs. S showed that she cares about individuality by creating this school. In a democracy, reasonable people can listen to others and change their minds to make the right decision. Everyone cheers and cheers for Tori. Mrs. S goes up on the stage. She says that it was a very difficult decision to make and she and Merlin will re-evaluate this temporary rule. Damian Simmmons are no longer suspended, as she had to suspend everyone then.

Tori walks into the nicely decorated cafeteria with the pants boys. Some of the kids have changed into 40's clothing, but most are wearing their wacky outfits. Barbie and Ana are there with their dates. Tori have planned to go the dance with Lara and Chelsie, but she have done some skating with the pants boys earlier. So many kids have told Tori that her speech was amazing, an announcement has been made that the dress code is lifted, and Mrs. S. tells Tori that she think Tori made a wonderful effort today, the students worked really well today as a team today(Guess what I said about reverse psychology?), and it helped convince the board of education to drop the dress code. So she probably told Mr Klench to STFU and that he hold no more power over her as she had the students behind her even though she was a crappy principal. Nichelle is dancing with Thomas Garie and they look like a beautiful couple. Mrs. S and Merlin wear bobbing antennae. Sweet little Chelsie says that she feels like Mrs Simmons was on their team when she stood up for her students. Damian walks up to them, but as they're engrossed in conversation, he turns sour and walks away again. Mrs. S sees this and hurries after him. Tori watches Randall lightly swing Barbie around, and Lara and Chelsie dancing with the pants boys. Tori goes over to buy a soda from the machine, but she stops as she hears Damian and Mrs. S's voices on the other side. Damian talks about the time she forgot his sixth birthday and had to make last minute arrangements. He starts crying and asks why she always put other kids and the school before him. Mrs Simmons, your arguments are invalid. She does promise to put him first. Damian promises to never come to school in womens underwear again, then does the waltz with his mother and everyone starts clapping for them. Melissa and Fletcher are both wearing camo pants and Melissa is sitting on his shoulders, taking advance of Fletcher's height. Evan asks Tori to dance, and when they do so, he swaps Tori's hat and his own baseball cap.

Tessa and Tori have a lovely thanksgiving diner over at Ana's. Her mother makes lovely food, even if Ana herself can't cook. Juan is back from the navy, and Rosa, Ana's little sister admires Tori after she has given her a ride on her skateboard. They're thankful for sharing this with family and friends. Their meal consists of turkey, bitter chocolate mole sauce, refried beans, stuffed peppers, tamale, roasted yams, tortillas, rice, flan, banana chocolate chip cake. Juan has invited them all to join him in Hawaii, so Ana will be going on her first trip ever. Tori is thankful for seeing Ana's so happy, for being invited to the Suarezes, for her Aunt Tessa, for Bagel and that the dress code is lifted.

Mrs Simmons receives an email from all her students, thanking her for being a great principal and listening to them. It's signed by Barbie, Lara, Ana, Chelsie, Nichelle, Tori, Fletcher, Melissa, Randall, Thomas, Evan, Andy and everyone else. And all the way at the bottom it's signed.... Damian Simmons.

And the series about making a school website newspaper continues... Writing=homies=drought.

This book in one word: Awesome-though-sligthly-odd-morals.