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.

Book 7: Stage fright

Ooh, mysterious. They look sort of like Dawn and Mallory on the front, and on the back it looks like Barbie is reading from a dictionary.

Barbie is talking with Selma Devine at Sam's restaurant. Sam and Terri got her there in a hurry, as Selma had something important to tell her. She has some possible jobs for Barbie, as her commercial for Dominique jeans was a success. So Barbie will be considered for a possible role in the new teen TV drama. The series will start in year or two, and they'll keep closely track of Barbie's career until, so she has to get some high profile acting roles. Lee Quigley recommends Barbie to take a role in a play directed by Irene Wang. Irene has seen Barbie's commercial and a tape from the school musical. The play is The Curse of The Calico cat. Barbie loves that play. She will be playing teen detective Lucy Hayes. Barbie has enough time to do this. The profits from the Halloween performance will be donated to the Children's hosptial fund. Barbie has to take over the role quickly, so she must be at the Templeton Children's Theathre in Greenwich Village between four and five PM tomorrow. Selma jumps in a taxi. Sam asks Barbie if she wants an escort(!) on the way home. They buy a paper that says something about tornadoes in Louisiana, but they talk about Barbie's acting break on the way home.

Barbie floats around in a dreamily daze all day. She tells Ana the big news before biology class. Then she has a very enticing lesson about the rainforest. She meets up with the other girls for lunch and they're all very happy for her. Nichelle is suddenly very serious and starts talking about the tornadoes which hit Louisiana. A lot of people are homeless, and Nichelle are worried about her family in Louisiana, as their phone line is down. She wants to set up a collection drive for food and clothing at the school. Chelsie will come with Barbie to the theatre tonight as she's interested in plays and musicals and she will print a performance schedule in the school newspaper.

Barbie and Chelsie take the subway to Sheridan Square. They have no idea where to go from there, as the Village is a patchwork of crossing streets. They find the Templeton's Childrens theatre. There they look around at the pictures of famous stars in the lobby. Barbie and Chelsie get startled as Seamus, the ticket sales manager and set coordinator, suddenly rips the ticket window open. He greets them from inside the booth, then he leads then into the theatre. They look around in the old, charming theatre and then they talk about the lead actress who got pneumonia and then her understudy tore a tendon. Irene Wang comes out and says the she's really pleased to meet Barbie. Barbie replies that she has heard so many nice things about her. Of course can Chelsie come along and it would be great if she could lend a hand.

Backstage everything is filled with chaos. Irene leads the girls around for a tour of the theatre, showing them every room. The theatre is named for Barney Templeton, who bought the theatre with his wife forty years. They ran it together, until Mrs. Templeton passed away last year. Now they also see Barney himself less and less after he lost his wife. Irene's favorite part is the old, rope-and-pulley dumbwaiter which was used to carry props and costumes up to the stage from the basement, but Barney had a freight elevator installed. Barney himself comes up to the girls and tells them about the ghost light. It's an old tradition in the theatre, that when everyone leaves the theatre, one single light must remain on, to soothe the spirits which wanders around the theatre. If the theathre is left completely dark, the ghost will rise. Barbie walks into the room where all the actors hang out during breaks. There she's introduced to Bret Sullivan, who plays the handsome police lieutenant George Sheraton. Julia, who is only slightly older than Barbie, plays Natalie Tanglewood, Larry Stokes plays her evil uncle Winston. Barbie gets her own script, then she and Chelsie gets madly excited to see Barbie name on her own dressing room door. Barbie 's costumes will of course be taken in at the waist, luckily she has some experience with sewing herself as the costume designer came down with chicken pox. Barbie's dressing room is lovely, it's really luxurious and she has to try on a flapper costume. Suddenly, she and Chelsie hear a loud smash, and then a horrible wailing sound. So they run up to the stage, the cast are standing there looking shaken, Bret is sucking on his knuckle. Barbie asks what happened and then she hears a voice saying "That's what I would like to know..."

A woman walks towards the stage. She is wearing a black suit, a trenchcoat and high heels, she's carrying a notebook and speaks like someone from an old New York movie. The name Franny Sparks reminds me of something, but I can't remember exactly what...She's from the New York Gazette. She's supposed to do a story on this production. First she had a interview with Serena Quigley(Lee's daughter then?), but it had to be canceled because she got sick. Then Franny Sparks was supposed to interview her understudy, which was in a skating accident. So she's planning to do a story on everything that went wrong with the production, and as the scenery fell down just this moment, she's starting to wonder if the play is jinxed. Barney and the cast says that it's not the case. Franny wants to interview Barbie, but Irene says that Franny should make an appointment later as it's Barbie's first day. Bret was walking her from stage left to stage the run-through. Then the flat fell down. Luckily it just grazed his knuckle. Barbie asks the others if they heard the wailing sound after the crash. They all think it was really strange, and it was not one of Seamus's sound effects. Barbie guesses it was probably a dog, the wind or the furnace. Yeah... Seamus checks the flat and finds a loose bracket. Chelsie gets Barbie's script and they have a read-through. They're all a little nervous about the "jinx" stuff. Barbie will come back for blocking, which is explained as kind of choreography to make sure the actors stand in the right spot on the stage. Barbie is so tired that she falls asleep in a chair looking at the script. Late at night, she crawls into bed, dreaming of cats.

Barbie wakes up to her clock radio, playing "I love detention!" with the punk rock group Negative Energy. She doesn't get what Tori sees in them. She has put the radio where she can't reach it, so she has to get up. She washes and changes, then she starts to read and highlight the script. She gets very engrossed. Edgar has disappeared from the loft and Lucy, Natalie and George has found that it's not the Slithersbys that are cursed, it the cat who is cursed by Winston Slithersby. In act three when the cat screeches as it's fried from the curse, Terri knocks on the door to ask Barbie if she wants breakfast. She says that it's much easier to rehearse with somebody else, so Barbie will have a friend over.

Barbie calls Chelsie. Chelsie has been up since the early morning. The script is about a hundred pages long. Chelsie was actually planning to call Barbie to ask her to ask her if she needed any help. They agree to meet at theatre in an hour. Barbie changes and meet Chelsie outside the theatre. Barbie says that she should have asked Seamus where the stage door was the last time. Seamus jumps out at the mention of his name and asks them what they're doing here. They will be there early to rehearse. The girls follow Seamus to a black, unmarked door. The light was dim and the air thick with paint fumes and sawdust. They have to go to dressing room to stick out of harm's way. Seamus says that they don't want any more accidents and shows the girls The New York Gazette. The headline on the frontpage reads "Is this play haunted?". Barbie shyly asks Seamus if there are always this many accidents in a production. He says that he doesn't believe that the the theathre is haunted, but that theatre people are just too superstitious and dramatic. Barbie and Chelsie curl up in the dressing room. Then they hear a noise and run out to look for Irene. They see a shadowy, fluttery shape near the ceiling. Ooh! They tell Irene about the howling noise and the shadow. Irene thinks there must a rational explanation, like a squeaky door and a pigeon. Even though the article were silly, it has done good for the tickets sales as people has been ringing all morning. Chelsie stays to watch the long and tedious process that is blocking. They've had an exiting day, but they're really tired, and Barbie hasn't even started Mr. Toussaint's homework yet.

On Sunday, Barbie lounges around in her room, does a lot of homework, even her essay. "Live theatre - an underappreciated art form". Heh. She has only one hour left to study her lines. Before she goes to bed, she plays Spit with Terri. Barbie reads her lines at Monday lunctime. Nichelle and Ana join her. A tree hit the roof of Nichelle's family 's home, but no one was there at the time, so luckily no one got hurt. Nichelle will ask Principal Simmons if she can set up some collection boxes. Barbie has a good routine for getting to the theathre and she's starting to enjoy her character. Ticket sales could have been better, and Barbie hopes the theathre will get some positive press. Barbie and Chelsie look for some posters in Barney's office. They see a beautiful antique lamp and an old scrapbook with yellowed clippings. Barbie and Chelsie can't find any performance schedules or promotion posters, so they'll ask Barney for them later. Chelsie can't stay for tonight's rehearsal, as she has to go home to her parents, who are having a delegation from Ghana. Franny Sparks will interview Barbie as tomorrow's rehearsal. She's nervous, as Franny usually twists peoples words around. Is she a version of Rita Skeeter? Today they'll rehearse the Halloween party scene, but Pru, who plays the English maid, is absent. They have to start the practise without her. Bret is really helpful and Barbie wishes he was five years younger. Linda is in the hospital. She had stomach flu and fell over and passed out and hit her head when she was going to get some soup. Yes, ew. And how much bad luck can one person have? Barbie suggests that Chelsie can take over the part, as it's a small part and Chelsie has been to so many rehearsals.

Chelsie is cast as the maid, as she has the accent down. Haha. Franny interviews Barbie, she asks many questions about the jinx. Barney joins them. Franny got an anonymous tip to check out the New York Gazette in 1998. Barbie remembers seeing that newspaper in Barneys scrapbook. Franny asks Barney who Jeremiah Boogle was. Barneys face turns white. He explains that Jeremiah was a great actor and magician, and he was in the production here, The Phantom of the tenth avenue. Jeremy liked exposing supernatural hoaxes. The last day of the production, Jeremiah disappeared without a trace, and some people says that his ghost still hunts the theathre, but he must be a good ghost that has never hurt anybody. Barbie gets up on stage. Lucy Hayes should follow Winston Slithersby from the drawing room into the parlor. There will be a storm in that scene, which will blow the doors open and blow the candles out. Barbie will be over there pulling the French doors shut. They have to make sure that the light is just right so Barbie won't hurt herself, but the audience won't see her either. Seamus should turn the lights on and off, and Miss Sparks will sit in the audience to see if she can see Barbie moving towards the French doors. They're going to do this two times, the first time, Barbie will look aroud to see if she can get to the doors without tripping. The next time, Franny will watch to see if she can see Barbie dashing across the stage. The stage goes totally dark. The ghost light went out! Barbie hears a horrible wooden and metallic schreeching sound, and a crash. When the lights are back on, Seamus sees that it was the dumbwaiter, which hasn't moved in fifteen years, crashing down. Barney says that luckily no one was hurt, and he and Irene will check to see if there's more damage.

The school cafeteria is buzzing about the haunted production. Melissa thinks Nichelle's announcement was really good and she'll bring some stuff in. Nichelle thinks people have donated too little stuff. Then they look on the article in the paper. So it basically says that Barbie is nice, through naive. Barbie is more interested in the dumbwaiter at the picture... She smells something fishy... Everybody is in a splendid mood at the theathre as the Halloween production is all sold out, so they can make a nice big donation to the children's hospital. Btw, Barbie likes trigonometry. A shocking level of those girls are maths fans, Lara, Nichelle, Tori and Barbie. Barbie gets a call from Nichelle, who is fed up because people have donated little and useless stuff, like a shirt with the arm torn off. If thats because they don't think homeless people would deserve anything better, it's awful, but I'm a bit of an eco nut myself and "why throw out anything if you can donate it to someone who needs it?" :/ Nichelle is mad. She will write an editorial, which will be put in the school newspaper and webpage. Then Selma calls and congratulates on her on the play and says that all publicity is good publicity.

After three and a half hours of rehearsal, Barbie will stay behind to fix her costume. She also has another reason to stay there... After working on her costume, she's slightly nervous as she takes the elevator down to the basement. She hears the howl again. Then she sees a black cat going out the window. So it was probably the cat making noises. She goes over to check the dumbwaiter, which is lying in a splintered heap. She was right in her suspicions. Barbie goes up to Barneys office again. She tells him that she found out that the rope was cut, the rope was in perfect shape on the picture in the Gazette, and Barney was the only one who was standing close enough to could have cut the rope. The other stuff were coincidenses and Jeremiah is alive and well in Arizona. Barney and Barbie agrees on laying it to rest so people wont get scared. Then Barney says that Wednesday will be a night to rememember.

Nichelle's angry editorial has a big effect on the pupils and they've bought a lot of great stuff to the donation boxes. Barbie and Chelsie come to the Wednesday rehearsal. Barney directs them to take seats around a big round table, which has been set up with a giant candle. Many journalists and photographers are sitting there already, among with Irene. Let the exorcism begin! The "wizard" which comes out, were actually a retired actor friend of Barney, as he admits to Barbie afterwards. Seriously, was he, "E. S. Perry", supposed to be believable with a pyramid shaped hat and purple robe? He will try to bring the spirit to rest. And coughing up "two vulcanic glass stones". get real. Except for that, it's an ordinary seance with hand helding and ooga booga stuff. Yes, literally ooga booga. Then they'll have to come to the Halloween play to see if the spirit session worked.

Chelsie and Barbie are extremely excited before the curtain goes up. All their friends are there. Chelsie is so Frida to Barbie's Agnetha. They tell each other to break a leg, Barbie gets her toy calico cat prop, and up on stage it goes. The play went flawlessly. Barbie almost cries after the applause when she receives two bouquets, one from the Jenners and one from Irene herself. Barbie is so touched by the flowers and sappy letter from the Jenners. All ends well with a huge Halloween Party, the theathre will be making their biggest donation ever, and Nichelle shows Barbie that they received a sweet photo of homeless kids in Halloween costumes which was sent to them. At the end, Barbie and Chelsie starts laughing when Seamus picks up his cat, the black "ghost" cat and says that she has a sweet voice.

Kind of an anticlimax, this book. If Barney Templeton himself was actually a ghost, now that would be exciting. He came back from the grave to save the play...
And what about Ms. Sparks, which also sounds really mysterious? Did she start the whole thing, as the "supernatural" activity started the day she walked in?

In the back you can learn how to make a school newspaper website. Truth=honesty=writing.

The book in one word: Okay.

Book 6: Secrets of the past

Random fact: In the preview in last book, this book is called Nichelle to the rescue.


"Omg, we just found a treasure!"

Nichelle is waiting for her mother at City Hall. Every day after school, she goes over to city hall to meet her mother, who works for the mayor as a historical perservationist. She tries to balance historical and financial interests. Accidentally Nichelle overhears her mother talking to Mr. Evans about a new office building that will be put up over the African American burial ground in lower Manhattan. Nichelle's mother thinks that they should wait some weeks and check the burial ground first, as it has been covered with another building earlier. Mr. Evans is employed by Curtis, who put money into the mayor campaign. He will make more money if the building is up before they wait to investigate the burial ground. He threatens to fire Nichelle's mother if she goes to the press or the mayor. Nichelle pretends she hasn't heard anything, but she keeps thinking of the burial ground. The family will stay in together in their lovely house on Sunday, for once and they'll also invite Nichelle's grandmother, M'dear. M'dear accompanies Nichelle on all of her model work. Nichelle writes a letter to her cousin, Niecy, telling about her school, work and modeling projects and asking how it's goin there in New Orleans, before she goes to sleep.

Nichelle is in Mr. Budge's history class with Barbie. She asks Mr. Budge about slavery in the north and why they never hear anything about the African American burial ground. He answer that she can work on it in an extra-credit project among a partner.Her brother, Shawn, tutors Barbie in history. Nichelle's favorite subjects are maths and science. She and Barbie will look up information later tonight.

Nichelle has a photo shoot for Teen Style, her biggest job as it's for a national magazine. Nichelle wears a big watch from her father and a perfume bottle charm from her other, deceased grandmother. Today Nichelle will model hats in a spring scene. She's quite popular in the school and has a high position in the student government. She dislikes being showed around in the subway, and prefers taking it in the calmer times of the day, listening to jazz tapes with her headset, M'dear is already there. Nichelle enjoys the shoot. She thinks about boys she is crushing on when she is asked to look like she has a secret. The clothes are lovely and all the other girls are really nice.

Barbie and Nichelle are doing research in Nichelle's room. They're keeping it secrets from Nichelle's family. The girls print an article called "Gravesite objects" among some others. They find about that the burial ground extends about five or six acres. Nichelle thinks it really sad that most people forget the persons buried there. Then she reads about a mall in new England that was delayed because of the unearthing of a Native American burial ground. The girls will explore the site to see if they can find anything. Nichelle bets her new blue overalls that Curtis would not like to get his building delayed. They both giggle and bet silly stuff like a baseball cap and a donut.

Nichelle does her math homework in the newspaper office. Then she tries to read a chapter in her history book, but it's too noisy there, so she wishes she was home in peace and quiet. Mr Toussaint asks her if she can write something for the newspaper. Nichelle is short on time, but will think about it. She goes to meet her friends at Eatz. Nichelle has a salad with lots of cheese and olives, and a bottle of hot water. She tells Barbie about what Mr. Toussaint said and Barbie asks if they should do it about the...thing...you know. The other girls get very curious and Nichelle makes them promise not to tell. She tells then what she knows about the burial ground. Barbie will call her tomorrow and they'll look around after school tomorrow.

Shawn- Nichelles brother - and Nichelle drinks juice together. He can tutor Barbie this weekend. Shawn takes the phone to his room, where he can use it for hours. Later, Nichelle mother comes in to say good night to her. She thinks it's sad that Nichelle is too big to get picture books read to her at bedtime. Nichelle asks about what will happen if she came across some information about the burial ground that might stop the building. Her mother replies that Nichelle should follow her conscience. Barbie has left a note under the loose floor tile that she will receive some general information about digging up artifacts from her parents. Nichelle is listing to Zoot Sims in her head phones in history class. She and Barbie talks about their project and Nichelle's upcoming shoot. Mr. Budges catches them talking.

Nichelle and Barbie skip along to the burial ground, happily singing musical songs. They walk into the federal office building, where there will be a museum and memorial, and takes some pictures. They go outside and film on the proposed memorial site. Then they walk down to Curtis' site, where there's nothing but rocks, dirt and a sign and start to film. They see a man with a suit and clipboard watching them. He asks what thery're doing there. His limo stops. They understand that this is Mr. Curtis and say that they're just tourists from California. Mr. Curtis knocks on an old brownstone house and gets the door slammed in his face by the man who lives there. The girls are curious what this is about.

They will go over to take a look. The resident of the house is Ed Brooks, an African American pensioner. Curtis wants to force him to sell his house so Curtis can finish his building plans, but Ed refuses to do so. Nichelle tells him that if they find any artifacts, Curtis has to wait until the archeologists have excavated the site before continuing his building plans. The girls shall dig until they find an artifact. Ed Brooks allows them to dig on his property. He advices them to dig in the morning as Curtis are never there before noon. They thank Ed and say they'll be back next morning, then they take the subway home with Nichelle's mother. None of them say anything about the burial ground, even if they all think about it. Barbie calls Sam and Terri to ask if she's allowed to stay at Nichelle's for dinner. They buy a lot of ingredients on the way home and cook up a delicious meal. Btw, Barbie eats everything except beet and anchovies. The girls go to Nichelle's room to use the computer. Barbie has received an email from her parents saying that when they find an artifact like a cup somewhere they think is a grave yard, they dig some more to try to find a body. If they find a skull they check how old it is by radiocarbon dating. Barbie and Nichelle have a day off school tomorrow, so they will meet at the Curtis compound to dig at six thirty. Barbie and Nichelle stand outside admiring the beautiful stars thinking that their ancestors must have looked up on the same stars.

Nichelle got some weird looks as she carried two shovels on the subway. She's so excited that she's fifteen minutes early. She exclaims "I love him!" when she hears a Sonny Rollins solo playing from Ed Brooks's house. Ed invites them in to see. He has a lot of old original jazz records, even a Zooty Sims LP. Ed serves them muffins and tea and asks them which songs they want to hear. Nichelle says that Zooty Sims is her favorite. Ed puts on the LP and says that Sooty is his favorite too. Nichelle walks around Ed's living room, studying the photos of his relatives and Ed's drawings. One of them is of his grown-up daugther, which has moved to California. After finishing their muffins, the girls go out to dig. Nichelle's shovel hits something hard. They find an animal bone. Animals and people used to be buried in the same place, and if the bone is from the 1700s it can stop the construction. An hour later they find a broken vase. Barbie tapes everything, they wrap the stuff in their clean clothes, and they go over to Nichelle's mom to show what they have found. Nichelle is really excited. Her mother has to pause her meeting as Nichelle pulls her aside and the girls show her what they have dug up at Ed's place. Her mother will have the objects tested as soon as possible. Nichelle and Barbie look extremely grubby and have used their change of clothes to wrap the articfats.

They go to Lara's place for a shower, as it's closest to the City Hall. Barbie and Nichelle are so dirty that they get some slightly odd looks from strangers in the subway. Chelsie has slept over at Lara. They wonder what on earth happened to those grimy girls. Nichelle tells then all about it after she has showered and sears the girls to secrecy. Barbie showers and Lara makes them a big batch of blueberry pancakes and then they help each other with the washing up. Nichelle walks home happily and sleeps a couple of hours before her photo shoot. M'dear and and Nichelle rides the bus down to the shoot in the park. The shoot goes very well. And M'dear comes over on Sunday and the whole family has a great evening playing board games and eating a southern meal.

Nichelle and Barbie's article for Generation Beat are on hold as they're waiting for the test results. It has been a week and Nichelle can't wait. After school she walks over to the city hall and fall asleep in the hallway. She has a strange dream, about Ed Brooks, and someone playing a sax, and Curtis with an easel sketching a giant cat with sleepy red eyes. Nichelle suddenly wakes. Mr. Evans rushes out of her mother's office, tripping over Nichelle's backpack and nearly tripping over Nichelle, too. Then Mrs. Watson and the mayor come out, her mayor congratulates Nichelle's mom on saving one of the city's main historical sites. The bone is a dog bone dated from the 1700s. Nichelle are super happy and her mom tells the mayor that the site was saved thanks to Nichelle and her friend. Nichelle will have a presentation for the class on friday, so she asks the mayor to come then. Barbie and Nichelle work on creating the script of the multimedia project until eleven o'clock. On Wednesday they splice it all together and on Thursday they take turn practising their presentation. They call Chelsie and make sure that all their friends are sitting up front to support them.

Friday. Barbie and Nichelle leave early for school. Nichelle is terribly nervous. Her friends sit on the floor in the front of the stage. Ed Brook, M’dear, Mrs. Watson and Shawn are all there. Nichelle introduce the program and Ed Brook, then they show the tape, and then Nichelle introduces the mystery before showing photographs of bone and vase. The applause is overwhelming, but Nichelle sees that Mr. Curtis has watched this, and he turns his head and leaves the auditorium. Nichelle and Barbie receive their extra credit. Later in the day, Nichelle receives her modelling photos, which she’s really pleased with and she write another letter to here cousin where she thanks her for inviting her to New Orleans.

This book felt very short and like it had few interesting plots and snarkworthy details.

Okay article about the burial ground. More important, there's no writing=honesty=truth. :0 How come? Is this book ghostwritten?

Book 5: Picture perfect

Does this scene even appear in the book? And is Lara wearing overalls? Oh well, they look cute and friendly.

Lara finally figured what to do in the mixed media art competion. She'll use painting and her photos from New York. Lara has been into art her whole life, but she hasn't any experience with photography until now. Barbie and Lara waits for their friends in the school studio. Lara and Nichelle flick water at each other and start a water fight. A bit surprising, as they always seemed like the most mature and "cool" ones out of the bunch. They all go to Eatz, and after that, they'll go to the cinema. Tori likes action movies, Barbie likes romantic movies, Nichelle and Ana likes thrillers, Chelsie likes all Troy Marcus movies, and Lara likes European films. For once, they agree on the newest Troy Marcus movie, Angel Fire. MIH will have a principal-for-a-day as voted for by the students. But how will they promise that the guest principal has time and wants to do this? Tori and Ana goes ahead on their in-lines to buy tickets for everyone. The girls barely make the movie, but Lara has to call her parents first. Lara hears her parents arguing slightly in the background. She says she won't be home for dinner. Her father asks her if she has seen his dictionary as Lara's mother keeps moving it.
Since arriving in New York, her parents have been fighting more and more. Lara's mother, an Italian fashion designer, enjoys the life in New York, but Lara's father, a German professor, isn't that happy in New York. Lara's mother, Lucia, is more whimsical and disorganized. Lara's father likes peace and tidyness and to sit quietly with his books. Much like me. Opposites atract? Lara is so engrossed in thinking about her parents that she kind of loses track of the movie. She's starting to get a headache, but then she enjoys some chocolate truffles and the movie. After the movies, the girls start to sing songs from the school musical on the way home. They see one of Lara's mother's designs in a shop window. Chelsie and Nichelle thinks she's so lucky to have such cool parents and live in Soho. They will go to the New York Freeze for ice cream. Chelsie talks dreamily about Troy and says that she has submitted Troy Marcus's name for principal-for-a-day.

Lara's easiest subject is maths, so she thinks about her art project. She will paint the Statue of Liberty and the ferry with a young girl standing on the deck. Lara volunteers at Rainbow House, a homeless shelter. Chelsie is also a volunteer. She was very moved when a mother and her children come in, the two middle children are playing with dolls they receive there, but the eldest, a girl of about 11 or 12 takes care of her baby brother. Lara thinks a lot about the family, she sketches the girl and wonders about where they went and if she could do more for them. Lara takes Latin, where she's so tired of hearing about Cesar's travels. Then there's off to early lunch with Tori, pizza and tater tots. They joke around about the food. Tater tots makes me think of the Duggar snark I've read on the internet. Lara and Tori run up to the newspaper office before classes. Troy won the poll and Chelsie is allowed to write to him to ask him if he has time to visit the school. Lara makes a sketch of Van Gogh with a tater tot in his mouth.

Lara will make three paintings, the Statue of Liberty one, one of the outside of Rainbow House and one of the inside and mesh it with her photographs. Lara asks the residents of the shelter for permission to take their pictures. She works on the project, where painting and photography blends well together. Lara is tired, but she will continue to show the judges and other people how meaningful Rainbow House is. Chelsie tells Lara very excitedly that Troy will visit the school. Chelsie is the school's hero, as she even receives roses with a printed card from Troy Marcus.
The school has to fix everything that's not working, like the escalator, in two weeks time, before Troy Marcus is coming here.

Lara has her own little attic platform to sleep and paint in. She likes it very much, the only thing that's annoying is that she has to climb down the ladder again if she forgets to bring any of her stuff. Lara feels miserable listening to her parents arguing. Friederich, her dad, works so hard on his latest article that he has barely time for his family. Lara catches him awake in the middle of the night, working. She asks how he will teach his students. "In my sleep" he replies. Lara makes them cocoa before she goes back to bed. Lara's father says that he has to make the footnotes perfect before the deadline. Lucia doesn't ever care about deadlines and asks if he puts the books and deadlines before his own family. Her parents met at the Sorbonne. Her mother was a art student and her father an assistent professor. They fell in love when Lara's father dropped his book on Lucia's foot in front of the Mona Lisa. Friederich stays perfectly calm, but accidentally provokes Lucia even more by asking if she has seen one of his books. Lucia throws her hands up in frustration and says that she'll take Lara out to the deli. She reminds Friedich to eat, but he says that he'll warm up some leftover (toaster? :D) strudel.
Lara and her mother eats corned beef sandwiches and bring home some for Friederich, too. Lucia has been gone a lot lately, but Lara gets along fine and think it's probably for her latest fashion show. Lucia is very emotional and tells Lara that her parents will always be there to support and help her. Lara tells her mother that she will see Angel Fire again with her friends in honor of Troy's visit. She goes home with Papa's sandwich first. He misses orderly Munich a lot. Papa hasn't eaten anything and he feels like his project is going nowhere. He then asks Lara if she wants to go out with him for ice cream tonight. She asks if he could go out with her and her friends after the movie, but then Papa thinks Lara should go out and enjoy herself with the girls.

Lara has a terrible day. She hears her parents arguing again early in the morning, but they're all fake happy when she gets up in the morning. She is late for the train and misses half of her first class. She feels the beginning of a headche in her algebra class, but finishes an algebra problem on the blackboard correctly. Luckily, she has gotten a care package from her grandma with chocolate, which she sneaks a bite of in Latin class. Lara's off to meet Tori, who's being told off by Merlin for skateboarding in the hallways. They share some chocolate and Tori tells Lara about the time her parents had a huge fight on her mom's birthday because her dad forgot to give her chocolate. Lara finds a message for her from Nichelle under the loose floor tile asking Lara if she wants to have some fries with her after school tomorrow. Lara writes back that she of course wants to do that and she would also like some advice on her art project. The note also contains the vaguely femmeslash expression "For you I'll drop the brush anytime." All day Lara feels weird and she has a hard time paying attention.

Mr Strauss and Mrs. Morelli sit at the kitchen table, waiting for Lara. They look really serious and both speak at once. They tell Lara that they'll get a separation and will live apart for a while. Her father will live in the faculty housing at NYU. Lara runs angrily out, her parents goes after her, and she hops in a cab, asking the driver to take her to MIH. Lara thinks she has no money at first, but finds a ten dollar note in her pocket, telling the driver to keep a tip. The cab driver then says that Lara should keep the rest as he has kids of his own and wouldn't like them to be out in the city without any money at all. The school is locked at first, and Lara has no subway pass with her, so she can't go home. She knocks on the door, the school is closing early today because of construction work. Poogy lets Lara in to get a book in her locker in the fifth floor. Lara remembers that she has some emergency cash in her locker. Lara sits on the floor, crying, before she thinks that she can't speak to her friends now, but she has to tell them some way, so she writes notes for her friends, asking them to meet her tomorrow for help and advice, and leaves them under the floor tile. Poogy notices that the tile isn't completely in place, so he glues it back. This is just one of the many reason that the note-under-tile system is failtastic.

Lara's parents were really worried about her last night. She was so exhausted that she went to sleep with her clothes and shoes still on. She has slept to 11.30 and has already missed three of her classes. Her parents are also sitting asleep in the living room. Lara covers them with blankets so they don't get cold, and she's careful not to wake them up. After that, she puts on some of her dirty clothes as the closet where the clean ones are would make too much noise to open. She writes a note for her parents, explaining that she has gone out with some friends after school, but will be home after dark, so they could talk then. She wonders which pieces of furniture each parent will take. It's almost 1 PM now, so Lara will be go out and eat, then go to school to meet her friend sat 2.30.
Trouble is, they have no time to meet her, and when they tried to leave her a note, the tile were cemented shut... Lara eats lunch at a pizza restaurant before running back to the school. There she gets confused. Why could none of her friends meet her today, and why does they seem to take the whole thing so lightly? They think shopping is more important than her! Lara runs crying to the art room. She paints the lonely girl on the ferry painting in her likeness, then she throws the brush down and runs out in the rain without a raincoat. With her shoes full of ice cold water she buys a ticket to the ferry...Lara hops on the ferry and sits on a coil of rope on the deck. The weather is horrible.

After the meeting, all the other girls think about Lara and goes up to find her. But she isn't in the art studio and they have no clue about where to find her. Poogy goes by and tells them that he saw Lara crying and writing many little notes. The girls remember Lara saying something about a note, so they borrow some tools from Poogy to open the tile. Then they read the notes Lara left and they understand why she was so upset. The girls tries to find out where Lara can have gone. Poogy remarks on the likeness between Lara and the girl in the painting. They ask him to keep the tile loose and takes a cab to the Staten Island Ferry. The girls jump on the ferry and find no Lara inside. Barbie braves the weather and finds Lara on deck. Lara tells Barbie that she thought none of them cared about her at all. The girls wrap Lara in their coats and scarfs and comforts her until she tells them the whole story.

Today is the big day. Troy's people have been over the school and now his head publicist, Marie, is here. She's very sweet to Chelsie and tells her that she picked her letter because she was very impressed by it and it was Marie who sent the roses, only because Troy was really busy.
Chelsie and Lara has become really close lately. Aww, I think a Lara/Chelsie friendship is really sweet as they're both sensitive and can bond over their creative interests.
Troy is basically a huge a-hole to everyone from the time he arrives. He will meet Chelsie infront of all the cameras. He puts his hand on Chelsie's shoulder, her feelings change as he tells Chelsie to change as her yellow dress does not flatter him. Or somebody else should give him the key. Chelsie is hurt and Marie says that she'll fix it. She just gives Chelsie Barbie's dark blue sweater to put on over her dress and says that Troy won't notice anything. Marie sees how hurt Chelsie is and tries to comfort her, then she tells Troy that all thorns were removed from the rose. Troy bosses Chelsie around, but Marie and Lara supports her. Chelsie shall deliver him the ceremonial big gold key he gets as principal for a day. Troy will give her rose in return. He is totally fake and has to read Chelsie's name and the school name from cue cards, but the school goes wild for him as they don't know how the real Troy are. He think Mrs. Simmons and Merlin are caterers, so he tells them to get him a salad. Lol. Troy charms the school as only Marie, Chelsie and Lara has seen his real behavior. Merlin will go to the principal's office with an organic salad for Troy.
The announcement system is on(by "accident"?) and everyone hears Troy complain about the school and food. Merlin defends the school and all the kids get mad at Troy.
Chelsie un-invites Troy and gives Marlin the key. Merlin saves the day for the students, and I think that's really sweet that the slightly boring and geeky inspector sticks up for MIH pupils. So then there are three awesome adults in the series, and one semi-decent. With some lessons in awesomeness Merlin could turn out well. Marie quits her job as Troy's publicist.

The day of the grand exhibition. Lara is a finalist and now she goes back and forth between Mama and Papa, which are still living away from each other, but have stopped fighting. Lara now knows that her friends will always be there for her. Third place goes to some one who has combined clay and laser lights(creative!). Second place winner combined papiermache with a cube filled with live bees(huh?). Lara wins the grand prize of $5000 and decides to donate it to the homeless center. Unbelievable.

The article covers the art show and writing an entertainment section. I think you all remember that equation now, right?

This book in one word: Interesting.