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.

Book 4: Singing sensation

Here we have Chelsie singing her heart out. Yay for canon-appropriate clothing, which is similar to the doll's clothes. Oh, the melodrama! of going to boarding school. Shiny covers does not scan well.

Chelsie comes down to breakfast. Chelsie's father which is cheerful and silly, hidden under his proper and serious exterior, says that he didn't came to say good night to her last night because he heard Chelsie singing and didn't want to interrupt her composing. For breakfast, they can't have anything other than tea and scones. Hello stereotypes. Chelsie's father knows a lot of languages, but he doesn't understand who the Ravers and other social groups at Chelsie's school are. Her father thinks she has potential as a songwriter.
Chelsie thinks her parents should stop being so formal, like opening the door for each other and always remembering to say please. I just think they're really sweet and well mannered. Her mother disapproves of the New York kids' behavior. Mr. Peterson's leaving for Portugal this evening. It comes to a shock for Chelsie, and she's disappointed. Her mother always wants Chelsie to be brave and understand a diplomat's responsibilities. Mrs. Peterson smiles and says that she won't be alone with the delegations as Chelsie will be there to help her. Chelsie often feels lonely in her home when her parents are working. She's much closer to her dad and hates that he has to be away the whole time.
Chelsie wishes she could wear some funky clothes for school, like all of her friends wear, but she has only sweater sets, boo hoo. Maybe her parents have no idea that she likes different styles?
James, their driver, takes Chelsie to school in their limo(!). Chelsie's father is usually going to work at the same time, but he can't drive with Chelsie today as he's meeting the Dutch ambassador at home. Tori goes quickly by on her skateboard, almost crashing into the limo. James wants to tell her off, but Tori is faster and sticks her head up to the window and says "Koala! Wombat! Dingo!" . Their chaffeur think she's really rude. Then she greets Chelsie and says "See ya at school."
James asks Chelsie if that girl was a friend of hers. Chelsie tells a half lie that it was just some girl from the school, as she's afraid James will find Tori "inappropriate company" and report back to her mother.

Chelsie and the other girls meet in the auditorium. Principal Simmons announces Sing Out, a competition between the seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen about who could write the best musical. Barbie tells the class that Chelsie's a professional song writer. Lara, which is the only one who understands what the Pants boys are saying, says that they read about her in the school newspaper. The class votes Chelsie as the songwriter, and Barbie, Chelsie, Nichelle, Tori, Ana and Lara is the creative committee. Chelsie can't bring the girls home with her, so they'll go to Nichelle's place instead.
Damien is principal Simmons' son and usually known as "Devil spawn". He will work on the musical with the girls. Chelsie almost wishes she was going to a boarding school, so she wouldn't have to perform in front of her whole school.

At Nichelle's, Chelsie gets to borrow Nichelle's brother's guitar. She strums the guitar and performs her song about homelessness, with phrases like "the ache of life is in my bones". Ana, Lara and Nichelle doesn't look completely enthusiastic. I would think that Lara would appreciate the song more and I'm actually surprised that Tori likes it so much. So they think it's too depressing. I quote ""Life is depressing" [Chelsie] retorted. The other girls think they have no reason to be unhappy, and that they should write about something they have personal experience with. I quote again "She was embarrassed that her award-winning song not well-recieved. But mainly, she was angry. No reason to be unhappy? How about having the threat of boarding school hanging over your head? How about the reality of being constantly being separated from the one person who really understood you?". So melodramatic.
And then ""We have hurt your feelings." "Now, how could you?" Chelsie replied tartly. "I don't have any, remember?. Then she runs out and gets on the subway home. She's pulled herself together when she gets home. Her mother tells her that someone named Nichelle has called for her. ""No," [Chelsie] said, choking back tears. "I don't have any friends." And with that, she ran up the stairs to her room, threw her backpack down, and fell across the bed, sobbing." Okay, while I'd love to have Chelsie's life in so many ways, this is totally me as a fifteen year old. Shutting herself off from others and sulking because she's been insulted. Feeling that other people can never truly understand what you're going through. Getting hurt over the smallest things. Her mom goes up to asks what's wrong. "What's wrong?" "What was wrong was that no one understood her creativity". Sometimes this book feels like reading fanfiction. Chelsie's mother tries to comfort her and even asks if she has any friends that could keep her company while Mrs. Peterson goes to see the African delegation. Aww, I think her mother seems very gentle and sweet, not detached at all. She'll get home early so they could have a long talk later. Chelsie goes to her father's study to write. She snoops in one of the drawers and and find a letter addressed to her mother from headmistress Prunella Smythe *facepalm*. She has room for Chelsie at Underwood Boarding School. There's also an airline ticket for Chelsie at the night of the musical premiere. Chelsie's horrified. Going to a boarding school would be a. Fate. Worse. Than. Death.
Her friends come to say they're sorry and Chelsie reluctantly lets them in. She explains about the letter. Chelsie blames all decisions on being English and tradition. Then the girls talk some sense into her and say that her father probably hasn't seen this letter, since it arrived today and was addressed to her mother, so Chelsie can talk about the letter with him when he comes home. Ana proposes the story of Tori's Aunt Tessa as a musical plot. Tori has to ask her aunt for permission first. The girls quickly disappear out the back door so Chelsie's mother doesn't see them when she arrives home.

Chelsie goes to Recorded History, a music store, to ask the owner for advice. I can't believe a seemingly cultured girl have never seen any musicals. He educates Chelsie on songs and composition in musicals. Fletcher follows Barbie around because he has a crush on her. Barbie is hiding from him, so she and Chelsie try to sneak into Eatz without being noticed. Tori has written down the story, as told to her by Aunt Tessa. They discuss the script to come up with some more ideas. Fletcher comes in and tries to dance in his thick-soled boots, but trips and goes flying into the girl's table. They all laugh and because they're so nice, they tell Fletcher that this could be a funny moment in the show. When they talk about costumes, Chelsie says that she knows nothing on fashion. The others say that she looks really nice, but Chelsie doesn't believe them and goes home to listen to musicals. At their flat, Chelsie is sour when her mother is happy to have her home and thinks she would rather have her in a boarding school across the ocean. The French delegation are all nice and asks how it is being young in an interesting city like New York, and how about her interests and friends. Chelsie just replies that she has few friends, and she would like to go to her room to write soon. If you stopped wallowing in self pity, maybe you'd notice that most of those persons are actually interesting, and - better - interested in you and your opinions. Chelsie's mothers' eyes shine with tears for a moment, then she regains her composure. I just want to jump through the page and give her a hug and a big cup of hot chocolate. Chelsie herself decides that she's nevar evar going to boarding school.

Rehearsal at the school. Barbie will film. I must says that Tessa is an awesome person, but still, an artist's life in the desert, is that really a musical type of plot? I thought it would more like a serious or abstract piece, if it could be adopted to theatre at all. Chelsie shows up with her new song about Tessa and her parrot. "I won't preen, don't ask me". They find the song really funny. Chelsie starts performing the song and the whole cast gets in line, singing and dancing. Chelsie sings with Carla, a sweet girl who's playing Tessa. Fletcher gets overexcited and they all fall in a pileup with Fletcher on top. The juniors intrude to spy on the freshman class and show off their more professional moves. Damian has a plan...

The girls fear the worst. Chelsie realizes that they can't beat the juniors with the material they have now. She tries telling that to the rest of the group. Damian want to make sure the juniors can't use their two best performers by making "no pass, no play" rule, as he'd sneaked a look in his mothers records and sees that the best junior performers are falling maths. The other freshmen find this foul play, and argue that they would lose some of their good performers too, then. Barbie says that she'll tell his mother if he ever snoops into peoples grades again.

Sets and costumes are being made and Chelsie and Tori keep going over the script and lyrics to make it even better. The cast hopes that this is the last lyric versions they'll have to learn. Blaine is going to play the parrot, as Mike who originally did the role has a sore throat. Chelsie has made a ballad about how difficult it is when the person you're closest to is far away. They're rehearsing a dance with paint brushes. On the opening night the dancers will paint on a backdrop on stage, but for now they'll do it without paint. It's going really well until Fletcher accidentally dips his brush in paint and sprays the pants boys with paint dots. Chelsie thinks the musical actually has a chance of winning, but she worries that her mother will notice her friends, find them unsuitable and send her to England before her father is home.

Chelsie decides to straighten up her room so her mother won't have anything to complain about. Mrs. Peterson wants to have a talk with her daughter above some tea. Chelsie has no appetite. Her mom takes out a letter, not the Underwood letter, but a letter from MIH which says that Chelsie has missed two math classes, a history quiz, and hasn't turned in most of her homework. Whoops, not the way to make your mother happy and keep everything under control, Chelsie. She explains that's she's been really busy with the musical. Her mum asks if she's happy, if the school work is easy, and if she's trying hard to fit in. Giles, Chelsie's father calls, and says that he won't be home soon as he's been asked to go Egypt. Chelsie loses control and screams "I want you to be there, Daddy! You're never here when I need you! Never..." Mrs. Peterson hangs up the phone and tries to hug her. Chelsie twists away and shouts that no one wants her in this house and that she's always last priority after the foreign delegations. Her mother will bring some tea in her room, now this quite lolworthy passage "Chelsie felt like her life was ending, and all her mother had to offer was tea! I don't want any TEA!" Chelsie bellowed." Now she gets grounded. "I understand more than you think." Chelsie screams, before she runs up to her room, slamming the door and locking it. She's so emo.

Chelsie's mum will be out with the Indian delegation all day, so Chelsie goes quietly out on her rollerblades to meet her friends at Eatz. They see that Chelsie's sad because her father isn't home in time to the show or to stop her from being sent to Underwood. Then she admits that she'd always secretly wanted to skate around in the park and wearing outrageous outfits. Ana, Lara, Nichelle, Barbie and Tori takes her to Thrift-O-Rama.
There's an offer of a free hat with a purchase, if they fits the customer's head. Hat lovers unite! I have a lot of hats, even if I look strange in most of them. Chelsie gets a velvet hat with a fake rose. Her friends pick out a short velvet dress, chunky boots and an antique purse for Chelsie. They rollerskate around, while Barbie films them, before they buy hot dogs from a vendor that doesn't speak English. They sit at a wall, eating hot dogs and talking, when the limo drives past with Mrs Peterson and the delegation. Chelsie holds her breath, but Chelsie's mother doesn't recognize one of the girls as her own Chelsie. A narrow escape.
They decide to not work on the show today, but to go to the park, and the Pants Boys leads them towards a band singing a song about the rain forest. Then they tell about Chelsie's songwriting abilities and urges Chelsie to perform. Chelsie borrows a guitar and sings her song about missing someone close. She's shy at first, but gets into the moment. Everybody liked her song and understood that this is something she's experienced from her own heart. Chelsie feels incredibly sad that this will soon be over.

At dinner, Chelsie throws a robe over her trendy outfit and fakes a cold so her mother won't suspect anything. Her mother wants her to stay home from school tomorrow. Chelsie almost protests, but realizes that if she's "ill" until her dad's home, she won't be sent to England. So she gets her meals up in her room and spends Sunday doing the last rewrite of the songs. On Monday, she hides her clothes under her robe again. She stops her mother from making Alice, the maid check on her. She'll get her own food through the day. When her mother has left, Chelsie sneaks out on the subway. She gives the new lyrics to Melissa. Her throat tightens as she thinks she won't be there to sing her own song.

It's Thursday, and Chelsie's totally nervous about how the show will be and if her mother will send her to boarding school. She notices her mothers sadness and understand that maybe she feels lonely too, and that Giles is the only person who understands her. Her mother explains that she misses her husband very much too, but she lets him do what he needs to do because she loves him. Chelsie understands the respect and understanding between their parents are their way of showing their affection. Chelsie's robe falls open and shows her outfit. Her mother notices that Chelsie has been hiding something, and then Chelsie spills that she knows about the letter from Underwood. Mrs. Peterson has not yet decided if she'll send Chelsie there. She had planned on discussing this with Chelsie's father, but he won't be home in time to make the decision and she just wants Chelsie to be happy. So she has to leave on Friday... Tori calls and says that Melissa has a great voice and will be singing Chelsie's song. Chelsie explains for Tori that's she's leaving and will miss them lots, but she can't disturb her father.
Chelsie asks them to stop the car, so she could thank Peter from Recorded History for everything he'd learnt her. In there, she overhear Damian telling some other boys that Melissa is sick and can't sing. They have no chance then, so Damian plans on sabotaging the juniors by metronome beat, so they get out of rhytm during their tap number. Chelsie can't let this happen. Chelsie tells her mother that she too has responsibilities and will meet her at the airport, before she runs off.

Chelsie runs to school and informs the others about Damian's idea. They tell the Pants Boys, who stuff Damian in the trash cans before he could do any sabotage. Melissa can't sing, so Chelsie has to do it. While the other shows are on, Melissa's costume are taken out and Chelsie's hair is done. She goes out on stage and does a terrific and moving performance. Everybody congratulate Chelsie. She has to hurry to her plane, so she's hugging the girls and they say goodbye while crying. Suddenly both her parents walk in. Her father is back for the concert and has seen Chelsie live. Barbie and the other girls sent him the video of the girls roaming around New York City and he had to go back to see what's happening with his daughter. Her parents have been really worried for Chelsie because she acted like she was sad and lonely and had a hard time. Stop being so passive agressive, Chelsie. Have you ever talked to parents about these things? Have you ever tried? I know people rarely understand your motives unless you talk to them, and then many people don't get a hint, so you have to voice your thoughts really clearly.
Mrs. Peterson was a diplomate's daughter herself. She had problems fitting in and felt like it was something wrong with her. She just didn't want her daughter to experience the same thing. She missed her father a lot and felt like her parents where disappointed. Chelsie's mother sounds like a character with hidden depths. Hey, now there's actually three decent adults in the series. Chelsie's parents and Aunt Tessa. Not bad, they should meet up. Such an upgrade from the first book where absolutely all adults were unlikeable. I'm purring like a cat at the thought of being the daughter of two smart, culturally educated Brits. Hey, I want a spin-off book about Mrs. Peterson, Giles, and Tessa. Like I want spin off stories about Gunnar Thorn. Now Chelsie and her mother will explore New York together.
The sophomores wins the contest, of course. Fletcher and Melissa are dating now, and Barbie's really happy for them. Then the whole sophomore class lifts Chelsie on their shoulders. Her future is full of friendship and fun in New York.

After reading this book, I like Chelsie's mother, even if she's meant to be annoying, and I actually like Chelsie too, even if she's very whiny and annoying, when she's meant to be likeable. I do not like Chelsie as much as when I only read about her from other perspectives, but I understand her flaws.

I'm slightly offended of the treatment of private school as a subject. I admire private schools, I've dreamt about those since I was 7 years old. Public school was never a place of well-being or knowledge for me.
My love of private schools, especially boarding schools, began with reading Harry Potter, the private school series in Wendy(one about a girl who cares for a slightly mistreated pony, and another with three regular girls who meet a new classmate who turn out to be an Arabian princess in disguise), the Foxhall book series, and The Worst Witch. Some of my biggest fandoms in my childhood were The Worst Witch, Generation Girls, Harry Potter, Wendy, Foxhall, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
So when I thought about private schools, I pictured the building as Hogwarts, the environment as Miss Cackle's academy, and the cute uniforms from the story about Jill and the pony. And then it inspired me to make my own little private school stories, as I wrote in the introduction. Private school is described as a threat, not a treat.

The article in the back is about Poogy, which is quite weird as I thought it would focus on covering Sing Out. Writing=honesty=you know it.

This book in one ord: Teen angst

Book 3: Pushing the limits

Both the Swedish and English cover show some wear here. I thought Ana's top was flesh-coloured/orange in parts before I saw that it was a crop top, so it's her waist peeking out under her hair. I was a canon nazi as a kid, so it annoyed me that the Ana doll had bangs, and cover Ana didn't have those. The Swedish cover doesn't have the numbers on the front, and it mentions Clarisse in the back text, which the English cover doesn't.

Ana is meeting the girls in Eatz. When she's pushed by a skateboarder, her books and clothes from her gym bag flies everywhere. Clarisse, Ana's snobby and competitive teammate and her friends giggle. Clarisse is obsessed with winning and a strong runner, but Ana won't let her win and risk losing her chance for a college scholarship. Ana picks up her towel and bathing suit, then a boy with brown hair comes over to help her pick up her sandals. They shake hands, Ana with a sandal in her hand at first, then Blaine goes back to his friends in line. The other girls tease her and asks Ana about her meeting with the boy. Ana will just eat a salad, as sh's preparing for the maraton. Clarisse looks quite unhappy that Blaine was paying attention to Ana. Blaine(Huh? Isn't Blaine+Barbie canon? Maybe they'll get together later, though.) comes back with her history book. He asks the girls if they'll study together with him. Nichelle butts in and says yes.
Barbie walks Ana to the bus. Ana has known this city her whole life, but Barbie notices all the little interesting details. The meet a woman who's walking a little white dog with a diamond collar for hundred dollars a week. Ana asks if she can walk dogs too, as she hopes to earn some extra money for stuff she needs, but it's not any jobs available now. The girls says goodbye and Ana hurries to the bus.

Ana lives with her father, a hardworking construction worker, her mother, who just speaks Spanish, her little sister, Rosa, who highly admires Ana. Her older brother, Juan, has joined the navy and will be stationed in Hawaii. They live in a not so upscale part of Harlem, and everybody there speaks Spanish. Ana picks up cilantro and onions for her mother. The shopkeeper knows her family very well and greets Ana like a daughter. She invites Ana's mother over on Sunday. Ana thinks of walking the three floors up the apartment as exercise. The family eats a nice dinner together and Ana promises to send Juan pictures from the triathlon.

Ana's up at 5 A.M and gets off the subway at 6.15 AM. She has juice and a sports bar on the way. Ana gets into school with the special access pass athletes have so they can practice. Ana looks under the loose floor tile and finds a note from Chelsie, with a big orange juice stain on exclusive stationary. She asks Ana if she could write an article on the triathlon for the school's paper. Ana puts on a lucky t-shirt which used to be her brother's. She runs around the track with no troubles on her mind. Then there's swim practice. Ana does forty laps and thinks that the pool here is much nicer than the pool at her old school. Ana notices Nichelle sitting on a bench doing her maths homework. Nichelle will also swim after that. Ana has English with Barbie, which struggles with French. Lara can help her. Ana thinks it's harder to get her schoolwork done than at her old school. Clarisse and her friends giggle when they pass Ana. Clarisse's last name is Stephenson, so, unfortunately for Ana, she's at the locker next to Ana's, standing in front of her mirror and eavesdropping on their conversation. Clarisse marches away when she overhears the girls saying that Blaine is really into Ana. They'll meet up later in the cafeteria, which has, like any other cafeteria in a YA book, disgusting food. Ana and Tori goes to Art Class. Tori does a really abstract flower drawing and talks about how she got her aunt to try roller blades. She will join the other girls for lunch today, so that's all Dingo as she and Lara usually has early lunch. Chelsie and Ana talks about the article. Chelsie is forced to dress really formal and preppy by her mother. Ana promises to help Chelsie when she has the time.

Now it's history class for Ana. She tries to look discretely for Blaine, but he's moved front when he got new glasses, and will be sitting beside her. The class is very boring, so they write notes to each other to keep awake. They meet Clarisse after class, who completely ignores Ana and is super sweet to Blaine, saying that he forgot her birthday. Blaine talks to Ana about her running track. Clarisse huffs and walks away. Ana should meet Blaine later, but she has track pratice, so Nichelle will explain that to Blaine. Ana puts on her lucky t-shirt. She's better at long distance, so Clarisse beats Ana most times. Then Ana wins the hurdles and is congratulated by the coach. In the locker room afterwards, Ana hears Clarisse and her friend talk about Blaines interest in Ana. Clarisse says that Blaine is a do-gooder and sees Ana as a poor little Mexican girl, so her treats her as a charity case. I do not like the slightly racist undertone here :I Ana feels so angry and let down. She practices angry comebacks for Blaine and wipes the tears from her eyes before her family sees her.

Ana ignores Blaine and refuses to read his notes. She stops Nichelle from speaking to Blaine, Barbie and Nichelle comfort Ana and they got to Eatz. They races to Eatz, Tori gets there first, and the others are all sweaty, but they have fun and eat lots of French Fries. It's time for Ana's track meet and she hopes she'll beat Clarisse. Barbie and Nichelle are there to cheer her on, and Barbie will tape Ana. Clarisse teases Ana about her clothes, which makes Ana even more determined to win. Clarisse's dad says he wants his daughter to be better than last time, when she came in second. Ana wins a great sprint. Clarisse's dad is not pleased. Blaine turns up and asks Barbie and Nichelle why Ana's not talking to him. They don't know. Blaine swears he hasn't been a jerk, and he and Clarisse just went to the movies a couple of times when they went to school together. Blaine starts to cheer really loudly for Ana to show his support. Clarisse turns really sour and won't wish her team mates good luck. Ana has a great start and passes, but then she trips up and hurts her ankle badly. It might be sprained or even broken.

Clarisse's father congratulates his daughter on winning, but Clarisse doesn't look all that happy. Barbie watches the tape again and vince when she sees Ana's fall. After watching it closely and in slow motion, they see that the fall is not caused by Ana's feet, but by Clarisse elbowing her from the next lane. Nichelle and Blaine watch the tape too. Clarisse did push Ana! They're so angry and want to tell the principal at once, but they'll talk to Ana first and see what she wants to do.
Ana has a bad sprain. She's bandaged and on crutches. She wants to get Clarisse expelled, but then she bumps into Clarisse's parents which are not happy if their daughter makes less than first place. Then Ana has second thoughts, she won't do this this in front of Clarisse's parents and taking her off the team too will ruin their chances.

Ana tries to swim, one of the few exercises she can do with her ankle. Blaine studies with Ana. She tells him that she has only five procent chance to do the triathlon.
Coach Arlen makes Clarisse help Ana to train to get back on track. The other girls thinks it terrible, but Ana sees the possibility to make Clarisse act like her slave, and being so sweet that Clarisse will feel guilty. Ana makes Clarisse get up really early for training at 6 AM to punish her, as Clarisse hates morning training. Ana says that it's so sad that she blew her chances of doing the marathon she has been looking forward to for the whole year. When I think about it, they weren't competing for places on a team or anything, so it was a big measure to ruin Ana's ankle for just one victory, not a place in the school team or marathon or anything. Ana makes Clarisse get out of the pool and walk around the whole gym to get her a towel.
Clarisse wants Ana to do her best. She's becoming a serious coach, meeting Ana every day and egging her to go on. Clarisse knows some good exercises that won't put pressure on Ana's ankle. She wants Ana to continue, and try some walking or running on track. She will buy Ana an ice cream sundae if she runs and even calls Ana a lazy quitter when she refuses to do so. That makes Ana run and she realizes that this is probably the motivation Clarisse gets from her father. Ana takes Clarisse to watch the tape. Then she reveals to Clarisse that she's known about the push for a while. Clarisse says she's sorry, and that she knows Ana is no lazy quitter. Ana says that Clarisse is the best runner, and actually a great coach.

It's the day of the triathlon. Clarisse tells Ana that she would hated her if it was the other way round, and Ana can push her at next track meet if she wants to. Ana's friends are all there on the big day, Blaine, Clarisse, Ana's parents and Rosa too. Barbie takes photo of Ana, and some group photos too. Everybody wishes her luck and Ana is ready to start.... Ana swims better than ever and is very well ranked. Bike riding is harder, and a red headed woman passes her. Ana focuses on the lady's red pony tail, which reminds her of Clarisse. Ana's ankle swells and aches before the run. She's ranked third in her age group, which means that she did the swimming very well. After four kilometres, Ana's ankle pops underneath her. Miss ponytail passes her, but Ana keeps on running, even when she's in major pain. Ana gives everything. All her friends and family starts screaming Ana's name. Then Ana actually passes the lady with the red pony tail at the finish line. Her ankle is double it's normal size, but Ana still feels really good. Ana got number nine in her age group. Ana gets her first kiss on the cheek by Blaine. More teasing from her friends. Aww, I think it's very sweet that she's fifteen years old and don't have to go further than a kiss on the cheek. Ana's parents are very proud of her and this is her best moment ever. Ana has had the greatest time in her life and she writes an article for the school paper about her experience.

The article in the back is about Ana training for the triathlon. And it teaches kids to write sport features. Writing=honesty=truth.

This book in one word: Exciting.

Book 2: Bending the rules

Why is Lara just standing in the middle of nowhere painting? Again, sorry for the worn and creased cover. I swear I wasn't very messy and careless with my books as child, I just loved them and took them everywhere and read them many times. Now I wish I kept them in near mint condition... I still think that both back pictures are cute.

Tori is living abroad with her aunt, Tessa. Tessa has a serious, strict and quite chilly personality. Tori goes everywhere on her rollerblades, even if the guard tells her not to. She's a very lively and spunky girl. Aunt Tessa has a lot of rules. Tori is not allowed to make noise and she should never open the three rooms far down in the hall. Tori meets Barbie before Barbie should go to another history class with Budge, which is a described as a weirdo obessed with personal hygiene. The girls leave messages to each other under a loose tile on the fifth floor. Err, isn't that quite risky? Can't like anybody take a sneak peak at the notes they leave there? Lara asks Tori to meet her at Eatz for Lunch.

The owner of Eatz is also Australian, so Tori greets him happily. Lara sounds quite down. She has a crush on the art teacher, Mr Harris. Tori tries to talk about the "pants boys", but Lara prefers her boys mature with some sort of style and grace. You and me both, sister. Lara invites Tori to her home after school. Tori asks if they could drop by her place first and explains how strict Aunt Tessa is.

Lara goes with Tori to Tessa's home. Tori barks back to this fancy little dog. Lara is very sweet and polite to Tessa and Tessa seems to like her back. They talk about art and Lara admires some of Tessa's paintings. Tessa's parrot says "Good night, Ernest" but Tori has never been explained who Ernest is. Tori delivers a letter addressed to Tessa Steinmetz to her aunt, but Tessa says it's not for her and tells her to send it back with the guard again. Tori explains that Tessa is very different from the rest of her family. She works in a museum restoring picture frames. Tessa has lived the US practically her whole life and she's not close to her other family members. Then Tori writes a postcard to her parents.

Tori is happy at school, she works on the school website, does homework with friends and climbs. She wonders about Tessa, her secrets, her artwork from the West Coast and who the guy in the painting is. She nearly forgets that she's hanging on the climbing wall. One day Tori sees a scared dog in the middle of the traffic. She stops the traffic and calls him very carefully closer to her, tempting the dog with a bagel. A police man says that it's hard to find the dog's owner, and the dog pond isn't a very nice choice. Tori names the dog Bagel.

Tori sees Nichelle after she's bought some dog food. They go home with Bagel. Tori feeds him and then the girls tries to give Bagel a bath. Bagel shakes off the water and foam, just as Aunt Tessa is home.

The girls are very nervous, but Aunt Tessa accepts him if Tori can make sure that Bagel is house trained, takes all responsibility for walking and feeding him and watches Bagel so he'll not ruin any of her interior or carpets. She even gives Tori a dog leash she has kept, without any explanation. Lara calls and asks if the girls could come with her to the museums tomorrow for an art project. Nichelle is busy, but Tori will go the museum of modern of art.

Tori takes Bagel out. Then Tessa gives him some toast and Tori does her homework before she goes to MOMA. Complains and disses about Tori's lab partner, which happems to be a goth, and Chelsie's geeky lab partner. They meet up with Barbie at the museum and looks at Pollock and some other paintings. Tori quite likes a Picasso painting. Lara sees some very interesting desert paintings by T. Steinmetz. They go the museum shop to look up T. Steinmetz. Tori buys stationary and Barbie a pencil holder. The books has very little info on T. Steinmetz, just that for an unknown reason the artist stopped an amazing career and bought all paintings but two back. Nothing's been heard from T. Steinmetz ever since.
Lara is disappointed about the lack of information. Tori thinks about the letter with the name Steinmetz on it. The girls goes their separate ways home. Then Tori overhears the condominium board discussing her. They think that Tori's too loud and complains about her singing, roller blading and doing cartwheels. Tori is afraid she'll get thrown out, but Aunt Tessa sticks up for Tori and defends her, saying that Tori is just young, joyful, and spirited. Tori is so impressed with her aunt and sees a whole new side and spark in her.

Tessa has also bought a huge sack of top quality dog food for Bagel. Tori's very moved by this action. Henry Adams visits Tessa. He got no reply to his letter. Henry Adams tries to persuade Tessa to go back to her painting career. Suddenly Tori realizes that Tessa is T. Steinmetz. Tessa does not agree with Henry, but promises to think about it.

Tori has a boring schoolday and thinks of Tessa and her paintings. She tries to convince Poogy to take the dog, but dogs are not allowed where he lives. She goes with Ana to the computer lab to work with the school newspaper. Chelsie is terribly stressed out because the computer has crashed and she doesn't have time to write her feature again. Tori lectures the newspaper staff on always saving their work, then she pulls the power on the computer and restarts it, so an emergency backup file is saved.

When Tori comes home, she's surprised to see Tessa home early. Tori asks about Henry Adams, which used to be an artist himself, although not terribly talented. Now he's running his own gallery and tries to convince Tessa to put her paintings on show again. Tori is surprised to hear about Tessa's art, as her parents have never talked about it. They talk about that they're both going really different ways from the rest of the family. Tessa tells Tori that Tori's mother was suspended from school for dancing can-can in the corridor once.
Tessa used to live in the desert in an artists' colony with her husband, Ernest, a very talented sculptor. They and their friends, among them Henry Adams, lived and breathed for art. Henry was also a painter, although not a very successful one and he needed to go back to the city.
One day Ernest was in a car accident and got badly hurt so he was wheelchair bound and couldn't paint. Tessa gave up her painting and cared for Ernest, who lived only two years after the accident. A short time after Ernest's death, their dog, Fletcher also died. Tessa gave away her oil paints and bought her paintings back to remove every trace of Tessa Steinmetz the artist before moving to New York. Tessa has hidden all her paintings in the three rooms in the bottom of the corridor. Tori tells Tessa that life isn't fair, but Tessa's an amazing artist and art is her joy, so she shouldn't stop painting after Ernest's death, but let the world take part in her talent. If Tessa exhibits her paintings, then Tori will stop using her roller blades in the hall.
Tori fears getting told off, but then Tessa tells her niece that she's a bright girl and asks her to fetch Henry Adams business card.

It's January and the Steinmetz exhibition has opened. The girls and Tessa are all dressed up and looking for celebs. Henry Adams thanks Tori for her intervention. Tessa asks Nichelle to model for some of her future portraits. Lara got her interview with Tessa and has written a great project. And Mr. Harris is there with his wife. Lara feels slightly let down, but the girls have had a great night. Tessa treats the girls to a taxi ride, she and Tori are going home to their dog. In the end of the book, Tori writes another letter to parents, telling them that she has a wonderful time and has learned a lot.

The article in this book are covering Tori finding Bagel and abandoned pets. Writing=honesty=fruitloops.

This book in one word: Unsurprising.

Book 1: New York, here we come

Sorry about the Norwegian cover, and that it show a lot of wear as I've had it for a long time. As you can see, I really liked to read this book ;) When I was a child, I thought the girls in the cover pictures were super gorgeous. Now I think they're just meh-pretty. And I see that several of them could be wearing wigs. The front cover is this kind of Myspace pic that only Ana would be happy about, as it shows her from a better side than the others.

Barbie's just arrived in the Jenners' home in New York. She's traveled all the way from California. Sorry, she's not a vegetarian and California Casual. If we're lucky, she has an evil twin, though. In this story, she's a fifteen year sophomore with dreams of making it in the actor's business. She's starting at a new school in New York, New York. So welcome to the world of fashion, maths and hopefully not diabetes.
Barbie enjoys her new room. "Call me Terri" Mrs. Jenner and Barbie looks out of the window and admire the gorgeous view. For some reason, I do not like any of the adults in this story. They all fall flat, Sam, Terri, Selma, the Principal and Mr Toussaint.
Heck, she barely knows them, they could force her to join their home-made cult, she could become Mr. Jenner's second wife and get pregnant with him, all while being forced to prepare animal sacrifices? Hey, stranger things has happened in real life before. So Barbie and Terri are all buddy buddy and have a little girlie chat.
Barbie admits that starting a new school is overwhelming. Terri think she's very brave and will probably make new friends soon. It's nice to have a teenager in the house again after their little Scott went and joined the peace corps. For some reason, I'm picturing her son as Sheridan Bouquet.
They have a meal at Sam's restaurant, which is supposed to be some fancy place with lots of athmosphere and then Barbie emails her sisters. I think it's very sweet that they get a little nod. One of Sam's friends is an agent, and she can help Barbie with finding acting jobs.

Next day. Barbie changes her outfit a million time before deciding to wear capri pants, a white top and a denim jacket. She eats eggs, a pear and bagel and runs to the train.
So Barbie gets on the underground. There she gives an elderly man with a cane a seat for the disabled, but a dirty looking man steals the seat. Then a girl with blonde pigtails, an Australian accent and rollerblades tells the rude guy off and calls the attention of all the people in there, so the man is forced to leave the seat and everybody cheers for the old gentleman.

Barbie gets off the train and notices that the map in her information brochure is missing. She sees a girl with Manhattan International High School written on her shoulder bag. The girl on roller blades almost runs her down. Lara, the girl with the bag, is just as confused as Barbie is about finding the way to MIH and her brochure is also missing page 3 with the map. They ask a policeman about the way. Lara is half German and half Italian. She grew up in France, has lived in three different countries, and transferred to MIH when her father got a job in New York. She's carrying a huge box containing her paintings and paint supplies. Lara gives Barbie one of her hand-painted post cards as a gift.

Lara's old school was very strict and her father wanted her to paint in the same style as one of his friends, a famous artist. Lara wanted to change schools and paint in her own style to express herself, so she made a bet with her father that if she won a art contest, got top grades in school, and learnt to paint in the style of the well known artist, she could choose schools herself. She won the bet and the whole family moved to New York when her father got the job. Barbie's parents are away to China as archaeologists. Lara looks a bit sad when they talk about family being together. Foreshadowing...They meet Principal Simmons and get directions to their classes. Then all new students take some food and Barbie and Lara sits with Ana and Randall. Ana is a very sporty and organized girl who's training for the New York Maraton. Randall is a shy boy which seems to be dressed as a geeky metalhead. He barely speaks to the girls and draws super heroes on his notepad. It's a reference to WTC in this chapter, so that felt a bit odd and sad to read now.

Lara is off to art class and Barbie to English with Mr. Toussaint. I don't know why, but Toussaint seems like the type that's described as very charming, but would probably be more annoying than charming in real life. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way. Many advisors with the "I always keep my door open" policy tends to come across as creeps both in real life and in books.
The students complain about elevators and other stuff that's not working yet. Toussaint says that he feel proud to educate such different students. And this is a great school because it has so many great people and learning opportunities, so who cares that it's only half finished anyway? So... lots of propaganda, I mean neutral information about why public school totally ROCK and private school totally SUCK. Yawn.
Toussaint asks for two people for demonstration. Barbie volunteers, and a sweet and shy girl named Chelsie is the second volunteer. Barbie has to tie a bow around Chelsies neck with Mr. Toussaint's tie. Then all the other pupils should write down how Barbie made the bow. Barbie will then follow their instructions to make the bow again. None of students wrote how she made the bow down correctly. We're introduced to Writing=honesty=truth for the first time. The class should work together in pairs and write a biography of 150 words about each other for homework.
When Barbie's class is over, she's going to meet Lara. Lara is screaming about a girl which stole her box of paints. Barbie recognizes the girl as Tori. Is Tori trustworthy? Or has she really stolen Lara's paintbox?

Lara just left the box for a short time when she had a drink of water, and then she saw the other girl going off on rollerblades carrying her box. Barbie explains that she has proof of Tori's niceness, and she thinks Lara should wait before involving the police. Lara doubtfully follows her advice. The girls are hungry, so they go off to Eatz. They talk about Nichelle, the model and the Pants Boys. Barbie goes home to do the biography. She got a call from Selma Devine, and they'll meet up and talk about possible auditions and jobs for Barbie soon. Barbie writes a short biography about Chelsie and mentions her pricewinning song about homelessness.

Barbie is early at school to try to find the name of the Australian girl. She convinces the janitor, Pugasjov to let her in. There's only two Australian girls in the whole school, Tori Burns and Glenda Eastwick. Barbie meets Chelsie before she's off to have history with Budge, the slightly weird history teacher. Then English with Toussaint again, the students read their biographies out loud with the names censored, and the other kids try to guess who the biographies are about.
Both Chelsie and Barbie plans on trying out for the school paper. Barbie is in gym class after eating lunch with Chelsie, Ana and Nichelle. She pays a lot of attention when the teacher calls out the name Glenda Eastwick. Glenda is a skinny redhead with braces. So it's not Glenda, Miss Plain Jane either. Then it's either Tori Burns or the girl isn't a MIH pupil.

It's meeting time for Barbie and Selma Devine at the restaurant. She sounds kind of odd, but not as odd as when I read the book for the first time. She's known Terri and Sam since they were young.
Lol, if the three of them were friends and Terri and Sam ended up married, were they ever a love triangle? Were there ever any sensual tension between Sam and Selma? Or heck, Selma and Terri? But then only two of them got married. And now you're a family man, a football fan and your name is Harry. Are Terri and Ms. Devine foot flirting under the table and making inappropriate jokes about eating out? All while Sam impregnates Barbie of course.
And why is Sam never at home? If I skimmed the text, I'd miss that he's Terri's husband. He greets this fifteen year old girl he's known for a short time with a kiss on the cheek. Selma wants to be Barbie's agent. She has an audition idea for her, in one of Lee Quigley commercials for Crumbly Cookies, Barbie has very short time to learn her lines, but she's really pleased.

Chelsie congratulates Barbie, which has told all her new friends about the commercial. Chelsie knows Tori, and will bring her a message about meeting Barbie after the last class. Tori is going climbing, but Barbie could go after her if she needs to see her at once. Barbie follows Tori to Chelsea Piers which is *googles* also real. She's impressed by Tori's climbing skills, especially since she has a big sore below her knee. Tori is all "Yo, wallaby!" They talk about what happened on the train and the paint box incident. Tori tells
"Lara put her paint box outside by the fountain. Then some random guy went by on rollerblades and picked up the box and stole it. Tori went after him, the guy dropped the box like a hot potato. Tori picked up the box and followed him, looking for a police man. Then Tori fell and hurt her knee going after him." I don't get why she doesn't put any kind of bandage or band-aid on it, doing sports with a big open sore on your knee sound gross and unhygienic. Tori gave Lara's box to Poogy the janitor, so could bring it back to it's correct owner.

Barbie trains for her role as Chipper Girl. She goes through the role many times, watches a lot of cookie commercials, learns to recognize the cookies blindfolded and pratices making that special crumble sound. Barbie and Ana sits in sience class dissecting a cow's eye. Barbie talks Ana into going with her to the school newspaper's office after school. Chelsie, Nichelle and Lara are also there. They'll name the school paper Generation Beat, which was Nichelle's suggestion. Tori arrives late. Lara accuses her of stealing the paintbox. Toussaint calms them down and they sit scowling at each other for the rest of the class. Poogy arrives and gives Lara her box back. He says the Tori delivered the box to him, and then Tori explains the whole situation. Lara thanks Tori and Poogy and the newspaper gang goes out to celebrate with pizza.

Before her audition, Barbie has a nightmare about a giant cookie. Barbie auditions, with five gorgeous girls who are all blonde and taller than her. She plays her heart out and at last Barbie is up against the shy and nervous girl.The shy girl makes the better cookie crumble noises, so she gets the part. It's all quite a shock for Barbie.
But.... She gets a better deal! Barbie will star in a commercial for Dominique jeans, which is more high profile than Crumbly cookies. When I grow up I wanna be famous, wanna be a star, wanna have boobies... She hopes they'll let her keep some of the jeans. The book ends with a cute and happy email to Skipper, Stacie and Shelly.

In the back, there's a little "neswsaper article" about the school. I was a weird kid and loved article-form fiction. And there's some advice to kids about how they can make their own newspaper, and reminding them of Mr. Toussaint's sentence. Writing=honesty=truth.

*And to any Australians who reads this, no offence, I love you. I'm not mocking Aussies, I'm mocking the books' need to emphasis her heritage. All Australians I've talked to on discussion boards and Ebay has been very cool and nice.

This book in one word: Sweet.