#5 Boy. Friend. (note the periods)
The twin's aren't on the cover! *shock!*
A Plot
We pick up where the last book left off at the end of Jessica’s party. Kristin and Brian stuck around to help clean up. Brian, in an unintelligent moment, put the giant punch bowl on top of the refrigerator. It gets knocked over and spills all over poor sweet Kristin. The horror! Initially she’s mad but her and Brian end up laughing about it. But he keeps joking after it’s not funny anymore and she insults his clothes. Brian calls for a ride home, after telling her he thinks she always looks beautiful. Exactly what a guy would say to a girl in a totally platonic relationship. Kristen goes on an internal rant about how she’s not model thin and is sick of all the crap her mom gives her about being model thin. (political correctness!!). So their ride comes and it’s Brian’s hot brother Billy and his studly best friend, Mike Kalp (who has black hair and green eyes so I automatically like him despite his being a jerk).
They drop Kristin off at home and drag Brian out to a monster movie marathon at the movie theatre. Where they make fun of Kristin’s hair. Billy and Mike talk about something called the Doggie Chow Dinner, which is a rite of passage into the secret club of the wrestling team at SVH (just want to point out all the older siblings and boyfriends in this series go to SVH yet these kids are never heard from again. I wonder if they got rezoned again after their ninth grade year). Anyway, at the Doggie Chow Dinner all the guys find the ugliest, most dog-like girls they can get to go out with them and serve them dog food. This is starting to sound interesting. ^_^
At the movies Billy suggests as a joke Mike take Kristin. They joke about how ugly her hair looked and getting stuck to her head. Mike takes the suggestion more serious than Billy meant him to.
Mike calls up Kristen the next morning and asks her out for that Friday (how did he get her number? Stalker!). Kristin is beyond thrilled. She calls up Lacey who’s even more excited (at the prospect of potentially hanging out in Gel’s basement with Kristin while the guys were playing air hockey because Mike’s a friend of Gel’s moreso than actual happiness for her friend) and insists the date has to go perfectly! Or else! Kristin’s kind of worried about how to act on the date because she’s never really dated before, let alone with a handsome high school guy.
She meets Brian for lunch the next day (he’s rather worn from the night before) and tells him all about her date with Mike. Brian listens with a sinking feeling. He’s not sure what to do. Should he tell Kristin about the dinner or not? Either way she’ll get hurt! What’s a guy to do? In his indecision he merely acts unexcited about her date which makes her (rightfully) think he thinks she’s not good enough for a guy like Mike. Which makes her mad. He then abandons her. Lacey shows up with her high school friends (she sure does hangs out with a lot of people in high school) and can’t wait to introduce them to Kristin. Kristin’s kind of preoccupied about Brian and gives Lacey the gist of what happened. Lacey thinks he’s jealous. She gives him death glares.
Meanwhile Brian went to call his brother Billy to tell him Mike asked Kristen out and demands he tell Mike to break the date and find some other dog--I mean girl. He gives him a feeble “I’ll try.” But this is good enough for Brian. He has a quiet lunch with the girls.
Kristin mistakes Brian’s quietness around her for being mad about her teasing his clothes. So she gets the bright idea of dressing up in a similarly baggy outfit and cheering for him at a pickup game between him and his friends that Tuesday. Mike shows up with Billy Boy and Kristin’s embarrassed because he always ends up seeing her at the most inopportune times. She does a cheer for Brian and her and Mike have a pleasant conversation about Basketball (she likes Dennis Rodman, btw). Lacey keeps complaining about her outfit. Mike’s surprised she knows Lacey and gets a worried look on his face (yeah, you know Lacey’s gonna kill you).
After Mike leaves she goes after Brian to tell him “Great game,” and he acts all distracted. She brings up her outfit and he gives her an absentminded compliment. He wasn’t even paying attention. She humiliated herself for no reason! That bastard! He tells her he’s gotta go and takes off running with his tail between his legs. Now Kristin’s unsure what to do with Mike because he saw her in he awful getup and Lacey promises her they’ll go shopping the next day and it’ll make her feel better.
Brian’s feeling bad about Kristen so he invites her to his house to play video games so he can make things right with her and talk to his brother about Mike. I don’t quite get the logic of this either. She does, and whips his sorry ass at Global Domination (something I imagine is akin to Soul Caliber). She agrees and after school whips his sorry ass. He excuses himself to get some more snacks and tries to talk to Billy about Mike and Kristin’s date. He says rather loudly that he doesn’t want her going on that date! Because it’s Sweet Valley she overheard and gets all upset and runs out of there. Brian doesn’t run after her. Billy gives him a hard time about this is Mike’s chance to make the order and tells him he has to choose between him or Kristin. What a great role model.
Kristin’s late to meet Lacey and with her keen ability of sensing the weakness in people she figures out something’s wrong. Lacey succeeds in cheering her up a bit and picks out a lovely red satin dress for Kristin to wear to the dinner, that looks very flattering on her not model-thin body. Brian’s still upset about Kristin’s situation that night and has a fight with Billy.
The following day while Kristin’s on her way to cheerleading practice (which they refrain from calling it that, instead it’s cheer squad. Yeah) and Mike calls her over to his car. She’s in her cheerleading sweats but is actually looking not gross for the first time around him. He’s unpleasantly surprised to see she’s really not a dog. They talk in the car. He asks her if she’s ever done anything stupid and mean before, something that can’t be fixed. She gives him the optimistic “There’s nothing that can’t be fixed.” He thinks she’s too nice. They hold hands. He sounds like he’s starting to like her. I wonder if he ever shows up again… Then good ole Lacey and Gel show up, turning Mike into a primal guy again, spoiling the moment. Kristin goes to practice hoping Mike will kiss her tomorrow. Ah, the irony.
So Friday comes. Brian’s still stressing about what to do about Kristin. He thinks about writing an anonymous letter but quickly decides against that. He talks to his brother and finally comes to a decision as a man! He’ll go tell Kristin himself, to hell with his brother. Go Brian!
But, alas, he arrives at Kristin’s house too later. Mikey Boy’s already there. Kristin looks really pretty in her dress and her mom takes a picture of her and Mike together. On the way out to the car they see Brian standing like a stalker in the driveway. Kristin’s pissed he’s there to ruin it and yells at him before getting in the car. Mike hurries after her and they drive away. He’s really quiet on the way there. And after they get there, too. She sees a bunch of not-so-pretty girls there and thinks older guys are really cool and go for more than outer beauty. Then it’s chow time!
They serve soupy, smelly brown stuff and Kristin thinks that their poor host must’ve tried to cook himself. Mike starts giggling like a nervous virgin. Kristin starts to laugh at the meal until she realizes what it is. The other boys start barking and tell the dogs to eat their dinner. Now she’s extremely pissed. She tells them all off, especially Billy and Mike. Mike tries to apologize but she doesn’t want to hear it. She sees Brian hovering and is happy inside that he came after her. One of the girls sitting across from her is bawling and Kristin tells the girl that they’re out of there. This makes the other girls feel better and the one that was crying dumps the plate of dog food on her dates lap. And the girls laugh at the boys till their outside. Yes! Yes!
Once outside some of the girls start crying. Kristin’s eyes get watery until a familiar arm’s around her. Brian. She tells them the night’s young and they go out dancing at that club Liz and Sal went (erm, well, never got to go to, in #1. Yay for continuity!). Kristin and Brian give each other googly eyes.
B Plot
This isn’t exactly even a plot since it’s told entirely through diary entries but I’ll summarize it. Liz and Jess are grounded for two weeks (only?) Liz avoids Salvador and Anna in the halls. Salvador because he kissed her , and Anna because she doesn’t know how to react to her not telling her her brother died. Liz is actually happy to be grounded. Anna thinks she’s avoiding her because she actually thinks her poem’s bad and doesn’t know how to tell her, and Salvador thinks he’s avoiding him because his kiss was slimy. (teehee!) Liz and Jess fight. They make up. The merciful conclusion.
Next up, #6 Lacey’s Crush!
There's actually "handwritten" entries in this one, and I thought it was interesting to mention that Anna has the same handwriting Liz has in Senior Year.
And for those of you who wanted to read my story, her it tis, tentatively titled Summer Days 2 until I come up with something better. I suck at coming up with titles.
Summer Days 2