Mary Anne's Makeover - Part 2 - Chapters 06-10
Part 1
Chapter 6
Sharon and Dawn react to Mary Anne's new look with stunned silence, but it doesn't take long for Sharon to stop thinking about how big her hands are and get super excited. Her reaction is lovely, telling her step daughter she looks "sensational." See MA? You were worried for nothing...
Dawn doesn't make any comment at all until Richard asks if anyone's hungry; "I am" replies Dawn as she takes the take-away containers out of the bags. She asks Richard what he got:
"Moo shu vegetables, sesame bean curd, lo mein-and some shelled lobster in oyster sauce, for the carnivores," Dad said, throwing me another smile. "To Celebrate."
"Ugh," said Dawn under her breath, as she opened the round aluminium tin that contained the lobster.
Now, I know Dawn is a git here, and I will get to that in a second. My first target is Mr Spier. Sorry Richard, but it really pisses me off when people that choose to eat meat refer to themselves as "carnivores." Even if one exclusively ate meat and nothing else, it wouldn't alter the fact that, as a human being, they are an omnivore. Likewise, the day I went vegan, I didn't go around calling myself a herbivore, like I'm somehow now fixed in my current lifestyle and unable to change my ways. If I ate meat tomorrow, I would digest it just fine.
Now onto Dawn. Not that it would be an excuse if she was a vegetarian, but Dawn is frequently referred to as just "not eating red meat" (including this very book). So what's the problem exactly? Seafood is healthy (well, probably not in the context of a greasy chinese, but the same would apply to their veggie dishes).
Which kind of makes me think maybe her reaction wasn't to do with the food, but more to do with her jealousy towards Mary Anne (not that it takes a degree in psychology to get that). Now, Dawn is the Queen of the Bitchiest Land of Bitchidom in this book, so maybe we can get away with a little empathy before she's past the point of no return. During the dinner scene in this chapter, she gets on MA's case as to why she never mentioned the makeover to her, and questions little details about the day e.g. how much was spent, shooting hurt looks towards her mother. Not once does she compliment Mary Anne.
I'm guessing that MA and Dawn would have a complex relationship - they started off as friends, then very quickly became step sisters and are now being brought up in the same household. That's actually a massive step to take. So really, if we take into account that Dawn is Mary Anne's sister here, and not her best friend, Dawn's behaviour is kind of true to how my sister might react if I came home having been spoiled by one of my parents. Although, having said that, the first thing she would do is compliment me, without question. Dawn isn't even remotely prepared to go halfway here, even if she is hurt. What's more, they've only been sisters for a short time and are effectively being brought up by separate sets of parents. So yeah, if Dawn is jealous the thing to do would be to talk to her mother about it and maybe see if they could do something similar - if Sharon declined then her feelings would be justified. But just sulking gets you nowhere.
After that brief psychoanalysis in which maybe, just maybe, we can forgive Dawn's behaviour, she completely blows it. MA feels put out by her step sister and decides to phone Logan, saying that she has a surprise for him and asking if he can come over the next day. Dawn picks up the other extension, butts in "some surprise!" and then adds "it's not that earth-shattering, Mary Anne... I mean, we all get haircuts."
Eugh, what a brat! MA is really upset that Dawn spoiled the surprise, but after Dawn puts down the other extension neither Logan nor Mary Anne acknowledge that this behaviour is seriously violating one's privacy.
Having said that, we do need to remember that these girls are 13 and my sister and I did some pretty mean stuff to one another when we were that age.
But, holy shit, it gets worse.
Chapter 7
Mary Anne excitedly anticipates debuting her hair at SMS. It's looking good so far, as Logan loves it. As she walks through the school on the Monday morning, she gets a few jokey comments thrown her way by less important people (e.g. Alan Gray), and many people just don't recognise her. Cokie, however, drops her books and tells MA that she looks fantastic. This is nice, except dropping her books is just a little too dramatic. Seriously, I've had some noticeable haircuts in my time and it's always great when showing them off, but no one really cares *that* much.
Her confrontation with Stacey, Claudia and Kristy breaks my heart. Dawn has already told them, and... just... Wow. Stacey's first words are "it's shorter than I thought," adding later, "It'll grow out." This is pretty crappy, but not exactly out of character for Stacey. Kristy, on the other hand, is MA's best friend and comes out with this:
"Mary Anne, you knucklehead... we said that cut wasn't you."
Kristy didn't actually say anything about it at the meeting. And why would she? She's a tomboy and doesn't care about stuff like that. It's beyond me why her friend getting a haircut would bring out anything other than indifference... Well, aside from the fact that MA has dared to exhibit her own desires for how she wants her own hair to look.
The girls aren't really that horrible, they're just really pitying towards her. It's bizarre given that all other signs point towards the fact that this is actually a nice haircut. And even if it wasn't... if your friend gets a bad haircut you always say it's nice even if you're not so sure about it. When I was 11, I had my hair cut short. And I mean really short. It was the first time I'd gone to the hairdresser with my own ideas in mind, and I walked in there and said I wanted a boy's haircut. The end result wasn't actually that bad, but it was a little bit too grown up for an 11 year old, and I did just... look like a boy, which I guess is what I wanted at the time. I remember showing up the next day to my friend's bowling party, and all my friends told me it looked great. They later admitted that they really didn't like it, but they warmed to it after a time, and I was none the wiser until that point. My friends and I really were not in any way mature or sophisticated (so unlike the BSC!), not to mention 2 years younger, and yet they had more tact than this thick bunch put together.
Logan is actually a really good guy here. After reassuring MA that he loves the haircut, he says: "Mary Anne, you don't need to listen to what anyone else says. You're the one that has to like it. If it makes you feel good, that's what counts." Yey! You'll never redeem yourself after my last snark, but A+ for effort here.
MA feels very comforted, and asks if he can come to the BSC meeting, to which he agrees. Dawn overhears this in the classroom, and MA catches her shaking her head with a tiny smirk on her face. I have no idea why she's doing this, manipulative sod. I hate you in this book, Dawn.
Chapter 8
Babysitting chapter in which Carolyn gets more and more involved in her time machine fantasy. Pointless, but a couple of stray observations:
- A deaf child called Matt comes over with Stacey, "Matt's laugh is... Well, unusual. It's sort of a cross between a squeak and a goose's honk." I would be so thrilled for my child with a life-long disability to be looked after by such respectful individuals.
- "Claud and Stace set up a game of Mousetrap, which held their attention completely." Bullshit! A "game" of Mousetrap can only hold your attention when the trap is being set off, which (if it even works) takes all of a few seconds. The actual build up to that point is just a dice roll game and wouldn't hold anyone's attention, let alone "completely."
Chapter 9
This is basically a chapter of catch 22's and self-fulfilling prophecies. The BSC continue to be dickheads, supposedly starting rumours about a guy in high school having a crush on Mary Anne (I don't see how she knows they did it, and if they did, what this is meant to achieve), and being cold and unpleasant generally. This pushes MA to spend all her time with Logan, who comes to the Monday and Wednesday meetings with her for support. He can't attend Friday's, however, and so MA blows off Kid Kit shopping with Kristy to spend some time with him before the meeting.
Of course, Kristy finds out this is why MA blew her off (even though she never actually asked why, so it's not as though MA lied) and thus the meeting is a passive-aggression fest. Sorry girls, but you've no one to blame but yourselves for MA ditching you - you're going to have to face up to the fact that even Logan is better company right now.
Mary Anne ponders whether she still wants to be in da club.
Chapter 10
Mary Anne reflects on how it's nice her haircut has enabled her to get to know lots of other girls at the school, whom the BSC never really liked:
Why? Because they wore lots of make up and expensive clothes, and seemed snobby... I was beginning to realise that snobbery can go both ways.
Well, it's taken you long enough to learn this MA, but this is probably one of the most true observations I've come across in the books. So is it the case that because MA got a makeover, they assumed she'd turn into one of these superficial plastics (let's face it, they are - they've accepted MA on the basis of her haircut as readily as her old friends have ditched her for it), and therefore she did? I'm quite liking the irony in this chapter.
Also, MA is learning to be something of a snarker. After discussing some high school dance or other with one of her Better Friends, the girl replies, "It's always so much fun." MA muses that the girl "sounded as if she'd been going to it since she was a toddler." In light of the BSC ALWAYS acting as though they've been on this earth far longer than they actually have, I lol at thee.
Rumours about guys in high school liking Mary Anne and wanting to ask her to the dance continue to circulate. She is both bemused and flattered. She's also sticking to the babysitting jobs she has booked, but has decided not to go to the meetings for now. Nice going.
Logan's brownie points drop quite drastically when he continues to badger MA into making up with the girls, telling her that "something's got to give." Why? These girls are being horrible. African violet them now and run for the hills.
The chapter ends on a scene demonstrating that tensions are still very high between MA and Dawn. The former refers to the latter as "the Stepsister from the Black Lagoon" and I have to admit I lol'd.
And... eugh, how many different ways can I say that Dawn is such a turd? She talks about MA as though she's not there, making snide remarks about her dad's treat to her (LET IT GO!) and the fact that she's spending so much time with the one person their age actually treating her like a human being at the moment. The worst part is the comment she makes about MA missing all her favourite junk food at the BSC meeting. I didn't understand why this forced MA to go upstairs and cry for a second... then it hit me that this is Dawn. Argh, so much wrong with this comment - why the fuck is it a problem for MA to enjoy the junk food and not the others?!
Also, Sharon and/or Richard fail as parents for not intervening here and grounding Dawn for life.
Yeah, this book is about as bizarre as I remember.
Chapter 6
Sharon and Dawn react to Mary Anne's new look with stunned silence, but it doesn't take long for Sharon to stop thinking about how big her hands are and get super excited. Her reaction is lovely, telling her step daughter she looks "sensational." See MA? You were worried for nothing...
Dawn doesn't make any comment at all until Richard asks if anyone's hungry; "I am" replies Dawn as she takes the take-away containers out of the bags. She asks Richard what he got:
"Moo shu vegetables, sesame bean curd, lo mein-and some shelled lobster in oyster sauce, for the carnivores," Dad said, throwing me another smile. "To Celebrate."
"Ugh," said Dawn under her breath, as she opened the round aluminium tin that contained the lobster.
Now, I know Dawn is a git here, and I will get to that in a second. My first target is Mr Spier. Sorry Richard, but it really pisses me off when people that choose to eat meat refer to themselves as "carnivores." Even if one exclusively ate meat and nothing else, it wouldn't alter the fact that, as a human being, they are an omnivore. Likewise, the day I went vegan, I didn't go around calling myself a herbivore, like I'm somehow now fixed in my current lifestyle and unable to change my ways. If I ate meat tomorrow, I would digest it just fine.
Now onto Dawn. Not that it would be an excuse if she was a vegetarian, but Dawn is frequently referred to as just "not eating red meat" (including this very book). So what's the problem exactly? Seafood is healthy (well, probably not in the context of a greasy chinese, but the same would apply to their veggie dishes).
Which kind of makes me think maybe her reaction wasn't to do with the food, but more to do with her jealousy towards Mary Anne (not that it takes a degree in psychology to get that). Now, Dawn is the Queen of the Bitchiest Land of Bitchidom in this book, so maybe we can get away with a little empathy before she's past the point of no return. During the dinner scene in this chapter, she gets on MA's case as to why she never mentioned the makeover to her, and questions little details about the day e.g. how much was spent, shooting hurt looks towards her mother. Not once does she compliment Mary Anne.
I'm guessing that MA and Dawn would have a complex relationship - they started off as friends, then very quickly became step sisters and are now being brought up in the same household. That's actually a massive step to take. So really, if we take into account that Dawn is Mary Anne's sister here, and not her best friend, Dawn's behaviour is kind of true to how my sister might react if I came home having been spoiled by one of my parents. Although, having said that, the first thing she would do is compliment me, without question. Dawn isn't even remotely prepared to go halfway here, even if she is hurt. What's more, they've only been sisters for a short time and are effectively being brought up by separate sets of parents. So yeah, if Dawn is jealous the thing to do would be to talk to her mother about it and maybe see if they could do something similar - if Sharon declined then her feelings would be justified. But just sulking gets you nowhere.
After that brief psychoanalysis in which maybe, just maybe, we can forgive Dawn's behaviour, she completely blows it. MA feels put out by her step sister and decides to phone Logan, saying that she has a surprise for him and asking if he can come over the next day. Dawn picks up the other extension, butts in "some surprise!" and then adds "it's not that earth-shattering, Mary Anne... I mean, we all get haircuts."
Eugh, what a brat! MA is really upset that Dawn spoiled the surprise, but after Dawn puts down the other extension neither Logan nor Mary Anne acknowledge that this behaviour is seriously violating one's privacy.
Having said that, we do need to remember that these girls are 13 and my sister and I did some pretty mean stuff to one another when we were that age.
But, holy shit, it gets worse.
Chapter 7
Mary Anne excitedly anticipates debuting her hair at SMS. It's looking good so far, as Logan loves it. As she walks through the school on the Monday morning, she gets a few jokey comments thrown her way by less important people (e.g. Alan Gray), and many people just don't recognise her. Cokie, however, drops her books and tells MA that she looks fantastic. This is nice, except dropping her books is just a little too dramatic. Seriously, I've had some noticeable haircuts in my time and it's always great when showing them off, but no one really cares *that* much.
Her confrontation with Stacey, Claudia and Kristy breaks my heart. Dawn has already told them, and... just... Wow. Stacey's first words are "it's shorter than I thought," adding later, "It'll grow out." This is pretty crappy, but not exactly out of character for Stacey. Kristy, on the other hand, is MA's best friend and comes out with this:
"Mary Anne, you knucklehead... we said that cut wasn't you."
Kristy didn't actually say anything about it at the meeting. And why would she? She's a tomboy and doesn't care about stuff like that. It's beyond me why her friend getting a haircut would bring out anything other than indifference... Well, aside from the fact that MA has dared to exhibit her own desires for how she wants her own hair to look.
The girls aren't really that horrible, they're just really pitying towards her. It's bizarre given that all other signs point towards the fact that this is actually a nice haircut. And even if it wasn't... if your friend gets a bad haircut you always say it's nice even if you're not so sure about it. When I was 11, I had my hair cut short. And I mean really short. It was the first time I'd gone to the hairdresser with my own ideas in mind, and I walked in there and said I wanted a boy's haircut. The end result wasn't actually that bad, but it was a little bit too grown up for an 11 year old, and I did just... look like a boy, which I guess is what I wanted at the time. I remember showing up the next day to my friend's bowling party, and all my friends told me it looked great. They later admitted that they really didn't like it, but they warmed to it after a time, and I was none the wiser until that point. My friends and I really were not in any way mature or sophisticated (so unlike the BSC!), not to mention 2 years younger, and yet they had more tact than this thick bunch put together.
Logan is actually a really good guy here. After reassuring MA that he loves the haircut, he says: "Mary Anne, you don't need to listen to what anyone else says. You're the one that has to like it. If it makes you feel good, that's what counts." Yey! You'll never redeem yourself after my last snark, but A+ for effort here.
MA feels very comforted, and asks if he can come to the BSC meeting, to which he agrees. Dawn overhears this in the classroom, and MA catches her shaking her head with a tiny smirk on her face. I have no idea why she's doing this, manipulative sod. I hate you in this book, Dawn.
Chapter 8
Babysitting chapter in which Carolyn gets more and more involved in her time machine fantasy. Pointless, but a couple of stray observations:
- A deaf child called Matt comes over with Stacey, "Matt's laugh is... Well, unusual. It's sort of a cross between a squeak and a goose's honk." I would be so thrilled for my child with a life-long disability to be looked after by such respectful individuals.
- "Claud and Stace set up a game of Mousetrap, which held their attention completely." Bullshit! A "game" of Mousetrap can only hold your attention when the trap is being set off, which (if it even works) takes all of a few seconds. The actual build up to that point is just a dice roll game and wouldn't hold anyone's attention, let alone "completely."
Chapter 9
This is basically a chapter of catch 22's and self-fulfilling prophecies. The BSC continue to be dickheads, supposedly starting rumours about a guy in high school having a crush on Mary Anne (I don't see how she knows they did it, and if they did, what this is meant to achieve), and being cold and unpleasant generally. This pushes MA to spend all her time with Logan, who comes to the Monday and Wednesday meetings with her for support. He can't attend Friday's, however, and so MA blows off Kid Kit shopping with Kristy to spend some time with him before the meeting.
Of course, Kristy finds out this is why MA blew her off (even though she never actually asked why, so it's not as though MA lied) and thus the meeting is a passive-aggression fest. Sorry girls, but you've no one to blame but yourselves for MA ditching you - you're going to have to face up to the fact that even Logan is better company right now.
Mary Anne ponders whether she still wants to be in da club.
Chapter 10
Mary Anne reflects on how it's nice her haircut has enabled her to get to know lots of other girls at the school, whom the BSC never really liked:
Why? Because they wore lots of make up and expensive clothes, and seemed snobby... I was beginning to realise that snobbery can go both ways.
Well, it's taken you long enough to learn this MA, but this is probably one of the most true observations I've come across in the books. So is it the case that because MA got a makeover, they assumed she'd turn into one of these superficial plastics (let's face it, they are - they've accepted MA on the basis of her haircut as readily as her old friends have ditched her for it), and therefore she did? I'm quite liking the irony in this chapter.
Also, MA is learning to be something of a snarker. After discussing some high school dance or other with one of her Better Friends, the girl replies, "It's always so much fun." MA muses that the girl "sounded as if she'd been going to it since she was a toddler." In light of the BSC ALWAYS acting as though they've been on this earth far longer than they actually have, I lol at thee.
Rumours about guys in high school liking Mary Anne and wanting to ask her to the dance continue to circulate. She is both bemused and flattered. She's also sticking to the babysitting jobs she has booked, but has decided not to go to the meetings for now. Nice going.
Logan's brownie points drop quite drastically when he continues to badger MA into making up with the girls, telling her that "something's got to give." Why? These girls are being horrible. African violet them now and run for the hills.
The chapter ends on a scene demonstrating that tensions are still very high between MA and Dawn. The former refers to the latter as "the Stepsister from the Black Lagoon" and I have to admit I lol'd.
And... eugh, how many different ways can I say that Dawn is such a turd? She talks about MA as though she's not there, making snide remarks about her dad's treat to her (LET IT GO!) and the fact that she's spending so much time with the one person their age actually treating her like a human being at the moment. The worst part is the comment she makes about MA missing all her favourite junk food at the BSC meeting. I didn't understand why this forced MA to go upstairs and cry for a second... then it hit me that this is Dawn. Argh, so much wrong with this comment - why the fuck is it a problem for MA to enjoy the junk food and not the others?!
Also, Sharon and/or Richard fail as parents for not intervening here and grounding Dawn for life.
Yeah, this book is about as bizarre as I remember.