Claudia and the New Girl, #12

Claudia's outfit on this cover looks totally normal, so basically, very un-Claudia-like. Plus, her hair doesn't appear to be in a side ponytail, at least, just swept over to the side (I'm throwing the illustrator a bone here).  And I think that is one of the Rodowsky boys, logically should be Jackie, the accident prone one, since he is heavily featured in this one, but that kid looks way too young to be 9 year old Jackie, so must be the youngest, Archie (aren't all of the kids slowly coming back to you?)

So, this book opens with Claudia being totally bored in English class, thinking about the family life of the fly meandering through the room, when her teacher gives them a surprise spelling check (this can't be good).  Claudia writes down "farow" for pharaoh and "instatute" for institute (that's not actually that bad, all things considered). Then the door opens, and in walks the titular new girl, Ashley Wyeth (Claudia keeps forgetting her name, even refers to her as Ashford at one point. Seriously, Claud, Ashford?!?)  And Claudia is mesmorized by her fashion sense, totally rocking Woodstock-chic.  After class, Claudia asks if Ashley is related to Andrew Wyeth, the famous painter, and even though she is not, Ashley is impressed that Claudia knows who Andrew Wyeth is, and they instantly bond.

Ashley also shows up at Claudia's after school art class, and they compare portfolios. Ashford, I mean Ashley, says that she and Claudia should be friends, because she "only spends time with people of talent."  She encourages Claudia to submit a piece to the upcoming sculpture show at the new art gallery in town. Claudia is flattered that someone so talented and artistic thinks she has talent, too.  They start to spend more and more time together to prepare for the show.

However, not all is well in BSC land.  Claudia starts to eat lunch with Ashley instead of the BSC.  Worse yet, Claudia starts to miss meetings in order to spend time with Ashley and try to come up with a piece for the show.  The more meetings she misses, the more aggravated the BSC gets.  They start writing passive aggressive entries in the notebook, steal all of Claudia's junk food, short sheet her bed, and leave mean notes all over her room.  Dawn even starts referring to Claudia as a traitor.  Ok, this always bugged me a bit. I get why the BSC would get their feelings hurt if Claudia stopped spending as much time with them, but wouldn't true friends want to support her passion and let her have other interests outside of club? As much as the BSC belittles cliques at SMS, they act like a pretty big clique themselves, getting all possessive and stuff. Rant over.

Oh, at one point, Stacey makes fun of Ashley for wearing bell bottoms.  That's a bit rich, considering some of outfits both she and Claudia sport on a regular basis. Plus, I'm fairly certain that both of them wear bell bottoms/flared pants at some point in the series. But I'm sure in those instances it is "dibbly fresh."

However, Claudia starts to realize that Ashley isn't quite the friend she claims to be. She dismisses babysitting as childish and uselessness in front of the Rodowsky kids when Claudia is sitting for them, plus in front of the BSC when trying to defend Claudia's art at school. Plus, every suggestion that Claudia comes up with for the show, Ashley dismisses as not worthy. When Claudia is sitting for the Rodowsky kids again, and Ashley shows up and makes fun of them again, they get into a huge fight and Claudia realizes that Ashley only liked her for her art.  She decides to sculpt Jackie Rodowsky to spite Ashley even though Ashley thinks Claudia is "ruining her career" by that choice, but she doesn't have time to finish the sculpture before the show, and decides not to enter it.  Ashley is not too hurt, because, in her words, "I'm an artist, and my craft is calling."

Claudia gets a phone call the day of the show, and her teacher admits that she entered the sculpture as a work in progress.  At the show, where Ashley wins first prize for her sculpture of a fire hydrant (nope, not a joke), and Claudia gets an honorable mention.  The feuding artists make peace, and eventually settle down to an artistic acquaintanceship. As Cher Horowitz says, "I thought we declared peace in the Middle East."

To sum this one up, I leave you with the wise words of Lisa Turtle:

What Claudia wore: "I was wearing a very short pink cotton dress, white tights, and black ballet slippers. I had swept all of my hair way over to one side, where it was held in place with a piece of pink cloth that matched the dress. Only one ear showed, and in it I had put my big palm tree earring."

What Ashley wore:  She was wearing a very pretty pink flowered skirt that was full and so long it touched the top of her shoes, which I soon realized were not shoes but sort of hiking boots. Her blouse, loose and lacy, was embroidered with pink flowers, and both her wrists were loaded with silver bangle bracelets. Her hair, which was almost as long as Dawn's, and was dirty blonde, was pulled into a fat braid (which, I might add, was not held in place by a rubber band or anything, it just sort of trailed to an end.) But the amazing thing was that because her hair was pulled back, you could see her ears and she had three pierced earrings in each ear. They were all silver and dangly, but none matched."  Ashley is totally going to be a Coachella groupie when she gets older...

Ashley, take two:  "She was wearing a puffy white blouse, a blue-jean jacket, a long blue jean skirt, and those hiking boots again.  Beaded bracelets circled both wrists, and she'd tied a strip of faded denim around her head, like an Indian headband."