Dawn and the School Spirit War, #84

What happens when Dawn and Mary Anne decide to stage their own Occupy: SMS? An epic brouhaha, y'all...(that is one of my favorite words, just fun to say - try to use it in a sentence today :-).

So, SMS's baseball team is undefeated, and they have their big rivalry against the Pelham Panthers (wait, wrong rivalry...) approaching. To celebrate, Mr. Belding, I mean, Mr. Kingbridge, announces that the month of April will be School Spirit Month, with a different activity planned for every day of the month to show your school spirit. This just seemed like a major stretch to me, Spirit Month? We did Homecoming Week in high school (don't remember doing anything except pep rallies in middle school), but a whole month just seems...contrived or something. But this is Stoneybrook, so we'll roll with it. A schedule of the Spirit activities is released, with things like Class Color Day, Clean Up Your School Day, Wear Your Pajamas to School Day, and other random nonsense.

So everything kicks off with a pep rally (again, a pep rally for baseball? Seriously?), and Dawn, who had felt somewhat indifferent to the idea of Spirit Month, actually gets somewhat excited, and I don't know, peppy. However, the next day is Class Color Day, which Dawn forgets about until after she's already dressed. Apparently the eighth grade color is yellow (not sure what SMS's mascot is, it may be mentioned in another book, we'll see...). MA actually goes overload on the yellow (see the cover shot for proof), however Dawn realizes that she doesn't really own anything yellow (ok, didn't find this believable, I'm pretty sure that she has been described in yellow before, seems a prime "California Casual" color, plus she has a stepsister, go raid MA's closet already). Dawn finally finds a pair of yellow socks, and races to school so she won't be late. As she is walking in, a local reporter is there interviewing students, and harasses Dawn for not wearing yellow. Dawn gets all short with her and shows the reporter her socks (again, see the cover), then storms into school. All day, she also gets heckled by fellow students for being the School Spirit Grinch, but at least she is not alone, our old friend Shawna Riverson also hates spirit too, and also gets teased.

That night, after the local news runs and the reporter snarks on Dawn for being a stick in the mud, Dawn decides to start a petition to cancel School Spirit Month. Mary Anne willingly signs it (even though her boyfriend is on the baseball team), because she is literally terrified of wearing pajamas to school (seriously, girl has a complex about that). After she gets to school, several other students sign as well, including Trevor Sandbourne, Emily Bernstein, Shawna, and Stacey, who is currently not a part of the BSC (I so have to read that book, the fight sounds awesome). However, Dawn's petition splits the school, as well as the BSC, in half. Kristy accuses Dawn of "not being happy unless she has a crusade to campaign for" (aww...snap!! That made me laugh). It turns out that Dawn, Mary Anne, and Mallory are against Spirit Month, while Kristy, Claudia, and Jessi are for it (Jessi kind of shocked me, didn't expect her to be Miss SMS here).

While the BSC is still somewhat civil to each other, SMS turns into an all-out Civil War. Dawn has a water balloon tossed at her, a rubber band shot at her face, and has her locker graffiti'd with "Go back to Cali, you weirdo." Both Dawn and Mary Anne have their lockers glued shut with some industrial glue as well. The anti-Spirits stage a sit-in in the SMS lunchroom during the last period of the day. That day, Claudia and several art students had painted murals around the school for "Mural Day" (I just can't, y'all...), and after the sit-in, several murals, including Claud's, get defaced. Dawn had already left when that happened, but Claudia blames Dawn for inciting the mayhem. After a food fight breaks out during lunch one day, the school has an open meeting about School Spirit Month, with the pro-Spirits sitting on one side, and the anti-Spirits on the other. And this is not civil, y'all, full on shouting matches ensue. A few days later, the school system hosts a town hall that parents are invited to as well, and it gets all Jerry Springer in the 'Brook.

Seriously, parents go crazy. After the fracas, the paper runs several letters to the editor, where each side claims that the other kids will overthrow the government for either being anarchists or conformist sheep. It's pretty entertaining. In light of the high tensions, SMS decides to cancel School Spirit Month. And hell freezes over in the 'Brook. Finally, Dawn has this grand epiphany and realizes that no one won this battle. She proposes that School Spirit Month be reinstated on a voluntary basis, with no heckling or harassment on either side. Apparently this was way too logical to begin with (Homecoming Week activities at my school were never mandatory, half the students didn't care enough to participate, and it was fine, we survived without major psychological trauma). Everyone is happy again, and SMS baseball defeats whatever the rival school's name was (yeah, I didn't write it down, and don't care enough to Google it.) The End.

Dawn, meet your soul sister, Jane Lane.

Fashion in the house!!


What Claudia wore: "Her long black hair was tucked into a wide-brimmed purple rain hat with colorful Native American designs painted on the brim. She wore a matching purple slicker with identical designs along the hem. Even her umbrella matched!"

Queen Elizabeth likes all purple in the rain, too, Claudia...

What Dawn wore, Class Color Day: jean jacket, blue jeans, and yellow socks (see cover)

What Mary Anne wore, Class Color Day: "Mary Anne was wearing a yellow sweatshirt dress, yellow stockings, and black flats." (Again, see cover)