Ok, this is seriously bugging me, Mary Anne is taller than Dawn on the cover. MA is always described as being one of the shortest girls in her class (next to Kristy), so I find it hard to believe that the cover artist would jack that up so badly. However, since MA is totally rockin' some pegged mom jeans there, I may forgive the cover artist this time. Maybe.
So this one picks up right at the end of the wedding of Richard Spier and Sharon Schafer (the main part of the wedding took place in Mary Anne and the Great Romance, which I haven't read yet. That's what you get for reading things out of order). Anyway, AMM foreshadows the main conflict of this story (if you're not sure what the conflict is yet, reread the title of the book. Good job.) when Mary Anne manages to catch Sharon's bouquet while at the reception, which is located at Chez Maurice (apparently that is the only fine dining establishment in the 'Brook, because dang, every fancy event/date night takes place there - give us an Italian place or something, AMM, sheesh). Dawn gets all pissed that she wasn't the one to catch it, seeing how she is Sharon's actual daughter, but doesn't say anything to MA. Girl holds a grudge though, we get several paragraphs of internal angst over that. Dawn doesn't handle losing anything well, does she? After the dinner is over, Sharon and Richard head off to spend the wedding night in a local hotel, and MA and Dawn decide to host an afterparty at MA's for her last night in the house. Charlie manages to drive the entire BSC over to MA's house in his car, which is just, well, unsafe, maybe? I mean, I always pictured his car, the Junk Bucket, has an old, beat-up hatchback or something, and even if it is a full size car, how in the world can you fit 7 girls in there? That's a traffic citation waiting to happen, AMM. Anyway, the afterparty does not turn into a sleepover, because Dawn and Mary Anne want to spend the last night in the house alone. They get all freaked with every single noise, thinking that the Phantom Phone Caller may be striking again.
They survive the night, though, and moving day arrives. MA is all weepy about the thought of leaving her house, and when Dawn tries to make some cheery comment, MA bites her head off. Dawn thinks "she must be one of those people who gets crabby if she doesn't get enough sleep." No, sweetie, she's pissed that she has to move, give her space. Dawn gets more and more irritated as the move progresses, but she and MA still decide to share a room at the farmhouse, even though there is another bedroom just sitting there. Now, I never had a sister (or stepsister), but I'm hella sure that if I had the option for my own room, I would take it, girl needs her privacy. Plus, you know that a house built in the 1800s is going to have super small rooms and very little closet space. So, naturally, Mary Anne's dresser has to go in the spare room (I love saying spare room, gives me an Anne of Green Gables thrill), plus she has to put most of her clothes in that closet. And then, the war begins. More on that later.
Meanwhile, in BSC land, Mallory has to leave a meeting sick one day (I'm shocked that Kristy allowed it), and they find out that she has chicken pox. But, like the infomercials always promise, there is, indeed, more. Claire and Margo end up coming down with bronchitis, the triplets manage to catch pneumonia, Nicky somehow breaks 3 fingers, Vanessa sprains her ankle, Mrs. Pike injures her knee playing tennis, and, last of all (I think), Mr. Pike burns his hands trying to cook for the family (all I could think of when I read that one is George Constanza burning his hands on Seinfeld and losing out on his hand model gig). So, yeah, the entire Pike family is down for the count. Now, this would have been way more believable if all of the kids caught Mallory's chicken pox, but to have almost each kid come down with a different sickness/injury at the same time is a stretch, AMM. Anyway, the rest of the BSC rotates time at the Pike house, helping clean and get meals prepared, but they wear surgical masks the entire time, which is just a little creepy. They eventually recover, of course, but I don't know if I will recover from this subplot.
Back in the new blended family farmhouse, things are going about as well as at the Pike house. Richard and Sharon clash, because Richard is an OCD neat freak (he organizes his books by genre, then alphabetizes them. I alphabetize by author, but that is my limit) and Sharon, as we previously have learned, is a super slob. Plus, Richard likes cooking bacon every morning, which disgusts Sharon and Dawn. The strife extends to Dawn and MA, as well. Dawn likes to listen to music while studying (as do I, Dawn, always have my iPod on at work), but Mary Anne needs total silence to concentrate. They decide to wear each other's clothes one day at school, but after they bicker about jobs at the BSC meeting that afternoon, Mary Anne tells Dawn "you know, I don't think my skirt looks so great on you, after all. It's a little...tight." That was way harsh, Tai. Mary Anne is not done with her Regina George-style biting comments. SMS is having a random 8th grade dance, to which Dawn is not invited (you would think she would be "independent" enough to go on her own, but whatevs). As Mary Anne is leaving to meet Logan, she tells Dawn, "just try to enjoy your evening, Dawn. Don't think of yourself as someone who can't get a date, ok? It's not healthy." Dawn, miraculously, doesn't b!tch-slap Mary Anne into next week. That is the last straw, and Dawn decides that Mary Anne needs to move into the spare room in order for them to stay friends. And, naturally, instead of talking rationally to Mary Anne about this, she decides to scare Mary Anne out of the room. She waits until Richard and Sharon are gone one night, and then fabricates an emergency job at the Pikes' to leave the house (you would think MA, queen of the record book, would maybe have a clue that this is fishy). Then, after ringing the doorbell to draw MA out of the bedroom, she races through the secret passage and leaves both a black silk rose and a old chicken bone on MA's desk. Plus, she makes noise in the secret passage to scare Mary Anne, as well. Mary Anne rushes to the phone to call Logan (good thing she didn't try to call Dawn at the Pikes', you would have been busted then, D). Dawn strolls into the house a suitable time later, and Mary Anne is all freaked out. She decides that she can't stay in the room with the secret passage any more, and moves that night into the guest room. The family sits down later to have a conference about how to work out their differences and live in peace, and all is well again.
Now, on a side note, I have read other blogs that have reviewed this book, and all seem to think that Dawn was the evil one in this book for scaring Mary Anne out of the room. For once, though, I side with Dawn over Mary Anne, after all the mean girl comments MA threw at Dawn during this book, I think Dawn showed remarkable restraint for once. I even shocked myself by writing that sentence, can't believe I sided with Dawn. Might never happen again.
Wicked Fashion!!
What Claudia Wore: "She wears funky stuff like pink sparkly high topped sneakers, or short flared skirts over skin tight leggings, or wild jewelry she's made herself."
What Claudia Wore (dance edition): "I'm wearing my pink dress, the short one. And my earrings that look like globes. Oh, and a necklace I made from candy."
Stars!
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