Sleepover Friends #2: Starring Stephanie

(If you click the cover, you'll see it bigger.)

The Cover: Once again, the who’s who part is easy. From left to right: Patti, Stephanie, Lauren in the back and blonde Kate. Kate always looks about like this in my mind, though it’s not the best cover for the other three girls. Stephanie again is out of her color scheme. This is cute for Patti though. She goes through the most artistic changes, I think.

CHAPTER 1:

Friday night sleepover time again! Lauren is the narrator, as she will be for quite awhile. We’re at Kate’s house, watching some desert movie. Stephanie and Lauren both proclaim thirst.

“Water…water…” the guy on the screen croaked as he stumbled down a sand dune.

“Doctor Pepper…Doctor Pepper…” Stephanie croaked, clutching her throat and staggering around.

I always liked this moment for Stephanie. I thought it was one of her more light-hearted ones. Anyways, Kate still wants to watch the movie, even though she’s seen it a gajillion times. It’s suddenly interrupted by a weird commercial. A band called Boodles is doing a music video in Riverhurst and if you can guess the location, you can be in it. Stephanie is excited and does a few dance steps, then gets on the subject of the band guy’s cuteness. Patti also comments. Kate is less amused.

“For people who were dying of thirst three seconds ago, you certainly recovered fast,” Kate interrupted. “Do you want to go downstairs or not?”

The girls head downstairs with a reminder from Kate not to wake her dad and to watch out for the squeak in the third stair. That triggers Lauren going into backstory mode. (See the post on book #1 for the backstory. I’m not retyping it every time. The only thing of note is that Lauren says HER dad dubbed them the Sleepover Friends. That was actually Kate’s dad in the first book.) The girls pass Melissa’s room and we find out she’s in second grade. Don’t think that was clarified in #1. Lauren’s naturally hungry again and finds some fancy chocolate mousse. Kate determines that one side is higher than the other, so they can each have a small taste. Patti asks what the purple things on it are and they turn out to be crystallized violets. There are extras, exactly four left, so each girl tries one. They make popcorn, get drinks and return upstairs. The movie is over and it’s WBRM request time. The girls like to listen and try to figure out who the requests are for, because a lot of them are high schoolers. Stephanie produces a bunch of red plastic fake fingernails. Patti is in awe.

For someone who grew up in the city, Patti doesn’t know much about makeup or beauty tips or fashion. Stephanie is just the opposite. She’s always coming up with new ideas about clothes and style, like wearing her sweatshirt upside down with the sleeves over a pair of bright tights on her legs instead of her arms.

Yeah, that one always made me curious about what she did with the neck hole.

The girls do their nails and another Boodles ad is heard, this time on the radio. Everyone but Kate is getting into the video fantasizing. Kate is instead wondering how the fake nails would look in Sunset Pink.

“Sunset Pink?” Stephanie said, completely grossed out. “Really, Kate!”

And a couple lines later…

She [Stephanie] stretched out her long red nails. “I feel like Alexis Colby.”

“More like Queen of the Vampires,” Kate said. “I still think they’d look better in pink.”

Heh.

And we get out first recognizable dedication: Todd Schwartz to Mary Beth Young, a high school football star and his chick. Lauren goes down to the kitchen for a drink refill and sneaks another bit of mousse. She returns for a conversation about a “to Michael P. of Gaton Lane from K.S.” dedication. Stephanie is shocked. That’s Michael Pastore, a boy she likes. The girls try to figure out who K.S. is and we learn the names of some more fifth graders (Karen Sims, Kyle Hubbard, Karla Stamos and Christy Soames). Stephanie goes for more water and returns with the answer: Kathy Simons, who’s been hanging around Michael all week. Apparently Kathy has gone from a shy mouse to an eyeshadow-wearing vixen. Rowr! Patti points out that just because she likes Michael, it doesn’t mean that he likes her back, and Kate adds that there’s always Larry. But Stephanie’s over Larry, a major shock to Kate since they’ve been disagreeing about him for a year. Stephanie contemplates a hair change and then declares that if she got on the Boodles video, Michael would have to notice her. The girls make repeated trips downstairs until 1 AM, when an angry Kate asks who ate the mousse.

CHAPTER 2:

Each girl confesses to sneaking more samples, even Kate. Patti suggests they make another mousse, but Kate is doubtful. It’s not easy. The girls head to the kitchen and examine the mousse. There’s definitely too much gone to just smooth it over, so they get the cookbook and get to work. Lauren attempts separating eggs and fails, so Stephanie takes over and does it with no problem.

“You ought to be a cook when you grow up,” Patti said admiringly.

“Are you kidding?” Stephanie grinned. “I’m going to have a cook when I grow up!”

Ah, Stephanie. The girls have difficulties though, including burning a batch of chocolate and having to use Hershey’s Kisses instead. As they go through more eggs, Lauren laments.

“I guess we won’t be having omelettes for breakfast after all,” I said sadly. Even Patti glared at me.

I love Lauren. She doesn’t seem to have much personality, but I find her more likeable than Stephanie and Kate. Patti’s nice, but a little too shy for me, so it’s Lauren.

The girls manage to finally get the eggs yolks and chocolate decent. Then Kate tackles doing the egg whites with a beater. She ends up jerking the electric beater out of the bowl without turning it off…shooting egg whites everywhere. At 4 AM, the mousse is finally done and they add it to the original. Kate sends Lauren and Patti outside to get more violets. Everything is fine until Lauren spots a light in the old McBride house, a vacant house which has a yard that runs into both Kate’s and Lauren’s. Considering there’s also Donald’s house between theirs, the McBride place must be big. The girls are so distracted that Patti knocks over the Beekmans’ metal garbage can. Nosy Melissa hears and the girls are caught. The people in the McBride house also hear and snap off the light. Mrs. Beekman and Melissa come into the filthy kitchen, where Stephanie and Kate are cleaning up. Mrs. Beekman spots something red and freaks that Kate cut herself. She calls for her husband, but Kate’s fine. She just leaned on the pile of discarded fake nails on the counter. The grumpy parents trudge back upstairs, with Kate’s mother warning the girls that she wants “this place so clean by the time I come down in the morning that this will all seem like a bad dream.” Lauren reminds Kate of the violets and Kate dismisses them. She doesn’t think her mom thought too much of the girls’ mousse anyway. Two hours later, the kitchen is clean. It’s too late or too early to go to bed, so Kate suggests scrambled eggs, which gets a resounding “NO!”

CHAPTER 3:

Lauren is so worn that she forgets about the McBride house until lunchtime, when she asks her parents about it. It comes out that she was outside at 4 AM to see the light on and off.

“Are you sure ‘sleepover’ is the right word?” Roger stuck in. “There doesn’t seem to be any ‘sleep’ involved. The ‘Sleepless Friends’ would be more like it.”

I [Lauren] ignored him. Well, first I sneered at him, then I ignored him.

Heh. Lauren’s dad says he’ll mention it to a police officer that patrols their area and Lauren’s mom says she’ll check around the neighborhood.

Later that day, Stephanie calls and asks if Lauren wants to go for a bike ride. The girls head to the mall via Gaton Lane, where Stephanie’s crush lives. They don’t get far though, as Lauren and her sports skills are summoned by one of the boys. The boys on the other team claim Patti and Kate. Kate dislikes sports and doesn’t want to play, but Stephanie begs her to play, since her crush is present. But Stephanie ends up on the opposing team. Blah blah baseball blah Michael hits the ball to Stephanie, who fake bobbles it then misthrows on purpose. Lauren knows it was on purpose because Stephanie has a great throwing arm. Her team never catches up and Patti, Kate and Michael’s team wins. Michael is pleased…with Patti. Then Kathy Simons appears, all decked out in “a pink sweatshirt with gray lines and blue triangles on it, blue sweatpants, and hightop pink sneakers.” I know they’re only in 5^th grade and it’s 1987 (I was 9 then), but were sweatpants ever that stylish? Kate, in one of her more likeable moments, pointedly says hi to Kathy, who completely ignored the girls and greeted only the boys. She asks Michael to help her with her bike chain. Meanwhile, Stephanie grumps about it, causing Kate to point out that Stephanie totally bobbled her play to make Michael look good. The girls ride away. It’s too late to go to the mall, so they turn onto the street parallel to Pine Street, the one the McBride house is on. Lauren brings up the light from last night. Kate is skeptical, naturally. Stephanie, a bit out of character, thinks it might be a ghost. The girls do some investigating, but find nothing. Kate is skeptical again, but Lauren insists she saw what she saw and says she’s going to keep an eye on the place. Stephanie asks how she’s going to get Michael’s attention and Kate replies that she’s sure Stephanie will think of something.

CHAPTER 4:

Stephanie’s solution falls into her lap. The 5^th grade play is announced that Wednesday in school. Lauren and Kate are not thrilled, as they don’t want to be on stage, but Stephanie’s all about the play. She’s been in plays before, when she was in school in the city. She tries to convince everyone to try out. Kate says no, as she wants to assist the director. She wants to be one herself, so this is good experience. Lauren also ixnays, but Stephanie cons Patti into it.

The Friday night sleepover is at Patti’s and they’re going to Mimi’s Pizza for dinner. Unfortunately, Patti’s bratty cousin Lester is visiting. He’s obnoxious and a bad influence on Patti’s little brother Horace. His parents are off on a business trip, so the Jenkins family is stuck with him for the weekend. At Mimi’s, the girls and Mr. Jenkins (Mrs. Jenkins had to go to a meeting) head for the salad bar. When they get back, the drinks and pizza have been served. Stephanie and Lauren dig in, only to regret it. The pizza is too spicy! So they dive for their drinks and swallow greasy liquid. The boys crack up. Patti hands Lauren her drink, but Lauren spots a big glob of olive oil in it. Kate examines the pizza and sees red pepper sprinkled all over it.

CHAPTER 5:

An angry Mr. Jenkins demands apologies from the boys. Horace apologizes immediately, but Lester doesn’t. Mr. Jenkins sends them off to wait in the car. He and the girls order more food. When they get back to Patti’s, the boys are sent straight to bed. The girls flop down on the couch and find a Boodles clue on the TV. Stephanie is again excited at the idea of being in a video, while the other girls try to figure out where it is. Stephanie suggests practicing for the play audition, which worries Patti enough that Lauren asks her again if she’s sure she wants to do the play. Stephanie answers for her and they head up to the attic. Naturally, Stephanie’s trying for the lead part, a woman named Laura who’s betrothed to the villainous Sir Monty. But Laura loves Alex Doright, a penniless art teacher. Patti’s going to try for Laura’s cousin Sara, who doesn’t have many lines. The girls have forgotten their scripts (how do you forget something that important?) so they go to Patti’s room. Stephanie opens her bag and screams. There’s a rat in there! The girls are terrified (*sigh* typical) and Mr. Jenkins runs in.

“A good whack with a broom handle should take care of the rat…permanently.”

But then Lester runs in and declares the rat his.

CHAPTER 6:

Mr. Jenkins is mad, but Patti is totally pissed. She rages at Lester and Stephanie tells her to remember her anger for when she’s acting. Lester gets the rat and taunts the wussy girls with it. (I expected more from at least one of them. Scientific Patti or sporty Lauren, maybe.) Lester is once again banished. Mrs. Jenkins comes home from her meeting and tells the girls about some snacks, then heads to bed. The girls go up to the attic, which is huge. The door to the attic stairs is also right beside Horace’s room. Plot point. The girls go through an amusing scene with Stephanie acting well, Patti stammering and Lauren putting on a deep voice as a stand-in for the male character. Patti gets worse and worse until Lauren suggests a food break. However…Lester has locked the girls in the attic. Patti’s parents’ room is too far away to hear the girls and Lester won’t let Horace unlock the door, so the girls’ only hope is for one of them to climb out the third floor window into a tree. Patti makes it down the tree, but suddenly an alarm goes off. The cops come and both sirens stop wailing. Lester unlocks the door and the girls are free. Apparently, Patti set off the burglar alarm trying to climb inside the kitchen window…the burglar alarm which Patti’s parents don’t use. The switches just happen to be near Horace’s room.

CHAPTER 7:

After everything has settled down, the girls are downstairs watching TV. Another Boodles clue comes on. Once again, the girls can’t guess. Stephanie suggests they rehearse again, but Kate says no. But Stephanie makes Patti do it all weekend and Monday.

Wednesday afternoon arrives and it’s audition time. The auditions go on and Stephanie ends up having to audition with Michael! Stephanie freezes, while Patti is so worried about her that she nails her audition. Stephanie flees. Lauren goes after her and returns to this:

“Patti Jenkins was really good as Laura,” Sally Mason reported. “Does Michael Pastore like her?”

Uh oh! I thought. “Not that I know of,” I said. “Why?”

“He smiled at her the whole time.” Sally added a dab of paint to a window frame. “And I don’t think he was acting.”

CHAPTER 8:

The next morning, Stephanie apologizes to Patti for making her try out. Everything seems okay until the end of the school day, when Mrs. Mead announces that two people in the class will be in the play. One is Mark Freedman as the villain. The other…is Patti! She gets the role of Laura and will play opposite Michael. Outside the classroom, Michael finds Patti and suggests they practice scenes together. Stephanie’s heard enough and she takes off. Lauren calls her later about the sleepover at the Hunter house the next night. Stephanie won’t go if Patti’s there. Patti thinks the whole thing is ridiculous. She only tried out because Stephanie wanted her to and she doesn’t like Michael, as he’s too short for her. Stephanie acts pissy all day in school, even sitting with Lauren’s most-hated Jenny Carlin at lunch.

That night at the sleepover, the girls try to call Stephanie, but she won’t talk. Despondent, the other three eat Chinese food and see another Boodles ad. They try playing Mad Libs and telling ghost stories, but nothing is fun. Then they hear a noise coming from the backyard. The girls investigate and see a light on at the McBride house. They take Bullwinkle the dog as protection and get closer to the house. Bullwinkle goes after someone near the house…Russell Gartner, the Boodles main guy!

They call Stephanie the next morning, instructing her mom to tell her they’re going to be in the video. That does it! Everything is back to normal with Stephanie telling them not to move, she’ll be right over and they have to practice dance steps.

CHAPTER 9:

On Sunday afternoon, the girls are ready to shoot. They’re in the house along with Boodles and a ton of video-making people. Here’s what they’re wearing:

-Kate: black jeans, red and white sweatshirt

-Patti: red and black tee, white sweatpants

-Lauren: red sweatpants, black and white sweatshirt

-Stephanie: black and white jumpsuit, dangly red earrings

The sweatpants again. Ugh. Bullwinkle is also present, because he matched the color scheme, but he howls along with the music and has to be taken home. Patti, Lauren and Kate all agree that Boodles really aren’t very good, but they keep it up for Stephanie’s sake. Here’s the ending scene:

“The longer Boodles played, the worse they got!” she [Kate] groaned with her fingers in her ears. “I bet they never make it to Video Trax!”

“Of course they will,” I said, looking at Stephanie. “And Michael will love it.”

“Michael?” asked Stephanie. She sounded as though she’d never heard of him.

“Michael Pastore?” I reminded her.

“Oh, that Michael,” she said. “I think Russell Gartner’s a lot cuter, don’t you?”

And cue facepalm. This book has an insane number of sequences that are pretty outlandish. The series starts off wild like this, but I think it tones down more later. I still enjoy the first two chapters though. I think they’re fun. Lester is a bit much. He deserves some serious punishment, but we never see him get it. The biggest disappointment is never seeing Patti in the play. She can’t drop out so she must go through with it, but we don’t get to see her do well. The book just ends with Stephanie off on another silly crush. Oh, well.

Sleepover Friends #1: Patti's Luck

(If you click the cover, you'll see it bigger.)

The Cover: The girls are easily identifiable thanks to the descriptions in Chapter 2. Stephanie’s on the left, conspicuously out of her red, black and white color scheme. Then there’s Lauren next to her. Patti’s in the green jersey, which I think is more Lauren’s style. And Kate’s the lone blonde. Though I don’t think Betty Boop is really her style.

CHAPTER 1:

We start off at a sleepover, of course! Over Chinese food, Stephanie is grilling Kate and Lauren about their opinions on the new girl, Patti. We get Kate vs. Stephanie tension already on page 2. Steph’s a former city girl and Kate thinks she goes on about it too much. (The girls live in a town called Riverhurst.) Lauren smoothly changes the subject by commenting on how incredible it is that they’re in fifth grade. The exact setting is established: they’re at Kate’s for one of their regular Friday night sleepovers. Kate’s nosy little sister Melissa makes her first obnoxious appearance. Lauren wants more food, which leads to a conversation on how she can stay so thin when she eats all the time. Answer: she exercises. Duh. Stephanie says sweating makes her hair, which is already curly, frizz. Lauren says she wishes she had that problem, as her hair is stick straight. Stephanie proceeds to fix up Lauren’s hair, using the old braid-wet-hair-and-let-it-dry method. We get a little flashback of Patti’s first appearance in their fifth grade class. Then we get the history of the Sleepover Friends (though they’re not yet using that name).

The Backstory:

Kate and Lauren have been best friends since kindergarten. “In those days, sleepovers meant Kool Pops, dressing up in our moms’ clothes, and playing school.” Kate’s dad dubbed them the Sleepover Twins. They eventually graduated to eating a ton of barbecue chips with Lauren’s signature onion-soup-olives-bacon-bits-and-sour-cream dip, drinking Dr. Pepper, writing Mad Libs, spying on Lauren’s older brother, and avoiding Melissa. But in fourth grade, Stephanie moved to Riverhurst. She and Lauren were in the same class and got to be friends. Eventually, Lauren asked her to one of the sleepovers and the “Sleepover Twins became a threesome.”

The girls continue talking about Patti and are briefly interrupted by Kate’s mom, asking them to keep it down, since Kate’s dad had a hard day’s work at the hospital. Stephanie finishes Lauren’s hair in time for Lauren to get hungry again. They venture downstairs, fetch Kate’s signature half chocolate and half marshmallow fluff fudge, and turn on the TV. Kate’s love for movies is established and they quickly turn to gossiping, then Truth or Dare. After a crush confession from Kate, Lauren is dared to knock on Donald Foster’s window. Donald lives in the house between Lauren and Kate. He’s in seventh grade and thinks he’s fantastic. Lauren does her dare and heads back for the house, only to hear a shriek. Melissa thinks she saw a “space creature” outside. Kate and Stephanie dive for Lauren’s head, ripping out the rubber bands and undoing the braids. The girls play innocent and get away with it, then go to sleep.

Chapter 1 provides a lot of detail. I didn’t get into it in the summary because there’s just so much. So here it is, girl-by-girl.

Lauren Hunter:

-Narrator
-“Straggly brown hair”
-Eats a ton, never gains weight because she exercises
-Older brother named Roger (she jogs with him four times a week)
-Sporty one
-Messy
-Tall, but not as tall as Patti

Kate Beekman:

-Short blonde hair worn brushed back from her face
-HUGE movie fan, wants to be a director
-Bratty little sister named Melissa
-Not into sports
-Very neat
-Father is a doctor
-Current crush: Bobby Krieger, a redhead from another class

Stephanie Green:

-Dark curly hair “that she’s let grow since first grade”
-Lived in “the city” until before 4^th grade, is still enamored of it
-Worries that her face is too round (this is mentioned a lot)
-Mother makes great peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies
-Great dancer
-Current crush: Larry Jackson, whose ears stick out

Patti Jenkins:

-“Brownish hair”
-Tallest girl in 5^th grade
-Shy and quiet
-Went to Stephanie’s school until after first grade

Lauren, Kate and Stephanie all live on Pine Street. The Fosters live between Kate and Lauren. The girls are all in Mrs. Mead’s class.

Okay, now that our cast is established…

CHAPTER 2:

Lauren begins by saying her hair looked great for the weekend, but was back to normal on Monday. The girls eat lunch with Patti, who Stephanie speaks for more than Patti herself does. Patti’s parents are history professors at the university and she has a little brother named Horace. Patti’s a smart one, as she learned to read at age three. Patti lives on Mill Road, four blocks from the other girls. Lauren invites her to bike to school with them. Stephanie proposes Lauren, Kate and she show Patti around Riverhurst on Friday, then have a sleepover at the Greens’. However, Friday night was going to be Lauren’s night. (With butterscotch popcorn, Kate’s fudge and a sci-fi double feature.) Lauren brings it up and Stephanie says they can do that at her house. Kate, upon seeing Patti looking concerned, agrees. On the bike ride home (Patti’s not present because she was picked up by her dad), Stephanie thanks Lauren and Kate for making the sleepover switch. She says, “You’ve known each other since kindergarten, and I’ve known Patti since kindergarten. It kinds of evens things up.” Then she bikes off. Kate, ever wary, worries that they’re going to have to hear all about the city all night long. Lauren doesn’t think Patti’s the type. I’m not sure how Kate can think so either, when Patti’s so damn quiet.

Friday comes fast and Lauren, Kate and Stephanie bike to Patti’s house. They take her to “all the high spots” of Riverhurst.

-Charlie’s Soda Fountain: On Main Street, antique stained-glass windows

-Dandelion: clothing store

-Record Emporium: At the mall

-Tully’s Fish Market: Featuring a big pool filled with fish, clams and sea urchins, and a lobster tank

-Munn’s Pond and the Riverhurst Wildlife Refuge

The girls then go to Stephanie’s house. She has a big room with two twin beds pushed against one wall. She also has two foam rubber chairs that unfold into beds and her own TV set. Everything is done in red, black and white. Kate picks the chair closest to the TV, as she’s a bit near-sighted. Patti takes the other, leaving Lauren and Stephanie the beds. The girls eat pepperoni pizza and then watch the first sci-fi movie, Invasion from the Ice Planet. Stephanie goes off for snacks after the movie is over. The second movie is replaced by a football game, which pisses Kate off. (Lauren meanwhile stuffs herself with chocolate chip cookies and Cheese Doodles.) Stephanie finds a witch movie on TV, which Lauren doesn’t like. She was scared by the Wicked Witch of the West at age 3. Stephanie and Kate are glued to the movie, where the witch is putting a curse on someone. They push to watch the movie with Kate getting into the act. “Goodwoman Jenkins,” she says, “I curse you and your sons and your sons’ sons to an eternity of ill luck.” Lauren’s still not having it and asks where the cable guide is. Stephanie answers and Patti offers to get it…knocking over the entire snack tray in the process. Then she steps onto Kate’s backpack and snaps Kate’s glasses in two. Everyone cleans and Patti worries. Stephanie turns off the TV and suggests Truth or Dare. When asked which she prefers, the city or Riverhurst, Patti shocks Stephanie by saying Riverhurst. Stephanie takes a phone call dare from Patti (with some assistance from Kate). Stephanie likes a boy named Michael Pastore and dials him up. His father answers, but she slams down the phone before Michael can get to it. Stephanie then gets Kate back with a dare to use some purple styling gel. All four girls end up using up the entire jar and then take pictures of themselves. Kate discovers that the gel stains and they go to wash it out, only to find that there’s no water. Stephanie’s dad thinks it’s a water main break, which means the girls have to wrap their heads in towels for the night. In the morning, the water still isn’t fixed, so Kate and Lauren have to bike home as purple messes. Naturally, they get spotted by cute neighbor Donald. And Lauren begins to wonder if there is some truth to Kate’s joking curse.

CHAPTER 3:

Over the weekend, Lauren does her homework, a paper on “If I Taught Fifth Grade.” She types it up on her brother’s typewriter (yes, typewriter!). On Monday, it’s a cloudy day, but there’s no rain predicted so everyone bikes to school. Patti gets her jeans’ cuff caught in her bike chain, so Lauren hands her books to Patti and goes to untangle her. Lauren doesn’t notice that Patti set down the books to assist with the untangling until her books are driving away on the back bumper of a station wagon. Lauren takes off after the driver on her bike, followed by Patti. The pursuit requires so much attention that Lauren doesn’t notice that Patti’s no longer with her. The car finally turns into a driveway and it’s Lauren’s dentist. Dr. Nadler drives Lauren back to school. There’s no sign of Patti, so Lauren assumes she must have turned around and gone back to school, but she’s not there when Lauren gets to class. Lauren lets her teacher know what happened and the day moves onward. Then it starts raining. Patti finally appears, absolutely drenched. Mrs. Mead leaves with her and Lauren finally tells Kate and Stephanie what happened. Patti doesn’t come back to the classroom with Mrs. Mead. Stephanie calls to see how she’s doing and it turns out Patti caught a cold. She’s out of school for a few days. And again, Lauren thinks of the Beekman curse.

CHAPTER 4:

Naturally, Kate thinks this is ridiculous and mocks Lauren. Lauren, unlike Patti, has some good luck. She gets a good grade on her runaway paper and her suggestion of more field trips turns into an actual field trip to the city’s natural history museum. The city is an hour and a half bus ride away. The class is split into three groups, one lead by Mrs. Mead, the other two each led by a mother. The girls are split up. Kate ends up in Group One, Lauren and Patti in Two and Stephanie (with Larry Jackson, so she’s happy) in Three. Lauren and Patti’s chaperone is Mrs. Mason, who’s a bit on the twitchy side. The boys end up getting distracted by a case of cockroaches. Lauren notices Patti keeping away from them and Patti says if she gets any closer, she’ll knock the case over. She, too, has noticed her bad luck. The group looks at what they need to, then talks Mrs. Mason into taking them to the dinosaurs. They run late and she panics a bit, so Patti suggests they take the elevator. Mrs. Mason counts and recounts the kids, taking enough time that the doors shut on her. The elevator starts moving down and Patti presses the button for the basement, where the cafeteria is. The elevator comes to a halt. The kids start to freak and Lauren tells everyone to calm down and sit down. Pete Stone agrees with her and everyone is calm until Mark Freedman decides to tell a ghost story. The girls start getting worked up, but then the elevator moves again and the kids land in the basement. Pete smiles at Lauren, earning a glare from Jenny Carlin, who likes Pete. Upon returning to the school, Patti apologizes for what happened. Lauren tries to convince her that she had nothing to do with it and invites her to a sleepover at the Hunter house.

CHAPTER 5:

The next day, Kate and Lauren are hanging in Kate’s backyard. Logical Kate insists the bad luck is all in Patti’s head. Lauren goes to sit in a swing and is freaked by a spider there. It turns out to be fake. Melissa, Kate’s little sister, has a machine that makes them. Kate comes up with a logical reason for everything that’s gone wrong, adding that Lauren’s now got Pete Stone after her, which is not exactly bad luck. (Of course, Kate’s forgetting that Lauren isn’t cursed, so why should her good luck somehow mean that Patti doesn’t have bad?) Lauren decides they should bad luck proof the sleepover at her house. She, Kate and Stephanie come up with a few guidelines (no cooking, no dancing, quieter games). Friday night comes and Lauren’s actually cleaned her room. Kate asks where Bullwinkle, Roger’s dog is. Bullwinkle is older than Lauren and mostly Newfoundland, which means he’s huge. The girls prep the snacks: Lauren’s dip, two extra-large bags of taco-flavored corn chips, pimento cream cheese, sugar cookies, Dr. Pepper and Coke. Stephanie’s brought a ouija board, so the girls play. It doesn’t work until skeptic Kate sits back to watch instead of trying to participate. The board reveals that Bobby Krieger likes Kate, so then she’s in, too. They ask the ouija questions about boys, naturally. Everything’s fine until Patti tries to work it herself and it spells CURZ. Lauren’s suggests they go to her room and play Mad Libs. The girls then look at old photos and Stephanie goes to sleep early. Patti drops some dip on her sleeve and goes to wash it off, but accidentally opens the wrong door and Bullwinkle is loose!

CHAPTER 6:

Bullwinkle runs around like mad and manages to get outside when Roger returns from a date. He wakes up the entire neighborhood. Stephanie makes a leap for him and then Lauren’s mom lures him inside with his dog chow as bait. Stephanie, however, is not okay. She’s sprained her ankle. Patti flips, takes her bike and rides away. George, Lauren’s dad, and Lauren go after her in the car. Lauren tries to get her in the car, but she refuses. They follow her until she gets home, then they turn around and head back to the Hunter house.

CHAPTER 7:

Stephanie’s definitely got a sprain and Lauren’s mom’s got her set up on the couch in the den. Lauren tells them Patti is convinced she’s bad luck. Kate still thinks it’s stupid and Stephanie thinks Patti’s just a klutz. Later the next day, Kate and Lauren are at Stephanie’s. Lauren tried calling Patti, but Horace said she wasn’t home. Stephanie said Patti was supposed to be babysitting him today. On Monday, Patti doesn’t show up at the usual meeting spot, and Kate and Lauren are almost late after waiting for her. Patti continues to avoid them, so Stephanie comes up with a plan. She wants Kate to remove the curse, but sensible and stubborn Kate won’t do it. So it’s on to Plan B. The book fair is this week and Mr. Green, the lawyer, is going to be a fortune teller in drag and everything. Stephanie will have her father promise nothing but good luck in Patti’s future. Patti avoids the girls for the new few days, but Stephanie plots to corner her at the book fair.

CHAPTER 8:

Book fair day! The girls are on different shifts. Patti’s latest from 3:00-3:30, so the girls plan to grab her at 3:30. They amuse themselves with other fair aspects until then. The girls ambush Patti and take her to the fortune-telling tent. Mr. Green tells Lauren and Kate’s fortunes first, hinting at Bobby and Pete so he sounds believably. Then it’s Patti’s turn…and she manages to make the table wobble enough to send the crystal ball rolling off it. Patti flees again and Stephanie declares that now only Kate can fix this.

CHAPTER 9:

Kate calls Lauren and says she’ll lift the curse. Lauren calls Patti and says Kate is going to remove the curse, so she needs to come to a Saturday sleepover at Kate’s. Patti agrees, but still avoids the girls at school. Kate is also quite busy getting prepared. Dr. Beekman dubs the four girls the Sleepover Friends. The four kill time until midnight, when Kate mixes up a nasty brew that Patti has to drink. She does other random stuff, like making Patti turn her clothes inside out and throwing salt at her. Then Patti repeats a verse Kate says while holding a toad. Finally, she must drink the nasty potion Kate made, which includes snake oil, a dried spider, herbs and garlic. Patti chugs it down and that’s it, the curse is removed. The girls go to sleep.

CHAPTER 10:

The next morning at breakfast, the phone rings. Mrs. Beekman tells Kate to get it and Kate asks Patti to, because she’s closest. Patti proceeds to win dinner for four and tickets to the amusement park by answering Riverhurst’s founding year. Patti thanks Kate for taking the curse off and thanks everyone for not laughing at her for believing in it. Kate and Stephanie still believe it was all in Patti’s head, but Patti and Lauren think otherwise. Lauren asks if Kate has any potion left, as she has a math test next week. Kate offers her a spider, which turns out to be made of chocolate from Melissa’s machine. Patti is extremely relieved and the girls laugh.

And that’s it for book one! It’s definitely not the best of the series, but I think it serves well to set the mood and introduce the characters.

Ah, Riverhurst

Quick introduction time! I'm Lori, 29, a Museum Studies grad student at NYU. I've been a voracious reader ever since I learned how and I was the perfect age for the vast number of series books that came out in my childhood. I believe I started with the Baby-sitters Club, but quickly branched out into tons of other series. My favorite of these was the Sleepover Friends. Unlike a lot of other series, I owned every Sleepover Friends book that came out and was extremely upset when they stopped making them.

So this blog is dedicated to Lauren, Patti, Stephanie and Kate. After discussing the entire SF series, I will move on to others, but the Sleepover Friends are the reason behind this blog, no matter what I end up talking about later on. (And I think Junior High will be the next series up.)

Like other blogs, each entry will be a summary/critique of a single book from the series. I'm going to go in numerical order, because I'm anal like that. I wish I could start now, but my collection is at home. I'll be bringing it back with me after spring break. Also, as a grad student, I won't have any set schedule to my posting. It'll be whenever I can fit a review in. Hopefully, I'm going to be in this same apartment, doing the same job I have now over summer, so I'll have tons of free time then.

I think that's all that needs to be said at the moment. I'll be back later in the month with Patti's Luck.