Warning: Contains Spoilers!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Do NOT continue to read unless you want to know who the life ruiner is this book.
Tag Line: Here comes the wedding. But where is the bride.From the Back of the Book: Will too many roommates spoil the wedding? Andy, Jane and Toby are planning their housemother's wedding, but Dana, Faith and Shelley, the old Baker 407 girls, have other ideas. Sparks are flying! Will six roommates, three old and three new, keep the bride from walking down the aisle?
Both the tag line and the blurb are inaccurate. The bride wasn't the one missing at the wedding and the girls were NOT planning Alison's wedding. I know it's small, but it really bugs me when the things on the outside of the book are wrong. It shows a lack of attention and care that never bodes well for the book itself.
This cover marks Toby's first appearance without her cowboy hat. You should mark down the date so we can celebrate it next year.
I had to provide the back cover for this one. I didn't want you to miss out on the glory of our exalted "old" girls. We can worship them from up close now instead of afar. Oh, and the picture of the old girls isn't accurate either. That hat was not a part of the wedding attire and Faith has different hair. I give up.This book came out in 1986. I remember the cover but not the actual book. (Note from future me: I don't think I ever read this one. I didn't remember a single thing from it.)
The ghostwriter for this book is Carol
White. I tried to look her up on Goodreads but not much came up. I hope that isn't an omen.
We begin with our protagonists Jane,
Toby and Andy walking across campus discussing the
weather and it's every bit as fascinating as it sounds. They review
how different they are (Jane – preppy, Toby – hick, Andy –
black) and then we settle into Toby's head for a spell. She throws a
penny into the wishing well and wishes that Randy (the local
cowboy who is suddenly 20 again) will realize that she's not too
young for him. Except she is. In an illegal kind of way.
PA, the headmistress, appears
and asks them if they've signed up for the annual Leaf Rake. It's
two hours of leaf-raking on a Saturday morning that begins at 7am so,
of course, they haven't signed up. Toby blurts out that they were
just on their way to do so and her roommates start secretly plotting
her demise. Toby points out that it will get Alison (the
housemother) off the hook because she's only managed to get two
sign-ups from Baker House so far.
Andy, the gossip queen of Baker House,
says that Alison has been far too busy traveling back and forth to
Boston to recruit leaf-rakers. Andy doesn't know what Alison is doing, but she goes
to Boston every single weekend instead of spending time with her
boyfriend Michael (school counselor) and it's suspicious. The
other girls immediately assume that Alison is cheating on Michael
because that's what girls at Canby Hall do. Every single one of
them. They all cheat.
The girls go to sign up for the Leaf
Rake and there's a notice on the bulletin board from Alison saying
that there's a house meeting that evening because she has an
important announcement.
We skip to dinner. The girls pick a
table in the dining hall and are soon joined by Dee and Maggie
(next door neighbors and friends). They all rag about the food a bit
and then theorize over what the house meeting is going to be about.
Jane thinks Alison got a new job. Andy thinks Alison got a new
boyfriend (although why she'd hold a house meeting about that is
beyond me). Maggie thinks Alison and Michael are engaged. Andy
shoots that down. She says that lately Alison has been floating on
air while Michael looks like he's drowning in a bog. She says she
knows all about these romance things. Maggie takes this opportunity
to tease Andy about Matt (boy from Oakley who did the lights
for Andy's recital in the last book) and Jane and Toby are surprised.
Apparently they didn't know about him. Which seems wrong.
Continuity is always an issue when each book is written by a
different person.
The house meeting starts ten minutes
late. Alison is perpetually late. She announces that she will be
leaving Canby Hall at the end of the term because she's getting
married. Everyone starts to bizarrely chant Michael's name and
Alison has to shut it down. She's marrying some guy named David
who lives in Boston and is a news anchor. She invites all the girls
to the wedding which will be held in the chapel on campus the Saturday after
Thanksgiving.
Dana is to be Alison's maid of
honor and Faith and Shelley are invited too so we don't
have to merely worship them from afar as we usually do. Goody.
We land in Dana's head now and the only
good thing about that is she's currently in Hawaii. I've never been
so I'm living vicariously through a fictional character. She's
thrilled to be Alison's maid-of-honor but devastated that Alison
isn't marrying Michael. She volunteers to make the phone calls to
Faith and Shelley which....it's Alison's news to share and she should
get to share it, but whatever. She calls Faith who is just as
surprised that Michael got dumped as Dana was. Faith offers to call
Shelley so Dana's dad won't kill her over the phone bill.
We jump out of Dana's head and land in
Shelley's. Probably my least favorite head of Canby Hall because
Shelley is my least favorite character of Canby Hall. And that's
saying a lot because a lot of these people are plain awful. True to
form, Shelley demands to know who David is and why he dares to
think he can marry Alison.
I bet you that I can predict the rest of this
book. Dana, Faith and Shelley will come to town and try to convince
Alison not to marry David because they always think they know best
and they want her with Michael. Jane, Toby and Andy, however, will
probably be pro-David because the author needs some reason for the
six girls to fight with each other and this is convenient. I'm sure
they'll get paired off too (because they're literally the same people
with different names). Faith and Andy will be at war because they're
the two black characters. Shelley and Toby will be at war because
they're the two farm girls. Dana and Jane will be at war because
they're the two sophisticated characters. And we'll be miserably
stuck in the middle just trying to get through this book so we can
get the old hags back out of Dodge where we can simply be forced to
worship them endlessly but not actually have to deal with them much.
Toby is concerned that she doesn't have
anything appropriate to wear. Jane and Andy offer to give her a
make-over. Considering Jane and Andy's vastly different styles, I can't see this going well.
Saturday morning dawns and the girls
get up to rake the leaves. Alison is there too and they can't help
but notice how happy she looks. They are just finishing up when
David arrives. He and Alison are clearly in love and extremely happy
and the girls end up feeling okay about things.
After raking, they go to the mall to
find Toby a dress. As predicted, they bicker over what store to go
in. Andy wants something punk but Jane reminds her that they're
shopping for a wedding. Jane picks the store and, after getting a
general idea of what kinds of fabrics and colors Toby likes, she
picks out two outfits for her. One involves dressy pants and the
other a skirt. Toby likes the skirt outfit best but is having fun
trying on clothes and being the center of attention, so she asks Jane
to bring her some dresses.
She's doing all sorts of twists and
turns and generally acting silly in a fancy blue dress with sequins
when she happens to look outside the store window to see Randy
staring at her. Completely embarrassed, she goes back inside the
fitting room and has a good cry. Jane heads to the register with the
skirt outfit and Randy comes over to ask if Toby's okay. Jane says
she was just embarrassed to be seen acting silly and Randy asks her
to pass on the message that Toby looked really pretty in the dress.
I love Randy.
Sunday morning, Randy calls the room
and invites Toby to go riding. She's thrilled. She really enjoys
spending time with Randy on the ranch. They ride for awhile and then
stop to let the horses rest a bit. Toby tells him about Alison's
wedding and then mentions that Dana, Faith and Shelley will be
returning for the ceremony. Randy goes pale. He tells her he used
to date Dana and when Toby asks if he'll want to see her while she
visits, Randy replies that Hawaii is just the right amount of
distance between him and Dana. Which just makes me want to hug him,
this magical age-defying man, because that's how I feel about her
too.
Toby suddenly feels jealous. She
wonders what Dana is like and decides that she's one of those perfect
girls that guys fall all over constantly. She's never met Dana, but
she wants to BE her and it's sad. Toby is perfect as she is. She's
my favorite of all six of them because she's just kind.
Now we're in Jane's head and she's in
the basement of Cary's (Jane's best boyfriend) dorm listening to his band Ambulance
rehearse. She's surprised by her interest considering a few short
months ago she found rock music “raw and crude” and rock
musicians ten times worse. Cary's the bomb though and even proper
Jane can admit it.
Jane's been up all night trying to
decide what to do about Alison's wedding. Or more specific, who
to do Alison's wedding with. Her first thought is proper Neal (Jane's boring boyfriend). He's from a proper Boston family
and wouldn't do anything to embarrass her. He'd dress appropriately
and act appropriately and he'd be thrilled that he was the one she
chose for such an “important event”. Cary, on the other hand, is
the most “dreadfully wrong” person she could invite. He'd
embarrass her with his rocker attire and earring and probably with
his behavior. Which is a pretty ridiculous assumption. His family
is proper Bostonian and I'm sure he knows how to clean up and act at
formal events.
Finally, she graciously decides that
she's going to bestow the coveted invitation to Cary despite her
enormous misgivings and thoughts of how much it will disappoint Neal
not to attend. I have NO idea why she thinks Neal would be so
disappointed not to be invited to a wedding of two people he doesn't
know at all. He's a teenage boy. Why would he want to go? Jane
thinks pretty highly of herself and how much her company is valued.
Cary proves me right by acting like a normal teenage boy and saying
he'd really rather not go, which causes Jane to fantasize about
smashing a cream pie in his face.
That's a bizarre reaction to the circumstances.
She bursts into tears and runs from the
room. She expects him to follow her out, repentant for his horrible
ways, but he doesn't. Because he's a teenage boy and all he did was
say he didn't want to go to a wedding.
Weeks pass. It's almost Thanksgiving
and Alison finds herself overwhelmed with wedding preparations. The
“old” girls are due in the next day and she's nervous about what
they'll think of David when they all loved Michael so much. She's on
the phone being all lovey dovey with David when someone knocks on her
door. She opens it to find three girls with their hair up in towel
turbans and mud masks covering their faces. She doesn't recognize
them at first but then realizes it's the exalted Dana, Faith and
Shelley and life can begin again because the sun has returned to
Massachusetts.
Faith has notably changed her hairstyle
from her customary Afro to cornrows with gold beads. So.....not like the person on the back
cover. I get that cover artists don't have time to actually read all the books they draw for, but you'd think the actual author could provide an accurate description of her characters.
Shelley gets right to the point and
asks Alison if she ever really loved Michael. It's an awkward moment and
Alison stammers a bit before telling them not to ask her questions
she can't answer. I'm sure they'll take that to mean that she
still loves him. They stay up all night talking and then
sleep late the next day.
As soon as they are up and dressed,
they drop by Room 407. They are dismayed to see the black walls have
been repainted and the mattresses are no longer on the floors. They
are making fun of the room and its occupants when Jane arrives and
overhears them. She's not amused {delicate sniff}. Especially when
they start in on poor Toby's tea bag. The older girls offer a
half-hearted apology and leave. Dana and Shelley decide to find
Maggie and partake in a Canby Hall lunch for old time's sake. Faith
isn't insane, so she goes down to the vending machines in the
basement to get a Snickers and a Tab.
Andy is at the machine in front of her
and greets Faith warmly. The two of them met in the book about the
dance recital where Faith told Andy that Canby Hall was the most
unprejudiced place on earth. Andy is glad to see Faith and mentions
it's nice to have a little color around the place. Faith pretends
she has no idea what Andy's talking about and says she never felt
like the odd one out at Canby. She is really condescending and
unlikable here. And A LIAR. Clearly Faith has developed selective
amnesia and the ghost writer hasn't read the first part of this
series. Andy gets tired of Faith's superior attitude and tells her
that maybe she's just forgotten what it feels like to be black since
she's turned “beige” from being around the white folk so long.
Ouch.
And awkward.
Later that afternoon, Maggie talks Dana
into helping her dye her hair blue. Dana is hesitant but Maggie
assures her it will be easy and mess-free. She's a liar too. Toby
walks in to find half the bathroom and both Morrison girls covered in
blue-black dye. As she's helping them clean up, she mentions seeing
Alison and David walking together on campus looking very much in
love. Dana counters that she doesn't think it's love at all. It's
attraction. Love takes time and the two of them have only known each
other a few months. She thinks Alison is dazzled by David's “fame”
and will eventually come to her senses.
I'm pretty pleased that my predictions
are coming true so far.
Dana goes running the next morning and
finds her feet automatically taking her to Randy's ranch because she
hasn't hurt him for the last time yet. She's sitting by a tree
staring at his house when he rides up on his horse. At first he's
cold and unhappy to see her but they talk awhile and then he
surprises her by trying to kiss her. She rebuffs him and he takes
off again. On her way back to the dorm, she sees Toby on her way out
to the ranch and wonders what she could possibly be doing.
Toby finds Randy in the hayloft looking
depressed and upset. She asks him what's wrong and he tells her he
just needs to be alone for awhile. Toby is an honest to God
genuinely nice person so she doesn't get offended. She respects his
need for space and simply leaves wishing she could comfort him
somehow. As she heads back home, she puts two and two together and
realizes Dana must have upset Randy somehow. She feels really
protective of him, which is super sweet.
I guess I should try to explain the
Randy-Dana thing since it's come up and I didn't recap those books. Dana met Randy soon after
coming to Canby. He fell super hard for her and she let him think
the feeling was mutual. But Canby Hall has some kind of contagious
cheater-fever or something which causes all the inhabitants to act
like bitches and date as many boys simultaneously as humanly possible, so
Dana also began a relationship with a boy named Bret. Who
ironically cheated on her the whole time too. She dated Randy when
it served her purpose and then dumped him when someone else seemed
more fun and then returned to him when she got bored. This continued
for the entire series until he broke it off with her
which she seemed really confused by because she thinks pretty highly
of herself. Poor Randy.
I also have to explain Shelley's love
life because it's come up as well. This one would be worse if I loved any of the boys as much as I love Randy.
Shelley arrived at Canby as a sophomore seriously “committed” to
a boy back home named Paul. Like, we're going to be married
after graduation committed. But she became infected with
cheater-fever as well and ended up dating Tom (and Randy! and
a few others) while remaining in a relationship with Paul. She's
still “with” both of them, having a relationship with Paul in
person and Tom by letter. Oh, and she's also seeing some guy named
Mark at school so I guess you never really get over the cheater-fever once infected. Now Tom has stopped writing and Shelley is
stalking him to find out why. It turns out he is “cheating” on
Shelley with a girl named Cynthia. She's irritated because
she can have three boyfriends but each of them must remain 100%
devoted to her and only her.
Do you see why I hate these girls?
Shelley reports back to Dana and Faith
about Tom's betrayal and they make fun of Cynthia for wearing babyish clothes for awhile. She had ducks on her socks or something like that. They're so awful. Dana reminds them that they are supposed to be
meeting Jane, Andy and Toby to plan out Alison's shower and Faith is
instantly annoyed. She doesn't see why the “new” girls think
they should be involved in the shower planning because clearly the
“old” girls know Alison better and have more right. Dana says
the shower was the “new” girls idea, but Faith doesn't think that
matters at all.
It's clear from the outset that things
are not going to go well. They begin fighting over the pizza order
until Toby suggests a reasonable compromise. Then they bicker over
the theme of the shower, the gifts and the location. The “old”
girls are smug and superior and “new” girls are a little
childish. Not much gets actually decided and they set up another
meeting for the next day so they all have time to think of more
ideas.
Later that night, Andy tells her
roommates that they're going to the theater. Jane doesn't
want to go. She's seen the movie and she has French notecards to
make. Toby doesn't want to go because she just wants to be lazy.
Andy insists. She's heard Alison making plans with David to go and
she wants to get there and sit in front of them (in disguise) in an
effort to see how David treats Alison when no one else is around. I guess they forgot that they had no reservations about him left after the Leaf Rake. Their disguises consist of long gray beards, thick glasses, long
black robes and red stocking caps with tassels. They even make up a
“language”.
Alison realizes who they are pretty
quickly and lets David in on it. They decide to have some fun with
it. David starts going on and on about how Alison is going to be the
perfect “wifey” and keep his house and raise mushrooms and darn
his socks. The girls are getting angrier and angrier. Then he tells
her that she can't have the girls visit because they might put ideas
in her head and the girls break character to confront him. Alison
and David start laughing and the girls know they've been had.
After the girls remove their disguises,
the five of them go for a walk and then out for ice cream. Alison and David reassure the girls
that they've talked everything through and have agreed on a true
50/50 partnership. They've discussed Alison going back for an
advanced degree and who will stay home with any future babies. The
girls are left feeling much better about David and the marriage as a
whole. Again. For the second time.
At some point, Dana and Toby run into
each other at the lockers. I'm not sure where the lockers even are, but Dana is trying to open her old locker with no luck. Toby has
gone to her extra locker (she was mistakenly assigned two) to
retrieve her dressy, fancy boots for the shower. They talk briefly
and Toby kind of opens Dana's eyes to how Randy might be feeling. Yes, he's the one who walked away but it wasn't because he
stopped loving Dana. It was because she's an awful bitch. Dana
considers this for awhile and feels like it adds an enticing layer to
Randy. She thinks she might be ready to chew up his heart and spit
it out again.
Talk turns to Alison's wedding and Dana
admits that she wants David to disappear so Alison can be with
Michael forever. She doesn't give a damn what Alison wants or what's
best for Alison because she KNOWS BETTER. Toby again tries to get
Dana to look at things from Alison's perspective and says that she
and David seem very, very much in love but Dana doesn't accept this.
The “old” girls head up to Alison's
room for a Meet David Brunch just in time to witness one of those
little spats that happen when two people are nervous and stressed.
David storms out, more embarrassed than mad and the girls rush in to
“help”. Faith is the voice of reason. She says people get that
way before weddings sometimes and it doesn't mean anything really.
Dana, however, jumps in to suggest that Alison and David are moving
too fast and this whole thing might be a mistake. Alison reveals
that she's been with David a lot longer than anyone knows.
Apparently cheater-fever struck her too and she was seeing David long
before she broke up with Michael. Nice.
Alison says the romance went out of her
relationship with Michael a long time ago. Toward the end, they only
talked about work and there was just no spark. Shelley points out
that the spark goes out of every relationship eventually and wonders
if Alison thinks she's in love with David simply because the relationship is
new and sparky. Alison eventually waves away all their protests and
says the wedding is going to happen no matter what. She doesn't seem as confident as she did before though and the girls wonder if they might be meddling too much.
YA THINK?!?!?!?!?!?!?
After the failed brunch, the “old”
girls race to meet the “new” girls for the second shower planning
meeting and they are running late again because they really don't
care about anyone but themselves. The tension in the room is thick
with everyone except Toby who is just too damn likable for anyone to
be mad at. She tells the “old” girls that Jane has come up with
a great idea for the shower gift. They'll use the old poem
“Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something
Blue” to base their gifts on. Since there are four categories
and six of them, they'll put slips in a hat and draw. If two girls
get the same slip, they'll buy their present as a team. Shelley is
the only one who draws Something Blue and Toby is alone with
Something Borrowed. Jane and Dana draw Something Old so that leaves
Andy and Faith to grab Something New.
Jane and Dana make their way through
the antique shops and vintage stores. They finally decide on an
antique silk camisole that is over 100 years old. It's beautiful and
they know it will appeal to Alison's retro style.
Toby finds the perfect thing to loan
Alison among her belongings. We don't get to hear what it is yet.
She frets that the “sophisticated” girls won't understand it, but
she thinks Alison will and that's all that matters.
Shelley knows that Alison and David are
taking a delayed honeymoon to Jamaica, so she's determined to get a
pair of blue fins and a snorkel at the local sporting goods store.
Unfortunately she forgot it's November in Massachusetts and such items would
be a little hard to find. Added to that, the person minding the
store is none other than Cynthia, Tom's new girlfriend who is currently in a teddy bear sweater. Shelley is
pretty rude to her initially but Cynthia stays her sweet self and
eventually her charm wears away Shelley's bitchiness. Mostly. They
go down to the unorganized store room to look for the fins and
Shelley discovers that not only is Cynthia a really nice person, but the childish clothes are hand-me-downs that Cynthia is forced to wear because her family is too poor to buy new clothes.
Andy and Faith patch things up while
doing the mall crawl. Andy admits she was out of line with the beige
comment and Faith admits she had selective amnesia during that
conversation. They find the perfect gift for Alison – a talking
toaster that announces when the toast is done. While waiting for it
to be gift wrapped, they run into Michael. He looks miserable and the girls feel super
sorry for him.
On the way to the shower, the predicted
thing happens. Dana comments that they have to help Alison get out
of this wedding. Shelley immediately agrees. Faith chimes in and
says she thinks they saw the “real” David and the other girls
just saw a man trying to impress them. Jane snaps that Alison
invited them to celebrate her wedding and now they are trying to
undermine Alison's choice like evil bitches. She calls them bad
friends.
When they get to the venue (a hippie
cafe), Cary is waiting in the doorway. Jane is embarrassed after
Dana makes a crack about him being one of the “weird types” that
hang around a place like this. Cary asks to speak to her alone. He
apologizes and says he was thinking too much of how he dislikes going
to weddings and not enough about her feelings. He says the only
important thing is that she wanted him there and he asks for
forgiveness. This is where Jane SHOULD have mentioned that she
invited Neal and Neal said yes, but she gets distracted by Cary's
kiss and doesn't bother.
Sigh.
They go through the shower (which is
only attended by the six of them – the truly think they're the most
important people in Alison's world) and spend a lot of time talking
about Canby Hall. Then they do cake and open gifts. Toby's
something borrowed is a rusty horseshoe that nearly killed her once.
She figures the fact it didn't means it's truly lucky. Alison hands
it back and says she's been thinking that she should postpone the
wedding. On the day before the wedding. Dana rushes to say she
agrees and Jane yells at her for interfering. Andy reassures Alison
that everyone gets nervous on the night before the wedding and Faith
interrupts to say that Andy and Jane aren't being honest. Alison and
David have REAL ISSUES that they need to address. Shelley chimes in
and says they aren't just talking about a wedding, they are talking
about a marriage!!!! Won't somebody think about the marriage?!?!?!?!? Finally Alison throws her hands up in the air
and tells them to leave her alone and let her think.
The “new” girls accuse the “old”
girls of coming to town and ruining Alison's life. The “old”
girls accuse the “new” girls of being too immature to see the
real issue. A fight breaks out that ends with Shelley shoving a
piece of cake in Jane's face (what is with this author and shoving dessert in people's faces???). Which is definitely MATURE behavior,
amirite???
The six of them walk back to Baker
House in tense silence. Upon arrival, the security desk tells them
that there's a package for the “old girls of 407”. It turns out
to be a video tape of David doing a mock new story where he reports
he acted like a complete jerk and hopes they'll forgive him. The
“old” girls aren't completely convinced yet and the “new”
girls are exasperated at their pig-headedness.
Faith decides to splinter off and go
see Michael. She's anxious to hear his side of things.
The remaining girls head upstairs.
Dana and Shelley decide they'll have to sleep on Maggie's floor since
Alison asked for privacy. The phone is ringing in 407 when they
reach the 4th floor. Toby runs to answer it and it's
Randy but he's calling for Dana.
Ouch.
She handles it with grace though.
Dana agrees to meet him and the two of
them drive down to the creek. Randy confesses that he got caught up
in nostalgia the other day and apologizes for trying to kiss her.
Dana says she understands and she's been thinking of him a lot
lately. Randy sensibly replies that she's just getting caught up in
nostalgia too. If she really thinks about it, small town life....and
a small town man....aren't really exciting enough for her. She
protests that they might be. He says he doesn't want to start
anything back up with her unless she's going to stay. So she kisses
him, sending him the signal that she's going to do just that.
Randy's been down the road of “Dana's mixed signals” before
though and asks her point blank if this means she's staying to be
with him. She says she has to think about it.
THEN WHY DID YOU KISS HIM, BITCH?
Poor Randy.
Faith sits down to cocoa with Michael in his kitchen and finds that things aren't as the “old” girls assumed. Not
only is Michael okay with Alison's marriage, he's met David and
thinks the two of them are perfect for each other. And he's in a new relationship himself. Hopefully with someone who
lives off campus so she won't catch cheater-fever and betray him like Alison did.
Faith asks him why he's looked so miserable lately and he says he had
four wisdom teeth pulled. He's been miserable but only from a
dentistry standpoint.
Faith asks him to prove he's in a new
relationship and he calls a woman named Rita in from the study
where she's been sitting grading papers while he was having cocoa with Nosy
Nancy. Rita's a teacher too but at Greenleaf High so she lives in
town. Hopefully that's far enough away from the contagion. Faith
ends up liking Rita a lot and is happy to hear Michael insinuate that
they might be engaged soon.
Faith makes it back to room 409 (How
did she know to go there? Didn't they make that decision after she
left?) and gives Dana a whispered report since everyone else is
asleep. Man, they go to sleep early in Massachusetts. Dana finally
admits that she, Faith and Shelley came to town and wrecked things. Faith tells her to go
talk to Alison and fix things before it's too late.
No pressure, Dana.
As Dana heads for the top floor, she
realizes someone is just ahead of her. It's Toby who has come to try
to talk to Alison too. She's surprised to hear that Dana has come
over from the Dark Side. Alison lets them in and it's clear she's
been crying for hours. They sit down just as the phone begins to
ring. At that hour it can only be David and they all know it.
Alison doesn't answer, though. Toby asks how many times he's called
and Alison says eleven. The girls give her their spiel about how she
should give him another chance because clearly it was just a case of
nerves (like the “new” girls have been saying ALL ALONG). Alison
says she already came to that conclusion and she's not going to
postpone the wedding after all. SO ANSWER THE PHONE.
The morning of the wedding dawns gray
and wet. It matches Jane's mood. She finally 'fesses up that she
has two dates. Again. Didn't this JUST happen a book or so ago?
Sheesh. Toby tells her the honest thing to do is tell Cary that she
promised to go with Neal first. Jane pouts and says she'd rather go
with Cary and Neal's train doesn't leave for an hour so she has time
to fake a stomach ache. Toby doesn't dignify this nonsense with a
response.
Jane goes to call Cary but his roommate
Stu says that Cary is out picking up his tux for the wedding. (Note from future me: this is inaccurate. He only picked up a dinner jacket and wore it with nice jeans.) Jane
feels awful. She returns to the room in time for Alison to call and
ask if they want to help her get ready for the wedding. All three
girls rush to Alison's room. Jane vows to straighten things up with
Cary later.
Sure she will.
There's a flurry of activity as they
get Alison washed and polished up. Then everyone has to rush to get
dressed themselves. Finally, just as they're about to walk out the
door, PA shows up. She tells them that there's a line at the end of
the traditional wedding poem that they based their shower gifts on.
The last line is “And a six pence in her shoe”. She presents
Alison with the six pence and mentions how hard it has been to
interview for her replacement.
As they head to the chapel, the rain
ends and a stunning rainbow appears. Because of course it does.
This IS fiction after all. There's only one small problem to mar the
day. The groom doesn't show up. Everyone tries to keep Alison calm
but by 45 minutes past wedding time, she's losing all hope. Suddenly
they hear hoof beats and Randy rides in to save the day AGAIN. He has
David in a tux on the back of his horse. Apparently David's car
broke down on the highway and Randy somehow found him and brought him
to the church. Because Randy's just awesome like that.
The wedding goes off with no more
impediments. There's not a dry eye in the house. Afterwards, Jane
is forced to deal with Neal and Cary who sat together at the wedding.
They're both furious with her and stomp off leaving her dateless for
the reception. Good for them.
There's some racist comment about black
people being the only ones who really know how to cook ribs and then
the reception begins. Dana spends the whole time talking to the best
man Vince who is also from New York. She doesn't bother with
poor Randy who is eating dinner with Toby. Because Dana's a
heart-chewing bitch.
Cary shows up at the reception. He
says he's just there for the food and the band. Jane asks if Neal
came back too and Cary says Neal was super hurt and already boarded a
train for home. She feels bad but since Cary is the date she wanted
anyway, she gets over it fast. I have NO IDEA why he is forgiving
her. She's just going to keep doing this to him. I keep hoping he really
WAS just hungry.
The reception ends and everyone is
friends again. The six girls of 407 get together on Sunday before
the “old” girls leave and it's only then that I realize how very
little time Dana spent with her sister Maggie in this book. Lucky
Maggie.
The book ends with these actual words:
“Out onto the front lawn of Baker House, where all six of them
tumbled into a huge pile of leaves, laughter and friendship.”
Oh, gag me.
Queen of the Book Award: Not to
sound like a broken record, but it totally goes to Toby again. She
was the only one throughout the whole book that actually considered
other people's feelings and did what was best for them and not
herself.
The Bitch of Baker House Award:
This is a hard one. So many deserve it. I'm going to go with Dana
here. Not only did she completely toy with Randy and get his hopes
up only to completely ignore him through the entire reception, but
she was the first to suggest that they break up the wedding and the
first to encourage Alison's doubts and fears. She had help, but she
was the instigator so she gets the award.
Final Thoughts: This book was
pretty predictable as evidenced by the fact that all my early
predictions (except the Toby/Shelley thing) came true. I should have
known not to bet against Toby. I hate the “old” girls with a
passion (which is why I started this blog with the “new” girls), so
I knew this book was going to be a huge pain in my ass. It didn't
disappoint. P.S. I'm still Team Cary. Yes, he acted like a 15 year
old boy in this book because he IS A 15 YEAR OLD BOY.
Coming up next: Toby and Jane
are headed to Chicago over Christmas Break to help out in Andy's
family's restaurant. I can just picture proper Jane slinging ribs.
{delicate sniff}
