Warning: Contains Spoilers!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens. Do NOT continue to read unless you want to find out which girl cheated on her boyfriend this time.
Tag Line: Are they three times the trouble?From the Back of the Book: Some lessons are only learned one way. The hard way. The three roommates never thought they'd spend Christmas vacation together. But during the holidays, when Andy and her family need extra waitresses in their restaurant, Jane and Toby fly to Chicago to help. The girls quickly find out there's a lot more to waitressing than wearing uniforms and making tips, but Andy and Toby get the hang of it. But Jane isn't sure she's cut out to be a waitress. She has problems balancing trays and problems filling orders. And once she meets Zach Foster, a handsome but opinionated boy from Chicago, her life doesn't get any easier. Can Jane be a good waitress and a good friend with boy problems too?
As usual, the blurb isn't entirely accurate. Andy didn't have to learn to be a waitress. In the book she's heralded as an expert. They can't say enough about what a fabulous waitress she is. So there was nothing for her to get the hang of.
This book was published in 1987 and I definitely read it. I remembered a couple of random, unimportant parts but not much of the actual story. The ghost writer for this book was Barbara B Hiller. I looked her up on Goodreads and only found one book. It was a “Twistaplot” which sounds like a “Choose Your Own Adventure”.
Canby
Hall Catch-Up: So you all know the drill. We have
three protagonists (Jane – high society princess, Andy
– urban ballerina and Toby – small town ranch girl). Jane
is dating both Neal-the-blueblood and Cary-the-rock-god.
Andy is dating Matt. Toby wishes she was dating Randy
who has magical aging powers. In the last book, the old girls
(Dana, Faith and Shelley the life-ruiners)
showed up to sabotage housemother Alison's wedding because
they thought they were the best people to run her life. Fortunately
they failed and Alison and David managed their
happily-ever-after. There. All caught up now.
We begin with our protagonists in their
room celebrating the end of term. They are all headed home for
Christmas break soon and are looking forward to two weeks off from
school. Andy is excited about all the things she's going to do on
break (see ballets, etc) but Jane is worried she'll be bored. Cary's
band Ambulance has a gig in Colorado over the break so she'll be
enduring stuffy Boston parties all by her lonesome. Do high school
bands really get out-of-state gigs? Does this actually happen? And
their parents let them go over Christmas? Sounds unrealistic to me.
Especially since Ambulance is made up of boarding school kids who
might not have been home since August. I'm betting their parents
might actually like to see them before the new year.
The girls exchange presents. Jane got
Andy and Toby art prints from her mother's gallery. Andy's is a
print of ballet dancers and Toby's is a print of cattle. Andy got
Jane some electric blue hair color to use for Cary's next concert and
a Texas tea cup for Toby. Toby got both girls leather hand-tooled
wallets.
Before the "party" ends, Andy gets a call from her dad that
changes everything. His best waiter and waitress have fallen in love
and eloped. They'll be spending two weeks in Jamaica for their
honeymoon and Andy is going to have to pitch in with the rest of her
family to take their place. No more ballet and theater for her.
Dee and Maggie pop in
from their room next door. Maggie mentions that she'll be spending
the first week of break at home but she's flying out to California to
spend the second week with Dee. This puts an idea in Jane's brain.
She proposes that she and Toby fly out to Chicago to spend the second
week of break helping Andy out in the restaurant.
Annnnnnd I guess we know what the drama
will be this book. Jane hasn't worked a day in her life and Toby is
more at home on a horse than in an apron. I think Andy is going to
regret accepting this offer of “help” but if she didn't, we
wouldn't have a book.
We get our usual paragraph explaining
how different the three friends are. I'm sure it was typed up and
handed to each ghost writer to fit in somewhere in the first three
chapters along with a footnote to mention Dana, Faith and Shelley in
reverent tones as many times as possible throughout the book. (Note from future me: Brace yourselves. I don't think the life-ruiners were mentioned AT ALL in this book. I feel like my entire world view has been altered and everything I thought I knew is a big lie.)
The girls go home for break and enjoy
their very different lives. Toby is content with her plans and the
world in general because Toby is awesome. Jane is nervous about
waitressing. She's never done anything like this before and she's
not sure she'll be good at it. She gets to the airport and finds out
that first class has been overbooked so she can either travel coach
and they'll give her three first class upgrades to use at a later
date, or she can wait for the next flight and ride first class on
that one. She chooses the coach/upgrade option thinking that she can
use the upgrades to fly Andy and Toby back to school with her after
break is over.
Jane boards the plan and is pleasantly
surprised to see that the seat next to her is occupied by a gorgeous
stunner named Zach Foster. She impatiently waits for him to
start a conversation and wonders if he has a girlfriend. JANE.
Seriously. I know you unfortunately got infected with Canby Hall
Cheater Fever and it's a lifelong affliction but please at least TRY
to remember you have TWO boyfriends already. Have mercy on this poor
blogger who has to introduce all the recurring characters each blog.
I don't want to have to remember Zach's name!!!
Zach finally speaks to her and, when he
finds out she's going to Chicago to waitress, his “eyes lit up
with admiration”. Really, ghost writer? Okay. Zach's
apparently the easily-impressed type. To Jane's horror, he
immediately goes on a two page rant about how much he hates rich
people. Oh noes. Now she'll have to pretend to be poor so she can
date this asshole and make me remember his name.
Jane pulls out needlepoint to distract
herself while he goes on and on about how evil money is and how only
rotten people have a lot of it.
Needlepoint.
Is this a Jane Austen
book? What fifteen year old girl carries needlepoint around? How
many fifteen year old girls even know what needlepoint is? This is
so bizarre.
Zach must be turned on by thread because he asks if he
can see her while she's in Chicago and she just hands over Andy's
phone number and address TO A COMPLETE STRANGER SHE JUST MET FIVE
MINUTES AGO. If this was an episode of Dateline, she'd be dead two
chapters from now.
Stupid. So stupid I can't even really
form words about how very stupid it was.
But Jane says he looks “too nice”
to be dangerous.
They said that about Bundy too, my
love. It was kind of his bait for little empty-headed girls like
you.
Jane meets up with Andy and Toby at the
airport and the three of them head for Andy's house. Along the way
Jane tells them about Zach and Toby tries to gently remind her of her
two already-boyfriends. Jane replies that Neal is still mad about
being one of two dates Jane invited to Alison's wedding and she
thinks he has a crush on Toby now anyway. Who could blame him? I totally have a book crush on Toby.
At the restaurant, Jane and Toby get a
crash course in waitressing that really doesn't sound very helpful at
all. They change into their uniforms (navy skirts, light blue
blouses, small white aprons and blue and white caps) and Andy
proclaims them ready. No real training or anything. Uniform and
done. This is going to turn out great.
The first day goes predictably awful.
Jane messes up more times than I can recap and poor Toby got knocked
down by a customer. They return back to Andy's house exhausted and
disillusioned.
The next morning, Zach calls for Jane.
He invites Jane to lunch and to the Art Institute with him.
She accepts because her boyfriends are all the way in Boston and
Colorado and that's way too far for her to remember that she holds
their hearts in her hands. Jane briefly thinks of Cary (poor Neal)
but decides that it can't be wrong to go out with Zach if she feels
so happy. She borrows clothes from Toby and Andy so she doesn't look
rich and away she goes.
That evening, Andy is retraining them because she did such an awful job of training them when Steve Palmer walks in. He's a waiter and he clearly has
a crush on Andy WHO IS DATING MATT. I am throwing my hands up in the
air, y'all. I can't believe these girls. He sings Andy's praises
for a bit and then disappears into the kitchen.
That night, Andy and Steve do the smart
thing and partner up with Jane and Toby to train them a little
better. Steve takes Toby and Andy takes Jane. She finds she has
very little patience for Jane, though. The two snap at each other
all night. Jane gets through it by concentrating on her after-work
date with Zach.
The next day is going to be something
called a “Family Lunch”. The restaurant is closed on Wednesdays
at lunch time and the staff and their families gather to test out new
recipes and have a good time. Jane asks if she can bring Zach and
Mrs Cord says he'll be very welcome.
Toby finds the Family Lunch a little
overwhelming. She's used to a lot more silence. When everyone
starts talking about their afternoon plans, Toby volunteers to watch
Andy's baby sister Nancy. They bundle up and head out for
the park. Toby is walking along and talking to Nancy about Jane/Zach
and Andy/Steven. Before long she realizes they've been walking for
an hour and a half and she's completely lost in Chicago. She panics
a bit but then sees a mounted police officer and he directs her to a
taxi stand where she gets a ride home. Later Andy jokes that Toby
probably found the only horse in all of Chicago.
Meanwhile, Jane is spending every
afternoon and every night after work with Zach and she's exhausted.
To the point that she falls asleep in the break room at work and Toby
has to cover two sections of the restaurant by herself. Jane wonders
later why she's going from bad to worse as a waitress and Toby is
handling things just fine. Well, because Toby's fucking awesome
Jane and she's not sleeping through her shifts like someone I could name.
The day before New Year's Eve, Toby and
Mrs Cord discuss chili. The restaurant is expecting about 250
people the next night for a buffet and Mrs Cord really wants to serve
chili. She'd love to serve authentic Texas chili so Toby tells her
the recipe the mess cook uses at home to the best of her ability.
This is ripe for disaster. Toby doesn't usually make the chili herself and
unless a person makes something themselves and makes it often, they
are bound to forget an ingredient or two. She should at least call
the cook and ask for the recipe but, no, the ghost writer needs some
kind of conflict to make one last exciting incident before she closes
up the book. (Note from future me: there was no conflict or excitement. It was all resolved before anything happened.)
That night Jane proves she's just not
cut out to be a waitress at all. She messes up the bills, takes the
wrong tray to the wrong table, gets into verbal altercations with the
guests and ends up dumping an entire tray of gooey, sticky desserts
on a table full of people. She realizes she's just getting worse
every day instead of better and she decides to bail on her promise to
help and just go home. Right before their biggest night of the year.
Nice, Jane.
Zach drives Jane to the airport. He
thinks she's leaving because the Cord's worked her too hard. He asks
her what time her flight is leaving and she has to dig through her
messy, disorganized bag to find her ticket. In the process all her credit
cards fall out. Zach immediately assumes that she's stolen them.
How else does a poor girl come to be in possession of gold cards?
Jane reveals the cards are hers and he reads the names on them and
realizes who her parents are. He makes some snide comments about how
the poor little rich girl can't handle an honest day's work and she
retorts that she tried but she just couldn't do it. I think she
thinks she tried. I mean, I think she feels like she gave it effort
but we know that wasn't really the case. She went into the whole
thing thinking it was going to be fun and how awesome she was going to look for
volunteering to help and feeling really good about herself. She
didn't take it very seriously and then, she didn't give it real
effort. Every time it got hard, she just collapsed and let Toby or
Andy or Steve pick up the slack. She doesn't see it that way, but
that's how it was written and presented to the rest of us.
Zach dumps Jane off at the airport and
she broods for awhile about all the injustices she's suffered in this
book. She thinks about changing rooms or dropping out of school
because there's no way she can look Toby or Andy in the face ever
again. Then she realizes she always runs away from her problems and
she decides this time she's going to face them. She's hurrying
through the airport to find the taxi stand when her poorly packed
suitcase gives up the ghost and throws her belongings everywhere.
A basketball team from Texas stops to
help her. They introduce themselves (Dan, Bob the Lobber,
Sid who they call Everest because he's so tall, Rebound
Pete, Buck as in Buckingham Palace because he's the guard,
and PeeWee because at 6'1” he's the shortest). Jane says
she can't possibly be taxed to remember all the names of people who
will only be in the book for a chapter or two so Dan says they all
answer to “Tex”. They've been stranded in Chicago by
mechanical failure and the airport booked them rooms but they ask
Jane if she knows where they can get some food and have some fun.
Boy, does she!!!
Yee Haw!
Jane brings the collective Tex to the
restaurant where the chili is simmering. One of them sniffs the air
and says it doesn't smell right. He asks Toby if she put the cumin in
and, of course, it's the one thing she forgot. Deus ex Tex. They
all troop into the kitchen to offer chili suggestions and the disaster is averted and wrapped up in about four sentences. The crowd
that night is bigger than the expected and Toby and “Tex” are
extremely busy making new batches of chili to feed everyone. At one
point they run out of onions and Toby suggests that “Tex” ask
Andy or Steve to go down to the basement storeroom to get more.
Charlie (Andy's brother) goes to find Andy and unbeknownst to
anyone, a Tex goes to find Steve.
Oooooooooooooooh. I bet you can't
predict what's going to happen. I mean it's only 100 fucking percent
obvious.
Sure enough, Andy and Steve manage to
get themselves locked down in the basement together.
THAT WAS
COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED!!
They end up talking and they have a
bunch in common. Steve loves ballet and wants to be a musician.
Andy loves music and wants to be a ballerina. Clearly they are destined to be together forever. By the time Charlie
comes looking for them a few minutes later, they have a date to see a
ballet during Spring Break and Matt can just stick that in his eye!
At some point during the evening, Toby
gets a call from Neal. He offers to pick the three of them up from
the airport and then asks Toby if she'll go get pizza with him
afterwards. Toby accepts. This is not a case of Canby Hall Cheater
Fever because Toby has a crush on Randy but they are not going out.
In fact, he's made it pretty clear that romance can never happen
between them. Although, I will note that it's a bit weird of Toby to
be dating Neal while Neal is still somewhat attached to Jane. I
mean, he's currently mad at her and I think they mostly decided to just be
friends, but the whole thing is murky and undefined really.
The next day it's time to head back to
Canby Hall. Jane surprises Andy and Toby with their first class
upgrades. I'm still trying to figure out how this worked. If they
were Jane's upgrades, wouldn't she have to buy Toby and Andy's
tickets in order to apply them? Maybe things worked different back
in the 80's. I'm willing to go along with that. The enjoy the
fruits of first class and Jane remarks that she never really thought
about the people who served her and how much hard work it really was.
She vows to pay more attention to the little people from now on.
{delicate sniff}
The girls discuss their New Year's
resolutions. Jane says hers is to be more honest with herself. I
really think hers should be to respect Cary, but whatever. Andy
resolves to be more honest with others. Which doesn't even make a
huge amount of sense. She reaches this resolution because she wasn't
honest with how she felt about Steve but it's not like she was lying
to him and telling him she hated him when she secretly loved him.
THAT would be her being dishonest with others. What she's describing
is being dishonest with HERSELF.
You know, I just realized Jane and Andy
made each other's resolutions. Jane's should have been to be honest
with others because she is continually lying to people (about how
many dates she has to a dance or wedding or how much money she has or
how much work experience she has for instance). Andy's should have
been to be honest with herself because she ignores her own feelings a
lot of the time. Silly ghost writer. Pay attention, would ya?
Toby says her resolution is to work on
her attitude. She often thinks that the way things are in Texas
should be the way they are everywhere else and she wants to work on
that. I totally love Toby, y'all.
All Canby Hall books seem to end with a
sentence so corny that I just want to die. This one is no exception.
Toby remarks that she could get used to First Class. Jane replies
that there's a problem with that.
“There's no such thing as First
Class at Canby Hall.”
“Oh, yes there is,” Toby
corrected her. “There's First Class friendship and you can't ask
for anything better than that!”
Oh, mercy. I think my book crush just
died.
Queen of the Book Award: Y'all, it's honestly Toby again. She volunteered to help Andy's family out and then ACTUALLY made an effort to do the job and be helpful.
The Bitch of Baker House Award: It's going to Jane this time. She did a half-assed job at the restaurant that just made more work for everyone else. Instead of trying to improve, she just gave up and ran away. Super unhelpful. Plus, she cheated on Cary. AGAIN.
Coming Up Next: Jane's family is throwing her a super proper party {delicate sniff} and her unsophisticated roommates are sure to ruin the proper-ness with their urban and rural ways. Whatever will poor Jane do?
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