With Friends Like That (Book 11) by "Emily Chase"

**This blog contains adult language.**

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!!  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 which girl acted like a total bitch in this book.  Because you know at least one of them did.

Tag Line: Who needs enemies?

From the Back of the Book: Only a miracle will save Canby Hall.  Shelley, Faith and Dana are stunned when they hear that their school will be shut down unless money is raised by the end of the semester.  But what can the girls do?  Time is running out...Each of the girls comes up with a plan, but will any of them work?  When Dana meets the young Chris Canby, son of the current owner, she thinks he's the answer.  But he seems like a carbon copy of his father.  Will he be a friend or an enemy - or a new romance?  The girls had better think fast if they're going to save the school.

This book was published in 1985 and I've never read it before. The ghostie for this book is Judith Sachs who wrote the super creepy The Big Crush where guidance counselor Michael behaved all kinds of inappropriately with his students. I hate that book so I'm not going into this one with high hopes.

The cover is okay. All three girls get equal billing and they're the same models from the last cover so they look consistent. Shelley is pouting directly at us which is a little disturbing but otherwise there's nothing to really bitch about here.  I'll admit that I don't really understand what the title has to do with the story but maybe it will become clear as I read.  (((Note from Future Me: It did not.  This title still makes no sense.)))

Canby Hall Catch-Up: So you know the drill. We have three protagonists: Dana (sophisticated fashionista), Faith (urban photographer) and Shelley (small-town farm girl). For now, Dana is dating the magically delicious Randy, Faith is seeing wannabe-cop Johnny and Shelley is dating Tom from Greenleaf High while on a break from her one-true-love Paul. In the last book, PA decided to let a film company shoot part of a movie on campus and everyone auditioned. Dana got a part in order to cheat on Randy with a production assistant named Peter and Shelley ended up an extra due to some horrible advice from Pamela. Faith ran around taking horrible, unauthorized pictures of the cast and delighting in how awful she was making everyone look. Shelley met star Troy who fed her a huge line of BS about putting her in a movie but it all ended up being just smoke up Shelley's ass. Peter ended up throwing Dana over for Pamela in the hopes that her mother could further his career and then the book mercifully ended.

Missing, Presumed Dead: Gale.  There wasn't a single mention of Shelley's extra pounds in this book.

Risen From the Tulip Bed: Mary Beth, Ginny and Ellie are all back in action. I guess everyone came topside for this crises.

We begin with Faith which is kind of a medium way to begin. At least it's not Shelley. She's struggling to carry a little table up to room 407 when Alison (housemother extraordinaire) stops her and asks her if she can pass out some fliers. Apparently PA (head bitch in charge) is holding yet another special assembly tomorrow. Faith eventually makes it up to her room with the little marble table and ghostie takes this opportunity to give us a quick review.  Dana is a sociopath, Shelley has histrionic personality disorder and Faith is a narcissist, blah, blah, yada, yada.  You know all this already.

Suddenly it's the next morning and the girls are all grumbling about being forced to get up early. PA starts the assembly with a quick history lesson about how Horace Canby allowed a school to be built on his land in memory of his daughter Julia who died young of a fever. Unfortunately he didn't contain wording in the will that would let the school exist on the land “in perpetuity” and the new heir Owen feels that a school isn't the best horse in his financial stable. There is talk that the school will be permanently closed at the end of the semester. Panic ensues because the girls of 407 know the magic only exists on campus and they will go back to being normal teenagers and not revered goddesses as soon as they get home.

#allhailroom407

Dana immediately says they should call a meeting in Baker house because she just knows they'll be able to solve the problem themselves. I'd roll my eyes but it's useless. That's exactly what's going to happen because we all know these girls are geniuses and possess the ability to make all adults defer to them in all things.

Nearly all of Baker house gathers in the lounge and the 407 girls take charge of the meeting. No one questions them about it because they all know the girls of 407 are the only ones who truly matter in this hellhole. Alison comes up with the only decent idea in this entire meeting – going to talk to Owen – but she's instantly shot down by the girls. They can't do this reasonable thing! They need some kind of hare-brained scheme!!! That's just how things work around here. #seriouslyAlison?  #areyounew?

Team 407 skips classes to go to the library to plan. They decide they need to get an endowment from someone. If they get one it will show Owen that the school can be financially beneficial to him (or at least not a financial burden). They come up with a figure of 1.5 million dollars and a plan to ask everyone's parents and people in the town for donations. High on their list is Pamela's mother Yvonne.

Dana goes for a jog after classes in the hopes of coming up with another stellar idea in case they have trouble raising 1.5 million fucking dollars. She's deep in thought and not paying attention to where she's going and ends up colliding with a slightly older (senior year) redheaded boy. He asks her if she's a Canby girl and then matter-of-factly tells her that her school will be closing soon. Dana gets hella pissed as she's wont to do and demands to know who he is. He introduces himself as Chris Canby, Owen's son.

Dana immediately regrets being her usual bitch self. She needs Chris on her side after all. She tries to pour some sugar on him instead, flattering him and then waxing poetic about the legions of girls who have passed through Canby's “hallowed portals” (direct quote, folks) and how the area is drenched in historical importance. It's VERY VERY stupid. Chris isn't moved. He likes money and getting rid of Canby will give his family plenty of it. There's some kind of corporation coming to look at the campus in a few days to see if they want to build there. Ghostie named it Data-Tech because she couldn't be arsed to come up with anything better.

Dana switches tactics and asks Chris if he ever just wants to go to a ball game like a normal teenager rather than worrying about his stocks and portfolio. He says they have box seats but that doesn't impress her. She wants him to try a “normal” day with her and he says he will if she tries out a day of privilege with him. This is all so very stupid. I feel my brain dying. Dana goes back to campus and tells her friends that she's going to try to use her feminine wiles to convince Chris to convince Owen to change his mind. #Godhelpusall

It's another day I think and Shelley has a date with Tom. He's taking her to Pizza Pete's in the hopes of ambushing someone named Mr Sampton. He's one of the oldest men in town and somehow Tom thinks he might be able to help. The guy is practically a hermit but he always goes to Pizza Pete's on Tuesday to get the senior discount or something. Tom tells her that she can move in with his family and finish school at Greenleaf High if Canby closes but she isn't sure that's the answer.

Shelley tells him they figured out the approximate tuition revenue for Canby and Tom tells her that it's nowhere near what it costs to run a school. When she asks what he means he says it costs a lot more than that to run a private school and he knows this “because of his sister's college”. What the fuck does that even mean? Tom produces a list of about ten people who might be persuaded to make a donation to save Canby. Bankers and such. Tom doesn't have much hope about getting enough money to keep Canby open but Shelley refuses to let it get her down.

They approach Mr Sampton (gonna call him Sam from now on) to tell him that Owen is going to sell Canby to Data-Tech and ask him if he can help suggest some kind of solution to them. Because he's old I guess? None of this makes any sense at all. He takes some notes down because of course he's interested in the problem of these random teenagers that he's never met before in his life. He says he doesn't like the idea of a corporation being built in their small town but doesn't really offer anything else before dismissing Tom and Shelley.

They leave Pizza Pete's and go to the first name on Tom's list which happens to be a doctor. They have to wait 45 minutes in the lobby for him to have a free moment. Shelley tells him all about the school potentially shutting down and he whips out his checkbook and writes her a check for $100 which just seems like a really stupid thing to do. He has no idea if she's telling him the truth or not. I mean, she is, but he has no way to know that and could have just given $100 to a scammer. It might all be for nothing anyway because Shelley is in no way capable of keeping track of this check. It's as good as gone.

Faith, meanwhile, decides to try her luck with Pamela. I'm not sure why. She and Pamela outright hate each other. Shelley would have been a better choice for this assignment.....or Casey. Casey and Pamela are sometimes friendly to each other at least.  Faith tries to ease into things by pretending she and Pamela have something in common to casually talk about but Pamela is way too smart for that ish. Faith tells her they need an endowment to save the school and Pamela asks her why they should bother. Faith lists out things like dances and apple butter from their own orchard and maple syrup from their own trees but none of this impresses Pamela much. Finally Faith changes tactics and reminds Pamela how she was kicked out of a bunch of private schools before Canby and she might end up in a public school after this. This scares Pammy enough that she agrees to talk to her mom about donating money.

Faith is so proud of herself. We get this......

“She couldn't wait to call Johnny now! He was always going on about what a great mind she had, and she usually shrugged in embarrassment when he talked about her super brainpower, but right now she had to agree with him.”

Faith is feeling so up herself that she isn't even paying attention to where she's walking and she barrels right into Michael-the-guidance-counselor who is carrying a big brass lamp and thus didn't see her coming. He asks her what she's so chipper about and she tells him that they are well on their way to raising the million dollars Canby needs to run for a year. (Which is a total lie since Yvonne Young hasn't agreed to donate anything yet. #countingchickensbeforetheyhatch) He gives her a sympathetic look and tells her it costs three million dollars a year to run Canby. Faith suddenly feels incredibly stupid for celebrating too early.

Faith goes back to the room to break the news. Casey rocks up with a possible solution. She's made a list of Fortune 500 companies that regularly give grants to companies struggling to stay afloat. She's planning to contact them to see if one of them might give Canby a grant. It's a better idea than fundraising but that doesn't surprise me. Casey has always been more practical than the others.

Alison comes by to tell them that the letters to the parents will go out after PA's meeting with Owen on Saturday. The 407 girls make plans to be at the meeting. Surely Owen will recognize their magicalness and change his mind. No one says no to 407!!!  #allhailroom407

Friday Chris calls to ask Dana to the movies the next afternoon. She can't go because of the meeting so she turns him down. He tells her he's been working on a business proposal for one of his classes to get the businesses in Greenleaf to offer summer internships to students in the area. (Possible future plot? Probably not because continuity has never been strong in this series. #fuckcontinuity) He mentions that they would try to open it for Canby girls too but they probably won't be around after June. Dana gets pissed, yells at him and hangs up the phone. Way to go, Dana. That's the way to get him to change his mind.

On Saturday several girls gather outside PA's house where the meeting is scheduled to happen. They tell PA that they are the “Save Canby Hall Committee” and they ask to speak to Owen. For some reason she lets them. I imagine poor PA is feeling pretty desperate at this point. They file in and immediately start presenting their case. Which basically comes down to they like the school and don't want it to close. They beg him to give them time to raise the money and he seems sympathetic but nothing they say changes anything.

Time passes. Suddenly it's Friday again and Shelley and Tom are out riding around on his motorcycle when they come across Sam broken down on the side of the road. Tom takes a look under the hood while Shelley chats with the old man. He asks her how the fundraising is going and she tells him they've managed to collect $5000 but it doesn't matter because the deal is pretty much already done. He's still upset about the idea of a big corporation being in town but doesn't really offer any solution other than to say that Owen Canby has always been a jackass. Tom gets the car going enough that Sam is able to make it into town to the repair shop.

Saturday arrives and Yvonne visits campus. Faith hits her up with the sob story and an appeal for money and Yvonne offers to help. She even says she'll get some of her Hollywood friends involved. Faith is super excited and again feels like she just solved the problem. Then Yvonne says she'll handle everything when she returns. Turns out she's going to be on location in Europe for at least three months and doesn't plan to do anything until she gets back. Faith is crushed again.

I seriously have NO idea why this chapter was even in the fucking book. Shelley talked to Sam and Faith talked to Yvonne but NOTHING actually happened. Ghostie is padding her page count again.

Now it's Saturday night. Shelley and Faith both have dates so they take off leaving Dana alone. Apparently Randy is in Kentucky at some horse auction for the winter. I'm not sure what kind of auction takes an entire winter but whatevs. At least he's out of Dana's clutches for awhile. She's down in the lounge reading when Chris calls again. He says his father just called to ask him to Sunday brunch and he wants Dana to come along with him. Dana isn't super psyched to see Chris again but she can't pass up an opportunity to talk to Owen.

She's stunned when she actually gets to their house. It's a complete mansion and she's afraid to even walk on the pristine floors. A butler opens the door and a maid takes her parka. Chris brings her into the drawing room to meet his mother. Mrs Canby refers to her as Chris's “little friend” which pisses Dana off because she's tall and practically a woman!! #thisisridiculous #ghostieisn'teventryinghere

Owen isn't super happy to see Dana given that the last time he met with her she was a complete bitch. Get used to it Owen. It's a personality trait, not a mood. They go to breakfast and Dana is socially awkward, not knowing how to eat the kippered herring and putting things on the wrong plate and using the wrong silverware. Chris tries to show her by example what she should be doing and she's a little grateful for that at least.

Owen brings up the deal which is just an asinine thing to do but Dana uses the opportunity to make a suggestion. Maybe they can find an old building that could be converted into a dormitory for Canby students. Canby teachers could use empty Oakley classrooms to hold classes and all would be well. Does Oakley just have a bank of unused classrooms? That seems odd. And keep in mind that Dana doesn't actually know of any suitable properties nor has she cleared any part of this plan with PA or Oakley. She's just sure it's a solution though, Owen finds it as ridiculous as I do but Chris tries to help by mentioning an old mill that might work. You know....the one that Shelley was held in after she was kidnapped in book two. #wow #continuityforonce

Owen changes the subject and the rest of the meal passes awkwardly. On the drive home, Chris apologizes. He says that he still thinks the sale of the land is good business but he's starting to realize that Canby is a community asset (HOW???) and that the girls deserve to get an education. He's still hoping some kind of solution can be found. When they get back to the dorms, he and Dana make out for awhile and here we go again.

Poor Randy.

#Danacandie

Monday comes along with an announcement that PA is going to be gone all week. Michael and Alison are left in charge which pisses Alison off for some reason. She and Michael have been arguing a lot because she thinks the girls need to start submitting applications to other schools and Michael thinks they should hang onto Canby until their last breaths. This is all very dumb, y'all. This whole book idea is dumb.

Owen's company (or maybe Data-Tech's company???) is coming on the following Saturday to do an inventory and Casey comes up with some amazing plan that ghostie spends half a chapter talking about without telling us what it actually is. All I know is that every girl in school will have to participate for it to work, it involves some kind of mass flier and it will give them a public forum. I'm sure it's the most brilliant plan that was ever planned by planners before in the history of the world. \\sarcasm font//

So apparently the plan is to stage a sit-in and block the buildings so the men can't get in to do inventory. They get chains from the drama department, bike locks and belts because........reasons. I guess they are locking or belting themselves to each other to make them more difficult to move. #sigh At the last moment they tell Alison and she immediately begins looking for PA's number.

The girls have posters that say “A School Is A School!” and “Give Canby Back To The Students!” Faith made a special one with a picture of mist rising out of the fountain like a ghost that says something about Horace Canby being pissed at the sale. Seriously?? A school is a school??? That's the best these girls can come up with? I'm not so sure they should be trying to save Canby. They're clearly not getting a stellar education here.

Michael agrees to alert the media so they get the exposure they want but he warns Dana that sit-ins rarely work. She's not dissuaded at all. Owen arrives with the Data-Tech representatives and he's pretty pissed to find the building blocked by girls who have literally belted themselves together. #sigh He tries to reason and then he tries to bully but nothing gets them to budge. The newspaper shows up and interviews everyone. Nothing new is said or learned. Owen eventually calls the sheriff and the 407 girls along with Casey are put into a squad car.

In the end, about 40 girls are arrested. I'm not sure how they decided who to arrest and who to leave. There are only two jail cells in the jail and the sheriff isn't very keen on actually locking them up so they're basically just hanging around the office. Owen signs a complaint against them for trespassing or something and the sheriff tells them that they'll have to be bailed out before they can leave. They're all pretty much freaking out at the idea that their parents are going to find out they were arrested.

Sam sees the news coverage and arrives at the Sheriff's office to bail them out. The Sheriff says bail totals $1000 for all of them which means $100 dollars must be paid. Sam goes through all his pockets and his shoes and manages to get $100 dollars out in rumpled bills and piles of coins. Before the transaction can be complete, however, PA arrives. She pays for the bail herself, tells the girls how very disappointed she is in all of them and then shepherds everyone outside to a waiting bus.

Dana, Faith, Shelley, Casey, Ellie, Cheryl, Ginny and someone named Joan are summoned to PA's house being the ringleaders of the grand plan and all. In private she hugs them and tells them how proud she is of all of them and how she will remember them fondly. She says she has to take a hard line in public, though, for the good of the school. They are astounded but grateful they aren't in extra trouble.

The whole campus is “docked” for a month meaning they can't leave campus or something and all is settled.

The media coverage is very anti-Owen/Data-Tech and pro-Canby. Chris manages to convince his dad to drop the charges against the Canby girls. None of them will have an actual police record from their protest. Dana, of course, finds it all very dreamy.

A day or so later, PA calls another early morning assembly. She announces that she's handed in her resignation. She's not leaving and she's staying on as leader of the school but she'll no longer be on the payroll because she can't take money from the people who are closing her beloved school. She says it will make a statement to the board that she doesn't believe in what they're doing.  Except.....the board isn't closing Canby down.  Owen is.  This makes no sense.

As she's talking, her secretary comes in and says she has an important note and a pile of shoe boxes. In the note is a message saying that “this” should do them for the first year. The shoe boxes are stuffed full of money (3 million dollars worth).

Owen arrives later that day to announce the Data-Tech deal fell through. They were spooked by all the adverse publicity and decided to look for another property to buy. PA lets him know they have an endowment for the first year anyway and he laughs when he sees it arrived in old shoe boxes. He says something about “that old nut” and leaves.

It turns out that Sam's dad made it big in the early 1900's mining gold in Alaska. Right before the stock market crash, he withdrew all his money and put it into shoe boxes and then bricked it up in the barn. There was 8 million dollars at that time. When his father died, he and his brother split it and Sam bricked his 4 million back up. Even after giving Canby 3 million of it, he still has a million left to last him the rest of his life and he's okay with that considering he's never ever spent any of it anyway.

The book ends with ghostie proclaiming that no matter what happens, no one can take Canby from their hearts and minds. #gag

Not only was this book stupid but there was no #Bplot.  We always have one of those.

The Least Annoying Person in Greenleaf Award: Um.....was it just me or was no one super annoying in this book?  I can't give it to everyone.  I think I'll give it to Joan.  I have no idea who the fuck she is or where the fuck she came from but she definitely didn't annoy me.

The Bitch of Baker House Award:  I have no idea who to hand this to either.  Everyone was pretty okay.  I guess I'll hand to to Dana for cheating on Randy AGAIN!!!

Coming Up Next: The girls are getting ready to vacation in Ft Lauderdale but a new girl throws a spanner in the works.