Popularity+Papers

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Characters
Lydia (main) lives with mom and weird sister Melody who is a goth Julie (main) lives with her two dads: Daddy and Papa Dad Melody(minor) Lydia's sister who turned goth when in Junior High Gretchen Meyer (minor) Most popular girl with a streak of blonde in her hair; runs for class President = loses Lisa Kovac (minor) Rich popular girl lives with her ultra skinny mom Jane Astley (minor) popular drama girl Sukie Thoms (minor) popular athletic girl...very mysterious Roland Asbjornsen (minor) boy who likes likes Julie Michael Cavelleri (minor) super popular boy Ross Denenberg (minor) tall popular boy Jamie Burke (minor) popular boy that is a little loud and crazy Mr. Peters (minor) young teacher that everyone has a crush on

Setting
Middle school Roland's house Buck's Valley camp

Plot /Main events
Julie and Lydia want to be popular in school Decide to make a secret club to watch the popular girls to see how to be popular Julie has neat hand writing and can draw; Lydia is the experimenter and editor writes in script Call their club "Learn/Improve" written in the shape of lips Lydia uses regular bleach (cleaning bleach) to dye her hair. The hair falls out and she gets in trouble and has to have her hair cut. The girls see Sukie knitting on the bus and decide to try it. Papa Dad takes the girls to knitting store and makes them swear an oath to not give it up right away. They learn knitting language like "skein" = ball of yarn and try knitting for one night before giving it up. They keep it a secret from Papa Dad. Lydia asks for song audition suggestions. She decides to go with "On My Own" from //Les Miserables.// 4 other people sing the same song, so she does the only other song she knows...the Mattress Kingdom commercial song. She gets a role as a nun in the nun chorus. The musical is //The Sound of Music//. The girls decide they need cell phones. Reasons: the world is big and they will never be lost; find out the weather if they have internet; use them as flashlights. They are denied so they try a different plan, running away. They decide to runaway to Roland's house; he is from Norway. The first time they stay till 4:30 in the afternoon and are not missed. Then they go for dinner and get in trouble when they go home at 8:00. The Asbjornsen's have a lot of trolls in the house and eat fish paste. There are two brothers: Peder who is a senior in high school and Anders who is 13 and knows Melody. The father's name is Thor. They had hamburgers for dinner so Julie didn't have to eat her peanut butter sandwich in the bathroom. As a punishment, Julie had to write 5 haikus about how she was wrong and Lydia had to polish her mom's silver and a pitcher. Julie does get a cell phone but it is ancient! The girls decide that since popular girls talk about boys, they need to like boys too...who to like? Julie imagines that the lead, Jane, has a freak rodeo accident with a bull that breaks her leg. Lydia is the only one that can do the part. She is brilliant and Broadway Producers want her as their next big star! Then a unicorn vomits up pirate treasure and everyone is rich. Now for the real thing: Lydia does well. Jane is perfect and Mr. Peter's comes to the play with his girlfriend! No one knows her name. The girls go to the library to use the internet because the rules at Julie's house are: no internet without permission; no internet unless a parent is present; parent has the right to turn off the computer at any time; parent in the room can comment on whatever you are look at. The girls try searching on the internet using "Mr. Peter's girlfriend" as a search term...it turns up nothing. Gossip has it that she does not have true red hair, she has a tattoo and she had on a dress. 5th grade goes every year to sleep in cabins and learn about nature. This is in March. Lydia gets a kid cell phone in the shape of a ladybug. It is hideous and big and dopey. Big plastic buttons...she is horrified! The girls take scented lotion so they don't smell; writing utensils and markers to continue their observations; extra pillowcase to hide the Handbook; extra socks and underwear to hide because Melody told them to... Julie's cabin has Gretchen and Lisa in it. Lydia's cabin has the field hockey girls in it. During the Team Building activity on the Ropes Course, Julie gets hurt and has to go home. Popular boy Mike C. tells everyone Julie was attacked by a bear and that is why she went home. Crazy popular boy Jamie climbs trees and burns all his marshmellows and his mouth...Outdoor Educator Bill is not going to miss him. Lydia kind of learns how to build a fire. Lydia decides she is going to like Chuck, Mike's middle school brother. She is going to take Eskrima lessons...stick fighting lessons to get to know him. Lydia is the only girl in the class. Julie kind of tells Roland she has a cruch on him in music class. He writes a poem about her. He shows it to Miss Blanche (music teacher) and she wants to turn it into a song for the spring concert. School talent show is coming up. Roland's poem is a song sung in Norwegian for the spring concert. Papa Dad has an idea about "embracing the words" people say about Lydia and "Goldbladder." He plays an old record called "Goldfinger" that gives the girls an idea. They change the "Goldfinger" to "Goldbladder" and change some lyrics...Lydia rocks the talent show. Mike calls her "Goldy" now instead of "Goldbladder." Jamie gives an act that is a singing eating peanut butter combo...he is asked to leave the stage. Both girls make the field hockey team because the field hockey girls are scarier NOT to have as friends. Lydia isn't allowed to join the team because of eskrima lessons. Julie is the only one to play...it is her goal not to get hurt and to find out why Sukie is so mysterious. Sukie is mysterious because her dad died when she was young and her mother is sick. Her aunt sends fancy cars to pick her up. Julie feels bad for Roland when Lisa pretends to flirt with him because she likes his brother, Pete. Lydia thinks Julie likes Roland. Lydia tries out for the solo in the spring concert and gets it. The solo is the song Roland wrote for Julie. Julie is mad! Julie is hanging out more and more with field hockey girls like Sukie. Lydia gets an invite to sleepover at Gretchen's. Gretc**hen's Sleepover:** house is huge there are four dogs Gretchen, Jane and Lydia slept on the floor. Lisa slept on the couch because she needs to sleep on soft surfaces. Lydia learns that Birgit, Gretchen's older sister, knew Melody. They were friends until the Buck's Valley trip when Birgit stole Melody's socks and underwear and never gave them back. All the kids called Melody...smelly melly. Sukie misses a practice because her mom is unwell. The team makes a card for her and Julie draws the picture. Everyone loves it and wants Julie to draw some more. Dee Nutter wants Julie to help with her campaign posters. That is a problem because Gretchen is running too. This splits the two friends: Julie = Dee ; Lydia = Gretchen. Lydia is hanging out more and more with Gretchen and Lisa. Lisa's house has no clutter anywhere. All of a sudden Lydia thinks Chuck is a loser because the other girls think that. Lydia starts listening to other things the popular girls are saying and they are not very nice. She tells Julie bad things about Dee like that she is dyslexic, she would only do things for the field hockey team and that her first name is difficult to pronounce. Lydia sits with those girls at lunch now and leaves out Julie. The girls make fun of Julie's all dad family and Lydia doesn't even stick up for her. Mrs. Mulligan catches the girls in the bathroom flushing the toilet a lot and sends both of them to the nurse. At the nurse's office, they both talk about Lisa in a mean way and she is behind one of the nurse's curtains and hears everything. Both girls act like it never happened and do not apologize.Julie wants to apologize...Lydia does not. At the concert, Lisa convinces Lydia to explain what the song means and who wrote for Julie. Lydia says it in front of the whole school. Julie hates Lydia. Julie refuses to talk to Lydia for quite some time. Julie makes a list of why Lydia is a bad friend: greedy, bossy, stupid, lazy and selfish. Gretchen's posters are lame and she loses the election. Lydia is lying more and more, now even the popular girls are ignoring her. She found out that her sister Melody can knit and knit well. She has learned quite a bit since Melody has shown her. Julie has posters everywhere for all kinds of things like the new Art club. Lydia still is not talking to Julie but she wants to...she is going to try and talk to her in Art Club because she is afraid to go to her house because the dads may be mad at her and she will be distracted at a field hockey game. In Art club, Lydia gives Julie a scarf for Papa Dad...he loves it and wears it even though it is hot outside. Everything is all good between the girls now. Melody likes to hang out at the knitting store.
 * Experiment #1:** Blond streaking
 * Experiement#2: Knitting**
 * Experiment #3: School musical**
 * Experiment #4: cell phones**
 * The BOYS:**
 * Opening Night:**
 * Buck's Valley:**
 * BOYS part 2:**
 * APRIL**
 * May:**

Theme
Your friends should be the people you like the most. Friendship Honesty True to your self