[books] Harry Potter dream, The Baby-Sitters Club thought, and Making Out fic

[escritoireazul]

This morning I woke up to a dream where I was mourning the loss of someone important in my life and ended up talking to Remus Lupin about it, which led to watching the Perseid meteor shower (which is supposed to be quite a show this year), which led to some really hot frottage. (It's quite possible I was Tonks in this dream, and we were both mourning Sirius.) And yet, in the middle of the dream, I'm thinking, "No, don't do this, you're not Sirius!" so maybe I do finally have an OTP. (Except not, because I'm pretty fond of the idea of Tonks/Lupin, if not always the execution.) Anyway, yes, that was a fun dream, except for the whole being in mourning at the beginning and the fact that my alarm woke me at the end when, somehow, Sirius walked in. Damn alarm.

So then I went to work my last Saturday shift, and then came home and packed for hours. Yeah, I leave here a week from yesterday. I am not yet ready, though I am making good progress. I have two more days of work, two stories to finish and post, and packing to do before my going away party Wednesday night. Thursday morning is already scheduled as hangover morning. The theme of my party is Make Carla Your Favorite Alcoholic Drink.

(If any of you will be in the area and want to attend, let me know and I'll send you an email with details.)

Friday night I plan to spend in a hotel, and Tuesday through Friday of the next week the school is putting me up in a hotel during early orientation, so I might have some internet access, but I don't know how much. Then I'll be in the new apartment, and I likely won't have any there for awhile. Plus I think I'll be quite busy with school, it being a program different from anything I've done and a good school, on top of that, so I'll be scarce here. I'll likely read more than I comment or post, but I will read when I can, and I'll miss you guys tons.

(Since there's all this movement, I'll repeat I'm escritoireazul at greatestjournal and insanejournal, and will be at journalfen if that's where everyone goes and I find someone to hook me up with an account. I've been trying to add people at those places as they've posted their names, but my internet time is dropping soon, as I've said.)

---

While thinking about The Baby-Sitters Club books, I was struck with this thought. It's always such a big deal that Mary Anne has two best friends, and the tension between Kristy and Dawn (the two best friends in question) comes up throughout the series. Which is one of the more believable things to me, actually; Kristy is the One in Charge, the One in Control, of course she'd hate sharing her best friend. However, I'm not sure why the idea of two best friends was supposed to be so shocking, especially when you consider the following.

Members of the BSC with two best friends:

Mary Anne (Kristy and Dawn)
Dawn (Mary Anne and Sunny)
Stacey (Claudia and Laine -- though, eventually she ends the friendship with Laine, and later still she and Claudia have that big fight and their friendship is never the same, either)
Jessi (Mallory and her cousin whose name I can't remember and all my books are packed Keisha?)

Members of the BSC with one best friend:

Kristy (Mary Anne)
Claudia (Stacey)
Mallory (Jessi)

Members of the BSC with no best friends:

Abby

And yet the two best friends thing is so weird when Mary Anne does it?

(Okay, technically I'm leaving out Logan and Shannon here, but they're associate members! Everyone knows they don't count!)

---

I'm working on my femgen story, and I'm really wishing my books weren't packed. I don't remember the end of one of Claire's plotlines. (I'm writing Making Out fic, which would thrill the girl, except she's never around anymore.)

However, I'm enjoying the story.

Comments

[lionessvalenti.livejournal.com]

Associate members really don't count. Even when Shannon was the official alternate officer when Dawn was in California the first time, Dawn got books that took place in CA, and Shannon got squat! Her name was the one on the back of the books, and she STILL didn't get regular series books. Poor Shannon, she gets the shaft.

[escritoireazul.livejournal.com]

You never, I've never thought about that, but you're right! All Shannon gets is one freaking book. I like Dawn, don't get me wrong, but it would have been nice for Shannon to be treated like a full time member when she was one.

[wisdomeagle]

Yes, Keisha.

I think it's the fact that (for large portions of the series), Mary Anne, Kristy, and Dawn all live in the same town so the competition is more apparent. And very few best friendships really survive long-distance. They're always *friends* but it's less immediate and threatening than having a rival who's just across town.

[escritoireazul.livejournal.com]

That is a good point. It does make sense to me that the MA, Kristy, and Dawn friendship triangle was the one with the most competition, because it was so immediate. Much like Claudia's jealousy toward Laine only appears when they're going to be in the same place at the same time.

It just always struck me as odd that they made such a big deal out of it, but then almost all of them would also talk about having two best friends. Maybe it was the competition between Dawn and Kristy (or, mostly, Kristy toward Dawn) which was so shocking.

[thestalkycop.livejournal.com]

What was the Claire plotline? Maybe I can help. I'm online today. I'd forgotten I had to go into town to sort out the new house - although it didn't pan out. We still have the house, we just didn't get any dates or money sorted out. I'm writing my 100s for Star. She's really kicking my ass today.

[escritoireazul.livejournal.com]

Do Claire and Paolo end up together? What are the dates in the last book? (Is it still 1997/1998?) Claire is still at university when the series ends, right?

(I'm writing Claire as Slayer fic, and I'm trying to extrapolate where she would be in 2003 from how the series ended. Unfortunately, I packed the last book (though I left out Falling For Claire for reference, I just didn't think about needing the end of the series, too).

[thestalkycop.livejournal.com]

By the final book, Claire has admitted that she's in love with Paolo, and also, she ends up in a really good mood and complimenting Zoey (which implies that this love is newer, shinier and better than the last ones).

I'm not sure about the dates, it was never particularly specific about what year this had happened. The only indication of time is when Nina is listening to "Don't Speak" by No Doubt (referring to it as something she has recently got into) during Claire's speech (validictorian?) during graduation from Weymouth High. It says on Wiki the song was released in 1996/97. The series ends a year later (or thereabouts), so your estimate of the timeline is about as right as we can be on something like this.

If you need me to look anything up, I'm happy to. I can't wait to see what Claire's like as a slayer.

[escritoireazul.livejournal.com]

Well, in Falling for Claire, Claire dates her journal entry at the very beginning (7 October 1977). Unfortunately, that's the only journal entry in the story. (There are letters, later, but they're not dated.) Does Claire have any journal entries in the last book?

I think that covers what I need. I almost wish I hadn't noticed the dates, I was going to fudge the timeline so Claire was called right after high school, but now that I have a concrete date, I'm going to stick with it.