#4 Patti's New Look

Lauren, Kate, Stephanie and Patti are at Stephanie's house for their Friday night sleepover. They are reading a teen magazine, talking about their favorite celebrities and learning how to kiss by using pillows and their arms. Of course, Lauren is more concerned about food. They eat some peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies and caramel popcorn. Then they decide to take a quiz in the magazine called "Are You Cautious or Carefree?"

I used to love taking those quizzes in teen magazines! The answers were always a little too obvious though. Here's a few of the questions. Try to figure out if you are cautious or carefree!

You'll be spending Saturday with a new friend from school. When she asks what you'd like to do, you reply:
a. I think it would be fun to just play it by ear
b. I've made a list of things we could choose from
c. Let's go to a movie

While you're shopping with your friends, you try on an outfit that looks great on you, but is different from anything you've ever worn. Would you:
a. ask your friends and other people in the store what they think before you make up your mind
b. buy the outfit and feel great every time you put it on
c. hang it back up, because you know you'd never have the nerve to wear it

When you go to dinner at a new restaurant and discover there's nothing on the menu that you recognize, do you:
a. look on it as an adventure and pick something yourself
b. ask the waiter to bring the closest thing he's got to a hamburger
c. decide you're not hungry and couldn't possibly eat a thing

A friend calls on Thursday to invite you on an exciting trip that weekend with her and her parents. You:
a. start cramming stuff into a suitcase - you can hardly wait!
b. tell her you can't - you'd need a lot more time to get ready
c. think about it for awhile, then call her back and say yes

Stephanie gets 25 points which means she is daring and carefree. Kate and Lauren score in the middle. Patti ends up with so few points that the article says "Are you still breathing? You'd better loosen up, fast!" Patti is upset and says she doesn't know how they can stand her, because she's too boring to live!

The next morning, the girls go shopping at Dandelion, which sells "really great kids' clothes." They are looking for outfits to wear to a skating party the next weekend. Stephanie finds a sweater that has red and white squiggles on it, that will be perfect with her black stretch pants. (I would have loved this outfit when I was their age!) Kate picks out a sweater with yellow and green zigzags and some dark green leg warmers. Lauren gets a turquoise and black top, and Patti grabs a long, hooded navy blue sweater dotted with white snowflakes. As they are walking to the fitting rooms, Patti looks at her sweater and is disgusted by how boring she is. She finds some new clothes to try on: an electric blue stretch jumpsuit, bright orange tights, a black western shirt with rhinestones all over the back, a belt made from a bike chain, and shiny yellow suspenders. (I would not have liked any of those clothes!)

However, here's the outfit Patti decides on (shown on the cover): a pink polka dot sweater, a poison-green mini skirt, and striped pink leggings.

After shopping, the girls go to Charlie's Soda Fountain. They always sit in the last booth and order the same things: Kate gets a float with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, Stephanie orders a chocolate milk shake, Lauren gets a banana smoothie and Patti has a lime freeze. However, this time, Patti decides she needs to try something new and she orders the Secret Weapon. Supposedly it's a combination of everything in the place. It comes in a tall frosted glass with exploding fireworks stamped on it. It's thick and dark, kind of a brownish-purple color, with ice cubes floating in it. Patti drinks the entire thing, describing it as very sweet, and kinda coats your throat like cough medicine. Yum! Who wouldn't want to try that? I'd much rather have Kate's float. Since Patti finished the whole thing, she gets another one for free. She takes a few sips and then has to stop because she doesn't feel too good.

At school on Monday, the girls are talking about their friend Jane's upcoming skating party. Patti has some bad news--she can't go. Her old friend Karen is going to be staying with her for the week. Karen and Patti's parents taught at the same university years ago, but they have since moved to California. They'll be in town because Karen's sister is going to look at colleges. Kate asks if Patti's friend can go to the party too, and Jane says yes. Patti said the last time she saw Karen, she was short, thin, really quiet and always reading.

The girls all go to Jane's house for the party. Jane's parents went all out: platters of sandwiches, barbecue potato chips, Cheese Doodles, dip, vegetable sticks, potato salad, brownies, Dr Pepper and Cherry Coke. After eating, it's time to head to the skating rink. But first, the girls all pile into the bathroom to comb their hair. (I totally remember doing this when I was younger! I HAD to comb my hair before I went anywhere!)

The girls and some of their guy friends are all having fun at the rink when Patti and her friend Karen finally show up. Patti is wearing her crazy new outfit she bought the other day. But her friend Karen has outdone her. She's wearing a rubber mini skirt!

Comfortable or not, the mini looked great. It was a deep red. Karen Lawson had on white leg warmers, and her sweater was red sprinkled with black lines and white circles and crosses, like a tic-tac-toe game. One of her arms was loaded with sparkling bangle bracelets that clinked as she moved, and a gold feather earring dangled from one ear... and she didn't even look tacky! Her hair was honey-colored, shoulder-length, and a mass of tight little waves.

The boys go crazy over Karen. The Sleepover Friends are not as impressed.

After skating, they head back to Jane's house and eat more food: caramel popcorn, tiny pepperoni pizzas, shrimp dip, and a big cheddar cheese ball with olives and pimientos in it. Karen impresses all the girls with stories of what it's like living in California--going to Malibu, seeing celebrities, windsurfing and sleeping in the nude. She brags that she knows all about astrology because she studied with an astrologer named Zoltan, and tells all their girls their horoscopes. The Sleepover Friends are not impressed, and Kate thinks something is up.

The next morning, the Sleepover Friends are ready to go. Being sleepover experts, they are over this one. That afternoon they hang out with Karen for awhile but Lauren and Kate bail early when Karen invites Lauren's crush to go to the movies with them. Lauren and Kate go to the library and find an old copy of a teen magazine. Turns out all the stories Karen told about living in California were taken from the magazine! They decide to confront Patti at the next sleepover.

The sleepover is at Patti's house and the girls are dismayed to find out how much Patti has changed because of hanging out with Karen. She got rid of all her stuffed animals, got a new bedspread instead of her old quilt, and changed her cat's old-fashioned name (Adelaide) to the trendy name Tanya. Patti confides in Lauren that she doesn't like all the changes Karen has insisted on. It's just not her. Kate is trying to get Karen to confess to making up everything, when all of a sudden, Karen's sister bursts through the door - and she is angry!

Before we find out why, let's see what Karen's sister is wearing: a black and white sweater, a black rubber mini, black tights, and long, dangly earrings.

Turns out, Karen stole all of her sister's clothes, in order to be cooler. She took the same quiz as the other girls took, and her score was as low as Patti's! So she stole her sister's clothes and figured the trip would be her chance to reinvent herself. Once everything is all settled, it's time to eat! Karen had made Patti's parents take her buy sushi, but of course the girls are not about to eat it! What 5th graders would eat sushi? I didn't try it until I was like 23 years old! So they decide to order a pizza. Then they play some Mad Libs and everyone is laughing and having fun.