FD #6: Freshman Games

B. Some storylines take a leap forward, and some new POVs are brought it, but it’s overbalanced: almost everything involves KC to some extent.

KC: She’s at a crafts fair selling the calendar (already on its second printing). She’s smitten with Warren Manning: Mr. December, Clark Gable. Or rather, his photo, since she hasn’t met him yet. Peter Dvorsky, the photographer, shows up to check on sales. He’s a bit abrasive: all he has to say about Courtney’s stunning photo is “Blondes are hard to light,” and that some people are going to draw a mustache on KC’s photo. After he leaves, Warren the Wonderful arrives and asks for KC’s number. Fangirl shrieks from KC, Winnie and Faith! 

KC has tea with Courtney in the Tri Beta house. KC wants to be a Tri Beta so bad she can taste it. (I wonder if she politely turned down the other two sororities that made offers, or just blanked them.) Courtney invites her to join spring rush, and also mentions the Winter Formal Court; she thinks KC has a good chance to be Freshman Princess. Which means KC needs a date. Funny how she feels compelled to mention Peter Dvorsky when she and Courtney are discussing the calendar. 

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I should break here to report on those new POVs. 
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Marielle: Courtney has a few words with her about the hazing article. She had believed Marielle (and Mark) when they’d told her the article “cruelly and falsely” maligned ODT, but now that it’s been fact-checked and published, she has to believe it. Courtney is opposed to hazing, and never would have expelled Lauren if she’d known the charges were true. (Maybe should have checked things out before pulling the trigger?) She also defends Lauren on the grounds of being “bright…talented writer and journalist…lovely person.” Courtney further warns Marielle that if she interferes with KC’s pledging, Marielle will be on her way out.

So Marielle will have to take her anti-KC campaign underground. A few days later, she’s with Mark, looking at skis; she drags him out of the store and starts having a meltdown. She’s had it with taking orders from Courtney, and she’d rather die than see KC pledge Tri Beta. According to her, KC and Lauren, between them, are a scourge on Greek life. It’s Lauren’s fault Mark was disciplined for the hazing incident and has to do community service; KC probably helped her get the hazing story, and definitely is the one who dropped a dime on Hammond and broke him up with Faith. And of course, the coffee-flinging incident in September. All true, but perhaps Mark, Marielle and Hammond should stop doing crummy things? And KC is turning Courtney against Marielle, or so Marielle thinks. Sorry, babe, it’s your nastiness that turns people against you. Mark agrees to do something to bring KC down, and it will happen the night of Winter Formal.

Dash: He’s at the Journal’s Xmas party, talking to a girl who he should be interested in…but he can’t get his mind off Lauren. He can’t believe he was betrayed; he should have known better, right? He leaves just as Lauren is coming in. He makes a snarky comment about Tri Beta, and Lauren tells him she’s no longer in the sorority, and no longer on her parents’ dime. She also tells him what really happened with Hammond, but Dash needs time to process that.

Back to KC: Later, she’s cranky, coming down with a cold, and brooding about not having a date for Winter Formal, especially not with Warren Manning, who should have called by now. To burn off some nervous energy, she goes to the snack bar. “Nobody important ever hung out there,” so of course Peter is there. After some verbal sparring and shoulder-to-shoulder contact, he offers to be her date. Even though she looks crummy, because, wow, he thinks there are more important things than looking perfect. KC’s in a better mood now, and thinks Peter is “certainly better than nothing,” so she accepts. 

Later she gets a C in Western Civ, which puts her in a crummy mood again. She’s about to call on Peter, who she knows won’t mind that she looks bad and her grades are bad. He’s so…comfortable. But Warren Manning is waiting outside her dorm. He’s called twice, which he states that never does, and he’s come looking for her, which he also never does. But he wants a stunner on his arm at Winter Formal, because he also wants to be in the court. Oh, she has a date? Break it!

But KC puts off breaking the date with Peter. Matthew Kallender comments on her and Peter being a couple: “The talented photographer and his beautiful model.” “How about the smart model and her talented photographer?” She gets just over $200 from the sale of the calendars, which is what she needs to get dolled up for the formal. She’s definitely going with Warren, and when she delivers Peter’s share of the profits, she breaks the date, claiming illness. He appears to take it in stride: “Sure, I’m excited about going. But I get excited…about taking pictures of tomatoes…Just because you’re gorgeous doesn’t mean that I think that going to a dance with you has to be the high point of my life.” KC is stung, and snaps back that she’s going, all right — with someone else. Which makes her “fickle, inconsiderate, and dumb.” 

Later, she’s with Winnie and Josh while they’re clowning around in a western-wear shop. She gets increasingly fed up: Winnie slacks off and gets A’s, she busts her ass and gets C’s, and Winnie is so happy with Josh, while KC has a date with a handsome upperclassman and is not happy about it at all. She makes a snide remark, Winnie makes a snide remark about her breaking the date with Peter. and KC counters that that’s no worse than Winnie letting Josh think that Travis has left town. Record-scratching noise: Josh overheard that. He walks out, and Winnie follows, after telling KC she’ll never forgive her. 

At Winter Formal, KC is having a miserable time. Cold medicine is making her loopy, Warren is only interested in her as an accessory, and she feels terrible about Peter and about Winnie. Meanwhile, Marielle looks for a way to humiliate KC, and decides to arrange an accident at a construction site. “KC helped drag [Mark] through the mud. Now it’s time to return the favor.”

KC is fantasizing about Peter swooping in and declaring himself (yeah right) when Marielle cuts in, claiming that Courtney wants to talk to her privately. Except Marielle can’t find the construction site, and while she’s looking for it, Winnie charges up. Pool push! Except it’s not played for laughs; Winnie regrets it immediately, and it doesn’t come off like KC deserved it. And this works very much to Marielle’s advantage: “It’s about time you found out who your real friends are.” She lends KC her own gown, slicks her hair back, and fixes her makeup. Exotic, and what an impression to drastically change her appearance halfway through the dance! 

Of course KC wins Freshman Princess: all part of Marielle’s plan to set KC up for a fall from a greater height. In fact, the next day, she brings a get-well basket, and hangs out in KC’s room acting motherly. Later, she calls on Peter again — “I heard you won goddess of the harvest, or whatever they call it” — and apologizes. He halfway accepts. Stay tuned…

I should mention that Peter has a motorcycle (!) and his room is wall-to-wall with photos he took. He’s very intense, and not trying to impress KC, which of course is why she’s impressed. 

Lauren: Her calling card (remember those?) has been cancelled, along with all her credit cards. Well, at least without the calling card, she won’t be tempted to grovel to Mommy Dearest. Of course, she has no clue how to handle money. And Winnie gives her the terrible news that the guy who hit her was also uninsured. Well, Lauren knows that “if she wimped out now, it was all over for her.” 

So she has to get a job. (She did get $7000 for what was left of the car.) Gee, no skills, no experience: good luck finding a job. Well, she has some unspecified volunteer work, to make up a very thin resume. So she’ll be a maid at the Springfield Mountain Inn. It looks as if meals are included, which is a perk she’ll come to appreciate, believe me. But…cleaning toilets, while wearing a uniform with a cap? Yikes! It’s to her credit, though, that she doesn’t slack off and doesn’t cop an attitude about this being beneath her. (She does balk at wearing the cap, but she has to if she wants to keep the job, so on it goes.)

She has to work at the hotel the night the Winter Formal is happening there. She’s never had a date to a dance. (Seriously? Not even a blind date? Private schools like the one she went to usually have dances with their brother schools, because part of their purpose is to marry the girls off.) Anyway, she’d had a flicker of hope that this time would be different, but of course it’s not. Seeing Dash stroll through the lobby (not on a date) doesn’t help. He’s there to take photos for the Journal, and when he sees KC, he asks about Lauren. She’d told him she was working at the Inn, and he hopes to run into her. :::melt:::

Also, Lauren is a bystander while Marielle transforms KC, and endures a zinger (“I didn’t go through all this work to have you sit back here and watch Lauren fold sheets.”). There’s something very real about this scene; I can see it in a TV show. At the end of her shift, almost the end of the dance, she encounters Dash, also leaving. They walk in almost-silence, and then zing! Dash grabs her, they kiss, all is forgiven and forgotten, and they run into the ballroom for the last dance. (Her in her maid’s uniform, him in jeans and a leather jacket. How nineties.) 

Winnie: Travis has not yet left town, and KC is nagging her about this: tell Josh before he finds out in a bad way! Meanwhile, she partied all night with Josh, then they went up to the mountains and watched the sun rise. Wonder if they did anything else? 😉 For Winter Formal, they plan to dress unconventionally, then meet at the hotel. They also exchange the Big L. 

Winnie is applying herself more to schoolwork. She pulled an all-nighter to write her Intro to Film semester paper, and got an A. She stays in Josh’s room to study, and actually does.

Now she’s going to the Beanery to tell Travis it’s over between them. (Wasn’t that settled in the last installment?) KC gets bent out of shape and accuses Winnie of stringing along both guys. At the Beanery, Winnie pleads with Travis to move on when his gig here is finished. For his career. Is there someone else? Uh…no. Is she only concerned about his career? Uh…yes. 

So the night of the Formal, she’s waiting by the hotel pool, where she and Josh were supposed to meet. She’s not dressed up, just blinking back tears and hoping against hope he’ll show up. He does, but he’s with Travis. They’d spent most of the previous night talking and drinking and talking, and now they’re going to let her make the decision. Which she can’t. She’s favoring Josh, but she cares just enough about Travis that she can’t turn him down to his face. “Either choose or we both walk.” “I can’t…it doesn’t work like that.” So both guys turn and leave. 

Afterwards, Winnie wanders around distraught (which will soon become a pattern), stopping to cry on Lauren’s shoulder a bit (seriously? Not like she’s working or anything) before she sees KC by the pool. Next day, Josh is neutral, which Winnie takes as a bad sign. Travis doesn’t even say goodbye. KC won’t talk to her either. Winnie is starting to hate herself. 

Melissa: She also has a cold, and Winnie tells her she can’t tough it out and go to class and practice, because she’ll get sicker. Especially in sleety cold weather. Brooks shows up with soup, OJ, vitamins, the whole nine. Winnie says goodbye and they don’t notice from inside their cloud of hearts. Aw! Interesting that Josh + Winnie works because they’re opposites, while Melissa + Brooks works because they’re similar. 

A few days later, she’s not quite over her cold, but wants to go to the gym anyway. Brooks won’t let her; she doesn’t appreciate being ordered around; he counters that he’s concerned, not bossy; she goes to the gym after all. 

Days later, while everyone else is at the dance, Melissa and Brooks are in the weight room. Brooks would rather be anywhere Melissa is. They’re coming to terms: Melissa is defensive, but she can change; Brooks is overprotective, but he can change. 

Faith: She basically has a cameo in this. Her Alice performances are coming up. Her independent study grade rides on them, as well as her theater-dept. reputation going forward. Apparently it all goes well, which is why it barely rates a mention. 

Also, she’s not going to referee between Winnie and KC. Except, after a few days of neutrality, that’s what she starts doing, by suggesting that KC, Winnie and Josh all go downtown together, to get what they need for the formal. And we know how that ends. After the dance, she says, deliberately in Melissa’s hearing, that her life has gotten better since she’s become single. 

Tidbits: KC is selling the calendars at a post-Christmas craft fair, where an “old, dried-up Christmas tree” is for sale. Except, how can Christmas have already happened? We’re told that a black guy is student body president, and he posed for the calendar as Sidney Poitier. While KC is having tea with Courtney, she turns down the offer of cake, wanting to appear disciplined. Honestly, why worry so much about image? Being so uptight can make a bad impression. (Remember this later!) 

Speaking of image, Warren is so obsessed with his own image (tanning salon in the middle of winter, wanting KC to stand on his “best side”), that I wonder if he’s into girls at all except as co-stars. He wants to be an model/actor, but his parents insisted he get a degree.

Lauren’s cancelled credit cards include AmEx, Saks, Visa Gold and MasterCard. After calling those companies, she decides to “save her change” instead of calling the others. Except, it should be an 800 number to call a CC company. And jeez, she has more than four cards?! At age 18?!

Funny: Marielle, to Mark: “Courtney wants KC in the Tri Betas so badly she’d give up her Lady Clairol for it.” Also funny is Marielle trying to storm away from Mark, but her tight skirt and super-high heels making it impossible to do more than hobble. Josh has designed a video game that has corn dogs fighting Twinkies. “And for this you need a college education?” Winnie asks.