#127 Abby's Un-Valentine

Summary

It's February again, which means that it's almost time for Valentine's Day. Everyone at SMS is totally wrapped up in love, romance, and the upcoming V-Day Dance, except Abby. She's not into romance, and she doesn't want to go to the dance. She's sick of reading love poems in English class, sick of all the hearts and flowers, and sick of hearing her friends talk about nothing else than the dance. Then, she gets an invitation to the dance from Ross Brown. Abby likes Ross okay...as a friend. She doesn't like him romantically, and she doesn't want to go the dance at all, so she turns him down. No one in the BSC understands why Abby would turn him down, even when she tries to explain it to them. Anna doesn't understand, either. In fact, Kristy is the only person who seems to get where Abby's coming from with her whole anti-Valentine's Day stance (she's still a little touchy over the way things ended with Bart).

The weekend after Ross asks Abby to the dance, he shows up at her house with flowers. Clearly, he didn't get the message that Abby's not interested. She notices, though, that Ross and Anna seem to have a lot in common, and that Anna seems interested in him. So, she invites Ross over to her house to talk about things (and to make it clear to him that she doesn't like him). Abby plans to have Kristy call her while Ross is there, leaving him alone with Anna. Unfortunately, Ross mistakes Anna for Abby and vice versa, and they don't bother to correct him. Their mom comes home while Ross is still there, and she blows their cover. Ross is humiliated, and leaves. Anna is also pretty mad at Abby, since she feels her own chances with Ross are now ruined. The girls both try to apologize to Ross at school the next day, but he ignores them. Finally, they go over to his house and corner him until he accepts their apology. He even asks Anna out, after he finds out that she's the one who's into classical music and flowers, not Abby. The two of them even go to the V-Day Dance together, while Abby happily spends the evening at the movies with Kristy.

In other news, it's time for Scout to leave the Thomas-Brewer house for more guide dog training. The whole family is going to miss her, but Andrew is having a particularly hard time dealing with it. He's just returned from staying with Lisa and Seth in Chicago, and he sees Scout as "his" dog. After all, David Michael has Shannon, and Karen has Pumpkin (they got her when Boo Boo died). Andrew REALLY doesn't want to let Scout go, so he does all sorts of things to try and sabotage her guide dog training. In the end, though, he realizes that he has to let Scout do the job she's meant to do, and David Michael gives him part ownership in Shannon.

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• I've never been a regular passenger on the "Kristy and Abby are lesbians" train, but I have to admit....this book makes me a bit suspicious. :)
• When exactly did Boo Boo die? This is (I think) the second book that mentions Pumpkin, and the first one to mention that Boo Boo is actually dead.
• Another question: when, why, and how did Andrew end up in Chicago while Karen stayed in Stoneybrook? The whole Andrew in Chicago situation was mentioned in some of the more recent books, but not in others.
• At the beginning of the book, Abby says she hopes that SMS isn't as obsessed with V-Day as her old school in Long Island. She should have already known the answer to that question, though, since she's been in Stoneybrook for at least one other February.