483. Sweet Dreams Recap: Laurie’s Song by Suzanne Rand

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Sarah Wendell: Hi there, and welcome to episode number 483 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. This week we are recapping Laurie’s Song by Suzanne Rand, which is book three in the Sweet Dreams Romance series. Buckle up; we’ve got exhausting friendships, boring musician boyfriends, old Laurie versus new Laurie, makeup versus reading, and there is some outstanding outfit description and poetry. Oh yes, there’s poetry. I cannot wait to get started.

When I did the last Sweet Dreams, which was The Popularity Plan, Mom of 3 Boys J on Instagram said they can hear the Dodge Dart coming down the street, which (a) cracked me up and (b) wait until you hear some of the descriptions in this book. AllAboutAnns on Instagram said, I loved The Popularity Plan back in the day, and I have to say thank you again for all of the enthusiasm and for letting me know how much you’re enjoying the Sweet Dreams recaps. It’s a new thing for me, and I’m really excited how much you’re enjoying it! And JenSantesoller, and I hope I said that correctly, on Instagram, when I shared some of the clips from The Popularity Plan said, oh my Jesus, I adored this book. I loved the descriptions of her outfits and makeup. Jen, hold onto your makeup brush, because today’s book has some absolutely stunning outfits, and I feel like it is perfect for you.

Now, if you are looking for additional podcasts to fill your eardrums with, may I recommend Feminists Without Mystique.

First Feminist Without Mystique: Does the current political climate make you want to move to that island in Japan with a bunch of cats?

Second Feminist Without Mystique: No!

First Feminist Without Mystique: Okay, well, you know what I mean: like a beach somewhere, cats optional.

Second Feminist Without Mystique: Well, yeah, without the cats, because the current political climate makes me want to be in the fetal position all day.

First Feminist Without Mystique: Check out Feminists Without Mystique! New podcast episodes released every Wednesday. Me-wow!

Second Feminist Without Mystique: Oh God.

[Laughter]

Sarah: I will have links to where you can find Feminists Without Mystique and all of the things we talk about in this episode in the show notes, and you can find Feminists Without Mystique everywhere you get your fine, fine podcasts.

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I also think that you should enjoy this podcast responsibly, which means that I should share with you the cover copy so you know what we’re talking about here. Are you ready?

Laurie Adams isn’t sure who she is anymore, a good student who writes beautiful poetry or a star-struck groupie for the local rock band? She’s being pulled apart by two very different boys who are fighting for her affection.

I just want you to know that, actually, none of that is true.

Skip is a budding rock star and the most handsome boy in school. He wants Laurie to write lyrics for his songs and take the leap to fame and fortune. Then there’s Jeff, a hard worker determined to do more with his life than just get by on good looks like Skip. Jeff wants Laurie to discover life and love on her own terms – and his. Which boy should Laurie choose? Which one will make her happy?

This cover copy is very inaccurate, as we will soon discover.

So the tag line for this one is, Is she being used, or is she being loved? Which is creepy as heck.

I also want to tell you – I don’t know how I didn’t notice this – that on the spine of the novel is the price, and the price is $1.75, and I remember being very stressed about having two dollars to buy these. In this used edition, there is a handmade library checkout card and holder in the back made from blue and pink index cards, and it is so cute. It says Sweet Dreams Number 3, and then underneath there’s an initials that says ERC. So I don’t know if this was part of a classroom library or if this was just somebody’s super cool private library, but this book was never checked out. I don’t think I’m the first one to read it, though, ‘cause the spine is a little bit bent.

Shall we get started? This book – prepare yourselves – there are outstanding outfits in this one. I have written them all down, and also, brace yourself for poetry, because there’s also poetry in this one. I will read this as pretentiously as I possibly can. So let’s start!

Chapter one: Starts off with a rhetorical question, and I’ve heard editors and agents and other authors say you should never ask a rhetorical question in your book. Like, okay, well, we’re starting one here, so flouting all the rules. “Have you ever thought sometimes that it’s more fun to imagine things than to actually do them?”

Yes, yes, Laurie, I have.

Laurie, it seems, has been dreaming about the first day of school, and now that it’s here she would really much prefer it remained a dream. Okay! She has this fantasy version of high school, if you’re wondering why someone would dream all summer about the first day of school? She has this vision of boys chasing her down the hall to go to the Soph Hop – not the Sock Hop, the Soph Hop, S-O-P-H. There’s going to be teachers applauding her original poetry and popular girls insisting that they will cancel their parties if Laurie can’t come, and geeze, her imagination is putting a lot of pressure on her! All of that sounds very stressful!

Why wasn’t she happier about being a senior, or in senior high school? I learn this later in the book, but I’ll explain real quick: apparently this school is sophomore, junior, senior is senior high, and junior high is another set of grades. Laurie is scared of senior high, there’s no avoiding it, and it turns out the reason why is that she’s never been on a date. The fact that the school was the biggest school and that there would be all sorts of “strange boys in my classes” really scared her, hence the whole problem with not having been on a date. Quote:

I was dying to have some guy ask me to go to the movies or for a burger and shake because he wanted to get to know me, but I couldn’t imagine what I would do if someone actually did.

So she’s sort of psyching herself out a little bit. She’s terrified of making a poor first impression, and then we have several pages where she second- and third-guesses what to wear. So here we start early with these outfits. “Green and yellow plaid shirtwaist: no, too dowdy. Brown skirt and tan sweater: too hot.” ‘Cause it’s still in the 70s, the book says. “Jeans: too sloppy.” Then she takes a break from clothing, tries to put on makeup, puts on too much, and then rubs it off so her face is red. I can really relate to this whole scene. [Laughs]

But then, yay! Laurie decides she’s going to be comfortable in an outfit that she likes. She wears a jeans skirt, a Hawaiian print blouse, and beaded moccasins. “At least I’d feel like me in them, not someone else in disguise.” Good call! Also, foreshadowing.

Time for chapter two! Laurie’s mom tells her to say hello to Didi for her, but alas, there is no Didi, and I think this is a solid development. Turns out Didi’s been away all summer and was supposed to hang out with Laurie the night before school started, but instead she wanted to listen to albums with her older sister, whom she has previously said she does not like but suddenly likes her a lot. Laurie thinks about the phone call they had about getting together, which Didi canceled on, and Didi kind of makes it really clear that she thinks Laurie is boring.

She – [laughs, clears throat] – Laurie says, “I wanted to show you some of the poems I wrote over the summer and see what you thought of them.” So, I mean, Didi didn’t want to come over for a private poetry reading, which is understandable, but Didi’s response is kind of rude.

“Laurie,” she said, dragging my name out like molasses, “who wants to spend their last night of freedom reading, for goodness sake? And you know, it’s silly to have best friends in high school.”

“Since when do you hate to read my poems? You never thought they were dumb before. I suppose now you think best friends are silly to have, you don’t care about being on the Honor Roll either, right?”

So yeah, they’re going to have a little fight, and it’s a little awkward.

So it turns out that Coreen, who is Didi’s sister, is dating the star fullback on the football team, and Coreen is a cheerleader, so Didi is after that popularity boost by proximity. So Didi is getting a ride with them so she won’t have to walk with Laurie to the bus stop. Weird that they don’t offer Laurie a ride, but whatever. Laurie is very hurt, and I do feel bad for her, but this friendship does not seem to be the greatest.

So Laurie walks to the school bus stop alone, and some dude nearly hits her ‘cause she’s not paying attention to where she’s going! And a girl at the stop who she knows, Janie, asks if she’s okay and is surprised that Laurie isn’t more upset. Well, the reason Laurie isn’t more upset is because car dude who drives quickly was really gorgeous and yelled out the window, “’Eyes up, beautiful!’” So Laurie’s kind of dazed by this whole experience. Meanwhile, Janie is super nice, and her brother is really popular too and plays football, and Laurie thinks:

I didn’t know her very well, even though she always went out of her way to be friendly and had usually picked me for her team whenever she was a field hockey captain in gym class. I guess I’d always thought of Janie as being a little bit out of my league and didn’t expect her to want to be close friends with me.

So as this book opens up, Laurie is in a friendship with someone who demonstrates that she looks down on her and is emotionally unkind, but then when someone who she perceives as more popular is nice to her, she thinks that that person’s out of her league. So Laurie is very shy, and she thinks she’s not popular enough to be friends with people like Janie, and she’s tying herself up in knots trying to think of something to say the entire ride to school. And they arrive, and Laurie dreams of one day, maybe next year, being confident and noisy on the first day instead of shy and feeling out of place. She’s working up the courage to ask Janie if she could walk into the school with them, and she hears Didi calling her.

I turned around to look for her. If I had any pride, I told myself, I’d ignore her and walk away by myself. But even as I told myself that, I was heading across the parking lot to meet her.

Well, that’s just too bad.

Chapter three: Does Didi start off by insulting Laurie’s outfit, calling her skirt old and ratty? Yes, because Didi is terrible. Laurie can tell that Wes and Coreen – [laughs] – had ditched Didi, so Didi waited for Laurie so she’d have someone to walk into school with and, you know, someone to put down so she can feel better about herself – ugh!

Didi looks great! She is – [laughs] – she is wearing, on the first day of school, tight beige slacks; a sheer, champagne-colored cotton blouse with a camisole underneath; and high-heeled sandals that made her much taller than Laurie.

So first of all, I love all these outfits, and second, ouch! Heels at school? Geeze!

Heads up for some nice girl-on-girl cruelty: Didi puts down Laurie the entire time they walk to class. “’You’re too pretty to let yourself go.’” God, the negging. “Either Didi didn’t hear the pleading note beneath my sarcasm…” after she called Didi the sexpot type – ugh! – “…or she was enjoying making me squirm; I couldn’t tell which.” And in all caps I have written, IF YOU CAN’T TELL, THIS GIRL IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!

Ugh, the exhausting friendships of high school, where incompatible people are drawn together because of the drama. Ask me how I know. Was that true for you too?

Anyway, Didi tells Laurie that she has plans for senior high: dates and parties, not classes and studying and poetry, which I’m pretty sure is not going to be compatible with the whole this-is-how-you-do-well-in-school thing? Didi is way down on Laurie’s poetry and Laurie’s clothes and everything about her, and then the bell rings and they’re going to be late because Laurie was standing around letting Didi make her feel bad. She’s very concerned that she’s going to be ruined socially because she’s not cool enough. She feels like her clothes are all wrong and that she looks like an elementary school kid.

Then, again not looking where she was going – bit of a theme – she bumps into a guy in the hall. Books everywhere! And is it the same dude from the car? Yes! He helps her pick up her books and then – outfit alert! – “He just leaned against the wall, casually hooking one thumb in the pocket of his suede vest.” Oh, that is some hot business right there!

With his other hand, he flipped open one of my books and read my name out loud. “Laurie Look-at-the-Ground Adams? Is that what they call you?”

My face was burning, and I would have been thankful if the tiles in the floor had suddenly parted and swallowed me up. Anything to get away from being laughed at twice in one day by this boy.

So clearly Mr. Suede Vest is making a great first impression. He’s cute, and he teases her, and did we mention suede vest? I, I can get high off of the outfits in this book, I’m telling you.

Laurie says she’ll stay out of his way, but then thinks, wait, maybe he was trying to flirt with her, because he says, “’Who wants you to stay out of my way? Anytime you feel like getting swept off your feet again, just ask for Skip Reardon.’”

Yep, definitely flirting. ‘Kay, Skip.

Laurie is then seated next to a very shy girl named Anna, who she knows, and Anna asks after class if Laurie has lunch fifth period. Laurie has always liked Anna, but Didi thought of Anna as “a grade-A grind.” Laurie thinks some really unkind and judgmental thoughts about Anna, about her dress and how cautious she was about overtures of friendship, expecting Laurie to reject her offer to walk to lunch together. But then Laurie reconsiders her actions. “What right did I have to put down Anna? I should be nicer to her. I didn’t act any more self-confident around people like Janie then someone like Anna did around me.”

Good for you, Laurie! Excellent! You’ve got to rewire that nasty part of your brain. I know it’s really loud and, you know, clearly it’s being fed by Didi’s crap, but yeah, you can reconsider how you  treat people.

So Anna asks about Laurie’s poetry – aw! – and they’re having a really nice conversation when they get to the lunch room. Laurie looks around for Didi and decides, you know, she’ll sit with Anna over sitting alone.

Laurie is very attuned to social hierarchy, and I remember being the same way in high school, which makes me wonder if that was something that I was attuned to because of the community I was in or because I read books like this that were like, oh, you have to rank your friends as to who’s more popular and who’s not. Laurie is also behaving like what I used to call a nobody-better: if there’s nobody better around, they’ll hang out with me, and that’s Anna for Laurie.

When Didi shows up – and I want to get Anna, wrap her in a blanket, and get her away from Didi – Didi sees that Laurie is about to sit with Anna, sneers at her, and then ditches Laurie by saying she was sitting with someone else. Laurie thinks about ditching Anna too, but she doesn’t because she knows how it feels.

So Laurie’s kind of on the cusp of upgrading her behavior, but I kind of wish she’s move along on that one.

Didi goes and sits with two girls from “the classy side of town” who are wearing jeans and blazers, and Laurie is really miserable. She barely hears what Anna says. She had wanted to ask Didi about Skip Reardon, but decides instead she’s going to “learn everything about being prettier.” She wasn’t going to hang out “with squares like Anna Certowski” – ugh, girl-on-girl crap. Laurie figures that getting Skip to ask her out and being popular and pretty would mean that Didi would never act superior to her again.

Chapter four: As I’ve said, there’s poetry in this book. Laurie has worked on a poem for an hour and doesn’t want anyone to see it. Usually she wants people to see and admire her poetry, and this one is soppy and embarrassing.

Are you ready for the poem? All right, here we go:

I wonder what he’s like,

The boy who looks so neat.

I only know he makes

My heart skip a beat.

I wonder what he saw

When he looked into my eyes.

Did he see how much I liked him?

Did he notice my surprise?

If he’d ask me for a date,

I know I’d really flip.

I’d give almost anything to be loved by Skip.

Wow! And then she says, “Robert Frost must be turning over in his grave.” [Laughs] Laurie has a crush that includes poetry! I love it!

So Laurie and her, Laurie and her family, her mom and dad, are going to her aunt and uncle’s house for dinner, and she brings the hot rollers that her aunt gave her so she could show Laurie how to use them. Laurie’s mother “raised her own perfectly plucked eyebrows a little at this development, but didn’t say anything.” Aunt Mary is very cool. She’s about ten years older than Laurie – she is her dad’s much younger sister – and Mary is pregnant and married to a guy who’s really friendly and nice, and Mary’s whole character is just basically goals for Laurie. Laurie learns how to use hot rollers and picks out a more dressed-up outfit for school and then sets her alarm so she can do her hair before school. Then she realized she forgot all about her homework and sets the alarm even earlier.

Laurie does her hair, but skims her reading, and as Didi is walking to the bus with her that day, she compliments her, sort of. She says:

“You look ten times better than you did yesterday.”

“Really?”

“Well, you’re no Bo Derek, but you’ll do.”

Crap! Anyway, Didi invites Laurie to eat with Terri and Deborah, the girls in blazers. Laurie describes them as “looking like stewardesses carrying meals to passengers.” They all complain about lunch at school, which is macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes, and buttered beets.

Today I learned that buttered beets is a thing, and then I went and googled recipes, and I will include some in the show notes, should this be something you want to eat.

Terri and Deborah mostly ignore Laurie and talk to Didi, but then Terri compliments her shirt, and instead of being shy, Laurie decides to accept a compliment confidently like she saw her Aunt Mary do the night before and says thank you, looking Terri right in the eyes and smiling, saying, “’To tell the truth, I’d do anything for a blazer like yours.’” Go, Laurie!

Then Skip walks into the lunchroom, and Laurie learns that Terri has a massive crush on Skip Reardon, and then Skip winks at them! And the girls all realize he was winking at Laurie. [Gasps] He starts walking toward them, and Laurie panics, thinking he’s going to ignore her after all of the theoretical wink drama, so she just books it, and then he calls out really loudly in the lunchroom, “’Hey, Laurie! Are you running away from me again?’” And everyone hears.

So Laurie pulls up some of the courage she’s been working on and says, “’Just late for class, as usual!’ Her voice sounded calm, and she was a total trembling wreck inside.” Aw! And as she leaves, she sees Terri and Didi and Deborah all looking at her with envy.

Chapter six: It’s now early October, and here are the developments: Looking good is a full-time job. Laurie does not like Biology. Skip pulls over one day on the way to school and offers her a ride, and she turns him down because she’s supposed to walk to the bus stop with Didi – who does not deserve that loyalty, but whatever – and Skip is baffled that she would turn him down. Skip, Laurie learns, has a different girl waiting for him after football practice every day. Skip is in a band and had a real gig in LA, and she learns from Terri that Skip writes his own songs. Skip asks her out for a Coke after school, since she can’t accept his offer of a ride to school, and hello! She has a date! She doesn’t tell Didi about her date.

And then we are introduced to a new dude. There is a whole different dude! Skip is walking down the hall towards Laurie with this other dude!

He was pretty cute, though nothing like Skip. He reminded me a little of my Uncle Don, actually. He was tall and wiry, but with bigger shoulders than Skip’s. His straight, brown hair was medium long, and he had the kind of face you would have called nice instead of handsome. But next to Skip he was dull. Dressed in a letter sweater and gray slacks, he looked preppie, while Skip, in his faded jeans, boots, and suede vest, looked super hip.

Well, there you have it! I clearly need a suede vest. And we have another poem in this chapter:

What would I do if a genie appeared

To make all my wishes come true?

I wouldn’t ask for gold or diamonds galore

Or trips to a south seashore.

All I’d request is just one boy,

And that one boy is you.

If I had three wishes, I wouldn’t need two.

Who needs wishes to spare?

A date with the guy with the golden hair

Is the only thing I’d ask,

And that one boy is you.

So not only do we have angsty poetry, but love triangle, start your engines.

It turns out that Jeff is tutoring Skip because Skip needs to keep his grades up if he wants to be on the football team, and Skip’s dad wants him to go to college. Meanwhile, Skip wants to go to LA and make it as a musician, but his dad thinks that idea is complete hooey. Skip thinks people who like school and reading “don’t have all their marbles,” and as they drive to go get a Coke, Laurie thinks that Skip wouldn’t be interested in her if she said she liked school and said, “’I couldn’t care less if I never had to read another book as long as I lived.’”

Oh boy. I think at, at this point I need to start keeping track of the number of times I think, oh honey, no. It seems like, much like the prior book, the tension in this story is going to be between Laurie being herself, which includes liking school, reading books, and writing poetry, and being popular, which means not caring about her grades, spending a lot of time and worry on her appearance instead of sleep – what is that? – and then dating popular boys. The tension will be summed up in Skip, the musician, and Jeff, the tutor who seems exactly like my kind of dude. It’s kind of like a contemporary version of those Sunfire love triangle books. You know, the ones that were, like, love triangles set in various historical events. Each dude represents a different path for the heroine? I kind of think that’s what’s going on here, too.

Chapter seven: Skip is taking Laurie to a place called The Hut for a Coke and blasts music so they don’t have to talk, which Laurie is relieved about, but strikes me as kind of rude. The Hut is where the cool kids hang out, and she is blown away that she’s there with Skip. She orders a Coke and some fries – heck yeah, fries! Now I want fries – and he orders his usual; he goes there a lot.

Then Laurie asks about his band because she read that you should try to get a date to talk about himself. This is not a problem. First, first of all, Skip’s band is called The Bonkers, and he talks for so long, and Laurie is very impressed with all this talk about music and LA and gigs and bands and amps. “He could have been speaking about space modules for all I knew. I was too happy watching the flash of his beautiful teeth when he smiled.”

It seems they’ve been there so long that there has been a shift change, and guess who is their waiter. It’s the dude from the hallway earlier. Skip doesn’t bother to introduce Laurie, which she notices is kind of rude, but she introduces herself, and Skip teases Jeff about being on the football team, getting As, and keeping a part-time job after school. Jeff is fine with it; he says, “Well, I can’t play guitar,” and he goes off and, you know, does his job.

Laurie helps Skip with lyrics for a song he’s been working on, and he says, “’We ought to work on some things together, like Sonny and Cher,’” and when Laurie points out that they broke up, he says, “’We’re going to stay together.’” Is this a bad sign? I, I think this, I think this is a bad sign.

So Laurie goes home, barely does her homework again, and writes a song. Not poems anymore; they’re songs. So here we go:

I looked in the mirror and what did I see?

I saw a special person, and that new girl is me!

I’m not really different, but I’m not the same.

I’ve got the same face, I’ve got the same name,

My cheeks gleam with color, my hair falls in curls,

But that’s not what sets me apart from other girls.

It’s a certain boy who’s made a new me,

And if he likes this Laurie, I’m as happy as can be.

These poems don’t have titles, but if there were titles for these poems I would call this one “On the Nose.”

Anyway, chapter eight: It’s a bad day. There’s a pop quiz, the rain ruins Laurie’s makeup, the weather is awful, and then Terri reveals that her friend Julie was bragging that she was meeting Skip Reardon for lunch. Laurie is miserable. He really is One-Date Reardon, and she has already had her date.

Chapter nine: She is going to push thoughts of Skip right out of her head.

The rain and overcast skies of the day before had vanished, and the day was bright and clear. I felt strong and powerful. Not even the falling maple leaves that flitted onto the sidewalk in front of me as I walked to Didi’s could change my mood. I wasn’t like the maple leaf, drooping and dying in the autumn. I was like the palms that grew right alongside them in this part of California, thriving all year long, no matter what came to pass.

All right, so she’s a palm tree. Got it, very cool.

Then she passes Jeff in the hall at school, and he greets her and asks how come she hasn’t been coming by The Hut. And so Laurie decides that she and Didi are going to go, even though it’s mostly for juniors and seniors. She thinks, well, you know, we can just show up, the two of us. We can go stag to the, to The Hut. Stags in The Hut, yeah! That would have been a great title for one of these poems.

There is also a special outfit: she is wearing her best jumpsuit! It’s a dark brown one that has a small gold pattern on it, and I really want a jumpsuit. I love them, except I hate having to use the bathroom in one, so then I don’t let myself buy very many.

Skip bumps into her in the hall. Turns out he’s been looking for her, and he’s super mad at himself that he didn’t get her phone number, and there are too many Adamses in the phone book for him to guess which one it was hers. So he wants to get together and “try our hand at a song”! She can’t go that afternoon because she’s going to The Hut, and he looks bummed and asks, “’Oh, have you been going there a lot?’” And she laughs and says, “’I was just there for the first time with you, silly!’” So he says, well, I’ll meet you both at The Hut, and she’s super chill about it, all confident because he sought her out.

And we are halfway through this book. Dun-dun-duhh!

They go to The Hut, and Didi is super freaked out because it’s the place where the cool seniors hang out, and Laurie is super chill because she knows that Skip is meeting them there and she didn’t tell Didi. She introduces Jeff to Didi when his shift starts, and he treats them to some Cokes! Didi is blown away and super hurt that Laurie didn’t tell her any of the things she’d been up to.

And then Skip shows up, and he puts his arm across the back of the booth above Laurie’s shoulders! He invites Laurie to come to band practice and says they can grab food afterward and work on a song together. Didi is beside herself and hinting heavily, but she does not get an invite.

And then, well, Skip’s kind of gross. He finds out that Jeff bought his girl Cokes. “’Isn’t it enough that he’s taken over my studying and my football training without horning in on my dates too?’” And Laurie’s like, it was nothing! He then gives them both a ride home, his “fit of temper already gone.” If I had a sound effect for red flags, I would be hitting that sound effect right about now.

Once Didi’s out of the car, Laurie realizes that her being there gave Laurie some confidence, and now that it’s just her and Skip she’s really tongue-tied. He sees her house, and he says, “’Oh, it’s nice and old-fashioned, just like you.’” [Laughs] And she says, “’What do you mean?’” and he says – oh boy. Oh, brace yourselves – quote:

“I mean, down to earth, not stuck up or spouting about women’s lib and college boards like some of those girls.”

Oh. I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t want to ask him what was wrong with women’s lib or college boards, so I just said in a squeaky voice, “Well, thanks for the ride, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow, I guess!”

Ew, bro! He’s not my favorite. I am intrigued, though, that the book is setting him up as the lesser option and showing all of the ways in which he’s kind of terrible.

Chapter eleven: Their first date was a dream come true. He impressed her family, she watches the band rehearse, and they’re all older than Skip, so they talk about getting beers afterward. They mostly ignore Laurie, which is fine with her. “I wasn’t the right person to write lines like ‘Sledgehammer, you’ve done dealt a death blow to my heart.’” You are welcome for my not using sound effects here. Whoo!

There are a lot of different social hierarchies in this book that shift based on context? Like Skip is the youngest kid in his band and has to do what his parents say, but he’s also super popular at school, probably because of the power of the suede vest.

After rehearsal, she asks why he didn’t introduce her to his parents, and he’s like, they’re old and boring! ‘Kay.

Then they go to The Hut, which is mobbed with people, and she’s around all the super popular older kids. She asks where Jeff is, and Skip does not like that and doesn’t care where he is. Then he asks her what she thought of his band. She says that she thinks they’re “really onto something,” and he starts talking and doesn’t stop until she reminds him that she has a weekend curfew and she needs to go home. “Even though a lot of what he was saying didn’t really interest me, I listened carefully because he was saying it.” Oh, honey. He kisses her good night, and then presto! That’s apparently all we need to make these people a couple.

Now the other girls are treating her with a lot of respect because she’s somebody’s girlfriend, which makes her Somebody now, capital S. They work together on songs. He is not a fan of her poetry because she uses too many metaphors and he doesn’t like it. She slacks off on her homework because she’s spending all of her time working on songs and her wardrobe.

I had also been experimenting with some new makeup I’d bought. If I’d had a good reason to look my best before, now it was even better. If I was going to be Skip Reardon’s girlfriend, I’d have to be one of the slickest looking girls in town.

Not just in school, but in town! Laurie, that’s a lot of pressure! Laurie has also started working odd jobs to earn money to buy new clothes. She’s spending hours working on lyrics and spending time with Skip, and her mother catches her staying up way, way, way late because she forgot to do her homework again.

Laurie has written song after song, and Skip has disliked all of them, until she writes “Shelter in the Storm.” You can tell they’re lyrics, I guess, because they have titles.

The world’s so big that I can’t help feeling lost;

People fighting for themselves, never thinking of the cost.

But I know I’ll get by if you’re by my side,

And I know in your arms I’d find someplace to hide.

You’re the one who makes my world so safe and bright.

You’re my beacon; you’re my light; you’re the one.

When you’re near in every way, I’m not afraid to face each day.

Yes, you’re the one; you are my shelter in the storm.

I act brave, but at times I feel so small.

That’s when I need you most of all.

With your love, I know I’m going to be all right

Every day and every night.

Because you’re the one who makes my world so safe and bright.

You’re my beacon; you’re my light. You’re the one.

When you’re near in every way, I’m not afraid to face each day.

Yes, you’re my shelter in the storm.

And then he sings the song for her; I guess he just makes up a, a – yeah, he just makes up a melody and starts singing it.

And then there was nothing left but the kissing, which made me feel so good and close to him, but even managed to make me feel all right about fooling him. What would he think if he found out that my taste in music was really light years away from his or that music wasn’t at all what my world revolved around? Still, my world revolved around him, and that was enough to keep me writing songs to make him happy.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this movie, and definitely heard several versions of this in a Taylor Swift song.

Then things begin to go very, very wrong, and I bet you know how they do. Skip puts Jeff into the terrible position of making Jeff tell him that Skip has flunked a test, even though Jeff has been helping him. Jeff is so embarrassed to have to tell Skip about this in front of Laurie, but the football coach is benching Skip, and if he fails the next test he’s off the team for good, and I have no idea why Jeff is the one who has to tell him this, but it’s super awkward.

Then there’s more uh-oh. Skip’s dad is really, really peeved about this test, and Skip’s not allowed to go out on dates or anything except for school and “important gigs,” which I guess they have a decision or line of determining what gig is important. But that means that Skip can’t go on dates with Laurie, and he can’t rehearse with the guys, although how he’s going to play important gigs without rehearsing, I’m not sure.

Didi is pretty happy about this development because it means they can hang out together. All of the boys in the band, it turns out, had “steadies,” so Didi didn’t get to date a band dude. And Laurie’s like, no, this is kind of a catastrophe and I’m really upset, but fine, fine, we’ll go to The Hut.

Chapter thirteen: Skip is complaining again, and Laurie thinks he needs to grow up – and she’s right – and accept the consequences of his actions. She’s totally right. His dad has made a chart for him to sign in and sign out, and he is super mad about it and goes on at length, and then Laurie realizes “with a terrible shock that I was bored! Me, bored with Skip?” Well, she then tries to talk herself out of this, but yes, yes, you’re bored! Then she chastises herself for being “too selfish and self-involved to care about what he’s going through,” and is extra nice and supportive.

[Sighs] Oh honey. I definitely have to start keeping track.

He tells her to go to the game without him, even though he’s not playing, so she can write down plays and tell her about them. “Actually, I hated football. I went to the games only because Skip was on the team. It was expected of me.”

Oh girl. Hmph.

So that afternoon at The Hut, Didi and Laurie are really snippy with each other because Didi is making fun of Skip’s failing grades, and Laurie is still pretty much convinced that this is the worst thing that’s ever happened.

Jeff is also working, and he’s wary of Laurie because Laurie’s being really rude to him because Skip is mad at Jeff, so Laurie has to be mad at Jeff, and when she figures out that she’s kind of being terrible, she goes to talk to him. Jeff is like, I don’t know why Skip’s mad at me! I didn’t ask to tutor him, but I tried my best! He could have passed if he’d studied. And when she says, oh yeah, that’s really easy for you to say, he really sets her straight. Quote:

“Easy! What makes you think I’ve got it so easy? Look, Laurie, I have to work just as hard as anyone else to get good grades, maybe even harder, because I’ve got a job too! And it’s important for me to do well because the only way I’m going to get to go to college is if I get a scholarship. I couldn’t afford it otherwise, and I want to go to college.”

“You know, there’s a lot more to life than school,” I said scornfully.

“Yeah, I know,” he laughed, “and I try to do it all. I go out for sports, keep my grades up, practice piano, and go out sometimes with the gang too.”

“You play piano?” I just about barked the words, I was so stunned.

“Yeah, since I was ten years old. Oh, I’m not in Skip’s league or anything. I used to play once in a while with the school dance band, but my grades started slipping, so I gave that up.” Suddenly he looked serious. “You can’t do everything and still graduate with decent grades, Laurie. It was hard for me to learn, but I did. I hope Skip realizes it now too.”

Then Jeff says that Laurie could encourage Skip to spend more time on his grades and that that might help her too, and she gets mad and tells him, excuse me, I am a straight-A student! And he says, “Oh, you just don’t act like a girl who’s serious about school, that’s all. I’m glad I’m wrong.”

But this is a bit of a wake-up call for Laurie. She realizes that her grades are indeed slipping and she is not, in fact, a straight-A student anymore. And it matters to her that he thinks that she’s not serious about school, because she is, and then she realizes that she’s been deluding herself because her slipping grades are very real. She pulls out all her recent tests, and there’s more Cs than As. She does not like that. She doesn’t like that Jeff doesn’t see her as someone who’s serious about school, and she doesn’t like that she’s not getting the grades she wants, and she wants to do something about it.

So instead of going to the football game to look at plays and then report back to Skip what the football team did, she spends the weekend studying and reading a Vonnegut book that had just come out in paperback. She doesn’t worry about her appearance, and she wore whatever she wanted. “I actually enjoyed that weekend without Skip more than I would have believed.”

Then Skip wants to play the new song for her, her parents, and her aunt and uncle – okay – and she is all excited. She starts to worry about what to wear for the performance so they’d make the perfect couple. “With a start, I realized it was the first time all weekend the thought of clothes had entered my mind.” There is an awful, awkward afternoon at The Hut, where Laurie, feeling all out of sorts at how Jeff thinks she’s not a good student and is just pretending to like Vonnegut, continues to be rude to poor Jeff and to her friends, and while she does realize that she is being a total pill and then apologizes, and her friends are very kind and understanding, it’s kind of about time for Laurie to realize that she’s being a pill before she’s rude to other people, and also, being a pill is not a thing I would ever say before I started reading these books, so, uh, thank you, books!

The big performance comes around, and Laurie’s aunt mentions how great Laurie’s poetry is, and Skip says, “’You said you wrote poetry when you were a kid! You didn’t tell me you were still writing that garbage.’”

Skip, what precisely is the difference between poetry and song lyrics, other than the fact that in this book they have titles?

Her family knows she’s not herself with him, and now they know that he puts down the things that she loves to do, and she’s really embarrassed. Skip is shallow and argumentative, and her parents and aunt and uncle are like, what is this mess?

And then it’s song time, and the song is great! And Laurie realizes that she’s more proud of her family being supportive in the face of Skip’s awfulness than she is proud of Skip, who has not been great.

Then he gives her this big ol’ snog before he leaves – no parents on the porch – and tells her to stay away from Jeff because he’s a creep. Laurie says that she’s pretty sure that Jeff is not interested in her and that he definitely hasn’t asked her out, and she’s, you know, pretty sure that Jeff can’t stand her, and – [laughs] – Skip – whoo! – Skip says:

“Don’t get excited, babe. As a matter of fact,” he went on, smiling slyly, “I know he’s interested in you. He told me that first day he saw you in school, and that’s why I knew he wouldn’t ask you out.”

“What do you mean?”

Skip leered in triumph. “I told him that I had first dibs on you and that he’d better keep his hands off.”

Oh, I hate this guy.

“You what?”

“Hey, I wasn’t going to let that conceited quiz kid get to you first.” He laughed nastily. “Boy, he would have loved to say he was dating a chick Reardon had his eye on. Anyway, everything’s worked out all right, so it was no big deal. We’re going steady now, aren’t we?”

Oh, honey.

“Of course,” I murmured. But when he was gone I was left with an unpleasant feeling. There was something dishonest and scheming about Skip telling Jeff he was going with me when he wasn’t.

Yes, yes, there is something dishonest and scheming, and it’s gross because it’s treating you like property! He’s treating you like a thing instead of a person. This book is stressing me out, y’all. It’s really stressing me out. [Laughs]

She goes back inside, and her Aunt Mary helps her clean up from dinner and talks with Laurie, who is feeling very mixed up about her feelings for Skip, which at the moment are not positive. Turns out she’s more worried about Skip’s feelings for her and what other people think of her than about her feelings for Skip or her feelings about herself. She didn’t want anyone to think that she was “a grind,” and now she doesn’t know what to do with the makeup and the clothes and the slipping grades and the difference between who she wants to be and who she is. “I don’t know who I am anymore! I don’t know if I’m the old Laurie or the new Laurie. Maybe I’m not anybody anymore.”

Mary is brilliant. She says:

“Of course you’re somebody. Why do you have to be either the old Laurie or the new Laurie when neither one of them makes you happy? Why not be the real Laurie who loves to read and write poetry and cares about her grades? And the Laurie who cares about how she looks and feels more attractive and sure of herself? You can care about your grades and your appearance without devoting your life to either one. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

So Aunt Mary is hands-down the greatest character in this book.

Laurie realizes that Skip puts down the things she loves and thinks that he’s childish for doing so – and she’s right – and she’s mad that Jeff can’t stand her because he thinks she’s shallow, and she’d really like him to like her because she likes him, and, whoo, it’s a big mess. But to her credit, the minute she realizes that she would really like Jeff to like her, she dumps Skip.

[applause sound effect]

Woohoo! I do, in fact, have a sound effect for that one. Hooray, she dumps him! I am so pleased by this development!

She doesn’t tell him that she thinks he’s childish, but she does tell him that she is worried about her grades and that school’s important to her, and he owns up that, you know, maybe his dad is right and school’s important. Laurie realizes that they’re better off as friends, and she realizes that she likes him more now that he’s not boasting and trying to act all impressive.

Chapter sixteen: Once she was no longer Skip Reardon’s girlfriend, a lot of people stopped noticing that Laurie is alive, but her friends are really good to her, and they say to her privately they’d never known what she saw in Skip. Didi says, “’I just couldn’t see you with a guy who never read anything but songs. I was sure you’d get bored with him sooner or later.’” And Laurie thinks, “Imagine that! It just shows how wrong I was about what went on in other people’s minds.”

Yep! Yeah, I’ve had that realization too, but much, much later.

Laurie studies twice as hard to make up for her lower grades earlier in the term, and she makes friendly overtures to Anna Certowski. “I’d never been proud of the way I dropped her, just because I’d been afraid she was socially unacceptable.”

Yay! She learned!

Anna is very happy to study and be friends with her, and Laurie becomes friends with Jeff and learns that he loves mysteries and thrillers just like she does, and he likes piano and tennis and surfing, and she’s really, really into him, but she is convinced that he isn’t interested in her.

She tries out for the Glee Club after skipping auditions because Skip said Glee Club was silly. She ends up telling the teacher the truth, that she had had the chance to try out and she regretted not doing so, and the teacher set up an audition for her, and she got in! “The security of what I’d come to accept as my genuine popularity made my failure with Jeff easier to bear.” Aw!

Then there’s the Honors assembly, which apparently is like a big old deal, and everyone dresses up. Laurie wears her good navy skirt, navy ballet slippers, and a navy and white flannel blazer “I’d bought with the money I would have splurged on record albums a month before.” Go, you, girl! Get that blazer you want!

She tells her parents that she doesn’t think she made Honor Roll, and her mom says, “Don’t worry, Laurie. We don’t expect you to be perfect. As long as your grades are decent and you are happy, we’re satisfied.” Aw! All these parenting role models!

Didi is upset because she’s pretty sure Barry Knox, who she is seriously crushing on now, is going to make Honor Roll, and because she’s not an Honor student, Barry will be ashamed to be seen with her. Laurie tells her she could be honest with him, that being in senior high went to her head and she’s still catching up, just like Laurie has been doing. Laurie’s pretty sure she won’t be in Honor Roll either, but “It’s the price I’ve got to pay for all I learned this semester.

[applause sound effect]

Yay, Laurie! Oh, Laurie, you learned things! I’m really proud!

Jeff’s name is called, and Laurie thinks that he looks like a total dreamboat in his suit, and she realizes that “since the math test fiasco,” every time she saw Skip talking to Jeff, “it had been plain to see the respect and the wish for Jeff’s approval on Skip’s face. “In a funny way, Jeff was the one responsible for both of us deciding to shape up.” Aw!

Then they get to the sophomores, and Laurie’s name is called! She has a B+ average, and she is absolutely gobsmacked. And she wonders if Jeff noticed her name being called.

She gets her answer afterward. Barry comes to find Didi and doesn’t seem embarrassed at all. They go whisper somewhere down the hall together, and then Jeff comes up to Laurie. “’I guess I owe you a double apology for thinking you were just scraping by.’” And she says, “’No, you were right!’” She had to work to catch up and make Honor Roll, and she has him to thank for it! 

And then, because football season is over and he has a little bit more free time, he asks her out! [Squees] Three months later, they’re going out, and everyone says they are the perfect couple. But they aren’t going steady or spending all their time together. Jeff still has a job, and they have homework, and they have activities, but she knows she’s found “the right guy, someone who knows what he wants.”

Mary and Don have a baby girl that they name Melissa Diane, and Laurie’s the godmother! She and Didi are closer than ever, which okay, fine. They’re not desperate to fit in anymore, so they’re nicer to each other, which is good, I guess. Jeff and Laurie sometimes try to write songs, sometimes for silliness and sometimes seriously, and Laurie’s parents buy her a guitar.

And at the end of the book, she writes one more song that Jeff may never see, which she wrote on her guitar. “I call it ‘Laurie’s Song.’”

I know I’m young, but I’m older than I used to be.

I can do anything. I’ll be the girl I choose to be.

Looking ahead to all that life might bring me,

Loving a boy who’s happy just to sing to me.

It took a long time, but now I’m where I belong,

And this is Laurie’s song.

And that is the end of the book.

How many stars would I give this? I would say probably four. I wish there had been more of Jeff and less of Skip, but the book is really about her learning to embrace herself as she is and not try to make herself too much into someone else’s ideal.

Skip is super gross, and I’m really glad that she figured out he was boring, and I loved that they showed her breaking up with him! Yes! This guy was not good to her!

I just, I wanted more of Jeff, right? I want to see their dates and their kissing! They should have kissed in this book! There was no kissing with Jeff; I wanted Jeff kisses.

I love her Aunt Mary, who encourages Laurie and understands Laurie. I also really like the way that Laurie took responsibility for her actions and learned to be proud of who she is and how smart she is.

If I had anything to say about this book, it would be look, we need more Jeff. More Jeff please.

What about you? Did you read Laurie’s Song? Do you remember this book? Did your high school have a place that all the students went to for food, like one diner or The Hut, like the Dairy Burger or the Peach Pit? Did you try to conform to an external definition of popularity? I totally did. And finally, the most important question: would a brown jumpsuit look good on me? Probably not.

[music]

I really do want a brown jumpsuit, though. I mean, it just sounds so comfortable.

I want to thank the Patreon community most particularly for making these episodes possible, because, as you know, these are all out of print and they’re hard to find.

Speaking of, the next book is Princess Amy by Melinda Pollowitz, and I need y’all to go and find the cover for this book. It’ll be in the show notes, but if you’re not available to go look at the show notes at this second, just make yourself a little mental reminder: I need to go and look at the cover of Princess Amy, because not only is Amy just wearing a leotard, and I’m presuming – or a bathing suit – the, you just, you, you, you just, you have to see this. You’ve got to see the guy; you’ve got to see the hair; you’ve got to see the leotard. You’ve got to see the incredibly artful, windswept – this is one of my favorite Sweet Dreams covers. I love this cover. Please go look at it; it is hilarious. [Laughs]

Thank you so much for hanging out with me and for making these episodes possible.

As always, I end with an absolutely dreadful joke, and this week is no exception, because I’m here for you with your strange vintage YA recaps and outstanding ‘80s outfits and bad jokes.

So, if rubber comes from rubber trees and apples come from apple trees, where do eggs come from? Hmm? Give up?

If rubber comes from a rubber tree and apples come from apple trees, where do eggs come from?

Poul-trees.

[Laughs] I have neighbors who have chickens, and I think I’m going to need to tell them this joke. It’s so silly!

On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend, and we will be back here next week with another episode. But until then, stay warm, stay safe, and get vaccinated if you’re not already.

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at frolic.media/podcasts.

Poul-trees! [Laughs]

[Awesome music]