impy | oh, torrid

You win, Torrid. You win. Normally I don't bother with my haute cash because well, I just don't. But for some reason this go round I rustled mine up at the last minute and went to see if anything other than the really awesome Villains cloak/coat that's too much was calling my name. Just as I'd given up on anything being worth the hassle, I ran across a Daria shirt. Fine. You win. Threw in another shirt to wear under my NBC shirt and called it an order. Should've done this Friday when they had free shipping, but I think you had to hit $75 and I most definitely didn't so I guess it doesn't matter.

Read the third Gabby book and it was really good except for her fight with Teagan. It's not even that of course we're having a friend fight because heaven forbid we have a series where that's not an issue, but it's the way the fight was presented.

Short backstory: Teagan and Gabby are best friends, but when it comes time to go to middle school and 6th grade, Teagan applies and gets into a school that specializes in coding and other tech goodies. Gabby and Teagan then go from seeing each other every day to only seeing one another at their poetry meetings/classes at Liberty, Gabby's mom's place. Gabby makes friends with her former nemesis and Teagan still remembers the way said nemesis taunted Gabby and made her miserable so she's less forgiving.

Also, and this because obvious to anyone who has ever been there, done that, but Teagan hasn't made a friend at her new school. Not a one. So when she invites Gabby to her school carnival and Gabby blows her off at the last second to hang out with Nemesis, Teagan ain't happy. She's really unhappy when it turns out that Gabby and Nemesis spent forever on their group costume but Gabby couldn't find the time/be bothered to finish her butterfly costume so she and Teagan could continue their tradition of a joint costume. When Teagan finds out that Gabby and Nemesis hung out when Gabby was supposed to be at the carnival with Teagan and worked on their group costume then, Teagan calls her grandfather and leaves trick or treating early. Throw in Gabby not keeping up her end of their poetry slam poem and well, Teagan's had enough.

All of which I'm fine with, all things considered. Nope, it's Gabby thinking she's done nothing wrong, even as she admits to herself that it seems like she's put everything in her life ahead of her friendship with Teagan. Little girl, really? REALLY. Hell, it's even resolved in less "Gabby messed up" and more "Teagan has no new friends and Gabby will help push her to make friends with that one guy who might or might not want to be friends and now it's all fine!"

Gabby, Gabby no. While Teagan does need a friend at school, you also need to see things from her perspective and occasionally prioritize her.

I think we're supposed to just accept this all because Gabby gives up ballet in record time but I'm really sensitive to AG's tendency to have their main characters be pretty awful friends and get away with it because they're the star. (To be fair, I'm also sensitive to in non-AG things.) I don't mind when they get called out on it but when they get to pretend for longer than a second that they're the wronged party, I get twitchy.

Which makes it sound like I didn't like the book. I did. I teared up a bit because I'm a sucker. Also, the day I read it, we wound up with enchiladas for dinner and I cackled to myself because there's a minor plot point involving the Enchilada Princess.