The Fabulous Five (book series)
The Fabulous Five is an American book series by Betsy Haynes in the late 1980s. Written mainly for preteen girls, it is a spin-off of Haynes' other series about Taffy Sinclair. It centers on five best friends; Jana Morgan, Melanie Edwards, Beth Barry, Christie Winchell, and Katie Shannon, along with their other classmates at Wakeman Junior High (fondly nicknamed 'Wacko Jr. High' by the students). It is published by Bantam/Skylark books and enjoyed moderate success.
In the Taffy Sinclair series, the five girls, then in sixth grade, started the 'Against Taffy Sinclair Club', which served as a forum for venting about the appearance, antics, and general attitude of Taffy Sinclair, the snobbiest and most popular girl in school. The Fabulous Five series follows the girls as they move on to junior high school. The books take place in the real town of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The series ended in 1992.
Structure of the Books
Each book is written from the perspective of one of the girls and incorporates tidbits about each family, insight into how each girl feels about the issue at hand, and how she feels about the boy in her life. Beginning mid-series, other points of view are incorporated, including that of Laura McCall. In the Taffy Sinclair series, all books have been written from Jana's perspective.
Characters
The girls who make up The Fabulous Five include Jana Morgan, Beth Barry, Christie Winchell, Katie Shannon and Melanie Edwards.
Boys are supporting characters throughout the series. Six boys are mentioned in every book, mostly in relation to The Fabulous Five. They are: Randy Kirwan, Scott Daly, Shane Arrington, Jon Smith, and Keith Masterson. All of these boys are either the girl's boyfriend or their former boyfriend.
On their first day at Wakeman Junior High, the girls become enemies with four girls who call themselves The Fantastic Foursome. It consists of members Laura McCall, Melissa McConnell, Karen "Funny" Hawthorne, and Tammy Lucero. Funny is the only one civil to The Fabulous Five, and even becomes friends with both Jana and Melanie. The Fantastic Foursome's schemes usually involve sabotaging at least one or all of The Fabulous Five, in whatever endeavor the book may be about. "One-upmanship" is the name of the game. However, The Fabulous Five almost always win by the end of the book.
Hangouts
Wakeman Junior High The primary setting of the series.
Jana's bedroom The meeting spot of for every meeting of The Fabulous Five. This is where the girls gather to discuss boy issues, friend issues, and family issues. They also like to eat chips and drink soda while they are conducting their business.
The Movie Theater Movies are a Friday/Saturday night tradition.
Bumper's The official gathering spot for all of the Wakeman students after school and on the weekends. The owner is Mr. Matson, who is accommodating to Igor the iguana and the students' needs. For example, Bumper's served as campaign headquarters during Christie's run for class president. He also pretends that the jukebox is broken when Melanie wants to prove something to Shane. The booths in Bumper's are made from repainted amusement park bumper cars.
Mamma Mia's Pizzeria In the Taffy Sinclair series, this was the after school hangout. Jana and Randy had their first date here. It is only mentioned a few times in the series.
Taffy Sinclair
Taffy Sinclair makes her first appearance in the book The Against Taffy Sinclair Club. Taffy was the prettiest girl in Mark Twain Elementary and most of the boys had crushes on her. When she begins developing more than the other girls in school, Jana and the other girls create the club. The rivalry takes an especially ugly turn when jealous Jana writes an "expose" on Taffy in the school newspaper.
Taffy also becomes an actress in a soap opera and befriends Raven Blaine, a famous teen idol with whom she co-stars in the soap opera. Toward the end of the series, she is not a prominent character anymore because she is in Los Angeles, working as an actress. Jana implies that toward the end, she and the rest of The Fabulous Five had become civil with Taffy, most likely because they had The Fantastic Foursome rivalry to focus on. In a chapter of Yearbook Memories (Super Edition 4), Jana recounts how she and Taffy resolved their differences and grew to respect one another.
Books
1. Seventh Grade Rumors – Written from Jana's point of view, the first book chronicles the group's early adventures at Wakeman Junior High, particularly their first meeting with the Fantastic Foursome. An immediate rivalry is set up, which continues throughout the series. Melanie meets Shane Arrington by asking him about his iguana. Jana meets Funny Hawthorne and is at first viewed as a traitor by her friends for befriending "one of them." Beth withdraws from the group, and we learn toward the end of the book it is because her mom found a lump in her breast and may have had cancer. Beth feels guilty because of some of the things she said to her mother beforehand. She runs away and is missing for a time until Jana and the Mark Twain crew find her hiding out at Mark Twain.
2. The Trouble With Flirting – Melanie narrates as cheerleading tryouts loom on the horizon, and Melanie, Jana, and Beth prepare. Laura sends out invitations to her first party of the year, and all of the boys from Mark Twain are invited, but none of the girls. Melanie fixes that by arranging to have them invited with the help of a boy who attended Riverfield, the same elementary school Laura went to. Flirtatious Melanie finds seven tips for flirting and tries them out on Shane Arrington, Scott Daly, and an eighth-grader, Garrett Boldt. She gets herself into a mess by leading each of the three boys to believe that he is her only boyfriend. Melanie and Beth make the cheerleading squad, as do Laura McCall and Tammy Lucero. Jana instead lands the coveted position of co-editor for the yearbook.
3. The Popularity Trap – Seventh-grade elections are coming up and The Fabulous Five throw Christie's name into the ring without telling her about it. Though Christie is initially angry, she goes along with the campaign. On the opposing side is Melissa McConnell. The Fabulous Five engage in a campaign war with The Fantastic Foursome. Christie begins tutoring Jon Smith in math, and after a rocky start, they plot together to get someone else to win the election, and the class president winds up being Curtis Trowbridge.
4. Her Honor, Katie Shannon – Katie gets a detention right before the school announces whom they have chosen for their new Teen Court. Somehow, she still gets into it despite her detention. Katie is feeling very self-righteous for making the court and is all about making a difference in deciding what happens to classmates who have broken the rules. However, she runs into some trouble when Randy and Keith are brought before the court for making a casserole full of Alpo dog food and cheese into their French class and passing it off as a French food. Katie sentences them to clean cafeteria tables, and Jana and Beth are mad at her for a while for doling out such a "harsh" punishment. When Katie meets Tony Calcaterra, her feelings for him plus people badmouthing Tony make being on the Teen Court more difficult, and Laura accuses her of giving her friends tough sentences and letting Tony off easy. Laura tells everyone in school that Tony's nothing but a "troublemaker" and mocks Katie for liking him, but Katie sees beyond the "macho" image that Tony publicly projects and sees that Tony has potential to be a good person.
5. The Bragging War – Laura McCall is bragging about everything her father lets her do, and implies that she'll invite everyone over and they'll do something fun, but secret. In an attempt to one-up Laura, Beth decides she'll have a slumber party with boys and tells everyone about it, so everyone who was planning on going to Laura's party wants to go to Beth's instead. However, Beth can't have a party because she's grounded. Laura shows up at her house on the designated sleepover night and when she finds no one there, Beth and the rest of the Fabulous Five are made out to be fools. After Beth tells everyone that Jana is related to rock star Trevor Morgan, things really get out of hand, until his band comes to town and creative, resourceful Beth finagles a way to see him, and he devotes their entire concert to The Fabulous Five. The book ends by Jana asking Beth to swear not to make up any more outrageous stories to make them look stupid.
6. The Parent Game Jana's mother is planning on marrying her boyfriend, Pink, and Jana feels conflicted about the shift in her life. Meanwhile, in the 7th grade Family Living class, there's an assignment that deals with being a parent and taking responsibility for one's "child." Laura wants to be partners with Randy, but Taffy Sinclair, knowing how jealous Jana is of Laura, invites Jana over and tells her she would like to be partners with Randy. Jana hesitantly says OK. Melanie and Scott are paired up, Katie is a single parent, Keith and Beth are parents together, Christie and Jon are as well, and Jana winds up being partners with Shane Arrington. It doesn't take long before The Fabulous Five suspect that Taffy is up to no good with Randy, and they bust Taffy at the end of the book with a hilarious "bear-napping" scheme.
7. The Kissing Disaster With so many activities to occupy their time at Wakeman, Melanie feels like The Fabulous Five are drifting apart. In an attempt to make new friends, she joins the dance committee for the first 7th grade dance of the year. She winds up running herself down so much that she develops mononucleosis. However, Laura starts spreading the rumor that mono is a kissing disease and that Melanie got it by kissing every boy under the sun. Melanie and the rest of the girls are outraged, and go about setting the truth straight. At the end of the book, each of the members talk and realize that even though they are involved in different activities, they are, always have been, and always will be, best friends.
8. The Runaway Crisis Katie has a new friend named Shawnie Pendergast whose parents are extremely overprotective and overcontrolling. Caring Katie decides to make an effort to help Shawnie get out more by inviting her to Bumper's after school and having her over to work on homework. Katie and Tony butt heads because Tony attended Copper Beach with Shawnie and knows things about her that Katie doesn't. Willie, Katie's mother, is writing an article about the state of hunger in the city, and Katie and Tony decide to do a march for hunger. Shawnie eventually runs away from home and hides out at Katie's, while Katie keeps this a secret from everyone. By the end of the book, it is determined that Shawnie ran away because her parents would not let her take part in the march, and once she arrives home, she and her parents have a long talk, and they agree she can do so.
9. The Boyfriend Dilemma – Intelligent, studious Christie is hoping to make the Super Quiz team and take part in their first match against Trumbull. Jon Smith inadvertently makes her realize she cannot date him steadily because she needs more space than he can give her. They come to a decision that they would just like to be best friends, and their friends have difficulty understanding this because it's hard to just be friends with a guy without dating him. The Super Quiz answer sheet somehow gets put on Christie's stack of homework and books while at school. Once this is discovered, she gets kicked off the team, much to Melissa McConnell's delight. Most of the book is spent trying to solve the problem of how the answer sheet got there. Jon provides the answer after showing Christie a video he took in the gym, where the custodian clearly is shown moving the sheet and setting it on her books.
10. Playing The Part Beth tries out for the school play, a revised edition of Romeo & Juliet, and lands the part of Juliet. Keith is jealous that she will have to spend so much time working on the play, gives Beth a lot of grief, and without telling her, asks Christie out on a date. Beth is blindsided and hurt, but since they were now not really exclusive, she reluctantly gives Christie permission to date Keith, even though it makes her cry in secret. Keith has a chance to score a record related to football, but breaks his leg mid-game. When Beth visits him in the hospital, he admits he didn't realize how hard it would be for her to give up acting when he has to give up football for a while to let his leg heal. They make up.
11. Hit and Run Everything is going great for Jana and Randy until Jana overhears Laura talking to Tammy about Randy. Jana leaps to the conclusion that Laura is trying to "steal" Randy away from her. Later at Bumpers, she sees Randy and Laura sitting near each other talking and becomes furious. Seeing this as a betrayal, she storms out of Bumper's in a jealous rage with her friends staring after her. Randy sees Jana stalking out and follows her, wondering why she is so mad and won't speak to him. Jana blurts out what she saw and overheard and accuses Randy of flirting with Laura. In her fury, she recklessly runs out into the street without looking. Randy sees a car coming and pushes Jana out of the way, getting hit himself instead. Jana is wracked with guilt and realizes she should have trusted Randy since Randy has never lied to her. However, Randy slips into a coma, devastating everyone. Jana continues to try to think of a way to get him to wake up, and decides on just talking to him, which eventually works. She gets the full story from Funny about why Randy and Laura were talking. Laura wanted to improve her image and wanted Randy to talk her up around Shane because she was still crazy about him. However, Shane still prefers Melanie because she is different from Laura.
12. Katie's Dating Tips After a fun night out with Tony, Katie realizes that her mother seems lonely and could use a companion, maybe a boyfriend. Knowing that her mother, a freelance writer, will be teaching a special writing workshop at Wakeman, she decides to introduce her mother to all of the single male teachers. She discusses this with her friends, and against their advice, she decides to select Mr. Newkirk as her mother's new companion. Katie's mother does meet someone at Wakeman, but the person she hits it off with is not Mr. Newkirk, but Mr. Dracovitch, the "weird" science teacher who kids call Dracula. Feeling self-conscious about it, Katie tries to turn the situation around, but eventually understands that her mom is happy spending time with him and that Mr. Dracovitch is actually quite nice. Tony also starts a campaign to get better cafeteria food and gets lots of unexpected help, especially from Willie and Mark Dracovitch as well as Katie herself.
13. The Christmas Countdown It is Christmas, and Melanie desperately wants a pet dog, but her parents refuse to get her one. On a lark, she and the rest of The Fabulous Five decide to accompany their friend, Mona, to the local animal shelter. There, they learn that if fifteen animals are not adopted by Christmas Eve, they will be euthanized. She vows not to let this happen, so with the help of her friends, and the guys, they raise enough money to save the animals, and wind up giving them to senior citizens who need pets and companionship.
14. Seventh Grade Menace There is a bully at Wakeman, and her name is Geena McNatt. She has two older brothers who she runs to if any other students stand up to her. She chooses Jana as one of her targets, knocking her over on the grounds, squirting ketchup all over her clothes, and being a bully in general. Jana is angered by this, rightfully so as she is one of the most well-liked students at Wacko and has never done anything to Geena. The bullying continues and Jana decides on a plan to get Geena into serious trouble by taking pictures of her "weapons"...the ketchup she uses to squirt into kids' lockers. She later understands that Geena pushes because that is all she sees at home and in addition, she is the only female in a male-dominated house and lacks a positive female role model. Both popular, outgoing, fashionable, and sociable, Jana and Randy also run for Mr. and Ms. Seventh Grade, and wind up winning when no one else wants to even run against them! Igor the iguana is sick and won't eat and Shane is really worried almost to the point of tears about him; Jana, who is a very sensitive and caring friend, is the only one of the Fabulous Five who takes time to discuss Shane's struggle with this and offer advice on how to make Igor well.
15. Melanie's Identity Crisis – There is a family history project beginning in Family Living class, and Melanie is psyched about it. Throughout some of the activities, she learns a lot about herself and her friends. While digging in the attic for something, she finds a letter written to her grandmother from her mother when she was pregnant with Melanie, and says Melanie was an "accident." Melanie stops reading the letter there, and is depressed. Eventually, she lets her mother know that she read the letter, and her mother finishes reading it by saying that Melanie is a blessing. Melanie tries to help Funny with the Family Living project when it is revealed that Funny is adopted.
16. The Hotline Emergency Christie is chosen to assist with the Homework Hotline, a hotline that Wakeman students can call after school and in the evenings for help with homework. Things are going well until she begins receiving strange phone calls from a male student who threatens to vandalize buildings around town. Christie notifies her friends and the teacher in charge, and they all work together to try to figure out how to stop it. At the end, it is determined that the male is Kevin Walker-Noles, a student who feels neglected by his parents and acts out to try to get their attention. Shane seeks a girlfriend for Igor.
17. Celebrity Auction – When Wakeman is vandalized by three 9th graders, the repair costs are so high that no one thinks they can raise that much money. After overhearing from her father how spoiled this generation of kids is and how they don't take responsibility for their actions, creative Beth decides to prove him wrong by raising enough money to repair the school. After a few dud ideas like car washes and rummage sales, she and her friends decide to have a celebrity auction. Also, Keith is being very immature and rude in the story, so Beth decides to break it off with him. When he realizes how crummy he's been acting, he apologizes to her and they get back together for what seems like the millionth time.
18. Teen Taxi Melanie's mother decides to start her own business by using her own van to transport students to and from Wakeman. Image-conscious Melanie is horrified and does everything to discourage her from doing this, including telling the kids at school that her mom is a flaky, careless driver so she doesn't get many customers. Brian Olsen has a crush on Melanie and tries to impress her to no avail. To assist Melanie, The Fabulous Five ask Randy, Keith, Tony, and Jon what girls do sometimes to turn off boys. With this "insight", Melanie not only succeeds in getting Brian not to like her, but makes very rude remarks that really hurts his feelings. She feels terrible for behaving nastily. She later apologizes to Brian, but things are still a tad awkward between them. Despite Melanie's attempts at sabotage, the Teen Taxi is a success.
19. The Boys-Only Club – Katie is angered by a teacher's sexist remarks and mentions this to her friends. Because the girls are only 13, they do not see it as being such a huge deal. Tony's coming by just as they're speaking, so Katie turns and asks Tony to a movie to prove that girls can ask guys out, not always the other way around. Tony, embarrassed, mumbles that he already has plans to play video games with some of his own friends, all guys. Christie and Beth chime in, inviting themselves along and embarrassing Katie even more. Tony, uncomfortable and not quite knowing how to phrase it, blurts out that it's a guys-only gathering. Everyone else except Katie and Tony laugh. But partially because of Tony's clumsy wording, Katie also suspects Tony's friends of having sexist attitudes and accuses Tony of indirectly collaborating with sexist people. As a result, she and Tony argue. They both leave the cafeteria upset. Katie decides to form her own girls-only club, since she realizes that most of the girls in her school seem shallow and preoccupied with boyfriends, looks, and clothes. Laura surprises Katie and her friends by offering to help and agreeing that too many girls are too dependent on boys, but unfortunately the club deteriorates into a clothes-and-makeup fest under the pressure of some of the other girls who are reluctant to be associated with the word feminist; Katie is their only real example of one and she is so tight-laced and aggressive about it, it's no wonder they are turned off. Laura, disappointed in this change, loses interest and she and her Fantastic Foursome friends sneak off to Mama Mia's to go meet the guys, including Jana and Melanie's boyfriends while the girls "club" is trying on clothes and toying with makeup. Many of the girls are furious at Katie when they find out about Laura and her friends meeting the guys. Katie and Tony don't speak for almost a week, which leaves both of them feeling sad and guilty. When they do re-unite and start speaking again, Katie realizes that he likes to spend time with his guy friends just like she spends time with the Fabulous Five, an all-girl group. Tony and his friends change their video game playing club times to Saturday mornings so they can go to the movies with the girls on Friday nights. Katie also unearths a time capsule in her backyard and finds out a lot about a young woman who lived in 1918 and about how tough life was for females back then.
20. The Witches of Wakeman – Talented Beth is trying out for the Halloween variety show, and lands a few choice parts. Ironically, Laura gets the part of the good witch from The Wizard of Oz and Beth gets the part of the wicked witch. Beth starts to notice Laura in a new light after she sees Keith paying apparently flirtatious attention to Laura. She feels inferior when she compares her stick-straight small body to tall Laura's curves, which aggravates her already shaky self-esteem and becomes despondent and discouraged. Jana tries to cheer her up by telling her that she "shouldn't" be so miserable because she is adorable and wonderful just the way she is. Beth knows she should be encouraged by her best friend's kind words, but she takes it as being told she isn't as gorgeous as Laura and she feels worse about herself. Keith realizes this and invites Beth over to show her a movie magazine full of famous actresses who aren't voluptuous, but still have successful careers. Beth begins to feel better about herself. She performs the variety show at Riverfield, Copper Beach, and Mark Twain Elementary, where her old 6th grade teacher, Ms. Wiggins, says she enjoyed Beth's performance, which restores most of Beth's confidence.
21. Jana to the Rescue – Jana is chosen as one of several other students to be part of a program to help acclimate students who live at the local homeless shelter, The Phoenix House, to Wakeman. Among her responsibilities are to help her "buddy" get used to Wakeman, introduce her to new people and after-school activities, and generally give her a sense of normalcy in a really tough time. However, her buddy, Liz Flagg, puts walls up, is rude to Jana and her friends, has no interest in after-school activities, and at one time, tries to resort to cheating on a test since she has not had a chance to study in a quiet place. Jana realizes that she really has little understanding of what Liz has been through and tries to cheer her up, but Liz doesn't respond to it; she sees Jana as lacking true empathy and understanding and can only give her sarcastic one-liners or silence. After a blow-up with Liz, Jana agrees to go to the homeless shelter to see what it is like to be in Liz's shoes in an attempt to better understand her. The other students in the group run into problems with their buddies and talk to the principal about the issues. Whitney Larkin, a very bright but socially awkward girl, admits that she's seen how tightly silent and withdrawn her "buddy" Leslie is; Leslie is nearly mute and even Whitney is not sure how to handle this. The counselor and principal tell them that it is actually not surprising that these homeless students would be distant and unfriendly and that many would put up a huge wall and resort to sarcasm or mutism when attempts are made to "cheer" them up. Lizzie ends up appreciating Jana's efforts to understand what she's gone through and the two girls become friends by the end of the book.
22. Melanie's Valentine Melanie goes on a date with Shane Arrington, and they both enjoy it. The day after, Melanie's grandmother from Florida comes for a visit. Melanie thinks it will be very cool until Grandma Edwards inserts herself into Melanie's life and in situations that are none of her business. For instance, Shane introduces himself to her, bringing his iguana, and she freaks out, threatening to call animal control and embarrassing Shane. Then, she insists that Scott Daly will ask Melanie to the Valentine's Day dance, which he does. Before, though, Melanie had accepted an invitation from Shane, but Scott misunderstood her answer, drowned out by the ringing of the bell. Toward the end of the story, Melanie gently breaks it to Scott that she is already going with Shane, but that she hopes they can still be friends. Scott agrees. (This is officially where Shane and Melanie start dating)
23. Mall Mania – Through the Media Club, Mr. Levine secures a local public-access television show to be aired on Saturday morning, focusing on the activities and news about Wakeman. Jobs for the Media Club will be on a rotating basis so everyone gets a turn to do something new. Shawnie Pendergast and Beth are chosen first to be newscasters. Fashion-conscious Shawnie wants to coordinate outfits, but in Beth's large family, finances are tight. So, Shawnie gets the idea to let Beth use her credit card to buy a few items. It starts out innocently enough, but soon grows into a huge problem. When Shawnie tells Beth she must pay back her parents immediately, Beth panics and finally tells her parents what she has done. Her parents cover her debt, but to pay them back. Thanks to her creative mind and her resourcefulness, Beth develops an earring-making idea, which earns her good money. She pays her parents back with the money she earns from friends who want her to make them earrings.
24. The Great TV Turn-off Katie is sick of television and how it has become such a guilty pleasure for all of her friends. After Tony misses picking her up in time for a movie she was really excited about seeing, due to a baseball game, she vents to her mother about how TV seems like such a waste of time and intelligence, time that could be better spent doing other things. Her mother takes this to heart and winds up writing an article lambasting TV and its deleterious effects on society. Everyone on Wakeman sees the article and gets angry with Katie. Due to another school having a television turn-off, (where you turn the TV off for two weeks and find other things to do) the principal comes up with the idea to have something similar occur at Wakeman. They have contracts they need to sign, and the students actually find other worthwhile activities to spend their time on, but the Fantastic Foursome plots to get other students to break their contracts and attend a TV party Laura is throwing. Thanks to Katie's idea to spend the whole day at an amusement park having fun, no one goes to Laura's party and the turn-off is a success.
25. The Fabulous Five Minus One Things are going nicely for Christie at Wakeman, and she has just started a program for gifted students. Although she gets teased by some of the other students, she holds her head high. A new student, Chase Collins, arrives at Wakeman from California, and he is a champion swimmer. He immediately takes an interest in Christie, and after they are formally introduced, go out with the rest of the Fabulous Five and their boyfriends several times. At the same time, Christie's father has an opportunity to go to London, England, for his job for an unspecified amount of time. Christie's parents decide they should go, and Christie needs to say goodbye to her friends and Chase.
26. Laura's Secret – A book written from Laura's perspective. Laura lives with her father in an apartment, and while her friends think she has the coolest life, she misses having a mother around to talk to. (Her mother left when she was very young, declaring she wasn't cut out for motherhood) In order to impress her friends, she lies that she and her father have a maid who clean up after them. When some other friends and Alexis Duvall come over, Laura's secret is nearly uncovered, but she shifts the focus to Alexis, saying that Alexis was a thief and stole something from her bedroom, where there was a note saying that there was no maid. Laura goes back and forth between keeping up her image and insisting that Alexis lied, or being a good friend and admitting the truth. In a way, she lied, but let Alexis off the hook.
27. The Scapegoat Christie is enjoying her new friends and school in England, doing well in every class but science. Seeing as how she did very well in science at Wakeman, she can't figure out why she is not doing well here. She tries to be enthusiastic about her answers, showing initiative, and working carefully to ensure that each assignment or test is done correctly. However, she cannot catch a break from her teacher, Ms Finney. When a science fair opportunity comes up, Christie decides to go all out in order to show Ms Finney that she is a good student. She comes up with an idea that centers on England through different time periods. She wins first prize, with the encouragement of her friends. Later, another teacher mentions to her that Ms. Finney is hard on her because when Ms Finney was trying to get a Rhodes Scholarship, it went to another student, an American, so there was some residual resentment there. Ms. Finney herself apologizes to Christie in the end and vows to be more fair with her.
28. Breaking Up Jana has made the decision to break up with Randy, meeting after one month to see if their feelings have changed for one another, after a time of possibly dating others. Neither of them really want to date anyone else, but to give this "experiment" a fair shot, they both begin dating others. However, when Jana and Beth see Randy with Sara Sawyer, Jana's jealousy rises, but she tries to keep it to herself this time. Jana accepts a date with Parker Donovan, but Parker's loud, musical, wacky ways embarrass the image-conscious and conservative Jana. Once Keith Masterson gets wind of this, he hastily breaks up with Beth, and decides to go after Jana. Jana doesn't tell anyone, instead trying to defuse the situation on her own. But Keith spins it so it looks like he was planning to break up with Beth and Jana was planning on breaking up with Randy so they could date each other. After a very public blow-up at the end, the truth comes out, Jana and Randy reunite, and a tearful Beth realizes she can live without Keith.
29. Melanie Edwards, Super Kisser – Melanie and her friends attend the New Generation's concert, where they have one song where they are actually expected to go into the audience and kiss girls. Melanie really wants to be one of them, even though she's dating Shane. Kimm Taylor is the one who gets kissed, but when the Dreadful Alternatives, Wakeman's student band, starts covering the song after the concert, Melanie gets into the song a little too much and starts kissing all of the boys, after they pressure her to do so. Rumors spread around Wakeman about how she'll kiss anyone, anywhere. Shane hears about this and breaks up with her. Realizing she has dug herself into a hole, she devises a plan to show Shane exactly what happened that night and to make things right with him. Everything is cleared up with the help of her friends and Mr. Matson and they get back together.
30. Sibling Rivalry Beth and her family go on a ski trip. Beth doesn't want to go because the Winter Carnival is happening at the same time, and she was planning on going to that with her friends. Her older sister, Brittany, is boy-crazy, and is on the lookout for cute guys. Brittany also teases Beth and treats her as a tag-along nuisance. Beth's already low self-esteem plunges even lower when Brittany humiliates her in front of other teens. Beth gets a chance to show how mature and resourceful she can be when something unexpected happens on the slopes in an emergency with one of her younger siblings.
31. The Fabulous Five Together Again – The rest of the Fabulous Five take a trip to London over spring break to see Christie. Christie is excited to introduce her England friends to them. After getting off to a good start, Christie finds she has difficulty scheduling and planning her time so she spends enough time with both groups. The Fabulous Five feels they should be able to spend as much time with Christie by themselves as they can because they don't know if Christie will be returning to the United States or not. Christie's English friends feel they shouldn't get the shaft just because Christie's other friends are in town. With Christie and Connie trying to run interference between the two groups, the tension comes to a head on Christie's birthday, when she shouts out that this is the hardest for her. All of the girls think this over and make amends with each other. The Fabulous Five depart.
32. Class Trip Calamity – It's the end of the school year, and the entire seventh grade is embarking on a class trip to Ellis Island. Everyone is excited. Shortly beforehand, the city of Bridgeport had approved a plan to turn Wakeman Junior High into a middle school, sending the eighth graders to high school next year, and therefore, making the seventh-graders the upper class. Shawnie Pendergast has a party to celebrate this the next night, and a few kids decide to make a toast, drinking champagne. There's a little bit of opposition, but in the end, nearly everyone participates. For the class trip, some students wind up sneaking alcohol in their thermoses. Jana and her friends do not take part, but Laura McCall does and she gets very sick inside the Statue of Liberty and the ruse is uncovered. The school deals with those who were drinking on an individual basis. Since Jana has not heard from her father in a while, she believes her father has gone back to drinking, with his new wife encouraging it. Later on, she receives a letter from him, stating that he was busy, and that he and his wife are expecting a baby, and that his wife wants Jana to come see them after he's born.
Super Editions
There were four Super Edition books issued during the Fabulous Five book era. All super editions took place concurrently with the girls attending Wakeman. The super editions were designed to be a somewhat lengthier book, emphasizing some important, out-of-the-ordinary experience that one, or all, of the girls had gone through. All super editions were unique in the fact that all of the girls' perspectives were covered at least once, in contrast to each of the books, which instead only focused on one perspective at a time.
1. The Fabulous Five in Trouble – During the school year, each of the girls is meeting new people and is involved in different activities. This lends itself to them not being able to spend as much time as they would like with each other. But when they do get time to be together, all they do is argue. Jana feels as if they are going in different directions, them all having separate interests from each other, and wonders if they still want to be friends and collectively be "The Fabulous Five". Katie is thinking the same thing and decides to invite them all to a sleepover, where she hopes they can discuss things and work through whatever they're going through. Everyone accepts, but once everyone gets there, it's awkward, and quite simply, they have forgotten how to relate with each other because it has been awhile since they have really done so. After a fierce argument, they go to sleep. Each of them has a dream where they are another in the group, and have to deal with their issues. For instance, Christie is Beth, Beth is Jana, Jana is Katie, Katie is Melanie, and Melanie is Christie. The dream lasts about a week and each girl is able to view the stressors in the other girl's life from a different perspective, and realize certain things about each girl. They each get a chance to step into each other's shoes and live their lives. Once they wake up, they calmly discuss this and although they are separate people with different interests, they realize that having those differences is a special part of each of them, and that it combines to so much more when they are all together.
2. Caribbean Adventure – Melanie's family wins an all-expenses-paid trip to Barbados and Melanie invites her friends along. They begin the trip, which takes place over the winter vacation, having lots of fun and experiencing different things. When they meet a suave, charming lounge singer, Marco Montavo, who is sixteen, each of them develops a crush on him, even though they all have boyfriends at home. Marco sees their crushes and taking full advantage of this, he dates all of them secretly and separately, essentially playing them all for fools. Once they realize this, they play a nasty trick on him right before they leave. They then head home, where Randy, Scott, Keith, Jon, and Tony greet them at the gate with hugs.
3. Missing You – Christie has left Wakeman and has started anew in England. She begins school and hesitantly makes new friends, while still missing her old ones. Connie Farrell is introduced in this book and takes an interest in Christie right away, even though Christie is conflicted about her feelings for Chase still. Back at Wakeman, Katie, Jana, Beth, and Melanie are still trying to come to terms with Christie not being here and how it might change their dynamic. In an effort to try to reach out to other friends, they inadvertently make them angry by appearing to be "recruiting" members for The Fabulous Five. After some disastrous evenings with Dekeisha and Alexis, they foolishly realize this, and state that the four of them being friends is good enough, that there will never be another Christie. They send cards and write letters to Christie. Toward the end, they collaborate with the owner of Bumper's to make a speaker-phone call to Christie so everyone can talk to her. It is a success. The book ends with the girls smiling at the fact that they can make this work, and are more comfortable with Christie being gone. Christie, in turn, recognizes that her friends will always be there, and that she can make new friends and settle in England, too.
4. Yearbook Memories – It's the end of the school year, and Wakeman is holding its annual dinner dance. At the beginning of the story, yearbooks are distributed, and each girl glances through it. Separately, each girl has a special memory she recounts in the book, and how it affected them. The end of the book focuses around the end of the dinner dance, and speculation about the kids who will be new at Wakeman.
*After this book was released, The Fabulous Five book series did not release any more books, so this was the end.