First mate's log:
November 24, 1971
Mary Ann told me that he saw Greg Brady bring a new girl to her pizza place. This girl is named Linette Carter and Mary Ann thinks she's sweet, pretty, and crazy about Greg. Linette is a cheerleader, so that works out well with Greg on the football team.
Greg's mother doesn't like him playing football, but she's going along with it for now. She's mostly worried about him getting injured, but he feels like minor injuries come with the territory. Like I've said before, I'm not an athlete, and I'm kind of a chicken, so I can't relate, but I wish him well.
November 25, 1971
Carol Brady's diary:
This is our eighth Thanksgiving on this island, the fourth with Mike, Alice, and the boys as part of my family. I am most grateful that we've all survived and we are mostly happy. Our lives are less dramatic than when we were stuck on this island, but it's never dull around here.
November 27, 1971
I had a good Thanksgiving with just me, the Skipper, and of course Mary Ann. She is a wonderful cook, but that's obviously not the only reason why I'm thankful she's my girlfriend. And the Skipper is the best friend anyone could have.
Still, happy as I am, sometimes I miss the days when it was just us and thirteen other people living on this island. Well, not counting Wrong-Way Feldman and the other people we met I mean. The sixteen of us were a tight-knit group. And we're all still friends, but it's not like before. I am glad though that most of us still live on this island, and Ginger and the Professor are just over on Blenford.
November 29, 1971
The kids are back in school after the four-day weekend, and Marcia had another rehearsal with Harold in the family room. Unfortunately, maybe due to too much praise from the family and others, she's starting to become more temperamental, and not just as an actress. She refused to clean the garage with Peter yesterday, even though it was one of her weekend chores.
And today, according to the other kids, who were watching them rehearse, she kept harshly criticizing Harold. I know he's not the best actor, but I'm sure he's doing his best. Besides, this is a junior high production, not Broadway. And if anyone is going to improve Harold's acting, it should be Miss Goodwin. I haven't spoken to Marcia about this, but I'll have to if this keeps up another day or two. The play is Friday night, so I'm hoping she'll snap out of this phase like she snapped out of the insecurity.
November 30, 1971
Bobby Brady told me that he's been getting advice about taking pictures from Greg, who's been interested in cameras, moving and still, at least since his pilgrim movie, and maybe back when the adults shot that silent movie so we could get rescued. The day Greg invited Linette Carter to Mary Ann's pizza place, he was taking action shots of her cheers. Bobby is nine and doesn't like girls yet, but he said Linette has a good sense of humor and she didn't treat Bobby like an annoying little kid, even when he kept asking Greg questions about cameras.
On the other hand, Marcia is definitely developing a bad attitude and not just towards Bobby. She's acting like a "star" at home and at school.
"We never should've buttered her up," he told me.
"I feel bad that I told her she's as pretty as Kathy Lawrence," I said.
He shook his head. "She's turned into a blonde Frankenstein." And then he made a monster face.
December 1, 1971
I'm still worried about both Greg and Marcia. With him, it's fears for his physical safety. Today, I noticed he has a bruise on his arm! He claims he bumped his arm in Math class, but how could that make such a bad bruise? He would've had to hit the door or his desk, hard. And if he can be hurt like that in a classroom, how is he going to survive on the football field?
His first game is Saturday, and I'll be dealing with whatever emotional bruises result from the Romeo & Juliet performance Friday evening. Marcia has started trying to rewrite Shakespeare's dialogue, so who knows where this will all end.
December 2, 1971
Peter and Jan told me about the awful dress rehearsal today. The part with the guards was fine, but not the part where Romeo and Juliet meet.
"First it turned out that Harold couldn't wear his masquerade mask with his glasses," Jan said.
"So Miss Goodwin told him to take his glasses off, because Romeo has to be disguised so the Capulets won't kick him out of their party," Peter added.
Jan pushed up her own glasses. "She's letting me wear mine because the guards don't have masks."
"Just flat silver hats."
"Harold's eyesight is really bad. Worse than mine."
"Yeah, he started bumping into scenery."
"And then when Marcia moved up to the balcony—"
"She's such a primavera!"
"They're supposed to save the balcony for the balcony scene. But Lady Marcia said she was 'improving the play.' " Jan did an imitation of her sister as a la-de-da actress.
"And poor Harold couldn't even find her up there, so he was saying his lines to scenery."
"It was a complete disaster!" Jan said melodramatically.
"If I wasn't gonna be onstage, I'd want to sit in the audience and throw things."
Mary Ann and I have tickets to see the play tomorrow night, but now I'm sort of dreading it.
December 3, 1971
Well, even though the play is tonight, yesterday Miss Goodwin and I made the difficult decision to replace Marcia with her understudy. I stopped by the school auditorium to show Miss Goodwin the program before sending it to the printer's. (There's a place on Blenford that promises overnight service.) And I saw that Marcia had gotten worse, not better.
I promised to be the one to tell Marcia. I've done my best not to interfere with the play, but I feel that I have to say something as a mother. She has been acting badly in more than one sense.
Marcia got very upset when I told her, to the point of sobbing! I feel wretched about it and, yes, guilty, because I had told her how wonderful she was. And she could've been wonderful in the role, if she hadn't gotten carried away. I don't like seeing my children hurt, and I particularly don't want to hurt them, but I had to consider the greater good. The best way to teach Marcia to not be self-centered is to myself think of others.
Still, I didn't sleep well last night. I'll try to focus on Peter and Jan, and not think about Marcia, or the football game tomorrow.
December 4, 1971
Mary Ann and I were very surprised last night when we went to see the junior high play. There were hand-written notes in the program that the girl playing Lady Capulet, Juliet's mom, was replaced by Marcia Brady! Marcia's understudy was Juliet. I'm not sure what happened behind the scenes, but I'm sure the Brady kids will fill me in later.
The play was good. Marcia gave her all to her small role and didn't act at all conceited. Ginger came to see the play, with the Professor as her date, so the four of us sat together. Ginger thinks Marcia has a lot of potential.
We all cringed when Jan said, "Who goes there?" before Peter said, "Hark." In her defense though, she's not even in junior high and she was probably just nervous.
December 5, 1971
So much happened in the last 24 hours or so! First the girl playing Lady Capulet got the mumps. Marcia humbly asked if she could play the role, promising to learn the lines quickly and not cause any trouble. I gave her a hug and welcomed her back to the play, sure that Miss Goodwin would approve. Marcia was fine, but unfortunately Jan and Peter switched their lines. Still, considering how much else could've gone wrong, including the rest of the cast coming down with the mumps, things worked out.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the football game this afternoon. All my fears about Greg came true! He was hit and cracked a rib. The doctor says it's "just a hairline fracture," but what if Greg gets hit in the same place?
Greg wants to keep playing, and I never want him to play football again. Mike's idea of compromise is to let Greg play once he's healed, but that's a solution that wouldn't make either me or Greg happy.
