First mate's log:
March 5, 1970
Greg came to me, of all people, for advice on asking a girl to the Junior High Spring Fling that's a couple weeks from Saturday. It's Marcia's friend, Linda, not to be confused with Linda O'Hara, who he still thinks is real groovy but knows he can't ask to the dance, since she's his teacher and engaged. The best I could come up with was to not wait until the last minute.
Carol Brady's diary:
March 6, 1970
Marcia was very happy about having a date for the Junior High Spring Fling a couple weeks from tomorrow, but now she's unhappy because she's going to have to wear braces for a few months. We don't yet have a dentist on our island (maybe this summer, when the population is supposed to hit 1600), so I take the children over to one of the dentists on Blenford. Anyway, I had hoped that braces wouldn't be necessary, since she has the best teeth of my three girls, but at least they should be off by the time school starts in the fall again.
She feels self-conscious, even though she's not the only child on either island with braces. She actually thinks she'll lose friends over this, which is ridiculous, but she's at that age (not quite 13), where girls get a little self-dramatic. I'm sure she'll be back to her sensible self given enough time. And once she goes to the dance and has a good time, she'll see that the braces don't mar her appearance or her popularity.
I can understand more her fear that food will all taste like metal, but she'll get used to that in time, too.
March 10, 1970
Linda, Marcia's friend from Seattle, has agreed to go to the dance with Greg. He gives me all the credit, but I didn't really help much.
Poor Marcia had her date cancelled. The boy she was going with, Alan Anthony, has to go over to Blenford with his family that weekend. Mary Ann told me about it, since Marcia confided in her, but I'm not supposed to say anything to Marcia, since she thinks Alan cancelled because she wears braces now.
"I don't understand," I said. "If Alan thought she was pretty without braces, he probably still thinks she's pretty."
"Don't you remember when you had a swollen nose? And when your hair turned white and then fell out?"
I remembered her flirting with me, but maybe she was just trying to make me feel better. I didn't say that but said, "I wasn't hoping to go to a dance in a week and a half."
"Well, no, but an unexpected change in someone's appearance can shake their confidence."
"So should I tell her she's lucky that it's just her teeth and they'll look even better when the braces come off?"
"I don't think there's much you can say that would comfort her."
Probably not, but maybe I could find her another date. I don't really know the junior high kids that well, other than Greg and Marcia of course. But I know all the families, since everyone takes the ferry at some point. I'll just have to think of a boy who wouldn't have a date but would want to go with Marcia, braces or not.
March 11, 1970
I just don't know what to do about Marcia. She's still upset about her braces, and now she's convinced that they're the reason why Alan cancelled their date to their dance. He says his parents have decided that the family will go over to Blenford next weekend. He seems like a nice, honest boy, and I don't know why he would lie about something that could be so easily disproved. And he seems to genuinely like Marcia.
But she yelled at him that he doesn't want to be seen with a girl with braces. She even said she hates him! I'm sure she doesn't mean that and was just lashing out.
I'm thinking of fixing Marcia up with another boy, just to help her get her self-confidence back. I know the mothers of some of her classmates, and I'm leaning towards Harold, who's shy but seems to like her. I'll visit his mother tomorrow.
March 12, 1970
I got a chance to talk to Felix Brown and he's going to ask Marcia to the dance, in exchange for three ferry tickets, which is a pretty good deal. Oh, and I might have to get Marcia a corsage, but I can just pick some jungle flowers and give them to Felix the night of the dance. He's going to go over to her house and ask her tomorrow night, since he would feel too self-conscious asking her at school. I just hope her brothers and sisters don't embarrass them.
March 13, 1970
What a Friday the 13th! It turned out that I'm not the only matchmaker who was trying to fix up Marcia. Not only Harold showed up, although he was so shy Mike had a hard time getting him to come in, but Greg's friend Joey, who's into karate and has a crush on Marcia. Then Eddie, the delivery boy for Garst's, arrived, but without a delivery, except of an invitation to the dance. (Alice takes credit/blame for that suitor.) Then Felix Brown, who Marcia once claimed she was going to a dance with, rang the doorbell, although I haven't yet traced who's responsible for that beau. (Maybe Jan, being mischievous?) I do, however, have a strong hunch who sent the Howells' nephew, who is three years older than Marcia and therefore definitely far too old for her, although I doubt Mrs. Howell would've considered that.
If it had been just one boy, or if they hadn't all appeared simultaneously, it probably would've been all right. But Marcia got understandably suspicious, and then she was more hurt and angrier than ever. She's now thoroughly convinced that she's unappealing to any boy who isn't bribed or persuaded to ask her out.
I really don't know how we're going to resolve this, other than waiting for her braces to come off.
March 16, 1970
Well, I heard from Felix Brown that things didn't work out for him on Friday. Unfortunately, a bunch of other people, including that unreformed matchmaker Mrs. Howell, had the same bright idea, and five boys showed up at once! Marcia's not going to the dance with any of them. And Greg feels bad about having a date, when Marcia doesn't. (He tried to fix her up with his friend Joey. We should've compared notes.)
I've learned my lesson and I'm not going to fix up anyone ever again, adult or child.
March 21, 1970
Well, things worked out after all. Alan's parents didn't have to go to Blenford the whole weekend, and he came over on Tuesday to ask Marcia to the dance. She at first assumed that someone had put him up to it, but he insisted he wanted to go with her because she's "the grooviest girl in school." His sincerity was so clear (yes, I was eavesdropping, but I wasn't the only one), she accepted.
Ironically, he was wearing braces when he showed up tonight, since he loosened his teeth in a bicycle accident on Friday. The two of them had very shiny grins when they left for the dance.
Another surprise was that (and I had to find this out from Marcia, since Greg didn't tell me or Mike), although Greg claimed he was "going stag" (and thus was unable to take his sister to the dance when she seemed dateless), he in fact met his date at the dance. And it was Linda from Seattle! Raising an adolescent boy is definitely different from raising an adolescent girl, and we're only at the beginning.