Best Friends…Forever? Reading Guide: Session 4

     This past week we read 10-13 for next time. The previous sessions can be found here:
www.krystenlindsay.com/reading-guide.html

            In this section, Landry is feeling insecure after what happened with her friends in the previous section. She goes as far as to ask to stay home from school and we see struggle to find a place to sit at lunch. After lunch, she hides out in the library with a book to escape into. Have you been in that situation before where you weren’t sure where to sit at lunch or maybe you hid out in the library or a lab at school? Or maybe you pretended to not feel well to stay home because of some friend drama going on at school. Write about a time you were stressed out about school and what you did to escape. Did it help?

            The Valentine’s Day section shows us that Landry gives cards to people she thinks might not get a lot of valentines. We see Hana say the year before she only received 2. We know Tad hands out cards to everyone in the class, but at the end of the day he thanks her for her card as it’s the only one he received. We also find out that although Thalia didn’t get many cards, some of the boys stole them and ate the candy meant for her. Landry sits on the bus watching the popular girl Yasmin with a full bag of cards and candy. Landry realizes that even though she didn’t get as much stuff as Yasmin, at least hers were from real friends instead of some of the fake friends or frenemies in Yasmin’s crew.

      How do you feel about this section of the book? Do you prefer to have a lot of friends and big numbers of followers on social media or would you prefer to have a couple of close besties and not a big following online? Write out your reasons.

            Next, the girls get ready for cheerleading tryouts for the high school next year. Landry is already terrified about the idea of high school, but she realizes she could lose Ashanti to the cheerleaders next year if she makes the team. Still, she decides to support Ashanti.

     Have you ever been in a situation where you were afraid you might lose a friend to a new activity, team, or group they were interested in? Write about what happened and how you felt. Did you end up being worried for no reason or did you and your friend drift apart?

            In chapter 13, Landry is filmed getting her hair cut for the American Ingenue show. However, she’s made to feel pretty insecure by the way the stylists talk about her.

     Write down how they describe her and then share how it makes you feel reading that scene. Have you ever been in a situation like that? How did you handle it? Did their words influence how you feel about yourself? Journal about that and if you feel comfortable, share it with a trusted adult. Ask if they’ve ever felt like that.

Behind the scenes: One of the reasons I have Landry uncomfortable around Tori is to show that friendships do change and sometimes we grow apart. This happened with me and I also dealt with a friendship where we drifted apart because we had different interests. This friend was joining a team in high school that would be taking a lot of her time, but there had already been some cracks in our friendship foundation. Even though we got through that situation, I still felt maybe this wasn’t the healthiest friendship for me. I also felt like sometimes I was in a supporting role in the friendship. I don’t mean to say it was one-sided, but sometimes I didn’t feel seen by other people in that friendship.

     When we got to the next school, I decided that I wanted to actively meet new people instead of just staying in my safe group of friends. It was a huge step for me out of my comfort zone because I was going from a very small school to a huge one where it seemed like everyone already knew one another from their previous school.

     However, taking that step helped me to meet new people and find people who I fit in with better. Here I wasn’t always in the supporting role, but felt supported as well. Balance is always a positive thing in a friendship and today many of the girls who I became friends with that first month are still people I’m friends with today. It was a step out of my comfort zone, but I was lucky enough to meet people willing to let me into their already established friendship groups as well.
 
      I just had a birthday recently and I smiled seeing names pop up to wish me happy birthday and those were the same people that welcomed me during that first scary week of my freshmen year. I will be forever grateful to them. I worried that it was safer for me to stay in my safe zone with the people I knew for a long time, but stepping out helped me to form bonds and friendships that are still strong today.

     Right now, you may be back in school or doing school online. This week I’d like you to reach out to 3 people you normally don’t message or talk to often just to check in and see how they’re doing with everything that’s going on. Then reach out to 3 people you would like to get to know better. Then message 3 who you think might need to hear from a friendly voice.  You might end up making a closer friend or starting up a friendship from this.
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    Read chapters 14-16 for next time. The previous sessions can be found here:
www.krystenlindsay.com/reading-guide.html
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