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1[[quoteright:221: https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheCliqueSeriesNumber1_5972.JPG]]
2
3''The Clique'', a series of [[YoungAdultLiterature middle-school novels]] by Lisi Harrison, revolves around the lives of the Pretty Committee: [[AlphaBitch Massie Block]], [[PluckyGirl Claire Lyons]], [[BigEater Dylan Marvil]], [[TheSociopath Alicia Rivera]], and [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak Kristen Gregory]]. These spoiled seventh-graders (later eighth-graders) consider themselves the experts of fashions of [[FunWithAcronyms Octavian Country Day School]], and aren't afraid to let other students know what they think of them. In a nutshell, a series in which the AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse are the protagonists.
4
5The books were bestsellers, and a direct-to-DVD adaptation of the first book was released in fall 2008 that today is most notable for starring pre-''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' Music/BridgitMendler. There's also a graphic novel and DS game. Also has a spin-off series, ''Alphas'', about related characters attending an ultra-exclusive boarding school.
6
7%%[[DrinkingGame/TheClique Drinking game here]]. %%Anyone who is willing to remake this page, kindly make without the bashing and nitpicking, please and thank you.
8
9[[AC: Canonically, the series is as follows:]]
10* ''[[{{Prequel}} Charmed and Dangerous: The Rise of the Pretty Committee]]''
11* ''The Clique''
12* ''Best Friends for Never''
13* ''Revenge of the Wannabes''
14* ''Invasion of the Boy Snatchers''
15* ''The Pretty Committee Strikes Back''
16* ''Dial L for Loser''
17* ''It's Not Easy Being Mean''
18* ''Sealed with a Diss''
19* ''The Clique Summer Collection''
20** ''Massie''
21** ''Dylan''
22** ''Alicia''
23** ''Kristen''
24** ''Claire''
25* ''Bratfest at Tiffany's''
26* ''P.S. I Loathe You''
27* ''Boys R Us''
28* ''These Boots are Made for Stalking''
29* ''My Little Phony''
30* ''A Tale of Two Pretties''
31[[note]]Chronologically ''Charmed and Dangerous'' was published between ''Boys R Us'' and ''These Boots Are Made For Stalking''. [[/note]]
32----
33!!This series provides examples of:
34%%* AbhorrentAdmirer: Todd, for Massie and Alicia.
35* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Actually subverted in ''Dial L for Loser'' where Claire lands a leading role in a film that Massie was also competing for and despite all the attention and potential rise in being a full-fledged actress, Claire stays mostly humbled by the experience. It's actually ''Massie'' who seems to simply assume Claire is getting a big head from it all and feels the need to take the girl down the peg mostly for the sake of her own ego.
36* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Massie has some nicer, more human moments in the film adaptation of the first book. For one, she doesn't lie to the Pretty Committee in order to manipulate them into hating Claire (see AcquiredSituationalNarcissism). During Truth or Dare at the sleepover, the question "would you rather be a friendless loser or a person with tons of friends who secretly hate you" is asked. In the ''book'', everyone answers that they'd rather be the friendless loser, including Massie, whose narration reveals that she'd secretly rather have friends that secretly hate her. In the ''film'', when the same question is asked, the Pretty Committee all answer that they'd rather have tons of friends that secretly hate them, and Alicia mocks Claire when she answers that she'd rather be the friendless loser — and at the end of the film, Massie admits to Claire in a private moment that she would also rather be a friendless loser.
37* AdultsAreUseless:
38** Alicia actually depends on this, pretending to be [[BeautyEqualsGoodness sweet]] when around adults and downright ruthless when they aren't present.
39** Pretty much any adult character in this series. When Massie and her friends break school dress code with inappropriate Halloween outfits, her parents only give her a lecture and let her continue doing whatever she wants. Many of the parents are shown to be neglectful and overindulgent of their children and don't take any actions to stop them from cruelty.
40%%* AgeInappropriateDress: A ''lot''. It's actually one of the main themes of the series. %%ZCE
41* AlphaBitch: This trope is glorified among the OCD girls and many aim to be one. The top girl is literally known as the Alpha in this series.
42** Massie of the seventh grade. She's the leader of the Pretty Committee and uses cruelty to keep her status.
43%%** Alicia tries to become one throughout the series but continuously fails. %%ZCE
44%%** Skye Hamilton is stated to be the eighth grade alpha at one point. %%ZCE
45* AlternateUniverse: The {{Prequel}} contradicts most of the series' canon and includes some (legitimate) fortune telling.
46* BabyDontGotBack: AlphaBitch Massie usually finds every reason to laugh at her BetaBitch Claire, but secretly envies her butt.
47* BackseatChangingRoom: Kristen comes to Massie's car dressed in "ugly" and dull clothes. In the backseat, she pulls them off to reveal something shorter and more fashionable. Massie can't believe that Kristen's parents are this strict, since she is [[SpoiledBrat Spoiled Rotten]] by her own.
48%%* TheBeautifulElite: The protagonists and most of the other characters. ##ZCE
49* BerserkButton:
50** Do ''not'' mess with Massie's Clique, or her friends.
51** Dylan discovers Svetlana's Berserk Button in her Summer Collection title. Compliments piss her off since it reminds her of how someone screaming that she sucked led to her losing a tennis match. Dylan uses this to get back at her, causing her to destroy things in fury and wreck her reputation.
52* BigFancyHouse: Massie, Alicia. To a less emphasized degree, Dylan. In the first book when the girls are being picked up by the limo, the mansions are described. Claire even tries taking a picture of one of the houses.
53* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Literally addressed in "Best Friends for Never" when the girls present various "uniforms" for different colorations (the blonde role being split between Kristen's dark and Claire's light, brunette as Massie, and redhead as Dylan).
54%%* BuffySpeak: ''Massie''-speak, including her {{Character Catchphrase}}s mentioned below.
55* CharacterCatchphrase:
56** Alicia: "Point."; "given" ; "I heart [X].".
57** Massie: "Ehmagawd", "Ah-bviously"; "Ah-dorable"; "Are you a... Then why are you...?".
58%%* ClearMyName: The latter half of the first book after Claire hijacks Massie's IM. %%What did Claire do to make Massie have to clear her name?
59%%* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Layne.
60* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The entire Pretty Committee, especially Massie and Alicia. They often take measures to usurp the other, such as Alicia switching the votes in a fashion competition to win against Massie. The girls don't show much loyalty to each other and are willing to do whatever it takes to be the Alpha.
61* CostumePorn: Outfits are usually described in this manner.
62%%* DefrostingIceQueen: Massie, Claire and the rest of the Committee do a pretty good job.
63* TheDitz: Alicia's friend and almost beta Olivia. She is described as a "DumbBlonde" and shown to be naïve. Massie calls her "Duh-livia" since she's not too smart.
64* DrivenByEnvy: Massie in a massive portion of ''Dial L for Loser'' whose personally angered by Claire landing a leading role in a film that she also auditioned for. This inspires her to use her newly gained positioned as gossip news anchor [[spoiler:to invade Claire's dressing room and embarrass them on live television.]] Even after the girls supposedly make up later she still [[spoiler:temporarily kicks Claire out of the Pretty Committee in ''It's Not Easy Being Mean'' just because of her blooming popularity in the school]]
65* DudeMagnet: Alicia has this reputation due to her prematurely developed figure and beauty. %%Her cousin Nina takes this a step farther to rather questionable degrees. There's also Skye Hamilton's clique The DSL Daters who literally gain their reputation through being this.
66%%* DumbBlonde: Olivia, who's blonde and definitely not the brightest bulb in the box. She's even described as this, word-for-word. %%I don't know enough context; can someone add more?
67* EggSitting: With synthetic babies in Claire's class in ''Bratfest at Tiffany's''.
68* ExtrudedBookProduct: Although the entire series was written by a single author, the series was originally conceived by a company that specializes in marketing online content towards teens, and then searched for a writer to realize the series (eventually settling on an Creator/{{MTV}} marketing and product development specialist with no prior novel publishing experience, which may explain some of the series' flaws).
69* FallenPrincess: Subverted. When Massie's family loses their money in the last book, she goes through great lengths to hide that and avoid this trope so she could keep being the alpha.
70* TheFashionista: Technically everyone in the Pretty Committee, but Massie especially qualifies, always aiming to look the best out of her posse. Even non-members tend to have impressive and expensive wardrobes, though.
71* {{Fauxreigner}}: Alicia's dad (Mr. ''Rivers'') isn't Spanish, but pretended to be so that he could marry his Spanish supermodel wife, he then changed his surname to ''Rivera''. Make of that what you will.
72%%* FilleFatale: Nina. The age of consent in Spain was 13 at the time of writing.
73%%* TheFilmOfTheBook: Well, a Direct-to-DVD movie.
74* {{Flanderization}}:
75** With each book, Dylan becomes a bigger BigEater and gets more disgusting.
76** Kristen gets more paranoid and uptight about grades and getting grounded.
77** Claire obsesses more over her relationship status with Cam.
78** Layne becomes more and more of a GranolaGirl -- and ''then'' further flanderized into an outright NewAgeRetroHippie SoapboxSadie.
79%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Before Claire's arrival, there's the sanguine one (Dylan), the choleric one (Kristen), the melancholic one (Alicia), and the phlegmatic one (Massie). %%How do each of them qualify?
80* FriendlyRivalry: Massie and Layne edge closer and closer to this towards the end. Massie also admits one of the reasons why she admitted Claire into the PC was because she was impressed with how she stood up to her during the events of the first book.
81* FreudianExcuse: {{Implied|Trope}}. Alicia's parents are hinted at as encouraging to get plastic surgery for her boobs and the other Pretty Committee members seem to be victims of ParentalNeglect. They do whatever they want while their parents fail to realize what's going on.
82* FunWithAcronyms: A regular aspect of The Pretty Committee's lingo is to make up random acronyms, not limited to calling their own school, Octavian County Day, O.C.D among others.
83* [[GaidenGame Gaiden Book]]: The "Summer Collection"; the subsequent books still lean on plot developments that happen in these books (particularly the events in ''Kristen'') but for the most part they're stories that take place outside of the PC.
84* GeckoEnding: The movie's ending implies that Massie leaves the Committee and starts hanging out with Claire. In the book, not so much. This was most likely due to the fact that a sequel probably wasn't going to be made.
85* GirlPosse:
86** Kristen, Alicia, Dylan, and Claire make up Massie's Girl Posse.
87** For multiple times throughout the series, Alicia forms her own girl posses, one of them even includes boys.
88** [[spoiler:Kristen and Layne]] have their own secret Girl Posse.
89* GoodCounterpart: The Witty Committee, which is a lot like the Pretty Committee, except with girls who actually treat each other like friends and not employees/pawns.
90* GrayAndGreyMorality: It's a series about the AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse, and their frequent squabbles.
91* HeroProtagonist: Dylan, Kristen and Claire in their eponymous-titled Summer Collection books. Proof that these girls really are better off without the Pretty Committee.
92* HighSchoolDance: Middle school dance, actually. Nina goes to the Love Struck dance at Octavian Country Day School dance with Derrington, who is Massie's crush.
93* HugeSchoolgirl: Allie-Rose Singer, who's a good foot taller than every other girl in the seventh grade.
94* IndecisiveParody: Is the series making fun of these girls, showing how messed up they are, or glorifying them?
95* InUniverseNickname:
96** Massiechists (People who are obsessed with Massie and wish she liked them.)
97** Leesh for Alicia and Kris, Dyl and Mass for... Kristen, Dylan and Massie.
98** Derrington for Derrick.
99** Claire is called "Kuh-laire" in the first couple of books.
100* ItsAllAboutMe: Several characters have this mindset. Whenever Massie or Alicia is concerned, it often becomes the defining theme.
101* JerkAss: Alicia is indisputably one, Massie goes between this and ThePowerOfFriendship, Kristen is only one when provoked, Dylan is never this and Claire only when she wants something.
102* {{The Joy of X}}: ''Dial L for Loser'', a play on Alfred Hitchcock's ''Film/DialMForMurder''.
103* KarmaHoudini: The Pretty Committee get away with a ''lot'' of things, but Alicia is always forgiven no matter what she does to the committee.
104%%* LittleMissSnarker: Kristen.
105* LovableAlphaBitch: Skye Hamilton is about the only character who fills this role better than anyone else. Though a bit cunning with her room scavenger hunt game, she never really does anything truly spiteful or cruel and still manages her position as the eighth grade alpha despite that. At her worst, she can be a little too competitive over gaining the attention of boys.
106* LoveTriangle:
107** In ''The Clique'', Massie falls for Chris-Abeley ([[RunningGag full name basis]]), who has a girlfriend named Fawn.
108** In ''Boys R Us'' both Massie and Layne want Dempsey. [[spoiler: Too bad for both of them, he really wants Kristen. [[PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure Too bad for Kristen]].]]
109* MeaningfulName:
110** Played with in-series:
111--->'''Jay Lyons:''' What's our name?\
112'''Claire Lyons:''' Lyons.\
113'''Jay:''' And what do Lyons do?\
114'''Claire:''' They ''roar!''
115** Massie Block: She's a ''massive block'' for everyone else in the Pretty Committee.
116** Alicia (Leesh): She's a ''leash'' (or ''leech'') on everyone else.
117** Dylan Marvil subverts this; she doesn't exactly see herself as a marvel.
118* OperationJealousy:
119** Claire seemingly flirts with Dempsey so that Cam will get jealous.
120** Arguably the whole point of Alicia's (multiple) attempts to start her own clique, especially the first one, right down to explicitly trying to find "knockoffs" of Dylan and Kristen (with the implication that Olivia is either a knockoff Claire or a knockoff of Alicia herself).
121%%** Alicia's and Claire's cat-and-mouse game over Josh and Cam in ''The Pretty Committee Strikes Back''.
122** ''Bratfest at Tiffany's'' ends up having a rather complicated and multi-layered one with different people operating it at different levels. They even refer to it by the Trope Name.
123* PastimesProvePersonality:
124** Horse-riding Massie is a rich snob. Various other rich and spoiled characters play tennis, golf, squash, etc.
125** Soccer star Kristen constantly drives herself harder both on the field and academically to keep up her scholarships and is arguably the most driven of the PC.
126** Likewise most of the Briarwood boys that show up in more than one book are also soccer stars, and are portrayed as full-on jocks 24/7.
127** Layne's past times seem to revolve around [[SoapboxSadie protesting for random causes]] or [[CloudCuckoolander activities that tend to be escapist]] when around Claire.
128* PerspectiveFlip:
129** The series focuses on a group of nasty middle-schoolers, making it a sort of flip on middle-school and high-school fiction in general.
130** Alicia, Dylan, Claire and Kristen get their own books in ''The Summer Collection Series''.
131* ThePowerOfFriendship:
132** ''Suprisingly'', the series actually runs on this, but it can be seen as a {{Deconstruction}} as well (Massie is aware of this trope and uses it to control not only her friends but the ''entire school'').
133** The "Witty Committee" is a more straight-up version.
134* PlasticBitch: Mean girl Alicia is shown to have unusually well developed breasts for a girl her age (she's about 12-13). It's later revealed that she has implants.
135* ProductPlacement: It's almost impossible to list all the clothing brands that appear in the series. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools They've caused the series to age very badly]].
136* PunnyName:
137** Massie's IM name? Massiekur.
138** Most of the later book titles are themselves puns on something.
139* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:Dylan of all people is the one who delivers this to Massie towards the end of ''My Little Phony'', pointing out all her core flaws and how her AlphaBitch ways have only made being her friend difficult.]]
140%%* {{Reconstruction}}:
141%%** The plot of ''Kristen'' reads more like a typical "loser girls get back at the AlphaBitch" Creator/DisneyChannel-type of story.
142%%** So does ''Dylan'' to a lesser degree
143%%** ''Alicia'' is either this or a slightly modified {{Deconstruction}} depending on how you interpret it.
144%%** Starting with ''These Boots Are Made for Stalking'' the series tends to dip towards the "loser girl gets back at the Alpha Bitch" type of story too.
145* RichBitch: The Pretty Committee. Entitled, spoiled, and superficial, the girls flaunt their designer clothing and look down on people with less money than them. This is one of the reasons why Claire isn't accepted by them in the beginning: Massie looks down on her for lack of money. This is also why Kristen is reluctant to confide in her friends that her family isn't wealthy and she attends OCD on a scholarship. In the summer collection series, Massie acts horrified at having to get a summer job, failing to realize that there are many people out there who need to work hard for a living.
146* RichesToRags: This happens to Massie in the last book of the series when her father loses his job. It's shown that they're not in poverty; they're just not insanely wealthy like before. It doesn't last long since he gets a new job.
147* SecretIdentity: It turns out Kristen [[spoiler:is secret [=BFFs=] with Layne Abeley]]. It's something they've both sworn to keep from the rest of the Pretty Committee no matter the cost, and Kristen actually feels closer to the "Witty Committee" than she does the Pretty Committee but fears what Massie would do if she found out.]] This is how [[spoiler:Kristen [[SecretKeeper knows]] Layne flooded Briarwood Academy on purpose]], and how [[spoiler:the Witty Committee impersonated Skye Hamilton in order to get her accepted into Alphas Academy]], thereby kicking off the ''Alphas'' SpinOff.
148* SeriesContinuityError:
149** Cam's dark hair randomly becomes golden-brown.
150** The dress code for Briarwood seemingly changes from the first book to the second.
151** Alicia's father is Antonio in the first two books and Len in every book after ''Revenge of the Wannabes'', though this might be due to the fact that everybody knows where he's actually from after that book.
152** Brownie the Horse manages to change from a brown mare, to a white stallion, and then back to a female again. Albeit this time a brown and white one.
153** The name of the pro-tennis star that antagonizes Dylan goes from Illana to Svetlana over the course of ''two books''. [[spoiler:{{Justified|Trope}} as it's mentioned that Dylan paid her to change her name.]]
154* SexyWhateverOutfit: In ''Best Friends For Never'' The Pretty Committee advertise their upcoming "Halloweenie" party by wearing sexy devil girl costumes. They're so scandalous that it's what inspires their principal to introduce school uniforms.
155* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Constantly. The entire conflict of the third book is resolved because Massie donates a new school building so that the school gives up its new uniform policy.
156* ShoutOut: The first four of the main series covers has the traditional ''Burberry'' pattern but in different colors.
157* TheSociopath: Massie shows several classic traits of sociopathy, such as her reliance on emotional manipulation and bullying to get her way, viewing almost everyone around as merely pawns to her social status, and her obsession with always being on the top regardless of who she has to hurt to get there. It's unknown if she was intentionally written that way.
158** Alicia as well, possible even more than Massie. She doesn’t trust anyone and is always plotting against Massie. In her summer collection book, she has been shown to take even more underhanded measures to win against the competition.
159%%* SpicyLatina: Alicia, but then...
160* SpinOff: ''Alphas'', which involves a much more [[{{Magitek}} fantastical]] setting.
161* SpoiledBrat: Massie sometimes acts like one to convince her father to do what she wants.
162* SpoofsRUs: The title of ''Boys R Us''.
163* TheStarscream: Alicia frequently tries to either take over Massie's clique or start her own.
164* StatusQuoIsGod:
165** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Dial L for Loser'' with Claire: "No matter how much fun the girls had together, she would wake up the next morning and need to impress them all over again. It was as if their leave-in conditioners seeped into their hair follicles whiles they slept, permanently erasing 'cool Claire' from their memories."
166** Every time [[TheStarscream Alicia tries to overthrow Massie or start her own clique]], she fails.
167%%* {{Subversion}}: ''Kristen'' compared to the rest of the series.
168* TalkShow: Dylan's mother Merri-Lee hosts a talk show called ''The Daily Grind''.
169* ThemeNaming:
170** The schools include OCD[[note]]Octavian Country Day, the private school[[/note]], ADD, at a certain point BO (Briarwood and Octavian are combined for a while) and Massie's pre-Alpha school from the prequel is PMS[[note]]Presbyterian Middle School[[/note]].
171** Dylan is the target for a few of these, particularly from her mom or anybody trying to suck up to her mom: ''Daffi-Dyl'', ''Marvil-ous'', ''Dyl Pickles'', etc.
172%%* TokenMinority: Alicia is the only member of color, being Spanish-American. This is something Massie constantly tries to disprove, calling her "Fannish" (Fake Spanish), among other accusations. %%Spanish =/= POC??
173* ToxicFriendInfluence:
174** The Pretty Committee to the once naïve but well-intentioned Claire. Though the books sometimes imply Claire has changed for the worse due to being accepted into their circle, it never [[IndecisiveParody ''quite'' gets around to admitting it.]]
175** Massie (and to a lesser extent Alicia) is this to Kristen and Dylan as well. It's shown that Kristen and Dylan would be much kinder, better people without Massie's influence.
176* TrademarkFavoriteFood:
177** Layne continuously has favorite snack foods for the moment. For a while in the early books, it was oatmeal.
178** Dylan has a new diet every book, to the point where it's a RunningGag.
179** Claire is almost always eating gummy worms or just gummy candy in general.
180* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Several of the middle-school aged characters are implied to already be sexually active. %%TruthInTelevision, unfortunately, but it's still pretty disgusting.
181* UnlimitedWardrobe: The reason Massie initially doesn't want to date Derrington is because of his obsession with shorts in all seasons. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that the reason Derrington wore shorts all the time was because he lost a bet and the loser had to wear shorts all the time, no matter what. Eventually, he loses another bet and has to wear his clothes backwards all the time for a certain period of time.]]
182* VacationEpisode: ''The Clique Summer Collection'' is technically five books for each individual Pretty Committee member and how they spent their summer vacations apart.
183* ValleyGirl: Though the books don't take place in the likely locations for this trope, the Pretty Committee's reliance on unique lingo steers into this direction.
184* VillainProtagonist:
185** Massie, who is an AlphaBitch.
186** Alicia in her Summer Collection title. She becomes ''more'' evil without the Pretty Committee and left alone with Nina.
187* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Massie. A few other names count as well.
188* WrittenSoundEffect: In ''P.S. I Loathe You'', a pigeon calls, "Hehhhhhhhhhh, hoooooooooo. Hehhhhhhhhhhhh, hooooooooooo. Heeeeeeeee, Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" as it poops on the Pretty Committee.
189%%** This is hardly the only example. In fact, you'd be [[DrinkingGame/TheClique hard-pressed]] to find many pages that ''don't''.
190%%* XanatosSpeedChess: A toned down 'tween' version between Massie and Alicia (And hence the Pretty Committee and eventually the Soul-[=M8s=]) %%What even happens here?
191%%* YoungerThanTheyLook: One of the rare cases where ''[[ArtisticAge everyone]]'' is implied to be this.
192

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