Fridge Brilliance
Invisible Emmie:
- Katie almost borders on a Purity Sue. She's pretty, popular, smart, and athletic, with wonderful non-embarrassing parents that work in a candy shop and of course let her taste all their new candy creations. She never truly embarrasses herself in any of their classes and everyone makes room for her all day. She's basically everything Emmie is not. It all makes sense once it's revealed that Emmie made her up to be the exact opposite of her in every way Emmie could probably think of—even down to small things like having straight hair that are nothing like Emmie's curls and constantly reapplying the lip gloss that Emmie's not allowed to wear.
- A Rewatch Bonus when you might wonder how Katie can be so popular and beloved to the point of near ridiculousness—her intro has her being scouted for a movie, holding a party too big for her house, and being crowned homecoming queen while in middle school. But it's all fitting when you realize they're all things that a middle schooler like Emmie would over-the-top dream about as what a popular girl would have happen to her, if influenced by movies and media about popular kids.
- If Katie is such a talented student who never gets less than an A, why is she never seen in Book Smart Brianna's classes and instead has every class with average student Emmie? Because she's Emmie's Dream Sue and so naturally has to be "present" in every class Emmie has. Emmie doesn't know what goes on in Brianna's classes. This is also why Emmie is in the background of all of Katie's chapters.
- Katie and Emmie are wearing the exact same outfit all day: a long sleeved shirt, leggings, and ankle boots. Because Katie's is based on Emmie's outfit that day, but implied to be a touch more glamorous—and Emmie's knowledge of fashion at the time is lacking.
- Joe Lungo, Class Clown, snatches Emmie's sketchbook during first period science and laughs at her drawing of Katie. Emmie, humiliated, ducks her head and covers her notebook while Katie, hearing her name, shoots Joe a dirty look before he gives the notebook back. Given that Katie is just an Author Avatar for Emmie, of course Emmie is humiliated. Joe was basically reading her personal daydreams aloud.
- Katie spends time gossiping with the popular-to-Emmie Gossip Girls, Jaime and Maya (not yet named)—subtly revealing that deep down, Emmie might both wish she was popular and that she was friends with the other two girls.
Positively Izzy:
- Izzy and Brianna don't actually see each other at school, in rehearsal, or during the talent show performance, even though the performances are being held at the same time and Izzy's stated to be Performer #5 which is right before Brianna and Dev's act. This is because Izzy—Mrs. Davis—did her talent show performance decades ago.
- Why does Mrs. D. push so hard for her daughter Brianna to participate in the talent show? Because she wants to bond with Brianna, spend more time with her (she and Mr. Davis are divorced) and wants to find something they can do together—and being in the talent show back when she was in middle school helped her find her own niche outside of being the overlooked middle child, much like Brianna is trying to find something outside of being the smart girl.
- Izzy's teachers constantly tell her mother that she is Brilliant, but Lazy: she could get better grades if she would focus and pay attention rather than daydreaming in class. This makes sense when it's revealed that Izzy and Brianna's mother Mrs. D are the same person. Izzy was likely in middle school around the early part of The '90s (given she now has a seventh grade daughter in the 2010s and is turning 40), when a diagnosis for something like ADHD would have been harder to obtain—and was especially rare for girls or inattentive ADHD.
- Izzy's dad suggests that she can be part of the theater department by participating in stage tech. This is because that's what he was part of in middle school—and how he met Izzy, who later became his wife and Brianna's mother.
- Brianna freezes on stage during the start of her and Dev's performance at the talent show, only snapping out of it when a mic feedback startles her. Later in Becoming Brianna, she learns from the rabbi that her own mother Izzy froze on the spot for a solid minute during her bat mitzvah. She might deny it at times, but she's her mother's daughter.
Just Jamie:
- When Jamie apologizes for her gossiping about the others all year, Brianna points out that she's heard what was said about her, Emmie, and Sarah. Given that she and/or Maya are seen frequently in the background of both Invisible Emmie and Positively Izzy, of course one of them would have heard all the gossipy things Jamie said—especially because Jaime and Maya were in Emmie's homeroom class.
- Tying back to Invisible Emmie: Emmie has her Author Avatar Katie be best friends with Jamie and Maya, talking and chatting with them all day about various things. It's a subtle way of showing that Emmie would like to be friends with them, but doesn't feel cool enough. By the end of Field Day Emmie is friends with Jamie, and by the summer she's friends with Maya too—proving she just had to be herself, rather than popular.
Becoming Brianna:
- This is the first mention of Brianna being Jewish in the series, and it's four books in—because every other book has had the plot happen on a single day. Emmie had no reason to bring it up during her own story; for Brianna, it's just part of who she is so she wouldn't mention it as anything that made her stand out; and Jamie, until she gets to know Brianna, doesn't know this.
- Brianna gets her stage fright from her mom, Mrs. Davis/Izzy. Izzy froze on the spot for a solid minute during her own bat mitzvah, which may have been shortly before her own talent show. Which means another reason she may have pushed Brianna into performing back in Positively Izzy is because her taking up theater helped her work past her own performance anxieties, and she thought it'd help Brianna before her own bat mitzvah that summer.
Truly Tyler:
- Tyler and Emmie, after lots of friendship angst, come together in the end to work on an excellent, dual point of view comic they submit to the yearly Student Showcase. They're the protagonists, but it's Emmie's friend Sarah Reyes who wins first place, not them. It's realistic since Sarah's an excellent artist and serious competition. Emmie and Tyler were so caught up in their own story—literally and figuratively—that they forgot she was a challenge.
Remarkable Ruby:
- Ruby's mother works during the day in her home studio, making ceramics; Mia's father works as a medical assistant during the night and takes medical school classes during the day, keeping him busy. This hides that they're both girls' parents as their schedules are misaligned around each other and their daughters; they're only seen together as the girl's parents in the outtakes.
- Ruby, until this book, has been seen in other books dashing to the toilet exclaiming what upset her stomach. Here, she has the opportunity to explain that she has IBS triggered by stress. Given that her older sister Mia has shunned her ever since Mia started middle school (deciding that Ruby's klutziness would embarrass her and thus jeopardize her perfect appearance and popularity), Ruby is constantly made fun of by other kids when she makes a mistake, and Ruby hasn't had any friends since elementary school, it's no wonder she's constantly darting to the toilet. This happens less and less as Ruby finally starts to make friends and find her place.
- Mia, upon seeing Ruby's mother at the thrift shop, darts off before her friend Keya can keep speaking to her. It's easy to assume that Ruby's with her mom and the mere thought of being near her ex-friend upsets Mia, especially after Keya pointed out how bad she's treated Ruby. In the epilogue—now that it's been revealed that Ruby is her sister—the true issue is that their mother would see Mia's not at the library like she'd claimed to be going to.
Fridge Horror
Positively Izzy:
- Izzy's mother is furious when she arrives with Danielle and Ashley at the talent show and finds Izzy there, demanding an explanation from Izzy for her actions (sneaking out) and so angry she almost drags her back home without letting her perform at all. It seems cruel to preteen Izzy, who practiced hard for the talent show and was grounded for failing just one take-home test. But from her mom's perspective? She went to rest after a long shift—she's a single mother and widower—and woke up to discover one of her three children missing. In a time before cell phones, she likely had no idea where Izzy was or what might have happened to her until Danielle told her what'd happened.
Remarkable Ruby:
- Ruby and Mia's parents are seen in the outtakes hearing Mia and Ruby fight at home, with her mother crying over how they're acting and their father comforting her. Imagine your only two girls, formerly the closest of friends, fighting so badly—and that later, they've escalated it to fighting in school. All because the older one thinks her younger sister is embarrassing and her popularity means more to her than her own sister.
