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* TriangRelations: [[spoiler:The Elizabeth/Saxon/Celia triangle is a type 4]].
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not a trope


* PrettyWhiteKidsWithProblems: Subverted in the fact that while all the characters have problems to deal with, they're not pulled straight from the typical Teen Drama and the characters don't whine about them. Instead of {{Wangst}}ing about not fitting in and no one understanding them, they instead take the odd troubles life deals them relatively in stride.
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Dewicked trope


* AdultFear: [[spoiler: Celia runs off to join the circus, gets glandular fever and the circus manager starts getting way too interested in her. If Elizabeth and Saxon hadn't rescued her, she would have probably ended up in hospital.]]
** [[spoiler: Celia and Saxon run off, stay hidden for a couple of days and finally decide to kill themselves together. If Celia hadn't sent Elizabeth the note, they would have done it.]]
** Christina's little sister says she feels sick, so Christina gives her a bucket to throw up in and puts her to bed. [[spoiler: Turns out it's a burst appendix, and she ends up in hospital.]]

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* RealityEnsues: Elizabeth's father comes to live in Sydney for a year and wants to reconnect with his daughter. Awesome, except that they don't know each other, they have nothing in common and most of their interactions involve awkward dinner conversations and her father asking her what the wine tastes like. By the end of the book, they've warmed up to each other a bit, but in the beginning it goes about as well as you'd expect.


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* WinningOverTheKids: Attempted. Elizabeth's father comes to live in Sydney for a year and wants to reconnect with his daughter. Awesome, except that they don't know each other, they have nothing in common and most of their interactions involve awkward dinner conversations and her father asking her what the wine tastes like. By the end of the book, they've warmed up to each other a bit, but in the beginning it goes about as well as you'd expect.

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* AFriendInNeed: Comes up multiple times over the course of the story, with the main thing being to rescue Celia from the circus.


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* AFriendInNeed: Comes up multiple times over the course of the story, with the main thing being to rescue Celia from the circus.
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This novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is the first in the Ashbury High series. The following books are ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheYearOfSecretAssignments Finding Cassie Crazy]]'', ''The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie'', and ''Dreaming of Amelia'' (please note that all of them have had different titles used at times). While the series uses many of the same characters, each book focuses on a different main character (or characters), with protagonists from other books appearing in the background.

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This novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is the first in the Ashbury High series. The following books are ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheYearOfSecretAssignments ''[[Literature/TheYearOfSecretAssignments Finding Cassie Crazy]]'', ''The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie'', and ''Dreaming of Amelia'' (please note that all of them have had different titles used at times). While the series uses many of the same characters, each book focuses on a different main character (or characters), with protagonists from other books appearing in the background.
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This novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is the first in the Ashbury High series. The following books are ''Literature/Finding Cassie Crazy'', ''The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie'', and ''Dreaming of Amelia'' (please note that all of them have had different titles used at times). While the series uses many of the same characters, each book focuses on a different main character (or characters), with protagonists from other books appearing in the background.

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This novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is the first in the Ashbury High series. The following books are ''Literature/Finding ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheYearOfSecretAssignments Finding Cassie Crazy'', Crazy]]'', ''The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie'', and ''Dreaming of Amelia'' (please note that all of them have had different titles used at times). While the series uses many of the same characters, each book focuses on a different main character (or characters), with protagonists from other books appearing in the background.
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No longer a trope.


* YourCheatingHeart: Elizabeth's father's infidelity is actually a plot point when [[spoiler: it turns out Elizabeth has a half-brother, Ricky Clarry, who is actually ''younger'' than her. By just a few months...]]
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Disambiguating and deleting links that don't fit any of the tropes


* GreenEyes: Elizabeth has them.
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This novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is the first in the Ashbury High series. The following books are ''Finding Cassie Crazy'', ''The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie'', and ''Dreaming of Amelia'' (please note that all of them have had different titles used at times). While the series uses many of the same characters, each book focuses on a different main character (or characters), with protagonists from other books appearing in the background.

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This novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is the first in the Ashbury High series. The following books are ''Finding ''Literature/Finding Cassie Crazy'', ''The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie'', and ''Dreaming of Amelia'' (please note that all of them have had different titles used at times). While the series uses many of the same characters, each book focuses on a different main character (or characters), with protagonists from other books appearing in the background.
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How To Write An Example - Do Not Pothole the Trope Name


* [[spoiler: LongLostSibling: Elizabeth's 'stepbrother' is in reality her half-brother.]]

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* [[spoiler: LongLostSibling: Elizabeth's 'stepbrother' [[spoiler:Elizabeth's 'stepbrother']] is in reality her half-brother.]][[spoiler:her half-]]brother.



* MissConception: Subverted when [[spoiler: Christina]] thinks she might be pregnant. Though what happened to her could very well lead to conceiving a child, she remains worried about it even after having her period, thinking that it might be a "false period" and that she could be pregnant anyway.
* MistakenForCheating: Elizabeth and her mother (well, mostly her mother) briefly believe that her father is cheating on his wife because [[spoiler: they drive past his house and see a woman living there, even though he said his other family was in Canada. Turns out he's lying, the woman ''is'' the wife, and he never wanted his two families to meet because they might realize that his stepson is his ''biological'' son.]]
* NiceGuy: [[spoiler: Jared/Grunge Guy, who leaves Elizabeth anonymous notes telling her things she really needs to hear, like that he's sorry that her dog died.]]

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* MissConception: Subverted when [[spoiler: Christina]] [[spoiler:Christina]] thinks she might be pregnant. Though what happened to her could very well lead to conceiving a child, she remains worried about it even after having her period, thinking that it might be a "false period" and that she could be pregnant anyway.
* MistakenForCheating: Elizabeth and her mother (well, mostly her mother) briefly believe that her father is cheating on his wife because [[spoiler: they [[spoiler:they drive past his house and see a woman living there, even though he said his other family was in Canada. Turns out he's lying, the woman ''is'' the wife, and he never wanted his two families to meet because they might realize that his stepson is his ''biological'' son.]]
* NiceGuy: [[spoiler: Jared/Grunge [[spoiler:Jared/Grunge Guy, who leaves Elizabeth anonymous notes telling her things she really needs to hear, like that he's sorry that her dog died.]]



* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Elizabeth's father didn't meet a woman with a kid and leave his wife and child. He met a woman, got her pregnant and left his wife and child. Nobody takes it well.]]

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* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Elizabeth's [[spoiler:Elizabeth's father didn't meet a woman with a kid and leave his wife and child. He met a woman, got her pregnant and left his wife and child. Nobody takes it well.]]well]].



* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler: Celia and Saxon]] believe that their relationship is this way, so they make a SuicidePact, although when interrogated about it later, [[spoiler: Celia]] can't understand why everyone was so worried, exclaiming "I wasn't actually going to do it!"
* TriangRelations: [[spoiler: The Elizabeth/Saxon/Celia triangle is a type 4.]]

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* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler: Celia [[spoiler:Celia and Saxon]] believe that their relationship is this way, so they make a SuicidePact, although when interrogated about it later, [[spoiler: Celia]] [[spoiler:Celia]] can't understand why everyone was so worried, exclaiming "I wasn't actually going to do it!"
* TriangRelations: [[spoiler: The [[spoiler:The Elizabeth/Saxon/Celia triangle is a type 4.]]4]].



-->'''Elizabeth''': My dog wasn't there. [[spoiler: It was because he was dead.]]

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-->'''Elizabeth''': My dog wasn't there. [[spoiler: It [[spoiler:It was because he was dead.]]



-->'''Celia''': ''(in her letter to Elizabeth)'': So we're going away together. I mean away for good. [[spoiler: I mean tomorrow night we just want to hold hands and jump off the cliff at North Head, okay?]]
* YourCheatingHeart: Elizabeth's father's infidelity is actually a plot point when [[spoiler: it turns out Elizabeth has a half-brother, Ricky Clarry, who is actually ''younger'' than her. By just a few months..]]

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-->'''Celia''': ''(in her letter to Elizabeth)'': So we're going away together. I mean away for good. [[spoiler: I [[spoiler:I mean tomorrow night we just want to hold hands and jump off the cliff at North Head, okay?]]
* YourCheatingHeart: Elizabeth's father's infidelity is actually a plot point when [[spoiler: it turns out Elizabeth has a half-brother, Ricky Clarry, who is actually ''younger'' than her. By just a few months..months...]]

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* CutawayGag: Some of Elizabeth's letters from the various imaginary organizations could be considered this. They don't really advance the plot, they're pretty much just there to be funny.



* ManateeGag: Some of Elizabeth's letters from the various imaginary organizations could be considered this. They don't really advance the plot, they're pretty much just there to be funny.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/celia.jpg]]
->''Dear Ms. Clarry,\\
It has come to our attention that you are incredibly bad at being a teenager.\\
I mean, take a look at your bedroom.\\
You haven't got any posters on your wall. (Don't try to tell us that picture counts. A kitten drowning in a strawberry milkshake? Designed by your mother as an ad for carpet cleaner? Give us a break.)\\
You have a chain of old Christmas cards hanging from your curtain rod. The only makeup you have is banana-flavored lip gloss and it's melting all over your Little Mermaid quilt cover. (Actually, we don't think that lip gloss counts as makeup at all.)\\
Not to hurt your feelings or anything, but you're an embarrassment to teenagerhood. Therefore, could you please climb into the refigerator and wait very quietly until your teenage years end?\\
Thank you.\\
Yours sincerely,\\
The Association of Teenagers\\
P.S. You also don't seem to understand how to get a snow tan. You look like a slice of watermelon.''
--> '''''Elizabeth's first letter'''''

Elizabeth Clarry has just learned that her new English teacher is beginning a pen-pal program between her class and a neighboring high school (when the schools hate each other) to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope". Her mother, an advertising exec who takes her job very seriously, is so busy with her job that she only has time to talk to Elizabeth via sticky notes left around their kitchen, and takes every opportunity she can to pick Elizabeth's brain for ideas for new advertising campaigns. And now, her (literally) distant father is moving back to Sydney after several years of living in Canada. That'd be fine, except he wants to "bond" with her by taking her out to expensive restaurants (to "culturally educate" her) and generally be embarassing.

And then there is the eponymous Celia, who has been Elizabeth's best friend since childhood. Elizabeth is the practical, independant type. She does long-distance running, takes care of her dog, Lochie, and makes the meals for herself and her absent mother. Celia is the CloudCuckooLander, the [[ManicPixieDreamGirl enchanting fairy-like one]] who's always trying new things out of boredom. Partway through the book, we learn that Celia has run away and joined the circus. Elizabeth is left alone, worrying if Celia will ever come back, as well as a host of other problems.

The book, instead of being witten in narrative form, is written as a series is a series of letters, notes, and postcards. Many of these come from imaginary organizations like The Cold Hard Truth Society, The Association of Teenagers, and The Society of People Who Are Definitely Going to Fail High School (and Most Probably Life as Well!).

Christina, the girl that was picked to be Elizabeth's pen-pal, is spunky, no nonsense, and a sympathetic ear to Elizabeth's problems. Although they are both wary of each other at first, especially since Elizabeth goes to a private school and Christina [[AndThatsTerrible likes oatmeal]], they soon become friends. They share stories of their families and musings on life. With Christina's support, Elizabeth begins to accept the changes that are happening in her friendship with Celia- which is pretty spectacular considering that these are two people who don't actually speak face-to-face for roughly 90% of the book.

This novel by Jaclyn Moriarty is the first in the Ashbury High series. The following books are ''Finding Cassie Crazy'', ''The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie'', and ''Dreaming of Amelia'' (please note that all of them have had different titles used at times). While the series uses many of the same characters, each book focuses on a different main character (or characters), with protagonists from other books appearing in the background.

!!This story provides examples of:

* AdultsAreUseless: That's assuming they know something is happening at all. Every time a friend is in potential danger, it's up to the brigade of awkward teens to save the day.
** Subverted after [[spoiler: Elizabeth gets Celia's suicide note.]] Her first reaction is to call her mother, and then everyone and the police get involved, rather than Elizabeth trying to fix it herself.
* AdultFear: [[spoiler: Celia runs off to join the circus, gets glandular fever and the circus manager starts getting way too interested in her. If Elizabeth and Saxon hadn't rescued her, she would have probably ended up in hospital.]]
** [[spoiler: Celia and Saxon run off, stay hidden for a couple of days and finally decide to kill themselves together. If Celia hadn't sent Elizabeth the note, they would have done it.]]
** Christina's little sister says she feels sick, so Christina gives her a bucket to throw up in and puts her to bed. [[spoiler: Turns out it's a burst appendix, and she ends up in hospital.]]
* AFriendInNeed: Comes up multiple times over the course of the story, with the main thing being to rescue Celia from the circus.
* AffectionateNickname: Elizabeth is "Lizzy".
* BerserkButton: Don't call Christina "Tina", or [[RunningGag she'll break your face.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Celia and Maddie.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Celia, to an extent. She never seems to grasp her actions hurt other people, which is especially painful for Elizabeth when [[spoiler: Celia starts dating Saxon, whom Elizabeth had a huge crush on, after Elizabeth rescued Celia from the circus.]]
** Hell, after [[spoiler: Elizabeth's dog dies,]] Celia's too distracted to even express some real sympathy.
* BrilliantButLazy: Elizabeth, on occassion, when she is too distracted/tired/etc to train.
* BrutalHonesty: The Cold Hard Truth Association, obviously.
* ButWeUsedACondom: After [[spoiler: Christina]] and her boyfriend have sex for the second time, they find out the condom broke.
* CatchPhrase: Christina calls people she doesn't like walruses, for some reason.
* CharacterDevelopment: By the end of the book, Elizabeth has gained confidence in herself and no longer needs the Association of Teenagers telling her how much she sucks. She's also realised that Celia wasn't a good friend, and Christina's her new best friend.
* CloudCuckooLander: Celia's entire family.
** Interestingly, Celia's mother seems to have underlying stress problems as a result of her and her children's extreme quirkiness.
* ComingOfAgeStory
* DoesNotLikeSpam: Elizabeth really hates rice pudding. And oatmeal.
* DotingParent: Celia's mother takes this to an unhealthy extreme. Saxon's parents also qualify.
* DysfunctionalFamily: Everyone has one.
* [[EmbarrassingFirstName Embarrassing Last Name]]: Elizabeth has a teacher called Mr. Hoogenboom. Christina remarks if he taught at her school, he wouldn't last five minutes with a name like that.
** It's not brought up in the text, but Elizabeth's English teacher's last name is ''Botherit''.
* FloatingAdviceReminder: The random notices she gets from the different clubs and societies sometimes contain advice and often contain contradictory advice, where she'll get a memo from one organization suggesting she take one course of action immediately followed by another message from a different club telling her to do something else entirely.
* FreudianExcuse: Subverted. When Celia visits a therapist, they struggle to find a reason for Celia constantly running away. When Celia admits that her dad left when she was five, the therapist shouts, "That's it, isn't it, sweetie? You're trying to find your daddy!" Only for Celia to say she doesn't really want to find him- all she can remember is him telling her not to drink syrup straight out of the bottle and is "still a little annoyed about that".
* GranolaGirl: Celia's mother.
* GreenEyes: Elizabeth has them.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler: Grunge Boy/Jared, the guy leaving Elizabeth anonymous notes. Elizabeth previously only thought of him as 'that Brookfield boy with the grunge haircut', but later finds out that he's a poet, a drummer and a magician. Later books reveal that they've got a steady thing going.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Celia's [[spoiler: suicide note]] complains that Elizabeth has become distant, and not there for her when she needed it. Elizabeth can only think of every time Celia did something stupid and Elizabeth was there for her.
* InHarmsWay: Celia is always running away from home to go on "adventures", though she usually at least calls Elizabeth to tell her where she's going.
* InLoveWithLove: Christina's cousin, Maddie.
* InnerCitySchool: It is suggested that this is the kind of school Christina goes to, though whether the school is actually like this or just seems like this compared to Elizabeth's private school is arguable. Later books have explained that Brookfield High is the public-school, lower-class counterpart to the private-school, upper-class Ashbury High.
* ItAmusedMe: Celia's main motives for running away, or doing things like disassembling Elizabeth's washing machine- she gets bored very, very easily.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Celia constantly does things to keep herself amused without realising how they hurt other people, like constantly running away, or disassembling Elizabeth's dishwasher. [[spoiler: Even in her suicide note, she comments that Elizabeth seemed distant and unkind about her and Saxon's relationship, but she never thought that Elizabeth could genuinely be unhappy for some reason, instead concluding that it must be because Elizabeth thought she had to be unkind to Celia for some reason.]]
* ItsASmallWorldAfterAll: Maddie just happens to end up [[spoiler: dating Ricky Clarry, Elizabeth's half-brother.]]
* [[spoiler: LongLostSibling: Elizabeth's 'stepbrother' is in reality her half-brother.]]
* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Christina claims her cousin Maddie runs away from home all the time like Celia, but when Maddie does it it's not out of boredom, it's for "love".
* LoveTriangle: [[spoiler: Elizabeth falls for Saxon, who was in love with Celia all along. Celia falls for him back, and neither she or Saxon ever realises how Elizabeth feels.]]
* ManateeGag: Some of Elizabeth's letters from the various imaginary organizations could be considered this. They don't really advance the plot, they're pretty much just there to be funny.
* MaternallyChallenged: Both Elizabeth and Celia's mothers have their own flavor of this trope, with Elizabeth's mother being the more usual super-busy sucessful career gal. She even has a sort of heart-to-heart with Elizabeth and says she feels bad for being so absent (which, of course she does ''by fax''.) Celia's mother is ''too'' loving and supportive of Celia, not putting any limits on her because, "Celia's identity is unfurling itself slowly, like a tulip bud, and it's a breathtakingly beautiful thing to see." Which is why she never calls the police when Celia runs away.
* MissConception: Subverted when [[spoiler: Christina]] thinks she might be pregnant. Though what happened to her could very well lead to conceiving a child, she remains worried about it even after having her period, thinking that it might be a "false period" and that she could be pregnant anyway.
* MistakenForCheating: Elizabeth and her mother (well, mostly her mother) briefly believe that her father is cheating on his wife because [[spoiler: they drive past his house and see a woman living there, even though he said his other family was in Canada. Turns out he's lying, the woman ''is'' the wife, and he never wanted his two families to meet because they might realize that his stepson is his ''biological'' son.]]
* NiceGuy: [[spoiler: Jared/Grunge Guy, who leaves Elizabeth anonymous notes telling her things she really needs to hear, like that he's sorry that her dog died.]]
* ParentsAsPeople: Elizabeth's mother spends all her time working or at her poetry club, so she rarely if ever sees her daughter. Her father turns up out of the blue and decides to spend more time with her, but they have nothing in common and most of their interactions are awkward as hell. Celia's mother is a hippy who places absolutely no boundaries on her children, believing that they need room to develop.
* ParentWithNewParamour: Elizabeth's father, though she's not really new. Instead, the father has never bothered to introduce his new family to his old wife and kid.
* PrettyWhiteKidsWithProblems: Subverted in the fact that while all the characters have problems to deal with, they're not pulled straight from the typical Teen Drama and the characters don't whine about them. Instead of {{Wangst}}ing about not fitting in and no one understanding them, they instead take the odd troubles life deals them relatively in stride.
* RealityEnsues: Elizabeth's father comes to live in Sydney for a year and wants to reconnect with his daughter. Awesome, except that they don't know each other, they have nothing in common and most of their interactions involve awkward dinner conversations and her father asking her what the wine tastes like. By the end of the book, they've warmed up to each other a bit, but in the beginning it goes about as well as you'd expect.
* ScrapbookStory: Quite!
* SerialRomeo: Gender-flipped version with Christina's cousin, Maddie. She keeps falling in love with really wild boys and running away with them.
* SitcomArchNemesis: Elizabeth's mother has issues with Saxon's, mostly because she wanted to ban roller-blading in shopping centres.
* SupremeChef: Elizabeth is often asked to cook something for her mother when she gets home, or cook for herself because her mother won't be home. As such, she's rather good at it.
* ThePowerOfFriendship
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Elizabeth's father didn't meet a woman with a kid and leave his wife and child. He met a woman, got her pregnant and left his wife and child. Nobody takes it well.]]
* TitleDrop: Elizabeth comments in a letter to Christina that she's tired of feeling sorry for 'her' (Celia).
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler: Celia and Saxon]] believe that their relationship is this way, so they make a SuicidePact, although when interrogated about it later, [[spoiler: Celia]] can't understand why everyone was so worried, exclaiming "I wasn't actually going to do it!"
* TriangRelations: [[spoiler: The Elizabeth/Saxon/Celia triangle is a type 4.]]
* VisitByDivorcedDad
* WalkingTheEarth: One of Celia's reasons for joining a traveling circus.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: [[spoiler: By the end of the book, Elizabeth and Celia are still friends, but Elizabeth has a new, better best friend in Christina, mainly because she's finally had enough of Celia's bullshit and now has an actual alternative.]]
* WhamLine: There's a couple.
-->'''Elizabeth''': ''(in a letter to Christina)'' I was rescuing Celia. And maybe I should have left her right where she was.
** In another letter to Christina:
-->'''Elizabeth''': My dog wasn't there. [[spoiler: It was because he was dead.]]
** And later on:
-->'''Celia''': ''(in her letter to Elizabeth)'': So we're going away together. I mean away for good. [[spoiler: I mean tomorrow night we just want to hold hands and jump off the cliff at North Head, okay?]]
* YourCheatingHeart: Elizabeth's father's infidelity is actually a plot point when [[spoiler: it turns out Elizabeth has a half-brother, Ricky Clarry, who is actually ''younger'' than her. By just a few months..]]
----

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