History Literature / TheClique

* FiveManBand
** BigBad: Massie
** TheDragon or TheStarscream: Alicia
** TheEvilGenius and TheBrute: Kristen
** TheDarkChick: Dylan
** SixthRanger: Claire.
** TagalongKid: A few qualify: The Briarwood boys, particularly Derrington and Cam. Occasionally, Todd Lyons. [[spoiler: Increasingly as the series wraps up, Layne, culminating into being made an unofficial member of the PC at the very end of the series.]]

* TheFashionista: Technically everyone in the Pretty Committee qualifies to varying degrees and even non-members tend to have impressive and expensive wardrobes. This namely applies to Massie of course who always aims to look the best out of her posse.

* 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 supposdely 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]]

* {{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.

* PlasticBitch: Mean girl Alicia is shown to have an unusually well developed breasts for a girl her age (she's about 12-13). It's later revealed that she has implants.

* SexyWhateverOutfit: In ''Best Friends For Never'' The Pretty Committee advertise their upcoming "Halloweenie" party by wearing sexy devil girl costumes. In fact, they're so scandalous, that it's what inspires their principle to introduce school uniforms.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Constantly. The entire conflict of the third book is resolved because Massie donates a new school building so that the school gives up it's new uniform policy.

** Massie (and to a lesser extent Alicia) are this to Kristen and Dylan as well. It's shown that Kristen and Dylan would be much kinder, better people without Massie's influence.

* MixedAncestry: It's revealed that [[spoiler:Alicia's]] dad is ''not'' Hispanic like his wife, which would make [[spoiler:Alicia]] part Hispanic, part (presumably) non-Hispanic white.
* MostWritersAreAdults: Taken to the point where it's actually genuinely disturbing. It's unknown if this was the author's intention. This might also be the cause of Massie's intelligence.

* NotSoDifferent:
** Eventually Massie and Alicia (When they're running separate Cliques.)
%%** Claire, Kristen [[spoiler: And Layne]]
** It could be argued that one of the themes of the series is Claire's gradual transformation into being a Massie clone.

* 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.]]

* LovebleAlphaBitch: 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.

* 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.]]

* LoveableAlphaBitch: 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.

* DudeMagnent: Alicia has this reputation due to her prematurely developed figure and beauty. Her cousin Nina takes this a step farther to rather [[FridgeHorror questionable degrees.]] There's also Skye Hamilton's clique The DSL Daters who literally gain their reputation through being this.

* JerkAss: Alicia is undisputably one, Massie goes between this and ThePowerOfFriendship, Kristen is only one when provoked, Dylan is never this and Claire only when she wants something.

** The name of the pro-tennis star that antagonizes Dylan goes from Illana to Svetlana over the course of ''two books''. [[spoiler: {{Justified}} as it's mentioned theat Dylan paid her to change her name.]]

** Alicia as well, possible even moreso 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.

** VacationEpisode: ''The Clique Summer Collection'' is technically five books for each individual Pretty Committee member and how they spent their summer vacation apart.
** 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.

** VacationEpisode: ''The Clique Summer Collection'' is technically five books for each individual Pretty Committee memeber and how they spent their summer vacation apart.

* 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 to invade Claire's dressing room and embarrass them on live television.

* AcademicAlphaBitch: Subverted In Kristen. While she is shown to be smart and is very driven, she doesn’t flaunt her academic superiority to control others.

* BetaBitch: Alicia is the BetaBitch to Massie’s AlphaBitch though has tried upsurping her role throughout the series.

* TheDitz: Alicia's friend and almost beta Olivia. She is described as a “dumb blonde” and shown to be naive. Massie calls her Duh-livia since she’s not too smart.

* ToxicFriendInfluence: 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.]]

* TheSociopath: Massie shows several classic traits of sociopathy (there's a WMG detailing it), though it's unknown if she was intentionally written that way.
** Alicia as well, possible even moerso 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.

** Layne continously has favorite snack foods for the moment. For a while in the early books, it was oatmeal.

The 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'' Creator/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.

* PlasticBitch: Alicia is this, having implants despite being only 13.

* ProductPlacement: It's almost impossible to list all the clothing brands that appear in the series. [[TropesAreNotGood They've caused the series to age very badly]].

%%* AcademicAlphaBitch: Kristen.
%%* AbhorrentAdmirer: Todd, for Massie and Alicia.

%%** Pretty much any adult character in this series.

%%* AlphaBitch:
%%** Massie.
%%** Alicia tries to become one throughout the series but continuously fails.

%%Do not restore until you tell us what the BerserkButton is.
%%** Dylan discovers Svetlana's Berserk Button in her Summer Collection title.

%%* BigFancyHouse: Massie, Alicia. To a less emphasized degree, Dylan.
%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Alicia.

%%* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The entire Pretty Committee.

%%* TheDitz: Alicia's friend and almost beta Olivia.
%%* DragonWithAnAgenda: Alicia

%%* FreudianExcuse: It's occasionally implied that several characters have one.

%%* RichBitch: Massie

%%** Alicia as well, possible even moerso than Massie.

* IndecisiveParody[=/=]IndecisiveDeconstruction: Is the series making fun of these girls, showing how messed up they are, or glorifying them?

* AcademicAlphaBitch: Kristen.
* AbhorrentAdmirer: Todd, for Massie and Alicia.

** Pretty much any adult character in this series.

* AlphaBitch: Massie.
** Alicia tries to become one throughout the series but continuously fails.

* AmbiguousDisorder: See TheSociopath.

* BigFancyHouse: Massie, Alicia. To a less emphasized degree, Dylan.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Alicia.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Layne.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The entire Pretty Committee.

* CountryMouse: Claire.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Massie, Claire and the rest of the Committee do a pretty good job.

* TheDitz: Alicia's friend and almost beta Olivia.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: Alicia

* FilleFatale: Nina.
** FridgeBrilliance (or FridgeHorror depending on your point of view): The age of consent in Spain was 13 at the time of writing.

* {{Flanderization}}: With each book Dylan becomes a bigger BigEater and gets more disgusting.

* FreudianExcuse: It's occasionally implied that several characters have one.

* GirlPosse: Kristen, Alicia, Dylan, and Claire make up Massie's Girl Posse.

** [[spoiler: Kristen and Layne have their own secret Girl Posse.]]

* InUniverseNickname: Massiechists (People who are obsessed with Massie and wish she liked them.)

* LittleMissSnarker: Kristen.
* MeaningfulName: Played with in-series:

* MostWritersAreAdults: Taken to the point where it's actually genuinely disturbing. It's unknown if this was the author's intention.
** Might be the cause of Massie's intelligence.

* NotSoDifferent: Eventually Massie and Alicia (When they're running separate Cliques.)
** Claire, Kristen [[spoiler: And Layne]]

* OperationJealousy: Claire dates Dempsey so that Cam will get jealous.

* PastimesProvePersonality: Horse-riding Massie is a rich snob. Various other rich and spoiled characters play tennis, golf, squash, etc.

* PerspectiveFlip: 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.
** Alicia, Dylan, Claire and Kristen get their own books in The Summer Collection Series
* ThePowerOfFriendship: ''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'').

* PunnyName: Massie's IM name? Massiekur.

* {{Reconstruction}}: The plot of ''Kristen'' reads more like a typical "loser girls get back at the AlphaBitch" Creator/DisneyChannel-type of story.

* RichBitch: Massie

* SeriesContinuityError: Cam's dark hair randomly becomes golden-brown. The dress code for Briarwood seemingly changes from the first book to the second.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Constantly.
** The entire conflict of the third book is resolved because Massie donates a new school building so that the school gives up it's new uniform policy.

** Alicia as well, possible even moerso than Massie.
* SpicyLatina: Alicia, but then...
** [[spoiler: MixedAncestry:]] [[spoiler: It's revealed her dad is ''not'' Hispanic like his wife, which would make Alicia part Hispanic, part (presumably) white. Nevertheless, she still follows the abovementioned trope to a T.]]

* StatusQuoIsGod: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] 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."

* TooDumbToLive: The girls Alicia recruits into her own clique don't start off very smart, and only get dumber from there.
** The girls Massie hires to form a new clique are almost literally unable to deviate from their prepared scripts, coming off as this.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Layne continously has favorite snack foods for the moment. For a while in the early books, it was oatmeal.

* TriangRelations: Type 4: In ''The Clique'', Massie falls for Chris-Abeley ([[RunningGag full name basis]]), who has a girlfriend named Fawn.

* VillainProtagonist: Massie, who is an AlphaBitch.

* WrittenSoundEffect: In ''P.S. I Loathe You'', a pigeon calls, "Hehhhhhhhhhh, hoooooooooo. Hehhhhhhhhhhhh, hooooooooooo. Heeeeeeeee, Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" as it poops on the Pretty Committee.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: One of the rare cases where ''everyone'' is implied to be this.

** The name of the pro-tennis star that antagonizes Dylan goes from Illana to Svetlana over the course of ''two books''. [[spoiler: {{Justified}} as it's mentioned theat Dylan paid here to change her name.]]