Harriet's Slumber Party!

Greetings from Harriet's slumber party!

This was supposed to happen in November when she turned eleven, but a lot of things happened so it didn't and it's happening now. Then we decided to move the date up to this Friday because of the dance next week.

Kristy, Katarina, and Hilary came in addition to Harriet and me. That Hilary showed up was a surprise. That Katarina did too was a complete shock.

I looked inside one of Harriet's American Girl magazines, Katarina and Hilary each brought their dolls, and Kristy just seemed bored with the whole thing. Poor girl, she'd rather be watching football or something. She was good for something though -- she hooked up Harriet's webcam so I could send a video of the slumber party to Nicki. "For the first time, Haley, you make me wish I was there," she wrote. One of Harriet's magazines has an article in it on teasing. I'm doing my social studies project on bullying, so I think I'll take this one home.

Hilary is making it very hard for me not to like her. I didn't know she played with dolls -- I knew Katarina did, from the episode in the gym. "My mom is trying to get me to stop," Hilary confessed. "She thinks I'm too old." So while Harriet and I were up on the top bunk talking about the articles and taking the quizzes in the magazine, Hilary and Katarina were having a grand old time acting out voices. I asked Hilary if she thought about trying out for the drama club, and she laughed and replied that was Bridget's thing. (Bridget, by the way, showed up later, after these pics were taken. She has a mass of red curls and freckles like mine. Megan and Mia did too.)

After that, I came down to see what they were doing. Then I asked to see Katarina's blond doll. I haven't played with dolls, really, since I could remember. I was never really into dolls, but I was curious about it. Katarina didn't want to at first, but then she decided to let me see it. I took the gesture as a sign that she was beginning to trust me. I looked at the doll carefully, and it is a genuine American Girl doll. "Her name is Kirsten Larson. I got her for Christmas," she told me. "She's become my favorite." I could tell. Katarina was also telling me that she was reading the book that came with the doll. It's about a girl whose family came here from Sweden in the 1850s.

We spent the rest of the night eating, gossiping, and watching a bunch of movies Harriet had rented. Wendy from her comments on this blog suggested we rent "Mean Girls" and we did. Even though the girls in that movie are older than we are we recognized some of the same stuff. Sometimes I do wish Meredith would get run over by a car, as what happened to Regina in the movie. We also watched the Chrissa DVD again (because, let's face it, watching a movie in a crowded school gym with people talking behind you is next to impossible). I couldn't help but again recognize Katarina in the character Gwen. And the similarities between my situation and Chrissa's (moving to a new place, starting a new school, being bullied by the reigning popular girls) were (and are, still) unbelievable and uncanny.

Harriet said the reason she wanted to have this slumber party was so that she could get to know more people. She'd been made fun of for so long (and part of the reason, I fear, was because she is African American) that even though she had been here she hadn't made too many friends. By the time everyone went to sleep, it was clear that we'd have to do this again, and soon.