Tag Line: The customer is always...wrong. Dead wrong.
From the Back of the Book: The food is great. The service is deadly. Dying for a good meal? Come on over to the Dog House, where Paula works after school. It's a great place to meet your friends - if they're still alive. At the Dog House, accidents can happen, and they often do. You could wind up with more than just an upset stomach. You might just end up dead. Of course, when things go wrong everybody always blames the waitress. Now Paula's first job might be her last.
*Special Note: I want y'all to know that these pictures are in focus when I upload them. I don't know if blogger's picture capabilities are extremely limited or what. I wish I could figure it out because blurry pictures irritate me.
Before we begin, can we talk about how awful that blurb on the back is? It's super corny and my daughter and I both laughed out loud when we read it. I'm not sure that's what they were going for. Also, I should note that this book confused the hell out of me. Not the plot - that was all too easy to understand. This book read like a Stine. There were forced, inane cliffhangers at the end of almost every chapter and every little thing was over-dramatized. It felt so much like Stine that I actually Googled Sinclair Smith to see if it might be a pen name that Stine used. I didn't come up with anything. Sinclair Smith is a bit of a mystery. Maybe she just idolized Stine and wanted to grow up to be just like him? She should have set her sights a little higher.
This book was published in 1992. This was my first time reading it. My favorite part about this book was the cover. I don't think that's a good thing. But I love the little forks and knives making the "W". They are just precious. And now that I've squeed over the little knives and forks, we can move on.
We begin with our protagonist Paula in her English class. She thinks her professor looks like a bird and has a screechy voice that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. She compares the lecture to torture. I can already tell she's a bit melodramatic.
The class is about suspense and what happens when ordinary beings start to act in unexpected ways. Like the birds in the Hitchcock movie. This feels like being clubbed over the head with foreshadowing to me. Not the part about the birds. There are no killer birds in this story. This story could have used some killer birds. I mean, I am fully expecting the most ordinary person in this book to be the bad guy now.
Paula is new to the school but she has already made an enemy in Coralynn, one of the popular crowd. Coralynn thinks that Paula has been flirting with her boyfriend Garth. Paula does indeed have a mega-crush on Garth but she insists that she would never flirt with another woman's man. I'm not sure I buy it and you shouldn't either. By the way, all the names suck in this book. Garth.
Paula is starting a brand new job after school. She's going to be a waitress at "Trixie's Dog House (For Doggone Good Chow)". It's actually named that. What possible reason could a person have for naming a restaurant this ridiculous name? I mean, a lot of restaurants have dumb names but this one makes me think they're probably serving people Alpo. Paula has never been a waitress before but she lied on her application to get the job. Now she's worried that it wasn't a good idea. Don't fret, Paula. You're a character in a Point Horror book. What could possibly go wrong?
The Dog House is a 50's style diner. The waitress wear bobby socks, saddle shoes, pink flared skirts, white ruffled shirts with black trim and black aprons. I have to say, I'm surprised they aren't in poodle skirts. I think poodle skirts would have actually made sense here.
Trixie frightens Paula a little. One moment she seems friendly and the next minute she's intense and sharp. She goes over the procedure for the restaurant and warns Paula to watch out for accidents. They go downstairs so Paula can change into her uniform and Trixie shows Paula the walk in fridge and the walk in freezer. As a joke, she locks Paula in the freezer but then teaches her how to use the safety lever to free herself in case it actually ever happens for real. It's a good thing to show a new person how to use the lever and all, but kind of a dick move to scare her first by making her think she was locked inside.
It doesn't take long for Trixie to realize that Paula has never waitressed before. She's not mad, though, and Paula is relieved that everything is going to be okay. Two girls from school - Virgilia and Cookie - work there too. The names. The names are killing me. I can't imagine what life was like for poor Virgilia growing up. Kids must have had a field day with that name.
Trixie tells Paula to keep the back booth open for her niece. It turns out that Coralynn is Trixie's niece. Of course she is. Coralynn comes in with a bunch of her friends, including Garth. Paula does her best to get them their food without screwing it up. Garth discovers the lid on the salt shaker has been loosened when he ends up with a plate full of salt. That's such an old prank. To this day, I check the lids on everything I use at a restaurant due to an unfortunate episode with some parmesan cheese at a Pizza Hut in the 80s. Coralynn goes to use the mustard and the cap falls off it too, dousing her in mustard. She blames Paula for not checking to make sure the lids were on tight.
Paula dashes into the bathroom to get some paper towels for Coralynn but Coralynn decides she'd rather go to the bathroom to clean up where there's soap and water. The chapter ends as she screams bloody murder from the bathroom. The handles on the sink were switched so Coralynn scalded herself with the hot water when she turned on the faucet. Coralynn accuses Paula of making the switch in the 10 seconds she was in the bathroom getting the paper towels. She must believe Paula is some kind of mechanical wizard. I get the impression Paula has trouble operating a mechanical pencil, but maybe that's just me. Paula believes that Coralynn did it herself to make Paula look bad in front of Garth.
Later, Paula and Cookie end up talking about Coralynn and Paula tells her that she's convinced that Coralynn is out to ruin her life. It comes off super paranoid and Cookie thinks she's overreacting. Paula tells Cookie that her life is just a mess right now because her dad died and her mom is trying to bury herself in work to avoid her grief. Her mom is out of town on business right now, in fact and Paula is home completely alone. Why are the girls in these books always advertising the fact that they're home alone? Cookie seems sympathetic and tells Paula not to worry about Coralynn anymore. Cookie will handle Coralynn.
A week passes. Mom doesn't come home and Paula gets better at her job. Those two facts are unrelated. Cookie introduces her around and is generally very nice to her. The only weird thing is that someone is pulling pranks at the diner. Bizarre little notes are being left on napkins and food coloring was added to the soap dispensers to dye people's hands. Added to that weirdness, Coralynn invites Paula to a party she's throwing after hours at the Dog House. I smell a rat but Paula accepts the invitation.
Paula has trouble paying attention in English class and is constantly being caught daydreaming. One day she realizes that she's spaced out and missed an assignment and she asks Coralynn what it was. Coralynn tells her she just has to pick one of the discussion questions at the end of the chapter and write an essay about it. Seriously. A rat. It's so obvious that it's painful. But Paula can't smell it. She's like....what's the word for a person who can't smell? Does this condition exists? I think Paula has it because she hasn't caught a whiff of the stench coming off Coralynn. She just thinks that Cookie talked Coralynn into playing nice. I think she has grossly overestimated Cookie's influence on Coralynn.
In gym class, they are doing dancercise. The whole class is super into it. Even Coralynn is having a good time despite the fact that she has no grace whatsoever. Paula is dancing away when she suddenly feels a pain in her head and everything goes black.
While she's out, Paula has a dream or a hallucination or whatever you want to call it about going to Coralynn's party and being drowned in a punch bowl full of blood. When she comes to, she realizes she's fallen and hit her head. Coralynn says she accidentally bumped into Paula because she was so into the music but a couple of classmates claim that Coralynn hit Paula hard on purpose.
Paula has a bump on her head, a headache and she's dizzy. Add that to the fact that she lost consciousness and it really seems like she has a concussion to me. Her gym teacher insists that she see a doctor and wants to call her mom. Paula tells her (in front of Coralynn and who knows who else) that her mom is out of town and she's home alone. The doctor ends up telling Paula she's fine but Paula still stays in bed all day Friday with a severe headache. I'm really not sure she should have been left alone, but what do I know?
Saturday Cookie calls and offers to take Paula on a tour around town. This seems pretty idiotic to me. Paula's lived there for several months now, and it's such a small town that it only has two places to eat. Paula should seriously know her way around by now. But I guess Cookie is going to give her the cool kid's tour or something. Paula has things to do, but agrees to go as long as Cookie isn't going to make her ride on the motorcycle.
Paula enjoys being with Cookie but thinks that Cookie seems troubled underneath her carefree facade. They drive past an abandoned drive-in restaurant and Paula asks Cookie about it. Cookie ignores the question and changes the subject to Coralynn's party. Neither one of them thinks that Paula's invite is a set up and I think they're both idiots. It's SO CLEARLY a set up.
The chapter ends as they get into an accident with a semi.
Only they don't. This is so dumb and unnecessary. Nothing about that "accident" moved the story along in any way. The story would be exactly the same if it was taken out. I think Smith has no idea how to create tension or obstacles in her own plot so she's just throwing unnecessary crap in there for conflict.
Cookie drops Paula back off so Paula can get ready for the big party. While she's trying to figure out what to wear, the phone rings. Its a heavy breather. Paula figures it's just another prank. She settles on a white cashmere sweater that ALMOST comes off the shoulder, black pants and short boots. I don't know, Paula. This outfit seems pretty racy to me. Are you sure you want to ALMOST show your shoulders? What will people think? I'll just sit over here and clutch my pearls for awhile. Go on without me.
The phone rings again and this time a raspy voice tells her that she's a bad waitress (not news) and that he/she is going to have to do something drastic to get her attention. Paula hangs up and heads for the door. She's almost gone when the phone rings for a third time. She goes back to grab it up and she yells "Leave me alone!" to the person on the other end. Whenever a character in a book does this, the person on the other end is NOT the bad guy. It's usually the crush. This is no exception. Despite having never called her one single time before this minute, Garth is on the phone.
Garth just asks if she's going to the party. I wonder if Coralynn put him up to it to make sure Paula was going to be there, but Paula just thinks he's in luurve with her because she's an idiot. After talking to him, Paula goes all out and puts on bright red lipstick. Whoa. Slow your roll, Paula. Red lipstick AND almost showing a shoulder??? Step back, ladies and gentlemen, we have a real wild child on our hands.
Paula gets to the party. There's a band and a dance floor on one side of the diner and it's loud and crowded. For some odd reason, there's a guy in full bat costume hanging out by the punch bowl. This is a very weird book. Do you think Sinclair Smith has ever been to a high school party? I was in high school when this book was published and I don't remember going to one single non-Halloween party where a person in full bat costume appeared.
Paula decides to go up to Coralynn to say hello. Coralynn starts screaming that Paula has a lot of nerve coming to the party uninvited considering she's been trying to steal Coralynn's boyfriend since she got into town. Paula is stunned. Coralynn takes it a step further by accusing Paula of pulling all the pranks at the diner since they started when Paula got the job. She orders a humiliated Paula to leave immediately.
Paula sees Cookie nearby but Cookie doesn't defend her at all. Believing Cookie to be in on the set-up, Paula rushes from the diner. She's crossing the parking lot to go to her car when she hears someone following her. For some reason, instead of glancing behind her to see who it is, which would be the reasonable action, she takes off running. Just as she's trying to get the key in the door, a hand grabs her from behind and the chapter ends.
Paula elbows her "attacker" and then realizes it's Garth who didn't bother to try to identify himself before just grabbing her in a dark parking lot. What is WRONG with the people in this book? I get that Smith thought she needed to set up this tense, scary moment to give this boring book a little excitement, but turning the "hero" of your book into a total dick to do it isn't wise. The funny thing is that Garth tells us over and over what a gentleman he is throughout this book. It isn't very gentlemanly to run after a woman in a dark parking lot and grab her without at least saying "hey, it's Garth back here". Just FYI, Garth.
Garth suggests they go get a soda and talk for awhile. He doesn't have his car so they'll have to take Paula's and Garth thinks he should drive because Paula's so upset. Half of why she's so upset is because he scared the crap out of her, but she's thrilled he wants to take her somewhere and she hands over her keys.
There are only two places to go in town and the party is going on in one of them, so it's no big surprise that they end up at Scoops. Paula tells him what happened. While they are sitting there, Coralynn shows up. She's hella pissed and yells for a bit about Garth standing her up and Paula stealing her man before storming out. Garth is embarrassed. He tells Paula that he and Coralynn only actually went out a couple of times and they definitely did NOT have a date tonight. She got super possessive of him and he didn't like it so he told her that he thought they'd be better off as friends. The problem is that Coralynn just isn't accepting it very well. Paula feels bad for him and is hopeful that she'll get to be his next girlfriend.
Before they leave, Paula asks Garth about the abandoned drive-in she saw earlier while driving around with Cookie. Garth instantly gets tense. He tells her there was a horrible accident there but he doesn't want to talk about gruesome things. Paula is afraid he's hiding something.
On Monday, Coralynn corners Paula and calls her a floozie. I'm serious. The book actually uses that word. Well, we can't blame Coralynn because Paula WAS wearing a sweater that almost came off her shoulders and red lipstick. Paula tries to just escape the situation without engaging but Virgilia is nearby and puts Coralynn in her place. As she walks away, Virgilia drops a computer disc on the floor and Paula thinks it's super odd that Virgilia would be carrying one of these "gadgets" around. Ah, the early 90's when it was still weird to use a computer outside of class. Virgilia tells Paula that she's working on something special. She also tells Paula not to worry so much about what other people think. Virgilia never does and she doesn't care that she doesn't get invited to all the little parties as a result. Paula thinks Virgilia is a lying liar who lies because there's no way a person would be okay with not being invited to parties. I can't stand Paula, y'all. She's so shallow.
Paula is the only one surprised to discover that Coralynn gave her the wrong assignment for English all those chapters ago. That really should have been obvious from the get go, Paula. Sheesh. Paula pleads her case to her teacher (her case is basically that she wasn't paying attention in class so she asked a fellow classmate and got the wrong info). The teacher says that maybe this will teach her to pay more attention in class. This is 100% reasonable but Paula's reaction is to whine that it isn't fair. Um. No. Paula, it's completely fair and exactly what the teacher should do. You were warned over and over to stop daydreaming in class and it's 100% your fault that you didn't hear the assignment. The teacher offers her a replacement assignment. She can write two more essays by the end of the week and he will replace her grade. Instead of being grateful, Paula complains that it's too much work and not enough time because she has a job and chores and things. Oh boo fucking hoo, Paula.
Paula is happy to get to gym class so she can dancercise all her frustrations away. She loves her gym teacher. Everyone does because she's so trim and pretty. Yes, it actually says that. As if being trim and pretty are reasons someone should be loved. Us ugly fat people are clearly just out of luck. The teacher gets called away from class and she picks Paula to lead the class since Paula is the best dancerciser EVA!!! After class, Paula notices that Garth has been standing in the doorway watching a whole class of girls dancercise like a creeping creeper who creeps. He tells her that she should try out for the school musical because dancercise and theater are totally the same thing.
Paula goes into the locker room which is dark and empty by now. There's a light in the shower room and a shower running but no one answers when she calls out. She makes her way to her locker in the back of the room. All of a sudden, she hears someone banging into lockers really violently. It lasts for a minute or so and then she hears someone run from the room. Wait. Was that supposed to be scary? I think that was supposed to be scary. This book doesn't do scary very well, so it's hard to be sure.
She discovers her locker is open and all of her things - including her waitress uniform - are on the floor soaking wet and covered with red lipstick.
Paula gets to work an hour late and then feels picked on when Trixie is mad about it. Really, Paula? Coralynn is there with Garth and Paula feels betrayed. Since her uniform was ruined, Paula must borrow a spare from down in the diner's basement. Later while she's waiting tables, she reaches into the pocket of the apron and cuts herself on a sharp knife that she's somehow been carrying around without noticing.
The diner is packed and Virgilia is really busy. She asks Paula to take a plate to Coralynn's table. It's a covered dish which Paula finds odd because none of the diner's dishes are ever served covered. When she gets to the table, she removes the cover with a flourish - because that's just how you remove the cover from a dish, amirite? - and there's a huge rat on the plate. It's still wiggling around and Paula immediately slams the cover back over the plate.
Coralynn accuses Paula of bringing her a rat on purpose as all the other diners run from the restaurant. No one believes that Paula would do such a thing though. Coralynn is understandably pretty upset, so Garth offers to drive her home. He tells Paula he'll be back to talk to her later though.
Virgilia thinks the rat looks fishy and investigates it further. It's a fake with batteries in it to make it move around. Somehow that doesn't really make me feel much better.
Garth comes back and they talk about the pranks. Garth thinks it might be a bunch of different people rather than just one. His theory is that the seniors are so stressed out over the impending graduation that they're looking for stupid ways to blow off a little steam. They talk a little about their plans for their lives after high school and then start making out. Smith tells us that someone is watching them in silent bitterness and hatred and his/her face is full of madness. Dun dun dun.
On the way home, Paula's car breaks down in a remote place. She isn't sure what to do when Cookie happens by on her motorcycle. She looks at the car but can't really tell anything in the dark. She tells Paula that she'll have to call and get the car towed to a garage. Then she asks Paula why she's been so distant lately. Paula accuses her of being in on the party thing which Cookie denies. Paula asks why Cookie didn't defend her and Cookie reminds Paula how loud it was at the party and tells her that she couldn't hear what was going on and only learned what happened way after Paula left.
Cookie offers her a ride home and then points out how dangerous it's going to be for Paula because she likes to drive fast and she doesn't have a second helmet. It's a very weird and awkward exchange. Smith trying to force fear into us again instead of just writing something that will make us afraid naturally.
Before Paula can climb on the motorcycle and face certain death, Trixie pulls up and offers her a lift home in a nice, safe car. On the ride home, Trixie talks about how she hired Cookie after the incident at the drive-in. Cookie used to be a waitress there and a high school guy died at the drive-in from food poisoning. Huh? I know food poisoning can be fatal in extreme situations but it doesn't kill you that damn fast does it? This seems really weird to me.
Paula goes home to an empty house. There are two messages on the machine. The first one is from her mom saying she'll be away for a few more days. It seems like she's been gone a month already. The time in this book is weird but it's been at least a few weeks. It's hard for me to imagine leaving a teenage girl alone that long especially in a town where she has no friends or family to check in on her. The second call is from her crank caller. He/she basically tells Paula to put her head through a window. I think we're supposed to be scared again but it's too dumb to tell. Paula is upset by the call but goes to make tea and do her essays.
She hears a crash outside and goes to investigate. She sees a neighborhood stray outside and leans out of the window to try to get him to come closer so she can pet him. See, this is where, in a better book, something would have happened. Because she has her head through a window like the crank call said. But nothing happens and Paula heads back to her homework. NOW is when something happens and it's in the wrong place. Before she can get back to her seat, a rock crashes through the kitchen window and lands where she would have been sitting. What a missed opportunity.
Her neighbor hears the commotion and comes outside in time to see a shadowy figure taking off. He chases the person down and ends up apprehending Garth.
Garth says that he ran into Cookie earlier and she told him about Paula's car breaking down. He was worried about Paula and decided to walk over and check on her. He saw someone in her yard and started to chase the person but the neighbor grabbed him and the person got away. The neighbor isn't buying the story but Paula manages to convince him not to call the police. He does insist that Garth leave, though, and watches him until he's out of the neighborhood.
Paula doesn't sleep well that night and is exhausted at school the next day. She runs into Cookie and they talk for awhile. Cookie tells her that she'd been thinking of dropping out of school. Trixie offered to take her on full time and train her to be a manager if she did. That's weird. Shouldn't Trixie be encouraging a teenage girl to stay in school rather than enticing her to drop out? That's bizarre and it makes me wonder what's wrong with Trixie. Cookie has decided against it, though. She doesn't want to work in a restaurant her whole life so she's going to stay in school. Crises averted. She's reluctant to tell Trixie because she knows how disappointed Trixie will be. This seems so backwards to me.
Paula is obsessed with this drive in restaurant for no reason whatsoever and asks Cookie about it again. Cookie tells her that both she and Garth fought with the guy right before he died and that everyone thought she and/or Garth might have had something to do with the death. Paula asks why people would think that when it was food poisoning and Cookie tells her it wasn't. His food was actually poisoned.
Paula uses the school phone to call the garage and finds out that someone dumped sugar in her gas tank and it's going to take $200 to fix. Upset, she heads to her locker. Virgilia is at her own locker freaking out. Someone has stolen all her computer discs for her project and if she doesn't get them back, she won't get her scholarship. She stomps off to the office to report the theft, leaving her locker wide open. That seems stupid when she just found something stolen. Paula can't resist snooping through Virgilia's locker and finds it full of realistic-looking fake bugs. This convinces her that Virgilia is behind the rat prank and she must be the bad guy. Case closed. At least as far as Paula is concerned.
Paula is so tired she goes to sleep as soon as she gets home from school and doesn't wake up until Garth calls the next morning asking if she wants a ride to school. On the way, she tells him about all the pranks and why she thinks Virgilia is the culprit. Garth tells her that the idea is ridiculous. He's known Virgilia forever and she'd never do that. She uses the bugs to illustrate things on her science projects. Paula accepts this because she thinks Garth is just ever so dreamy.
Paula goes to try to pick up a script to prepare for the musical tryouts and finds out that her English teacher is the one helping with the play. She almost changes her mind, but then asks for the script anyway. He tells her they aren't ready yet but he seems a lot nicer now that he's not having to tell her to pay attention in class so much.
Paula has to work after school. The diner isn't busy at all. The rat incident seems to be keeping everyone away. I guess they're all at Scoops. The English teacher comes in. He calls Cookie "Angelina" and Trixie "Patricia". Hmm. These people have real names. That's a relief. He and Trixie went to school together and Paula notices that Trixie gets irritated at being reminded of that. English teacher has the script for the musical and he was nice enough to bring it by so Paula would have it. He orders coffee and stays for a bit. A little while later he starts howling in pain and has to be taken away in an ambulance. Trixie is pissed and closes early.
Paula heads home but then remembers that she left the script at the diner. She's afraid it might get thrown out or something so she goes back to get it. I guess she has a key to the diner? Why does she have a key to the diner? She's a teenage employee who hasn't been with the place very long and isn't always reliable. It's seem dumb for Trixie to let her have a key. When she reaches the diner, she realizes no key is necessary because the diner is unlocked.
Paula goes into the diner to find the script. Her instincts are screaming at her to leave, but she ignores that. She can hear something moving around in the basement and then hears footsteps coming her way. There's a struggle that is so badly written that it's just ridiculous but it ends with Paula being tied up with apron strings and blindfolded. When the attacker talks, Paula realizes it's Trixie.
Trixe goes on and on about how everyone thinks they're better than her because she didn't finish high school and she's just a waitress. That's why she was encouraging Cookie to drop out and why she was angry when English teacher showed up to remind her that her former classmates were more successful than she was. Trixie goes to turn on the electric slicer and Paula uses the opportunity to free her hands and take her blindfold off. She wants to use something to slow Trixie down, so she picks up several cartons of eggs and throws them on the floor to make it slippery. It's not a bad plan but then Paula has nowhere to escape except the basement.
Paula runs down the stairs and then does Trixie a favor by tripping and falling down the stairs. Trixie drags her to the walk-in fridge and shuts her inside. Paula panics for a bit and then remembers the safety lever that Trixie showed her on the first day. The handle has been removed. When exactly did Trixie do that? Paula coming back to the diner was a surprise. She wasn't planning on putting anyone in the fridge so she wouldn't have done it in advance. This doesn't make sense.
Paula manages to take a bolt off the fan cover and she uses it in place of the handle on the safety lever. It works and she's free. Paula makes it out to her car and heads for home. As she's driving, a car behind her suddenly starts to tailgate her, flashing its brights and honking its horn. She thinks he's trying to run her off the road at first but then she wonders if he's trying to warn her that something's wrong with her car. There are no warning lights or anything going off in her car, though, so she speeds away and loses him in traffic. When he's gone, she looks into the rearview mirror and we land smack in the middle of a bad urban legend.
Trixie is in the backseat with a knife and the guy behind in the car behind her was trying to warn Paula. Seriously, Smith? You couldn't write your own material so you steal from one of the oldest urban legends out there? Sigh. Trixie does the whole "bad guy monologue" thing and admits to killing the guy from the drive in. He had stopped by the Dog House first and she gave him a slow-acting poison so he'd die somewhere else. She hated him for always bragging about his scholarship and bright future. She goes on and on again about how everyone thinks they are better than her because she dropped out of school to be a waitress.
Trixie isn't belted in, so Paula starts swerving from side to side and driving erratically. She speeds up and then slams on the brakes causing Trixie to be thrown forward. Trixie loses her grip on the knife.
Paula starts to get out and run but then she hears Trixie crying in the back seat. It's so pitiful, Paula feels bad for her and doesn't run away after all. Instead, she drives Trixie to the police station and turns her in.
The next day Paula, Garth, Cookie and Virgilia gather to talk about things. They decide that Trixie is just crazy and did all those things because she was crazy. She's the one who did all the pranks at the restaurant and I think she's the one that made the calls to Paula but I don't think it really explained that. They worry that the restaurant will be closed but Trixie's cousin comes to keep it open and they all like him better anyway. Paula gets a part in the musical. The English teacher wasn't poisoned - he had appendicitis and is doing fine now. And that's it. It's over. What a dumb book.
Final Thoughts: This book reads like a Stine only it had none of his charm. Paula was all about Paula and Garth was the kind of character that tells you things instead of showing you things. I couldn't care less about either of them. Coralynn was a weak mean girl. She didn't have enough bite to pull it off. Cookie and Virgilia were plot devices more than characters. Trixie was the only one that made some sort of sense. You can see the method to her madness if you look close enough. I have a problem with the one murder she committed. I mean, the motive was fine and made sense for her character and all, but it doesn't make sense that she only killed that one time. If her motive was that he bragged a lot about his future, then she would have had motive to kill several other people. Probably Virgilia. Definitely some randos that ate at the diner regularly. So why only this one murder? It doesn't make much sense really. And what good did the pranks do? They didn't teach those bragging high schoolers a lesson or anything. All they did was chase her business away. I guess if you reach REALLY far you can conclude that she was sabotaging her business so she wouldn't have to be a waitress anymore but I highly doubt that Smith intended that conclusion to be drawn. I don't think she had much of a plan for this book and she just threw in things that worked in other Point Horrors to fill her pages. It read like she had no idea who the bad guy was going to be when she started the book so she had no clear motive or explanation for any of the things Trixie supposedly did because she didn't know the culprit WAS Trixie until the last few pages. This one was pretty ho hum, y'all. I'd skip if it I was you.
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