Talk:The Sophomore, Book 2/@comment-34138917-20180117202455/@comment-34381956-20180125205659

@DoctorBreadLegs: Not only do we never see MC writing articles about anyone or anything outside her friend group, I'm pretty sure she isn't even doing newspaper anymore. Reyna made her take a break from the paper while she deals with the house stuff, and I don't think she's gone back yet. So...basically, MC was on the paper while James needed her help and support. I think she did one article (or two, if you spent the diamonds to write both the Chris article and the Becca article at the end of Sophomore Book 1) after James graduated. Also, I'm kind of wondering if Reyna also thought it was biased and unprofessional to spend so much time and front page space on the editor and assistant editor's friend group and kind of edged MC out while she takes the paper in a new direction. I could be wrong since she's kind of in the larger friend group now, and the articles weren't irrelevant to the school...but she was working on working on articles that were probably more important that were squeezed in somewhere else.

Oh, Zack. Poor Zack. I know Kaitlyn is supposedly MC's best friend (mostly because Kaitlyn basically called dibs the first day) (this bothers me because she spends a lot of time not speaking to MC in Books 2 and 3, which is when everyone is at the point where they actually know each other), but I think Zack is MC's actual best friend. He's always all helpful and supportive, especially when all of MC's love interests are mad at or ignoring her. Zack and Brandon broke up because they realized that Brandon grew as a person on his trip while Zack stayed home and moped...or something. I think Zack had such a bad breakup because he realized he didn't like that he was a person whose world stopped because their significant other wasn't around. Like an identity crisis or something? I don't know. I didn't mind him being moody and whatever because he's MC's real best friend and he was having a tough time. At least it didn't drag on into Sophomore, right? Zack gets a lot more screen time in Sophomore when MC is single because he pops up to chat in spaces that would otherwise be filled with talking to MC's significant other. I really, really dislike how much we're pushed into trying to get Zack together with Teddy or Grant even though Zack said he's not ready to date again. What kind of good friend behavior is that?

I was also disappointed when it was Sebastian that sabatoged the boiler. I had the same thought about it being too obvious! I feel bad for him, too. I think he started trying to be nicer/join the friend group in Book 3 at Madison's party when they were playing Never Have I Ever. Pretty much as soon as he asked to join, Kaitlyn (I think) said something about never losing an election. He lashes out and says something about not being a criminal, and of course his dig at Chris is Sebastian starting something and ruining the game. (I get that the entire point of that was to learn about Zig's record, but still.  Sebastian didn't start it.)  Then, for pretty much all of Sophomore Book 1, I tried to be nice to him but then my character decided to be a jerk after all. I don't think we've seen Sebastian since he agreed to pay to fix the boiler. It's a little weird to me that when Becca starts to be less horrible MC befriends/dates her, but when Sebastian tries to be less horrible MC and friends (minus Tyler) continue to be mean until the boiler thing and then he disappears. Maybe he decided to try to find a nicer friend group.

@EjdSmith: I had my MC date James until...sometime in Sophomore Book 1. Then, since the relationship basically became entirely "Sure, I'll go interview our friend for the next front page article," "We're at Kaitlyn's concert, let's dance!", "How's your writing?/You should sleep more," and diamond choices, I decided to go back and break up with him. I have replayed Book 3 several times, and have broken up with James both while babysitting and after he comes back from California, and it really has very little impact on anything. (Breaking up with James after he gets back leads to him agreeing that it's for the best and promptly changing the subject to getting a lot of progress on the book.)  I'm glad MC didn't handle the breakup as poorly as Zack did in Book 4, but there has to be some middle ground. Also, I realize it's probably easier for the storyline to pretend relationships never happened once you're no longer dating, but it was a little weird when I had my MC break up with James after he came home and later that evening Abbie asked if MC was ready to move on or if the breakup was still too fresh. I think a couple hours is too fresh a breakup for that question, Abbie! Also, nobody said anything when I had MC agree to date Zig the following night at the dance. (I was also annoyed when Sophomore tried to push single-MC into a relationship with Becca, who I dislike.  There's such a small window to date Zig, and I dislike early-Zig, but at least he's less annoying when faced with character development.  Seriously, why is Becca so dramatic when making an effort to be nice??)