Second Chance Summer

Told from alternating perspectives - Maddie and Chloe - and different time periods ("now" is at Camp Rosewood, "then" is the time period around their school musical the previous spring), Second Chance Summer is the story of a friendship between two very different girls who have been friends for a long time, but a fight has ruptured their friendship, and they are not pleased to discover they are not only camp-mates, but cabin-mates. Maddie - short, fat, Jewish, with dyspraxia - is looking forward to the camp's screenwriting program, having sworn off public performance after the school musical. Chloe - tall, slender, red-haired - is a child actor with a pushy mom who just made her do a commercial for a pill for period cramps. Chloe has show more her heart set on the role of Elphaba in the camp musical of Wicked, and Maddie is once again forced into the musical when the screenwriting program is reduced.

Maddie must learn how to speak up for herself, even to her best friend, and that what she wants is respect, not revenge. Chloe must learn how to be a better friend, and how to stand up to her mother (the result of this is somewhat anti-climactic, with her mother agreeing immediately to Chloe's desire to stop acting professionally).

See also: The Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker

Quotes

That's the thing about Chloe. Somehow, by the sheer force of her Chloe-ness, she gets me to consider things I'd never even think about if not for her putting the idea in my head. (Maddie, 67)

"Sometimes when you're given a set of constraints, your creativity can really thrive." (Hannah, 82)

This whole dealing-with-other-people's-emotions issue is so not my thing. (Chloe, 127)

"I'm done being the supporting character in the movie of your life." (Maddie to Chloe, 131)

...the past doesn't actually go away. It just kind of lurks around, popping up when I least want to or expect it to make an appearance. Poisoning everything. (Chloe, 194)

The script of the universe always plops me into the same scene as Chloe. (226)

When I'm her friend, the screenplay of my life is usually more exciting, more fun, more everything. (227) show less