Diary

Next: TBAPrevious: Crush

## Description

Diary is a book written by Svetlana Chmakova. It was published on October 29, 2019. It is set apart from the other books in the Berrybrook series to precede it (Awkward, Brave, and Crush), because it features three mini-stories along with some journal and sketching activities for the reader to enjoy.

The fourth book of the Berrybrook Middle School series, *Diary*, is a very special journal including not only sticker sheets and "one sketch a day" pages but also brand new stories from the author set in the Berrybrook universe! Find out all about Peppi's and Jaime's project, write your own daily entries right next to Jensen's journal pages, and take a glimpse at the new life of a familiar face who's moved to a new town!

## Summary

Story #1: "Time Capsule"

The first mini story in *Diary* is from the perspective of Jaime Thompson. It gives us some insight to events alluded to in *Brave*, when Jaime and Penelope Torres ("Peppi") reportedly spent many lunched holed up in the library working on a "project".

Jaime complains about being teased in science club by his classmates for his friendship with Peppi. Peppi also receives teasing from her art club friends. Jamie reflects that Peppi has become a really great friend and things he used to do on his own, he now does with Peppi.

Recently, Jaime and Peppi have been working on an awesome project, a time capsule to be buried and opened 100 years in the future. Jaime and Peppi have decided to include items from each club of the school, to show the future what club life was like at Berrybrook 100 years ago.

As they are leaving, Peppi and Jaime make plans for a movie night that weekend. It is Jaime's turn to pick the movie, and Peppi notes that he's likely to pick a B Horror film. Jaime comments that over the weekend he and his dad will be making the box for the time capsule, and Peppi grabs her design ideas for the box to show him. When she hands him the page, it is covered with Hearts around the name "Jesse". Peppi turns red and grabs it back, and tells Jaime she'll just text him the designs.

The next day, at Science club, Jaime asks his classmates, Derek Lee and Leticia Teale, what a name within a heart means, and they are aghast. They tell him this means Peppi likes someone else. He tries to brush it off, saying it doesn't matter, but Derek and Leticia insist that everything will change now that Peppi likes someone else. She'll start hanging out with her boyfriend all the time and won't be able to hang out with him, or worse, will bring him with her when they hang out. This idea is unsettling to Jaime, who values his friendship with Peppi.

His concern grows as he hears Peppi being teased about this mysterious "Jesse" and he wonders who it is. He notes that there are two Jesses in the drama club and could be any number of them in the vast Athletic club. Peppi notices that he is off while they are working on their project. He asks her if she still plans on coming to the movie night this weekend, and she tells him she is and asks why he would ask. Jaime says he wondered if she had others plans.

On Monday, the capsule is finished, but Jaime is still concerned who "Jesse" is. At Science club, Derek and Leticia ask what he's going to do, to which he replies nothing. They are shocked he won't do anything about some guy "taking Peppi away from him", and Jaime insists he doesn't own her and she has the right to hang out with whoever she wants. He asks them to stop gossiping, to no avail.

Later, it is Peppi and Jaime's responsibility to visit every club to collect their contribution to the time capsule. Jaime figures this is his chance to figure out who "Jesse" is, because if they see him he believes Peppi will turn red again. They visit the Newspaper, Yearbook, Math team, ESL club, Athletics club, Art club and others with no sign of "Jesse".

When Jaime and Peppi finally arrive at drama club, Jaime realizes it is neither of the Jesses from there because Peppi is acting completely normal. He overhears her talking with Nic about how "Jesse" had come out that day as Non-binary. Jaime asks Nic who Jesse is, and Nic tells him that Jesse is a singer.

Jaime is relieved and a little embarrassed he worried so much over nothing. As he reflects this, he is approached by a girl, who introduces herself as Mei from his English class. She seems nervous and quickly shoves a letter into his hands before running away. Jaime realizes that it is a letter addressed to him with a heart on it, and turns bright red as Peppi notices. It appeared as an amusing contrast to Jaime's concerns about Peppi's apparent admiration for Jesse, as Jaime was now recieving a letter with a heart on it, given by a flustered girl.

Story #2: "The Captain's Log"

The second mini story featured in *Diary* is from Jensen's sketchbook, a cartoon "mission log" of his imaginary adventures.

Day 1 of the mission log sets the scene on the surface of a planet named Alpha Zeta Prime. Captain Jensen and his space team are in search of intelligent life on the planet and are setting up a station. His chief security officer and co-captain (Jorge and Olivia, respectively) return from a scout mission with organisms (plant fiends loosely based on Foster and Yanic). Captain Jensen reminds them they are looking for "intelligent life" and has them take the organisms back. They mention they also found a mysterious cave entrance and ask if they should take it out. Captain Jensen calls for his intrepid research team (Jenny, Akilah, Jaime, Jorge, and Olivia) to come with him to the cave..... after a lunch break. The tunnels are deep and long. They finally find an ancient underground civilization and decide to take samples. Officer Olivia goes missing, but reappears, though Captain Jensen is suspicious of her behavior and appearance. He seems to be the only one, so they return to the station.

Day 2 of the mission log brings results to research on their samples, and Captain Jensen continues to be suspicious of Officer Olivia. There is an attack on the lab and their samples are destroyed, but it turns out to be the local organisms from the day before, and Jorge kicks them out. Then, Officer Olivia turns into a giant insect and declares she is going to take over the station like she took over the planet's civilization with her army of space bugs. Captain Jensen holds them off, but is about to succumb when the real Officer Olivia arrives with the original inhabitants of the planet, a species of highly intelligent mushrooms, and drive off the insects.

On Day 3 of the mission log, the crew gets to know the intelligent mushrooms, who gift them a pen that can answer math pop quizzes and agree to be allies with the Planet Federation. It turns out the ancient underground civilization they found was supposed to be a big insectarium for the space bugs, and they weren't supposed to go in there (oops).Captain Jensen prepares to leave for his next mission, which currently remains unknown.

Story #3: "New Girl"

The third and final mini story featured in *Diary* is from the perspective of Maribella Sampson, and explores her experiences in her new school, after she moved away in *Awkward*.

Maribella now lives in her grandma's old house in a different state, because her parents are taking some time apart. She describes the town as being stuck in the 1800s, and notes that it even has a functioning will in town square. The town scares Maribella, who hates being scared, and wants to go home to her dad.

Maribella goes to school, which takes place in a small schoolhouse. The kids seem clicky, but she tries her best approaching a table of nerdy kids, who rebuff her for not realizing that they were playing "Magic the Gathering" and not "Dungeons and Dragons". She also approaches a group of girls, who immediately shoo her away. She tries to go to the library to find friends, but discovers that the library is closed and only opens on Mondays.

After school, Maribella's mom picks her up and she complains about how bad her day was. She says she wants to go home, that their life was great, and is upset about her parent's "stupid fight". Her mom says that their life wasn't great and that it "isn't normal to be scared of someone you love". She says they'll just have to make it work in this town, and mentions that Maribella has been invited to a birthday sleepover by one of the girls at school.

The birthday party ends up being for Larissa, one of the mean girls who turned her away on her first day. She tells Maribella that she is a "charity invite", and tells her to go sit with the other "charity invite". She complains to her friends about her mom inviting "charity invites". The other girl leaves quickly, claiming to have an upset stomach, leaving Maribella with Larissa and her friends. To her dismay, the watch scary movies, and afterwards tell scary stories. While they are telling a scary story, she gets sick to her stomach and throws up.

The next day at school, all the other kids tease and bully her for barfing at the party. She snaps, and tells them their behavior is not okay, and that everyone has embarrassing moments sometimes. The kids don't really take her seriously, until one kid, who she met outside the library on her first day, speaks up. He points out that when Larissa was younger, she used to make and eat dirt cakes, and as kids laugh at Larissa, he points out embarrassing stories from their past too, until Maribella stops him. She says that her point is that everyone has something to embarrassed about so they should stop teasing each other and just be nice.

She is disappointed that she still doesn't have any friends, but no one teases her any more, so she sees that as a positive. She decides that if she can't have friends at least she'll have books, so she goes to the library. Outside the library, she is stopped by the kid who stood up for her earlier. He asks if she wants to eat lunch with him and his friend, who he introduces as Hedgehog, or "Hedge", and she agrees, happy to have found some friends.