Grandma Rita

* 2015
* 1958

**Rita McCallister** is a minor character and grandmother of Shelby Marcus in *Best Friends Whenever.* She is Astrid's mother. Rita is Shelby's grandmother. Shelby and Cyd time travel to 1958 to play matchmaker for Rita and Shelby's grandfather.

## History

She grew up in the same house as Cyd and Shelby. As a teen, she lived in Shelby's room, which back then was extremely pink. She graduated high school in 1958, and the day of her graduation party was the day Cyd and Shelby. But before 1958, she was very shy and dependent. She was in a group called the Pinkie Rinks, that hang out together. She had her friends tell her everything to do, resulting in her not making a decision for three years. However, she also dreamed of traveling to other places around the world and collects postcards, but she thought they were just silly dreams and she knew what her life was going to be, she would get married in her hometown and have kids like all of her friends.

But Shelby changed her when she visited and gave Rita the confidence to make her own decisions. Cyd and Shelby jump to the present in front of Rita and tell her they're time travelers, which surprises her. Rita ends up deciding to travel the world, where she meets Paul McCallister, trekking through the Himalayas in the 1960s. He fell in love with her bold spirit. They traveled the world together.

They get married and have their daughter, Astrid McCallister sometime during the 1970s. During Astrid's childhood, she tells Astrid that two time traveling teenage girls attended her high school graduation party and if it weren't for them, she wouldn't have met Paul. Astrid never believed it and believes that her mom just says some crazy things sometimes. At some point, her daughter Astrid got married to Norm Marcus and had Shelby in around 2000-2001. When the twins Bret and Chet were born around 2003 but Rita wasn't there which hurt Astrid. Her husband died sometime before 2015, but his death didn't slow her down when it came to her world travels.

At some point, Grandma Rita realized that her granddaughter Shelby and her friend Cyd were the time traveling teen girls from her graduation party (probably because they had the same name, and looked exactly the same) and she waited until she visited them in 2015 to thank Shelby. If they didn't believe in her, she wouldn't have followed her dreams, traveled the world, or met their grandpa Paul.

When Shelby changed the past, Rita got married to Paul Bartow instead of Paul McCallister, resulting in Shelby becoming a different person. The different version of Shelby has brown hair, brown eyes, different face, and her name is Kristi instead of Shelby. However, they ended up fixing the past, erasing this timeline, and Shelby reverting back to how she originally looked.

## Trivia

* She is the only other person besides Barry, Naldo, Marci, and Janet who knows Cyd and Shelby are time travelers.
* She met Shelby's grandfather while trekking through the Himalayas.
* In high school she was part of a clique called "The Pinkie Rings."
* She was in the class of 1958.
* She used to live in Shelby and Cyd's room.

## Episode Appearances

**Season 1**

* Jump to the '50's