Jen

Jen

**Jen** is one of Adrienne and Shannon's friends in the novel. She is the leader of a group of popular girls nicknamed "The Group".

## Appearance

Jen has dark brown/black hair. She has brown eyes and wears many different outfits. Her main colors seems to be blue, black and white.

## Personality

Jen is usually kind, sweet, and confident, but she is so popular that she can often act snooty or spoiled when the Group calls her over to play with them, or like she is better than others. She's also often influenced by Jenny, her "best friend", who sometimes tells lies to her about Shannon, because of this, Jen is sometimes rude to Shannon.

When she and Shannon are alone, however, she doesn't feel the need to act like the leader of the Group: her true personality comes out, which is kindhearted. It is shown that Jen doesn’t love being popular, but accepts that it is somewhat her “job”.

When Shannon leaves the group, it surprises Jen, and later she comes back to ask if she can join Shannon's group. This shows how she can humble herself; the Group becomes irritated with her but she continues to hang out with Shannon, which shows how she doesn't care what others think about her.

Jen is the queen bee of the school and the most popular. She is very gullible as she believes Jenny, over anyone else. However, in the second book she starts believing Shannon more. It is shown that her siblings are very popular; her brother is lead quarterback of the high school football team and her sister is Head Cheerleader. By the third book, though Jen politely acknowledges Shannon, she doesn’t hang out with her anymore and refuses to help her when they’re both running for class president.

## History

Not much is known about Jen's backstory, or history, but Jen went to church with Adrienne, and has been dancing ballet, playing piano, and flute for a while, as it implies that she is quite good at all of them. Her siblings are even more popular then she is, and she may only be so popular because everyone wants to meet her siblings. It can be inferred that Jen and Jenny have at least been friends since they were in second grade, because they seem to know each other very well.

Jen has always been the popular girl who everybody admired. In grade school, she was the leader of “the group”, the most popular girls in school. She likes Shannon because she’s honest and she enjoys the games Shannon comes up with, so in this grade, she lets Shannon join the group. She discourages Shannon from playing with Heidi because she sees playing with dolls as immature, showing how she only likes and encourages hanging out with the popular group. Jen invites Shannon to come vacation at her cabin at Bear Lake with her; she and Shannon grow closer. However, their friendship fluctuates as Jenny tells Jen lies about Shannon. At this point, it’s hard for Shannon to stay in the group.

In fifth grade, Jen is in Mrs. Larochelle’s class. One day during recess, Jenny is being rude to Shannon again, and Shannon snaps and leaves Jen’s group. She urges others to do the same, and Jen seems a bit uncomfortable with this. Everyone stays in the group, and Jen really doesn’t seem to care that Shannon left, but she seems, at this point, tired of her popularity. One day, Jen sees Shannon having fun with Zara and Veronica, and eventually asks Shannon to be part of her “new group” after attempting to catch up with her during recess one day. She’s tired of the pressures of her popularity, as shown when she asks her friends to stop “calling dibs” on who sits next to her at lunch.

At the beginning of sixth grade, Jen is excited for her locker and new school year. She and her friends are now the most popular kids in the whole school. When playing with Shannon one day, Jen says she doesn’t feel like playing her make-believe games, showing that maybe she’s changing. Jen is part of the reason that Shannon feels insecure about not watching the popular shows, because Jen does. Jen goes trick-or-treating with Shannon, but admits that she lied to Jenny about not being able to because she didn’t want to go with Jenny. One day before ballet, Shannon tells Jen all of the lies Jenny had told her in the past so that she can stay on Jen’s “good side”. Jen thinks Shannon is being mean when she makes a comment about Jenny’s weight. Jen visits Brandon once he gets a concussion with the rest of their friends.

Jen begins “going with” Justin. She makes some rating calls with the rest of the group. Jen goes on the courtroom field trip with the rest of the sixth-grade class, and shows concern for Shannon when she asks her if she’s okay as she gazes sadly out the bus window. When Shannon begins “going with” Vance, Jen questions her about this in a seemingly accusatory way. Later, the group and the boys’ group has a party together, Jen dancing with Justin. She again shuts down one of Shannon’s games, finding it immature. Later, she goes to an amusement park with the group and the boys; Justin wins her a stuffed teddy bear at a carnival game. Jen anticipates starting junior high, thinking that she’ll still be popular and “untouchable”. She still only wants to play with those in the group, showing how she has not changed in that respect. Crystal overhears Jen and a few other girls being rude to her; it doesn’t bother Jen. Jen tells Shannon that they’re too old for best friends, leaving Shannon doubting her and Jens’ status as friends.

Later, Jen pressures Shannon by asking, accusatorily, if she doesn’t miss their old teacher Mrs. Granger, because Jen doesn’t like their new teacher Mrs. Rose. On the way home from a field trip, Jen has no more room in her van to carpool with Shannon even though Shannon rode there with Jen. Jen apologizes for Shannon having to ride with Jane because she’s “weird”, and thinks it’s weird that Shannon defends her. Nonetheless, the two remain friends; at the end of the year a few friends are going over the classes for seventh grade, Shannon is the only one who decides to take classes that are different from the rest of them. Jen’s seventh grade classes are algebra first period, English seventh, health third, social studies, P.E., Glee, and home ec.

In eighth grade, Jen runs for class president and wins. When Shannon forgets the music she wanted to play for her speech, Jen refuses to share hers, saying that there’s no way she’ll help because they’re in competition. That’s the last Shannon hears from Jen.