The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Elizabeth Heywood, a former child actor, is Alpha’s newest girlfriend. Within a week of the party, Frankie becomes a regular at Matthew’s table in the cafeteria. She loves his immunity to embarrassment and notes the freedom Matthew and his peers enjoy. Two weeks into their relationship, however, Matthew cancels his plans with Frankie so he can be with Alpha. After this happens two more times, Frankie realizes Alpha is “marking his territory” (105). Often, Matthew’s friends accompany them on their dates, and Frankie likes that she is almost a part of their group.

The narrator says Frankie’s critical faculties are developing through several experiences: learning about the panopticon, getting to know Alpha, not being allowed to walk to town alone in New Jersey, experiencing Matthew’s happiness when he “rescu[ed]” her after her accident, and her irritation at his friends for pretending to forget her. Wodehouse’s book The Code of the Woosters is another significant influence. In it, several rich men with a lot of free time form a club called the Drones. Like the Bassets, these club members know each other from boarding school, are wealthy, and pursue fun. 

Frankie enjoys Wodehouse’s wordplay and use of neglected (and imaginary neglected) positives. One day, she says she is “gruntled,” and Matthew tells her the word “doesn’t mean what [she] think[s] it means” (110). When the neglected positive (NP) of a negative word is not actually a word, it is called an imaginary neglected positive (INP). Frankie believes, as does the narrator, that a person who uses NPs and INPs can be “amusing,” but Matthew explains that “gruntled” is a false neglected positive, not an INP, because “gruntled” is a real word that means “grumpy.” Frankie is irritated by his need to be right and his confidence that he is her intellectual superior. When she tells him he’s no fun, he tells her not to be “so sensitive.” Frankie realizes that being “shrill or needy” is a fast way to lose Matthew’s affection and her status (115).

Porter, Frankie’s ex, emails to apologize for cheating on her. Frankie notices that his grammar in the email is incorrect. He invites her out to eat, and she asks for three reasons she should go. He says it’s a free meal, he wants to be friends again, and he has something to talk to her about. Frankie tells Matthew she’s meeting Porter, and he asks if Porter apologized to her. She says he did, so Matthew doesn’t understand why Frankie agreed to meet him; he suggests she’s letting Porter “push [her] around” (121). Frankie is insulted by this accusation, but Matthew says he wants her to stand up for herself.

The next day, Frankie notices a basset hound figurine on Matthew’s nightstand, but when she asks about it, he gets very secretive. As a peace offering, he gives her his Superman T-shirt. When she wears it, she can tell everyone knows it’s Matthew’s, and Zada says that wearing it is like wearing a sign that says Frankie belongs to him. Zada also says Matthew is treating her like a doll. Frankie accuses Zada of making her relationship seem “maculate,” the INP of “immaculate.” Zada warns her not to let Matthew “erase” her.

For her “Cities, Art, and Protest” class, Frankie reads an article about “The Suicide Club,” a group of men in San Francisco who take their name from literary characters who make a pact to kill themselves so they can live “free from social restrictions” (131). However, the San Francisco Suicide Club only wants to enjoy a similar happy recklessness without actually taking their lives. They change their club’s name to the Cacophony Society, and members try to escape society’s panopticon by going to places where they are unseen, doing things a watcher would not want them to, and behaving in unorthodox ways. They make people aware of society’s unwritten rules by breaking them, doing things like throwing parties in cemeteries. Frankie writes a paper about the club.

Frankie is purposely late for her meeting with Porter. She recalls the time after they broke up: She was convinced the girl he cheated with must be prettier, smarter, and better than her, though Frankie knows she’s smart and pretty. Porter made her feel expendable and worthless. When he arrives, Porter references Matthew, and Frankie wonders if people only see her as Matthew’s girlfriend. Porter tells Frankie she “look[s] great this year” (140), and he warns her not to let Matthew take advantage. She bristles when she realizes that her changed looks have prompted this concern. Porter insists that he means to compliment her and to “look out” for her, and when she gets angry, he calls her “oversensitive” and “crazy.” 

When Porter leaves, Frankie feels electrified after using her mind in a critical way. She is proud of herself for calling Porter out, “uncovering all the nocuous layers in [his] seemingly innocuous statement,” but she also feels she “acted like a monster” (144). She doesn’t like herself for yelling, but she admires herself for it. Frankie feels a new “power” coursing through her with its attendant “guilt, righteousness, joy, and fear” (145).

The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds is a secret society comprised mostly of senior boys who receive letters inviting them to an initiation. They post flyers in code rather than communicate via email because it is part of their goal “not to be entirely secret” (147). They want others to know they exist and to wonder about them. Frankie once stumbled upon an initiation meeting without realizing it. The Bassets are usually boys chosen from particularly rich Alabaster families who are also “cool.” Though being rich isn’t enough to qualify them for membership, the privilege and confidence that wealth inspires does, as does the social dominance these qualities typically confer. Like Senior, the boys think of themselves as Bassets first, and the club allows them to feel rebellious without risking their social positions. Each year, the Bassets swear in a new king and pledge their eternal loyalty to one another. This year, the Order has two kings—Alpha and Matthew—as Alpha was tapped to lead them as a sophomore, but the Order selected Matthew to replace him when Alpha had to leave Alabaster.

One October day, Matthew asks Frankie to go with him to see a Muppet movie. When she tells Trish about the invitation, Frankie expresses a love for Kermit that she will “parage to the end,” employing the neglected positive of “disparage” (154). Trish corrects Frankie, who insists on her word choice, and Trish changes the subject. She says they should have a “girlie” evening before Matthew picks Frankie up: facials and pedicures. Frankie agrees, saying they’ll be “sheveled”—the neglected positive of “disheveled.”

At lunch, Frankie doesn’t wait for Matthew to go to the cafeteria. When she gets through the line, however, she’s not sure where to sit. There’s no actual rule, but she’s supposed to sit with the sophomores and not at the senior table, unless she’s invited. The seniors haven’t arrived yet, though. Frankie feels that by sitting with the less powerful sophomores, she would be admitting that her status is lower than Matthew’s, and she would be conforming to more unwritten rules. So, she sits at the senior table alone, ignored by some of Matthew’s friends who are at a table nearby. Part of her feels awkward, but part of her enjoys knowing that she is breaking a social rule.

When Matthew’s group arrives, Elizabeth comments on the “balls” it took for Frankie to sit there without them. Alpha and Matthew have a disagreement, and Matthew repeats that he will address the issue later. Elizabeth accuses them of sparring like two moose, and Star agrees. Frankie knows they expect her to agree, but she says girls can be as competitive as boys. She argues that it’s dangerous to suggest that men and women are the same as other animals because it leads to assumptions about women’s lack of competitive drive and ability. Elizabeth dismisses Frankie’s argument and addresses her “snidely.” Frankie brings up sea horses, a species in which males carry the babies, and Alpha says Matthew is a sea horse. Matthew denies this and sternly reminds Alpha that they’ll talk later. Alpha collects his things and asks Elizabeth to accompany him, presumably to have sex, but she claims to be busy. He tells the table he’s “unwhippable” and departs; Elizabeth gets up soon after, and Frankie wonders if she’ll follow him. Dean laughs, claiming no matter how much she may “squawk, the she-wolf always follows in the end” (165). Frankie asks Matthew what he and Alpha need to discuss, wondering if it’s about Alpha disliking her, but Matthew tells her not to be “so sensitive” and leaves to study for calculus.