The Lemonade War

As the war between Jessie and Evan gets more heated, Jessie is sure that Evan is plotting something, especially with all of the phone calls he made the night before. Evan asks to borrow Jessie’s foam core that she’s been saving for a Labor Day business competition, but Jessie refuses. Shortly after, three of Evan’s friends arrive at the house, and together they make twelve cans of lemonade. They make 96 cups of lemonade total, which worries Jessie.

When Jessie arrives at Megan’s house to start working for the day, Carly Brownell, another girl from Evan’s class, answers the door. The three girls have an awkward conversation: Megan is upset that Jessie didn’t invite Evan, and Carly keeps giving Megan mean looks. Jessie can’t decode what the looks mean and is frustrated by how girls communicate.

Jessie thinks back to the mean girls from second grade who had always been “exchanging looks” (71). In Jessie’s former class, four mean girls had formed a special club called the Wild Hot Jellybeans Club or “WHJ.” Soon, everyone in the second grade class, including Jessie, had WHJ pins and stickers. By the end of the day, the teacher had intervened, but not before one of the girls, Becky, explained that “WHJ” actually stands for “We Hate Jessie,” and that “everyone in class [was] a member” (73).