Febuary 2024

"The Summer I Turned Pretty"

By Melissa Perez & Stephanie D

*Spoiler warning*

Melissa and I decided to watch a romance based series for Valentines. We thought this would be a good example of romance. It's about four kids who grew up together because their moms are best friends. Three of them ended up in a love triangle, leading to a drama filled plot. They grew apart from each other, and the brothers ended up hating each other.

Every summer they went to the beach house that Susannah Fisher owned. Susannah is the mother of Jermiah and Conrad. Belly and Steven are the kids of Laurel. Laurel and Susannah have been best friends since highschool. They are both divorced mothers. Belly was never considered pretty.

One summer specifically she had a glow up. Everyone was surprised by her appearance. On the first day she was there, she snuck out to go to a party she was invited to. Her brother caught her, followed her and tried to drag her out of the party. Everyone there was staring. She was mad and embarrassed. Cam saw her and said he knew her from 3rd grade, they recognized each other and talked. Then a fight broke out between Conrad and a cashier. Belly ran towards Conrad and tried to break them up, she got in the way and got punched in the eye. Conrad got mad and yelled “What's your problem!” in an angry tone. The cops came and tried to break up the party. They went home and got scolded by Laurel. 

That’s when Belly starts to date Cam. However, this didn’t last long as they broke up in episode 4. In episode 3, Belly’s best friend Taylor betrays her by kissing her brother. Belly forgives her.  Belly asks Jeremiah to be accompanying her in the debution ball. But in the last episode of season one, the day of the ball, Jeremiah finds out his mother has cancer. He then is sad and afraid of losing his mom. He doesn't show up, and Conrad steps in to accompany her for the ball. Jeremiah tells Conrad, and Conrad tells him he already knew. The brothers break out in a fight. Jeremiah felt betrayed and hurt that he was the last to know about his moms cancer.

Belly cheats on Jeremiah with Conrad. Belly and Jeremiah start to date and they were happy until belly broke up with Jeremiah for his brother Conrad. Conrad and Belly loved each other deeply but Conrad was battling depression. Belly  stayed with him until the day of her prom. Conrad forgot her corsage, and he was being really moody. He didn’t want to dance with Belly. They were arguing about how he was acting. They were crying and came to the conclusion that they should break up. Conrad walked away and she just stared at him walking away. After that happened she went to Steven and started crying on his shoulders. Conrad went away to college.  After that, Belly went back to school. She was failing almost all of her classes. And her brother constantly blamed her. She wasn’t allowed on the volleyball team. Conrad left his college and went to the summer beach house that his mom owned. They were putting it up for sale. Then Jeremiah tells belly even though they are not on good speaking terms. She insists on going with Jeremiah to find Conrad. Jeremiah and  belly have an argument that quickly turns into a heart to heart conversation. After that, they head to the beach house to get muffins and hang out with old relatives/friends. They try to convince Conrad to go home but he doesn't want to, he acts cold toward belly. They try to stop their aunt from selling the house; she refuses. But they don’t give up, and try to constantly change her mind. Conrad calls his father to buy the house but he refuses. Jeremiah begins not to like his father. In the end, they convince their dad and they get the beach house back. Jeremiah and Belly start to date again.  Belly reassures Jeremiah that she does not like Conrad and he is the one she wants. Conrad is heartbroken as he never wanted to break up with her.  Conrad made it impossible for them to be happy. Jeremiah gets a Belly sweater from his college.

In the end belly can’t choose who she wants, and she ends up being the problem.🐾