Ann hates Mal

[liss31d]

Ann M. Martin appears to have a strong dislike for Mal by the situations that she and the ghost writers create for her and the descriptions of her, e.g. "Mal's parents won't even let her get a nose job!" and she has been described as "stocky" at one stage.

I'm positive there is something in the majority of the books that makes it evident that Mallory Pike is the BSC punching bag so I'll mention a few -

Dawn and the Impossible Three - Dawn yells at 10 year old Mal for "stealing" Marnie's brownie, when all she was trying to do was protect the poor allergic-to-chocolate soul...

Hello Mallory - Given a stupid test to get into the BSC, the BSC acting uber superior (even though they mixed up soy formula with soy sauce), being clumsy at the BSC test job, but worst of all... making her wear tights with little red hearts on them

Little Miss Stoneybrook and Dawn - Dawn gets mad that Mal is getting an induction ceremony and then yells at her for asking a question about club policy.

Mallory and the Trouble With Twins - The twins behave like biotches to her after her comment on them being cute and then the BSC blame Mal completely for causing the twins to hate babysitters. Also Mal whining about ear piercing, her future braces and how "babyish" her haircut is.

Jessi and the Superbrat - Making Mal act like a ninny in front of Derek Masters.

Welcome Back Stacey - All the BSC mentally saying to each other how immature Mal is through eye contact when Mal is whinging about her parents' complaints about her sparkly sequined top.

Poor Mallory - Of course it would be Mal's Dad who'd lose his job and she has to work for the snob family with the 400 dollar cat and give her wages to her family so she can't buy sparklies and worries about studying hard to get a scholarship for college (yeah Mal 'cause your Dad will be unemployed for 7 years...). Then to top it off she gets bullied by 6th grade sluts and her ex friends.

Kristy and the Baby Parade - Mal gets yelled at for her pink costumes for the babies against the orange float then snarked at by Dawn (God it always seems to be Dawn that has it in for her) and then goes blank as Ann made her dim enough to forget about the BSC costumes.

Mallory on Strike - The Pike family won't bloody leave her alone, her parents are exploiting her as a surrogate mother to their kids and then Kristy throws a hoo-hah over her being 10 mins late to a meeting. Also her sisters do an evil play called "Mean Old Mallory"... after all the bloody picnics and games she's done for them

Mallory and the Dream Horse - Ultimate punching bag in this one! Finds out that her fantasy of riding horses ain't too grand when she falls off a horse and develops a phobia, she can't afford the uniform so the kids make snobby comments, the kids think she's weird 'cause she acted all eager, she wore a "sunday school outfit" to a hip party where no one talked to her, Jessi goes all cold Jessi style on her and then she came 6th place out of 12...

Jessi's Gold Medal - God forbid, Mal's worst nightmare... she has to swim in PE with the boys and she picked the "ugliest babiest swimming costume" to wear that day.

Keep Out Claudia - She is the first girl to get shunned by the Lowells.

Mallory Hates Boys (and Gym) - OK her brothers act like complete dicks to her, along with Jamie Newton and later the Hobart kids, she has to do Volleyball with the (shock horror) boys and keeps getting thrashed about and insulted by her teammates and the teacher. Also she acts like a crazed ninny with her "Stoneybrook boys suck" theory and detention idea.

Get Well Soon Mallory - She gets Mono... of course it would be Mal that would get Mono. Ann doesn't like Mal...

Mary Anne and Miss Priss - The Pikes are forcing Mal, their ill child to do free child labour for them.

Mallory Pike, No. 1 Fan - Ann really went out of her way to make Mal look like an idiot in this one by stalking Henrietta Hayes out and then later yelling at her for not being a true writer because her books aren't based on her life and being full of "LIES!" Then she wrote an insulting play about her family and wouldn't change it until forced.

Then are the super specials where Mal goes insane and spends all her lottery money on make up and dying her hair blonde to look like a "California girl" and then being crushed by the director's comments. In Starring the BSC, Mary Anne has a fit at her for interfering with her backstage babysitter job and she has to measure her greatest fear, boys . Also in NY NY when Claudia acts like a cow to her because the art teacher compliments her more (thus catty comments and sticking out her tongue) and then finds out that the teacher thought that Claudia was the true artist with promise while Mal was a tad crap... nice .

OK I've gone on much longer than I expected and I know there are even more Mal punchbag moments (I'm just a bit tired to write more), so if you've got any, put them down!

[baseballchica03]

When you put it all together like that, it's really horrifying. Poor Mallory. She was always my favorite.

[lilafowler]

Her nickname is even "bad" in several languages

ETA: I just remembered, her Sea City love interests never work out -- in Mary Anne and Too Many Boys, they have to leave before she can date the ice cream parlor guy who is interested in her, and in Sea City, Here We Come!, Stacey gets mad at Mallory because Toby took an interest in her. And then it turns out that Toby's standards basically amount to "living female," making things even worse for Mallory. I really do feel sorry for her character now!

[wanderingfrog]

It just gets even worse after that point. Having that sexist teacher Mr. Cobb in #108: Don't Give Up, Mallory for the Children's Literature Short Takes course that she had thought would be the best one ever. The Spaz Girl bullying that starts in #122: Kristy in Charge and gets so bad that it's one of the reasons she goes to boarding school in #126: The All-New Mallory Pike. She and Jessi have a major fight in #125: Mary Anne in the Middle because she's leaving, although of course they patch it up, because they are Mallory and Jessi, which is like salt and pepper. (Psst: Mallory's salt. Duh.) Then when she gets to boarding school, her first roommate is a psycho b*tch from hell.

Mal has spent a number of Super Specials constantly writing in her journal (and spying on people) in lieu of doing anything else, completely avoiding actually doing anything other than acting like a total dork.

Oh, and in FF #10: Stacey's Problem, she comes home from Riverbend for the summer to discover that Byron is now essentially the oldest Pike kid and everyone gets along fine without her. Burn.

[ktag]

Don't forget her being a bug buffet in Shadow Lake and wearing such a completely dorky outfit that no one would go near her.

Or when she was nervous about going into the graveyard because she couldn't hold her breath for an hour, and everyone tried not to laugh at her.

[alula]

One that I just found totally random was in a mystery I read not long ago (I can't remember which one), when Mrs. Pike calls the BSC to tell Mal to borrow the Kishis' toilet plunger because Claire flushed doll shoes down the toilet or something. Granted, you could stick a toilet plunger in a bag, but even if you're not eleven (eternally), parading around town with a toilet plunger kind of sucks, and I always thought the Pike house was about a ten-minute walk from the Kishis' anyway. Surely it would make more sense to send one of the older kids whose at home to one of the actual neighbors rather than carrying a toilet plunger around that much! Even Mrs. Pike hates Mallory!

[booboobrewer]

Mal really doesn't have much luck with her favorite authors, does she? In addition to Henrietta Hayes, she has a breakdown in front of Amelia Moody and discovers that that mystery writer she idolizes, Martha Kempner in Salem, is a jewel thief.

I think there were also 2 or 3 instances of people forgetting her name; calling her "Valerie" instead of Mallory.

[digigirl02]

Poor poor Valerie.

[ktag]

alula said:

One that I just found totally random was in a mystery I read not long ago (I can't remember which one), when Mrs. Pike calls the BSC to tell Mal to borrow the Kishis' toilet plunger because Claire flushed doll shoes down the toilet or something. Granted, you could stick a toilet plunger in a bag, but even if you're not eleven (eternally), parading around town with a toilet plunger kind of sucks, and I always thought the Pike house was about a ten-minute walk from the Kishis' anyway. Surely it would make more sense to send one of the older kids whose at home to one of the actual neighbors rather than carrying a toilet plunger around that much! Even Mrs. Pike hates Mallory!

Haha, why don't the Pikes have their own plunger? With 8 kids, surely they would??

[jen]

This thread makes me sad. Poor Mallory!

To add to the pile of Mal-hate, there are also the times in SSs where her only subplot is her spying notebook, and they never turn out to be what she expects.

[Deleted]

hi everypne poor Mallory she has no luck does she poor her everywhere is does trouble is just around the corner

[inge]

poor mallory how about in California Girls when she spends everything on hair dye and make-up, Jessi gets mad at her, she has to borrow money all the time and then a guy from the television won't let her on the telly because her looks "aren't quite right". poor girl.

[sotypical42483]

haha this whole thing had me laughing. Mallory is such a nerd, poor thing. Although as a kid I had white tights with red hearts on them, just like Mallory, and they were super cute!

[liss31d]

Back again! Have come up with another - In Stacey's Ex Best Friend, Mal and Ben have a fight and fall out, ending with Mal saying, "I hope you have fun at the dance because I'm not going with you!" Woah... taking that out of context that actually seems like her using herself as a punchbag, implying that Ben will have fun without her ;D Still, it reminds me what a weird couple they were that they had a huge fight over a library card catalogue...

[starrynight]

Oh, gosh....this is all kinds of sad and horrifying. I never really paid much attention to all the Mallory hate on the boards, but now that it's all laid out in one place....geez!