"That's Not What I Heard"

Stephanie Kate Strohm is the author of It's Not Me, It's You; The Taming of the Drew; Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink; Confederates Don't Wear Couture; The Date to Save; and Prince in Disguise.

Strohm applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, That's Not What I Heard, and reported the following:

From page 69:

First and second base were gossiping, too. Molly Santos was hovering over at third base, looking desperate to run up to home plate and join in on their conversation. Clearly, Molly knew better than to try to talk to Olivia during practice. Olivia looked behind her to the outfield—there were two of them talking, too. Kim still hadn’t shown up.

“Come on, Wendy,” Olivia growled, annoyed. Were they going to do anything or just stand here chatting? Olivia looked to her right, where she could see the baseball diamond in the distance, close enough that the outfields might have overlapped if William Henry Harrison High ever produced a real powerhouse of a hitter, but not close enough that Olivia could discern anything beyond small figures around the bases. Were they having as many problems over there? Was Coach Mendoza content to let the team spend all of practice chatting, like Coach Finn apparently was?

Olivia was pretty sure it was Teddy over at second base, like always. Unlike Kim, Teddy must not have been distraught enough about his romantic problems to miss practice. Olivia couldn’t believe Kim hadn’t shown up. So irresponsible. The whole point of being on a team was that you couldn’t let the team down. Nothing was more important than the team. Nothing.

Olivia was trying to think of a way she could tell Kim off that wouldn’t result in Mama K forcing them to have a “deliberative dialogue” about dealing with sibling issues in a constructive way. Olivia didn’t want to have any kind of dialogue. She just wanted to yell at Kim.

This section of That's Not What I Heard is from the point of view of Olivia, Kim's younger sister. At the beginning of the book, Kim's boyfriend, Teddy, breaks up with her. (Or maybe she breaks up with him. It isn't clear.) Distraught, Kim runs out of school and disappears for the day, even missing softball practice, which really annoys Olivia, who considers her role as her high school softball team's shortstop to be of utmost importance.

Because the book is from 17 different POVs, no one section can really sum up the whole book, but this really tells us exactly who Olivia is! Softball will always be her first priority, and this scene really plants the seeds that lead to her getting fed up with Kim and all her relationship drama later in the book.

Visit Stephanie Kate Strohm's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Stephanie Kate Strohm & Lorelei Lee Strohm-Lando.

--Marshal Zeringue