She Drives Me Crazy Book Analysis Essay Sample

She Drives Me Crazy is a romance book written by Kelly Quindlen published on April 20, 2021. This book is a very intriguing and alluring, romance novel. She Drives Me Crazy is a very well written book that captures the essence of high school life as a girl and one's love life.

This story takes place in Grandma Earl, a small town in Georgia. This town is known for its very jolly Christmas spirit because of the founder, Grandma Earl. Their neighboring rival city is Candlehawk, a very modern city for rich people. The main character Scottie Zajac is a red headed girl with freckles, her best friend is Danielle Zander black curly hair and dark skin, her “enemy” is a popular cheerleader Irene Abraham, Irene’s best friend is a fun, bubbly cheerleader named Honeybelle. Other characters are Danielle’s and Scottie’s other best friends Gunther and Kevin and Irene’s ex-best friend, Charlotte and Scottie’s ex-girlfriend, Tally. Along with Scottie’s little sister, Daphne and her older sister Thora, her mom and dad as well as Danielle’s family and Irene’s.  

This book starts when Scottie is playing one of her basketball games against Candlehawk, her ex-girlfriend's new school. Tally and Scottie broke up because Tally wasn’t satisfied with the little recognition that the girls basketball team got at Grandma Earl, she decided to transfer to Candlehawk. Scottie had a very, very hardtime letting go of Tally because she thought that if Tally really loved me, she would figure out a way for their relationship to last even if they went to different schools. They lost as they usually do to Candlehawk, and Scottie walks out of the gym knowing that it wasn’t fully her fault, but she was still partly to blame for the team's loss. As she walks out into the senior parking lot she notices her enemy, Irene Abraham, a popular cheerleader that got Scottie’s car towed as a prank last year at a party. Ever since that party she's hated Irene’s guts. Just choosing to continue walking to her car, and as Scottie is driving out of the parking lot, not paying attention she hits Irene’s car who is pulling out in front of her. Everyone in the parking lot turns to look and see what happened and why Zajac and Abraham were fighting. Irene’s car was messed up enough to where it had to be sent to the shop to get it fixed and in the meantime, someone would have to take her to school. Scottie’s car wasn’t as severely damaged

as Irene’s. Scottie’s parents and Irene’s parents meet because of the accident and are under the impression that Irene and Scottie are friends. So, caught in the moment Mrs. Zajac proposes that Scottie drives Irene to school until her car is fixed. Dr. Abraham agrees with this thinking that it’s a good idea. After the Abrahams leave Scottie complains to her mom about having to drive her and disclosing that she hates Irene. While her mom was still under the impression that Irene and Scottie were friends. To help forget about this whole situation, Scottie, Daphne, and Thora watch movies in Scottie's room. At about approximately 7:30 AM the following morning Scottie arrives in Irene’s driveway to find her waiting for her as impatient as me when I’m waiting for my mom to drive me to school. They sit in silence while they drive to school, once they arrive, they try to figure out how to get out of the car without drawing too much attention to themselves. Once Irene and Scottie exit the car everyone stops and stares at them, the popular cheerleader and the gay redhead carpooling together?! The student body starts asking a bunch of questions about why they are arriving together, and people start to notice Scottie, since she knows Irene. Since Scottie and Irene are carpooling together Irene and the cheer squad show up to practice and students start attending the girls-basketball games. Well at a school party Irene was hanging out with Honeybelle and Scottie was hanging out with her friends, Scottie decides to go out into the hallway and have a moment to herself. She overhears a conversation between Honeybelle and Irene. Honeybelle is going over lists of girls that could be a possible candidate for Irene to dance with. Scottie was dumbfounded as she realized that Irene Abraham was interested in girls. She also overheard that Irene must find a way to pay for the damage to her car, but she can’t get a job unless she quits cheerleading. That would result in quitting something that she loves and no chance at SAOY (student athlete of the year) not winning SAOY means not going to the college she wants to go to. After the conversation came to an end and they were out of sight, Scottie went back to her friends, and they all headed to the after party. Scottie ponders on the idea of Irene liking girls, Irene needing money to fix her car that got damaged because of her, the fact that she feels bad for Irene and on how to somehow get revenge on Tally. Suddenly, the perfect plan pops into Scottie’s head and sets out on finding Irene.She finds Irene and asks if they can 

speak in private. Once they find the place that they want to talk at Irene asks, puzzled what Scottie wants. She confronts Irene about her liking girls and after debating on that subject for a short while, Scottie eventually brings up her deal/plan. 

She explains that we should pretend to date, Scottie will get back at Tally and it wouldn’t be completely out of the blue because they already carpool together. Irene skeptically asks what in it for her, Scottie explains that she has some summer job money that just so happens to be more than what she needs to pay for her car damage. Irene was baffled on how she came to know that information and they in the world Scottie would want to help her. Scottie tells Irene timidly that she may or may not have overheard her conversation with Honeybelle. After some consideration Irene agrees to pretend to be Scottie’s girlfriend and they set their boundaries. Time passes and everyone is shocked that Irene and Scottie are dating and they are both holding up their ends of the deal. A party comes up that Irene’s ex best friend, Charlotte Pascal, is hosting and Scottie is trying to get Irene to go because Tally will be there and they can show her at the party that they are dating. Also near the beginning of them “dating” Tally has been texting Scottie to try to get her to stop dating Irene. Irene finally agrees to go and they see Tally at the party making out with some girl from Candlehawk. Scottie is very hurt by seeing this because Tally is acting like they never even happened. Well Irene feeling bad for Scottie gives these garlic sticks that makes your breath smell awful after being eaten, to Tally. Tally gladly excepts them and after she finished eating them, she goes back to the girl that she was making out with and leans into kiss, well the girl pushed her away and said “Ewwww”. Tally was too embarrassed to stay so she left and Danielle complimented Irene and her evil thinking. After Tally left Charlotte stood up on a table and grabs everyone's attention. She thanks everyone for coming and that she is proud of Irene for finding herself on her gay journey but Charlotte tells them that its nice and all but Irene is just faking it. Her Candlehawk boyfriend pulls up a video that Charlotte recorded last year of Irene, drunk, saying that no shes super straight and that she would never be gay. Everyone turns in shock and dismay towards Irene as they all whisper and murmur. Scottie pulls Irene out of there as Danielle and Honeybelle follow them. Honeybelle proposes the idea of them hanging out more at her place and have a sleepover, Danielle is reluctant at first but once she find out that they have a jacuzzi at Honeybelle’s place she’s in. Since Irene and Scottie are together 

Honeybelle got to know Gunther a lot better and they started to date. School gets out for winter break and Irene invites Scottie to go on a ride with her to look at the Christmas lights around the neighborhood because Grandma Earl is known for taking Christmas very seriously. Afterwards they go back to Irene’s house because she has to tell Scottie something. They both sit down in her room and following a moment of silence Irene kisses Scottie, and tells her that she likes her. Scottie who also thinks that she likes Irene but still isn’t over Tally and needs to work on herself before she can be in a relationship again tells her that she likes her to but needs time to think and do some self healing. Irene tells her ok I’ll wait for you and when your completely over Tally and is ready that I’ll be here. Rumor breaks out that Scottie and Irene are taking a break and everyone is trying.