What Happened to Goodbye (2011) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Mclean Elizabeth Sweet: Inherited what her mother calls “corn-fed” looks—tall, strawberry blonde, and blue-eyed. Lives with her dad. (her parents are divorced). Moves around with her dad, as he works for a company re-inventing restaurants, and re-invents herself everywhere she goes.
• Dave Wade: A genius at 18 who has just recently gotten to be "a teenager." He's Mclean's neighbor and becomes one of her closest friends. His parents are extremely strict and worry that he's headed down the "wrong path." He works at a smoothie place.
• Riley: Dave's friend, met Mclean at a party.
• Heather: Dave and Riley's friend, blonde hair. She plans to go on a road-trip in the summer with Riley, Ellis, and Dave. She's a very bad driver and "doesn't look when she merges."
• Gus Sweet: Mclean's father who moves from place to place, fixing up restaurants. He is Mclean's guardian, although Mclean regularly winds up taking care of him rather than the other way around. Women fall at his feet where ever they go.
• Peter Hamilton: Coach of the Defriese basketball team. Mclean's mother falls in love with him, causing a huge scandal. He and Katherine (Mclean's mother) have two children, twins Madison and Connor. Trys to make peace between Mclaen and her mother
• Katherine Hamilton: Mclean's mother. She left Mclean's father and married the head coach of Defriese basketball, Peter Hamilton. In addition to her daughter Mclean, she is the mother of twins Madison and Connor. She tries very hard to get Mclean to be a part of their lives, but Mclean wants nothing to do with it.
• Connor Hamilton: McClean's half brother, the son of Katherine and Peter Hamilton. Madison is his twin sister.
• Madison Hamilton: McClean's half sister, the daughter of Katherine and Peter Hamilton. Connor is her twin brother.
• Tracey: Not a very good waitress at Luna Blu. She's got an attitude, wears lambskin boots and miniskirts, but overall wants the best for the restaurant.
• Opal: Early thirties, current manager at Luna Blu, dark hair, tall, lots of tattoos on her arms. Resists the changes that are being made to her restaurant.
• Grass: Heavyset, gives McClean a beer at Riley's suggestion, after breaking her flower pot
• McClean Rich: Famous basketball player and coach at Defriese University that McClean Sweet was named after. Gus (McClean's father) worships him.
• Charles "Chuckles" Dover: Owner of EAT INC. Former DB and NBA player. McClean's Father's employer and close friend. Is sort of like McClean's uncle without blood relation.
• Anne Dobson-Wade: Dave's mother; a scientist who is a bit of a health nut.
• Brian Wade: Dave's father
• Deb: A "joiner" of things-- she is very welcoming to McClean when she first arrives at Jackson. Deb is constantly full of surprises, but she's also a very good organizer and lover of acronyms.
• Ellis: A friend of Riley, Dave, Heather, and McClean. Does the morning announcements and is a good student.
• Jason: Cook at Luna Blu; used to attend Harvard but it didn't work out for whatever reason. He was also a boy genius. He is also seen in other Dessen books-- Macy's boyfriend in The Truth About Forever and the guy who stood up Auden at prom in Along for the Ride.
• Beth Sweet: One of McClean's personas, an essential good-girl type.
• Lizbet Sweet: One of McClean's personas with a flair for the dramatic
• Eliza Sweet: McClean's first persona, very much like Mclean herself but with a different name. Was very popular, the sporty type.
• Liz Sweet: The persona that McClean intended on having in this new town. However, some things fall into place and she winds up being, again, McClean.
• Lauren: Add a description of this character.
• Heidi
• Mr. Wade
• Eva
• Mr. Benson
• Leo
• Robert
• Mrs. Benson
• Lindsay Baker
• Michael
• Louis Armstrong
• Katie Sweet
• Mclean Rich

Quotes edit see section history

• “I looked back at the house next door that the guy had just gone into, wondering what his story was. You didn’t hang out in what you thought was an empty house when you lived right next door unless you didn’t feel like being at home. And it was his home, that much was clear. You could just tell when a person belonged somewhere. That is something you can’t fake, no matter how hard you try.”

  McLean

• “Jonah only pulls for Loeb to be contrary," Mr. Benson called out. "It's like rooting for Darth Vader. You just don't do it.”

  Mr. Benson

• “Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you.”

  McLean

• “If only you could really use a fail-proof system to know who was worth keeping and who needed to be thrown away. it would make it so much easier to move through the world, picking and choosing what connections to make, or whether to make any at all.”

  Mclean

• “We make such messes in this life, both accidentally and on purpose. But wiping the surface clean doesn't really make anything neater. It just masks what is below. it's only when you really dig down deep, go underground, that you can see who you really are.”

  Mclean

• “I'd thought that I didn't have a home anymore. But rigt here, right then, I realized I'd been wrong. Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”

  Mclean

• “Amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly where you needed to be.”

  Mcclean Sweet

• “You did your best. That’s all you can do. That’s all any of us can do. You know”

• “How it felt to have the world moving beneath me, a hand gripping mine, knowing if I fell, at least I wouldn’t do it alone.”

• “But in the real world, you couldn’t really just split a family down the middle, mom on one side, dad the other, with the child divided equally between. It was like when you ripped a piece of paper into two: no matter how you tried, the seams never fit exactly right again. It was what you couldn’t see, those tiniest of pieces, that were lost in the severing, and their absence kept everything from being complete.”

• ““He’s something,” I replied. She considered this, zipping her purse shut. Then she said, “Well, everyone is.” Everyone is something."”

• “Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's like a part of you for good.”

• “He told me to calm down. He told me it was going to be all right. And then, he told me he'd be there soon.”

• “Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Lakeview, North Carolina: The setting, where Mclean lives now.
• Westcott, Florida: The place before Lakeview where Mclean and her dad stayed. They rented a bungalow a block from the water with flamingos everywhere. Mclean called herself "Beth" here.
• Petree, Atlanta: The suburb where Mclean and her dad lived before Westcott. They lived in a high-rise. Mclean called herself "Lizbet" here.
• Montford Falls: The place before Petree, the first move after the divorce and the first place Mclean began to change her name. She was "Eliza" here.
• Tyler, North Carolina: Where Mclean lived for 16 years before her parents divorce.

Organizations edit see section history

• Defriese University: College where Mclean's parents went and where Peter Hamilton coaches basketball

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• AHBL: All hell is breaking loose
• DB: Defriese Basketball; Peter Hamilton is current coach.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Sarah Dessen (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Love & Romance
• Books › Teens › Social Issues

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