The Unicorn Club #10: Mandy in the Middle

Lila like totally misses Mandy Miller. Ever since the Unicorn Club split into the Unicorns and the Angels. Mandy's been on the fence but seemingly spending more time with the other club. While getting ready for Earth Day at school, which requires that kids dress up, the other Unicorns borrow a bunch of her clothes, leave a huge mess in her room, and just take off without even bothering to help her pick out an outfit. She wishes Mandy were there to help.

Lila stops by a booth the Angels set up for Earth Day to sell sugar-free granola cakes to raise money to preserve the rain forests. Mandy is so into it that Lila buys their entire supply. She keeps going on and on about how the rain forests are so important. Lila even convinces the other girls to leave and check out the other booths while she stays behind and helps clean up.

In the hopes of bringing Mandy back into the fold, Lila convinces her to meet them at Casey's for ice cream. Not only does she offer to pay for her ice cream, but she gives her a pair of super expensive gold earrings. Mandy turns down the earrings because her mom put a pair on layaway for her and seems pretty uncomfortable with the gift. She's even more uncomfortable with the way they make fun of kids at school, especially Lois who for some reason thought it was a good idea to dress up as a whale. Mandy makes up an excuse and leaves.

Lila spots Liz and calls her over to chat. It turns out that Mandy isn't spending time with the Angles either. They actually thought she was leaning more towards the Unicorns. Lila follows Mandy one day and sees her go to the hospital. She runs inside to talk with a nurse because she's worried her friend is sick again but learns that Mandy is just a volunteer there and is smitten with a new kid.

Mandy started volunteering and met Randall who is seven. His mom lives in northern California and doesn't get to see him a lot because her boss won't let her take off much time from work. He and Mandy bond as he gets ready to have surgery to remove a tumor. They even come up with plans for an airplane that would let his mom come see him anytime she wants.

When Lila learns all this, she convinces the club that they have to help poor Randall. They bake cookies and go door to door around her neighborhood to sell them, but they only raise like $12. With permission from her dad, she donates another $3,000 and makes plans to take the money to Mandy. While on the way, Lila sees an adorable little house for sale, stops to look at it, meets the real estate agent who works with her dad, and agrees to buy it on the spot. Mandy looks at everything as Lila trying to buy back her friendship, flips out, and basically tells the Unicorns to shove it.

Lila feels so bad about everything that happened that she goes to the hospital to see Mandy. She instead meets Randall and ends up bonding with him over checkers. Even though it's the night before, Mandy gets stuck at home because her mom made a special dinner for the 50^th anniversary of her great aunt and uncle. Lila stays with Randall until his mom gets there, but the poor woman can only stay for an hour. She then has to go home, get some sleep, go to work the next day, and then make the long drive back. Lila comes up with an even better plan. His mom can spend the night with her, take the Fowler private plane back the next morning for work, and then fly back on the plane that night.

Mandy shows up at the hospital the next day and learns what happened. It makes her realize that while Lila is a spoiled brat that she sometimes uses her money for good things. She also remembers all the fun she had with the club and goes to see them, only to hear Lila telling them all about how Randall is super cool and how they need to meet him. They all welcome her back to the club with open arms. When Mandy suggests maybe doing things with the Angels sometimes, they point out that there is no mixing of the two groups. Except you know, the twins who live in the same house.

*Poor Lila. Her friends leave her room a total mess, so she just uses her intercom to call the housekeeper and have her clean up for her.

*Inappropriate outfit for middle school #1: Lila wears black leggings with black ankle boots and a blazer to school.

*Inappropriate outfit number 2: Mandy pairs dangling earrings with a tie dyed shirt and a suede miniskirt.

*Mandy's mom is kind of a bitch. Her daughter literally breaks down in tears because this kid Randall is the only real friend she has now. She knows that his mom can't really be there for him before his surgery but refuses to let Mandy leave even 30 minutes early from their dinner. She also gets annoyed when Mandy gets upset that she missed visiting hours.

*Mandy reminisces about how Jessica was one of her best friends and someone she could always turn to before she joined the club. Say what now? Jessica was the one who would barely talk to her in public and ignored her because the other girls didn't think she was Unicorn material.

*Is it bad that I wish I had a friend like Lila who would buy me expensive gifts all the time and treat me?

*The sugar-free granola snacks she buys are so gross that Lila hides them in the back of the freezer until she can throw them away.

*I kind of want to know what happened to the house she bought. Did her dad make everything go away, or did he even notice she dropped a ton of cash on a new house?

*Mandy hates that the other Unicorns make fun of other kids and are so mean to unpopular kids. She can't even be around them for 20 minutes in the ice cream shop. I don't know why she thinks things will just go back to normal now.