Plot
Tammy Webster’s family are looking after a French girl, Lois Dupois, while her mother looks for a new home in Britain. Tammy discovers that Lois is a fraud who fakes poor English to take advantage of people, and she also is playing nasty tricks to push Tammy out. Then, when Tammy discovers Lois is trying to keep her mother away from her birthday party she secretly arranges for the mother to come over, hoping the mother’s presence will help her to expose Lois.
Notes
- Photo story
Appeared
- Looking after Lois – Bunty: #2144 (13 February 1999) – #2151 (3 April 1999)
The photo story ‘Looking After Lois’ starts in BUNTY 2144 (February 13 1999).
Thanks Derek.
Lois is a seriously nasty piece of work, and even claims not to understand English. Even her mother is completely unaware of just how nasty. All is revealed in the final instalment. Tammy Webster’s mother suggests to Lois that she (Lois) invite her mother to come over from France to attend the birthday party that she is preparing for her. Lois agrees to phone her, and does so, but is overheard by Tammy telling her mother not to come over as “it’ll be boring. Anyway the Websters aren’t doing anything special for me”. Tammy can’t believe what she is hearing as she knows that Lois knows that her mother is making a huge fuss about her birthday. The following day Tammy rings Mrs Dupois to ask her if she would like to come over to attend a surprise party that the family are preparing for Lois’s birthday. She accepts the invitation. On Saturday morning Lois drops onto the kitchen floor the birthday cake that Mrs Webster has made specially for Lois’s party. Lois then tells Mrs Webster that her daughter had been nasty to her that morning by threatening to spoil her cake. Tammy obviously denies this. When Lois’s mum arrives for the party, Lois is stunned, claiming that she (the mother) has spoiled everything. One of the guests at the party makes the point that although Lois had claimed that she did not understand English, now she was speaking it like a native. Lois’s mother, who knows that her daughter can speak English fluently, is obviously amazed, and also thoroughly ashamed of her, and tells her to go and pack as she is taking her home. Lois, who can’t see what all the fuss is about, claims that that it is not her fault if people were stupid enough to believe her, and feels that it was all good fun.
Parents in these “troublemaker” stories never are aware of what a nasty piece of work their child is. That’s probably because the troublemaker is so good at fooling everyone into thinking what an angel she is.
A prime example is Josie Goulden from Bunty’s “Move Over, Maria”. Dad thinks Josie is his “princess” and to everyone she looks a sweet little angel, but of course she’s a devil in disguise. He spoils Josie with expensive presents if she wins this, achieves that at school. Hence all the scheming she does to achieve those things and push out whoever stands in her way with a series of frame-ups.
There was the last bit where Tammy’s mum apologises to her and Tammy says it’s ok, she’s just glad Lois is gone and things can return to normal. Whether they’d be quite the same as before after all that I don’t know.
Of course you don’t know whether things would be ‘quite the same as before’, Briony, and I really don’t think you need to concern yourself about what might or might not have happened after the events portrayed in the serial, because the writer certainly wasn’t concerned. If he/she had been, the story would have continued. Personally I don’t care, the writer didn’t care, and I can’t imagine anybody else caring. The proof that the writer had absolutely no intention of continuing is encapsulated in the two words after the final frame – ‘The End’. The writer thus provides the reader with a beginning, a middle, and an end. What more do you want?
Yes stories have beginning, middle and end, but sometimes a reader likes to speculate what happens after the ending, while it may not be something you are interested in doing, doesn’t mean other people can’t enjoy pondering about such things. Even writers who may have written a completely satisfactory story may decide there is enough to revisit and make a sequel of. While I don’t think this particular story warrants a sequel, there is no harm in thinking about what may happen to the characters afterwards.
One story I would have liked have seen a sequel to is “Be Nice to Nancy/Nikki” from Judy/M&J, to see how nasty Nancy/Nikki got on at the special school. I don’t think I’ve seen a special school story that deals with a real ratbag girl. They deal more with wrongly accused girls or ones that need a little toning down.
I wasn’t implying that there was any ‘harm in thinking about what may happen to the characters afterwards’, but I WAS implying that it would be a serious waste of time.
I won a bid of 34 Bunty comics from 1999 on eBay and 3 of them contain an instalment of this story including the last one. The one I could remember the most was in #2148 where Tammy offers to by Lois a magazine and Lois wants a pop music one because she says she can’t read English well and likes looking at the pictures. Later on, Tammy sees that Lois completed the pop quiz in the magazine and I think that this is the very part that Tammy discovered Lois was faking poor English.
*Tammy offers to buy Lois a magazine.
The ‘discovery’ incident that you referred to above, April, is in issue 2149, not 2148. Tammy asks Lois, “Why did you lie to Mum and my mates?” Lois’s reply is,”Because it’s been a good laugh having everyone running round after me!”
Oh I see it now. I also have issue 2149.