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Fabulous Five #28
Breaking Up
After going steady with Randy since the sixth grade, Jana has decided to date other people. When Beth's boyfriend Keith hears the news, he asks Jana to tell Beth he wants to break up. After Jana agrees, he tells her the reason: He wants to date her now that they are both free! How can Jana ever tell Beth that she's the reason Keith has dumped her?
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First published November 1, 1991
32 people want to read
About the author
Betsy Haynes
122 books109 followersABOUT ME
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
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June 6, 2024The Break Up
Jana and Beth are working on a report for their Family Living class. They’ve each chosen daycares and decided to split the resources they find. It’s then Jana sees Randy and Sarah (rolling my eyes. It HAD to be another Sarah didn’t it?) Jana and Randy have decided to see other people for a minute. Randy didn’t really wait to and said -and I agree= that he didn’t need to see other people to know that Jana was the one for him. This is more what Jana wanted. Still, she doesn’t like seeing Randy and Sarah. Anyway, they leave and it’s still early. Jana doesn’t want to go to the mall, to Beth’s, or Bumpers, but in the end she decides to go to Bumpers because she tells herself she needs to get use to seeing Randy with someone else and plus maybe there will be some cute guys there. It’s been hard for her to date other people because other boys won’t talk to her because they think she’s not over Randy.
Beth confesses she can’t see herself with anyone other than Keith-although he’s been acting like a jerk lately-. Jana reminds her she’s always saying he’s immature. When they get to Bumpers, Beth goes to fix her hair and Keith sits down by Jana and starts asking her about her break up. Something is off about it and to prove this he says he’s gotta go when he hears Beth will be back from the bathroom. Beth is full of questions about why Keith didn’t stick around, but Jana reassures her he probably just hd to go.
They then start talking about possibilities for Jana to date. There’s a band called “The Dreadful Alternatives” who just happen to be at Bumpers and two of the members are single (Chris and Parker). So, Beth high tails it over to their table without another thought. Jana sees Randy in the line and it looks like he wants to say something but he doesn’t. So, she joins Beth. Both Chris and Parker seem interested in Jana. (Particularly Parker), but Jana makes up an excuse that she has to get home. Beth tells her she’ll see if she can hook up Jana and Parker. Jana really doesn’t know how she feels about this.
The Fab Five have a meeting. Christie has written Melanie. Blah! Blah! Blah! She likes Connie but she’s still into Chase. Katie actually defends Chase and says “Poor Chase. He’s still crazy about Christie” Poor Chase my behind? Melanie thinks it’s romanitic Christy’s dating a royal. Jana says she thought Katie would be happy because she says just like Randy is still crazy about her. Then Katie asks Beth about her date and she says literally nothing happened. After the others leaves she stays behind to talk to Jana and talks her into calling Randy to find out what’s wrong and she promises she’s ask Shawna to find out from her boyfriend what’s up with the DA guy (Parker). Before she can call Keith tho, he calls her and tells him to do him a favor. He wants her to tell Beth he wants to break up with her.
Jana says she can’t do that and wants to know why Keith can’t tell her himself and he says because he’d just mess it up and somewhere deep down Jana knows this is true. So, she says she will. She tells her mother about it and she tells her she’d stay out of it. Beth might get mad at her and then their friendship is too precious. Keith should do this own dirty work. Jana tries to call Beth later-figuring it’s best she be the one to tell her- but she’s not there. She sees Beth alone the next day and debates telling her but nows that it would be too public with Melanie, Katie, and maybe even Dekeshia and Alexis there. Keith comes up to her and “requests” that she get it done as soon as possible. When she does see Beth she makes up an excuse that she’ll talk to her later -she has a meeting with a teacher- but Beth seems to know somethings up. Randy waits for Jana outside her class and then makes up an excuse about returning some homework that he thought she’d need to study for a test. Neither she nor he seem to know what else to say and they’re interrupted. Jana wonders how she’ll ever make it through the month-which is how long their separation is supposed to be-.
She finally does tell Beth during lunch privately. Beth wants to know why and Jana doesn’t want to tell her he just doesn’t want to see her anymore. So, Jana agrees to ask him-thinking it’ll buy her some time-. And just maybe if it’s a small thing she can convince him not to break pu with Beth or she can fix it. ( Parker asks her for the history assignment (I thought it just said he was in the eight grade. Isn’t Jana in the seventh grade?). Then he asks if they can study together and afterward go to Bumpers. Jana finds out later, that the reason Keith broke up with Beth is because he heard she and Randy broke up and she’s the one he likes. He says he’s liked her a long time.
Jana realizes that Parker isn’t anything like Randy. He doesn’t like Cola and he can’t eat popcorn. He also half-asses his assignments by looking up the answers in the back. At Bumpers, he shows up by putting on a solo rap performance. Alexis pulls Jana into the bathroom and tells her Randy’s there with a table full of interchanging girls. First it was Laura and Tammy. Then Marcie and then Sarah. Jana says she thought Srara was her friend but Dekesisa just snorts at this. She tells her she never should have let Randy go and Jana thinks maybe she’s right. Jana isn’t there long before Parker starts getting on her nerves. He orders root bear for her and doesn’t ask if that’s what she wants. So she tells him she has to get back and do homework. He walks her home-talking all the way about an upcoming gig-. Then he tries to kiss Jana. It isn’t a good kiss. It’s horrid!
I think this is at Bumpers. The Fabulous Five meet up and talk about Jana’s date with Parker. She tells them and admits he’s just not Randy. Keith comes in and asks Jana if she’ll go to the movies with him and she tells him he must be out of his mind. Beth sees them talking and thinks Jana is talking to him for her. Jana tells her that he just doesn’t want to go steady anymore. Beth wants her to talk to him again and see if they can just continue to date, but Jana tells her maybe it’s better if she played hard to get. If she acts like she doesn’t want him maybe he’ll come around.- REALLY GOOD ADVICE! So, Beth is reluctant but says she’ll give it a try.
Jana overhears Sarah saying Randy walked her home and she wouldn’t be surprised if he asked her out. On one hand, at least she didn’t *come* with him-she just saw him there-. On the other Jana is upset and doesn’t know if Randy kissed her or not. Her friends tell her it would be for the best to call off the experiment but Jana is determined to keep it going for a month. I think that at the beginning of the book there’s something about her mother telling her about how she and her father feel in love and didn’t date anyone else, but then she wishes she would have known he was all wrong for her. This is what made Jana do what she did. There’s a READ IN-which is for kids who’ve read 20 books and they get to spend the night at the library. The library is looking for volunteers. Melanie and Katie have dates. Beth says she’ll do it if Jana does. Jana knows she should be looking for someone other than Parker or Keith to go out with but she agrees anyway. Keith tells Jana he signed up because she did. She tries to talk him out of it by grossing him out with the horrors of babysitting second graders (like them eating to many cookies and throwing up). He just says the teachers and parents will handle it.
Beth sees Ketih has signed up and thinks he did it so he could give her in a dark corner when everyone was sleep and get back together. She tells Jana Randy and Sarah signed up. Jana tells Beth she can’t do it now but Beth pleads with her and Jana relents. While setting up at the library, two boys are trying to get into a treehouse and pushing and shoving each other. Jana tries to get in the middle of it but finds herself getting punched. (This is something you should NEVER do!) Keith pulls them apart and makes them apologize. Jana compliments him and he tries again to worm a date out of her. Beth sees them and asks what were they taking about but Jana tells her she was just complimenting him and asks her why is she so paranoid. This seems to work and Beth backs off. But then Jana sees Randy has walked in and is looking at her. Did he also see her talking to Ketih?
Beth sees Keith drop a note in Jana’s lap and she grabs it. The note has Jana and Keith’s name with a heart and Beth thinks that Jana broke up with Randy to go after Keith. She tells her she never wants to talk to her again. Jana can’t believe Beth would think this about her. Janna tries to call Katie and Melie but Beth has gotten to them first. At school, Shawnie tells her that she’s blown it with Parker0who wanted to ask her out again- and that Randy believes that she’s been sneaking around with Keith-whose been telling everyone this.
When Jana tries to confront Keith she takes him behind the dumpsters and tries to get him teo tell everyone that it’s not true, but he won’t. He just tries to get her to come over to this place. Tammy and Laura see them talking and we all know what this means. Jana even gets a letter from Christy that maybe she’s so desperate to see if her experiment will work she doesn’t know she’s hurting Randy. Randy calls her and tells her to cancel the date they’re supposed to get back together. He says he’s not dating Sarah. She just shows up where he does. He also says they didn’t sign up together. He did because Jana did (He says all this after she says maybe it was a good idea to do the experiment because Randy was quick to go with Sarah and he doesn’t believe her). Then he says maybe it was a good idea also because he found out she’s stubborn and hangs the phone up in her face.
Jana realizes that Christie was right. They can date other people as they get older but right now they should just be having fun She tries to confront Keith in front of all her classmates but he sticks to his lies. So, she asks him where they went on their supposed date Friday and he says Mama Mia’s. Jana didn’t want the Wakeman kids to see. Randy asks what they ordered and Keith says a double cheese pizza with sausage. Rany snatches Keith up and calls him out. Jana only ever orders peperoni, mushroom, and green peppers. She doesn’t like sausage. She and Randy make up and she and Beth make up.
My Thoughts
Every single guy in this was a JERK. Parker (whose name I kept forgetting) was a jerk because well I just don’t think much of people who always try to make themselves be seen in some way. He also didn’t ask Jana what she wanted to drink and assumed she wanted what he wanted. He also tried to force a kiss on her.
Keith was a JERK because he broke up with Beth to try to get with Jana. He didn’t even seem to think this was wrong. REALLY? So you thought this ok to ask her best friend out. Then he LIED and made everyone believe they *were* going out. And Beth is crying over this guy? Beth, you dodged a bullet. Be grateful and move on.
Randy was a JERK . At first I thought here we go. Another book with a DUMB “experiment” set up by the girl because she thinks she needs to date someone else to see how lucky she is all along. Then when she sees the guy with someone else even though it was HER idea she’s “upset” throughtout the book (rolling my eyes). I read this plot a long time ago in a “Indigo Summer’s” book. Then I just recently read it in a SVH book “Stolen Diary”. Didn’t make sense to me then. Doesn’t make sense to me now. Then what is up with the name “SARAH” I think if I read it one more time I’ll SCREAM. There have been “Sarah’s” in the last three books I read “Stolen Diary” this one and “Dawn and the Older Boy” and right now I just do not want to think about any Sarah’s.
Christy is also getting on my nevers because Chase is also a JERK and Katie takes up for him and says “Poor Chase” “Poor Chase?’ In the last book, wasn’t he at the movies with Tammy? What’s crazy about this book is Jana is *STILL* thinking that later she needs to date someone else so it’s like even when she sees that it’s not as easy as she thinks and she already has the right guy, she’s convinced herself that this is what she needs to do to make sure.
Rating: 6
Jana and Beth are working on a report for their Family Living class. They’ve each chosen daycares and decided to split the resources they find. It’s then Jana sees Randy and Sarah (rolling my eyes. It HAD to be another Sarah didn’t it?) Jana and Randy have decided to see other people for a minute. Randy didn’t really wait to and said -and I agree= that he didn’t need to see other people to know that Jana was the one for him. This is more what Jana wanted. Still, she doesn’t like seeing Randy and Sarah. Anyway, they leave and it’s still early. Jana doesn’t want to go to the mall, to Beth’s, or Bumpers, but in the end she decides to go to Bumpers because she tells herself she needs to get use to seeing Randy with someone else and plus maybe there will be some cute guys there. It’s been hard for her to date other people because other boys won’t talk to her because they think she’s not over Randy.
Beth confesses she can’t see herself with anyone other than Keith-although he’s been acting like a jerk lately-. Jana reminds her she’s always saying he’s immature. When they get to Bumpers, Beth goes to fix her hair and Keith sits down by Jana and starts asking her about her break up. Something is off about it and to prove this he says he’s gotta go when he hears Beth will be back from the bathroom. Beth is full of questions about why Keith didn’t stick around, but Jana reassures her he probably just hd to go.
They then start talking about possibilities for Jana to date. There’s a band called “The Dreadful Alternatives” who just happen to be at Bumpers and two of the members are single (Chris and Parker). So, Beth high tails it over to their table without another thought. Jana sees Randy in the line and it looks like he wants to say something but he doesn’t. So, she joins Beth. Both Chris and Parker seem interested in Jana. (Particularly Parker), but Jana makes up an excuse that she has to get home. Beth tells her she’ll see if she can hook up Jana and Parker. Jana really doesn’t know how she feels about this.
The Fab Five have a meeting. Christie has written Melanie. Blah! Blah! Blah! She likes Connie but she’s still into Chase. Katie actually defends Chase and says “Poor Chase. He’s still crazy about Christie” Poor Chase my behind? Melanie thinks it’s romanitic Christy’s dating a royal. Jana says she thought Katie would be happy because she says just like Randy is still crazy about her. Then Katie asks Beth about her date and she says literally nothing happened. After the others leaves she stays behind to talk to Jana and talks her into calling Randy to find out what’s wrong and she promises she’s ask Shawna to find out from her boyfriend what’s up with the DA guy (Parker). Before she can call Keith tho, he calls her and tells him to do him a favor. He wants her to tell Beth he wants to break up with her.
Jana says she can’t do that and wants to know why Keith can’t tell her himself and he says because he’d just mess it up and somewhere deep down Jana knows this is true. So, she says she will. She tells her mother about it and she tells her she’d stay out of it. Beth might get mad at her and then their friendship is too precious. Keith should do this own dirty work. Jana tries to call Beth later-figuring it’s best she be the one to tell her- but she’s not there. She sees Beth alone the next day and debates telling her but nows that it would be too public with Melanie, Katie, and maybe even Dekeshia and Alexis there. Keith comes up to her and “requests” that she get it done as soon as possible. When she does see Beth she makes up an excuse that she’ll talk to her later -she has a meeting with a teacher- but Beth seems to know somethings up. Randy waits for Jana outside her class and then makes up an excuse about returning some homework that he thought she’d need to study for a test. Neither she nor he seem to know what else to say and they’re interrupted. Jana wonders how she’ll ever make it through the month-which is how long their separation is supposed to be-.
She finally does tell Beth during lunch privately. Beth wants to know why and Jana doesn’t want to tell her he just doesn’t want to see her anymore. So, Jana agrees to ask him-thinking it’ll buy her some time-. And just maybe if it’s a small thing she can convince him not to break pu with Beth or she can fix it. ( Parker asks her for the history assignment (I thought it just said he was in the eight grade. Isn’t Jana in the seventh grade?). Then he asks if they can study together and afterward go to Bumpers. Jana finds out later, that the reason Keith broke up with Beth is because he heard she and Randy broke up and she’s the one he likes. He says he’s liked her a long time.
Jana realizes that Parker isn’t anything like Randy. He doesn’t like Cola and he can’t eat popcorn. He also half-asses his assignments by looking up the answers in the back. At Bumpers, he shows up by putting on a solo rap performance. Alexis pulls Jana into the bathroom and tells her Randy’s there with a table full of interchanging girls. First it was Laura and Tammy. Then Marcie and then Sarah. Jana says she thought Srara was her friend but Dekesisa just snorts at this. She tells her she never should have let Randy go and Jana thinks maybe she’s right. Jana isn’t there long before Parker starts getting on her nerves. He orders root bear for her and doesn’t ask if that’s what she wants. So she tells him she has to get back and do homework. He walks her home-talking all the way about an upcoming gig-. Then he tries to kiss Jana. It isn’t a good kiss. It’s horrid!
I think this is at Bumpers. The Fabulous Five meet up and talk about Jana’s date with Parker. She tells them and admits he’s just not Randy. Keith comes in and asks Jana if she’ll go to the movies with him and she tells him he must be out of his mind. Beth sees them talking and thinks Jana is talking to him for her. Jana tells her that he just doesn’t want to go steady anymore. Beth wants her to talk to him again and see if they can just continue to date, but Jana tells her maybe it’s better if she played hard to get. If she acts like she doesn’t want him maybe he’ll come around.- REALLY GOOD ADVICE! So, Beth is reluctant but says she’ll give it a try.
Jana overhears Sarah saying Randy walked her home and she wouldn’t be surprised if he asked her out. On one hand, at least she didn’t *come* with him-she just saw him there-. On the other Jana is upset and doesn’t know if Randy kissed her or not. Her friends tell her it would be for the best to call off the experiment but Jana is determined to keep it going for a month. I think that at the beginning of the book there’s something about her mother telling her about how she and her father feel in love and didn’t date anyone else, but then she wishes she would have known he was all wrong for her. This is what made Jana do what she did. There’s a READ IN-which is for kids who’ve read 20 books and they get to spend the night at the library. The library is looking for volunteers. Melanie and Katie have dates. Beth says she’ll do it if Jana does. Jana knows she should be looking for someone other than Parker or Keith to go out with but she agrees anyway. Keith tells Jana he signed up because she did. She tries to talk him out of it by grossing him out with the horrors of babysitting second graders (like them eating to many cookies and throwing up). He just says the teachers and parents will handle it.
Beth sees Ketih has signed up and thinks he did it so he could give her in a dark corner when everyone was sleep and get back together. She tells Jana Randy and Sarah signed up. Jana tells Beth she can’t do it now but Beth pleads with her and Jana relents. While setting up at the library, two boys are trying to get into a treehouse and pushing and shoving each other. Jana tries to get in the middle of it but finds herself getting punched. (This is something you should NEVER do!) Keith pulls them apart and makes them apologize. Jana compliments him and he tries again to worm a date out of her. Beth sees them and asks what were they taking about but Jana tells her she was just complimenting him and asks her why is she so paranoid. This seems to work and Beth backs off. But then Jana sees Randy has walked in and is looking at her. Did he also see her talking to Ketih?
Beth sees Keith drop a note in Jana’s lap and she grabs it. The note has Jana and Keith’s name with a heart and Beth thinks that Jana broke up with Randy to go after Keith. She tells her she never wants to talk to her again. Jana can’t believe Beth would think this about her. Janna tries to call Katie and Melie but Beth has gotten to them first. At school, Shawnie tells her that she’s blown it with Parker0who wanted to ask her out again- and that Randy believes that she’s been sneaking around with Keith-whose been telling everyone this.
When Jana tries to confront Keith she takes him behind the dumpsters and tries to get him teo tell everyone that it’s not true, but he won’t. He just tries to get her to come over to this place. Tammy and Laura see them talking and we all know what this means. Jana even gets a letter from Christy that maybe she’s so desperate to see if her experiment will work she doesn’t know she’s hurting Randy. Randy calls her and tells her to cancel the date they’re supposed to get back together. He says he’s not dating Sarah. She just shows up where he does. He also says they didn’t sign up together. He did because Jana did (He says all this after she says maybe it was a good idea to do the experiment because Randy was quick to go with Sarah and he doesn’t believe her). Then he says maybe it was a good idea also because he found out she’s stubborn and hangs the phone up in her face.
Jana realizes that Christie was right. They can date other people as they get older but right now they should just be having fun She tries to confront Keith in front of all her classmates but he sticks to his lies. So, she asks him where they went on their supposed date Friday and he says Mama Mia’s. Jana didn’t want the Wakeman kids to see. Randy asks what they ordered and Keith says a double cheese pizza with sausage. Rany snatches Keith up and calls him out. Jana only ever orders peperoni, mushroom, and green peppers. She doesn’t like sausage. She and Randy make up and she and Beth make up.
My Thoughts
Every single guy in this was a JERK. Parker (whose name I kept forgetting) was a jerk because well I just don’t think much of people who always try to make themselves be seen in some way. He also didn’t ask Jana what she wanted to drink and assumed she wanted what he wanted. He also tried to force a kiss on her.
Keith was a JERK because he broke up with Beth to try to get with Jana. He didn’t even seem to think this was wrong. REALLY? So you thought this ok to ask her best friend out. Then he LIED and made everyone believe they *were* going out. And Beth is crying over this guy? Beth, you dodged a bullet. Be grateful and move on.
Randy was a JERK . At first I thought here we go. Another book with a DUMB “experiment” set up by the girl because she thinks she needs to date someone else to see how lucky she is all along. Then when she sees the guy with someone else even though it was HER idea she’s “upset” throughtout the book (rolling my eyes). I read this plot a long time ago in a “Indigo Summer’s” book. Then I just recently read it in a SVH book “Stolen Diary”. Didn’t make sense to me then. Doesn’t make sense to me now. Then what is up with the name “SARAH” I think if I read it one more time I’ll SCREAM. There have been “Sarah’s” in the last three books I read “Stolen Diary” this one and “Dawn and the Older Boy” and right now I just do not want to think about any Sarah’s.
Christy is also getting on my nevers because Chase is also a JERK and Katie takes up for him and says “Poor Chase” “Poor Chase?’ In the last book, wasn’t he at the movies with Tammy? What’s crazy about this book is Jana is *STILL* thinking that later she needs to date someone else so it’s like even when she sees that it’s not as easy as she thinks and she already has the right guy, she’s convinced herself that this is what she needs to do to make sure.
Rating: 6
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July 29, 2020As a kid every Saturday we went to Kmart, and every Saturday my mom would let me buy one thing, and it was ALWAYS a fabulous five book. (The cover looks like a spiral notebook cover... I thought that was very clever)
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it make references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again.
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it make references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again.
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