#6 - Kristy's Big Day

Plot
Kristy's big day is actually her mom's big day, as she is marrying her love Watson Brewer. But of course, in true BSC style, there are some trials and tribulations that come along with this blessed union of souls.

The wedding is originally planned for September, with each of the kids being invited to be in the wedding. However, then Kristy's mom (who has an "important job with an important company") (whatever the hell that means), is told she has to go overseas for work during the weeks before, after and during the wedding. Also, they have a buyer for their house who wants it, like, yesterday. So everything gets moved up and they are getting married and moving in two weeks.

To pull this off, aunts, uncles and friends are coming to town to help, and they bring all their disgusting kids with them. So what are all these kids going to be doing when the adults are busy preparing for the biggest second marriage wedding of the century? Baby-Sitters Club to the rescue! They set Kristy's house up almost like a day care, and they watch the 14 kids all day for 5 solid days.

Everything goes fine, and at the end of the book Kristy's mom marries Watson and they all live happily ever after. Kristy makes them a family tree thing as a gift to show the two families coming together as one. (I often tried to duplicate this as a child to illustrate my stepfamily.)

Takeaways
First off, this book took place during the last few days of school and during the first two weeks of summer vacation. The girls just got done with 7th grade.

There are a couple of things that just don't make sense to me:
1. Why do Watson and Elizabeth HAVE to be married before they can move in together? Why don't they just sell the house, move in together, and postpone the wedding to like October? You both have been married before and you have children - the jig is up. Neither of you are so innocent that you can't engage into some sin-living.
2. Or, if they are, like, really against living in sin, why not just justice of the peace it, to make it legal, and then have a bigger wedding later in the fall?
3. Basically I don't understand at all why this wedding had to be pushed into a two week period, especially when it was "on the bigger side". Are you honestly telling me everyone they wanted was just completely free, not only on a weekend that is only two weeks away, but also for the entire WEEK leading up to it (for all of those aunts, uncles and friends who miraculously just took an entire week off work at the last minute to come set up for a wedding).

As a kid, I would always skip chapter two of these books, which was when whoever the narrator was would explain each of the girls and how the club works. However, I will suffer through each and every Chapter 2 for the sake of this blog. In this one, when Kristy was explaining Stacey, she was talking about how much Stacey likes shopping, and she must get that from her mother, who "has time for that kind of thing". What a passive aggressive dig at stay-at-home-moms Kristy.

Their last day of school is JUNE 19th. What the hell - why does any school last until JUNE 19th?! I thought Glenwood keeping us in school until like June 5th was pure torture and a form of child abuse.

When the shit hits the fan and all hell breaks lose on this wedding, Elizabeth says that, without any prior notice, Karen and Andrew's mom and step-dad are going to Europe and the kids will have to stay with Watson. Who the hell plans an overseas trip that quickly? Or did they know they were going and just didn't tell Watson...hmmm...maybe that divorce wasn't as amicable as Ann M. Martin made it sound.

This was always one of my favorite BSC books, because I loved the way the girls organized the kids. They split them into groups and gave each group a different shape and color, like the blue birds and the pink hearts. Each kid got a name tag with their shape/color, and their group babysitter wore the same shape/color. I thought that was so cool when I was a kid, although now as an adult I would never be okay with kids running around with nametags on (hello, kidnappers, just call the kids out by name and then throw them into your van).

Best character

Stacey wins this one, because she admits Mary Poppins is her favorite movie, even though she is "so sophisticated, being from New York and having permed hair and all".

Worst character

One of the kids, Emma, messes up the clothing bags on the last day of the week. Each of the kids had brought along a bag with a complete, nice outfit for them to be dressed in for the rehearsal dinner. But that little bitch Emma snuck into the room and swapped a piece from each bag into another bag. Not cool, Emma. Why did she think that was funny?

#5 Dawn and the Impossible Three

Plot:

Dawn is pretty new to town; she's from California. I tell you this right off the bat, because a good portion of this book is her bitching about the weather. We get it, Dawn. It is always beautiful and sunny in California, and Connecticut sucks. Get over it.

Anyway, so Dawn is the newest baby-sitter, and she is eager to be liked and please the BSC, especially Kristy, who is pretty butt hurt that Mary Anne has a new best friend. Dawn ends up taking on a new client, The Barrett's and she ends up seriously having to, like, mother these children. Mrs. Barrett, even though she is breathtakingly beautiful, is a disaster. Her house is seriously disgusting; her children are fucking filthy. So Dawn swoops in, cleans her house and mothers her children. The kids start calling her and showing up at her house, and then all hell breaks lose when Dawn is babysitting one day and Buddy goes missing. It ends up being his dad, who was pissed because Mrs. Barrett wasn't doing her part of the custody arrangement (shocked face), and so he sweeps by and takes Buddy to teach her a lesson. As soon as he figures out that Buddy was with a baby-sitter, he brings him back. But it was too late - Dawn called the cops and the entire town of Stoneybrook had dropped everything to search.

After that, Dawn talks to Mrs. Barrett and Mrs. B agrees to get her shit together. Also, Kristy and Dawn have a bonding moment in Dawn's barn, and Kristy names her the Official Alternate Officer of the club. The end.

Takeaways:

This book takes place around Memorial Day. Dawn's mom has a BBQ (which, like an hour before it's supposed to start she has no food for - so they have to go to the grocery store and buy EVERYTHING, even a grill. WTF Mrs. Schafer?!) Also, to note, the girls are in seventh grade, so I am guessing they are getting to the end of their seventh grade year.

At this BBQ, Dawn's mom and Mary Anne's dad are like, canoodling and acting all lovey dovey. This was pretty scandalous, because Dawn's parents hate him for not having money as a teenager.

When Dawn is trying to win Kristy over, she invites her to her house. Kristy agrees, and then asks if they can "play in the barn". It just seems weird that Kristy would call it "play" - hang out would be a better word I think? I just think baby-sitters are too old to be "playing" in a barn.

When Dawn first meets Buddy Barrett, he shoots her with a finger gun. She tells him she doesn't allow any kind of gun play while she is there. To this day, when I see little kids playing with any kind of guns, I think it is so weird and I think back to this book.


Best character:

Dawn's mom is my favorite character in this book, and let me tell you why - when Buddy is missing, everyone is searching and Dawn takes a moment to herself where she sits against the wall, puts her head down and starts crying. Dawn's mom shows up at that moment and is, like, so comforting to Dawn. It melted my heart.


Worst character:

I think Mrs. Barrett wins this one, because she is just the worse. She doesn't tell Dawn anything about her children; she never tells them where she is going, and she doesn't tell her that Marnie is allergic to chocolate so Dawn almost gives her some. Also, her house is a fucking pigsty, and I'm sorry, but that's just not okay. AND she has a babysitter, like, all the time. If you have full custody of your kids and their dad wants to see them, why not let them go with him once in awhile? Instead of hiring a baby sitter every other day?

Also, Mallory in this book is the worst. A bunch of the Babysitters and their charges are having a picnic, and they are playing this "Bzzz" game where you poke someone and say Bzzz....and I don't know what it really means. An insult of some sort. Anyway, at lunch, Mallory fucking Bzzzing one of her brothers - bitch, you are going to be in the BSC in a few books, you need to grow the eff up. Also, she is the one who stops Dawn before she gives Marnie chocolate. When Dawn is like "wtf Mallory, you'll get your brownie in a minute", Mallory gets all teary eyed. Again, grow the eff up, Mallory.

#4 MaryAnne Saves the Day

Plot
This book was rough to get through - the BSC basically breaks up and they are all working as individual units. It's bad.

But let me start at the beginning. The girls are still losing their fucking minds about Mrs. Newton's new baby (named Lucy, which I know is secretly because Ann M. Martin loves I Love Lucy) (it's super sad that I still remember that, right?) so when Mrs. Newton calls the club and Kristy answers, she is so excited she just accepts the job without offering it to any of the others. Everyone gets PISSED. And they start screaming horrible things at each other, and they all storm out.

MaryAnne mostly gets called a baby during the brawl, and this is just unfair. Yes, MA dresses like a baby and has a baby room, but that's all because her father is way over controlling and won't let her grow up. I mean, also MA is a huge cry baby, but that's on her.

They are in this ridiculous fight for over a month, and they are running the meetings separately, meaning one sitter sits in Claudia's room and answers all the calls and takes all the jobs. It is no way to run a baby-sitting club, I can assure you of that. Claudia and MaryAnne kind of make up, but then Claudia overhears Mimi and MaryAnne getting all chummy and Claudia loses her shit. Fight back on.

Anyway, during this time Kristy is a huge b word and very blatenly kicks MA out of their usual lunch table. Stacey and Claudia are sitting with their boyfriends, so MA is on her own until this nice, new girl named Dawn Schafer asks to join her and then they become tight. So tight, in fact, that they are hanging out at each other's houses and they discover their parents used to date in high school. AND they are so tight that when MaryAnne is babysitting for Jenny Prezizioasdioio (I am not going to try to spell her last name correctly) and Jenny gets a high fever and needs to go to the hospital, it's Dawn she calls to help her. After MA is a BA at getting Jenny taken care of, her father sees how mature she is and allows her to start staying out later, redecorate her room and start dressing more normally for a 12 year old girl.

Anyway, the girls cause a huge scene at Jamie Newton's birthday party and MA is like, enough is enough. She calls an emergency meeting, and they all make up cause they can't remember why they are mad. Then MA throws a BSC party, but she invites Dawn too...and then the girls invite Dawn to be a member too! Fuck yeah!

Takeaways
This book takes place in February-March. Still following a normal timeline.

I remember when I was a kid reading this book, I thought it was so weird that MA and Dawn's parents would still be into each other after like 15 years had passed. Oh....little Jen, you're cute.

The Prezzasoios's are, like, the weirdest family. Mrs. P and Jenny dress to the nines every single day, even if it's just to stay at home. Mr. P. wants to just be in jeans and a tee, living life like a normal dude. I guarantee had the series lasted a little longer, Mr. P. would be guilty of putting his p in a new Mrs. P who is a little more laid back than original Mrs. P.

The things these girls say to each other during their flights are ridiculous. Oh, I forgot to mention that at one point, Dawn realizes that MA is using her to make the other members of the BSC jealous. So then they get into a fight too. To which, MaryAnne yells at Dawn to trip down the stairs. WTF, MaryAnne!

When Dawn meets MaryAnne, however, MaryAnne says all of her friends are out sick. So she lied. But even when it got ridiculous and MaryAnne and Dawn were only hanging out with each other and it was clear MA had no other friends, Dawn still just went with it. It reminds me of new couples, and when they get together and the girlfriend only wants to hang out with the boyfriend all the time. It's like, bitch, where are your friends? You had to have had people in your life before this relationship started. If I suddenly started a serious relationship right now, you better believe I would still need to hang out with my friends without my bf around.

Best character
I have two for this week: First, MaryAnne. She is kind of a badass. She sticks up for herself with the girls, with her dad, with Dawn, and she handles the Jenny P. going to the hospital thing very well. Totally saves several days.

Second, MaryAnne's dad. He clearly has some high standards when it comes to his daughter, and when she starts whining in the beginning of the book he's just like "Stop. No whining." and that was it. But after MA proves herself as a mature, responsible person, he lets her have her way.

Worst character
I have two for this week, too.

Fucking Kristy. The baby-sitters all get in a fight, but the other three girls show up for the next meeting anyway. Cause it's the right thing to do. but Kristy - KRISTY SKIPS THE MEETING. Not cool, Kristy. You're supposed to be the leader, the glue of this club. NOT COOL, KRISTY.

And then, just this one interaction with Stacey puts her back on this list, again. While they are fighting, Stacey basically says she doesn't need any of the girls because, and I quote, "don't forget where I'm from." Fuck you, Stacey, and your high rise apartment in the city. Go back there if you are so cool.