#14 - Hello, Mallory!

Timeline:
Again, nothing said about the date. However, the kids are still playing outside and no holidays are mentioned, so we'll assume it's still October-ish.

Plot:
The Baby-sitters Club need a new babysitter since Stacey left in the last book. They ask Mallory Pike, who normally the babysit for, but lately she has been stepping up as a "co-sitter". Mallory is totally pumped, and gets all dressed up for her first meeting. The older girls are a bit iffy about her, so they tell her she can join if she passes two tests - an "on the job" babysitting test with Claudia at the Perkins's, and a written/oral test given by the club members. Mallory bombs both. But in her defense, Claudia was a douche at the Perkins's, and the written test was like the NCLEX exam for nurses. Mallory stomps out after "quitting" before she was accepted into the club.

In the meantime, there is a new girl in 6th grade named Jessica Ramsay, and Mallory kinda stalks her a bit until they become best friends. They decide, since the older BSC members are dicks, to start up their own baby-sitting business, a club called Kids Incorporated. They literally copy every single thing the original club does, down to the club meeting times. They only get two jobs (for their own families) but for some reason the BSC panics and asks them to join the club again. This time everyone is nicer, and the girls get to join.

Takeaways:
Okay. When Mallory and Jessi start their own club, their first job is for Mallory's family. Dawn sees them outside babysitting, and all the club members lose their goddamned minds because the Pikes are such good customers and now they are losing them to Kids Incorporated. What the FUCK did they think was going to happen? They treat their daughter like complete shit, won't let her join their stupid little club, and the Pikes were going to still be okay with them? DUMB.

I still cannot get over how mean the girls were to Mallory, when they needed her to join the club. They are far too busy. They extended the invite. So why be assholes?

One more thing. Mallory and Jessi are only 11 years old. That is SO YOUNG to be babysitting! My nephew Gavin will be 11 in September and I literally would not trust that kid to babysit a goldfish. I feel like everyone in the BSC universe is way more mature than they really should be. Like this little Gabbie Perkins chick is two years old and she calls everyone by their first and last name. NOPE. A two year old would get all the babysitters confused, she wouldn't know their first and last names, for christs sake.

Oh, and another thing - Jessi and her family are black, and I guess Stoneybrook is stuck in the 1950's because everyone hates them and crack racist jokes.

Best character:
I'm going to have to give Mallory this one. She stands up to the girls when the tests are unfair, and she just says to hell with them and starts her own club. And also, she was whining in the beginning of the book because she wants a best friend, so she jumps at the first opportunity to get one that she sees.

Worst character: The entire BSC are a bunch of assholes, but I'm going to give Claudia the worst character award this week. When they are testing Mallory, they ask her to draw the human digestive system, which Claudia continues to call "divestive" system, even after being corrected. Come on, Claudia. You have to try to be this stupid.