#21 Mallory and the Trouble with Twins

Timeline
Must still be between Halloween and Thanksgiving, cause ain't shit happening regarding holidays, school, weather, etc.

Plot
Mallory gets a regular job sitting for some new clients, the Arnold's, for like six weeks. The Arnold's have twin girls, Marilyn and Carolyn. At first they are okay, but then Mallory tells them they look like book ends and they lose their shit. They rip off the only identifying things about them (their bracelets with their names) and just start terrorizing Mallory. Claudia takes a turn babysitting them, and they do it to her too. They even go as far as to switch places, and one of them goes to the others one's piano lesson.
Finally Mallory realizes the reason they are such bitches is because they are sick of not having seperate idenities. Mallory asks them about it and they admit it. Then Mallory offers to sit with them and talk to their mother. Their mother gets it, and allows the girls to start being themselves and dress differently. Everyone is happy.
Oh, and throughout the entire book Mallory whines about how lame she is, with her curly frizzy hair and her glasses and her braces and her holeless ears. So then she gets inspiration from the twins and talks to her own parents, who allow her to pierce her ears and cut her hair. So she is happy, too. The end.

Takeaways
Mallory talks about negotiating in this book - she asks her parents for a new wardrobe, a new haircut, pierces ears, and something else ridiculous - and then they give her the haircut and the ears, which is all she really wanted anyway. But I specifically remember reading that as a kid and thinking she was a goddamned genius.

The girls are absolutely obsessed with getting their ears pierced - both Jessi and Mallory are like in depressions because they haven't been allowed to as of yet. Maybe I was weird, but this just was not a big deal to me as a kid. My aunt took me to get my ears pierced when I was seven, and I seriously have worn earrings like three times since then.

I'm assuming the dad just works, because divorce or death is never mentioned, but these twins' dad has literally shit to do with them. He is never there, never mentioned, and Mrs. Arnold seems to make every decision about their daughters.

Best Character
Mallory wins. I feel like Mallory might be my secret favorite babysitter.

Worst Character
There really isn't a worst character this week. The twins are jerks, but they are also like 8, so they are just acting like 8 year olds.

Oh wait. Yes there is a worst character, even though she ends up coming around. The mom of these girls completely blames Claudia when the girls switch spots and one of them misses their piano lessons. Um, it's your bitchy girls' fault, Mrs. Arnold, not Claudia's.

#20 - Kristy and the Walking Disaster

Timeline
So it's supposed to be between Halloween and Thanksgiving, but somehow it's still warm enough that kids can play softball in just tshirts. I don't buy that. They are in Connecticut, not Florida.

Plot
While baby-sitting, Kristy notices that a bunch of kids love softball, but are either too young, too scared, or too sucky to play Little League. There is a guy in her neighborhood, Bart, who coaches a team of pre-Little Leaugers, so she walks to his house and asks him to take on all these kids, but he says he doesn't have room. So Kristy decides to start her own team. Oh, and she falls in love with Bart.

She rounds the kids up, they decide to be called Kristy's Krushers, and pretty soon Bart challenges them to play a game against his Bashers. The Krushers lose the game, but they never give up. Bart walks Kristy home from the game and holds her hold for a hot minute, then makes her promise they can hang out soon.

Takeaways
This book is actually kind of boring, and the title doesn't make much sense - like yes, Jackie Rodowsky is a walking disaster, and yes, he is on the team, but the book isn't, like, all about him.

Kristy talks a lot about Watson in this book - he loves softball and organizing things. She finally seems to be coming around, and he is really nice to her.

I find it hard to believe that Stoneybrook doesn't have softball or tee ball or something for younger kids - I think Omaha has shit like that for kids when they are like three.

I seriously don't have much else to say...the Krushers lose the game, but they score like ten runs, which is pretty impressive.

The other baby-sitters really aren't in the book at all, except for helping out at practice and at the game. Oh, and Bart sounds super hot.

Best character
I'm going to give this one to Kristy. She not only runs a club where she babysits all the fucking time, but in the small amount of spare time that she has, she has decided to donate her time to helping kids with their softball skills. I have gone to kids sporting events and just sitting in the stands is irritating and frustating, I can't imagine coaching.

Worst character
Bart and some of his Bashers come to one of the Krusher practices to spy, and the Bashers are little fuckers. They call the kids idiots, fatsos and babies. Not cool, Bashers.

#19 - Claudia and the Bad Joke

Timeline: 
Between Halloween and Christmas, 8th grade

Plot:
Claudia babysits for a new client, Rosie, who loves pranking people. She gets Claudia to swing on a broken swing, and Claudia falls and breaks her leg. She is in the hospital for over a week and then at home for a few more weeks, meaning she misses 3.5 weeks of school.

The baby-sitters work at getting back at Rosie, but they continuously get outpranked by her. Finally, Kristy takes her to a movie and gets her - she switches seats when Rosie is out getting popcorn, she puts a bloody thumb in the popcorn box and Rosie loses her mind. Rosie learns her lesson, then, and goes to Claudia's house to apologize.

During this whole debacle, Claudia is thinking she wants to quit the Baby-Sitters Club because baby-sitting is too dangerous. But then she decides she was actually just embarrassed and decides to stay in the club.

Takeaways:
Near the beginning of the book, Claudia talks about how Dawn has been sticking around after club meetings and staying for dinner at her house because she doesn't want to go home to an empty house now that Jeff has moved back to California. That's sad. I wish they had explored a Dawn-Claudia best friendship a little more. They make a lot more sense than Dawn and MaryAnne.

This book is actually pretty boring. Well, the Claudia chapters are super boring. Basically all she does is whine and contemplate whether or not she should quit the BSC. And her reason for quitting the BSC is so lame. Baby-sitting is too dangerous? Get a reality check, Claud.

If I were a parent, and I found out that my baby-sitter sent my child out to get popcorn and then got up and moved, I would fucking kill said baby-sitter. That is so not safe. Well, maybe in the 80's it was safer than it is now, but NOT COOL KRISTY.

Best characters:
Mimi wins this week. She has to deal with Claudia being home with a broken leg for 2+ weeks, and the woman has the patience of a saint. Plus she makes Claudia really good breakfasts.

Worst characters:
I mean, obviously Rosie was a little bitch who pranked Claudia and she wound up with a broken leg. But also, there was something so evil about the way she would be like "no more pranks. I promise." and then fucking buzz someone or feed them shaving cream. PRANKS ARE MEAN!