I'm assuming it's still spring of their 3rd 8th grade year. They get a random four day weekend - maybe spring break?
Plot
Dawn's brother Jeff comes home for a visit, and the family has exactly one good day together before everything falls to shit. There are three days where the girls still have school, the mom has to work and so Richard takes the days off to hang out with Jeff. Richard (a grown male) and Jeff (a 10 year old spoiled child) have nothing in common, so they struggle. Then the family goes on a four day trip to Boston, and it's terrible. It's like they are taking two separate trips, because Dawn and Jeff basically refuse to hang out with MaryAnne and her dad. For some reason the parents go along with it, until they are like "no, fuck this, we are a family and we are doing things together today." So on the last day of vacation, they finally spend the day together.
Then they get home, and it's Jeff's last day in Stoneybrook (after he threw a fit and tried to demand to be sent back to California, to which his mom said no). The parents have hired a photographer to come over and take family pictures, and everyone is a dick about it. Finally the photographer shows them the terrible pictures where it is obvious everyone hates each other, and then everyone laughs and they make up.
The side story is that Mrs. Barrett (whose first name is Natalie, which I believe we just found out) is dating a new guy named Franklin DeWitt and they try to combine the families - the three Barrett kids and the four DeWitt kids. It doesn't go well until Shannon and Claudia babysit them all and make them realize how much more fun they can have if they just get along and play together.
Takeaways
Dawn is on a four day "vacation" and writes like 20 postcards to her friends - like multiple postcards to the same person. And they are all bitching about MA and Richard. Like 1. why do you need to write postcards when you will literally see the people within days and 2. why would you write to your mutual friends and bitch about MA? and 3. Why would she write to Kristy, of all people, and bitch about MaryAnne? Kristy is always going to side with MA, and she doesn't really like Dawn anyway.
Jeff is the worst in this book. He gets super pissed at his friends (the Pike triplets) because they play baseball and not soccer (soccer is so cool in California), he is rude to Richard, and he is awful to MA. Then when they are literally walking to the car to go to Boston, he decides he would rather go to Washington DC, and he is all "we have to go to Washington DC". He is a spoiled jerk.
In Boston, they basically separate and have two different vacations. What I don't understand is WHY did the parents deal with that? Why weren't they like no, we are going this, no questions asked. I can't imagine being on vacation as a kid and being like "nah, I don't feel like doing that" and my parents being like "Well, one of us better stay with her." My parents would have been like "don't care, come on." Like in this book, they are deciding where to go for dinner and they pick a place and then Jeff is like "nah, I don't feel like it, I just want room service" and his mom is like "well, I guess I'll take him back to the hotel". So stupid. He's fucking ten. You make him do things.
The Barrett's and DeWitt's plan a big family outing, and Mrs. Barrett HIRES A BABYSITTER to come along. Why?! You can't handle your own family, you need a babysitter to come while you are going to be there? So weird.
Best Character
Probably Shannon and Claudia, for figuring out how to make the DeWitt/Barrett kids get along.
Worst Character
The fucking spoiled rotten Jeff.
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