#74 - Kristy and the Copycat

Timeline
Spring of their 4th repeat

Plot
Kristy is in a weird rut and she can't figure out why. She thinks the Krusher practices are boring lately, even though no one else agrees with her. Finally she figures out that she misses playing softball, so she decides to try out for the SMS softball team. She makes it, but then she learns about the "initiation" rituals that the team has. She, and the other three new members of the team, have to vandalize the school sports shed or else the team will make them look bad in front of the coach. Also, if they breathe a word of the threat to anyone they will destroy them. The four girls go back and forth forever, but then finally decide to just do it. They sneak out, do it, and then two of the girls start smoking. Kristy refuses and they leave. Later that night, the shed catches on fire and a random man tries to put it out. That man ends up in the hospital in critical condition, and Kristy loses her mind bc she is convinced it was the cigarettes that started the fire.

The team still says if they tell anyone they will destroy the four girls. The baseball team ends up getting blamed for it, and Kristy finally decides she doesn't give a fuck and she is going to the principal. However, before she does, a group of high schoolers come forward and say they actually did it. So the softball team is off the hook.

Subplot is that in order to be on the softball team, Kristy gives up the Krushers. Claudia and Stacey take over her coaching duties, and they are ridiculously bad, so Kristy kind of takes back over.

Also the sub-sub-plot that is literally the title of the book for some stupid reason, is that Karen decides she wants to be 13 and starts copying the older girls. It is literally mentioned like twice in the book. It's no big deal at all, but somehow it is the title of the book.

Takeaways
I'm sorry, but what the fuck. An eighth grade softball team has initiation rituals, like a sorority? Nope. Nope. Nope. Not true.

Also, there is no way the coach wouldn't hear about this.

This entire thing is so out of character for Kristy. She would have never done this.

Why didn't someone from the Babysitters Club (because of course Kristy told the everything) go to the principal anonymously? Or go to the coach and tell her what was going on.

Again, the title of this book makes no sense. It should have been called "Kristy's Bad Decision" or "Kristy's Mistake" or "Kristy and the Ridiculous Situation that Would Never Happen in Real Life".

Best Character
Claudia and Stacey, because they offer to take over the Krushers even though they are not athletes at all.

Worst Character
Obviously those terrible, ridiculous, threatening softball girls.

#73 - Mary Anne and Miss Priss

Timeline
Spring has sprung on their 4th repeat of 8th grade

Plot
Mrs. Prezzioso calls the BSC and asks for a permanent babysitter like five days a week. She is kind of secretive about the reason why, and Mary Anne ends up with most of the jobs. Jenny is even more weird than usual; super obsessive about being perfect and clean. Finally MA works up the nerve to ask Mrs. P where she is going, and it ends up she is trying to make Andrea (Jenny's little sister) a baby model. So she has been taking her to auditions, which is why Jenny is trying to be perfect - she is trying to get her mom's attention. Finally, Jenny just tells her mom she wants to try being a model too. So Mrs. P (and MaryAnne, for some reason) take Jenny to get headshots taken, and also on a bunch of auditions. Jenny isn't as sought after as Andrea is so then Jenny goes in the complete opposite direction and becomes a complete slob. Then Jenny actually get a job, but hates it, so then she kind of just becomes a normal little girl.

Sub plot is that the Pike triplets form a neighborhood kickball league and they refuse help from any of the BSC. The whole thing is a disaster and pretty soon everyone quits.  Finally, Mallory convinces them to take some advice from her and Claudia, and everything gets solved.

Also, Mallory is still not in the BSC because of her mono. Her parents are totally taking advantage of her by making her their in house nanny. Finally, Mallory confronts them about it and they agree she can rejoin the BSC.

Takeaways
At one point, Jenny sits in the front seat of her mom's car. As a four year old. Man, the 80's were a free for all.

The Pike triplets refuse help from the BSC because they finally realized that they are only one year younger than Mallory and it makes no sense that she has so many more responsibilities and privileges than they do.

I wonder why Mrs. P all of a sudden wants to get her baby into modeling. Did she think Jenny was an uggo and that's why she didn't try with her?

I will never understand why the parents of Stoneybrook have to ask the BSC to help them parent their children. Like why did Mrs. P need to take MA with her on auditions? She can't handle the two children that she chose to give birth to?

Best Character
Mary Anne, because she has the patience of a saint with Jenny and the whole Prezzioso family, actually.

Worst Character
The other parents of the kids who were on the auditions. I have no experience with stage moms, but they sound fucking terrible.

#72 - Dawn and the We Love Kids Club

Timeline
Winter, 4th repeat of 6th/8th grade

Plot
Dawn is in California, but she has finally figured out that California is a great place to visit, but when it's just your real life there are still the same issues and blahness that everyone deals with in real life. Nothing is bad, per say, but it's just normal. She clearly thought this was going to be just a six month "all about Dawn" visit, because she gets super pissy and annoyed that her dad's girlfriend (who she had already met, and she knew that her dad was serious about her) is always around taking the attention off of her.

Dawn has also jumped right back into babysitting with the We Love Kids Club, which is the California version of the BSC. It's very laid back, they don't have set meetings, they don't have a record book or officers. They get some local media attention from a newspaper, which leads into a segment on the local news, and then their business blows up. Dawn gets them to agree to be a little more organized, after they piss off a ton of clients and double book themselves on several jobs. Also, Dawn sends all the media pieces to the BSC, and Kristy gets all jealous bc her club is better and has never been on the news.

Dawn's dad proposes to Carol, who happily accepts, and Dawn loses her mind. She decides this must mean her dad doesn't need her around, so she STEALS HIS CREDIT CARD and books a flight back to Stoneybrook. She gets there, expecting all rainbows and sunshine, but her mom just sends her right back. Things are pretty tense after that, and then a huge fight between Dad and Carol leads to them calling off their relationship and the engagement.

Takeaways
The WLKC is disappointed they only got four minutes of coverage on the news. Um. Four minutes is an extremely long time for a news segment, especially on something that isn't even news.

Dude, I cannot believe the nerve of Dawn stealing a credit card and booking a flight. She justifies it by saying she is saving her dad money bc he would have to buy her a ticket later and she heard tickets get more expensive. Actually, Dawn, a last minute ticket for a same day ticket probably cost a billion dollars.

Plus, she had to take a cab to the airport which was one hour away. That cab right had to be a billion dollars.

Maybe I am just used to how the BSC runs, but the WLKC basically just sounds like four girls who like to babysit and get together every few weeks to talk about it.

Best Character
Dawn's mom. You know she wanted to just be like "of course you can stay here honey" but she was tough and treated Dawn like the spoiled brat that she is.

Worst Character
That spoiled brat Dawn.

#71 - Claudia and the Perfect Boy

Timeline
Winter of their 4th repeated 6th grade/8th grade year

Plot
Claudia is on this serious kick about needing a boyfriend. She creates a list of qualifications the perfect boy would have, and then she shows it to Stacey. She convinces Claudia that the middle school newspaper needs a personals column and Claudia should run it. They take the idea to Emily, , the school newspaper editor, the next day and she loves it. Claudia's column is a huge hit, and then it morphs into a matchmaker type column. Claudia answers three ads from boys, thinking they might be her Mr. Perfect, but they are all duds. Finally she writes her own letter and gets a response she is really excited about. But then Stacey admits she had actually wrote the letter to her. Claudia is super pissed for like three days, then gets over it.

Takeaways
Stacey straight up mother fucking catfishes Claudia. Stacey is the WORST!!

There is one chapter (can't even be described as a subplot) where the Pike's take ownership of the Barrett's dog, Pow. The Barrett's have to give up the dog because of the baby's allergy. The Pike's are cool enough to take the dog, but then the Barrett kids go there EVERY SINGLE DAY to visit. That would get old fast.

Again, I can't get over the fact that Stacey catfishes Claudia.

Also, one of the ads Claudia ends up answering is Alan Gray's. She calls him, figures out who he is, and he is all excited. But then when Claudia is like um gross...he's like oh yeah, this whole thing is a joke. But I do not think it was a joke. Actually, I think they end up dating at some point towards the end of this series.

Best Character
Poor, poor Alan Gray.

Worst Character
Stacey the catfisher

#70 - Stacey and the Cheerleaders

Timeline
It's basketball season and winter of their 4th 8th grade year.

Plot
Okay, I never read the books this high in the series as a kid, so this is like all new territory.

Stacey get noticed right away by one of the cool guys in school, I think his name is RJ. He throws a snowball and it hits her, and as he goes over to help her up, he asks her out. She loses her goddamned mind. She spends days overanalyzing and thinking about this date, and then she goes out with him and its not a love connection, which she is surprisingly mature about.

RJ is one of the school's star basketball players, which is apparently a huge deal in Stoneybrook. The basketball team and the cheerleaders are THE most coolest kids in school. So cool, in fact, that basically all the teachers treat them like royalty. They are allowed to skip classes whenever they want, they can take tests at different times, and they can half ass assignments.

On the date with RJ, they go to some pizza place afterwards and the entire cool group is there. The girls start being super nice to Stacey and she gets kinda flirty with another basketball player, Robert. After that, the girls are always super nice to Stacey and when a spot opens up on the cheerleading squad, they invite her to try out. She works so fucking hard at it and has Jessi teach her a routine. She is amazing. It's like a hidden talent she never knew she had. Plus her and Robert have started dating and he is amazing. Stacey has this whole new group of friends, plus her besties in the BSC. Her life is pretty awesome. She has even started kind of taking advantage of the perks of being in "the group" (she skips class one day to show the other girls the routine her and Jessi put together) but she feels really bad about it.

Cheerleading tryouts come and she fucking nails it. Then she is in the bathroom and all the cheerleaders come in and she hears them talking about how she came into the group and stole Robert and how she still hangs out with those lame babysitters all the time. But they also say she was the best one who tried out, so it's like a half bitching session. Then it comes time to hear who got the spot...and it's not Stacey. It's some other b. Stacey is upset, and one of the cheerleaders grabs her to tell her they didn't pick her because she was too good and would make them all look bad - but she is smiling when she says it. So Stacey realizes they are all bitches and marches into the cafeteria to tell Robert what happened. Stacey and Robert then march down to the basketball coach's office to tell him that Robert is quitting the team because of the favoritism of the people and how they take advantage of their power at school. Everyone is pretty pissy about it, and the new cheerleader chosen quits because of the drama. The girls extend the offer to Stacey, who then gets to tell them to get bent.


Takeaways
Literally the only people that go to middle school basketball games are the parents of the players. Not the entire fucking town, and games are right after school. Not on Saturday nights. What the fuck.

I'm sorry, but again, middle school cheerleading would not be this highly competitive, nor would the cheerleaders get to choose their replacement. The team advisor or coach would. This is not Bring it On, Ann.

The obvious favoritism  of these students would also never fly. Ever. Adults, especially teachers, are not going to deal with the huge egos of student athletes. ESPECIALLY in middle school. Give me a break.

And no 14 year old boy is mature enough to give up his elite spot at the top of the school jsut because it's "not fair".

This book is pretty foreshadowing, because I know down the line Stacey gets kicked out of the club bc she becomes a "bad girl". She mentions a few times that the BSC is pretty embarrassing, and hanging out with sixth graders is pretty immature. At one of the (Saturday night) basketball games, Jessi is hoping the game goes into overtime so she is allowed to stay up late. I mean, my nephew is in 5th grade and he goes to bed at like 830p, so I guess I get it.

Best Character
I mean, obviously it has to be Robert because he is like the most mature middle school boy in the world. And also Jessi, because she basically gets Stacey to be the best cheerleader in middle school.

Worst Character
Those bitchy little cheerleaders.