#79 - Mary Anne Breaks the Rules

Timeline
Halloween time of their 5th 8th grade year

Plot
Mary Anne is so so happy. Can't stop talking and thinking about how happy she is. She takes a baby-sitting job at the Kuhn's, whose dad just left and moved far away. The two girls are okay, but Jake, the oldest boy, is not handling it well. Mary Anne invites Logan over while she is babysitting to do "boy stuff" and Jake becomes a happy go lucky kid again. So MA keeps inviting Logan over. One day, the three kids and Logan and MA are inside eating a snack when the mom comes home, and the mom LOSES her mind that MA invited her boyfriend over. She yells at Logan and MA. Then calls Kristy and yells at Kristy. Then Kristy yells at MA. Then Kristy yells at Logan. MaryAnne cries through all of this.

Then Mrs. Kuhn actually talks to her son and finds out that there was no hanky panky, it was all just Logan trying to be a good mentor for Jake. So she and Jake go over to MA's house and apologize. Then she calls Logan and apologizes. Then she calls Kristy and apologizes. Everyone makes up. Mary Anne cries through all of this.

The subplot is that all the kids in Stoneybrook split up and make competing haunted houses. Alan Gray helps one of them out.

Takeaways
I have to admit, this book is pretty freaking boring.

The conflict with MA, Logan and the Kuhn's gets wrapped up in chapter 13. That left two entire chapters at the end that is just about the kids' haunted houses. Very boring.

The most annoying thing about this book is that is MA had just asked Mrs. Kuhn is Logan can come over and explained why she wanted him to, everything would have been fine. Or, maybe they should have just asked Logan to take one of the jobs. It's very un-MaryAnne like to not ask permission.

Also in this book MA says her dad got  remarried when she was 12. Nope. Wrong. She was 13. But I understand her confusion, since this is her 5th time through 8th grade.

Best Character
Dawn - everytime MA calls her to cry about stuff, Dawn tells her it will all blow over and to calm down. And she was right.

Worst Character
Probably Logan, because when Mrs. Kuhn comes home and finds him sitting there, he just fucking bolts.  Like literally just runs out the door.