Baby-sitters' Fright Night, Super Mystery #3

Does anyone else picture this as an ABC Family original movie around Halloween? They need to jump on that one, pronto.

Oh, and Mallory and Stacey look weird on this cover. Like the illustrator never looked at any other BSC book before drawing the characters. Abby and Mary Anne look the same though. Weird. I have found out that the more books I read with Abby, the more I like her, she has a sense of humor, somewhat sarcastic/goofball, which isn't found elsewhere in the BSC.

Time Warp alert!! We are now celebrating Halloween in Stoneybrook, Halloween of the 8th grade year, and remember Dawn still lived in Stoneybrook that December and attended the Winter Wonderland Dance, but now we are back at Halloween, with Dawn living in Cali and Abby as a member of the BSC. You're making my head spin, AMM.

So SMS is taking another one of its fantastical field trips, this time to Salem, Mass, to research the history of the Salem Witch Trials (confession, I would have loved that trip in school, way to disappoint me again, TMS.) Students of all grades are attending, and they have to complete some type of research project about Salem while on the trip. Stacey's project is on the early economic history of Salem (yawn...). Anyway, Kristy, Abby, Stacey, Mary Anne, and Mallory are going - Claudia's parents won't let her go due to her bad grades, Logan has a football game, and Jessi is performing in Stoneybrook University's Halloween Dance performance. I'm imagining this:




Kristy gets all freaked out before they leave that there will be some babysitting crisis in the 'Brook over these four days and that Claudia, Logan, Shannon, and Jessi won't be able to handle it. Kristy makes them write down the number of the hotel in case they need to call her for, I don't know, a great idea or something. Special K is going to be a brutal micromanager whenever she migrates into the adult work force. Oh, and at this meeting, it is mentioned that Mallory carries a briefcase instead of a backpack. What the...? Isn't a sixth grader carrying around a briefcase at school just asking to be picked on? Why, AMM, why? And Mary Anne, in one of her chapters, says that Claudia's creativity is reflected in her spelling. MA, just say "Bless her heart," it sounds sweeter.

So, the SMS kids arrive at their hotel, the Salem Gables Inn, and Mallory immediately spots one of her favorite mystery authors (of course it's a mystery author...), Martha Kempner, who is conveniently staying at the hotel, too. Mal goes super fangirl, but suprisingly, Martha does not freak out or get a restraining order or anything, rather talks to Mallory about her new project, a mystery novel based on the Witch's Eye, a famous (and supposedly cursed) yellow egg-sized diamond on display at the local museum. I'm sure this won't be important to the story at all...

The next morning, the students break into groups to begin the first set of tours around Salem. Stacey and Mary Anne join the tour of the Trove House Museum, where the Witch's Eye is on display. While there, alarms go off, security guards and police converge, and chaos reigns. The Witch's Eye has been stolen. Stacey somehow wanders into the crime scene unnoticed, and finds a scrap of paper with a series of numbers written on it. She somehow manages to memorize the numbers because she's good at math (!?!), and then gives the slip of paper to the police. Meanwhile, Mary Anne and Abby discover a black wig, sunglasses, and a crumpled security guard uniform hidden in the bushes outside the inn. They go inside to report this to the front desk, and while they are waiting for the police, Abby goes into the gift shop, where she runs into Martha Kempner. Abby decides to buy an orange ceramic pumpkin, however there is no price tag, and the clerk doesn't recognize it (this isn't fishy at all, y'all...). Abby gives the clerk $2 for the pumpkin, and decides to name it Cornucopia and call it her pet.

Kristy immediately calls an emergency meeting of the Babysitters Club so that they can discuss the mystery the potential suspects (and Abby snarkily refers to K as "Agatha Kristy" - I like this girl):

Agatha Moorehouse - the rich old lady in a wheelchair who owns the diamond? Was she lying about not having insurance on the stone?

Harvey Hapgood - the man who attempted to buy the diamond from Mrs. Moorehouse before the theft, and who Stacey thinks is suspicious because he wore tennis shoes with his suit?

Martha Kempner - the author writing a novel based on the stone, wanting some publicity for her book, and was conveniently in the hotel gift shop steps away from where the disguise was located?

Sean Knowles - a guy who hid behind his newspaper at breakfast watching Mrs. Moorehouse, and who was at the museum at the time of the theft?

While they mull over the suspects, they continue to do tours of Salem, and attend the Halloween parade downtown. While there, someone dressed as a ghost steals Abby's "waist pack" in the midst of the crowd (hee, hee, Abby has a fanny pack.) When they get back to the hotel, Abby discovers that the room she shares with Stacey has been ransacked (the room key was in the fanny pack.) However, nothing was stolen (Stacey was frantic about her jewelry - would someone be that interested in a 13 year old girl's stash from Claire's?)

Mallory phones the 'Brook so that Jessi can send the mystery notebook up to Salem (there is this convoluted story where some teachers were coming to Salem a day or two later, really probable.) They run into Martha Kempner downstairs, and she tells the girls the history of the "curse" around the diamond and then offers to buy Abby's pumpkin, which is now on a keychain attached to her belt loop (again, not fishy at all, AMM). After they get the mystery notebook, they write down the history of the diamond and everything they have observed so far, and Stacey realizes that the numbers she found are the combo to one of the hotel room safes. And then the lights go out...

A bad storm hits, knocking out power to the inn, and the teachers hand out candles to the students (ummm...). The girls decide that since the hotel rooms are opened electronically, they can just walk into the rooms of the suspects and check to hotel safes (haven't these girls watched America's Most Wanted, or any Lifetime Original Movie - that is not a good idea.) They discover that the combo open's Martha Kempner's safe (alas, it is empty), and while in her room, Stacey declares that stiletto heels are "a bigger fashion bomb" than sneakers - oh, sweetie, wait about 5 years until you discover Sex & the City, then all your babysitting money will be going towards Mahnolos and Louboutins. 

Once they leave her room, they realize that are being followed by a shadowy figure, and wander into a wing of the hotel under renovation. Abby gets into a physical altercation with Harvey Hapgood, and Martha Kempner shows up and tries to snatch her pumpkin pet, which had the diamond hidden inside. Yep, it was Harvey and Martha, in the east wing, with the pumpkin. Abby uses her soccer slide tackle to take them both out (that's realistic) and then the police show up and everyone is safe. It turns out that Sean Knowles was an insurance investigator working with the police to protect the diamond.

Oh, and subplot, Kristy got into a prank war with Alan Gray and Cary Retlin, with Kristy and Alan teaming up to get revenge on Cary. Plus, Cokie Mason and her henchmen bully the sixth grade girl named Eileen rooming with Mallory, but then the BSC stands up to Cokie, accusing her of being just like the witch hunters in Salem. Somehow that makes Cokie back off, which is not really believable, in my opinion. Oh, and the BSC members stuck in Stoneybrook throw a Halloween parade for the kids (yeah, if only 4 out of a possible 9 babysitters are available to chaperone, I would totally let my kids march down the street in costume...).

Halloween Costumes:

Kristy - Sherlock Bones, wearing her signature collie cap, necklace of dog biscuits, and carrying a magnifying glass

Mary Anne - dressed as Tigger. I swear she dresses up as a cat every time Halloween rolls around in 8th grade

Stacey - Mother Time, wearing all black, with her face painted like a white clock (sounds like one of those last minute, "oh, crap, this is a costume party" looks)

Abby - Women's World Cup, with her soccer jersey, a plastic gold cup on one shoulder, and an inflatable globe on the other shoulder (actually pretty clever)

Mallory - Pumpkin Patch, with an orange sweatshirt, paper pumpkins pinned all over it with green yarn or something, and Abby's pet ceramic pumpkin attached to her waist

Fashion!!

What Claudia wore: "Last year, it was Doc Martens with pumpkin stickers, a hand-batiked shirt in orange and black, plus one orange sock and one black sock."

What Stacey wore: "Stacey had gone for almost total black: black jeans, black boots, black turtleneck, silver cropped top over that, black boots with silver side buttons, and silver X earrings." Umm...why is Stacey wearing 2 pairs of boots?

What Eileen wore: "She was wearing a huge purple dress, a puffy orange windbreaker, and these really clunky shoes. Her hair stuck out in spikes beneath a wool hat that had a pattern of white snowflakes on a red background. She was fashion challenged." This description came courtesy of Stacey - if Claudia had worn this outfit, Stacey would think it was "genius" and "dibbly fresh."

Rihanna thinks mixing purple, orange, and red is ok, Stacey, live a little.