Shockingly, I somehow never read this one as a kid, even though I know I read every other of the first ten Super Specials. Just bizarre that I never read this one. By the way, notice the kid with the yellow and green outfit on the cover, I have a childhood picture of me in that exact outfit (almost): yellow sleeveless shirt, lime green shorts, yellow socks, and white Keds. And I believe my hair was in a Claudia-esque side ponytail, too. Too bad that photo is several states away at my parents' house. If I ever find it, I will try to retroactively add it to this post, just for kicks.
So, Claudia and Dawn decide to take sailing lessons from the Stoneybrook Community Center (for some reason I have never pictured Stoneybrook as being right on the water, this kind of threw me a bit). Apparently, Dawn sails in California with her dad and Jeff all the time, and Claudia sails on her family's vacation every summer (what the...? When has a BSC member ever gone on a family vacation that didn't somehow include the rest of the club? I'm calling you on these mystery vacations, AMM). Anyway, the class lasts two months, and Claudia and Dawn decide to race when they have their end of class certification runs. Dawn beats Claudia out to Greenpoint Island, the halfway point (Claudia seemed to be inhibited by her attire), but Claudia manages to catch up on the second leg, which ends in a tie (of course) back at the Community Center. So, naturally, a rematch is planned. Plus, the girls find out that they have now been certified to sail without supervision. Now, I didn't grow up on the coast, so I'm not sure how feasible this is - I mean, 13 year olds sailing in the ocean/bay/whatever without supervision of some kind? I could understand sailing on a lake, maybe, but not the ocean. Just...not believable.
Anyway, SMS has a 3 day weekend approaching, and they decide to have the rematch then. Dawn's brother, Jeff, is in town for the long weekend, so he will go sailing with Dawn. Claudia asks Mallory to go with her, but she has other plans. Jessi convinces Claud to take her sister, Becca, instead. Becca is 8. Then, somehow, they get the bright idea to invite Haley Braddock (age 9), as well as Jamie Newton (age 4). What the...? As a parent, there is no way I would let my 8 year old, my 9 year old, and hell to the no on my 4 year old, to go sailing with 13 year old girls who are not related to me (well, not even if they were related, actually. 16 year olds? I would need a lot of convincing, but possibly. 13 year olds? Again, hell to the no). This just boggles my mind. I mean, yes, the BSC girls are always held up as "super responsible" for their age, but seriously, AMM? No parent will let their young child sail out on the ocean with 13 year old girls who have just been certified to sail alone. Pffft. In AMM's crazy, jacked up alternate universe, the parents are all delighted by the invitations and enthusiastically agree. Plus, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey will actually be out of town for the weekend, but still agree to let Becca go sailing with Dawn and Claudia. That last sentence made me mad just typing it. You're killing me, Smalls!!
Anyway, Dawn and Claudia decide to pack lunches so that they can all have a picnic on Greenpoint Island before returning the Community Center. However, while they are sailing out to the island, a wicked squall (said in a Boston accent, because, why not?) blows in, and the girls soon lose their bearings. Dawn's ship starts to break up, the rudder snaps, and she realizes that they (Dawn, Jeff, and Haley) will have to bail out and swim to Claudia's boat. Claud's boat is too small to hold the additional people, so they just hang onto the side until she finds an island on which to land. Claudia immediately recognizes that this is not Greenpoint Island, and realizes that they are, indeed...
Back in Stoneybrook, everyone gets concerned when the boats don't return before the storm, and then after the storm passes and night hits, alarms are raised, and crisis hits the 'Brook.
Stoneybrook Adventures:
Kristy - calls an emergency meeting (naturally) which is held at Mallory's house, cancels Krushers' practice to help with the search efforts, plus even cancels the upcoming game with the Bashers. Bart gets super pissed, calls her "irresponsible" for cancelling and claims that she is using the search as an excuse to cancel because she is scared of losing to his team. Kristy, of course, gives him a verbal b!tch-slap, and he eventually apologizes for being a jerk.
Mary Anne - she and Dawn had a huge fight right before the race, because Dawn forgot to give her a message from Logan about cancelling a library date. MA tells Dawn even tells Dawn that "she never wants to see her again" (that was way harsh, Tai). Mary Anne is devastated when she realizes that Dawn is missing and the last thing they did was fight. She spends the whole weekend at the community center, the hub of the search, and on separate occasions, when reporters ask both she and Sharon how they are feeling, they each snap, "How do you think I feel?" MA and Logan are also fighting through this, due to the missed date, but they eventually make up as well.
Stacey - is in NYC visiting her dad this weekend, and as soon as Kristy calls her with the news, she wants to come home and help with the search. Mr. McGill refuses, saying that the girls will probably be found within a few hours, and gets increasingly frustrated the more Stacey asks about leaving early. After another major fight, Stacey calls a cab to the train station and leaves Monday morning. She eventually writes her dad a letter about how upset he made her, and he apologizes. Stacey goes out with the Pike family on Monday to help with the search, and she locates some of the wreckage from Dawn's boat, which causes despair throughout the town.
Mallory - she and her family have a boat (of course they do, and of course it has never been mentioned before, and is never mentioned after...), and they spend the whole day Sunday and most of Monday out searching for the castaways. And that's about it.
Jessi - is in charge of watching her sister and brother while her parents are gone (because this is so believable, if her parents won't let her babysit at night for other families, why do they think she is responsible enough to watch her brother and sister for a whole weekend while they are out of town? I'm calling BS, AMM), and once she realizes that Claudia's boat with Becca did not return, she reluctantly calls her Aunt Cecilia, who lives in a neighboring town. Aunt C blames Jessi for the whole ordeal, even though Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey gave Becca permission to sail, and spends the whole time berating Jessi for being irresponsible (oh, and at one point, the book spelled her name "Jesse," and it bugged the crap out of me. What happened to proof-reading?). Even after the Ramseys return to town, Aunt Cecelia remains to "supervise," which is AMM's way of leading up to Auntie C moving in with the Ramseys in the near future.
On the island:
Dawn - Miss Independent basically falls apart on the island (although, for a 13 year old girl, she still did much better than to be expected), she is unable to contribute any ideas to the food/water/rescue situation. The picnic food that was able to be saved during the storm runs out by Sunday afternoon. Jeff manages to fashion a fishing pole and catch some fish for food. Dawn freaks out when she realizes that her watch has stopped working, but Jeff's watch is waterproof, and both times she asks him what time it is, both on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, he answers "9 o'clock," which becomes the unofficial name of the island. Jamie Newton gets really sick, is running a pretty major fever, and Dawn spends most of the time in the little cave they found on the island with him. She falls into a deeper funk when Sunday rolls into Monday and they still haven't been rescued.
Claudia - and Claudia is now the babysitter that I want with me in any emergency situation. Claudia manages to find the cave they use for shelter and gets the kids to gather wood for a fire. After she realizes that she forgot to properly beach her boat, which drifts away overnight, Claudia keeps a level head and takes immediate charge of the situation. Claudia has the idea to use the tarp that was originally on her boat to fashion a rain-catcher so that they can have drinkable water. She realizes that the survival kit included with the boat doesn't have any medicine, so she tells Dawn that will need to save as much of the water for Jamie to keep his fever down. Becca and Haley have the idea to write "HELP" on the sand with seashells, but since all of the shells are about the same color as the beach, Claudia tries to find alternate ways to signal for rescue. She finds a large piece of a broken mirror, and when they hear a plane flying near on Monday afternoon, she runs out on the beach and flashes the mirror. The plane sees them, and uses a bullhorn to ask if they need a doctor, and Claudia signals that the do. A Coast Guard ship soon arrives with all of the parents on board, and they are rescued.
All of the castaways are taken to the hospital to be checked out, and except for some mild dehydration and sunburn, everyone except Jamie is fine. Jeff does have a cut on his foot that is slightly infected, but he is released that night. Jamie, however, has strep throat and an ear infection, and has to stay in the hospital overnight. Dawn confesses to her mom about how she fell apart, and Sharon tells her that she can't always be the strong one, and that Claudia was able to learn that she could be strong, too, which was a pretty good response, I might have to steal that for my future kids. Jeff flies back to California on Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday the BSC cancels the meeting because there is a huge press conference at the community center. Claudia teasingly challenges Dawn to a rematch, and Dawn's response is "no way."
BSC Life Lessons Learned:
Claudia - She never realized that she was smart until she was on the island.
Kristy - Standing up for what is right is important
Stacey - realizes the 'Brook is now definitely her home
Jessi - learns that adults in her family, especially Aunt Cecilia, don't trust her as much as she thought
Mallory - helping search made her feel in control during the crisis
Mary Anne - how much she loves Dawn
Dawn - "There's no place like home."
Island Fashion!!!
What Claudia Wore (first race): "So she'd put on a tank top and baggy drawstring pants. Over the top, she was wearing a button down shirt of her father's. The sleeves were rolled up, but none of the buttons were buttoned. She was also wearing big earrings that she had made herself."
Ok, so not a true version of Claudia's outfit (although Kerri Green's outfit is pretty close), but hey, this is one of the greatest movie sailing races of all time, people.
What Claudia Wore (second race): "That morning I'd dressed sensibly for our rematch. No jewelry at all (I was not about to lose on account of earrings), and a long sleeved jersey that I could tuck into my jeans. I even pulled my hair back and braided it so it wouldn't blow in my face."
The one with the flies!!! It's crazy how I can remember specific lines and images from certain books even after the 20+ years since I first read the series. This one was one of my favorites, so maybe that's why so many details of this one jumped out at me this time.
So, we start this one with Stacey visiting her dad in NYC, going shopping (where she almost asks her dad to buy her a cropped purple suede fringed jacket - how 80s is that, yikes - but instead gets heart-shaped black-and-white checkerboard sunglasses), plus has brunch on Sunday with Laine, pre-breakup. She gets back to the 'Brook late Sunday evening, so she actually rewears her train outfit to school the next day (which is nice to see, AMM makes it always seem like Stacey and Claudia have these magical, never-ending, Cher Horowitz-type closets. Even Kate Middleton recycles outfits, AMM. Wonder if Duchess Catherine was a BSC fan?). Anyway, that Monday afternoon, the BSC meeting turns out to be a momentous one, at least for this story's purposes. Kristy (whom Stacey refers to as "a little babyish," hee hee) announces that an old historic home is about to be torn down in Stoneybrook, which Stacey thinks is super lame. However, the phone rings, and Dr. Johanssen calls with an interesting proposition. Charlotte's grandfather is having surgery and will be hospitalized for a week (back when insurance companies let you stay that long for a procedure), and the Johanssens want to go stay with him, but don't want Charlotte to miss school. So they ask if Stacey would mind having Charlotte stay with her for the week, and that they would pay her accordingly. Ok, I know Stacey considers Charlotte like a little sister, but this just seemed a little weird. You think maybe they would want Charlotte to stay with the Ramseys, since Becca and Charlotte are best friends, or have some family member from the other side of the family come stay for the week. Whatevs, AMM. Anyway, somehow Mrs. McGill enthusiastically agrees to this, because this is Stoneybrook, after all.
Stacey decides to decorate the guest bedroom for her "little sister," putting some Raggedy Ann bedsheets on the bed (oh, I remember the Raggedy Ann bedsheets!!) and places some of her old stuffed animals (any of her stuffed pigs, I wonder?) on the bed. Charlotte is super homesick the first day, so Stacey decides to walk her down the street to look at the old house that is about to be demolished. The workers have already left for the day, so they walk around the perimeter of the house. Suddenly, Stacey sees a face in one of the turret windows, but dismisses as her imagination. Then, both she and Charlotte hear what sounds like chains being dragged across the floor from somewhere inside, plus some sort of moaning sound. Then, as she and Charlotte walk around the back of the house, they spot a huge swarm of flies right by the back door, which reminds Stacey of The Amityville Horror, which she had recently seen with Claudia (really?!? Not sure if my parents would have let me watch something like that at 13, but then, I do remember watching Alfred Hitchcock movies at a sleepover in 6th grade, so I guess it's plausible...). Anyway, the flies are too much for Stacey, she and Charlotte are seriously spooked and run back to the McGill house.
The next BSC meeting, Stacey brings Charlotte along (with Kristy's permission, of course), and they recount their adventures at the house. Kristy manages to find a book about the history of Stoneybrook in Watson's library, and it contains an old map of the town. Apparently, the old home was built on top of an ancient graveyard (because...of course it is. The thing that gets me, though, is that I don't see there being any way of them not knowing about the graveyard already. Something tells me that something like that would be a story passed down to each generation, to scare young kids and such. I mean, our town had the old Thompson family burial plot, buried deep within the woods, that kids had to hike out to on a dare at some point. Now, of course, those woods have disappeared, and the family graveyard is in the middle of a neighborhood, stupid surburban expansion...). Kristy brings the old book and map over to Stacey's house, so that she and Charlotte can study them as well, and Claudia actually goes to the library *gasp!!* to find out who actually owned the house. She finds out that the last owner's name is Ronald Hennessey, and that he is currently alive and well, and is resident as Stoneybrook Manor.
Meanwhile, back at the McGill house, things get even worse. Charlotte wakes up with a sore throat, and when she starts running a fever, Mrs. McGill races her to the pediatrician, Dr. Dellankamp (who seems to be the only pediatrician in Stoneybrook, she is mentioned in several books). It turns out that Charlotte has tonsillitis, and she gets prescribed a massive dose of penicillin and has to stay home from school for several days (which kind of defeats the purpose of Charlotte staying with the McGills in the first place...). Charlotte puts up a major fuss, and Stacey yells, "Shut your whining, you little brat!! I have to give myself insulin injections every day!!" Ok, it didn't happen that way, but after Stacey shows Charlotte what she has to do every day to stay healthy, Charlotte sucks it up and takes her medicine. After a few days, she gets better and can start delving back into the mystery of the Hennessey house.
Stacey and Charlotte decide to take another stroll by the house, and this time, they see a fire coming out of one of the windows. Stacey runs to get a wheelbarrow that is full of rainwater, but by the time she gets back, the fire has disappeared, and there are no scorch marks on the window. That night, both Stacey and Charlotte have nightmares about the house, so Kristy, naturally, calls an emergency meeting. Stacey knows that this is important, because "we rarely have emergency meetings." I might have laughed out loud at that, because they have an emergency meeting every other book - you know, with the vampires, the wedding, missing cats, stolen diamonds, the list goes on and on... At the meeting, Mallory admits to having a nightmare about the house, too, and Claudia confesses that she felt a hand on her arm when she was walking by the house, but no one was there. Kristy decides the best course of action is to go visit Mr. Hennessey at Stoneybrook Manor to find out the history of his home.
The next day, Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and Charlotte visit Mr. Hennessey, where he spins tall tales of all the ghosts of his house, including one called "Old Rubbernose" and a lady in a green velvet dress. The girls leave the nursing home even more determined to solve the mystery, and they all decide to attend the actual demolition of the house the next day. While there, Stacey sees the house burst into flames, but since no one else reacts, she realizes she is having some kind of vision. She sees Mr. Hennessey walking around in the flames, so she rushes to the nursing home, where she finds out that Mr. Hennessey passed away overnight. He left a letter for her, where he explains that he was just having fun with them the other day, that none of the ghost stories were true. When she meets back up with the rest of the BSC, Kristy explains that Charlie talked to some of the workmen during the demo, and found out that the moaning sound came from the old pipes, the flames were caused by a worker using a torch, and that they mass of flies were actually a hive a bees disturbed by the construction. The girls realize that there is no mystery, and Stacey wisely decides to not tell them about her "vision."
The Johanssens come home, and Charlotte tells them all about the mystery, which Stacey tries to laugh off as just something fun, and Mrs. McGill informs Dr. Johanssen about Charlotte's tonsillitis. And somehow the Johanssens decide that even though Charlotte got sick and had nightmares while with Stacey, that Stacey can still be Charlotte's go-to sitter. Because...yeah.
The Mystery Fashion!!
What Stacey Wore: "For example, I had dressed for my train ride in a white jumpsuit, layered over a blue tank top. I had on white push-down socks with blue hearts all over them, a wide blue patent leather belt, and a wild necklace made of all kinds of plastic sea creatures in a rainbow of colors."
What Stacey Wore (the next day at school) - "The same white jumpsuit, pink shirt, and oops!, red socks."
What Stacey Wore: "I'd gotten this pink polka-dotted short skirt with suspender straps and had worn it with an oversized white T-shirt. I had on my pink high-top sneakers, folded down to show their striped lining. I'd also worn these great earrings Claudia had given me for my last birthday. They had all these little pink plastic hearts dangling down from one bigger heart."
What Claudia Wore: "One earring was shaped like a little a little record, and the other looked like a stereo."
What Claudia Wore: "She was sitting on her bed, chewing grape bubblegum and blowing purple bubbles, which matched her tie-dyed T-shirt dress."
Lauren Conrad likes the purple tie-dyed look too, Claudia
Twilight comes to the 'Brook, y'all. By the way, Kristy's shirt on the cover bugs the crap out of me, it has the name of the movie, Little Vampires, but it has it in quotation marks. Really?!? Come on, random cover artist dude, you don't put the name of a movie, band, book, etc. in quotation marks on a t-shirt, that's just crazy talk talkin'.
So, Derek Masters is back in Stoneybrook for the summer, and this time, he is bringing Hollywood with him. That's right, Derek is filming a TV movie, called Little Vampires (sounds like a Twilight prequel, which would air on ABC Family), right in Stoneybrook. Mrs. Masters calls the BSC needing a set sitter for Derek for the duration of the movie, and Kristy gets the job. Plus, Claudia will watch Derek's little brother, Todd, a few days a week when Mrs. Masters needs to be on set. My question is what movie studio would be happy with a 13 year old girl being the only chaperone at times for 8 year old Derek. Something tells me that some kind of SAG code would require that any chaperone be over the age of 18. But, whatevs, AMM, we'll roll with it, like always.
So, the first day of production rolls around, and Kristy just strolls onto set to meet Derek (because that makes total sense. Why would she need some type of access badge or an escort to show her where to go? Nope, we just let any 13 year old girl stroll onto a movie set at any time...). Anyway , Kristy is surprised when she sees Derek, apparently the boy finally hit puberty and has grown 4 inches (no word is his voice is cracking or not. That would have been a fun detail to provide, AMM). Plus, Derek has grown super clumsy, breaking a Tiffany lamp in the prop department on his first day, which highly aggravates the prop master. However, things start happening on set which can't be attributed to Derek's clumsiness - Todd Masters accidentally breaks a special prop window through which Derek was supposed to fall; however, it turns out that the window had real glass instead of the special breakaway glass that is used for stunts. If Derek had fallen through that, he would have been seriously injured. Furthermore, the wires on Derek's stunt harness break, but since Derek had already been replaced by a stuntwoman due to the window incident, he wasn't hurt, and the stuntwoman only suffered minor bruising. After Kristy finds a menacing note threatening Derek in his trailer, she calls, you guessed it, an emergency meeting.
Here is the list of suspects compiled by the BSC:
Carson Fraser - the star of Little Vampires (he plays Laddie Adulcar, an anagram of Dracula - I see what you did there, AMM). Carson is famous for starring on the television show "Miami Beach, USA" (I'm picturing David Charvet from "Baywatch"). He starts to get jealous when Derek starts to oushine him in the acting department.
Frank Bottoms - Carson's manager, who is getting frustrated that Derek is getting way more press than Carson due to all the accidents on set.
Sheila Mayberry - the movie's publicist, who gets more and more excited with each mishap, because that means more publicity, and all publicity is good publicity when it comes to movies.
Zeke Hill - the movie's prop master, who was fired after the incident with the prop window
Cliff Chase - the producer of Little Vampires, who wants his movie to succeed at all costs
Lindsey Rockaway - the crazy stalker fan of Carson Fraser's, who is on set every single day to catch a glimpse of her object of devotion
Meanwhile, while the BSC investigates, they all continue to sit for neighborhood kids, and they all randomly bring these kids to set to watch filming. Yeah, I'm sure the producers love having random local kids just hanging around, making noise and causing mayhem. Claire Pike is terrified of the "vampires," but Mary Anne solves this by having Clair dress up like a witch to scare the vampires away (see cover image for visual). Mallory does get chosen one day to be an extra in a scene, which gives her a boost of confidence (I guess this director didn't have a problem with her look like the last one). In addition to all of this, Cokie Mason starts hanging around, hoping to meet Carson Fraser as well. She invites all of the cast and crew to a pool party at her house, but the only people that show up are some of the camera guys, Kristy, Claudia, and Derek. Kristy feels sorry for Cokie, until the next day when everyone who went to the party ends up with food poisoning, at which time Special K is back to thinking Cokie is a bee-yotch from Hades.
Back on set, Derek continues to get notes, and Kristy somehow talks one of the production assistants into letting her look over the film's purchasing orders (I just...can't. Seriously, AMM?). She finds out that the window was ordered from Rockaway Glass (or something like that, didn't write down the company name, because I'm lazy). She sees Lindsey, the pyscho stalker, hanging around Derek's limo, covered in some type of oily fluid. Kristy somehow deduces that the brake lines have been cut (again, just no words), and stops the driver from leaving the set with Derek. She also chases down and catches Lindsey, who admits to doing everything out of love for Carson. And instead of being arrested, AMM does this PSA-type happy ending where Lindsey enters some type of mental institution for intensive therapy (if you can call that a happy ending, anyway). The production moves out to LA to finish filming, where Dawn, who is on one of her Cali extended stays, takes over duties as Derek's set sitter.
And the movie about vampires is a huge success. Maybe Hollywood should jump on the vampire bandwagon already...cause we haven't had a vampire fix in a long time...
Forks Fashion!!
What Claudia Wore (party edition): "Claudia was looking great in a loose, flowery jumpsuit."
What Cokie Wore (movie set edition): "Cokie was wearing a white, ruffly peasant blouse that was pulled off her shoulders and a pink flowered skirt with white high-heeled sandals."
What Cokie Wore (party edition): "Well, Cokie was wearing a tight mini-dress (pink, of course), pink heels, and nail polish and lipstick to match." Sounds like a Barbie doll, right?
So, raise your hand if you liked gym in middle school. Anyone...anyone? Actually, I didn't mind gym, I was just athletic enough to get by, never picked last or teased for my skills (or lack thereof...). Plus, doesn't that cover shot bring back memories of middle school gym clothes? We didn't have school-provided uniforms, had to provide our own clothes, and Umbros seemed to be the most popular selection. I do feel sorry for that one dude on the cover with the unnaturally short shorts there, why aren't his buddies laughing at him? Seriously.
So, Mallory is over at the Hobart house (which used to be Mary Anne's house) "studying" with Ben (oh, who am I kidding, Mallory is 11 and Miss Prude, so I'm sure they were actually doing homework). Anyway, Ben mentions that he heard a rumor that the gym class is about to switch activities from field hockey to volleyball. Mal cringes, because she hates volleyball, but hopes that the rumor is just that, a rumor. Plus, Ben mentions that in Australia, his motherland, that they only had gym once a week. Really? I just find that really hard to believe, we had gym every day through 9th grade, then it became an elective. Just can't see another country, especially one like Australia, only having physical education once a week. Good one, AMM.
However, it's getting close to 5:30, so Mallory rushes across the street to Claudia's for the BSC meeting, where nothing of major note happens, except that Logan is randomly in attendance today. However, when we get to our intros for each BSC member, Mallory provides this nugget on Claudia, "I can't believe the word she spells wrong! Honestly, half the time I think she's kidding. But she swears she's not." I might have snorted out loud when I read that (is that redundant? Can you silently snort? Mull it over...).
The next day at school, Mallory's worst nightmares come true - not only is gym switching from field hockey to volleyball, but they are also making the volleyball coed. Apparently field hockey, and every other activity so far, has been divided boy-girl. Mallory is literally terrified of playing with boys (Kenny Loggins + volleyball = awesomesauce. To be fair, none of the 6th grade boys looked like that. Ok, back on track, now). Plus, Mal is disgusted when she finds out that they have to wear those ratty pinnies over their gym uniforms. Oh, gym pinnies, that is a smell that I don't ever want to relive. So the games begin, and the boys serving on the other team quickly realize that Mallory sucks at volleyball. So, naturally, the other team's strategy is to keep serving to Mallory.
Of course, Mallory's teammates start giving her snide remarks, and the opposing team continues to heckle her. The teacher, Coach Walden, does nothing to stop the jeering. Mallory gets so upset and flustered that a serve hits her right in the face. As she starts crying, Coach Walden yells at her for daydreaming during the game. Mallory shows a little spine and yells back at the coach, which causes Mallory to be benched the rest of the game. Now I find the whole coach-ignoring-the-bullying thing a little hard to believe here, not because that doesn't ever happen, but because the whole point of this is to have everybody learn volleyball, and you've got one whole team basically doing nothing. Plus, would a teacher just blame someone for getting hit in the face like that? And even if they did, I would think they would bench the student for safety's sake the rest of the game, and not just tell the 11 year old girl to "man up and pay attention." Maybe AMM had a bad gym experience as a child...
After that horrible first day, Mallory comes up with a plan - she is going to bench herself for every game until they switch to another sport. Of course, Coach Walden is not happy, and tells Mallory that she will get detention every time she does this. As a group of boys walk by and taunt Mallory, she decides that this is a consequence she is willing to take. Ben, who has gym a different period than Mal, tries to dissuade her that afternoon from doing this by telling her that she will fail gym, but Mallory's mind is set. She willingly goes to detention every day, and then rushes home to get the mail before her parents can see the detention notices mailed out by the school. Such a deviant, Mal.
Meanwhile, in BSC-land, the girls start to notice that some of their regular, well-behaved clients, namely Jamie Newton, the Rodowsky boys, Hunter Bruno, and Squirt (Jessi's little brother), are suddenly acting up and causing mayhem. As they continue to compare notes on recent sitting jobs, Mallory realizes the common denominator in all of this ruckus at school and in the club is boys. The boys at school are jerks, the boys they sit for are jerks-in-training. She points this out to the club, and everyone looks at her like "oh sweetie, bless your heart." Stacey mentions all the boys who have been behaving, and starts throwing some statistical analysis at her, and Mary Anne brings up Ben and Logan as examples of fine, upstanding youths. Mallory then says that Ben and Logan are nice because they are not from Stoneybrook, so they haven't been tainted. Oh, the logic of an 11 year old...
Back at SMS, Coach Walden realizes that detentions are not working for Mallory, so after telling her that "life eats up quitters," (that sounds like a motivational poster at Globo Gym, doesn't it?) she makes Mallory wash the pinnies after school as punishment. When she gets home from school that day, the mailbox is empty. Yep, Mrs. Pike finally got the mail and confronts Mallory. She promptly bursts into tears, and after sobbing out her story, Mrs. Pike tells Mallory that she needs to try again, plus go talk to her coach to see if she can get extra help. Coach Walden refuses to give Mallory extra help, but does say that as long as Mallory tries to play, she will make the boys lay off of her (because apparently that wasn't logical enough to think of the first day, way to go, Coach). Mallory soldiers through the rest of the term, then, mercifully, they switch to archery (by the way, I have fond memories of archery in middle school, at the end of the week Coach Schmidtke, maker of the famous Schmidtke juice, would bring out deer targets for us to shoot. Gotta love school in the South...). Mallory turns out to be a natural at archery, hits the bullseye on her second try, and Coach Walden encourages her to try out for the archery team (what the..? Does any middle school have an archery team?). Mallory makes the team, and Katniss Pike is born.
Fashion: Catching Fire!!!
What Claudia Wore: "Claudia was wearing a pair of soft, balloony, purple pants; a neon green long-sleeve leotard top; a wide, red braided belt; and a pair of soft, red ballet shoes. Her hair was swept into a French braid with wispy tendrils hanging loose. From one ear dangled a long earring made of small papier-mache tropical fruit. In the other ear, where she had two holes, Claudia wore two small papier-mache hoops."
What Dawn wore: "For example, today she was wearing black stirrup pants, a long, fleecy red-and-pink rose-print top, and black high top sneakers. She has two holes pierced in each ear. In those she wore four matching sparkly rose earrings."
What Mallory wore: "It was a one piece denim jumpsuit. I think it's "too high-style" for me." You're probably right, Mallory.
So this book isn't an actual part of the series, just one of those related "special edition" type books that usually accompany a YA series like this. This book is made up of a series of letters and postcards from one member of the club to another, and each page literally has a postcard or letter you can actually pull out of an envelope and read. The cover claims that there is even a "friendship bracelet from the BSC inside!!," however, since this is a library copy, no telling when and where the friendship bracelet ended up. I feel deprived.
So this book takes place the summer after 8th grade (now which 8th grade year is unclear...). Kristy is in the hospital with appendicitis, plus a staph infection post-surgery, and she gets a chain letter from her cousin, Robin (I think she is one of the cousins mentioned at Elizabeth and Watson's wedding). By the way, do y'all remember the old school chain letters? I never passed them on, thought it was lame, and never had a catastrophic accident befall me. Anyway, Kristy's letter is a somewhat typical chain letter, "you must pass this on or bad luck will haunt you" (I know Mary Anne had a bad experience with a chain letter at one point, haven't reread that one yet. Patience, Iago...). This chain letter has a twist, though - the recipient must reveal a secret to the next person in the chain. So this book has each link/letter of the chain, plus some other random postcards thrown in to provide more exposition. Woo-hoo.
And since this is summer, the BSC members are scattered all over the country on vacations - Claudia and Stacey are at her dad's in NYC; Jessi is vacationing with Mallory and her family in Sea City, NJ; Mary Anne and Dawn are visiting her family in California (I get that MA is Dawn's stepsister, but just seems a little weird for her to be visiting Mr. Schafer in California...); Logan is with extended family in Louisville, KY; and Shannon is at Camp Erie, a summer camp in PA. But fret not, the BSC has set up an answering machine in Claudia's room until they are all back in the 'Brook (and Kristy is released from the hospital).
Y'all ready for some BSC skeletons?
Kristy, to Stacey - after updating Stacey about her hospital stay, Kristy confesses that she sometimes hates her father (the phantom Mr. Thomas, not Daddy Watsonbucks), and, at times, even wishes he were dead. Kristy thought Stacey would understand since she just recently went through her own parents' divorce.
Stacey, to Mallory - After telling Mal about the fab time she and Claudia are having in NYC (they've hit up MoMA and Bloomingdale's, where Claudia bought a pair of leopard print socks and Stacey bought a t-shirt with a Monopoly board printed on it), Stacey reveals her deep, dirty secret - she dyed her hair red right after moving to Stoneybrook for the first time. She later panicked, then redyed it blonde right before her parents got home from work. They never knew the difference, of course, because what are the chances she picked the right shade of blonde dye? Guess that's where they got the idea to do the same for Mallory in California, huh?
Mallory, to Jessi - This one seems kind of like cheating, since Jessi and Mal are on vacation together and literally staying in the same bedroom, but oh well. Mallory confesses that she once cheated off her on an English test for which Mal had forgotten to study. Mallory apologizes and hopes that Jessi will forgive her.
Jessi later leaves Mal a note telling her that she knew it all along and had already forgiven her. BFFs forever!!!
Jessi, to Mary Anne - Jessi reveals to MA that she and her sister, Becca, once played with matches, accidentally dropped one, and burned a hole in their living room rug. They moved a chair over a few inches to cover the hole, but their parents found it anyway while cleaning. However, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey figured that it happened at their last party since they have some friends who smoke. Jessi doesn't tell them differently (honestly, I probably would have done the same thing as Jessi here, blame it on the smokers, girl).
Mary Anne, to Claudia - After telling Claudia about how she and Dawn went to Disneyland, Mary Anne admits to Claudia that she has recently been going to a therapist. She says that she has been feeling overwhelmed with life changes (you know, Dad getting remarried, moving houses, breaking up and reuniting with Logan, I haven't read any of these books yet, deal with it), and that her grades started dropping in school. Her therapist helped her process everything, and now she is slowly feeling more in control (was the therapist ever mentioned in any of the books? Just seems like a pretty big thing to just throw into a chain letter book without it being mentioned elsewhere in the series...).
Claudia, to Dawn - After updating Dawn on the dibbly fresh time she is having in NYC, Claudia confesses that she once stole $1 from Mimi's purse so that she could buy a Twinkie. First of all, remember when you could buy a snack like that from a convenience store with just a dollar? Good times. Second of all, this "secret" just seems stupid, I mean, you know Mimi would have given Claudia money if she asked for it, just seems pointless and out of character for Claudia.
Dawn, to Shannon - Dawn admits to Shannon that she pranked Mary Anne on the flight to California by telling MA that she saw Cam Geary, Mary Anne's favorite actor, in first class. MA spends the whole flight trying to sneak a peek into first class to catch a glimpse of her Tiger Beat crush. Mary Anne even later writes a fan letter to Cam, telling him that they were on the same plane. Oh, sweetie... And Dawn seems to like pranking MA, I will have another example of this coming to Project BSC soon...
Shannon doesn't continue the chain, I guess because the only club member left at that point is Logan, and what 13 year old girl wants to reveal a deep, dark secret to a boy? Plus, in the midst of these big reveals, the BSC plans a "Glad You're All Better" party for Kristy when she is released from the hospital. Big fun in Stoneybrook.
Oh, and sorry, neither Claudia nor Stacey described any of their outfits in any of the letters or postcards. No friendship bracelet from the BSC, no outfits, my day has been ruined.
