Ok, so I’m Rachel and I was supposed to have the snark
before Tory’s, but my oldest had to have an emergency appendectomy so I’ve been
a bit busy. Tory’s would have made more
sense if I had since I’m doing the book before.
This isn’t my favorite book; it’s not even in the top 20, but Tory
wanted to do hers, so I volunteered for this one. How thoughtful and sensitive of me….
The book starts with dialogue. Mary Anne and Dawn having
dinner together again because their
parents are out on a date again. Turns out they’ve been dating each other
exclusively as of late. We get their
tumultuous history as Dawn and Mary Anne eat and clean up. When they’re in Dawn’s room, Mary Anne
describes the secret passage way and the ghost of Jared Mullray who
(supposedly) haunts it. We have some massive foreshadowing as Mary Anne says
she feels the most safe and comfortable when she’s in her own bed, in her own
room, in her own house that she’s lived in forever. Then the phone rings and lo and behold, it’s
Kristy! What better way to transition
into the chapter two descriptions than with a sort of random phone call from
the club president herself?
At the next day’s BSC meeting, the subplot is introduced
with a call from Mrs. Arnold, the mother of the infamous Arnold twins.
Mary Anne gets the job and when she arrives to sit, she finds only
Marilyn home; Carolyn is out with friends, which makes Marilyn a little
lonely. She tells Mary Anne about her
new friend, Gozzie Kunka, who is from a foreign country and has lived all over because her father is a dignitary. Mary Anne has no reason to believe this
friend is not real and assumes she is.
Carolyn arrives home and immediately Marilyn accuses her of having
friends who are snobs, spurring an argument.
The girls don’t talk much after that and the job ends.
Mary Anne arrives home and starts dinner. Her father comes
in a few minutes later and suggests they invite Dawn over. Over dinner, he suggests a surprise birthday
party for Mrs. Schafer, small, just the three of them. Mary Anne wonders why he’s making such a big
deal about it since it’s not a “big” birthday, but starts thinking about what
to get her as a present, since Dawn knows she’s getting her mom a day planner
(seriously? You can’t do better than
that for your mother?). Dawn, to be
perfectly honest, isn’t all that helpful; she just shoots down Mary Anne’s
ideas, saying it’s hard to explain, they are just so close, blah, blah, blah
(remember that when Dawn decides to move back to Cali). Things are awkward for a moment, then Mary
Anne tells the Gozzie Kunka story and the fight is over. Yay, puppies, flowers
blooming, butterscotch pudding and all that jazz.
Jessi has the next babysitting chapter, sitting for the
Braddock kids. Matt Braddock is deaf,
but Jessi is versed in sign language and his sister Haley is fluent. She’s also one of Carolyn’s new friends and
they get together with the Pikes and play a game called Sardines, which sounds
like a lot of fun. Is it just me, or are
people always going to other people’s houses when they’re sitting? When my kids are sitting or being sat, they
stay put...I’m not totally comfortable with them wandering all over or having
friends over when my son is sitting, the whole liability thing and it’s not
really fair to him either. I digress,
just like this chapter. It’s really just
there to point out that Marilyn and Carolyn aren’t really getting along.
Mary Anne sits for the Arnolds
again and it’s a rainy day, an argumenty day, the girls driving each other nuts
nit picking. Mary Anne gets out a game
and they play calmly for awhile until Carolyn flings an insult and they both
storm off to their room. Mary Anne tries
to get them to talk to each other, tells them they’re sisters, they love each
other, but all they are fixated on is that they want to be apart. Marilyn puts a tape line down the middle of
the room and they refuse to talk it out.
Mary Anne makes them take the tape down and then she heads for
home.
Oh, oh! It’s the
night of the big birthday surprise and Mary Anne and Dawn get dressed before
their meeting so as not to waste any time after. It’s a good thing too, or else they wouldn’t
have had those 30 minutes to kill before it was time to leave. They get to the restaurant, Sharon is surprised, everything is going well
and here comes the cake! On it is an
engagement ring! Holy diamond,
Batman! They’re getting married! And they’ve known about it for awhile! (Were you planning on telling the kids, or
just moving their stuff in little by little?). Dawn says omg, we’re
stepsisters, Mary Anne cries and happiness reigns. They give Sharon her presents. Mary Anne’s present is a charm replica of
SHS’s high school class ring (seems more like something Dawn would get her, and
the planner Mary Anne) and Dawn doesn’t seem too too thrilled about her
mother’s response to the gift, putting a damper on the evening. Later on, Mary Anne starts to wonder just how
they are going to combine such different families, about how Sharon doesn’t like cats and what a neatnik
her father is. She then decides those
are small potatoes and thinks instead about having a real live sister. FORESHADOWING!!
Dawn and Mary Anne tell everyone about the wedding at the
next BSC meeting and Mary Anne slips Kristy a note telling her they’ll always
be best friends. Then they start talking
about the Arnold
girls and how they’re fighting and angry with each other. Now, remember these points made in 11 and
13 year old wisdom: 1. Brothers and sisters don’t always get along. That doesn’t mean they don’t love each
other. 2. The girls are changing and
their differences and interests might be in line more with one parent or the
other’s personality. 3. Kristy mentions
that her mom and Watson sided with their step-kids right after they got married
to make their new kids like them. Dawn
and Mary Anne, are you listening?? (I
don’t think so, because Dawn and Kristy have to have a conversation about this
again in the next book.).
The next chapter is a Kristy sitting for her siblings
chapter and the only interesting thing that happens is that Charlie buys the
Junk Bucket. Yawn.
Dawn and Mary Anne start planning for the wedding,
conveniently forgetting their parents said “small”. In BSC land, these kids are always planning
their families’ weddings/birthdays/trips without really asking their parents about
it. As a mother, that would annoy the
snot out of me. Anyway, after they
offload their ideas, there are two adults with food falling out of their mouths
and crickets singing in the background. Sharon
and Richard announce they’re going to a justice of the peace. The girls beg for a small church wedding and
the parents give in. I wish they would
have stuck to the JoP, just so these girls would take it easy with the planning
nonsense. Mary Anne and Dawn go upstairs
to hang out in Mary Anne’s room, gushing about being sisters when Dawn drops
the bombshell that Mary Anne and Richard are moving into the Schafer
house. Mary Anne bursts a blood vessel
yelling at Dawn about things Dawn has not control over and Richard and Sharon
run upstairs. Schafers head for home,
Dawn crying, and Richard has a talk with Mary Anne. Richard confesses it was his idea to wait
because he knew she’d be upset about moving and he lays out all the reasons why
it makes more sense to live in the Schafer house. In the last post, Tory made a good point
about combining assets and buying a new house together, a house they could make
their own as a new family. It’s not like
the house is a mansion or something.
It’s a house with a barn. If Sharon’s credit was
awful, have Richard buy it and add her name later with a Quit Claim Deed. Either way, it was pretty rotten not to have
the girls in on the discussion at all.
Mary Anne’s rotten mood continues at her sitting job with
the Arnolds,
but she has the genius to suggest separate rooms and suddenly the girls’
problems are solved and they love each other again. Boy do I wish it was just that easy! It’s a good thing Mrs. Arnold is on board
with the whole room switching around thing.
It would really suck if Mary Anne promised them they could have separate
rooms and Mom came home and said, “no, the sewing room is staying a sewing
room.” Mary Anne should think about this
experience before agreeing to room with Dawn.
I roomed with my best friend for the first two months of college before
I moved out, short some clothes and a best friend. Lesson learned: don’t room with your best
friend.
Stacy sits for them after the great move and gets to see the
redecorated rooms. Carolyn and Marilyn
are friendly again and Carolyn invites her sister to play with her and her
friends and even extends the invitation to Gozzie Kunka. Stacy is then hit with the thought that
Gozzie is an imaginary friend and shares that with the rest of the BSC. Mary Anne laughs and agrees that a foreign
dignitary would never move to Stoneybrook.
Remember that when the line of tv stars, famous authors and FBI agents
start moving in.
The wedding approaches, Mary Anne and Dawn
decide to share a room at the new place and Jeff arrives, calling Richard “sir”
all the time. Hmm, I wonder why that
could be? Maybe because the last time
Jeff was around Sharon
was still dating the Trip Man and Richard was just another guy in the
dating rotation. This whole wedding happened
very quickly without a lot of notice to anyone, much less the kids. They weren't even going to tell Granny and Pop-Pop. I'm not touching that one with a 10 foot pole.
On the wedding day, Claudia comes over and does Mary Anne’s
makeup for the wedding. You know, this
book focuses a lot on Mary Anne and Dawn; I kind of miss the other club
members, especially Claudia. We only get
one really good Claudia outfit in this book.
Anyway, they all arrive at the church, Mary Anne cries her makeup off
during the ceremony and the Pike triplets and Jeff giggle at a naked
angel. Seriously, it’s not the 1500’s;
who puts naked angels in a church in this day and age?
Everyone heads out to Chez Maurice (boy, they get a lot of clientele
during this book) and Dawn gives Mary Anne a now-we’re-sisters present,
cheering her up a bit as the prospect of one last night in her house has gotten
Mary Anne down. Then it’s time for the
throwing of the bouquet…
Thus concludes my take on this book. It is jam packed full of, well, crabby
children and inept parents. Just another
day in the BSC neighborhood!
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