#18 Stacey's Mistake

The club sits for 10

Kids in N.Y.C. and they

Only lose one. Yay!

Summary

The adults in Stacey's neighborhood have decided to hold a meeting to discuss the apparently rampant homelessness in the area. Quite a few of them ask Stacey to watch their kids during the meeting, and she feels bad that she has to turn most of them down. That's when she gets her idea: she'll get the BSC to come up for the weekend to help out! The visit gets off to a rocky start, though. The Connecticut contingent of the BSC gets lost in Grand Central Station, and it takes Stacey 20 minutes to find them. When she does, Stacey realizes that they look like.....CONSPICUOUS TOURISTS. Mary Anne pulls out a guidebook, in spite of the fact that she has a native New Yorker right there, Claudia has a suitcase with wheels, Kristy is ewaring her famous collie baseball cap, Dawn looks terrified, and they're ALL being loud. After a quick stop at the Mc Gills' apartment to drop off luggage, the girls go to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. They make a big fuss over how cool the place is, which embarrasses Stacey, and Kristy orders fill-it-mig-nun. They go to Bloomingdale's next, where Mary Anne gets chased down by mall security for taking eye shadow that she thought was a free sample.

After the shopping trip, the girls head back to Stacey's, where they make their way through her apartment building, meeting the kids they'll be taking care of the next day. Then, it's time to get ready for the BSC party. Mary Anne insists that everyone wear what Stacey tells them (so they can blend in with all the sophisitcated New York kids), but in the end, she herself is the only one who doesn't. Laine Cummings arrives early (looking 19) to help set up for the party, and she and Claudia definitely get off to a bad start. To be fair, Claudia started the snide comments. Laine seemed perfectly willing to be friendly, but as Stacey tells us, "Laine isn't one to ignore a snipe attack." The party itself is sort of a failure. The Connecticut and New York kids aren't mixing, except for Mary Anne. She first bugs the snot out of everyone by reciting her New York facts, and then entertains them by describing how terrified Dawn is of everything. Kristy manages to make a love connection with Stacey's friend Coby but Claudia cuts in on them when they're just about to enjoy a nice slow dance. By the end of the evening, Dawn is mad at Mary Anne, Kristy is mad at Claudia, Claudia hates Laine, and Laine decides to go home rather than spend the night. I don't blame her...

Stacey calls a truce for the next day, to get them trough the sitting job. They collect the ten kids midmorning, and head to the Natural History Museum. They lose Henry Walker, but find him pretty quickly; he'd just gone back to see the brontosaurus after the rest of the group had moved on. After lunch in the museum restaurant, they head to Central Park. It's there that Stacey has an epiphany of sorts; Claudia points out that Stacey has been acting like nothing in New York is exciting to her anymore, and that makes Stacey wonder if her embarrassement is more about her own snobbery than her friends; behavior.

Later that afternoon, Laine calls. She wants to try again with the BSC (especially Claudia), and invites them out to dinner and a Broadway show. The night ends up a success, and Laine and Claudia become friends. Well...sort of. They exchange addresses as the limo is dropping the sitters off at the end of the night. I don't know whether or not they actually kept in touch. The sitters leave the next day, after a breakfast of bagels with lox and cream cheese. That sounds really good right now...and I don't even like salmon!

Thoughts and Things

• As of this book, Stacey didn't know about Jeff moving back to California. I know the pageant was going on at the same time, but you'd think that someone would have passed along that important bit of information!
• I hate to admit it, but I felt for Stacey a little at the beginning of the book when the rest of the club was being all loud and dorky. I still get embarrassed in certain situations if the people I'm with are loud and dorky.
• Grace Walker looks really cute on the cover. I'll ignore the fact that this scene never actually happened in the book. :)
• There are department stores in CT. At least one of them must have a makeup counter; Mary Anne totally should have known not to take that eye shadow!
• A 13-year-old who looks 19=jailbait!