#34 Mary Anne and Too Many Boys

Why are Toby's shorts

Pulled up so high? He's not Steve

Urkel, for Pete's sake!

Summary

It's summer, and Mary Anne and Stacey are headed back to Sea City with the Pikes. Not long after arriving, they run into Toby and Alex, the boys they met last time they were there. Stacey and Toby bascially pick up where they left off, while Stacey desperately tries to hide the bottle of Sun-Lite she's using to lighten her hair. I had friends who used a similar product back in the day, and let's just say the results were never particularly cute. Anyway, Mary Anne is pretty happy to see Alex, too, which kind of complicates things. After all, she's got Logan waiting for her back home. Even so, Mary Anne agrees to go out with Alex later that week. The problem? Stacey has a date with Toby the same night, and the girls are supposed to take their nights off separately. In true Stacey-in-Sea-City fashion, Stacey orders Mary Anne to cancel her date. Which she does. She even tries the same thing again the next night, but Mary Anne actually stands up for herself and gets to go out with Alex. It's kind of awkward at first, but they warm up to each other and end up having a nice dinner. They go to the boarwalk, too, where Alex wins her a purple hippo in a ring toss game. The date only leaves Mary Anne more confused than ever; does she want Alex or Logan?

In other news, Vanessa Pike is dealing with a boy situation of her own. She's got a crush on Chris, the boy who works at the Ice Cream Palace, and she's even left him some secret admirer poems. Unfortunately, Chris thinks they're from Mallory. He even sends a message to Mal via Vanessa, asking her out. Luckily, the Pikes will be leaving Sea City before the time Chris wants to take her out. Vanessa ends up deciding not to tell Chris (or Mallory) the truth about what happened, and leaves Chris one last note telling him that his secret admirer won't be able to go out with him. Poor kid; that must have been rough.

Right before the end of the vacation, Toby ends up dumping Stacey. He wants to date other girls back home, and doesn't want to be tied down to his little vacation fling. Mary Anne and Alex have one last date before she goes home, at the same restaurant the went to before. This dinner is even more awkward than the first one, until the very end. At that point, both Mary Anne and Alex admit that they have significant others back home, and that they're better off as friends.

Rating: 4

Thoughts and Things

• Okay, so Mary Anne essentially cheats on Logan. Yes, she decided in the end that Alex was only a friend, but for most of the vacation, she wasn't sure. She spent a ton of time with Alex in order to find out. As far as I can remember, Logan never finds out about this. I guess he had good reason to be jealous of Alex in SS #10...

• Stacey throws a fit about towels in his book and in another one of the Sea City books. Was that intentional on the part of the ghostwriters?

• When I was a kid, I thought that Mary Anne's purple hippo sounded awesome. Now, not so much. Most of those carnival toys are really ugly and cheap-looking, and that's kind of how I picture that hippo.

• Vanessa really handled her situation well, and I love the way she and Mary Anne bonded over it. I wish we'd seen more of their friendship develop later in the series.

• This is definitely my favorite of the three Sea City books. :) It's also the fastest selling BSC book of all time, according to the facts in the back of Graduation Day.

• There's so much good eating in this book: Claudia's candy, the ice cream, pizza, and hot dogs in Sea City, the burgers, fries, and giant chocolate chip cookie that Kristy and the Rodowskys eat during their day at the pool....I always end up hungry after reading this book!