#99 Stacey's Broken Heart

Summary

Mrs. Walker from New York calls Stacey and offers her a week long sitting job in the city. Stacey is thrilled to accept; she's always loved Henry and Grace, and she'll get to see her dad. Robert is pretty sad to lose his girlfriend for a whole week, and that fact actually makes Stacey happy. Things have been a little funny between them lately, and she's been jealous of the time he wants to spend with his other friends. Well, mostly just the female ones....

Not long before Stacey leaves for her week in the city, she decides that spending a day with Robert might be a good idea. She calls his house and finds out that he's playing basketball with friends. When Stacey can't find anyone else who's free to do something with, she heads over to SMS to watch Robert play. She finds a lot of his friends there, but no Robert. In fact, they ask Stacey where he is, since they haven't seen or heard from him all day. When Stacey finally gets ahold of him the next day, he claims to have been playing at the community center. Too bad that's not the truth; Emily Bernstein calls in the middle of that day's BSC meeting to tell Stacey that she saw him at the mall with another girl. She didn't see who the other girl was; just that she had dark hair. Stacey is a little shaken at the news, and none of her BSC friends can believe that Robert would cheat. Stacey really wants to just ASK Robert who he was with, but she doesn't want to leave for New York with things tense between them. So, she decides to spy on him and enlists Claudia's reluctant help.

Two days after that meeting, Stacey gets her opportunity to check up on Robert. She calls his house that morning, finds out that he went to the movies at Washington Mall, and immediately mobilizes Claudia for their own trip out there. They check a few other places that Robert might be before staking out the movie theater. Finally, they see him heading towards the theater, and watch as he meets up with Pete Black. The girls miss seeing them go inside, so Stacey still doesn't know what movie they might have picked. Then, she sees two high school age girls buying tickets for an action movie. Since Stacey doesn't think there's any way that two girls would go to see a movie like that together, she's convinced that they're meeting up with Pete and Robert. She makes Claudia go see that movie, even though neither of them actually LIKE that kind of film, and Stacey spends the whole time watching the two girls...and the two guys they met up with. It's almost the end of the movie before Stacey and Claudia realize that the guys aren't Robert and Pete. Robert and Pete didn't even see that movie; Stacey and Claudia run into them leaving this romantic movie that Stacey had wanted to see with Robert. The four of them end up having a nice lunch together, but when Stacey asks Robert if he wants to play tennis that evening, he gets all cagey. Something is definitely up with him!

Stacey leaves for New York the next day. Robert arrives just in time to ride with her to the train station, and brings her a big bouquet of flowers. Their goodbye is sort of sad and dramatic, and Stacey still has the weird feeling that something isn't right with their relationship. She tries not to focus on it too much; after all, he brought her flowers, and he seemed sad that she was leaving. How wrong could things be?

That Monday, Stacey starts her job with the Walkers. Mr. and Mrs. Walker are getting ready for a big joint show at the Fitzroy Gallery, and they need her to take the kids off their hands while they're putting the finishing touches on everything. While she's playing with Henry and Grace, Stacey meets Ethan, the guy who's helping the Walkers get ready for their show. He's cute, good with the kids, and only a little older than Stacey. Both Mr. McGill and Mrs. Walker accuse her of having a little crush, but Stacey denies it. She's still got Robert....but not for long. Claudia calls her midway through the week and breaks the bad news: Robert has been dating Andi Gentile, one of the girls from his old group of friends. People had been seeing them together everywhere, and Claudia caught them kissing. Stacey is brokenhearted, in spite of all the worries she'd had about her relationship with Robert, but (to her surprise) she also feels a tad bit relieved that things are over. She'd really like to see more of Ethan, and now that things are over with Robert, she can do that.

As soon as Mrs. McGill and Stacey pull into their driveway, they see Andi Gentile coming down the street. She had come to confess everything to Stacey, but Stacey saves her the trouble by telling her that she already knows. Just after that conversation is over, Robert calls. He comes over, and he and Stacey officially break up. There is lots of crying on Stacey's part, but she knows that it's the right thing for both of them.

Meanwhile, Abby's taken over as president while Kristy is in Hawaii with her family. She's decided to hold a Mexican festival to raise money for an orphanage that her sister's orchestra is involved with. Things are kind of a mess from the start; Abby wastes a ton of money on supplies and expects everyone else in the club to help pay for them with their own money. She's not very organized when it comes to advertising and preparing for the festival, and on the big day, they have to distract everyone with face-painting because nothing else is ready. All the club members agree that they'll be happy to have Kristy back.

Rating: 2.5

Thoughts and Things

• So Stacey thinks that getting flowers from Robert means that everything is okay in their relationship? Ooooooh, boy, does she have a lot to learn....
• I love the Walkers!
• How in the world could Robert be surprised that Stacey knew about him and Andi? They weren't exactly hiding their relationship.
• What's the correct way to pronounce Andi's last name? I keep saying it "JEN-tile" in my head....as in, the word that was used in the Bible to indicate a non-Jewish person. I have a feeling that that's wrong, though.