#131 The Fire at Mary Anne's House

Summary

Early one morning, Tigger wakes Mary Anne up. At first, she can't figure out why. Then, she hears the smoke alarms, and her dad yelling for her. Their house is one fire! The place is totally filled with smoke, but everyone (including Tigger) makes it outside safely. Sharon managed to grab the cordless phone on her way out, and she's already called for help. The firefighters get there quickly, but all the family can do is watch their house and everything in it go up in flames. Pretty soon, the neighbors start arriving. Stacey tries to get Mary Anne to go home with her so she doesn't have to stand their watching the fire, but Mary Anne doesn't want to leave. She's sort of frozen in place...and she can't cry. Eventually, Sharon starts making calls to everyone who needs to know about the fire. Many of them want to talk to Mary Anne, but she refuses until Dawn is the one asking. She'll be heading to Connecticut as soon as possible to be with the family.

Eventually, the Thomases and Brewers show up with an invitation to stay at their house until other arrangements can be made. Richard, Sharon, and Mary Anne accept, and Mary Anne heads there for some rest while Richard and Sharon start searching through the rubble for anything salvageable. After her nap, Mary Anne heads back where her house used to be. They've managed to find a few things, including Sharon's wedding ring, but most of their stuff is gone. Mary Anne still can't cry, though...even when Dawn finally arrives and is crying herself.

Things at the Thomas-Brewer house are a little overwhelming for the Spiers and Schafers. They even have to resort to sneaking out to the kids' playhouse in the backyard in order to have a family meeting about what to do next. Richard wants them to see the fire as an opportunity to start a new life. In fact, he wants them to start a REALLY new life...in Philadelphia. He's been offered a great job there, and Sharon wants to go back to school. She'd have her pick of schools in Philly. Mary Anne is in shock; she's lived in Stoneybrook all her life, and she doesn't particularly want to leave.

One night, Mary Anne wakes up and can't get back to sleep. She sneaks out of the Thomas-Brewer mansion, borrows Kristy's bike, and rides over to where her house was. She goes into the barn, which is where they've been storing everything that might be able to be saved. Mary Anne starts to feel really, really alone, and that's when she finally starts crying about everything. Dawn finds her, and they have a nice cry together. That's more or less where the book (and the series) ends....

Subplot: Lots of fire safety info. Also, the BSC enters a "Best Baby-sitter" contest as a group, with help from their charges. I don't think we ever find out who wins...

Rating: 3

Thoughts and Things

• I couldn't believe how...graphic the fire scenes were. Wow. I've read this one once or twice before, but I don't remember it being so scary. I'm more scared of drowning than I am of fire, but still...
• It was a little out of place for Mary Anne to have the final book in the regular BSC series. It should have been Kristy. In fact, Kristy's Worst Idea would have made a great final book in the series. Some elements could have been taken from Everything Changes (members dropping out of the club, for instance), added to Kristy's Worst Idea...which could have led into the FF books.
• In a way, I like that the book was left open-ended. Problems aren't always solved and questions aren't always answered neatly within the span of 130 pages. :)

Well....that's it. The end of the regular BSC books. Finishing this one gave me such a WEIRD feeling! I know it's not really the end; there's still FF, The Summer Before, and my other Ann books to keep me occupied. Even so, I've all but finished what I set out to do almost a year ago...that's just crazy to think about! Thanks for reading along, and stay tuned for BSC: The Sequel. ;)

#130 Stacey's Movie

Summary

Time for our final Short Takes classes in the series, and Stacey's assigned to her first choice class: moviemaking. It's going to be taught by an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, and Stacey can't wait to get started. Carrie Murphy, the teacher, puts her into a group with Erica Blumberg, Pete Black, and Emily Bernstein. Erica is assigned the role of director, Pete is the cinematographer, Emily is the producer, and Stacey is the screenwriter. At first, they try to film a sort of horror movie about zombies taking over SMS, but that ends up looking stupid. Then, Stacey gets the idea to film a documentary instead. They'll interview different kids about life as a middle school student, and try to give people a clear picture about what goes on in the mind of the average SMS student. The group starts by interviewing Pete, and Stacey is surprised at what he reveals. Pete wishes he could drive, and have an actual job, so he can get out of Stoneybrook that much sooner. Abby is up next; she kind of freaks out when Erica points out that she's an awful lot like her mom (both of them cram their days full of stuff). Next is Jessi, who has some surprising things to say about being a black kid in a (mostly) white world. Stacey is especially shocked by her comments. Then comes Cokie; she kind of calls the BSC out for thinking they're better than everyone else, and points out that ALL cliques probably feel that way, to some extent. Next up is Claudia, who talks about how hard school is, and how she doesn't feel that artistic talent is rewarded. Stacey tries to interview Emily next, but Emily won't reveal anything really juicy. In fact, she keeps turing things around and asking Stacey questions.

Things take an interesting turn when Stacey's group interviews Mary Anne. It's pretty clear that she's in a bad mood, and when she's questioned, she admits that she sometimes hates her mother for dying. It's a great interview...but Mary Anne wants it cut. She'd had a fight with Sharon right before her interview about Sharon's forgetfulness, and she had gone into it thinking that maybe her birth mother wouldn't be so scatterbrained. Stacey tries to get her group to cut the interview, but they all vote to keep it in. Then, Stacey herself is interviewed and reveals some stuff about her parents' divorce that she wishes that she hadn't, and she understands where Mary Anne was coming from before. The others in the group STILL won't take any of the material from either interview out, so Stacey gets the idea to film explanations from both herself and Mary Anne. Those both make it into the final cut.

Subplot: Kristy is also in the film class, and she's in a group with Alan Grey, Logan, and Anna. As usual, Kristy takes over. She especially pisses off Alan, and she even starts to put the movie (they're filming BSC charges doing funny stuff) over the safety of the subjects. Eventually, she starts acting a little less annoying.

Rating: 2.5

Thoughts and Things

• I thought it was totally lame that they added in those little explanations after Mary Anne's and Stacey's interviews. Neither of them said anything that was that bad, and the movie probably would have been better if they'd just used the original interviews.
• So...the students now get to choose their own Short Takes classes? In the past, everyone in the school had to take the same class at the same time.
• This book actually wasn't horrible...Stacey lucked out with her last one.
• Since when did Stacey become such a movie buff? She goes on and on about how fascinated she is with filmmaking, and how awful it'll be if she's not assigned to her first choice ST class.

#129 Kristy at Bat

Summary

It's springtime, and for Kristy, that means one thing: baseball. And softball. So, I guess springtime actually means TWO things for Kristy. :) Anyway, Watson has signed up the two of them for a weeklong stay at Bill Bain's Baseball Dream Camp, and they're both excited. Kristy can't wait to get out on the field, playing with and being coached by former major leaguers. Watson is particularly excited to meet Bill Bain himself; Bain was one of Watson's childhood heroes. Before camp, though, Kristy has tryouts for the SMS softball team. She's a bit rusty when she gets out onto the field, but even so, she doesn't really put her best effort into showing what she's got. Kristy knows that Coach Wu likes her and is familar with what she can do, and she doesn't really feel like she has to try as hard as the other girls. Then, when the team lists are posted, Kristy gets two nasty surprises. Not only is she playing in the outfield, but she's been demoted to second string. Coach Wu explains that there were a lot of other girls who tried MUCH harder than Kristy did at tryouts, and even though the coach knows that Kristy is a good play, she really couldn't give her a first string spot over them. Kristy is disappointed, but she knows she deserves what she got. Then, she starts to question herself. Maybe she wasn't rusty at all; maybe second string is the best she can do. Suddenly, she's not so sure about Dream Camp anymore.....

Since Watson is so excited about going to camp, Kristy goes ahead with it. Before long, she's actually having fun. Everyone in camp is placed on one of two teams. The coaches of the team that Kristy and Watson are on are Matt Adamec (former major leaguer), Gloria Kemp (former women's baseball player....think A League of Their Own), and Mr. Bill Bain himself. Bain doesn't actually show up that first day, but Kristy really enjoys getting to work with Matt and Gloria. She even helps them get a little more organized, once the teams are out on the field, working on their skills. Bill Bain even makes an appearance...but it's not a long one. He doesn't really interact with the campers at all. Then, at lunch, Watson tries to approach him for an autorgraph, and gets totally shut down. Kristy can tell that Watson is upset, and from then on, Dream Camp doesn't seem to be living up to its name. Kristy herself still isn't playing up to her usual level, which is making the whole experience less fun than it initially was. She just can't get it together.

Bill Bain continues to be a standoffish jerk, and things kind of come to head one day during practice. He shows up and starts telling Gloria off for her coaching style. That's when Kristy really lets him have it. She's actually pretty polite, but she points out that people are not too thrilled with his behavior, especially since his name is associated with the camp itself. Bain leaves without really responding, and everyone there is proud of Kristy for having her say. Everyone, that is. except Watson. In spite of the way that Bain's treated him, Watson still sees him as a hero, and is not happy with Kristy for talking to his hero that way. He doesn't stay mad long, though. By the next morning, they're talking again.

Kristy's little lecture actually did some good. At the next practice, Bain is there, ready and waiting to coach his team. He apologizes for being a jerk, and from then on, he's actually a pretty nice guy and a good coach. Kristy and Watson's team wins the final camp game, and Kristy even gets a "Best Coach" trophy for all the help she gave organizing peopleduring the week. She also comes to see that being on second string won't be so bad; playing the game is what counts.

Subplot: David Michael has joined a sort of informal baseball card trading club. At first, all he cares about are collecting the cards of players he likes, and he's fine with keeping them all in a shoebox. Then, when he sees how seriously some of the other kids take their trades, he gets much more serious about it. He buys a fancy collecting kit, and starts to get concerned with how much each card is worth. Then, he gets taken for a ride by a kid who knows a LOT more about values than he does, and ends up disappointed. The BSC members (particularly Abby) help him to see that collecting cards for fun is WAY more important than caring how much they're worth.

Rating: 2.5

Thoughts and Things

• Patsy Kuhn, who's supposed to be five, is described in this book as Jake and Laurel's baby sister. If the Kuhns hadn't been used much in the series, I could forgive that more easily. They were the focus of at least two books, though.
• The food at Dream Camp sounds fantastic...and that's the last time that I'm probably going to be able to comment on that before the end of the series! :(
• Even though Bill Bain acted like a jerk, Watson shouldn't have approached him during a mealtime for an autograph. Celebrities have a right to eat in peace, too.
• Normally, I don't like Kristy's softball books, but this one was pretty enjoyable.
• In case anyone's curious, I don't think any of the "former major leaguers" mentioned in this book are actually real people. :D

#128 Claudia and the Little Liar

Summary

When Claudia arrives for a sitting job at the Braddocks, she finds a new rule in place: Haley has to finish her homework before she can watch tv. As soon as her parents leave, though, she sits down with the remote. Claudia reminds her of the rule, and makes her go do her homework. Haley is uncharacteristically grumpy about it, but she heads to her room anyway. Not long after, Claudia notices that someone in the house in on the phone. Since Claud and Matt had been playing a video game, and the Braddock parents still aren't home, it's got to be Haley. Claudia goes upstairs and listens just long enough to figure out that Haley is talking to Vanessa Pike about some movie they want to see. As soon as Claudia knocks, though, Haley pretends they were talking about homework. She tells Claudia that she's almost done, but isn't happy when Claud asks to see her work when she's finished. Later, Haley brings her a neatly typed book report, which Claudia shows to Mr. Braddock when he gets home. The trouble? It was the same book report that Haley had done the previous month. She'd just printed it out and shown it to Claudia so she could watch tv. Haley ends up grounded, and she blames Claudia. Kristy and Stacey find out the hard way during a practice for the girls' basketball team that Haley's on, and Haley's started turning other kids against Claud as well.

The following week, Mrs. Braddock calls the BSC, wanting another sitter. Claudia asks for the job so she can straighten things out with Haley. That doesn't exactly happen. First, Haley lies and says that Matt has homework when he doesn't, and then she gets involved in another phone conversation with Vanessa Pike. It goes on so long that Claudia has to get on the line and tell them to hang up until Haley's finished her work. She does, and then promptly calls Vanessa again. Claud overhears them talking, and Haley's saying some pretty harsh things about her. Claudia is kind of hurt; she and Haley had always gotten along really well before. Then, things get even worse when the Braddock parents get home. Haley claims that Claudia tried to prevent her from doing homework by trying to interrupt her phone conversation with Vanessa (which Haley claimed was about homework), and then by telling her that homework wasn't important. Luckily, the Braddock parents don't believe Haley's lies; she's pulled that kind of thing before.

Haley's allowed to go to her next basketball practice, and she uses the time to try and turn the girls on the team against the BSC in general. She claims that all the club members are spies, and they tell their parents everything the kids do during sitting jobs. Kids stop trusting the BSC members, and the club starts to worry that the parents will stop trusting them as well. Meanwhile, things are just as bad (if not worse) with Haley. At Claudia's next sitting job, Haley again lies about something Matt needs for school, causing trouble for a lot of people. She then lies about it to her parents, making it look like Claudia intentionally let Matt go without what he needed for school. Again, the Braddocks don't believe Haley, but they decide to hire a different sitter for the time being. That doesn't do any good; Mary Anne has just as much trouble with Haley as Claudia did. Mary Anne then suggests trying a role-playing game that she learned in therapy to reenact some of the instances where Haley lied. The club hopes that doing so will get to the bottom of her problems. The Braddocks agree, and Stacey, Mary Anne, and Claudia are the lucky ones who get to help. Haley doesn't want anything to do with the game at first, but when her parents tell her that her grounding time will be lessened if she participates, she agrees. The experiement has its desired effect; Haley breaks down and admits that she's been causing so much trouble when it comes to homework because she's having a tough time in school. She feels stupid, and NOT doing the work seems easier to her than asking for help and having everyone thing she's dumb. The Braddocks agree to get her some tutoring.

Subplot: Claudia and Josh realize that they're meant to be friends rather than a couple, and they break up.

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• Is it just me, or shouldn't the Braddocks have considered that Haley may be having trouble with her school work before anything else? Of course, that would have meant that the BSC wouldn't have been able to save the day. :)
• It's a shame that Claudia's last book in the series had to be so lame, and that they had to turn the otherwise likeable Haley Braddock in to such a brat.
• So glad that Josh and Claudia broke up; the whole relationship just felt wrong to me, like she was dating a little kid. A BORING little kid....
• Holy cow, I can't believe how close I am to the end of the series!!!!

#127 Abby's Un-Valentine

Summary

It's February again, which means that it's almost time for Valentine's Day. Everyone at SMS is totally wrapped up in love, romance, and the upcoming V-Day Dance, except Abby. She's not into romance, and she doesn't want to go to the dance. She's sick of reading love poems in English class, sick of all the hearts and flowers, and sick of hearing her friends talk about nothing else than the dance. Then, she gets an invitation to the dance from Ross Brown. Abby likes Ross okay...as a friend. She doesn't like him romantically, and she doesn't want to go the dance at all, so she turns him down. No one in the BSC understands why Abby would turn him down, even when she tries to explain it to them. Anna doesn't understand, either. In fact, Kristy is the only person who seems to get where Abby's coming from with her whole anti-Valentine's Day stance (she's still a little touchy over the way things ended with Bart).

The weekend after Ross asks Abby to the dance, he shows up at her house with flowers. Clearly, he didn't get the message that Abby's not interested. She notices, though, that Ross and Anna seem to have a lot in common, and that Anna seems interested in him. So, she invites Ross over to her house to talk about things (and to make it clear to him that she doesn't like him). Abby plans to have Kristy call her while Ross is there, leaving him alone with Anna. Unfortunately, Ross mistakes Anna for Abby and vice versa, and they don't bother to correct him. Their mom comes home while Ross is still there, and she blows their cover. Ross is humiliated, and leaves. Anna is also pretty mad at Abby, since she feels her own chances with Ross are now ruined. The girls both try to apologize to Ross at school the next day, but he ignores them. Finally, they go over to his house and corner him until he accepts their apology. He even asks Anna out, after he finds out that she's the one who's into classical music and flowers, not Abby. The two of them even go to the V-Day Dance together, while Abby happily spends the evening at the movies with Kristy.

In other news, it's time for Scout to leave the Thomas-Brewer house for more guide dog training. The whole family is going to miss her, but Andrew is having a particularly hard time dealing with it. He's just returned from staying with Lisa and Seth in Chicago, and he sees Scout as "his" dog. After all, David Michael has Shannon, and Karen has Pumpkin (they got her when Boo Boo died). Andrew REALLY doesn't want to let Scout go, so he does all sorts of things to try and sabotage her guide dog training. In the end, though, he realizes that he has to let Scout do the job she's meant to do, and David Michael gives him part ownership in Shannon.

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• I've never been a regular passenger on the "Kristy and Abby are lesbians" train, but I have to admit....this book makes me a bit suspicious. :)
• When exactly did Boo Boo die? This is (I think) the second book that mentions Pumpkin, and the first one to mention that Boo Boo is actually dead.
• Another question: when, why, and how did Andrew end up in Chicago while Karen stayed in Stoneybrook? The whole Andrew in Chicago situation was mentioned in some of the more recent books, but not in others.
• At the beginning of the book, Abby says she hopes that SMS isn't as obsessed with V-Day as her old school in Long Island. She should have already known the answer to that question, though, since she's been in Stoneybrook for at least one other February.

#126 The All-New Mallory Pike

Summary

It's finally time for Mallory to leave Stoneybrook and head to Riverbend Hall, in Massachusetts. No more Spaz Girl, no more SMS...and no more BSC. She's excited but nervous as her parents drive her there and drop her off, but meeting Pam (her prefect and a senior at Riverbend) makes things a little better. She also meets and likes Smita, the other new 6th grade student, at their orientation later that afternoon. So far, so good...until the next morning. That's when Mallory's roommate, Alexis, gets back from winter break. Alexis is pretty intense, and right away, she starts spouting off all these rules for their room, without asking for Mallory's input. Then, Smita shows up with Sarah, a friend of hers. They invite Mallory to walk over to brunch with them, but ignore Alexis. Mal asks if she'd like to come along, but Alexis says she's not hungry.

The next couple of days are pretty fantastic for Mal; she likes her classes, she likes her teachers, and she's fitting in well with the other students. Most of them, that is. Things haven't really improved on the roommate front. Mallory even comes back from class one day to find Alexis reading her journal. She complains to Sarah and Smita about the situation, and Sarah isn't surprised. Mallory isn't Alexis's first roommate, and both of her previous ones had similar trouble. One of them actually left school, but the other, Jen, is still at Riverbend. Mallory makes plans to meet her at some point, but in the meantime, she just decides to avoid Alexis. That's tough to do in a small school, and Alexis makes it even tougher. She borrows Mal's things without asking, and she badmouths the girls that Mal is becoming friends with. Mallory has to start staying away from the room until she needs to sleep in it, and Alexis manages to make her feel bad about that fact. Mal's friend encourage her to talk to Pam about it, but Mal doesn't want to be seen as a complainer. When Pam stops by Mal's room to ask her how things have been going, though, the whole story comes out. Pam suggests that Mallory have a talk with Alexis, which she does. At least, she tries to. Alexis manages to passive agressively make it look like Mallory's the bad guy, they start arguing, and they don't get anywhere close to solving their problems.

Over the next few days, Mallory goes back to avoiding Alexis. Then, she gets a care package from the BSC, which Alexis demolishes when Mal is out of the room. Mallory gets Pam and shows her what her roommate did, and Pam calls both girls into a meeting with the dean of students. Alexis makes again makes it look like Mallory is totally at fault, and then stomps out of the room before the meeting ends. The dean says she'll talk to the other administrators and come up with a solution to the problem. Mallory goes back to her room....and finds that Alexis has gone completely crazy and is trashing the place. Sarah arrives just then, and when she sees what's going on, she runs to get Pam. Alexis tries to apologize her way out of the situation, but it's a no go.

Mallory's friends help her clean up the mess, and by the time that the dean gets there to talk to Mal, the room is bascially back the way it was. The dean apologizes for giving Mallory such a difficult roommate right off the bat, and explains that she did so because she thought that Mal's experience with her big family would have helped her cope with someone like Alexis. She also offers Mal a possible solution: Jen, Alexis's other former roommate, is living in a single room. If she'd be willing to give that up and live with Mal, then Alexis could be put in a single and no one would have to deal with her. Luckily, Jen agrees to the switch, and it's a much better situation for everyone involved.

Meanwhile, Back in Stoneybrook, things are touchy at the Pike house. Now that Mal's gone, Vanessa has a room to herself. She's determined to keep it that way, but none of the other kids want to see that happen. In the end, Vanessa, Claire, Margo, and all of Mallory's stuff move into the room that the four boys used to share, Jordan and Adam move into Mal and Vanessa's old room, and Nicky and Byron move into Claire and Margo's old room.

Rating: 2.5

Thoughts and Things

• There's no way Alexis's behavior should have been rewarded by giving her a room of her own. She should have been kicked out of school.
• Riverbend sounds really cool; I wouldn't have minded going to a school like that myself.
• I can't believe that Mal's parents left the final decision to go or not go in her hands. She's 11, for Pete's sake!
• The BSC care package sounded awesome; all sorts of good candy and stuff like that. :)
  

#125 Mary Anne in the Middle

Summary

Mallory is seriously considering going away to school in Massachusetts, and she's started confiding in Mary Anne about her thoughts and feelings. She hasn't even been talking to Jessi about it, since Jessi (of course) doesn't want her to go. Then, during a Mallory/Mary Anne sitting job at the Pikes, Mal gets a letter from Riverbend: she's been accepted, and they want to give her a full scholarship. Mary Anne encourages her to tell Jessi that she was accepted, which Mallory does. Jessi doesn't take it well; she thinks Mal is crazy for wanting to go away, and that she'll just be running away from her problems. The next day at school, Jessi has also decided that Mary Anne is her new personal therapist, which puts Mary Anne in a tough position. It's especially difficult because Jessi is still under the impression that Mal isn't sure whether she'll be going or not, and she's already told Mary Anne that she is.

Jessi and Mal aren't getting along at all, so Jessi has no problem calling Mal out in the middle of a BSC meeting, asking her for her decision about Riverbend. Mallory finally admits that she's going....and Jessi totally picks up on the fact that Mary Anne already knew. Both Mallory and Jessi leave the meeting early. The club tries to force them to talk to each other by scheduling them for a job together at the Barrett-DeWitt house, but it doesn't work. They also drag Mallory along to a slumber party that Jessi's having in honor of some of her visiting Dance NY friends (she was invited before they started fighting), but Mal and Jessi end up fighting again, and Mal leaves early. Of course, both of them have to vent to Mary Anne later. Finally, she gets sick of it and gets both of them to come to her house. Jessi admits that she's been so ridiculous because she doesn't want Mal to leave, and Mal admits that she hasn't been talking to Jessi about Riverbend because it's going to be hard for her to leave her best friend behind. They hug, and all is well.

Subplot: the Stoneybrook Manor Christmas decorations are ugly, so the BSC and their charges make more. They also hold a holiday celebration for the residents.

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• Mallory was actually kind of annoying in this one. She got all hurt because the club wanted to replace her, and then even more hurt when they decided not to. Her friend and family had to hold that stupid We Love Mallory Day just to soothe her hurt ego.
• I understand why Mallory and Jessi chose Mary Anne as their confidant, but I would have liked to see this book from Jessi's perspective.
• Didn't the BSC already make Christmas decorations for Stoneybrook Manor?
• Mary Anne's hair has never looked more like a wig/helmet than it does on this cover.