BSC #8: Boy-Crazy Stacey

Front Cover: Who needs baby-sitting when there are boys around!

Back Cover: Stacey and Mary Anne are mother's helpers for the Pike family for two weeks at the New Jersey shore. Things are great in Sea City: There's a gorgeous old house, a boardwalk, plenty of sun and sand... and the cutest boy Stacey has ever seen!

Mary Anne knows that Scott the lifeguard is way too old for Stacey, but Stacey's in love. She fixes Scott's lunch, fetches his sodas, and spends all her time wtih him... instead of with the Pike kids. Suddenly, Mary Anne's doing the work of two baby-sitters, and she doesn't like it one bit. But how can she tell Stacey that Scott just isn't interested - without breaking Stacey's heart?

So, this is not one of my favourites. There's nothing really wrong with it, but not a whole lot happens really.

This book picks up exactly where the last one left off: the Pikes are going on a two-week trip to Sea City, only this time they want some time to themselves, so they invite two sitters along. For various reasons, Mary Anne and Stacey are the only ones available. Both girls are very excited, because it's their first trip away from home (Mary Anne) since getting diagnosed with diabetes (Stacey).

The trip starts off pretty well. Mary Anne is all excited because it's her first two-piece bathing suit, but then she gets all self-conscious about it. Stacey's a good friend though and assures her that she looks fine (after telling the readers that Mary Anne doesn't quite fill it out as nicely as she, Stacey, does haha). They get down to the beach, and right away Stacey sees the lifeguards. She falls in love with Scott, who is 18.

From there, it's just Stacey obsessing over him. She and Mary Anne take the kids to various places, and we're treated to chapters of them eating at the Burger Garden and playing miniature golf. But mostly, it's Stacey obsessing over Scott. She ignores the kids and Mary Anne, and then can't figure out why Mary Anne is so pissed. She decides that Mary Anne is jealous, because the only person Mary Anne has to talk to is a dorky guy mother's helper. She also decides that Mary Anne shouldn't be so mad, because she does have the help from the male mother's helper, Alex.

Scott gives Stacey his lifeguarding whistle, and Stacey takes it as a sign that he loves her too. On their first Friday night, Stacey spends all of the girls' free time shopping around for a gift for Scott. She ends up blowing all her money on a box of chocolates. Of course, immediately after she does, she and Mary Anne run into him kissing a "much older girl" (who Stacey later admits is actually Scott's age). Stacey is heartbroken and runs off.

She spends the next week dreading running into Scott, but eventually decides it's not worth it. She's not entirely mad, because he is her first love, but she's over it. What helps is that Alex has a cousin named Toby, who Mary Anne arranges to go on a double-date with. Of course, Stacey instantly falls in love again.

Despite the fact that she ignored her for most of the week, Stacey and Mary Anne do end up a bit closer, and Mary Anne has her first encounter with love too. Of course, Mary Anne is a lot more practical, and knows that it doesn't really mean anything in the long run, but she's just happy for the time and memories of Alex, and that they'll be penpals now.

We're also treated a chapter from Kristy, where she baby-sits for Karen and Andrew. Fuck, I do not remember them being in these books this much. They decide to wash Watson's rich fancy car (with Watson's permission), and get all settled with soap, hoses and sponges. However, David Michael was at Linny's place with Louie, but Louie gets injured and it looks like he needs stitches. Kristy tries calling everyone she knows with a car in a panic, leaving Karen and Andrew outside with the car and the car washing supplies. It should have been fine, except that Karen decides that sponges aren't good enough, and ends up running back into the house to grab the steel wool that Watson uses on the pots. This of course ruins the paint on the car. In a surprise turn of events (this totes wouldn't have happened in the later books), Watson is actually angry at Kristy for having paid closer attention to the kids.

Random Thoughts:

• I love how Kristy was reading People magazine at the beginning of this book.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: all the references to the Jersey Shore (the actual location, not the show haha)
• I love the way Stacey looks on the cover. She looks a little older than 13, maybe closer to 14 or 15, but yeah. She looks young and innocent and it's awesome. Scott on the other hand, doesn't look 18. He looks like he's 25! haha
• I think this book would have been way more interesting from Mary Anne's perspective
• The job description makes it sound like Mr and Mrs Pike would be going to the beach with the kids, but they wanted the sitters around so that they could occasionally take an afternoon or evening off, or in case the kids wanted to split up and they needed extra hands on deck for different excursions. But it seems like Mr and Mrs Pike spend the whole time inside the cottage, essentially meaning that Stacey and Mary Anne are working the whole time.
• We find out a lot about the Pikes in this book, which I suppose for first-time readers, especially if reading in chronological order or as they're being published, would be exciting. But since I've read Super Special #10 [Sea City, Here We Come!] a million times, as well as just other books in the series, this wasn't that interesting to me.
• I'm not so sure what the big deal on bathing suits is. I wear a two-piece, but I wear swim trunks on the bottom. My two best friends both wear one pieces, also with swim trunks. We like to cover up haha our lack of skin doesn't make us any less adult, I don't think haha
• I'm surprised that the Pikes can afford to go to Sea City every summer. Apparently they'd been going every summer since Mallory was 2, to which I'm like "omfg why???" At that point, Mallory would have been 2, which is young for a family vacation, but okay. BUT, the triplets would have been 1 years old AND Mrs Pike most likely would have been pregnant with Vanessa. I cannot imagine trying to go on vacation with 4 kids in diapers WHILE pregnant. And it just gets worse from there. I think if the youngest kid is 2, then trips are feasible. 
• Also, the house they rent is HUGE. The boys all sleep in one room, the girls in two different rooms (same arrangements that they have at home, actually), and then Mary Anne and Stacey share another room, but are told that if they don't like it, they can choose another one. With so many rooms, I'm surprised the kids would want to share. This is probably their only chance to have their own rooms. Or at least split up the boys or something.