BSC #28: Welcome Back, Stacey!

Tagline: She's home for good!

Stacey's parents have been fighting a lot lately. Even so, she's still not prepared for the terrible news: her parents are getting divorced.

Not only is Stacey sad and angry, but now she has a big decision to make: Stacey must either stay in New York with her father, or move out with her mother... to Stoneybrooke.

Could Stacey really leave the city, her father, her best friend Laine, and all that great shopping? But then again, how could Stacey pass up going back to her old school, all the kids in the Stoneybrook... and the members of the Baby-sitters Club?

The book opens up with Stacey baby-sitting for Grace and Henry Walker, who live on the 18th floor of her apartment building (Stacey herself lives on the 12th floor). Right away, we're told that they're black, but that Stacey doesn't see them that way, because she doesn't see the world in colour like that haha Anyways, more importantly, we learn that Stacey's distracted. She's been thinking about her parents, who haven't seemed to be getting along so well lately.

Sure enough, when she heads back to her place, Stacey discovers that her parents are fighting yet again. Stacey wonders what her dad is doing home so early (it's only 5:30, and he usually works til 7:30 or so; her mom and her are getting used to eating alone), and stops to listen to the fight for a bit. Stacey finds that they're mostly fighting about money, and that it sounds serious. Scared, Stacey runs off to Laine's to cry and seek comfort. There, she also calls the Club in Stoneybrook, since they're just finishing up their meeting. Of course, nothing anyone says is really reassuring. Both Laine and Claudia don't know what to say, because their parents almost never fight. Dawn sympathized with Stacey about fighting parents, but I don't think that made Stacey feel much better considering Dawn's parents not only got divorced, but one of them also ended up moving to the other side of the country. Still, after talking to her friends, Stacey fee;s better and is calm enough to return home.

Upon her arrival, Stacey finds her parents are no longer fighting. In fact, they're sitting in the living room, talking, waiting for her to come home. Immediately, they drop the big one on her: they have decided to get a divorce.

Even though Stacey knows that they'd been fighting, and knows deep down inside that a divorce would be for the best, she's still in denial, and very very angry. She thinks about all her friends and classmates whose parents have divorced, and it just makes her feel worse. She wonders where her dad will go, how often she'd get to see him, and what to do if her parents started dating again. Her teachers are all sympathetic, and Stacey spends most of the first day just avoiding everyone and her feelings.

Everything starts to happen quickly: Stacey's mom immediately expresses her desire to move back to Stoneybrook. Immediately, Stacey realizes she'll need to choose between her parents. She won't be able to see them equally and flip-flop whenever she wants. She'll have to pick a city and a school to attend. She starts to think of how she can convince her parents to live closer together, to make the decision easier. Stacey then goes into full-blown denial mode, and tries to think of ways to set her parents back up again, and avoid the divorce. She spends the week trying to set them up, only to be foiled at every turn.

At the end of the week, Stacey and her mom head to Stoneybrook to go house-hunting. None of the houses are particularly attractive, but Stacey's mom is on a limited budget. She does find one house that she likes, but is on the fence about it, asking for another week to consider. Stacey then attends a sleepover with the girls, and reflects that while she misses them, New York City would always be home for her.

The following week is crazy for Stacey. Her father finds himself a new apartment, and starts slowly setting himself up there. Finally, Stacey realizes that the divorce is happening, and that she can't stop it. After some soul-searching, Stacey decides to go with her mom to Stoneybrook.

Stacey and her mom move, and soon things are back to normal. It's as if Stacey never left. She of course misses her father, but all in all, it's a pretty smooth transition for Stacey.

There's no subplot in this book, because duh, the divorce is a big deal haha

Random Thoughts:

• I always loved this book. In fact, I read it randomly before I was "supposed to" a few weeks ago when I wasn't feeling well. I don't know why, but I just had a mad craving for this one. I guess it's because most of the books tend to be frivolous or completely dramatic and unrealistic, so I like the few "issues" books that they do, where the characters actually have to face something serious. Stacey's parents getting divorced and how they handled everything was written very realistically.
• Looking back, this book is one huge "SPOILER ALERT!". I mean, the title and the picture give it all away: Stacey chooses her mom and Stoneybrook. Boom. Mystery solved. I guess I never realized that, since 1) I didn't read the books entirely in perfect order when I was younger and 2) since then, I've always known that she came back. But yeah. Even the back of the book gives it away, by saying "and reach seven experienced baby-sitters".
• I feel like the divorce came out of nowhere, even though I do know there was some foreshadowing. Still, it makes me wish we had had more books with Stacey in them. I know in BSC #24, Stacey mentions that they're now fighting and arguing more, and then in BSC #26, her father didn't come with them to Mimi's funeral, and Stacey again mentions them fighting. I would've been interested to see how things had progressed and developed. Because although they've been fighting, their bombshell that they're getting divorced seems to completely blindside Stacey. I know we don't see all of their latest fight, but it also seems weird to me that they would go from fighting and screaming, to calmly being like, "Yes, I think we should divorce. We should tell Stacey when she gets back from baby-sitting."
• Sometimes I think about how much fun it would be to live in an apartment. To have friends and people you know within minutes of your place. But then I realize I much prefer my house and being able to do my laundry whenever and to leave my clothes in the washer or dryer if need be and continue some other time, without worrying about my clothes going missing haha plus I probably wouldn't have room in an apartment for all my instruments and piano and treadmill and what not haha
• I'm kinda surprised at how fast everything goes down. I mean, I suppose the divorce papers and legal things don't get settled for awhile (and off-screen), but still, within a month, Stacey's entire life is changed, everyone's moving, and Stacey has to make a choice.
• Dawn's mom is still dating the Trip-Man. In fact, apparently Dawn's mom has been dating a lot of men. Which makes sense since it's been about two or three years since the divorce, but only a year in terms of story time