BSC Super Special #5: California Girls!

Tagline: They wish they all could be...

California, here they come!

Who would believe it - the Baby-sitters have won the loterry! And with their winning money, the girls are all going with Dawn to... California!

What adventures they have. Jessi lands a (tiny) part in a TV show, Kristy gets into a kind-of fight with Dawn's We ♥ Kids Club, and Stacey turns into a surfer girl! And in between all that excitement, they still have time for baby-sitting, sight-seeing, and the beach.

How can they go back to Stoneybrook now that they've turned into California girls?

Super Special Gimmick: There actually doesn't seem to be one this time. Dawn starts off the book, talking about the lottery, plus you know, it's her house they're staying at. But there's no gimmick as to why the girls are taking turns chronicling their trip haha

Alright, so apparently Claudia has been getting her father to buy her lottery tickets for years now, and the Club has always made fun of her for it. Well, now the lottery jackpot is at an all-time high, so the girls decide to pitch in and each get their own lottery ticket, and then split the prize if they win. Dawn comes close, with 5 out of 6 numbers right, which means they win a consolation prize. Each girl gets just over a thousand dollars. It's then decided that they'll use the money and an upcoming two-week vacation to go to California and stay with Dawn's dad.

They take an airplane down, which lasts about 5 hours, but due to the timezones, only 2 hours have passed. They're all pretty out of it and jet-lagged, and have a quiet evening at the Schafer's, joined by Mr Schafer's girlfriend Carol, much to Dawn's dismay. The next morning, the girls still aren't feeling up to doing much, so Carol takes them all to the beach for a day of sun and relaxation. There, the girls start taking up different interests, which leads to them spending most of the two weeks pursuing their own adventures:

Stacey decides to take a beginner surfing lesson that first day. She instantly falls in love with it, and Dawn decides to introduce her to some kids she used to school with that are at the beach. They're all super into surfing, so despite being a few years older than Stacey, they hit it off. The next day, they pick her up and take her back to the beach for more surfing. They drive pretty recklessly, but Stacey doesn't think much about it. She's all excited about surfing, and takes risks, like riding waves she's not quite ready for. One day, her new surfer friends pick her up, and it's a new guy at the wheel. He's even crazier than the others at driving, but Stacey loves it. Mostly, she doesn't want to seem like a wetblanket, since the rest of the kids don't seem to mind. Dawn and everyone warns her to be careful. Anyways, several days go by, including some group activities with the girls (which I'll detail later), and eventually it's the middle of their second week. Mr Super Reckless (whose name is Beau) can't wait to get home after a day of surfing, and speeds away faster than usual. Fast enough for another one of the group to actually remark on it. Then they get stuck in traffic behind a slow truck driver. Instead of signalling and being a responsible driver, Beau just lane changes, and ends up causing a huge car accident. Despite it involving multiple cars and the truck, no one is seriously injured. Stacey is shaken up. Carol comes to pick her up, and together, they tell Mr Schafer what happened. Mr Schafer bans Stacey from ever seeing those friends again (not a big deal, since she's leaving soon and by her own admission doesn't particularly want to see them again either), and Stacey spends the rest of the week with the girls.

Dawn's storyline is mostly her conflict with Carol, her dad's new girlfriend. She doesn't like how Carol is always around, as if she had already inserted herself into the family. Furthermore, Dawn doesn't like how "cool" Carol acts, trying to be their friend and what not. Everything turns around though when Dawn sees how Carol acts in an emergency situation: Stacey's car accident. She and Stacey expected Carol to be all winks and like, "This is our little secret", but instead she immediately takes charge and tells them that they need to tell Mr Schafer. This earns Dawn's respect, and she sees that while Carol is cool and fun and young, she is also an adult and can be trusted to do the right and responsible thing when the time comes. Dawn decides to give Carol and a chance, and stops acting so bratty to her. They have a very pleasant last few days together.

Jessi decides to visit Derek Masters, who's in LA filming his TV show. Like what always happens when dealing with Derek, Jessi thinks maybe she should get an agent and start modelling or acting. This is further compounded by the fact that she gets chosen by the director to be an extra in one of the scenes. Jessi also fights with Mallory, who is busy trying to be a "California Girl" and essentially just being a giant brat. It's the first time they've ever fought over the course of their friendship. Of course, in the end Jessi decides to forget about all this Hollywood nonsense and stick with ballet. And she and Mallory make up.

Mallory has what I think the most annoying plot in the book. Going to the beach, she looks around and sees all these hot blonde girls, and decides that she wants to look like that. She convinces Carol to drive her to the Max Factor Museum of Make-Up, and then spends another day at the mall. It's on her trip to the mall that decides to get all this fancy high-end make-up, and blows all of her spending money. She buys wash-out hair dye and dies her hair blonde, and spends forever playing with make-up. Because she has no money, she has to borrow from Jessi. When she finds out that Jessi is going to visit Derek, she gets all obssessed with getting noticed and being on TV. When Jessi brings her (in an attempt to connect with Mallory and try to understand her obsession with being something she's not), Mallory gets rejected by the director to be an extra, saying she doesn't have the "right look". This leads to Mallory being all mopey and depressed and avoiding everyone for a full 24 hours, before Kristy puts her foot down and tells Mallory to get over it. Mallory sells her make-up to Stacey and Claudia, dyes her hair red again, and goes back to normal.

Claudia meets a boy on the beach. His name is Terry and he's Asian, and he's super intelligent. Claudia keeps bringing herself down, saying that she's not smart enough to be with Terry, and keeps dreading spending time with him. However, he seems to be really into her, and keeps asking her out, to which she keeps saying yes. He takes her to a fancy Italian restaurant, and then to an Italian film with subtitles. Claudia did alright with the food, but couldn't understand the movie nor read the subtitles fast enough, so she just mostly smiles and nods. Then he takes her to a fancy French restaurant, where she orders escargots, not realizing that they were snails. She tries to keep up in conversation with him, but really can't, and just goes home feeling humiliated. She even calls Janine, trying to get some intelligent world issues talking points. Janine tells her to just be herself, and to invite Terry somewhere with her instead. Claudia takes the advice, and ends up having a great time. They part ways, and promise to write, with Claudia talking of visiting again sometime.

Kristy gets all competitive with the We ♥ Kids Club, insulted by how relaxed and informal they are. Kristy, wanting to prove that she's the best and that everything she does is best, takes a difficult job from the girls. She agrees to baby-sit for Erick and Ryan Dewitt, the We ♥ Kids Club's toughest clients. Apparently the boys are very rambunctious and spirited, and need a firm guiding hand, or else they take advantage of the situation and run nuts. Kristy's convinced she can handle it though. They soon realize that the sitting job is on the same day that Mr Schafer had planned to take everyone to Universal Studios. Kristy doesn't see what the big deal is, and simply gets permission to bring the boys along. Of course, it all goes to shit. The boys run around, keep standing up on the tram, ask to go to the bathroom and then get into a water fight while trying to stick pieces of paper towel to the ceiling... When the tour asks for a child volunteer to demonstrate some of the special effects, and Jeff gets picked instead of them, they're loud and rude and just a nuisance. However at some point, they get scared by the effects, and Kristy tells them that they have to stay with her and Stacey from now on. By Kristy being firm and telling them they have to stay close, they can make it seem like they're not scared and are just following rules. Kristy learns that maybe she doesn't know everything, and that sometimes, being firm is what's needed.

Mary Anne also snags a sitting job with the We ♥ Kids Club. She's sitting for Stephie Robertson, a little girl who is exactly like Mary Anne, only with asthma. Stephie's mother also died when she was a baby, leaving her father to raise her. Stephie is shy, sweet and sensitive. Anyways, she and Mary Anne hit it off, and Mary Anne sits for her a bunch of times. Even though Mary Anne is told that Stephie's asthma is brought on my emotional stress, MA freaks out every time Stephie wants to do something active or is surprised or startled: pretty much anything that would make you take a deep breath. MA also decides to bring Stephie to Universal Studios, figuring the outing would be good for her. When the outing goes off without a hitch, MA finally realizes that Stephie's asthma is not the end of the world, and clearly Stephie can handle it and be a normal kid. Of course, this is the moment where Stephie has an asthma attack. It's MA's last time sitting for her, and Stephie starts to get emotionally distraught by the idea of MA leaving, which gets her crying, which gets her sobbing, which triggers an asthma attack. MA handles it well though, and although she loves Stephie and clearly knows what to do in case of an asthma attack, MA is glad to be going back home and to not have to worry about it anymore.

Random Thoughts:

• For some reason, I always thought this one took place later in the series. I mean, I know there's still another 10 Super Specials and only another 100 books or so left, so it makes sense that every 10 books, there'd be a Super Special, meaning this one would have to happen sooner rather than later, but still! haha
• This one was always one of my favourites. I remember reading it constantly in the summer, along with Super Special #10, Sea City, Here We Come!
• Also: damn, there's a lot of Super Specials in a row! It's only been like, 4 books since the last one!!
• I should have realized that this was one of the earlier ones: Dawn eats chicken!! She's not a super-strict hardcore vegetarian!
• You totes know that if the books were written now, she'd be a hardcore vegan. Maybe even gluten-free haha
• You can tell that AMM wrote this one, because in addition to Dawn not being a super-strict hardcore flanderized vegetarian, Kristy goes to the mall with Dawn and Claudia, and comes away with a matching charm bracelet.
• I guess another reason why I always assumed that this book happened later rather than sooner was because of how prominent Carol is in it. Carol and Mr Schafer don't get married until Super Special #12. They dated for a really really effing long time! haha which is actually realistic.
• It sure is nice for Mr Schafer to let 6 random girls spend two weeks at his place. I hope they all gave him some money, considering how much food they must have eaten!
• How the fuck does Dawn know kids that are 3 or 4 years older than her. When you're a little kid, that is practically another decade... even generation! And this is before California Diaries, where knowing older kids makes sense. And even then, Dawn and her friends were all like, "WTF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS". Uh, wouldn't you know the kids in the grade above you? Anyways, it would've been interesting if Dawn's rand-o surfer friends came up during California Diaries, but nope!
• We find out that one of the kids lives down the street from Dawn, and that Mr Schafer knows all their parents, so maybe the kids live in the neighbourhood, and/or Dawn knew them because their parents all knew each other?
• More foreshadowing on Stacey's diabetes not being good and her health being wonky.
• Poor Carol. She never said that Claudia should change her personality to get a guy. All she started saying was that she knew people who did... but then Dawn cut her off and that was that. Dawn and Claudia then went back to Dawn's room, and acted like all Carol had said was, "People change to impress other people". You totes know Carol was going to say, "I know people who change to please other people... but it usually doesn't end up working and it's best to just be honest and be yourself." Of course, it's really realistic to have a bunch of 13 year old girls take advice wrongly haha
• As someone who is only really driving for the first time, reading of Stacey's car accident was not fun haha
• Dawn would hate me. I'm 27, and I'm fairly "cool". My students always can't believe how much of their stuff I know and like, and will often just enjoy talking to me. Of course, sometimes I'm a total adult, such as assigning homework and making sure everyone is seated and being civilized. But yeah. I don't try to be cool to impress my students. I just act how I always act. It would feel weird and disingenuous to be all like, "I AM AN ADULT! I READ LITERATURE AND DRINK WINE AND CREATE CULINARY CUISINE AND THE ONLY MOVIES I WATCH ARE FOREIGN INDIE FILMS WITH SUBTITLES." Mostly because I do none of that haha
• I also like how Dawn makes it seem like Carol is a bajillion years younger than her father. Yes, Carol is rather young (at age 32, she would have had Dawn at age 19 if she was Dawn's biological mother), but I bet she's probably roughly the same age difference (if not less!) than me and my boyfriend are haha
• Was the Grateful Dead really the kind of band that 10 year old boys listened to in the early 1990s? I always thought that it was weird that Jeff was a fan, and always assumed that nah, it must be a made-up band. It can't be that band!
• For some reason, Claudia always finds Asian boys while she's on vacation, but she never dates them at home haha
• I'm all for Claudia being herself, and I like the idea that Terry, while super intelligent and primarily into indie and niche interests, also enjoys regular every day teen stuffs. However, the moment Claudia writes to him, he's going to see how dumb she is =/
• I'm surprised Dawn didn't spend more time with Sunny and her California friends. Or at least talk about wanting to spend more time with them

BSC #23: Dawn on the Coast

Tagline: Dawn's a California girl!

Dawn can't wait for this trip to California. Besides all the sun and fun, It's Dawn's first visit since her bother, Jeff, moved back to live with their dad.

California is better than Dawn ever remembered it. The beaches are beautiful, Disneyland is a blast, and Californians eat healthy food! Plus, Dawn's best friend, Sunny, has even started up her own baby-sitting club.

After one wonderful week, Dawn begins to think she might want to... stay in California, like Jeff.

Dawn's a California girl at heart - but could she really leave Stoneybrook for good?

It's spring break and Dawn is headed to California for two weeks to visit her dad and brother. Of course, Dawn can't wait, but she assures her mom that she'll always want to come back to Connecticut. Mary Anne is worried too, but Dawn also tells her that she has nothing to worry about. Despite the fact that she'll be busy, Dawn is sure that she'll miss Stoneybrook.

Dawn's flight to California sucks, as the flight attendant is too busy flirting every attractive man to do her job properly, leading Dawn to have to flag her down several times. The flight attendant even gave away Dawn's vegetarian meal! Luckily Dawn's seatmate is nice. Soon enough, Dawn arrives in California.

Right away, Dawn feels like she never left. She meets Mrs Bruen, who is the housekeeper that Jack has hired for Jeff. She makes the family an elaborate healthy breakfast full of fresh fruits and other fresh items. On Dawn's first day, so goes to Disneyland with her dad and brother. They know they can't do everything in one day, so before they leave, they create a plan of attack, and Dawn is grateful for how organized her father is, in contrast to how disorganized her mother is.

Upon getting back from Disneyland, Dawn goes over to Sunny's house for a surprise: Maggie and Jill are there too, and together they've formed their own baby-sitting club, the We ♥ Kids Club. Dawn's amazed to see how chill everything is: there's no Club Notebook, they just answer the phone, cover the mouthpiece, decide who's free, and then take the job. Plus the snacks are all healthy things that Dawn loves! Maggie and Jill, whom Dawn had known before leaving but was never particularly close to, tell Dawn all about the club.The girls line up a job for Dawn for two girls she used to sit for, Clover and Daffodil Austin.

The girls go to the beach, and then the next day Dawn baby-sits for Clover and Daffodil. Nothing too exciting happens, other than Dawn realizing how much she missed them and being able to just go to the beach whenever. Soon Dawn realizes that she's having so much fun, that she doesn't ever think of her mom and Connecticut until someone calls or brings it up. It makes Dawn think that maybe she doesn't like Connecticut as much as she thought she did, and that maybe it was a sign that she should stay in California.

Dawn's entire second week is basically spent waffling back and forth between staying in California or going back to Connecticut. She thinks about all the things she loves about California, and all the things she loves about Connecticut. Overall, the California list seems longer, but Dawn eventually realizes that the different items had different weights. Although there was a baby-sitting club in California, for instance, the W♥KC had way fewer clients than the BSC, and therefore they didn't really need her nor would she get as many jobs. Dawn also doesn't like the idea of leaving her mom alone, especially if that means pushing her mother more towards the Trip-Man. In the end, Dawn decides to go back to Connecticut.

There's really no subplot in this one. Back in Stoneybrook, the girls continue to baby-sit. Claudia and Mary Anne sit for the Newtons, Perkins and Feldmans all together. They're surprised to see that Rob, although still not too impressed with girls in general, really liked taking care of the babies and knew a surprising amount. Jessi sits for Karen, Andrew and David Michael, and we get some foreshadowing about Mrs Brewer wanting a baby. Mallory and Kristy sit for the Pikes, and Nicky tells them that he misses Dawn, which ultimately spurs Dawn to come back home, apparently.

Random Thoughts:

• This is the first one that's officially written by a ghostwriter: Jan Carr. I wonder if it's because it's so largely set in California. I wonder if Jan Carr wrote the California Diaries series.
• Okay, a quick check of my collection (I've only got 11/15 of the books) shows me that Peter Lerangis actually wrote most of them!
• We get another appearance of the Trip-Man. Funny how in just 7 books, Dawn's mom will be marrying Richard? We know it's currently spring... I wonder how many months pass before she marries him. How long did they date exclusively before deciding to settle down together??
• Dawn reiterates at the beginning of this book that she'll never leave her mom the way Jeff did. But then the whole plot of this book is Dawn contemplating leaving her mom! And of course, later on, we see that she leaves for an extended period, before leaving again for good.
• I've only flown a plane once (twice if you include the trip back... okay, 4 times if you include the layover), and that was technically international (I always forget that the US is international to Canada), so I am no way an expert on air travel. But when I flew, we had to be at the airport like, 2 hours beforehand. Again, part of the reason was because it was an international flight, so we had to go to customs and show our passports and what not, which obviously Dawn didn't have to do. But still. I'm amused by the fact that Dawn didn't even think about heading out to the airport until an hour before her flight. (And that's "in case of a traffic jam"!)
• Here, we learn again that Dawn is not a "strict vegetarian", she just doesn't like the taste of meat (especially red meat) and that the vegetarian dish on flights is always better
• In Disneyland, Dawn buys Mickey Mouse ears for everyone. Now, I went to Disney World last year, and though they varied in price, I believe Mouse ears were on average 15$-20$ each. That's a lot of money! Especially to buy 5 pairs! Plus a few other things
• We get some foreshadowing on the Brewer-Thomas household acquiring another child
• There's an error in my copy: Dawn talks about "Sam Brewer", but it should say "Sam Thomas". None of the Thomas kids took Watson's name
• At one point, they described a spinach lasagna they were having for dinner out in California. I fucking love spinach lasagna. Way better than regular lasagna. Now I want spinach lasagna >_< haha
• Apparently the Pikes are cool with the kids just taking a whole milk carton and dipping paint brushes into it for crafts. That idea disgusts me. I paint and do lots of arts and crafts. You can never get paintbrushes fully clean once they've been used. I would not touch that milk carton again.
• I like how Dawn considers the Trip-Man to be a bore. He just sounds like a modern day hipster to me: chamber concert, wine tasting, lecture on humor, tortoise-shell glasses...
• The funny thing is, we always hear about how strict Richard is, and how although Mary Anne loves him, and he clearly loves her, they're not particularly affectionate and cuddly with each other. Richard is also a lawyer and works standard 9-5 hours. If you ask me, that sounds pretty boring haha I mean, as an adult now, I'm cool with Richie, but it's just funny that Dawn considers the Trip-Man to be a bore, but never once expresses the same about Richard Spier. Probably cuz he's Mary Anne's dad
• ...god piss, now I want some chicken enchiladas!
• Even though it won't happen for another bajillion years, Jack Schafer suggests that Dawn bring the whole club next time, setting us up for Super Special #5
• And I just checked: SS#5 is published a year and a half later
• I love how they merely get delayed at the metal detector because Jeff has a pocket knife. Today, Jack and Jeff wouldn't be allowed through the metal detectors and to the gates, and if for some reason they were, Jeff would immediately get tackled and detained and interviewed for that knife
• On the way back to Connecticut, Dawn finds the list of plays her seatmate had suggested on the way down. A quick Google search tells me that none of these are real:
• Cat Dancing
• Romeo in Joliet
• Scheherazade's Tales
•  When Dawn gets back, she finds that the girls have already scheduled her to work a few baby-sitting jobs. I don't know if that would frustrate me or not. On the one hand, she'd probably have booked those jobs anyways if she had been around, but on the other hand, it's like, bitch please, I just landed after a 6 hour flight, and you've already got stuff lined up?? haha
• We don't get much of a description here of Sunny, Maggie and Jill, so it's easy for me to believe that they're still the same girls that we'll see evolve into the California Diaries characters. All we know is that Maggie loves ghost stories like Sunny and Dawn do, and that Jill likes painting their nails.
• Sunny's mom is still very much healthy in this book. I know one of the reasons why Dawn goes back to California for an extended visit is because of Mrs Winslow's cancer. The whole crux of Sunny's storyline and development in the CD books is that her mom is dying of cancer. I'll be interested in seeing which other BSC books this comes up in, and seeing the progression, since in CD, it's clear that Mrs Winslow is no longer fighting the cancer, but just letting the time run out and is dying.
• Every chapter in this one starts off with a postcard written either to Dawn or from Dawn. Like all the Notebook entries and other handwritten things, I tend to just skip them altogether now haha
• When Dawn takes Clover and Daffodil to the carnival, Daffodil only gets a prize when she manages to get all 6 rings on ring-toss. I'm surprised they didn't have smaller or medium-sized prizes for having achieved 2 out of 6 and 4 out of 6 rings.