BSC #37: Dawn and the Older Boy

Tagline: Dawn is falling for a California boy!

When Dawn meets Travis, she knows he's the perfect boy for her. Travis is good-looking, he eats health food, he's from California, and he likes Dawn!

But Mary Anne and the rest of the Baby-sitters aren't sure about Travis. First of all, he's much older than Dawn. And they don't like the way Travis is always telling her what to do.

Does Travis like Dawn as much as he says he does? The Baby-sitters don't know - but they're not going to let Dawn get hurt by an older boy!

The book opens with the girls having a sleepover at Kristy's. The next morning is Saturday, and figuring it'd just be Nannie and little kids around, the girls all traipse down the stairs in their PJs, their make-up from the previous night all over their faces. Of course, when they get there, they discover not only Charlie and Sam Thomas, but their friend Travis as well.The girls are mortified, and quickly retreat to Kristy's room to make themselves more presentable.

Upon returning, the girls sit down with the boys. Charlie casually mentions that Dawn is from California, like Travis, who recently moved. Dawn instantly sees a connection and falls head over heels in crush. Travis and Dawn talk for ever about their memories of California, and Travis departs with some words of advice: "Always wear blue. It brings out the colour of your eyes. Just like the ocean." Well, that seals the deal.

Dawn spends the next forever thinking about Travis, much to the girls' frustration and confusion. Mary Anne isn't even particularly sympathetic, despite being Dawn's best friend and stepsister. One Saturday though, while Dawn and MA are doing yard work, Travis shows up to surprise Dawn! He sits on the porch with her, and eventually gives her a gift: a blue beaded necklace with matching hair combs. Dawn is absolutely smitten and doesn't know what to say. She admits to not really doing anything with her hair: it's so long, she usually just brushes it and lets it hang down. That's when Travis suggests to Dawn that she cut a few inches off her hair and try wearing her hair pulled back from her face. Once Travis leaves, Dawn immediately runs inside to get MA to cut her hair.

A little while later, Travis surprises Dawn by showing up after school to pick her up. He says he needs help picking up a gift for his father, but really he just wants an opportunity to hang out with Dawn. He does take her to get his dad's gift first, but then they go to Burger Palace, where Travis orders for Dawn. Travis then takes Dawn to Merry-Go-Round, the accessories store, and picks out a pair of earrings for Dawn. She wants to wear them in her first set of holes (she's got two in each lobe), but Travis thinks she should get a third hole. Dawn gets all flustered, especially when Travis suggests they do it right then and there, but luckily for Dawn, he takes her home instead.

It's lucky for Dawn that he did take her home, because when she gets home, she discovers that her parents are already there, and they are not happy. They had asked MA where Dawn was, and MA being unable to lie, admitted that Dawn had gone shopping with a boy named Travis. Sharon and Richard get really upset at Dawn going out with a boy they don't know, an older boy at that. They start getting on her about being responsible and about what a boy his age could possibly want with a girl Dawn's age. Eventually Dawn appeals to her mom, who says that once they meet Travis, they'll reassess the situation. Of course, that sets Richard off, because strict Richard would rather ban Dawn from seeing a boy Travis' age altogether. So while Sharon and Richard are fighting, Dawn makes her big escape. Dawn admits to MA that Travis is causing problems, and that she's starting to feel uneasy about it all. Dawn's still pretty smitten though.

Sometime later a club meeting, Kristy talks about her older brothers, and mentions that Travis has a girlfriend. This upsets Dawn, who sets out to spy on Travis the next day. She runs to the high school just in time to see Travis and a girl leave. Together, they go to Burger Palace and Merry-Go-Round. Dawn's upset, and eventually admits to her friends everything that's been going on. They all take her side, and Kristy can't believe her brothers would associate with such a snake. MA admits that she and Logan have been talking about setting up Dawn with his cousin who is coming for a visit. Dawn feels slightly better about everything, but still needs closure.

She decides to follow Travis again and confront him with his girlfriend. Travis is pretty cool about it, and Sara (the girlfriend), seems to know all about Dawn. Dawn heads home, embarrassed. However, she still can't let it go. Finally, she decides to phone Travis and give him a piece of her mind. Travis is confused, and doesn't know what Dawn's talking about. Dawn continues though, and finally hangs up the phone on him, feeling free of his controlling and manipulative ways.

With Travis gone, Dawn turns back towards MA's letter from Lewis, Logan's cousin. They write back and forth for awhile, with the intent of hanging out when he comes to visit. But that's for another story.

The subplot in this one revolves around James Hobart and his friend Zach. Zach is one of the guys who bullied the Hobarts in their first book. Although he's supposed to be James' friend now, he's still a bully. He makes fun of James' hobbies and interests, and tries to turn him American: getting him to pursue his more manly hobbies and stop using Aussie slang. James is in the process of putting on a play that he wrote for his brothers and the Perkins girls (they're next-door neighbours). Every time Zach comes by though, he teases him for playing with girls (...his brothers are there too!) and for playing with babies (okay, yes, James is the oldest of the group by at least 2 years). Sometimes James gives in, other times he stands firm. It doesn't get resolved in the end, so I'm interested in seeing if Zach pops up again in another book. Anyways, it's meant to parallel Dawn's plot of letting Travis control her.

Random Thoughts:

• I don't know why, but this is one of the ones I remember reading a lot as a child haha
• lol in this one, to describe Janine, they mention that she's "the type of girl who sits around doing quadratic equations for fun." I have to admit, I fucking love quadratic equations. I don't sit around and do them for fun, but I definitely have fun doing them, and if I come across one, I have to stop what I'm doing and solve it haha
• More foreshadowing about Stacey's health! I'm loving the continuity in these books!
• Dawn also mentions that she once knew she was going to have an exciting day, and that was the day Claudia broke her leg. Dawn indeed was the one who went with Claudia to the hospital!
• How the eff does Travis find out where Dawn lives? Charlie probably knows vaguely (from dropping off Kristy), but probably doesn't know her exact house number (I never knew the exact house number of my best friends' houses when I was in high school, just how to get there, what street and what the house looked like... and those were my BEST FRIENDS), and even if he did, would he really give it to Travis??
• MA is pretty self-centred sometimes. I get that it's exciting for her to have a hot steady boyfriend in Logan, but it seems like whenever Dawn or Stacey express interest in boys, she's always dismissive of them. 
• It would've been interesting to see Dawn on the cover with shorter hair, wearing those hair combs. And then some continuity over the next books describing Dawn with long hair (but no longer the "longest hair ever").
• I need to re-read California Diaries to see how Ducky is introduced, because Mr Schafer in no way had an aneurysm like Mrs Schafer did over Dawn going out with someone who could drive haha and Ducky is the same age as Travis. And a lot less creepy-seeming haha
• Maybe Travis was genuinely being nice. Ducky is nice to the girls all the time, and gets them stuff or drives them around, and no one ever thinks twice about it. It's just unfortunate that Dawn has such a crush on Travis, so she immediately takes all his kind actions to heart.
• ...then again, maybe Travis was a creep. He's certainly very confident and pushy, unlike Ducky haha
• Part of me is all, "For such an individual, Dawn sure is quick to change to impress a boy..." But then again, that's pretty realistic for a 13 year old girl
• I'm kinda pissed at MA for trying to set Dawn up with Logan's cousin. As if Dawn is so lonely and desperate? I dunno...

BSC #34: Mary Anne and Too Many Boys

Tagline: Two weeks of sun, fun - and boys galore!

It's Sea City Part II when Mary Anne and Stacey return there as mother's helpers for the Pike family. The girls can't wait to catch some rays, stroll along the boardwalk... and baby-sit, of course!

But neither of them expects to meet up with her boyfriend from last summer. And to further complicate things, little Vanessa Pike has a crush on the cashier at Ice-Cream Palace - only he has a crush on Mallory!

Will a summer romance come between Logan and Mary Anne? Will an older boy break Vanessa's heart? Only one thing's for certain: There are too many boys in Sea City!

Alrighty, so from the fuck out of nowhere, it's summer again. Which of course means another trip to Sea City. Even though Mallory is a sitter now, since it's technically a family vacation, the Pikes don't want Mallory working too hard, so they hire both Stacey and Mary Anne to come back.

The trip down to Sea City is fairly uneventful. Margo doesn't even throw up! The triplets (in a car with Mary Anne, Vanessa and Mrs Pike) taunt Nicky whenever the two cars pass each other. Claire briefly gets lost at a rest stop when she returns inside to get a new ice cream cone, and the rest of the family can't find her. All in all, they make it to Sea City in one piece.

After they arrive and unpack, they're able to spend some time on the beach before the lifeguards pack up. They're all set to hit the beach again the next day, only to discover that it's all cloudy and grey. The boys don't mind, so Stacey takes them while Mary Anne and Mallory take the girls to the boardwalk. They stop to get ice cream, which is where they meet the cashier mentioned in the book description. It's a pretty disastrous visit: Claire manages to dump her entire soda on herself and then the cashier, trying to impress Mallory, ends up getting whipped cream all over the place and making a mess.

The next day, they're all able to get to the beach. There, Mary Anne and Stacey run into Alex and Toby, the mother's helpers from before. Toby and Stacey are clearly all about rekindling their summer romance, while MA is all torn because of Logan. She's clearly into Alex, and he definitely is into her, but MA doesn't want to be disloyal to Logan. She figures she can see Alex as a friend, and never really have to tell either Logan nor Alex about the other.

Stacey ends up going on two dates with Toby, much to MA's displeasure. This year, the Pikes decide that MA and Stacey can have two nights off each, like last year, but that unlike last year, they have to take them separately. MA had planned on going out with Alex, only for Stacey to be a bitch and be like, "No, I'm going out tonight, you can go out tomorrow." But then the next night, Stacey's all, "We had so much fun, we're going out again!"

Eventually MA gets to go out with Alex. The first night, they have the time of their life, and MA starts to feel guilty. She thinks back to Logan, and how she really likes him, but how she barely thinks about him when Alex is around. MA greatly enjoys spending time with Alex. When they go out a second time, MA's expecting everything to be awesome, but instead things are awkward. Eventually they admit that they each have someone waiting for them back home. MA's relieved and doesn't feel so guilty anymore. Now that the ice has been broken and everything's laid out on the table, their date goes much more smoothly. They agree that they're great together at Sea City, but that's all they'll ever be. It's too much to expect that they'll keep it up during the school year.

Sadly, Toby's not as stoic or mature, and completely dumps Stacey and breaks her heart. Stacey apologizes to MA for being such a bitch, and all is forgiven. Sadly, it's time to head back to Stoneybrook, so the girls pack up and wave goodbye to Sea City.

There's not really much of a subplot in this one. Pretty much the girls are all scattered for the first few weeks of summer: Dawn's back in California, Claudia's family is going to Vermont, and then Stacey, Mary Anne and Mallory are in Sea City. That leaves Kristy and Jessi at home to do all of the baby-sitting. We're treated to a chapter of Kristy baby-sitting for the Rodowskys, where they go to the community pool. Dawn baby-sits for the children of Carol's friend, where we learn that Jeff is surprisingly good with kids. Jessi baby-sits for her siblings and Charlotte, where she learns that Squirt is perceptive and perhaps smarter than he seems.

I suppose the real subplot is Vanessa's crush on Chris, the Ice Cream Palace cashier. She decides to write him poems anonymously, leaving them out for him to find. He does find them, but ends up attributing them to Mallory, since Mallory is much closer to his age. At first Vanessa is absolutely crushed, but eventually handles it maturely. She decides to write one more poem saying good-bye, and never tells neither him nor Mallory the truth.
 
Random Thoughts:

• First time for ghostwriter Mary Lou Kennedy!
• I'm surprised we got another MA book so soon. It's only been 3 books since her last one. I think MA ends up with the most books in the entire series. This kinda makes sense, since AMM has always said that MA was kinda meant to represent her.
• lol I think this is my first time really re-reading the BSC since the Lord of the Rings movies came out. Plus usually when I read them, I skip the parts where they describe the club, the members and their families. Anyways, it just dawned on me that the Pikes named their hamster Frodo haha
• Even though I always think they sound gross, whenever they mention chocolate sodas in the BSC-verse, it makes me want one. Or at least some sort of milkshake. Or Starbucks frappaccino haha
• I know I've said it before, but my god, Jackie Rodowsky pisses me off
• Ah Mary Anne.... I've been there before too with the boys haha the fact that you'll never see them again outside of this two week period always makes things seem grey haha
• I love how judgemental and bitchy Mary Anne can be. It's funny, because she's always described as super sweet and sensitive, but it's always the quiet ones you need to look out for. She snarks about all the boys in Stacey's life, referencing both Scott and Pierre. MA notes that while Toby might be at the top of Stacey's list... for now... who knows how long he'll stay?
• We see Carol again. Even though she had no idea what Mr Schafer was planning, it still seems super flaky to me that Carol would just show up to his place with two random babies. If the person I was dating randomly showed up with little kids and was like, "Surprise! We're baby-sitting!", I would be seriously pissed.
• In this one, we learn that Mallory talks in her sleep. I have a friend who talks in their sleep vividly, like Mallory. He'll sit up, say something clear as day, and then fall back down, roll over, and continue sleeping. He'll have no recollection of anything the next day. It's creepy as fuck. I hope this gets mentioned again, but I have a feeling that it won't.
• I really liked Vanessa in this book. She's kinda annoying in a lot of the books, but mostly because we only ever see her from a little sister perspective, and they always focus on her incessant rhyming. Here, she's super mature and handles things well. I'd be interested in seeing what she was like when she was older.
• I also really like the poem she writes MA, thanking MA for her help with delivering the letters:

Love can hurt, love can sting,

A broken heart can never sing.

Boys will come, boys will go

but a friend is forever, this I know

A friend is rare and hard to find

everyone knows it's true

You helped me through a very bad time

I'll always be grateful to you.

• My favourite line is "a broken heart can never sing", even though I know that that's not true at all. I just really effing like how it sounds xD haha