Of all the Baby-sitters, Kristy's the last one anyone would expect to have a secret admirer. But someone is sending her mushy notes with hearts all over them!The Krushers are having a game against the Bashers, and actually end up winning the game. The kids are all super-excited about it, and Kristy's super-proud of them. As they're leaving to head home, Bart offers to walk Kristy. They're talking and it's clear that Bart's making an effort to get to know Kristy. He asks her about her life and all sorts of non-softball related things. Kristy's all mystified, as when Bart drops her off, he says they should see each other real soon, maybe even before their next game. Then he walks away, whistling.
Kristy and Shannon are pretty sure the letters are from Bart, Kristy's rival softball coach. But then the notes Kristy receives from her mystery admirer start getting a little weird... and creepy.
Is Bart pulling a practical joke on Kristy? Or do the strange notes mean something more serious? Only the Baby-sitters can find out!
A few days later, Shannon calls up Kristy, and insists on coming over immediately after dinner. Turns out someone has left a note for Kristy in Shannon's mailbox. Kristy wonders at how the mailman could have gotten their addresses mixed up, when Shannon reveals that it wasn't delivered by the mailman: it's handwritten and has no address. Shannon comes over, and she and Kristy soon discover that it's a love note from a mystery admirer! Shannon thinks that the note must be from Bart, but Kristy's not convinced. She calls Bart up that night, but neither of them say anything about the note, so Kristy just drops it.
Kristy receives another note, and Shannon and the rest of the Club are convinced it has to be Bart. He's the only guy who has shown a serious interest in Kristy, plus he lives in the neighbourhood for easy delivering. Kristy still isn't convinced though, because whenever she talks to Bart, he never gives anything away. Anyways, Kristy decides it doesn't matter, and invites Bart to the Halloween Hop at their school at the end of the month.
Anyways, Kristy keeps receiving notes. She likes them a lot, and keeps them on her at all times. After she gets the fourth one, she shows them all to her friends at lunchtime at school. Cokie Mason and her friends are nearby, attempting to eavesdrop and snickering. Kristy assumes they're making fun of her, and quickly hides the notes.
At this point, the notes take a sinister turn and Kristy starts freaking out. If they really are from Bart, does that mean he's a psycho? Does he have a split personality? Delusions? Is he a serial killer?? Then Kristy starts to think... maybe they're not from Bart at all. Maybe they're from some random psycho, who wants to kidnap Kristy for ransom, because Watson is a millionaire. This keeps Kristy up at night, and she starts getting stressed and paranoid.
Shannon and her friends point out that it's unlikely it's a random guy. If someone wanted to extort money from Watson, they'd probably take Andrew or Karen, since they're 1) his biological kids and 2) smaller and easier to take. Shannon thinks maybe it is Bart, and maybe he's trying to psych Kristy out so that she's not on top of her game when the Bashers play the Krushers again. Kristy can't believe he'd do something so lowly and cowardly, and stops talking to Bart. Shannon starts ignoring Bart too.
After days of Kristy evading Bart on the phone and on the softball field, Bart finally goes to Kristy's and confronts her. Kristy shows him all the notes and starts accusing him of writing them. Bart finally confesses that, yes, he wrote the notes. But only the nice ones, the first four ones. Not the later creepy, weird ones. They have a bit of a fight, but quickly reconcile. But that still leaves the question of who sent the notes? Shannon comes over to help them discuss it, and it's quickly determined that because Kristy brought the notes to school, a lot of people know about them. Still, they can't come up with any answers.
Finally it's the day of a big game between the Bashers and the Krushers. Kristy's all distracted and stressed because of everything, plus organizing the game and the refreshments. When she gets to the field, she's surprised to see Cokie Mason and her friends there. Cokie plays it off like she's just there to support Kristy and is interested in softball. She mentions that Kristy's seemed depressed, to which Kristy retorts that she's not, that she has a boyfriend, and that they're so happy they're going to be together forever. That's when Cokie lets slip something that was written in one of the creepy letters. Kristy puts two and two together, and realizes that Cokie was the one who sent the notes. Cokie reacts that she wouldn't have done it if it weren't for what the Club did to her and her friends "last Halloween", and if Kristy hadn't have made it so damn easy for her by flaunting those notes around. Kristy points out that they only pranked Cokie because she was so horrible to Mary Anne in the first place, trying to get Logan to break up with her. Kristy gets the last laugh though, because she says she'll make sure that everyone at SMS and at Bart's school know what Cokie did, so that no one will want to date her.
The game goes off without a hitch. The Krushers win again. Kristy and Bart decide to go to the Halloween Hop dressed as lobsters, which they win prizes for. All's well that end's well.
There isn't really much of a subplot in this one. The Krushers are doing really well, and in fact win their first game against the Bashers in this book, as previously noted. Bart and Kristy decide to up the stakes by having a World Series game. The Krushers don't do so well for a bit, but eventually come through and win the game. Shannon starts attending games, and Buddy Barrett accidentally beans her in the head with a softball and develops a crush on her. Sadly, that's just dropped out of nowhere.
Also: it is Halloween, and the Pikes decide to have a haunted house in their house, and charge admission. Only we never hear of this again haha
Random Thoughts
- Omg, Bart is totes my ideal boy: he plays guitar in a garage band! My 13 year old self would've gone nuts over him. And my high school self. Okay, and even my adult self, kinda haha How come I don't remember this?? Does this ever come up again??
- I find it weird that Bart would leave love notes for Kristy. What kind of 13 year old boy does that? I don't even think Logan would do that for Mary Anne. More proof that Bart is my man haha
- Haha Kristy compares Shannon's looks to Meryl Streep. It's hilarious, because the first time I read the book (and pretty much the entire 5 years or so that I was super-into the books), I had no idea who the eff Meryl Streep was, and probably glossed over it. Now I do know who Meryl Streep is. Omg this is amazing! Shannon is definitely officially my favourite baby-sitter now
- For the record, this is what Meryl Streep looked like in 1990, at the time of publication. She's a good looking woman now, but I always preface it with "for her age". Holy jesus murphy, she was GORGEOUS when she was younger! And yeah, definitely "interesting" looks, but still so so so attractive!
- I love how Kristy points out that the Bashers are pretty pointless. All the kids are big enough/good enough for Little League. So why aren't they on a real team? And since they're all kids from Bart's neighbourhood, they definitely have the money to afford being on a real team. So yeah.
- Even though Kristy and Shannon live across the street from each other, we don't hear more about Shannon. It never really seemed to me like they were super good friends. That's why it surprises me when Shannon calls Kristy out of the blue at the start of the book, just to chat. I definitely only called my very best friends on the phone when I was that age, and definitely no one who lived within eyesight of my house haha
- Kristy mentions that she's surprise that Shannon is so into the love notes. She figured a girl as popular and as pretty as Shannon would be like Stacey: guys lining up and out the door. She also mentions that Shannon "gets to wear that make-up", which strikes me as odd, because unlike MA, Kristy's never been explicitly told she can't wear make-up. She just chooses not to.
- This does make me wonder at that throwaway line from SS #2, where Kristy mentions that she'll occasionally put on some mascara if she knows she's going to see Bart. Makes me wonder if maybe there's not more to Kristy than what the characters usually describe.
- When Kristy points out that the "i" in her name is dotted with a heart, and that the only person she knows who does that is Stacey, she thinks maybe the note came from a girl. Shannon scoffs and says, "A girl who wants to go steady with you? Kristy, grow up." I wonder how that would be written today. I wonder if they'd just take the line out altogether or what.
- Fans often think that Kristy might be gay, just because she's never really shown an interest in dating and clothes, the way her friends do. Plus she's an athletic tomboy. They often pair her up with Abby, because of that book where Abby insists that she's not going to date a guy simply because he likes her and simply because everyone thinks she has to have a date for Valentine's Day. While I'm not opposed to there being LGBT characters in the BSC, I don't like that people automatically go to Kristy and Abby for such obvious and superficial reasons. It's totally possible to simply not be interested in dating. My best friend wasn't interested in dating for the longest time. Not in middle school, not in high school... almost not even in university. She just thought all guys our age were dumb and that all the dating drama wasn't worth it for them. In her last year of university, she finally started dating this friend of hers from work. He was her first and only boyfriend ever, and they just got married. I've had a million boyfriends, and am in no way planning on getting married any time soon. Everyone feels differently about relationships and people, and lack of interest does not indicate sexual orientation.
- Unless of course, you have zero interest at all: then you might be asexual. But my best friend often talked about celebrities and fictional characters that she liked, and she always dreamed of getting married and having kids. She just didn't think anyone our age that we knew was worth her time for the longest time.
- That being said, I would love it if Shannon was gay. It would go against the stereotype of "athletic girls are essentially boys, and therefore lesbians".
- No wonder Bart doesn't say anything at first: he probably thinks that 1) it's working and 2) Kristy has probably already figured out that it's him. The day he sends the first note, Kristy calls him up that night to chat. The next time he sends a note, she asks him to the Halloween dance at her school! Everything's working out exactly how he wants. Then, just as he was probably going to say something, Kristy stops talking to him altogether! So of course, he realizes something is wrong and stops sending notes.
- Oh god, the BSC time-warp is in full effect here: they mention what Cokie and her friends pulled "last Halloween", and how Stacey wasn't around for it. It's true: that all happened when Stacey was back in New York. Which was during grade 8. But they're still in grade 8. OMG WTF IS HAPPENING???
- Stacey's health is still being a problem. She's not particularly sick, she's just not particularly well either.
