The Baby-Sitter’s Club #18: Stacey’s Mistake

So Stacey is now living in New York, since her dad got transferred back to town and her parents are still together. The people in her building decide that they need to get together and figure out what to do about the homeless in their neighborhood. But what will they do with all their kids? It’s the BSC to the rescue when Stacey invites the elder members to stay with them for a weekend.

The girls take the train to NYC and agree to meet at the information desk. Stacey ends up waiting around for like 20 minutes, freaking out that their train was delayed or they somehow ended up lost. Turns out that they followed everyone else off the train and got a little lost. She gets all annoyed because they walked right past the desk and didn’t see her, even though she didn’t see them either.

She also gets annoyed because Mary Anne won’t shut the fuck up about the town and Claudia brought some huge ass suitcase that looks more like a trunk. After dropping their bags off at the apartment, they take a cab to the Hard Rock Café. Of course everyone oohs over the restaurant (just like I would at their age) and buys tee-shirts to remember the trip.

Mary Anne has all these plans and things she wants to see, but apparently they don’t have enough time. They can either go to Bloomingdale’s or the Museum of Modern Art and pick shopping because Claudia is the only one who really wants to go to the museum. Then it’s back to the apartment to get ready for the party Stacey planned.

It cracks me up because Mary Anne becomes obsessed over clothes and getting everyone to wear a sophisticated outfit. She asks Stacey to pick out their clothes, but then rejects the outfit she picks for her. She ends up wearing a ruffled white blouse, short brown boots and a paisley skirt. Stacey thinks she looks like she’s from Little House on the Prairie.

Laine comes over early and wows everything with her outfit. For a junior high party, she wears a little black dress, hose, black flats and a few pieces of silver jewelry. She and Claudia dislike each other right away, with both commenting on how the other abandoned Stacey at one point.

The party finally comes, but the BSC won’t have anything to do with the NYC kids. Stacey finally introduces Kristy to this guy Coby and they hit it off, but then Claudia cuts in to dance/flirt with him. Mary Anne makes an ass of herself by confronting random people with stupid facts about the city or asking them shit, like when they rode the ferry last. Then she makes fun of Dawn, who’s terrified of the city and Dawn hears her. By the end of the night, no one is talking and Laine cuts out early.

The next day they have to be on their best behavior because they’re baby-sitting. The kids all show up and somehow the parents think it’s a smart idea to send five 13 year olds out with a dozen kids (one as young as four)…in New York City.

They take the kids to the natural history museum and manage to lose one little boy. Mary Anne steps up and finds him. Then they take the kids to Central Park. One little girl almost throws up and Dawn takes care of her because she knows how Stacey feels about barf. By the end of the day, they’ve all made up.

Laine calls and she’s ready to give everyone a second chance. Her dad managed to get tickets for all of them to a Broadway show and lets them take a limo there. Stacey asks Laine to stay the night and she decides to give the BSC some time together, but exchanges info with Claudia because they’re now friends.

The girls stay up all night, talking and bonding. They even make a prank call to Jeff in California. The next day, Stacey makes them all try lox on bagels and they read the newspaper. They head back to Stoneybrook and everyone is back to being friends again.

*Instead of those stupid journal/diary entries, we get letters and postcards back home. Even though they’re only gone for three days, they write to Logan, Shannon, Mallory, Jessi, Jeff, Nannie and Karen/Andrew.

*Dawn wears a peach sweater dress for the party, with lace stockings, while Claudia wears a “sophisticated” black outfit with stars all over it. Stacey wears yellow socks with a short yellow dress and white stockings. Kristy refuses to dress up and wears a turtleneck and jeans.

*Check out that cover! Is this the only one of the regular series books that had such a plain/non-bright colored cover?