The Baby-Sitter’s Club #36: Jessi’s Baby-Sitter

Jessi’s mom hasn’t been working for awhile, though I don’t remember this ever being mentioned in another book. Not only does she go job hunting without mentioning it to her kids, but she also accepts a job. Jessi’s dad picks her up from dance class and makes it out like he has some big announcement at dinner. She’s convinced that her mom’s pregnant, but it’s just a new job.

Right away, she starts thinking about how she needs to plan to take care of Becca and Squirt after school, but dad announces that Aunt Cecilia is coming to stay. The girls are so upset at the news that they immediately make a list of things to do, just to torture her.

Cecilia shows up and apparently brings her whole house with her, despite the fact that she’s packing light. Seriously, she’s moving into their guest room and brings dozens of cartons, a birdcage, lamps, two chairs and god knows what else. They end up storing her stuff all around the house. Jessi also short-sheets her bed, puts shaving cream in her slippers and puts a fake spider on her pillows, but Cecilia never says a word.

Right away, Cecilia starts taking over the house. Jessi likes having a sandwich as an after school snack, but now she has to have milk and cookies. Her aunt also determines what she does and where she goes. Jessi comes home 10 minutes late from a sitting job and Cecilia flips out because she didn’t know where she was. She forbids her from attending a BSC meeting, so the girls keep calling and making it seem like it was a huge deal.

Jessi considers talking to her parents, but decides not too because she doesn’t want to buy them. She makes one attempt to call her dad at work and when he’s out of the office, she just gives up. Cecilia also changes her hair and that’s the only thing her parents ever notice.

At the same time, she’s “helping” Jackie with his science-fair project. He wants to make a volcano because he saw one on The Brady Bunch and Jessi takes over. She tells him how to do everything and then when he does it wrong, she does it herself. She writes out the speech for him to write and even makes the sign.

On the day of the science fair, Jessi’s whole family comes out. Jackie does the explosion, which is all he really cared about. When the judges ask him random questions about volcanoes, he can’t answer because Jessi did all the research. She realizes that she took over and ran his life, just like Cecilia did to her.

She sets her parents down and tells them everything that happened and then they hold a family meeting. They tell Cecilia that Jessi never misses a BSC meeting, unless it’s a dance class or an emergency. From now on, Jessi will give them her schedule and then they’ll run it by Cecilia. She agrees, but then tells them about all the pranks. Her parents want to punish her, but she stops them. That night they find that she did the same things to them and everyone makes up.

*Charlotte does a project where she plays music for plants to see which one grows the fastest. I used this experiment in an article I wrote a few months ago LOL.

*Margo (Pike) wants to do a project on the moon, but basically puts a bunch of random dolls in a shadow box with a picture of the Earth behind it.

*David Michael (Kristy’s brother) makes a mobile that shows how the planets rotate.

*Ann’s notes reveal that she had a baby-sitter named Johnny, who she loved, but she also had sitters that were mean, like Cecilia.