Young Adult Revisited

This is the book that taught me the word “pariah” and I was mentioning it to a friend a few weeks ago. Low and behold, we came across a copy at the thrift store and now it’s mine, all mine! So, Mary Anne is flipping through a fashion magazine at a BSC meeting when she sees a model with extremely short hair. She wonders aloud if it would fit her and Claudia flips out. The other girls giggle, telling her that it just wouldn’t look good on her. Originally she agrees, but the more she thinks about it, the more she really likes it. She takes a picture to her dad and he agrees that it would look nice on her. They make a plan to hit the mall on Saturday and she asks him to keep it a secret from Sharon and Dawn. She gets her haircut and naturally loves it. They find a makeup store doing free makeovers and he not only lets her have one, but buys her some makeup. Then they hit a clothing store and she gets a few new clothes. When they get home, she springs her makeover on Sharon and Dawn.

Jenny survived her bout with Mr. Hagen and now sees a psychiatrist multiple times. She explains that a neighbor wants her to babysit and she isn’t sure she wants to, but her mom is kind of pushing her because they need the money. On her way out, his creepy nurse Miss Gurney compliments her on her shirt. Then she runs into Chuck, her former boyfriend. Chuck can’t seem to get it through his head that she doesn’t want to see him anymore. Jenny starts her new job and the boy is an insane little monster. Eli has pet tarantulas, loves gruesome horror movies, builds computers for fun and is way too smart for his age. He tricks Jenny into sticking her hand in the tarantula and then laughs like crazy. After hanging out with her friends Rick and Claire at the mall, she meets a cute guy named Cal. They do some flirting and he asks her out. Their date is almost a disaster, as he takes her to a lame party where all people do is drink beer and make out. They go ice skating, kiss some more and sh

Dawn is still new to the world of the BSC and she’s having some hard times with Kristy who obviously doesn’t like her very much. One day while sitting for the Pike family, she meets Buddy and Suzi Barrett, two new divorced kids living in the area. Suzi trips and skins her knee, but she gives her a bandaid and it’s all good. A few days later Mrs. Barrett calls during a club meeting and requests a sitter. Dawn takes the job and she’s actually kind of excited. On her first job, Mrs. Barrett runs off in a hurry without giving her any information. Buddy keeps pointing his finger at her like a gun and being a beast. She finally manages to get them under control and even creates races to clean the house. Before long Dawn becomes the primary sitter for the family. Every time she goes, the kids are wild and crazy, the house looks like a mess and Mrs. Barrett is running off somewhere in a hurry. Dawn keeps the kids under control, but whenever another sitter is there, the kids barely listen.