The Baby-Sitters Club #105: Stacey the Math Whiz

Stacey gets asked to join the Mathletes, the math club at SMS. She keeps turning them down because math people are always geeky and she is anything but geeky. She finally agrees to come to one meeting, but only because Ms. Hartley tells her that she had the highest standardized math scores in the school.

She goes to the meeting and complains to herself that everyone there is a dork. Ms. Hartley buys her special sugar-free snacks and everyone is sweet to her so she feels bad. When they get into doing the actual work, she’s surprised to learn that she knows almost all the answers. She does better than anyone else at the meeting.

Ed shows up unexpectedly in town, driving a brand new car. He lets it slip that he lost his job, but he’s sure that he can get another one. He makes dinner for her and her mom and spends a lot of time in Stoneybrook. He shows up at all her meets, takes her out to dinner and generally acts like the perfect dad. He even takes her back to the city to celebrate with him and Samantha.

They of course win a bunch of meets and get an invite to the state championships. Her dad announces that he got her tickets to her favorite band, but she realizes that it’s the same night as the first round of the championships. The first team to win two meets wins. She decides to skip the meet because of the concert, thinking that the smartest girl on the team can help them. That girl gets sick, but Stacey still wants to go to the concert.

At the last second, she changes her mind and decides to go to the meet. Her dad shows up and they win. She plans to go out with her team, but her dad wants to take her out. It’s supposed to be a short dinner, so she agrees to meet the BSC and Mathletes at the Rosebud. She never shows up and thinks that everyone hates her.

Ed gets a new job and has to go to Atlanta for training, so he misses round two. He promises that he’ll try to make it to the third. Stacey makes up with everyone, but does bad at the last meet because her dad doesn’t show up. Suddenly, she hears him chanting for her in the crowd and starts kicking ass. It comes down to a final tie-breaker and she naturally gets it before anyone else so they win.

Lindsay DeWitt needs a math tutor and Stacey starts working with her. When she joins the Mathletes, she has to quit and Claudia takes over. Claudia makes up games and songs and generally makes math fun. Stacey gets frustrated because she isn’t learning “properly” and tries to get Lindsay to follow the math guide. Lindsay gets frustrated and runs away. Stacey then does the same thing to Haley and Charlotte. After their eyes glaze over, she realizes that she might not be right.

There’s also a big math fair at SES and all the charges take part. Nicky does a probability exercise, while Haley and Charlotte do math magic. It’s actually kind of cute, but I can’t imagine kids getting so excited about something like that in elementary school.

*Ms. Hartley is the head of the SMS math department. Um, do ordinary schools actually have a math department? Granted I went to a smaller school, but we had a few teachers and that was it.

*I kept waiting for Stacey to think her parents were getting back together because Ed is always over at their house, but she never did.

*Maureen meets his new girlfriend, but in Graduation Day Stacey keeps freaking out that they’re going to fight because they never met before.

*I get creeped out thinking about Ed in his new car. He literally pulls up to Stacey on the street and starts talking to her without rolling the window down all the way. I would probably call the cops on the weird pedophile LOL.

*Franklin isn’t happy about Claudia’s tutoring because this is right after she got sent back a year. He naturally grows to love her, which doesn’t seem that realistic. Would you be excited about Claudia tutoring one of your kids?