The Baby-Sitters Club #51: Stacey’s Ex-Best Friend

This is the one where we learn that Laine Cummings is truly a bitch.

Laine calls Stacey to discuss her plans for her upcoming break and Stacey begs her to come to Stoneybrook. She asks her mom, and Laine agrees to come, though she doesn’t seem too excited about it. Stacey goes on a major cleaning spree, ridding their home of anything uncool, including magazines, her pig collection, and even food.

Laine immediately makes it clear that she doesn’t like being there. She completely misses the town when they drive through it, rolls her eyes at everything Stacey says, and acts like she’s a 30-year-old. The BSC has a slumber party at Stacey’s house and Laine gets bored. She doesn’t want to eat because she’s on a diet, she doesn’t want to talk because she doesn’t know anyone, and she brags about her 15-year-old boyfriend. She thinks all boys their age are dorks and kind of acts rude about it, leading Kristy and Mary Anne to get upset.

Since Laine is so bored sitting at home by herself, Stacey brings her to school one day. Pete Black sees her and loses his marbles. He tells her that she has hair like gossamer and she laughs at him. She also gets annoyed at Kristy who is pissed at Bart. There’s some big dance coming up and he might not go with her because he might want to watch a game on TV that night.

Stacey decides that Laine should go with Pete to the dance, but she seems freaked out. She finally admits that she doesn’t know how her boyfriend King would act. King is super cool <note my sarcasm>. He has high school friends, has purple tips in his hair, and he calls her “Babe.” She calls him King because he’s like totally the king of her heart.

King calls and Laine makes Stacey leave the room. She hears Laine laughing about something, and then Laine says childish, which she thinks is about her charges. Pete calls, and Laine makes her stay in the room. As soon as she hangs up, she starts making fun of Pete and how he talks about her. Then she decides to call King and makes Stacey leave. Stacey eavesdrops and doesn’t like the way she keeps talking down to him about Pete.

The BSC decides to throw a Valentine’s Day party for their charges. Nicky has a huge crush on one of the Arnold twins and Carolyn has a crush on an older boy. They all think it’s adorable, but Laine thinks it’s lame. She makes a few rude comments about it and Kristy stops talking to her.

Stacey decides to make amends and have a girl’s night before the dance. Laine doesn’t want to eat snacks because she’s on a diet and tells Stacey she needs to lose weight. She doesn’t want to help her pick out an outfit for the dance, and she doesn’t want to do her nails because Pete isn’t worth it. Then she changes her mind because King will see her nails the next day. Oh and she picks on Stacey for buying nail polish off the home shopping channel.

Laine is also disgusted that the boys aren’t picking them up in their own car, which Stacey points out that King can’t do either. Austin and Pete bring them corsages, and Pete drops his on the ground. That kind of sets the tone for the night. Laine says the decorations look like it’s a kids’ party, that the food is more appropriate for kindergarten kids, and that sixth graders shouldn’t be allowed at the dance because one drops a drink somewhere near her.

Pete asks her for a dance, she says she’s tired, some other guy asks her, and she rushes off with him. It turns out that the guy is a “lowly” seventh-grader LOL. Stacey finally snaps and drags her off, telling her that she’s been acting snotty. Laine decides that she wants to go home, so Stacey calls her mom. She grabs her jacket and makes Laine get her own. Maureen calls Mrs. Cummings and they have a fight on the phone, but she still takes her to the train station.

The BSC holds their party and everyone has fun. Nicky freaks out because he sees Carolyn with the card he made for…Carolyn. Turns out that he had a crush on Marilyn though and she likes him too. They actually end up holding hands at the party, which is actually kind of sweet.

Stacey feels bad about what happened and talks to Claudia who tells her that she needs some closure on things. She writes a letter to Laine, telling her that she’s sorry for the fight, but not sorry for what happened because Laine changed so much and she misses her. She puts her old BF necklace that Laine gave her when she moved in the envelope and mails it. Then she sits around the house waiting for Claudia, her one and only best friend to come over.

*Stacey can’t figure out why Laine didn’t see the town when she pointed out a few stores and the pizza place. Um, don’t they always describe Stoneybrook as being kind of big? Or do I just think that because so many NYC people move there?

*What the heck is a hoagie? Stacey orders one for the whole group, but here in Ohio, a hoagie is just your basic sub sandwich. I keep picturing each girl getting a 1-inch sandwich.

*Laine thinks she’s so cool because she got a job as a cashier at “the trendiest boutique on the Upper West Side.” I wonder how cool it will be when her boss fires her because it violates child labor laws.

*Dawn says dude and Laine snaps that the word went out in the 60s. Um, I use that word at least once a day. Plus, I’m sure this book came out during the TMNT boom, and we all know they loved that word.

*Stacey outfit #1: purple shirtwaist top, flowered leggings, cowboy boots, and a hair thing made out of shoelaces. God, I totally remember those.

*Laine outfit #1: black capris pants with lace edges, jean jacket with a fake fur collar, black ankle boots, and a red beret.

*Stacey outfit #2: red shirt and very short denim skirt.

*Laine outfit #2: black leotard, black stockings, black flats, black jacket, and silver earrings.

*Stacey outfit #3: red barrettes, red sweater, red ankle boots, and red leggings.

*This book is supposed to show Laine as a bitch, but I always got that vibe from her anyway. It’s not like she was so nice to Stacey in the past.

*Laine is disgusted that they can’t leave campus during school hours, even to go to the coffee shop during study hall. Does any middle school do that?

*Mary Anne and Logan fight because he wants to dance at the dance and she doesn’t, which makes Laine roll her eyes. I have to agree with her on that one. Why even go to a dance if you just want to stand against the wall and eat or drink? Even though I am and always was a horrible dancer, my friends and I always busted a move at middle school dances.

*Stacey says that Laine once loved sitting as much as she does. Is that true? I remember in some of the other books Stacey mentioning that she didn’t know any other sitters in NYC, which is why she always got so many jobs.