The Baby-Sitters Club #107: Mind Your Own Business, Kristy!

It's the 800^th spring break in Stoneybrook, so Kristy needs to find something to do to occupy her time. She comes up with a great idea during their first sitting meeting: she should host a clinic to get the Krushers ready for their next season. Though she assumes that Bart will just bend over and help her, he actually turns her down because he doesn't want to share the tips he gives his players with to her players. She naturally freaks out and keeps complaining about it until Charlie volunteers his time. Since he's just looking at college brochures, he has nothing else to do.

Kristy is also excited because she wins tickets to a Blade concert at the beginning of the book. Unlike Johnny Buck from SVT, this is some random band we never heard of before. She entered a radio contest and somehow won. When Charlie offers to drive her, their mom suggests that she take Bart and Charlie take his girlfriend Sarah. Kristy shoots it down because her and Bart are over, and Charlie says he and Sarah are too. She seems more disappointed than he does because she really liked Sarah.

During their very first practice, the Hsu boys show up with a brand new sitter. Wait, there are other kids who babysit in Stoneybrook? She's super pretty, with long dark hair and wears cool clothes. She instantly starts giving Charlie the eye, and he suddenly can't concentrate on the ball. Kristy doesn't really like her but not for any specific reason.

Trouble starts when Angelica, that's her name, starts coming around way too often. Charlie gets a new haircut and some new clothes and douses himself in cologne. He even winks at her and starts rolling up his shirt sleeves to show off his biceps. Kristy thinks the whole thing is ridiculous and decides to get him and Sarah back together again.

Kristy calls Sarah and convinces her that Charlie needs help picking a college. They make plans to get together at this restaurant Argo to talk. She then cons Charlie into going out to eat, offering to treat him as a thank you for helping out. This almost goes badly when he asks Angelica to join them, but Kristy pitches a major fit that causes him to tell Angelica she can't go. He does offer to take her somewhere just the two of them. Sarah and Charlie freak out when they see each other and basically run away from each other. Charlie blames Sarah and says his ex-girlfriend used his sister until Kristy confesses that she set up the whole thing.

While helping out at the clinic, Abby overhears Charlie telling Angelica what happened. Angelica lights up a cigarette and scowls until Charlie soothes things over. Kristy gets so pissed off when Abby tells her that she stops talking to her brother. That makes things complicated since he promised to get a former MLB player and Hall of Famer Jack Brewster to come to the clinic. He spends all his time with Angelica and ignores his sister.

This carries over to the clinic too. Kristy feels like crap because the kids will only listen to Charlie. They ignore her, and Jamie even says that Charlie is the boss now. During one practice, Charlie and Angelica play on the swings together during the clinic and keep ignoring the kids. Kristy needs his help and sees him walking with his new gal pal far, far, far away. When she confronts him, he tells her that she doesn't need his help, rolls his eyes, and makes her feel like crap. She then tells him that he's just like their dad before storming off.

That fight puts Mary Ann right in the middle the next day. Charlie and Kristy keep sending her back and forth to deliver messages for them. When she finally speaks up, the two actually talk. This ends badly because Charlie announces that instead of taking one of his friends, he's taking Angelica as his date. That should be fun. Kristy tries to just focus on how much fun she'll have with Claudia and not the evil brat in the car with them.

Charlie convinces Watson to let him borrow his new car and makes Kristy sit in the backseat. Angelica is less than happy when she sees Kristy there and less so when she hears that Kristy is going with them. She even says, “no problem” when Kristy says she's the reason they even have tickets. Angelica is super pissed at finding out Claudia is going with them too. To make matters worse, Charlie has no experience with anti-lock breaks and keeps screwing up, which makes Angelica's motion sickness really bad.

Before they even get out of Stoneybrook, she convinces him to let her drive because she learned how to drive on a similar model. Angelica speeds on the highway, keeps changing lanes without warning, and plays the music way too loud. When a cop shows up behind them, she asks Charlie to take the wheel because, surprise surprise, she has no license. She then loses control of the car and hits the guardrail.

The cop asks for her license and tells them that they broke multiple laws. He also points out that Watson's insurance won't cover unlicensed drivers before taking them to the station since the car won't start. They miss the concert and have to wait for their parents to pick them up. Charlie gets a huge lecture, but no real punishment. He has to pay for his ticket himself, he's grounded from driving for a month or so, and he needs to “rethink his social attachments,” which means find a new girlfriend.

Charlie mopes around town and keeps calling Angelica who won't answer his calls. He comes by on the same day he's supposed to show up with Jack Brewster. Even though he promised the kids the guy would be there, he was so busy with his social life that he forgot to make the arrangements. After he leaves, Sarah comes by and tells Kristy that her “uncle” is Jack Brewster. She calls to ask for his help, and he agrees to come the next day, which makes the kids go crazy. Angelica then shows up with a note for Charlie and tells Kristy to either give it to him or she'll mail it and keep ignoring him until he gets it. She doesn't apologize for anything that happened and says since Kristy didn't pay for the tickets, it wasn't like she really missed out on anything.

After giving him the note, Kristy leaves but Charlie starts reading it to her. It's basically the most teenage girl note ever. Angelica say that she's just super mature and responsible, that her ex-boyfriend was exactly the same way, that they broke up because they were too alike, and that she chose Charlie because he was a big kid. She also goes on and on about how she would never, ever have tried to drive her ex-boyfriend's car because he was too mature to let her and because he was such a great driver. And, her parents didn't like that she let Charlie's personality rub off on her. They must be related to the Wakefields.

Charlie then breaks down because he thinks he is like his dad. Since his dad was immature and irresponsible, he turned out the same way. He can't decide on a college, has no idea what he wants to do with his life, and he spent his whole spring break playing with kids instead of hanging out with people his own age. They talk about how they had to grow up fast after their dad left. Kristy then tells him that when she has to make an important decision, she asks what Charlie would do. She leaves the room before she starts crying and sees that his eyes are wet too.

Jack Brewster turns out to be a lot older than they think but a great coach. All the Krushers go bonkers over him. A bunch of parents and other kids show up too, and Kristy has to have them stand back to give him time with the kids. Jack then asks Sarah to give Charlie some help on his stance. Kristy notices that Jack, Charlie, and Sarah are all trying not to smile and realizes that Sarah probably told Jack about her former relationship and thinks that everything will now be okay.

*Charlie dips grapes in Cool Whip, and both he and Kristy refer to it as frosted grapes. Um, frosted grapes are grapes you dip in egg whites or something else, then sugar, and then freeze, not this abomination.

*Kristy says her parents keep riding Charlie about picking a college and sending off applications. Since it's spring break of his senior year, he's kind of running out of options now.

*I find it really weird that Kristy would take Claudia to the concert. They never really seem to talk outside of meetings!

*Kristy says that the look on Claudia's face when her parents arrive at the station is one she only saw once before, when Claudia's dad caught her flushing a stack of $20 bills down the toilet LOL.

*Charlie's punishment is LAME! Why not make him get a job and pay for the repairs himself?

*No clue what is going on with Anne's notes at the end. It starts off about how she spent spring breaks in California as a kid and then goes on about how she first went to Disney World in preparation for the Super Special book. OK?

*Angelica was awful! Other than being slightly attractive, with a raging case of bitch face based off the cover, she has no redeeming qualities.

*The end with Jack Brewster made no sense. Kristy already told all the kids he would be there one day. They came and practiced as usual. When she told them he was coming again, every parent showed up with their friends and a bunch of kids from SMS came out too. Where were they all the day before?

*Some people didn't like this book because Kristy was too controlling. I actually don't think she was that bad. If she was really controlling, she could have just went and told the Hsus that their sitter kept smoking in front of their kids.

*Someone pointed out that Charlie originally wanted to take his friend Travis to the concert that that it might be the same Travis Dawn went gaga over!

*Claudia wears a barrette with a replica VCR on it. Everyone thinks it's cool, but Kristy just wants to know if a little video will pop out if she pushes the button.