The Baby-Sitters Club #11: Kristy and the Snobs

Kristy is now officially living at Watson's house and still not sure how she fits in or if she fits in around his fancy neighborhood. David Michael comes to her all concerned because Louie is limping. By the time she tells her mom though, the limp is already gone. While waiting for her bus, she sees a girl in a private school outfit waiting for her own bus. They exchange some words, but Kristy makes things way worse when she tells the girl that she looks like a snob and sticks her tongue out at her.

Louie keeps getting worse, which leads to Charlie taking her and David Michael with Louie to the vet. The vet says he's old, that his eyesight is bad, and that he has arthritis. She gives him some medicine but makes it clear that he won't get better. David Michael thinks that the medicine will make Louie all better though, and no one really wants to explain the truth to him.

The BSC gets a phone call from Mrs. Delaney who needs a sitter for her kids, Max and Amanda. Kristy takes the job after her friends point out that she needs to meet her neighbors. Amanda constantly talks about how everything in her house is so expensive, as in the fountain in the entryway cost thousands of dollars and how their super fluffy white cat cost $400. They also boss Kristy around, never say thank you, and treat her live a servant. Kristy is too afraid to say anything or talk to the parents because she doesn't want them to not call back.

Stacey volunteers to sit for them the next time they call. She uses reverse psychology on them to make them listen. When they refuse to clean their room, she says it isn't messy enough and throws stuff all over. When Max demands that she pour him a drink, she gets out all the containers she can find because he never said how much he wanted. She eventually realizes that Max doesn't like other people thinking he's a baby, which works to her advantage. Stacey then teaches them how to play this game Snail and teaches Kristy how to play and handle the kids herself.

Things between Kristy and Shannon heat up. Shannon calls while Kristy is sitting at the Papadakis house and tells her she spotted a fire. Kristy gets the kids outside and realizes it was all a prank. When she tells Mrs. Papadakis, the woman says that she'll have to talk to Shannon about it before she can sit again. Shannon calls her another time and tells her that Sari won't stop crying and that she needs her help. When Kristy gets there, Shannon and her friend make fun of her.

Shannon and her friends make fun of Louie when they see him around town. She kind of encourages Amanda to make fun of him too. I guess the fact that Amanda has a $400 cat and Shannon has a purebred mountain dog makes them so much better. One day, Kristy is sitting for Max and Amanda when a pizza guy shows up and says he got an order for a Kristy Thomas. She points him to Shannon's house and said they called. Shannon storms over with the pizza and threatens to throw it at Kristy, Kristy tells her that she'll throw it at her dog and make it a pizza mountain dog, and they all finally laugh. Shannon then says that she's actually jealous of the BSC and how Kristy stole some of her clients.

Louie gets to the point where he needs shots two times every day. Elizabeth, Watson, and Charlie all rearrange their schedules to take him to the vet, but nothing works. Karen and Andrew come over one day with Karen being her usual spaz self and running through the house screaming and shouting. One of her screams sounds a little different though, and they all arrive to find Louie dragging himself around on the ground by two legs.

Elizabeth sits the family down and tells them that the vet recommended that they put Louie to sleep. David Michael spends the night sleeping on the ground with him. Watson drives them to the vet but lets them go inside on their own. Kristy and David Michael get to say goodbye to Louie in the waiting room, while Elizabeth goes back with him.

When they get back, Karen wants to have a funeral. Charlie and Sam make a cross, they pick out Louie's favorite song to play, and they all gather outside. Karen refuses to let them start because she invited other people, who turns out to be all the fucking people who made fun of Louie and treated Kristy like crap. Shannon gets a little teary eyed though and tells Kristy she's sorry.

A few days later, Kristy sits for Max and Amanda again when Shannon comes over. Astrid, her dog, had puppies and her family wants to offer them one. She calls David Michael over. He refuses the dog at first but then softens and decides to both accept it and name the new puppy Shannon. Elizabeth agrees to let them have the dog because she and Watson had conveniently already talked it over and agreed to get another dog when David Michael was ready.

Kristy talks it over with the rest of the BSC and decides to offer Shannon a spot in the club. She comes over when they're all hanging out and talks about how her schedule is so full that she could never commit to the club. They ask her anyway, and when she turns them down, Mary Anne suggests she become an alternate member like Logan, which leads to her officially kind of joining the club.

In other news, all the Pike kids except Mallory, Nicky, and Vanessa have the chicken pox. Claudia and Mallory sit for everyone, which is rough because Margo won't stop scratching and the triplets hate being sick. At the end of the night, she finds Vanessa and Nicky comparing spots and discovers they have the chicken pox too. I would hate to live in that house.

Dawn also gets her own chapter because her mom has a date with the Trip Man and needs someone to watch Jeff. Jeff keeps acting out in school and getting in trouble, and he flips out on Dawn because she and their mom “always” treat him like a baby. He just knows that his dad would treat him like an older kid. After spilling dinner all over himself and the floor and knocking his drink on the couch, he screams at Dawn about how he wants to go home to California and locks himself in his room. Though her mom calls their dad, he doesn't seem too happy about the idea of taking his son back. Dawn flips out about how he might not want her either, but they all calm her down because it's probably just a shock to him.

*If you ever wondered if Mr. Papadakis has a first name, he does and it's George.

*Karen is such a little bitch about the funeral. She wants them to make a cross for Louie and put RIP on it. Kristy says it looks tacky and they should just write it out, which causes Karen to throw a bitch fit about it because every movie she ever saw had RIP on the cross. So even though Louie was not her dog and she only knew him for like a day, she gets her way.

*Her inviting those kids to the funeral is what would make me snap. They would have to pull me off her in the backyard. Those kids were so mean to Kristy and had absolutely no connection to her family or Louie. There is no reason for them to be there.

*Kristy points out that Mallory “often” acts as a second sitter at the Pike house. Why are they such brats about her joining the club later then?

*The Jeff story really pisses me off. So, he acts out all the time, screams at his family, and throws fits in school. Their mom deciding to let him go back to California is like rewarding him for being a brat. Plus, there's a reason she got sole full custody of those kids. It's not like something major changed in the last few months! Also, the fact that he's constantly dating and hires a cook/cleaner to watch over Jeff is proof that he should not have custody of one kid let alone two.

*Kristy mentions that Louie has a favorite song and talked about a line in it. I always thought it was that “Louie, Louie” song that no one knows the words. This time, I realized it's actually a completely different song, which I now only know because I binge watched the Louis CK sitcom back before everyone started hating him.

*In yet another slight against Karen and Andrew's mom, she somehow gets her wires crossed about who has the kids one weekend. She shows up with the kids when it's not her weekend, sees that Kristy is there with her brothers, and decides to just leave them anyway, even though Watson and Elizabeth aren't home.

*Amanda needs to STFU about her stupid cat. I love cats and have way too many, but guess what? They're all totally awesome and did not cost a dime to buy!

*The moment that got to me was when David Michael slept with Louie. Kristy says something like how he spent the night with Louie when he needed someone, “just like Louie was there for use when we needed him.”

*Kristy rolls her eyes because Watson tells her to let him know if she wants any new school clothes. He's actually a pretty good guy though. I like that he waited in the car to let them all have their goodbyes with Louie. Not a big fan of Charlie and Sam deciding to skip out though.

*We actually only had one pet that we had to put down. The rest passed away at home. My dad had this dog, Chester, who everyone absolutely loved. He was getting on in years, so we all knew it was coming. My dad woke up one day to find him all curled up next to him in bed and realized he passed on in his favorite spot, right next to his daddy.

*My actual worst pet death was my cat Milo when I was in high school. He was an indoor/outdoor cat, and one of our neighbors loved living in the semi country but hated animals on his property. He deliberately left antifreeze out, which Milo drank. My dad got him to the vet and brought him home with some medicine. He was curled up next to the heater with me petting him when my dad asked me to help him get a dose ready. By the time I came back, Milo was already gone. Damn, this book brings up some sad memories!

*In a completely unrelated note, Tiffany is old enough that she's also a sitter in this book. Later on, she needs a sitter because she's too young to be on her own. Also, Sharon occasionally lets Jeff stay home alone by himself after school, which is something that the Pikes never let the triplets do.