Young Adult Revisited

Maria knows next to nothing about camping and she’s terrified of the woods, but she still agrees to go camping with her friends. Ellen is an outdoors nut who loves rock climbing, while Beth loves rock climbing but is more fond of boys. While shopping for supplies at the sporting goods store, she runs across football star Brett. He nearly cuts her head off with an axe, and he follows them on their trip, nearly forcing their car off the road. When they stop to grab some snacks at the mini mart, Beth meets a group of hot guys. Will seems to like Maria, Daniel is all about Beth, and Andrew likes Ellen. They want to team up for the weekend, but Maria is still reeling over her boyfriend dumping her and she just wants to spend time with the girls so they begrudgingly agree. The guys walk with them into the parking lot, and Maria freaks out when she sees a gun. It turns out that it’s just a flare gun, but it still makes her feel uncomfortable. After hiking through the woods, they hear a gun...

It’s just after the 400th Christmas in the series, and Mary Anne is missing Dawn a lot. Luckily, she has a new school project to take her mind off things.  She, this guy Gordon, and best friends Amelia and Barbara get assigned to the same group. They decide to talk about their Shakespeare project after school, and they start working on making an era-appropriate newspaper. Amelia leaves early to have dinner with her friends and everyone takes off. The next day, Mary Anne is running late and as she meets with her friends, she hears that a 13-year-old girl died the night before. They keep running into other people who have more news, and she starts worrying that it might be Kristy. It turns out that it was Amelia. Her family was hit by a drunk driver, but everyone else survived. They hold a funeral for her, and Mary Anne breaks down because she realizes that she will never learn more about Amelia. Kristy kind of loses her marbles after Amelia’s death. She keeps breaking down an...

Hey! It’s like I Know What You Did Last Summer on acid. Brenda, Alison, and Fran are heading into Fran’s house when Alison sees a purple envelope in the mailbox addressed to Fran. After goofing around for awhile, Fran opens it and reads a letter addressed to them and some of their other friends. The note says that the writer will put an ad in the paper and Fran has to do whatever the ad says before passing the next task on to the next name on the list. If they don’t do what he says, he will reveal their big secret. The girls all freak out a little, wondering if the note might come from someone in the group. Fran gets the newspaper and sees that her task is to change the koala bear mascot into a goat’s head. Alison feels bad for her because Fran spent hours painting the mascot head in the gym, but Fran is completely willing to do the task. The book then jumps to Neil, Tony, and Kipp, the guys in the group. They do a little talking about the note before their friend Joan calls to ...

Mrs. Kishi has some big news, but she decides to let Peaches tell Claudia herself. It turns out that Peaches is pregnant. A few days later, she calls and announces that they are moving to Stoneybrook but they can’t move into their new house for one month, so Mrs. Kishi tells them that they can move in with them. Peaches also lets them know that she quit her job so she can focus full-time on being a mother. Peaches almost instantly puts a wrench in Claudia’s life. Peaches takes her shopping for baby furniture and asks her for advice on everything she buys. Claudia is so excited about having a new baby around that she asks Mary Anne to teach her how to knit. Since Mimi taught her, it will be like having something from Mimi for the baby. One day, Peaches decides to cook a big dinner for everyone. She takes Claudia to a fancy gourmet food store, they spend all night cooking, and put on vests and bowties to serve dinner. Claudia quickly notices that she has no time for her artwork let al...

There’s a new boy in school, Brian, who every girl is in love with and every guys wants to be friends with. He comes from Los Angeles, has a ton of money, and is kind of an ass. Aaron Dallas wants to be his new best friend, but he has to deal with his grandpa who is town for awhile. Grandpa makes a special Jewish dinner and Aaron has to eat with the family. When he wants to sneak off to meet his friends at the movies, his grandpa offers to go with him and pay for his friends, but he begs off because he’s embarrassed. Cut to history class and the beginning of an assignment on the Holocaust. They divide the class into two groups: one led by Brooke and one led by Brian. The teacher tells Brian to pick half the class as part of his team, and he picks the “cool” kids, including Aaron and the twins. The teacher tells each leader that they can institute any rules they want and do whatever they want with their team. Brian decides that everyone on his side will wear black shirts every day. A...

Stacey decides that it’s the perfect time to mention to her mother that she wants a birthstone ring. Her mom isn’t too sure about the idea, and she really flips out when Stacey tells her that she wants a diamond ring. They have a minor fight, made worse when she tells her mom that her dad would buy it for her. She storms upstairs, calls Kristy, and the entire club goes to the mall. She tells her friends about the ring that she wants, and she gets annoyed that no one is on her side. When she sees a display at the mall, she points out a similar room and they are all pretty shocked. They all think it’s too expensive and no one takes her side like she wants them to. She does tell her mom how much more expensive the mall ring was compared to the one she really wants, and Maureen basically tells her that she can have $10 toward the ring and that’s it. At the next BSC meeting, they get a call from a Mrs. Gardella. Their nanny is on vacation and they need a sitter. Stacey gets the job and ...

Jessica needs money for new clothes and Elizabeth needs money for a new Amanda Howard video game, but their parents won’t give them a raise in their allowance until they turn 13. Elizabeth comes up with the idea of house sitting after Jessica turns down all of her other ideas. They make 100 flyers and put them around town, but no one calls them back until Mr. Clark, the school principal calls Elizabeth into his office. Mr. Clark makes it clear that he would rather have a wild monkey watch over his house than Jessica. Elizabeth vouchers for her and he reluctantly hands over his house key and tells her how to get there. She notices that he seems to run off awfully fast without giving her a lot of details though he does tell her to stay out of the basement. The first time they stop by his house, one of his neighbors comes over with a package for Mrs. Clark. Elizabeth notices that it was sent overnight mail three weeks ago. Apparently it got delivered to the neighbor’s house but she was...