By Ann M. Martin. Published July 1987.
So Watson and Kristy’s mom, Elizabeth, have set a wedding
date, a Saturday in September. It is now June, so they think they have plenty
of time to plan. Really? Three months still sounds pretty damn quick to me, but
whatever. All the kids except Andrew, who’s too shy, are going to be in the
wedding, and everyone’s very excited. Yay.
But of course, this all comes crashing down. Elizabeth’s
company is sending her to Europe in September. And even though she just put
their current house on the market, it’s already sold. Which would be good news,
but the buyer, who of course we later learn to be Mr. Perkins, wants to be in
the house ASAP, or July fifteenth. So the wedding has to be next week, and
they’re moving two weeks after that. Yikes. I’d be wigging out, too, Elizabeth.
Fortunately, they have some really good friends and family,
who are willing to put their entire lives on hold for a week to help make this
wedding happen. The only bad news is, that includes fourteen children, mainly
Kristy’s cousins, will be under foot the whole time. But never fear,
Baby-Sitters Club to the rescue! Elizabeth says she’ll pay them $120 each to
watch the kids from nine to five for five days.
The girls do some pre-planning, and split the kids into
groups. Each sitter will have three kids, except for Mary Anne, who has two
babies.
Their first day starts out pretty badly, with seven crying
kids. But they get them settled down, and there are no major catastrophes.
On Tuesday, they break into their groups and head off on
different field trips. Dawn takes her group, which includes Karen, to the
playground. Karen basically incites a riot telling the other kids at the
playground about the Martians that are going to land that night. She heard
about them from an eighth-grader in her neighborhood, and in my head cannon,
that’s totally Bart. Anyway, Karen gets them all kicked out of the playground.
On Wednesday, Stacey takes her group to the movies to see
Mary Poppins. After a few moments of one of the kids’ money being missing, it’s
found and they get in. They all have to get candy, of course, which is then
dropped over the rail of the balcony onto someone. This gives the kids a case
of the giggles, and they can’t stop, so they get kicked out by an usher.
Two days in a row of getting kicked out of places. That
doesn’t reflect very well on the BSC.
Thursday, Kristy and Mary Anne have to take six boys, who
are vehemently against it, to go get haircuts. I think asking them to do this
is taking things a bit far. It’s probably something the parents should take
some time out and do themselves. But whatever. The boys are really rude, and
Kristy has to threaten them with a visit from Nannie, which eventually works.
On Friday, it rains, so they’re stuck in Kristy’s house all
day. The morning passes by okay; they play board games and watch television (sacrilege!).
But the kids are bored in the afternoon, so they decide to put on a fake
wedding, and it actually sounds pretty cute.
Then the girls have to get all the kids dressed for the
rehearsal dinner, in the dressy clothes they brought in bags that day. But
Kristy’s cousin Emma switched all the clothes around. As a total goody-goody, I
was always fascinated with this part, that someone could do something that
seemed to bad. I was a loser. Anyway, they get it all straightened out, and the
kids dressed in time.
Saturday is the wedding, and it sounds lovely. There’s only
an almost upset, courtesy of Karen and Morbidda Destiny, but it turns out okay.
Throughout the week, Kristy was trying to think of a wedding
present for her mom and Watson. She finally comes up with one during the
reception, a small family tree of the new blended family. She gets Claudia to
help her make it while they’re gone on their honeymoon.
o
The reason Karen and Andrew are part of all this
is because, a week before the wedding, Lisa and Seth, their mother and
step-father, called Watson to let him know they’re jetting off to England that
week. That’s kind of an asshole move.
o
I love the conversation Kristy, Sam, and Charlie
have about what it will be like to live at Watson’s. I think it’s sweet they
talk to each other about things like that.
o
Ugh. Foreshadowing, talking about how special
Mimi is to all of them.
o
Everyone seems to forget that Watson is a freaking
millionaire. I’m pretty sure this is just the kind of thing that money smoothes
over.
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