By Ann M. Martin. Published December 1988.
The BSC girls, along with half of Stoneybrook under the age
of sixteen, attend a slapstick movie festival at the library. For once Claudia doesn’t bitch about the
library. Kristy has what seems like an unhealthy obsession with being covered
in food. It’s a bit disturbing.
Claudia books a job with a new client, sitting for Betsy
Sobak. She gets nervous after hearing from other kids who used to sit for her.
Betsy is a hardcore practical joker, and the kids from her neighborhood won’t
sit for her anymore.
When Claudia first gets there, Betsy gets her with a fly in
a fake ice cube, a dribble glass, and hot pepper gum. Annoying, but innocent
stuff.
Then Claudia decides they should go outside. Nothing bad
could happen there, right? Betsy tells Claudia which swing to sit on, and
watches her very closely, but nothing happens. Claudia suggests a swinging
contest, and they both get into it. Then all of a sudden, there’s a metallic
clunk, the bottom of the swing breaks away, and Claudia goes flying, straight
onto the driveway. She hears a crunch, and her leg is definitely not how it’s
supposed to be.
Claudia tells Betsy to go call 911, then Betsy’s parents. If
she can’t reach them, to call at the Rodowsky’s, where Dawn and Mallory are
baby-sitting a bunch of kids. Betsy does so, and soon Dawn, Mal, and a lot of
kids turn up. Dawn calls Claudia’s parents, who will meet her at the hospital.
Then the ambulance comes, and Dawn accompanies Claudia, leaving Mallory by
herself with a shit-ton of kids. Probably not a good idea, but we don’t hear
any more about that.
It’s a pretty bad break. Claudia has to stay in the hospital
with her leg in traction for a week, then another week at home before she goes
back to school. But she has lots of visitors, including sitting charges. That
makes her happy.
But what doesn’t make her happy is the thought of sitting
again. She’s decided it’s obviously too dangerous. She could have wrecked her
hands so that she couldn’t do her art again.
The slapstick festival got other sitting charges, like the
Pikes, into a practical joke mood. But it’s just innocent stuff, no leg
breaking involved.
Claudia finally gets to go home, where Mimi is ready to take
care of her. Claudia talks over possibly quitting the BSC with her, and Mimi
suggests that she doesn’t like the thought of not being in control. Then they
have a crazy time watching Wheel of
Fortune.
At her first BSC meeting back, Claudia breaks the news that
she’s maybe thinking about quitting the club. The girls definitely don’t like
that. Kristy tells her that since she can’t sit for a while anyway, that she
just think about it some more. Claudia agrees to that.
Then Mrs. Sobak actually has the freaking nerve to call and ask
for a sitter. That takes some balls. The girls decide to declare a practical
joke war on Betsy, to show her how it feels. Why don’t they just hire a hit man
to take out her legs, that would
really show her.
Mallory gets the first job with her, and they go back and
forth pulling tricks on each other, and Mallory actually has fun. She decides
this battle was a draw.
Then Dawn sits, and there are a couple of jokes played back
and forth again. Then when Dawn runs out of tricks, Betsy gets her with shaving
cream instead of whipped cream. Betsy won that battle.
Dawn doesn’t want to tell the Sobacks about Betsy’s
behavior, because it would seem babyish, and seem like tattling. No, I think
it’s doing your fucking job. The parents should want to know if there’s a
problem with their child. But they didn’t ask me.
Claudia still hasn’t made up her mind about sitting, and
everyone wants to know. Kristy gives her one more week to decide.
Kristy has her chance in the joke war. She’s supposed to
take Betsy to a movie. Kristy lays down the law that there are to be no jokes,
and Betsy agrees, then turns right around and gets Kristy with her joy buzzer.
That’s just a damn disrespectful kid.
They see some kids Betsy knows, but she doesn’t want to talk
to them. They don’t really like her, because of all the jokes she’s played on
them.
They find seats, and then Kristy lets Betsy go get popcorn
by herself. While she’s gone, Kristy switches seats, so when Betsy comes back,
she can’t find her. The other kids laugh at her. Later, Kristy holds the popcorn,
and sticks a fake, bloody thumb through the bottom. Betsy sees it, and freaks
out. The kids laugh at her again.
They talk after the movie, and Kristy thinks Betsy finally
gets how her tricks embarrass her victims. She asks about Claudia, and Kristy
suggests they go see her.
Even though she had sent her a note, Betsy apologizes to
Claudia again. They tell Claudia what happened at the theater, and Betsy says
she was embarrassed. Then she asks Claudia if she was embarrassed. Claudia
surprises herself by admitting that she was.
After Kristy takes Betsy home, she comes back to talk to
Claudia. They discuss how Claudia was embarrassed, and about Mimi’s theory of
her not being in control. They also talk about how much Claudia misses the
kids. She says she’ll come back, as long as she doesn’t have to sit for Betsy.
That seems fair.
Claudia finally gets her cast off. She freaks out at getting
it cut off by the saw. I’ve never had a broken bone (which is shocking, trust
me), but it sounds pretty scary to me, too. And then her leg is all thin from
not using those muscles, so she still has to use crutches for a while. Bummer.
But she does get to set up a job for a few weeks later, and
she’s thrilled with that. So, yay, Claud.
o
Claudia’s parents aren’t happy with her getting
an eighty-one on a math quiz. I think that’s really good for her.
o
It took me until I was much older to understand
the Prince Albert in a can prank call.
o
Claudia says Betsy nearly killed her. Dawn’s all
“whatever”, but really, it could have been a lot more serious than a broken
leg.
o
Claudia worries about missing so much school,
and that she’ll be held back. Maybe they should have referenced this when she
actually did have to go back. But I suppose too much time had passed between
the two books.
o
I’m kind of surprised there wasn’t any talk of
Claudia’s parents suing the Sobaks.
