Super Special #8: Baby-sitters at Shadow Lake
I. Love. Super Specials! And a lot of them seem to happen because Watson Brewer is super rich. Good on ya, Watson! In this version, Watson has an aunt and uncle who own a cabin on Shadow Lake in western Massachusetts (my guess is the Berkshires) and they’re considering leaving it to him in their will. Watson decides to take his wife, kids, and a bunch of their friends to the cabin for two weeks to see if he’d like it to be left to him. Of course the whole BSC gets to go, because they’ve been surgically connected at the hip by now.
Of course, the “cabin” is more like a nice house that sleeps twenty-eight people (although, sure, 24 of those people have to sleep in bunk beds). Things get hectic right away. Jessi becomes infatuated with the cute boy staying next door, and Dawn is trying to cook up a mystery and spread the lore of the Lake Monster. Meanwhile, what seems like harmless flirting at first turns into Sam Thomas basically sexually harassing Stacey. NOT ON MY WATCH, SAM.
“I was dressed in my sun outfit: a long-sleeved shirt, jeans, sunglasses, and a straw hat. I was covered with sunblock (just in case) and my nose was a white triangle, because it was gooed up with Noze-Coat.”
- Mary Anne “allergic-to-the-sun” Spier, page 48
Meanwhile, Mallory’s life continues to be a tragedy - she’s being eaten alive by chiggers - and Kristy finds a boat and is going to learn to drive it. She wants everyone to go out to the island in the middle of the lake to explore and have a picnic and even stay the night. Dawn, who thinks she just saw the Loch Ness Monster in the lake, balks. But everyone else is into it. When the BSC goes to eat dinner at the lodge ~by themselves~ they find out that there’s a boat show and a dance happening before they leave Shadow Lake.
Jessi ends up giving the cute boy, Daniel, dance lessons, and he asks her to the dance at the lodge. She obv says yes, even though they have nothing in common. Quint who? Mallory becomes such a fashion disaster in her mosquito-proof getup that even Kristy calls her out:
Welp. Sam’s campaign of teasing and cat-calling Stacey has all been because he like likes her (duh). But he has not been going about it in a smart way. That being said, I think we can all relate to Sam being obsessed with Stacey, because who among us wouldn’t be?
When Sam finally finds Stacey alone and confesses his feelings, she doesn’t return the sentiment; instead she says she’s confused, because she can never tell when Sam’s joking or telling the truth. Sam is understandably bummed, but you know what? HE NEEDS TO SMARTEN UP.
Dawn is still on the hunt for a mystery, and she finds one - tales of the Bayard family, who (a few decades earlier) lived in a mansion on the island in the middle of Shadow Lake and rarely left it, until one day (the night before or day of a storm) they just disappeared. Now, supposedly, when there’s a storm you can hear wailing and moaning and people believe it’s the spirits of the Bayard family. This is extremely Dawn’s shit and if this book took place in 2020 Dawn would immediately start a podcast about the Bayards of Shadow Lake. And I would listen to it.
Also extremely Dawn’s shit? Claudia decides to decorate the Brewer family boat as the Lake Monster for the boat parade. Despite being the littlest boat in the parade, with the fewest decorations, Claudia wins the ribbon for MOST SPIRIT. Claudia can really do anything (except spell).
“‘Use good judgment,’ Watson said, like I really planned to rely on a poor sense of judgment while my friends and I were alone on an unfamiliar, possibly haunted island.” - Kristy, page 158
The BSC gang is heading out to explore and camp on Shadow Island for the night. Dawn is freaked out about ghosts and Mallory brings along the whole first aid aisle of a CVS, but otherwise things get off to a good start. Then, while exploring, the baby-sitters find scorched bricks, which lead them to believe the Bayards’ mansion burned down. Dawn is convinced that the ghosts of the Bayards are roaming the island and she freaks everyone out and barely sleeps that night. Then, the next morning, she gets up to go “investigate” and finds a gold locket with the initials AB, near the burnt brick. AB must stand for Annie Bayard, the daughter of the family - and Dawn thinks the locket is a gift to her from the Bayards to thank her for believing in them. Dawn later gives the locket to Stephan, who owns the Shadow Lake grocery store and who was once engaged to Annie Bayard.
At the lodge dance, Stacey finally realizes she does like Sam, and Sam finally acts like an adult, and they blissfully dance all night. On the flip side, Jessi realizes she doesn’t have any feelings for Daniel and she still likes Quint. Jessi works up her courage and finally lets Daniel down gently, but Daniel’s like, “Jessi, I have a girlfriend named Carol back in Boston and I only ever wanted to be friends.” Whoops! All’s well that ends well, though. Back in Stoneybrook, Jessi sends love to Quint via postcard, Dawn hears from Stephan that he had a vision of Annie Bayard telling him one day somebody would solve the mystery of what happened to her and her family, and Watson decides he does want to inherit the cabin. MUST BE NICE.
