#72: Dawn and the We <3 Kids Club
Dawn is living in California with her dad and Jeff, she’s part of the We <3 Kids Club, and she’s insufferably rude to and annoyed by her dad’s girlfriend Carol. She turns her nose up at delicious-sounding cakes and eats vegetable chips. You know, the uzsh. Oh, sorry, did you think I was a Dawn fan? We must not have met. I’m Christina.
Anyway, a reporter named Rhonda Lieb from the local newspaper the Palo City Post is doing a feature about kids who run businesses and wants to interview the We <3 Kids Club. (Although, without all of Kristin Amanda Thomas’s rules in place, are they even really a business???) The four members (Dawn, Sunny, Jill, and Maggie - who is obviously the coolest) are “high as kites” on the idea of being in the paper. Ah, the 90s. After the article runs in the paper, the local TV station contacts the club and does a four-minute piece on them during the nightly news. Dawn and co. feel like stars - Carol even buys Dawn a director’s chair with her name on it. (Carol is cool, damnit!) Dawn, of course, sends a copy of the newspaper and a tape of the news piece to the BSC back in Stoneybrook.
All of a sudden, the WLKC is slammed with business from all the publicity, and they have no structures in place to handle it. (They don’t even keep a record book… gasp.) They are double-booking themselves and losing track of things. ~California casual~ did not prepare them for this. You know who would be prepared for this? Kristy. Unfortunately, the newspapers and TV stations are not coming to her. So, towing along her little green monster, she devises a plan to get publicity for the OG baby-sitting club, the BSC. But the other members aren’t too pleased - they’re already swamped since Dawn and Mallory aren’t currently around, and extra publicity would put them over the top. Kristy can’t help it, though. She’s hungry for glory!
Meanwhile, Dawn returns from a baby-sitting job to an announcement from her father: he and Carol are getting married. Dawn storms off to her room without a world of congratulations but then comes back to eat Thai food and drink champagne (!!!) with her dad, Jeff, and Carol. But her anger is simmering underneath; she came all the way back to California and her dad’s just going to go marry Carol? (Well, yeah, Dawn… not everyone’s lives revolve around you.) She decides she’s going to move back to Stoneybrook.
The next morning she writes a note to her dad explaining where she’s gone, steals one of his credit card numbers, skips school, books a flight from LAX to Stoneybrook, takes an expensive cab ride to Los Angeles, and flies across the country. That escalated quickly. By the time she lands in Connecticut her dad has obviously informed her mom what’s up, and Sharon is at the airport waiting for Dawn… and she’s pissed. Dawn gets an earful but still doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. Sharon has booked her a flight back to California for the next day at 4:00pm.
Mr. Schafer is mad too, but Dawn is lucky that she has two parents who care about her and who also require her to live up to her commitments and behave responsibly! Turns out all the turmoil caused a big fight between Carol and Mr. Schafer, and despite trying to move past it, in the end they call off their engagement and break up. Dawn feels a bit guilty, but lets herself off the hook pretty quickly. And back in the WLKC, the girls decide that they will start having regular meeting times (though it’s okay to be late) and start keeping a record book. Baby steps.
In conclusion, this book should not be titled Dawn and the We <3 Kids Club; it should be titled Dawn Can’t Handle Too Much or Too Little Attention and Will Freak Out and Ruin Your Life Over It.
