#61: Jessi and the Awful Secret
Jessi is volunteering to help teach a dance class for “underprivileged” kids, and she’s having a good time but she’s worried about one of the other dancer-helpers, Mary Bramstedt. Mary seems obsessed with the idea that she’s fat (even though Jessi doesn’t see an ounce of fat on her) and Jessi notices that, when they go out with the other helpers after class, Mary orders food but doesn’t really eat. One day during class Mary starts to feel sick and has to go home. She claims she might be getting the flu, but Jessi notices how thin she is and has other questions.
Jessi brings up the issue at a BSC meeting and the members quickly come to the conclusion that Mary might be anorexic. They sneak into Janine’s room and borrow some psychology textbooks and rattle off a bunch of information about the potential causes, “symptoms,” and effects of anorexia. Jessi thinks most of it sounds about right but she’s scared to tattle on Mary to an adult because she doesn’t want her to get kicked out of class. When Mary faints during class, though, Jessi confronts her about the potential anorexia and begs her to get help. Mary is not very receptive. Finally, after Mary has another weak day in class, Jessi talks to Mme Noelle about her suspicions. Mme Noelle admits she was wondering the same thing, and together they confront Mary, who finally seems to give in. (I KINDA FEEL LIKE THE ADULTS IN THIS STORY SHOULD HAVE FIGURED OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON SOONER - but I guess sometimes we don’t see what we’re not looking for.) In the end, Mary begins seeing a medical doctor and a psychiatrist and her parents attend counseling with her as well.
There are also, like, three other subplots happening in this book. There’s a young black girl named Martha in the kids dance class who is really good. She seems to really like working with Jessi, and her mom confesses to Jessi that the reason Martha didn’t stay in dance classes before was because they got the message that there was no room for people of color in ballet. Seeing Jessi, though, has changed their minds and given them hope. Raul, one of the dancer-helpers (who is described as Latino), is concerned that Mme Dupre, the instructor, isn’t taking this class seriously because the kids are “underprivileged” and lot of them are from minority groups. When he asks Jessi if she’s ever experienced prejudice or discrimination because she’s black, though, she totally downplays it. HELLO, IN EVERY CHAPTER TWO WE HEAR ABOUT HOW PEOPLE IN STONEYBROOK WERE RACIST ASSHOLES TO THE RAMSEYS WHEN THEY FIRST MOVED TO TOWN. At the end, Watson Brewer comes through in a big way (as usual) and funds two full scholarships for students from the class to take the regular ballet classes long-term. Martha ends up winning one of the scholarships - yay!
Meanwhile, Kristy doesn’t have time to hang out with Shannon so she pawns her off on Claudia, Stacey, and Dawn, and then she gets jealous when Shannon starts hanging out with Claudia, Stacey, and Dawn. There’s a lot going on and I think maybe if they had focused on fewer plot lines they could have done them better. It’s like Ron Swanson says: “never half-ass two things; whole-ass one thing.”
Here is a link to the National Eating Disorders Helpline if you or someone you know needs help.
