#109: Mary Anne to the Rescue
I’ve often found myself annoyed at Mary Anne’s wimpiness, but I can FULLY RELATE to her in this book. I, too, am emotional and squeamish as fuck and have been known to faint on a regular basis. I could list all the times I’ve fainted and the reasons why, but it would be longer than this actual book, so I’ll move on.
Mary Anne has two big problems in this book:
She realizes that she doesn’t know how she would react in a variety of emergency scenarios and that she doesn’t know things like the Heimlich maneuver, and she suddenly goes down a shame spiral and questions her worth as a human being after stepmom Sharon saves a man from choking at the airport.
Logan’s dad wants to send him away to a boot camp and then to a boarding school. (?????) We know from past experience that Logan’s dad is a sexist piece of work, and in this case he basically wants Logan to go relive his own glory days… even though Logan doesn’t want to go.
Oh, wait, Mary Anne actually has a third problem:
3. Dawn is back in town for the summer, and she’s still Dawn.
Anyway, after they all see Sharon save the man from choking, the BSC signs up for a first aid course. It’s honestly SHOCKING that it took until book #109 for them to do this. How has Kristin Amanda not already mandated this? When I was in fourth grade, my best friend David and I took a local first aid course and got “certified” to be baby-sitters with the dream of starting our own baby-sitting club. Did we? No, but now I’m a teacher so it’s not that far off. Also, did I almost faint at every class? Yep, sure as shit did.
Mary Anne struggs to func throughout the whole class, but in the end she really learns from it and ends up saving Scott Hsu from drowning. Pretty bad ass, right? Dawn was there — Dawn the BEACH GIRL, Dawn the SURFER — and she was worthless, so good on ya, Mary Anne.
With this new confidence under her belt, Mary Anne helps Logan stand up to his father about the boot camp and boarding school fiasco, and Mr. Bruno eventually caves. Phew! Now Mary Anne and Logan can tenderly hold hands for eternity in the neverending time loop of Stoneybrook, and Logan won’t have to get a buzz cut. (P.S. If they ever make a grown-up baby-sitters club movie, can Joe Alwyn please play Logan? Thanks.)
