Super Special #10: Sea City, Here We Come!
To set the scene for this book:
Jessi is joining Mallory and the Pikes on their annual Sea City vacation and is determined to be the best sitter ever (because Mallory had to convince the Pikes to let Jessi come instead of one of the older baby-sitters)
Stacey is going to be a mother’s helper for Mrs. Barrett, who’s rented a little Sea City vacation house next door to the Pikes
Mary Anne and Dawn are running a mini-camp for BSC charges in Stoneybrook
Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Dawn are staying with the Pikes in Sea City for a week
Claudia is stuck in summer school
Toby (Stacey’s first kiss in the Tunnel of Luv) and Alex (Mary Anne’s friendmance) are also going to be in Sea City at the same time as the BSC
Damn, who is Bill and what did he do?!
Stacey’s first day in Sea City is pretty rough. Mrs. Barrett is a nutcase behind the wheel of her car, and then the first person Stacey runs into on the beach is her ex Toby, who unceremoniously dumped her. (Honestly… how rude.) Not only that, then Mallory tells Stacey she thinks Toby likes her and Stacey tells Mal he’s a smooth talker and a heartbreaker and Mallory retorts that Stacey is just jealous. DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MALLORY.
Meanwhile, things in Stoneybrook are slightly messy… Dawn and Mary Anne’s “mini-camp” has a wild day at the Stones’ farm and Kristy doesn’t have enough Krushers to play the Bashers in their championship game. Kristy is Kristy, though, so she manages to recruit a few newbies for her team. They lose 34-1, but hey - at least they didn’t forfeit! One kind of sweet subplot is that, in summer school, Claudia is considered “the smart one” and it bolsters her self-esteem and she makes some friends outside the BSC.
But I’m really here for the Sea City drama… and we found out who this bitch Bill is! Bill is a tropical storm that will likely turn into a hurricane and I’m guessing will be heading straight for Sea City in another chapter or two! Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Dawn, and Logan have arrived in Sea City, so the BSC has an emergency meeting to catch up (duh). Logan is still a little salty about Alex, but he meets him without punching him and then takes Mary Anne on a romantic boardwalk date. Mallory runs into Toby at the putt-putt place and they golf together with the kids they’re baby-sitting… then he asks her out for Friday night. Stacey is NOT PLEASED. But the biggest drama queen of them all is Bill, who has turned into a hurricane and forced everyone to try to evacuate Sea City.
There’s a problem, though - the causeway is underwater from the rain and flooding and no one can actually leave Sea City. The Pikes, Barretts, and BSC have to U-turn and stay at the elementary school in Sea City, which has been turned into a makeshift shelter. All of Sea City loses power, but the Stoneybrook gang decides to stick it out and, after the storm has passed, they go back to their vacation houses and just kind of camp out for the next couple of days. Mallory gets all dolled up for her date with Toby, but then she realizes that she only likes Ben and decides to bail on Toby and spend the rest of her last Sea City night with her family. (Toby is also like, “know any cute single girls??” and later asks Mallory for Jessi’s number, which kinda proves Stacey’s point that he’s a player. Also, Toby, Mal and Jessi are ELEVEN! Back off.)
Mallory actually looks good here, but Toby looks like a total dork.
Stacey and Mallory make up, and as usual the BSC lives happily ever after. Logan even hires a horse and buggy to drive Mary Anne home from the Pikes’ when they return to Stoneybrook. It’s somewhere between “aww” and “yikes,” right?
