Bradford Court: #10- Logan Likes Mary Anne!

Mary Anne has a crush- on a boy baby-sitter!

Childhood Memories: This was another favorite growing up. I remember being so jealous of how cute Logan and Mary Anne's romance. Not going to lie, I still am. Whatevs. A few things stick out in my head. I remember Mary Anne throwing a little girl fit because they gave her a surprise cake, not a surprise party mind you, but a cake. And of course the famous cities outfit. Who could forget that? Beautiful. You don't even know how badly I wanted/still want that outfit.

Book Summary: The book starts with a club meeting the night before school starts (which makes me wonder when their school starts because as we all know meetings are held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). Mary Anne has a huge crush on Cam Geary and shares this bit of information with the club. The next morning, Mary Anne was to school with Claudia and Stacey. It's a pretty normal first day of school until Mary Anne spots Cam Geary's look-a-like at lunch. She's jealous that Stacey knows so much about him but decides that she's in love with him. At the BSC meeting the next day, the girls decide to advertise in Kristy's new neighborhood and they discuss the new hottie named Logan Bruno. A few days after the girls start advertising, things get out of control and they are scrambling to set up all the jobs during their lunch break. Logan overhears this and volunteers to help them. They agree to let him come to the next meeting. The meeting is pretty awkward to say the least. During the meeting they receive a call from a new client named Mrs. Rodowsky. They decided that they will let Logan sit for them as a test run but only if one of the other sitters can come along. It turns out Mary Anne is the only sitter available that day. The sitting job at the Rodowskys is a little bit of a disaster but what else would you expect with Jackie Rodowsky "The Walking Disaster"? In the end it all turns out okay and Mary Anne decides that Logan is a decent babysitter. Claudia babysits at the Perkinses where she has to go pick up Myriah at the bus stop (Myriah has been at her creative theater classes held after kindergarten like all children at the age of 5). Claudia decides to take the Perkinses dog Chewbacca (coolest dog name ever.) along for the walk. Disaster arises when Chewy gets loose but she finally catches him before the job is over. At the next club meeting, the girls discuss whether or not they should let Logan be a member of the club. They decide to be honest with him and tell him that they think he's a wonderful babysitter but that the meetings with him would just be too awkward. They give Mary Anne the task of calling him and telling him this. When Mary Anne calls, he tells her that he doesn't want to be a part of the BSC and then he asks her to the Remember September dance. A few days later Stacey babysits for Charlotte Johanssen and they decide to plan a party with a surprise cake for Mary Anne. They figure that Mary Anne would hate a surprise party but a surprise cake wouldn't be that bad. A few days before the dance, the girls go shopping for outfits to wear (hello infamous city skirt). They end up cancelling the meeting before the dance so they can get ready and they all ride to the dance together. The dance goes smoothly until Mary Anne kicks her shoe off and gets super embarrassed. She spends the rest of the night hiding out on the bleachers and not dancing. Despite Mary Anne's bad attitude, Logan still seems to like her. Dawn and Kristy have a sleepover the following weekend. They babysit for Kristy's younger siblings and discuss school drama and Stacey's party for Mary Anne. Mary Anne finally asks her dad for permission to go to Stacey's party and invites Logan to go with her. Everything goes great at Stacey's party until they bring out the cake for Mary Anne. Mary Anne has a panicked moment and runs out without blowing out the candles or opening her gifts. The next morning, Mary Anne asks her dad for a cat. Her father agrees and she calls Logan to apologize and invite him to come pick out a kitten at the local animal shelter. Logan comes along and she picks out a gray tabby cat named Tigger. Logan shows that he truly forgives her by giving her a silver bracelet for her birthday and inviting her to a dance the following month. The next day the club members come over after apologizing, they bring Mary Anne her presents and some cake. They finally come to the decision that Logan can be a part of the club as an associate member, that way he can help babysit but won't have to attend meetings.

Snarkable Moments: I really saw in this book some similarities between Mary Anne and I. First her crush on Cam Geary, I remember distinctly when I was 13 having the biggest crush on Patrick Stump and being obsessed with him. Sadly, there was never a Logan Bruno in my life that looked like Patrick. Next, and I know this one is stupid, we totally had the same locker number (132) in junior high. I'm just saying. Last, Mary Anne has an antique doll named Lila, I have a stuffed llama named Lila. It's uncanny. So I also wanted to pick out a few problems I have with good old SMS. First, they won't let you hang anything in your locker with tape, instead you have to use gum. I'm sorry, but gum seems much more damaging than tape on a locker. Second, students attend 8 classes a day. That seems a bit overdone. I only had 5-6 classes a day in my school career. Lastly, they hold a graduation at the end of the school year for the 8th graders. Maybe my school just wasn't cool but we never did that. Not that it really matters because we know the girls are going to be in 8th grade for the next 10+ years. Continuing on with snarkable moments, I don't remember everyone being in love with Logan. Not that I have a problem with this, I mean they are 13 year old girls and at least in my middle school, as soon as there was a new boy, every girl was on him like a hobo on a ham sandwich. Makes Stoneybrook feel a little more real. Some things I do have a problem with though is when Mary Anne talks about wearing small hoop earrings (what about that whole scene when they go to summer camp and she almost pierces her ears?) and when she goes to adopt Tigger the lady at the shelter tells her that it's not really kitten season. Do kittens have seasons? I'm pretty sure cats are skanks and get it on at all times of the year. Maybe I'm wrong, Someone should research this and let me know. My last thought is a little off topic but semi-related. This is the first book in which Jackie Rodowsky appears. I'm just wondering if anyone else noticed in Easy A when Rhiannon is talking to Olive at one point she mentions somebody named Jackie Rodetsky. I'm sorry but I feel like those names are too close to not be related. Whoever wrote that script was totally a BSC fan. Please somebody else tell me they noticed this so I don't feel too stupid.

Claudia OOTD: Finally, what you've all been waiting for. I apologize for this post being so long but since y'all have stuck with me this long I'm going to treat you with 5 OOTDs.

"A full white skirt with the words Paris, Rome, and London, and sketchy pink and blue pictures of the Eiffel Tower, the Tower Bridge, and other stuff scrawled all over it. She matched it up with a pink shirt and a baggy pink sweater... we found white slip-ons with pink and blue edging that matched the pink and blue in the skirt."

"Claudia was wearing short, tight-fitting black pants and a big white shirt that said BE-BOP all over it in between pictures of rock and roll dancers. She had fixed a floppy blue bow in her hair."