Super Mystery #1 Babysitter's Haunted Mansion Ch 5-10
Wow, it has been a while! Sorry about that gang, but hopefully I've made up for it with the length of this one. :) Here is the link to the first four chapters of the snark for memory refresher.
Anywho, we are now off to delve deeper into the mystery of the Randolph mansion. Also, let it be known that Dawn continually pissed me off so much during these five chapters, that I made a new tag called 'shut up Dawn'. Because really, she just needs to shut up.
Chapter 5- Jessi
Back in the ‘Brook, it’s now time for the first BSC meeting with Jessi and Mallory. Mal decides they should take turns being president and that Jessi should go first. So far, they were the only two there since Logan was defying child labor laws by working at the Rosebud Cafe and Shannon was running late. Logan however did give the two his work schedule and said to call him if they need him. That was dumb Logan, real dumb. Anyways, Shannon finally shows up, ten minutes late and wants to get the show on the road because her dad is picking her up in like fifteen minutes. Jessi and Mal get their
Pampers in a bunch because Shannon is being all high and mighty. Jessi then tries to bring the “meeting” to order and by “meeting”, I mean two eleven year olds thinking they are now totally awesome and try and order a thirteen year old around who can probably think of sixty things off the top of her head she’d rather do than be there. Jessi declares their first duty to call clients and tell them their sitters have been changed. Instead of speaking to the parents, Jessi speaks to the kids who throw bitchfits when they find out their sitters are being changed.
Shannon then asks if they checked the answering machine, which Jessi completely forgets about, but tells Shannon she planned to do it next to cover her ass. They work out some more sitting jobs and soon Shannon’s ride is here. She leaves and tells them they should start on time the next time. Jessi mumbles back, “how about arriving on time”, but sadly not to Shannon’s face. Shannon then sticks her head back in the room, Jessi prays she didn’t hear her, I’m praying she did, but she didn’t. Shannon just tells them they’re doing a great job and she won’t be at Monday’s meeting but she’ll leave them her schedule on the answering machine. She finally leaves, Jessi and Mal figure out more sitting jobs. They were in a jam with the Arnolds until Mallory realized Logan could sit. Mrs. Arnold gets all dramatic and is all “omg you saved our lives because my husband and I are hosting a charity for ambulances! I don’t know what we would have done!”. Um, here’s a thought, bring your damn kids with you, or pawn them off on a neighbor or friend. My god, it’s not the end of the world if you can’t find a sitter from the BSC. Although I know they think otherwise. Anyways, Jessi says they should call Logan to let him know that he’s sitting and Mallory said that she’ll call him later to tell him because he said not to call him at work. Jessi then adjourns the meeting and the two then haul ass to their sitting jobs.
Chapter 6- Kristy
Kristy starts off her entry saying they caught their “ghost” and it seems like he’s not the only one. She also tells the others they should keep an eye out for creepy shit. For the love of tacos, these entries are so stupid! They don’t tell you anything except for the fact that you’re going to get annoyed because they’re trying to be mysterious about the entry, but they’re just coming off as obnoxious. GUH!!!
So now it’s dinner time and the families had a barbeque, cooked by Elton. Kristy notes that he’s not as nice as his wife, even though he can talk and she can’t. Nobody cares. And by nobody, I mean me. They were all sitting around talking about the Founder’s Day parade and making a float, of which Mrs. Menders says is a great idea. Martha still isn’t sold on this idea and runs to confide in her mom who then says “but of course not everyone has to be on the float” and MA pipes up saying that she and Martha are going to be behind the scenes people with the float. Karen of course, takes that as a cue to make a case for Martha to be on the float, but Kristy shuts her up by sending her upstairs to get a book. Thank god. Of course Karen will only go if Martha comes with and so our poor longsuffering Martha obligingly follows Karen up the stairs with her blabbering away about how Martha should be a cat on the float and then she’ll be popular because everyone loves cats. Jesus Tap Dancing Christ Karen, how thick is your head? MARTHA DOESN’T WANT TO BE IN THE MOTHER EFFING PARADE!!!!!
Jason then announced to anyone who was listening that dress up was for girls and he didn’t want to be on the float. Lionel tells Claudia to count him out because it’s “too makeshift and unprofessional”. What a little shit. Lionel, you have just pissed me off. I bet he’s going to be one of those asshole actors that a stage manager is just going to want to punch in the face so many times. I should know, I’ve had a few of those actors. Kristy then mentions that Claudia always had problems getting them psyched up for parade floats. Well can you blame her? The adults then announce they want to go into town to see how busy the stores are at night so Kristy volunteers that they will watch the kids. The adults leave and Karen returns with Frog and Toad Together. (Sidebar: I loved that book when I was a kid) Kristy reads it to them except when they reach the last story, Karen is reading all of Toad’s lines (because she is one) and Lionel was reading all of Frog’s lines while Kristy narrated. She also begrudgingly said Lionel was good. Dammit Kristy, don’t inflate his ego! At the end of the book Andrew announces that he wants to be a frog and a toad in the parade, to which Karen points out that he can’t because they are two different animals which then leads into an actual science lesson about the differences between frogs and toads. I wish I was making that up. Elton (Mr. Cooper) overhears them and tells them that they can find frogs in the little pond behind the old gardener cottage. They all of course want to go, except for Lionel and Jason, also of course, and soon set out with flashlights. They go out and find frogs and toads and the girls also find that the top floor is lit up with a light… and it’s the floor that no one goes on… dun dun duuuun!!!!! They hurry the kids back to the house and are relieved to get back into the kitchen. Elton asks if they saw any frogs and Andrew answers with a rib-bid. Everyone laughs including Margaret (Mrs. Cooper) who is supposed to be mute. Kristy muses that even with vocal cord problems you can still laugh. Yeah, if you’re not completely mute you can, but she is. This seems like a clue… dun dun duuun! Dawn and Mary Anne decide it’s bedtime for the kids, so they go upstairs, and Kristy decides she needs more information and asks Elton some questions about the light she saw. Elton’s all ‘what no one’s been up there in years and that door is lock after all the strange going ons.’. Claudia then asks about the strange going ons but doesn’t get to find out because Margaret begins rapping her wooden spoon on the counter and shaking her head no. Elton then tells them it’s not for their young ears to hear. He obviously has not met these girls, there is no way in hell that is going to stop them. Margaret then sticks her arm out and waves it around in circles and Elton says “My wife thinks maybe it was the lighthouse light reflecting off the windows that you saw.” Kristy then mumbles out a “yeah, maybe.” Like she doesn’t completely buy it. Well who would after that ridiculousness. I only wish that Jessi was there to call out the Coopers on the clear lack of not actually using sign language that was because she’s the only one gifted enough in that area. I mean really.
After the kids fall asleep the girls meet in Mary Anne’s room to discuss all the weird shit they’ve been seeing. Claudia of all people, makes a remark about how there’s no way they could have seen the beam from the lighthouse reflecting on that window, because they were looking at the back of the house and the front of the house faces the ocean and has the lighthouse. Mary Anne says maybe Lionel did it because she hopes with all her heart that it was him and not a real ghost. Dawn, who has to be a pain in the ass, is still convinced that it’s ghosts. MA refuses to accept that because there has to be an explanation. Claudia points out that they did see candle wax on the floor and Dawn counter attacks with “who says ghosts can’t use real candles.” Um, ghost physics Dawn. They can’t pick anything up because they’ll go right through it. Or maybe they can use all their energies to levitate it but why would they do that when they can… wait why am I even arguing this. You know what, shut up Dawn, you make my head hurt. Since no one had an answer for Dawn they all decided to go to bed. As they’re about to leave, they hear high pitched eerie noises and see candle light under the door. Kristy then thinks for a half a second that Dawn is right (please don’t give her that satisfaction) and it is haunted, but has a hunch and throws open the door. They all scream and Lionel, their “ghost” is startled. He replies with an “oops, you weren’t supposed to do that, it wasn’t in the script.”. Everyone laughs, they all throw their arms up in the air, freeze frame, and the instrumental version of the theme song begins play and the credits roll. I wish. What does happen is they’re all laughing and Dawn makes a remark about the lights on the fourth floor, and Lionel’s all “I don’t know what the eff you’re talking about” and then Kristy’s all “stfu, we know it’s you flickering the lights.” Lionel continues to insist it isn’t him by even telling them he’s too scared to go up there by himself, and oh yeah, it’s also locked. Dawn doesn’t believe him and threatens him to fess up or she’s never telling him anything about Hollywood again. Really? Really Dawn? This is not the E! News studio and you’re not Ryan Seacrest! You know what? Shut up Dawn. Who threatens that anyways… good lord. Anyways, Lionel protests that it’s not fair and “you guys- gals are all crazy.” And I now have an urge to go to a sock hop. They now hear some thumping around and all start freaking out. Kristy, determined to be brave, says it’s probably Jill’s cat Spooky. She then loudly yawns and cheerfully talks that they should all go to bed and shoves Lionel in the direction of his room. She then shoots Claud a meaningful glance (no not like that) and she catches it and is then all “hahaha, we fooled you Lionel!” Lionel is rightly confused and walks away mumbling something about “hysterical females” which is the funniest thing I’ve read in this book so far. Once Lionel is in his room, they all haul ass back to MA’s room and begin to immediately discuss. Kristy states that no matter how scared they all are, they have to protect the kids, even Lionel, from all the stuff going on in the mansion. So I guess it’s business as usual for the BSC then.
Dawn has now convinced herself that Lionel is the ghost and that he has an accomplice.
They actually talk about this scenerio and finally decide that Lionel is not the ghost. They all decided to go to bed, but were too scared to sleep by themselves so Dawn and Claudia bunked together and Kristy and MA bunked together with Andrew. Kristy couldn’t sleep because she was thinking about all the scary stuff that happened and all the scary stuff that might happen. Delightful.
Chapter 7- Claudia
Well Claudia’s not worried about what to write for her composition now. She and Dawn wake up and discuss what happened the night before. They both decide they need to do some detective work. By this point, Jill came knocking on the door to find out what Dawn was wearing that day (sundress and sandals) and Dawn said perhaps they’d like to go to the library and get cards and check out some books. Which is something they should be doing if they actually move to Reese. Besides, you can’t even get a library card unless you can prove that you live in that town or city. FAIL. Claudia says that she wants to go to do research. At that point, Karen and Martha barge in and Karen wants to know what the research is on so Claud says its on the Randolph estate for her paper and lets get the show on the road. We get an outfit description! I decided to wear my floral-print mini-sundress (the pink and red flower pattern is big and sort of abstract). To that I added a pink baseball cap, dangling yellow glass earrings, and my red high-top sneakers. Which seems like a tamer outfit compared some of the other stuff she’s worn. They finally eat and start to head into town and Karen suddenly starts pulling on Claudia’s hand because guess who’s running across the lawn to them, Georgio. Damn, he must’ve been really excited to see them if he was running. He gets there and greets them and Claudia then begins to internally freak out because Georgio was checking her out and she thought it was because she dressed too wildly. Although I’m sure it’s because he wants a piece of that sweet thirteen year old ass. Karen blabs that they’re all going to the library to check out books and Claudia’s going to do research, but Claud cuts her off and says she’s checking out books too because she doesn’t want Georgio to know what she’s up to. She then turns the conversation to him by asking him how’s it going. Georgio states fine, but that he also needs some advice. I didn’t even know the guy and he wanted my advice!? Advice about what? School? Family problems? Girls? How to menace a houseful of kids? I love you Claudia.
Dawn then wants to know advice on what and Georgio says this: “I’ve noticed that Claudia has terrific taste in clothes,” he said. “And puts colors together in a great way.” He was looking me right in the eye. “I’m putting in some new rosebushes and I can’t decide which colors to plant where. I wondered if you could help me, Claudia.” Um, creepy much? Dawn then gets all smirky smirky, takes the kids, and leaves Claudia alone with Georgio. Claudia then half wants to leave with Dawn but her other half wants to follow this:
Claudia then decides to follow him because he is sort of a suspect and she also can’t resist an artistic challenge. Oh no! Never go with a hippie to a second location! They get to the flowers and the two collect a petal from each bush and then Claudia sits on a stone bench and works on the color scheme while Georgio turns over soil. Rawr. Claud is satisfied with an arrangement and Georgio asks her to stay to make sure he follows her plan exactly, so she does and they chitchat. Georgio wants to know what she’s going to do about her creative outlet while in Reese and Claudia says she does art projects with the kids, but doesn’t want to mention the Founders Day parade. Georgio however, mentions it and that she should build a float. Claudia then freaks out that Georgio is reading her mind. She then says maybe she will and it would be a nice way to end their vacation. Georgio then states he thought she’d be there all summer and he sounded disappointed. He then says with his hard to read grin “let’s make the most of the time you have.” Claudia wants to know what he means by that, as do I. Georgio then says he can help her with the float, build the props and she can use his pickup truck. Claudia then freaks out that he has a pickup truck because he could be 16+ or 18+ so she comments that she has to get back to babysitting. Georgio then wants to show Claudia the picture of his float that he did last year, and its in the shed. Uh oh, don’t do it Claud! She then asks the one all the way over by the pond and Georgio says no, that’s the gardener’s cottage where his grandparents used to live, the shed is right around the corner, where he keeps his tools.
They start walking to the shed and Georgio states that since no one uses the cottage anymore, he still sleeps sometimes. They get to get to the shed, and it’s small and dark and all of Claudia’s fears about Georgio come back especially after she accidentally bumps into a “corpse” which turns out to be a bag of sand. Georgio turns on the light and Claud sees a wall of tools like saws, knives, hammers and weapon like instruments. Georgio starts reaching for the axe and Claudia starts freaking out, as do I because the two of us have clearly been watching way too many Lifetime movies. Well thankfully he reaches for a picture that was pinned up next to the axe and then hands it to Claudia. The picture contained Georgio and six other kids in his pickup truck, the truck was painted in psychedelic colors and they were all dressed up like hippies (called it) because the theme was the 60’s. Claud asks if his truck still looks like that and Georgio laughs and says no, they used washable paint otherwise he’d be the laughing stock on campus. Claudia almost craps her pants and manages to ask if he was in college. Georgio replies with a yeah, University of Maine. He then also says some of the guys on the float were a year ahead of him, a couple were behind him, he doesn’t make that big of a deal about age. He then asks Claudia if she’s sixteen and she freakin nods her head yes. This is also the stream of thought that is currently going through Claudia’s head: “Why didn’t I tell him right then that I was thirteen? Maybe I was afraid he’d be mad at me for not having told him sooner. Or maybe I was just keeping to the detective’s rule: Don’t give information to the suspect without a good reason. Or maybe I thought he’d think twice about talking to me so much if he knew how young I was. And the truth was that I wasn’t so spooked by him anymore. I was kind of enjoying becoming friends with Georgio Trono.” Oh boy, I hope someone has Chris Hansen on speed dial.
Claudia then notices a candle, an orange candle, same color as the wax drippings on the floor that night, starts internally freaking out, and then leaves and hauls ass to the library. When she gets there, she finds Dawn helping Jill find a book while simultaneously trying to keep Karen from pimping Martha out to other kids. Claudia pulls Karen away from a group of five year olds and their camp counsler (god she is relentless) and goes to stick her in a corner with a book. On the way, Dawn passes her a book the librarian found for them. Claud flips through it and finds two references to the Randolph mansion, one is Reginald Randolph was a wealthy land owner and fisherman and was lost with his crew on one fishing expedition, and the other was his wife, Mary Randolph, would stand out on the widow’s walk of the house for an hour to look for him and was then thrown to her death one night during a storm. Claudia wrote down all the names and dates down and was really excited to report back that Mary Randolph could be their fourth floor ghost.
They all end up back at the house for lunch and Lisa gives the BSC some time off from the kids, so the girls go and sit under a tree with their lunches to discuss findings. Before Claud can say anything about Mary Randolph, Mary Anne blurts out that she saw her talking to Georgio again and what’s all that about. Claudia tells them about the rose bushes, and the float stuff. Kristy then says she thinks Georgio has a crush on Claud who then says Georgio is old, he’s in college and has a drivers licence. Captain Obvious, aka Dawn states that it must mean he’s nineteen or even older. She then asks if he knows how old Claud is and she shakes her head no. Claudia then tells them she saw a used orange candle in the shed. They all still ponder if Lionel is the ghost, now along with Georgio. Claudia also points out that Georgio sleeps in the gardener’s cottage. They still ponder if he could be the ghost and why he would want to scare them. Claud then busts out the last theory, the ghost of Mary Randolph. I have no clue what anyone thinks of that because Claudia just looks up to the roof of the house, imagines Mary up there, gets creeped out, and that’s the end of it. Bah.
Chapter 8- Karen
Lord, please beer me some strength to get through this Karen chapter. Alright, here we go. Karen, as we know from chapters before, has decided to make it her personal mission to find Martha a friend. It’s now after lunch and Karen is helping Mary Anne straighten up the porch and she’s asking MA what they are going to do today. MA says there are some shops that she wants to check out so that might be a fun place to start, and she also wants to get Claudia an early birthday present. Karen is excited and runs off to get Martha. She finds her in the hammock with Claudia, but doesn’t want to go, she wants to read her book she checked out. Karen doesn’t like this so she pouts and moans and Martha finally agrees to go probably just to shut her up. Soon they are on their way and MA asks Martha how she’s liking Reese so far. Martha said she wanted to go back home to Boston, to her apartment building and that’s where her best friend Louise lives. Karen gets a dose of reality and is shocked to hear that she is not Martha’s best friend, at least while she is visiting. She decides to make it her mission, now more than ever, to find Martha friends and to be her best friend. Run Martha, just run. They finally reach a store and go inside. MA starts looking for a present for Claudia and Karen starts looking for friends for Martha. All she could find were teenagers or kids who were a lot younger than her, which apparently didn’t stop her from trying to hook Martha up with that group of five year olds at the library but it does now I guess.
They’re now getting ready to leave, MA is buying a face painting kit for Claudia (Really MA? She’s allegedly turning fourteen (oh timewarp), not four), Martha is standing with her and Karen finally sees a kid her age. She marches right over and says she remembers her from the beach, she wore a red two piece bathing suit with butterflies. The kid is obviously freaked out and only says “oh” and looks down at the floor. Her mom says that they were at the beach the other day, but she doesn’t remember Amber (her daughter) playing with Karen. Karen then says that they didn’t officially meet, but she noticed her and thought that she would like to meet Martha. She does this big introduction and Martha and MA are gone. Amber’s mom points out her friends are gone and Karen looks through the store window and Mary Anne and Martha are outside. MA signals Karen to come out, Karen signals them to come back in and MA shakes her head no. Karen makes one more statement for Martha and then goes outside. She tells MA that she shouldn’t have made her come out because she had the perfect friend for Martha and MA says for Karen to let Martha meet people in her own way. Karen then says this: I did not think Mary Anne Spier was the best person to give me advice about how to help Martha meet people. After all, next to Martha, Mary Anne is the shyest person I know. What. A. Little. Bitch.
They then find Kristy, who is with Jason and Andrew and tells them that she’s taking the boys to the playground to play softball. Karen decides that she and Martha are going to the playground too and drags her along after Kristy while Mary Anne is now taking Andrew to see the boats in the harbor. They get to the playground and Kristy tells Karen to stay out of their way because she wants Jason to meet some boys his own age so she makes them stay over by the swings. This works for a little bit, except for the fact that Karen is watching them like a hawk and decides that she and Martha need to go play with them, because she’s an awesome player and the boys might have little sisters for Martha to play with. After Kristy specifically told her not to bother them. Karen tries to get Martha to go with her, but she doesn’t want to go and this altercation happens: Martha,” I said, “come on. Kristy wants us on the ball field.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Martha said. “I’ve been watching.”
“She does, too,” I said. “I know what Kristy is thinking and she wants to teach you softball. She is my sister and I can read her mind.”
“No, you can’t,” Martha said.
“I can, too. I know she wants us to come over right now and you have to do it because she is our baby-sitter.”
“No, I don’t,” Martha said.
At this point Karen then looses her temper and then starts screaming at Martha. “You have to because I said so,” I yelled. “I need to find some friends for you so you will like to live here. Help a little. Say hi to the people I introduce you to. Look them in the eye. Why do you have to be so shy?” I was so mad I kicked a little sand in her direction. Martha then kicks sand back at Karen and wants to know why she has to bug her. Karen retorts back with another kick of sand that she likes her, but this time the sand blows back into her face and Martha apologizes. Whhhhyyyyyyy???? They make up and Karen gets her to go play softball and Jason and Kristy look disappointed. And I leave you with some last sediments from Karen: But sometimes you have to ignore what people think and do what you know is right for your friends. Guuuuuuuhhhhhh.
Chapter 9- Logan
Logan starts off this entry with a postcard to Mary Anne, and he can’t wait for her to come home, but not for reasons you’d think. Our favorite manly thirteen year old is at work at the Rosebud Café where his boss’s only rule is “no phone calls or friends dropping by while you’re on the job”. So imagine Logan’s surprise when a “so called friend” (his words) dropped by. It was none other than everyone’s favorite punching bag, Mallory Pike. Mal begins trailing after Logan, yapping away a mile a minute and Logan gets all hysterical that his boss is going to see and he’ll get fired. Mallory then sits herself at the counter where Logan goes to drop off trays and whatnot and proceeds to tell him what happened at the meeting that he missed, so cue the flashback sequence ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Mallory is now acting as president and Jessi is secretary. Their first order of business is to check the machine, but there were no messages. Jessi thinks maybe its because Jake Kuhn told all the kids they’d either get stuck with Mallory or Jessi as sitters. Let’s all heartily laugh at the true possibly of this statement.
The clock clicks to five thirty (start on time or be dammed!) and Mrs. Arnold calls right on the dot to tell them to tell Logan to arrive at his sitting job a few minutes early. Mallory hangs up the phone and then asks Jessi if she told Logan about his job with the Arnolds. Jessi plainly says no, she thought Mal was going to, which is 100% true. Mallory stated that she would tell Logan about the job. Mallory, you’re a bitch. She then decides to call Logan at work, even though he told her not to, because this was an emergency. That she caused. Mrs. Pike then calls wanting a sitter but Mallory says no, they’re out of sitters. Then a new client calls and wants a sitter but Mallory denies them too. Somewhere in Reese, Kristy’s head is exploding and she doesn’t know why. Jessi then reminds Mal to call Logan, but before she can, Janine knocks on the door wanting to speak with the Stoneybrook contingent of the BSC. Jessi and Mal basically tell her to F off because they were having a meeting, and then Janine tells Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber to turn on their answering machine. They put two and two together and figure out that’s the reason why they don’t have any messages. Janine then gives them a bunch of messages that came through the Kishi family line. The phone rings again and it’s someone wanting a sitter so Mallory says she’ll call them back. Mal then asks Janine if she’d like to make some extra money and take a sitting job. Janine agrees to one night job because she says she doesn’t want to see the club destroyed. But it has to hold off for a night because she has a hot date (five bucks says it’s Charlie), so Mallory gives her a job with the Hobarts the next night. Anywho, after Janine leaves, the meeting lasts an extra twenty minutes because the girls had to return phone calls, and out of the six jobs they had to turn down four. They were so desperate that they even thought about calling Stacey, but Jessi snits about how they can’t ask her because even if she did take a job she might not show up for it because we all know she puts Robert before everything. Whoa, calm down bitter sitter. They then suddenly remember Logan, Mal frantically calls him but only got a busy signal because apparently the boss takes the phone off the hook when they get super busy. They both freak out, Jessi runs home for a sitting job and Mallory runs to the Rosebud Café. And now we’re back to the “present”.
After Mallory finishes story hour, Logan says he can’t sit because when he didn’t hear from them he figured he was free he picked up an extra shift at the café and to get someone else. Upon hearing this, Mal goes bat-shit crazy, screaming at him, “how could you!” “there is no one else!” in the middle of the restaurant, waving around a loaf of French bread. Logan then tells her to calm the fuck down and then Mal gets the crazy eye, clenches her teeth and hisses at Logan for him to get a grip and if he doesn’t take this sitting job, people will die because there won’t be any ambulances. Wow Mallory. Just, wow. You have reached a new level of crazy, like I think you might go around the restaurant stabbing people with forks to prove your ambulance point. Maybe if you called Logan in the first place, you wouldn’t be in this hot mess. Logan’s boss finally looks over to see what the hell is going on but can’t because one of Logan’s coworkers is blocking Mallory. Turns out, this coworker is another busboy named Geraldine (seriously what is up with these names from the 1800’s). Logan then asks her if she’d cover the shift he’d already promised to cover and she says she guess so, so that they won’t have to serve breadcrumbs. The rest of this is then continued in that letter to Mary Anne: Logan ushers Mal out of the restaurant, who is still holding that damn loaf of bread, she’s babbling the whole way out that she loves Logan, everyone loves Logan and they should name an ambulance after him. Logan concludes the letter saying that he wasn’t feeling loving towards Mallory, but he loved MA, even though she has some goofy friends. Goofy friends? That’s an understatement.
Chapter 10- Dawn
Dawn starts off her entry with a note to Kristy about how she thinks the Menders shouldn’t live in a haunted house and that she thinks that this house is haunted. She’s been hearing footsteps, and eerie sounds which she thinks are cries for help. They are Dawn. The cries of help are coming from me because I have to read another one of your damn entries. Any the ways, Dawn desperately wants to talk to Claudia about the ghostly mansion happenings but Jill is whining how she doesn’t want to play with Karen and Martha and her cat is missing and she doesn’t want to meet any other kids, all she wants to do is play/hang out with Dawn.
Lionel then comes up and scares the crap out of the three of them and wants to know what the plans are for the day. Claudia suggests it might be fun to eat dinner in the dining room and dress up for dinner. Wow Claud, you’re a wild woman. Jill thinks it’s a great idea, but only if Dawn does. Claud then continues to say they can set the table with all the fancy plates and stuff and Lionel then says maybe he’ll wear one of the seventy year old tuxedoes. Great. Everyone is stoked and so they go ask permission and talk to the Coopers which they get and do and then get to work. Dawn has Jill polish silver while she and Claudia set the table. Once Claud started talking about rosebushes and Georgio, Lionel peaced out. Dawn then decided they needed a candelabra and Jill points one out on the top shelf so Dawn climbs up to get it. When they get it down, Claud notices orange wax drippings on the candelabra and she exchanges a Look with Dawn. Then to distract Jill, she and Claudia make place cards while Dawn cleans the candelabra.
Claudia then states that it would be great if they had some roses from the garden and right when she does, Georgio waltzes in with a bouquet of them. Creeepyyyy. Dawn felt weirded out that he knew they were having a dinner party and wanted roses. She then thinks of the logical explanation, maybe Elton told, but nah. Georgio then offers them some candles for the candelabra, orange candles. Jill then says they don’t want orange candles, they’re using pink to which Georgio replies whatever Claudia thinks will look best. Dawn thinks Georgio sure isn’t trying to keep the orange candles a secret if he was the ghost from last night. Dawn then says Kristy and Mary Anne might not ordinarily be excited getting dressed for dinner, but were when they saw the dining room. Okay Kristy I buy not getting excited, at all. But MA? I don’t buy that. When Karen found out what was going on, she jizzed in her pants and then dragged Martha off to change into some Lovely Lady clothes. Kristy’s not an idiot, so she followed them for damage control. Finally after dinner they’re all sitting around eating dessert and Mr. Menders makes a couple of toasts. One is for the awesome dinner party, the other is that things are looking good and they may be able to move to Reese permanently. The kids freak out. Lionel doesn’t want to move there because it’s boring and he won’t be able to persue his acting career, Jason thinks the kids are stuck up, Martha just plain wants to go home and Jill wants to move to Stoneybrook in a house right next to Dawn’s. The girls all look at each other because they are clearly failing at helping the kids adjust.
Later that night, the parents said they’d put their kids to bed (holy shit, what a novel idea) if the girls cleaned up the dishes and kitchen. Fine, they agreed to it. So they’re in the kitchen, chatting with the Coopers, or Elton at least and he brings up the subject of the lights on the fourth floor. They said yes and Claud says there’s something else and tells them about Mary and Reginald Randolph and was that the story they weren’t supposed to hear. Elton then says no it was another one and he starts to tell it, but Margaret bangs no, and Elton says all it’s just history, they can know the story of Lydia. Basically the story of Lydia is she’s Mary and Randolph’s granddaughter, she’s having a secret romance with the hot gardener George, her parents find out, flip a shit lid and fire George, force him and his family out and then lock Lydia away on the fourth floor. Five years pass, George makes a name for himself in hopes to get Lydia, her parents are still all no get the fuck out of here and then a servant tells George Lydia is locked up on the fourth floor. So George finally gets to the fourth floor where he finds an old white haired lady, asks her where Lydia is and she says that she’s Lydia. Dun dun, duuuuuun!!!!! Dawn wanted to know what happened next but Elton said he didn’t know and strange things happened on these estates and not to let it scare them. Kristy then states an “interesting” and then calls an emergency meeting of the BSC. They finish up in the kitchen and then head up to MA’s room for the meeting where they immediately start talking about the new findings. Dawn asked if they noticed that Lydia’s boyfriend’s name was George, and he was the gardener’s son, like Georgio, and Lydia sounds like Claudia.
Omg, seriously Dawn, shut up. Kristy’s then all stfu, we’re here to talk about the kids. They decided to take Lionel out for pizza and see the summer stock show on their night off which MA is not thrilled about because the show is Dracula. Dawn stated that she needed to shake Jill off of her, and that was pretty much the meeting, no one cares about Jason or Martha. The girls go to bed and Dawn is way too freaked out to sleep. She keeps hearing footsteps above her and eerie crying in the wall. The piece de resistance is when her door slowly creaks open, something lands on her legs, it’s the stupid cat Spooky, and then she sees a white robed figure standing in her doorway. She’s silently screaming until she realizes that it’s Jill standing in her doorway so now Dawn’s just screaming on the inside. Jill says that she found Spooky, wanted to tell Dawn, but Dawn scared the cat away again. Dawn then takes Jill back to her room and turns on every single light on in her own room including the hall light because she doesn’t want anyone or anything creeping in on her. That’s good, she should see when my fist will connect with her face. To be continued!
Anywho, we are now off to delve deeper into the mystery of the Randolph mansion. Also, let it be known that Dawn continually pissed me off so much during these five chapters, that I made a new tag called 'shut up Dawn'. Because really, she just needs to shut up.
Chapter 5- Jessi
Back in the ‘Brook, it’s now time for the first BSC meeting with Jessi and Mallory. Mal decides they should take turns being president and that Jessi should go first. So far, they were the only two there since Logan was defying child labor laws by working at the Rosebud Cafe and Shannon was running late. Logan however did give the two his work schedule and said to call him if they need him. That was dumb Logan, real dumb. Anyways, Shannon finally shows up, ten minutes late and wants to get the show on the road because her dad is picking her up in like fifteen minutes. Jessi and Mal get their
Pampers in a bunch because Shannon is being all high and mighty. Jessi then tries to bring the “meeting” to order and by “meeting”, I mean two eleven year olds thinking they are now totally awesome and try and order a thirteen year old around who can probably think of sixty things off the top of her head she’d rather do than be there. Jessi declares their first duty to call clients and tell them their sitters have been changed. Instead of speaking to the parents, Jessi speaks to the kids who throw bitchfits when they find out their sitters are being changed.
Shannon then asks if they checked the answering machine, which Jessi completely forgets about, but tells Shannon she planned to do it next to cover her ass. They work out some more sitting jobs and soon Shannon’s ride is here. She leaves and tells them they should start on time the next time. Jessi mumbles back, “how about arriving on time”, but sadly not to Shannon’s face. Shannon then sticks her head back in the room, Jessi prays she didn’t hear her, I’m praying she did, but she didn’t. Shannon just tells them they’re doing a great job and she won’t be at Monday’s meeting but she’ll leave them her schedule on the answering machine. She finally leaves, Jessi and Mal figure out more sitting jobs. They were in a jam with the Arnolds until Mallory realized Logan could sit. Mrs. Arnold gets all dramatic and is all “omg you saved our lives because my husband and I are hosting a charity for ambulances! I don’t know what we would have done!”. Um, here’s a thought, bring your damn kids with you, or pawn them off on a neighbor or friend. My god, it’s not the end of the world if you can’t find a sitter from the BSC. Although I know they think otherwise. Anyways, Jessi says they should call Logan to let him know that he’s sitting and Mallory said that she’ll call him later to tell him because he said not to call him at work. Jessi then adjourns the meeting and the two then haul ass to their sitting jobs.
Chapter 6- Kristy
Kristy starts off her entry saying they caught their “ghost” and it seems like he’s not the only one. She also tells the others they should keep an eye out for creepy shit. For the love of tacos, these entries are so stupid! They don’t tell you anything except for the fact that you’re going to get annoyed because they’re trying to be mysterious about the entry, but they’re just coming off as obnoxious. GUH!!!
So now it’s dinner time and the families had a barbeque, cooked by Elton. Kristy notes that he’s not as nice as his wife, even though he can talk and she can’t. Nobody cares. And by nobody, I mean me. They were all sitting around talking about the Founder’s Day parade and making a float, of which Mrs. Menders says is a great idea. Martha still isn’t sold on this idea and runs to confide in her mom who then says “but of course not everyone has to be on the float” and MA pipes up saying that she and Martha are going to be behind the scenes people with the float. Karen of course, takes that as a cue to make a case for Martha to be on the float, but Kristy shuts her up by sending her upstairs to get a book. Thank god. Of course Karen will only go if Martha comes with and so our poor longsuffering Martha obligingly follows Karen up the stairs with her blabbering away about how Martha should be a cat on the float and then she’ll be popular because everyone loves cats. Jesus Tap Dancing Christ Karen, how thick is your head? MARTHA DOESN’T WANT TO BE IN THE MOTHER EFFING PARADE!!!!!
Jason then announced to anyone who was listening that dress up was for girls and he didn’t want to be on the float. Lionel tells Claudia to count him out because it’s “too makeshift and unprofessional”. What a little shit. Lionel, you have just pissed me off. I bet he’s going to be one of those asshole actors that a stage manager is just going to want to punch in the face so many times. I should know, I’ve had a few of those actors. Kristy then mentions that Claudia always had problems getting them psyched up for parade floats. Well can you blame her? The adults then announce they want to go into town to see how busy the stores are at night so Kristy volunteers that they will watch the kids. The adults leave and Karen returns with Frog and Toad Together. (Sidebar: I loved that book when I was a kid) Kristy reads it to them except when they reach the last story, Karen is reading all of Toad’s lines (because she is one) and Lionel was reading all of Frog’s lines while Kristy narrated. She also begrudgingly said Lionel was good. Dammit Kristy, don’t inflate his ego! At the end of the book Andrew announces that he wants to be a frog and a toad in the parade, to which Karen points out that he can’t because they are two different animals which then leads into an actual science lesson about the differences between frogs and toads. I wish I was making that up. Elton (Mr. Cooper) overhears them and tells them that they can find frogs in the little pond behind the old gardener cottage. They all of course want to go, except for Lionel and Jason, also of course, and soon set out with flashlights. They go out and find frogs and toads and the girls also find that the top floor is lit up with a light… and it’s the floor that no one goes on… dun dun duuuun!!!!! They hurry the kids back to the house and are relieved to get back into the kitchen. Elton asks if they saw any frogs and Andrew answers with a rib-bid. Everyone laughs including Margaret (Mrs. Cooper) who is supposed to be mute. Kristy muses that even with vocal cord problems you can still laugh. Yeah, if you’re not completely mute you can, but she is. This seems like a clue… dun dun duuun! Dawn and Mary Anne decide it’s bedtime for the kids, so they go upstairs, and Kristy decides she needs more information and asks Elton some questions about the light she saw. Elton’s all ‘what no one’s been up there in years and that door is lock after all the strange going ons.’. Claudia then asks about the strange going ons but doesn’t get to find out because Margaret begins rapping her wooden spoon on the counter and shaking her head no. Elton then tells them it’s not for their young ears to hear. He obviously has not met these girls, there is no way in hell that is going to stop them. Margaret then sticks her arm out and waves it around in circles and Elton says “My wife thinks maybe it was the lighthouse light reflecting off the windows that you saw.” Kristy then mumbles out a “yeah, maybe.” Like she doesn’t completely buy it. Well who would after that ridiculousness. I only wish that Jessi was there to call out the Coopers on the clear lack of not actually using sign language that was because she’s the only one gifted enough in that area. I mean really.
After the kids fall asleep the girls meet in Mary Anne’s room to discuss all the weird shit they’ve been seeing. Claudia of all people, makes a remark about how there’s no way they could have seen the beam from the lighthouse reflecting on that window, because they were looking at the back of the house and the front of the house faces the ocean and has the lighthouse. Mary Anne says maybe Lionel did it because she hopes with all her heart that it was him and not a real ghost. Dawn, who has to be a pain in the ass, is still convinced that it’s ghosts. MA refuses to accept that because there has to be an explanation. Claudia points out that they did see candle wax on the floor and Dawn counter attacks with “who says ghosts can’t use real candles.” Um, ghost physics Dawn. They can’t pick anything up because they’ll go right through it. Or maybe they can use all their energies to levitate it but why would they do that when they can… wait why am I even arguing this. You know what, shut up Dawn, you make my head hurt. Since no one had an answer for Dawn they all decided to go to bed. As they’re about to leave, they hear high pitched eerie noises and see candle light under the door. Kristy then thinks for a half a second that Dawn is right (please don’t give her that satisfaction) and it is haunted, but has a hunch and throws open the door. They all scream and Lionel, their “ghost” is startled. He replies with an “oops, you weren’t supposed to do that, it wasn’t in the script.”. Everyone laughs, they all throw their arms up in the air, freeze frame, and the instrumental version of the theme song begins play and the credits roll. I wish. What does happen is they’re all laughing and Dawn makes a remark about the lights on the fourth floor, and Lionel’s all “I don’t know what the eff you’re talking about” and then Kristy’s all “stfu, we know it’s you flickering the lights.” Lionel continues to insist it isn’t him by even telling them he’s too scared to go up there by himself, and oh yeah, it’s also locked. Dawn doesn’t believe him and threatens him to fess up or she’s never telling him anything about Hollywood again. Really? Really Dawn? This is not the E! News studio and you’re not Ryan Seacrest! You know what? Shut up Dawn. Who threatens that anyways… good lord. Anyways, Lionel protests that it’s not fair and “you guys- gals are all crazy.” And I now have an urge to go to a sock hop. They now hear some thumping around and all start freaking out. Kristy, determined to be brave, says it’s probably Jill’s cat Spooky. She then loudly yawns and cheerfully talks that they should all go to bed and shoves Lionel in the direction of his room. She then shoots Claud a meaningful glance (no not like that) and she catches it and is then all “hahaha, we fooled you Lionel!” Lionel is rightly confused and walks away mumbling something about “hysterical females” which is the funniest thing I’ve read in this book so far. Once Lionel is in his room, they all haul ass back to MA’s room and begin to immediately discuss. Kristy states that no matter how scared they all are, they have to protect the kids, even Lionel, from all the stuff going on in the mansion. So I guess it’s business as usual for the BSC then.
Dawn has now convinced herself that Lionel is the ghost and that he has an accomplice.
They actually talk about this scenerio and finally decide that Lionel is not the ghost. They all decided to go to bed, but were too scared to sleep by themselves so Dawn and Claudia bunked together and Kristy and MA bunked together with Andrew. Kristy couldn’t sleep because she was thinking about all the scary stuff that happened and all the scary stuff that might happen. Delightful.
Chapter 7- Claudia
Well Claudia’s not worried about what to write for her composition now. She and Dawn wake up and discuss what happened the night before. They both decide they need to do some detective work. By this point, Jill came knocking on the door to find out what Dawn was wearing that day (sundress and sandals) and Dawn said perhaps they’d like to go to the library and get cards and check out some books. Which is something they should be doing if they actually move to Reese. Besides, you can’t even get a library card unless you can prove that you live in that town or city. FAIL. Claudia says that she wants to go to do research. At that point, Karen and Martha barge in and Karen wants to know what the research is on so Claud says its on the Randolph estate for her paper and lets get the show on the road. We get an outfit description! I decided to wear my floral-print mini-sundress (the pink and red flower pattern is big and sort of abstract). To that I added a pink baseball cap, dangling yellow glass earrings, and my red high-top sneakers. Which seems like a tamer outfit compared some of the other stuff she’s worn. They finally eat and start to head into town and Karen suddenly starts pulling on Claudia’s hand because guess who’s running across the lawn to them, Georgio. Damn, he must’ve been really excited to see them if he was running. He gets there and greets them and Claudia then begins to internally freak out because Georgio was checking her out and she thought it was because she dressed too wildly. Although I’m sure it’s because he wants a piece of that sweet thirteen year old ass. Karen blabs that they’re all going to the library to check out books and Claudia’s going to do research, but Claud cuts her off and says she’s checking out books too because she doesn’t want Georgio to know what she’s up to. She then turns the conversation to him by asking him how’s it going. Georgio states fine, but that he also needs some advice. I didn’t even know the guy and he wanted my advice!? Advice about what? School? Family problems? Girls? How to menace a houseful of kids? I love you Claudia.
Dawn then wants to know advice on what and Georgio says this: “I’ve noticed that Claudia has terrific taste in clothes,” he said. “And puts colors together in a great way.” He was looking me right in the eye. “I’m putting in some new rosebushes and I can’t decide which colors to plant where. I wondered if you could help me, Claudia.” Um, creepy much? Dawn then gets all smirky smirky, takes the kids, and leaves Claudia alone with Georgio. Claudia then half wants to leave with Dawn but her other half wants to follow this:
Claudia then decides to follow him because he is sort of a suspect and she also can’t resist an artistic challenge. Oh no! Never go with a hippie to a second location! They get to the flowers and the two collect a petal from each bush and then Claudia sits on a stone bench and works on the color scheme while Georgio turns over soil. Rawr. Claud is satisfied with an arrangement and Georgio asks her to stay to make sure he follows her plan exactly, so she does and they chitchat. Georgio wants to know what she’s going to do about her creative outlet while in Reese and Claudia says she does art projects with the kids, but doesn’t want to mention the Founders Day parade. Georgio however, mentions it and that she should build a float. Claudia then freaks out that Georgio is reading her mind. She then says maybe she will and it would be a nice way to end their vacation. Georgio then states he thought she’d be there all summer and he sounded disappointed. He then says with his hard to read grin “let’s make the most of the time you have.” Claudia wants to know what he means by that, as do I. Georgio then says he can help her with the float, build the props and she can use his pickup truck. Claudia then freaks out that he has a pickup truck because he could be 16+ or 18+ so she comments that she has to get back to babysitting. Georgio then wants to show Claudia the picture of his float that he did last year, and its in the shed. Uh oh, don’t do it Claud! She then asks the one all the way over by the pond and Georgio says no, that’s the gardener’s cottage where his grandparents used to live, the shed is right around the corner, where he keeps his tools.
They start walking to the shed and Georgio states that since no one uses the cottage anymore, he still sleeps sometimes. They get to get to the shed, and it’s small and dark and all of Claudia’s fears about Georgio come back especially after she accidentally bumps into a “corpse” which turns out to be a bag of sand. Georgio turns on the light and Claud sees a wall of tools like saws, knives, hammers and weapon like instruments. Georgio starts reaching for the axe and Claudia starts freaking out, as do I because the two of us have clearly been watching way too many Lifetime movies. Well thankfully he reaches for a picture that was pinned up next to the axe and then hands it to Claudia. The picture contained Georgio and six other kids in his pickup truck, the truck was painted in psychedelic colors and they were all dressed up like hippies (called it) because the theme was the 60’s. Claud asks if his truck still looks like that and Georgio laughs and says no, they used washable paint otherwise he’d be the laughing stock on campus. Claudia almost craps her pants and manages to ask if he was in college. Georgio replies with a yeah, University of Maine. He then also says some of the guys on the float were a year ahead of him, a couple were behind him, he doesn’t make that big of a deal about age. He then asks Claudia if she’s sixteen and she freakin nods her head yes. This is also the stream of thought that is currently going through Claudia’s head: “Why didn’t I tell him right then that I was thirteen? Maybe I was afraid he’d be mad at me for not having told him sooner. Or maybe I was just keeping to the detective’s rule: Don’t give information to the suspect without a good reason. Or maybe I thought he’d think twice about talking to me so much if he knew how young I was. And the truth was that I wasn’t so spooked by him anymore. I was kind of enjoying becoming friends with Georgio Trono.” Oh boy, I hope someone has Chris Hansen on speed dial.
Claudia then notices a candle, an orange candle, same color as the wax drippings on the floor that night, starts internally freaking out, and then leaves and hauls ass to the library. When she gets there, she finds Dawn helping Jill find a book while simultaneously trying to keep Karen from pimping Martha out to other kids. Claudia pulls Karen away from a group of five year olds and their camp counsler (god she is relentless) and goes to stick her in a corner with a book. On the way, Dawn passes her a book the librarian found for them. Claud flips through it and finds two references to the Randolph mansion, one is Reginald Randolph was a wealthy land owner and fisherman and was lost with his crew on one fishing expedition, and the other was his wife, Mary Randolph, would stand out on the widow’s walk of the house for an hour to look for him and was then thrown to her death one night during a storm. Claudia wrote down all the names and dates down and was really excited to report back that Mary Randolph could be their fourth floor ghost.
They all end up back at the house for lunch and Lisa gives the BSC some time off from the kids, so the girls go and sit under a tree with their lunches to discuss findings. Before Claud can say anything about Mary Randolph, Mary Anne blurts out that she saw her talking to Georgio again and what’s all that about. Claudia tells them about the rose bushes, and the float stuff. Kristy then says she thinks Georgio has a crush on Claud who then says Georgio is old, he’s in college and has a drivers licence. Captain Obvious, aka Dawn states that it must mean he’s nineteen or even older. She then asks if he knows how old Claud is and she shakes her head no. Claudia then tells them she saw a used orange candle in the shed. They all still ponder if Lionel is the ghost, now along with Georgio. Claudia also points out that Georgio sleeps in the gardener’s cottage. They still ponder if he could be the ghost and why he would want to scare them. Claud then busts out the last theory, the ghost of Mary Randolph. I have no clue what anyone thinks of that because Claudia just looks up to the roof of the house, imagines Mary up there, gets creeped out, and that’s the end of it. Bah.
Chapter 8- Karen
Lord, please beer me some strength to get through this Karen chapter. Alright, here we go. Karen, as we know from chapters before, has decided to make it her personal mission to find Martha a friend. It’s now after lunch and Karen is helping Mary Anne straighten up the porch and she’s asking MA what they are going to do today. MA says there are some shops that she wants to check out so that might be a fun place to start, and she also wants to get Claudia an early birthday present. Karen is excited and runs off to get Martha. She finds her in the hammock with Claudia, but doesn’t want to go, she wants to read her book she checked out. Karen doesn’t like this so she pouts and moans and Martha finally agrees to go probably just to shut her up. Soon they are on their way and MA asks Martha how she’s liking Reese so far. Martha said she wanted to go back home to Boston, to her apartment building and that’s where her best friend Louise lives. Karen gets a dose of reality and is shocked to hear that she is not Martha’s best friend, at least while she is visiting. She decides to make it her mission, now more than ever, to find Martha friends and to be her best friend. Run Martha, just run. They finally reach a store and go inside. MA starts looking for a present for Claudia and Karen starts looking for friends for Martha. All she could find were teenagers or kids who were a lot younger than her, which apparently didn’t stop her from trying to hook Martha up with that group of five year olds at the library but it does now I guess.
They’re now getting ready to leave, MA is buying a face painting kit for Claudia (Really MA? She’s allegedly turning fourteen (oh timewarp), not four), Martha is standing with her and Karen finally sees a kid her age. She marches right over and says she remembers her from the beach, she wore a red two piece bathing suit with butterflies. The kid is obviously freaked out and only says “oh” and looks down at the floor. Her mom says that they were at the beach the other day, but she doesn’t remember Amber (her daughter) playing with Karen. Karen then says that they didn’t officially meet, but she noticed her and thought that she would like to meet Martha. She does this big introduction and Martha and MA are gone. Amber’s mom points out her friends are gone and Karen looks through the store window and Mary Anne and Martha are outside. MA signals Karen to come out, Karen signals them to come back in and MA shakes her head no. Karen makes one more statement for Martha and then goes outside. She tells MA that she shouldn’t have made her come out because she had the perfect friend for Martha and MA says for Karen to let Martha meet people in her own way. Karen then says this: I did not think Mary Anne Spier was the best person to give me advice about how to help Martha meet people. After all, next to Martha, Mary Anne is the shyest person I know. What. A. Little. Bitch.
They then find Kristy, who is with Jason and Andrew and tells them that she’s taking the boys to the playground to play softball. Karen decides that she and Martha are going to the playground too and drags her along after Kristy while Mary Anne is now taking Andrew to see the boats in the harbor. They get to the playground and Kristy tells Karen to stay out of their way because she wants Jason to meet some boys his own age so she makes them stay over by the swings. This works for a little bit, except for the fact that Karen is watching them like a hawk and decides that she and Martha need to go play with them, because she’s an awesome player and the boys might have little sisters for Martha to play with. After Kristy specifically told her not to bother them. Karen tries to get Martha to go with her, but she doesn’t want to go and this altercation happens: Martha,” I said, “come on. Kristy wants us on the ball field.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Martha said. “I’ve been watching.”
“She does, too,” I said. “I know what Kristy is thinking and she wants to teach you softball. She is my sister and I can read her mind.”
“No, you can’t,” Martha said.
“I can, too. I know she wants us to come over right now and you have to do it because she is our baby-sitter.”
“No, I don’t,” Martha said.
At this point Karen then looses her temper and then starts screaming at Martha. “You have to because I said so,” I yelled. “I need to find some friends for you so you will like to live here. Help a little. Say hi to the people I introduce you to. Look them in the eye. Why do you have to be so shy?” I was so mad I kicked a little sand in her direction. Martha then kicks sand back at Karen and wants to know why she has to bug her. Karen retorts back with another kick of sand that she likes her, but this time the sand blows back into her face and Martha apologizes. Whhhhyyyyyyy???? They make up and Karen gets her to go play softball and Jason and Kristy look disappointed. And I leave you with some last sediments from Karen: But sometimes you have to ignore what people think and do what you know is right for your friends. Guuuuuuuhhhhhh.
Chapter 9- Logan
Logan starts off this entry with a postcard to Mary Anne, and he can’t wait for her to come home, but not for reasons you’d think. Our favorite manly thirteen year old is at work at the Rosebud Café where his boss’s only rule is “no phone calls or friends dropping by while you’re on the job”. So imagine Logan’s surprise when a “so called friend” (his words) dropped by. It was none other than everyone’s favorite punching bag, Mallory Pike. Mal begins trailing after Logan, yapping away a mile a minute and Logan gets all hysterical that his boss is going to see and he’ll get fired. Mallory then sits herself at the counter where Logan goes to drop off trays and whatnot and proceeds to tell him what happened at the meeting that he missed, so cue the flashback sequence ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Mallory is now acting as president and Jessi is secretary. Their first order of business is to check the machine, but there were no messages. Jessi thinks maybe its because Jake Kuhn told all the kids they’d either get stuck with Mallory or Jessi as sitters. Let’s all heartily laugh at the true possibly of this statement.
The clock clicks to five thirty (start on time or be dammed!) and Mrs. Arnold calls right on the dot to tell them to tell Logan to arrive at his sitting job a few minutes early. Mallory hangs up the phone and then asks Jessi if she told Logan about his job with the Arnolds. Jessi plainly says no, she thought Mal was going to, which is 100% true. Mallory stated that she would tell Logan about the job. Mallory, you’re a bitch. She then decides to call Logan at work, even though he told her not to, because this was an emergency. That she caused. Mrs. Pike then calls wanting a sitter but Mallory says no, they’re out of sitters. Then a new client calls and wants a sitter but Mallory denies them too. Somewhere in Reese, Kristy’s head is exploding and she doesn’t know why. Jessi then reminds Mal to call Logan, but before she can, Janine knocks on the door wanting to speak with the Stoneybrook contingent of the BSC. Jessi and Mal basically tell her to F off because they were having a meeting, and then Janine tells Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber to turn on their answering machine. They put two and two together and figure out that’s the reason why they don’t have any messages. Janine then gives them a bunch of messages that came through the Kishi family line. The phone rings again and it’s someone wanting a sitter so Mallory says she’ll call them back. Mal then asks Janine if she’d like to make some extra money and take a sitting job. Janine agrees to one night job because she says she doesn’t want to see the club destroyed. But it has to hold off for a night because she has a hot date (five bucks says it’s Charlie), so Mallory gives her a job with the Hobarts the next night. Anywho, after Janine leaves, the meeting lasts an extra twenty minutes because the girls had to return phone calls, and out of the six jobs they had to turn down four. They were so desperate that they even thought about calling Stacey, but Jessi snits about how they can’t ask her because even if she did take a job she might not show up for it because we all know she puts Robert before everything. Whoa, calm down bitter sitter. They then suddenly remember Logan, Mal frantically calls him but only got a busy signal because apparently the boss takes the phone off the hook when they get super busy. They both freak out, Jessi runs home for a sitting job and Mallory runs to the Rosebud Café. And now we’re back to the “present”.
After Mallory finishes story hour, Logan says he can’t sit because when he didn’t hear from them he figured he was free he picked up an extra shift at the café and to get someone else. Upon hearing this, Mal goes bat-shit crazy, screaming at him, “how could you!” “there is no one else!” in the middle of the restaurant, waving around a loaf of French bread. Logan then tells her to calm the fuck down and then Mal gets the crazy eye, clenches her teeth and hisses at Logan for him to get a grip and if he doesn’t take this sitting job, people will die because there won’t be any ambulances. Wow Mallory. Just, wow. You have reached a new level of crazy, like I think you might go around the restaurant stabbing people with forks to prove your ambulance point. Maybe if you called Logan in the first place, you wouldn’t be in this hot mess. Logan’s boss finally looks over to see what the hell is going on but can’t because one of Logan’s coworkers is blocking Mallory. Turns out, this coworker is another busboy named Geraldine (seriously what is up with these names from the 1800’s). Logan then asks her if she’d cover the shift he’d already promised to cover and she says she guess so, so that they won’t have to serve breadcrumbs. The rest of this is then continued in that letter to Mary Anne: Logan ushers Mal out of the restaurant, who is still holding that damn loaf of bread, she’s babbling the whole way out that she loves Logan, everyone loves Logan and they should name an ambulance after him. Logan concludes the letter saying that he wasn’t feeling loving towards Mallory, but he loved MA, even though she has some goofy friends. Goofy friends? That’s an understatement.
Chapter 10- Dawn
Dawn starts off her entry with a note to Kristy about how she thinks the Menders shouldn’t live in a haunted house and that she thinks that this house is haunted. She’s been hearing footsteps, and eerie sounds which she thinks are cries for help. They are Dawn. The cries of help are coming from me because I have to read another one of your damn entries. Any the ways, Dawn desperately wants to talk to Claudia about the ghostly mansion happenings but Jill is whining how she doesn’t want to play with Karen and Martha and her cat is missing and she doesn’t want to meet any other kids, all she wants to do is play/hang out with Dawn.
Click to viewLionel then comes up and scares the crap out of the three of them and wants to know what the plans are for the day. Claudia suggests it might be fun to eat dinner in the dining room and dress up for dinner. Wow Claud, you’re a wild woman. Jill thinks it’s a great idea, but only if Dawn does. Claud then continues to say they can set the table with all the fancy plates and stuff and Lionel then says maybe he’ll wear one of the seventy year old tuxedoes. Great. Everyone is stoked and so they go ask permission and talk to the Coopers which they get and do and then get to work. Dawn has Jill polish silver while she and Claudia set the table. Once Claud started talking about rosebushes and Georgio, Lionel peaced out. Dawn then decided they needed a candelabra and Jill points one out on the top shelf so Dawn climbs up to get it. When they get it down, Claud notices orange wax drippings on the candelabra and she exchanges a Look with Dawn. Then to distract Jill, she and Claudia make place cards while Dawn cleans the candelabra.
Claudia then states that it would be great if they had some roses from the garden and right when she does, Georgio waltzes in with a bouquet of them. Creeepyyyy. Dawn felt weirded out that he knew they were having a dinner party and wanted roses. She then thinks of the logical explanation, maybe Elton told, but nah. Georgio then offers them some candles for the candelabra, orange candles. Jill then says they don’t want orange candles, they’re using pink to which Georgio replies whatever Claudia thinks will look best. Dawn thinks Georgio sure isn’t trying to keep the orange candles a secret if he was the ghost from last night. Dawn then says Kristy and Mary Anne might not ordinarily be excited getting dressed for dinner, but were when they saw the dining room. Okay Kristy I buy not getting excited, at all. But MA? I don’t buy that. When Karen found out what was going on, she jizzed in her pants and then dragged Martha off to change into some Lovely Lady clothes. Kristy’s not an idiot, so she followed them for damage control. Finally after dinner they’re all sitting around eating dessert and Mr. Menders makes a couple of toasts. One is for the awesome dinner party, the other is that things are looking good and they may be able to move to Reese permanently. The kids freak out. Lionel doesn’t want to move there because it’s boring and he won’t be able to persue his acting career, Jason thinks the kids are stuck up, Martha just plain wants to go home and Jill wants to move to Stoneybrook in a house right next to Dawn’s. The girls all look at each other because they are clearly failing at helping the kids adjust.
Later that night, the parents said they’d put their kids to bed (holy shit, what a novel idea) if the girls cleaned up the dishes and kitchen. Fine, they agreed to it. So they’re in the kitchen, chatting with the Coopers, or Elton at least and he brings up the subject of the lights on the fourth floor. They said yes and Claud says there’s something else and tells them about Mary and Reginald Randolph and was that the story they weren’t supposed to hear. Elton then says no it was another one and he starts to tell it, but Margaret bangs no, and Elton says all it’s just history, they can know the story of Lydia. Basically the story of Lydia is she’s Mary and Randolph’s granddaughter, she’s having a secret romance with the hot gardener George, her parents find out, flip a shit lid and fire George, force him and his family out and then lock Lydia away on the fourth floor. Five years pass, George makes a name for himself in hopes to get Lydia, her parents are still all no get the fuck out of here and then a servant tells George Lydia is locked up on the fourth floor. So George finally gets to the fourth floor where he finds an old white haired lady, asks her where Lydia is and she says that she’s Lydia. Dun dun, duuuuuun!!!!! Dawn wanted to know what happened next but Elton said he didn’t know and strange things happened on these estates and not to let it scare them. Kristy then states an “interesting” and then calls an emergency meeting of the BSC. They finish up in the kitchen and then head up to MA’s room for the meeting where they immediately start talking about the new findings. Dawn asked if they noticed that Lydia’s boyfriend’s name was George, and he was the gardener’s son, like Georgio, and Lydia sounds like Claudia.
Omg, seriously Dawn, shut up. Kristy’s then all stfu, we’re here to talk about the kids. They decided to take Lionel out for pizza and see the summer stock show on their night off which MA is not thrilled about because the show is Dracula. Dawn stated that she needed to shake Jill off of her, and that was pretty much the meeting, no one cares about Jason or Martha. The girls go to bed and Dawn is way too freaked out to sleep. She keeps hearing footsteps above her and eerie crying in the wall. The piece de resistance is when her door slowly creaks open, something lands on her legs, it’s the stupid cat Spooky, and then she sees a white robed figure standing in her doorway. She’s silently screaming until she realizes that it’s Jill standing in her doorway so now Dawn’s just screaming on the inside. Jill says that she found Spooky, wanted to tell Dawn, but Dawn scared the cat away again. Dawn then takes Jill back to her room and turns on every single light on in her own room including the hall light because she doesn’t want anyone or anything creeping in on her. That’s good, she should see when my fist will connect with her face. To be continued!