Beware, Dawn Chapters 11-15
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Chapter 11
The BSC is busy talking about their most embarrassing moments. Kristy is embarrassed because it’s five-thirty one and she hasn’t started the meeting. Kristy recounts the incident in the last chapter where she didn’t see Mr. Papadakis at first because he’d bent down to tie his shoe. There has been more than one occasion where I’ve thought there was someone behind me, and I was just seeing my hair from the corner of my eye. There was also this time I was listening to my Ipod and the song I was on had the singers whispering. I thought there was someone in the room with me trying to kill me. There was also the time I thought my mom was a murderer trying to kill me because it was dark in my room and she was wearing all black and I’d just gotten up.
Dawn accidentally lets a remark about Mr. X slip out and the secret is out. Nothing has happened to Kristy, so that means she’s automatically under suspicion. Kristy wants to know why Mary Anne hasn’t said anything. It’s because Mary Anne doesn’t want to be seen as a less than perfect sitter. Yes, because having a stalker means you’re a bad babysitter. It’s not their fault they have a stalker. However, ignoring the stalker is really stupid.
Kristy and Jessi speak sense and say that nobody is perfect and Mr. X could have been dangerous. I read ahead. He isn’t. Besides, has anyone been in danger in a BSC novel? But at least someone is pointing out how dumb it was to ignore the threatening notes. Kristy says it’s time to try and solve the mystery, instead of just going to their parents. Now I’m just imagining a sitter hiding at one of their charges’ house to throw a net on Mr. X.
Chapter 12
Claudia is annoyed by Mr. X. She’s babysitting for Charlotte and feeling sorry for herself. My first reaction was that it was Janine-related, but it turns out that Stacey is doing something more exciting that babysitting. What the hell could be more exciting than babysitting? No, Stacey is going to New York. Given how these girls think New York is the greatest place on Earth, I can’t blame her for being jealous.
Charlotte says she’s bored and Claudia snaps to attention because a kid being bored is basically neglect in BSCland. Claudia suggests they play Monopoly which is a great sacrifice on her part because she hates Monopoly, but Charlotte is a really slow player. I’d have a book on hand. I can’t say I blame Claudia here. I hate Monopoly, too. I love how these girls are patting themselves on the back for doing things their charges like.
Charlotte says no and Claudia suggests cookies. Charlotte can’t because she has cavities and has to stay away from sweets. Claudia is desperate enough suggest watching TV. I’d have the TV on much more often than these girls. Charlotte doesn’t want to watch TV. This is what happens when you don’t let kids think for themselves and plan their activities. At this point I’d have been like, “Do whatever the hell you want, as long as there’s no permanent damage and I won’t get arrested.” Actually, since Charlotte is such a bookworm, I’d have told her to read a book, but she’d probably whine that she’s read them all already.
Claudia finally thinks to use her Kid Kit. Claudia has a new book by Beverly Clearly. Ramona would kick Karen’s ass. Charlotte wants Claudia to read to her because she likes it when people read to her, but her mom is always too busy. What about her dad? Is her dad a bad reader? My dad didn’t read to me because he’s not good at reading. Claudia finds herself getting sucked into the story about a girl who doesn’t want to learn cursive because it’s too hard and she can relate. Aside from signing my name, I’ve never used cursive.
Claudia’s throat starts to get sore after two chapters, so Charlotte reads to her. Claudia doesn’t know if a sitter of the month should allow this. Why? Charlotte’s not causing you harm by reading to you and maybe she likes doing it. I’ve read to my aunt before. I think it was part of speech therapy or something. We read from the same book because my aunt was interested in what was happening. However, if Charlotte was reading Twilight or 50 Shades of Gray, Claudia should feel free to throw the book out the window.
Reading together does sound rather cozy to me. Mr. X strikes again. This time he leaves baked beans all over the porch. I hate baked beans. Claudia convinces Charlotte not to say anything and they clean up after Mr. X. Claudia hopes that Charlotte’s parents won’t find baked beans in their shrubbery and ask what happened. How would the parents react if they found out that there was someone creeping around their houses and leaves threatening notes? I think I might want to know about that.
Chapter 13
Dawn is feeling down because she still can’t figure out who Mr. X is. She has a sitting job for the Newtons, so she puts it out of her mind. Jamie and Lucy are some of her favorite charges. Jamie is four, which is such a great age because he’s still learning about the world. He also shows no jealousy towards Lucy. Yeah, you just like Jamie best because he kisses your ass. Jenny’s four and you whine about her constantly. But Jamie is awesome because he’s hardly ever cranky. You just like children when they kiss your ass and you don’t have to expend any effort to take care of them. Jenny also seems to be close to Andrea, but you just write her off as being a brat because she disagrees with you.
Dawn and Jamie go outside to play and I skim until I see that Mel is supposed to come by to check up on Dawn. I know the BSC can be creepy, but the kids can be creepy back. Are they going to find out that a sitter is sitting for a non regular charge and go to the kid’s house to press their face against the window? I swear I just had an image of Kristy doing that if Mallory didn’t join the BSC and kept babysitting her own siblings. For pay, I mean. I’m pretty sure she’s had to watch her siblings without pay before.
Dawn suddenly knows that Mel is Mr. X. Don’t ask her how. Maybe she read ahead like I did. Dawn doesn’t know why Mel would do something like Mr. X. Seeing as how you said he teases kids who are different, I like to say it’s because he’s a jerk. Dawn goes home and tells Mary Anne her suspicions about Mel being Mr. X. Mary Anne wants to make a plan. My plan would be to tell Mel’s parents about my suspicions, but I guess Dawn’s sudden flash of insight isn’t enough proof. They call Kristy to think of a plan, which makes me want to alter the words of the Ghostbusters theme to a BSC version involving Kristy.
Chapter 14
Dawn has a brilliant idea to catch out Mel. She’s going to pretend she has a sitting job at her house alone. She tells everyone and I’m just imagining her talking loudly about her job while Mel is in earshot and mentioning her job after every other word. Dawn knows that Mel knows about the secret passage in her house. The kids think it’s cool. Does that mean the kids can sneak through the passage every time they want?
The night of the sitting job arrives. Dawn lets the BSC in. I love how Mary Anne says it might not be Mel and it’s like he’s been found guilty without a trial. Like you girls wouldn’t think a reserved person is a serial killer or that Jenny is the culprit because she’s Jenny. They go over the plan and Dawn tells Mary Anne that she has to say check when she says she has film for the camera. I’d be like, “Are you incapable of understanding me when I don’t say check?” I have to say, there has to be an easier way to deal with this whole catching Mel thing. I think the BSC just isn’t happy unless they’re cooking up elaborate schemes.
The girls talk about mundane stuff like boyfriends and high school to pass the time. I always find it so funny how my teachers made such a big deal about how difficult the next grade would be and how strict the teachers were. They never were. I just want to go to my high school and say, “College students still whine and procrastinate on their homework, even though we’ve known about the assignment for months. It is really hard to find academic sources that aren’t websites at the very last minute.”
Mel comes a while later and starts making a bunch of noise. Maybe it’s because I hate kids, but if I found out there was a kid creeping around my house trying to scare me, my first impulse would be to grab the little twerp’s ear and scold him. They catch Mel and surround him. Dawn is sure she was going to scold Mr. X. I can’t say I’d be feeling too charitable towards him myself. However, Mel starts to cry and Dawn feels all her anger drain away. Crying never worked with my parents. Dawn gives Mel a big hug.
Chapter 15
Kristy and Dawn are gentle with Mel because they see he needs help more than anything. Mel pretended to be Mr. X because Mrs. Hobart called and told his parents that he was bullying her children. Mel was mad because it wasn’t a big deal and it wasn’t anyone’s business. I think the bullied kids’ parents should know about this and so should Mel’s parents, unless they’re assholes who encourage bullying. Mel found out where the BSC would be through the Sitter of the Month Contest. Mel is upset because he might have to talk to a psychiatrist, but he calms down once Kristy explains to him what a psychiatrist does. Did his parents not tell him this? I can understand if they explained but Mel was still a little nervous because maybe the psychiatrist would tell him he’s wrong for feeling certain things. But Kristy just tells Mel that a psychiatrist helps you figure out why you’re feeling a certain way and how to make you feel better. Mel accepts that explanation readily enough. Why didn’t his parents just tell him that seeing a psychiatrist didn’t mean he was in trouble and explain what they do?
They take Mel home and explain the situation to his parents. His parents are going to take him to a psychiatrist to get him the help he needs. Better a psychiatrist than the BSC. Mel’s parents should just pray the psychiatrist isn’t like Kristy.
The next Monday afternoon, the Sitter of the Month is announced. It was a seven-way-tie because God forbid the kids have preferences. I bet the kids planned to make it a tie because they knew how the BSC would react if they didn’t declare a tie. That, and it’d be pretty funny to have the BSC bust their asses to be the Sitter of the Month when it was going to be a tie all along.