"Baby-sitters Club The Next Generation #6: Byron and the God of California" by Zelempa
New reccer coming onboard just in time for small fandom week! This is a Yuletide favorite from 2010, and one that I've probably read twenty times since then.
Title: Baby-sitters Club The Next Generation #6: Byron and the God of California
Fandom: The Baby-sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Pairing: Byron Pike/Jeff Schafer
Categories/Genres: Humor, first-time, post-canon, virgin
Length: Long (29,893)
Warnings: Underage (sex between two consenting fifteen-year-olds)
Author/Artist on LJ: zelempa
Author/Artist Website: AO3
Summary: And then he was there, standing in the doorway.
He obviously hadn't put much thought into what he was wearing, but somehow, he made a white T-shirt and jeans look like designer fashion. Unlike most of my shirts, his actually fitted him perfectly, showing off his slim waist and muscular arms. The bright white set off his golden skin perfectly. Around his throat he wore one of those hemp-and-shell surfer necklaces. His pale blond hair had been cut short and stuck out in every direction. He was grinning that wide, friendly, dimpled grin of his.
Oh, man. Oh, man. I was in trouble.
Review: Fast forward a few years past the eternal eighth-grade of the books, and 15-year-old Adam Pike is President of a Baby-sitters Club composed of former sitting charges. Byron, the sensitive and shy Pike triplet, has "wishy-washily half-joined" the club as an Associate Member. He has bigger things on his mind than baby-sitting as he tries to come to terms with his sexuality. On the other side of the country, Jeff Schafer has just come out on his blog, making Byron's secret crush on him more exhilarating and terrifying than ever. Byron tells himself that, if he has to be gay, at least his crush lives safely off-limits in California. But Byron's life gets a lot more confusing when Jeff and his sister Dawn return to Stoneybrook for the summer, just as the original BSC members come home from their first year of college to see how the club has been running in their absence.
If you grew up devouring BSC books like Claudia's hidden candy, then this story will bring you on the nostalgia trip of your life! I love the romance between Byron and Jeff. This story does a fantastic job of capturing the terrifying thrill of first love along with the fear and isolation of growing up queer in a small town. But it's the tension between the old club and the new that really makes this story come alive for me. In pitting Kristy and the original BSC members against Adam and the Next Generation club, zelempa really highlights her ability to stay true to the girls we knew and loved, while also creating new and dynamic characters from the former sitting charges, who only played minor roles in the books. Even as I rooted for Adam and the Next Generation sitters to come into their own, I understood Kristy's desire to hold onto the club that's meant so much to her. The first time I read this, I was giggling out loud through most of it because it captures so much of what I loved about the BSC as a little girl -- the club drama, the outfit descriptions, the notebook entries, the LUV, the sense that Stoneybrook would fall apart without the BSC around to watch over its kids . . . . What zelempa has really managed to do is create a BSC book for adults, but without losing the core of friendship and belonging that is really at the heart of the Baby-sitters Club. I just wish this really were the sixth of a series because I would happily read them all. Fortunately, this one does have a sequel, which is equally good.
Baby-sitters Club The Next Generation #6: Byron and the God of California
Also make sure to check out the sequel! Baby-sitters Club: The Next Generation Super Special #1: What Happens in Sea City…
Title: Baby-sitters Club The Next Generation #6: Byron and the God of California
Fandom: The Baby-sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Pairing: Byron Pike/Jeff Schafer
Categories/Genres: Humor, first-time, post-canon, virgin
Length: Long (29,893)
Warnings: Underage (sex between two consenting fifteen-year-olds)
Author/Artist on LJ: zelempa
Author/Artist Website: AO3
Summary: And then he was there, standing in the doorway.
He obviously hadn't put much thought into what he was wearing, but somehow, he made a white T-shirt and jeans look like designer fashion. Unlike most of my shirts, his actually fitted him perfectly, showing off his slim waist and muscular arms. The bright white set off his golden skin perfectly. Around his throat he wore one of those hemp-and-shell surfer necklaces. His pale blond hair had been cut short and stuck out in every direction. He was grinning that wide, friendly, dimpled grin of his.
Oh, man. Oh, man. I was in trouble.
Review: Fast forward a few years past the eternal eighth-grade of the books, and 15-year-old Adam Pike is President of a Baby-sitters Club composed of former sitting charges. Byron, the sensitive and shy Pike triplet, has "wishy-washily half-joined" the club as an Associate Member. He has bigger things on his mind than baby-sitting as he tries to come to terms with his sexuality. On the other side of the country, Jeff Schafer has just come out on his blog, making Byron's secret crush on him more exhilarating and terrifying than ever. Byron tells himself that, if he has to be gay, at least his crush lives safely off-limits in California. But Byron's life gets a lot more confusing when Jeff and his sister Dawn return to Stoneybrook for the summer, just as the original BSC members come home from their first year of college to see how the club has been running in their absence.
If you grew up devouring BSC books like Claudia's hidden candy, then this story will bring you on the nostalgia trip of your life! I love the romance between Byron and Jeff. This story does a fantastic job of capturing the terrifying thrill of first love along with the fear and isolation of growing up queer in a small town. But it's the tension between the old club and the new that really makes this story come alive for me. In pitting Kristy and the original BSC members against Adam and the Next Generation club, zelempa really highlights her ability to stay true to the girls we knew and loved, while also creating new and dynamic characters from the former sitting charges, who only played minor roles in the books. Even as I rooted for Adam and the Next Generation sitters to come into their own, I understood Kristy's desire to hold onto the club that's meant so much to her. The first time I read this, I was giggling out loud through most of it because it captures so much of what I loved about the BSC as a little girl -- the club drama, the outfit descriptions, the notebook entries, the LUV, the sense that Stoneybrook would fall apart without the BSC around to watch over its kids . . . . What zelempa has really managed to do is create a BSC book for adults, but without losing the core of friendship and belonging that is really at the heart of the Baby-sitters Club. I just wish this really were the sixth of a series because I would happily read them all. Fortunately, this one does have a sequel, which is equally good.
Baby-sitters Club The Next Generation #6: Byron and the God of California
Also make sure to check out the sequel! Baby-sitters Club: The Next Generation Super Special #1: What Happens in Sea City…