Kristy and the Vampires Chapters 6-10
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Chapter 6
Derek’s mother is nervous about him doing his own stunts. I was wondering what she was doing here, but I looked and the book said that she wasn’t able to be on the set every day. I still don’t see why Derek’s family had to go all the way to Stoneybrook just to get free childcare. Are all the people in other small towns convicted child murderers?
Derek has to fall through glass. She’s quick to assure us that she means breakaway glass. It looks like glass but shatters safely on impact. The vampire is supposed to push Derek’s character through a window because Derek’s character is trying to keep him away from a girl at a party. Maybe Derek’s character should shove the girl into a glass table to keep her away from the vampire. Todd and Claudia come over. Todd goes to get a soda. Claudia is interested in being a makeup artist. I thought wearing makeup meant you were a whore. I wonder how hard it is to get into the makeup artist field. How much creative freedom does a makeup artist have? I wonder how Claudia will react if someone doesn’t like her work. What if Claudia has to work with a diva? How is she going to cope when she has to face a challenge?
They suddenly hear glass shattering and run to see what happened. Todd is standing by a pile of broken glass shards. Zeke is there and Kristy is wondering why Zeke isn’t yelling. He’s too horrified to yell. Todd was kicking a rock and it went through the pane of glass. The glass was for Derek’s stunt and it was real glass. If Derek had fallen through that, he’d have been badly hurt. I wonder if people check the props before they do a stunt in case something like this might happen. I read a Nancy Drew book where a person got shot during a play or a movie. The gun wasn’t filled with blanks.
Zeke said that he checked and double checked the glass. How do you test breakaway glass? Is there a noticeable difference between breakaway glass and real glass? Would you be able to tell breakaway glass from real glass? Do people test props before shooting? I would do that, if only because I’ve read books where props like fake guns were replaced with real guns so there could be an attempted murder. I’d also double check just to make sure the equipment wasn’t a safety hazard.
Cliff comes and sees what happened. He fires Zeke and closes the set. The stuntwoman, Cheryl, is going to take over all of Derek’s stunts now. Zeke is upset to be fired. Mrs. Masters isn’t upset to see Zeke go. She didn’t trust him because he had a terribly short temper, especially around kids. Well, that seals it. Anyone who doesn’t like kids is clearly a child murderer. Zeke totally replaced that breakaway glass with real glass so that he could kill Derek and make it look like an accident. I’m pretty sure that if his plan to maim or kill Derek had succeeded, people would have looked at him since he was the prop master. In all honesty, just because he has a short temper and dislikes kids doesn’t mean he’d try to harm him.
Kristy starts to feel protective of Derek. She wants to get to the bottom of this mystery. Had someone tried to harm Derek by switching the glass or was it an accident? Kristy wants to get to the bottom of this mystery for her own peace of mind. I see nothing about protecting Derek. I wonder how long it’ll take before the BSC becomes Derek’s bodyguards. I can just see them freaking out because he was about to trip on a rug.
Kristy asks a passing woman if she knows anything about the pane of glass but the woman doesn’t know anything. Kristy asks to see receipts. Something in her voice convinces the woman. How much persuasive power does a thirteen-year-old have? Is no one going to question why some random girl would want to see the receipts for a pane of breakaway glass? The woman takes Kristy to a trailer set up like an office and Kristy begins leafing through the papers. Is she allowed to do this? Can she really just go into someone’s trailer and start leafing through the papers on their desk? I’m not sure if this is illegal, but I think it’s rude to go into someone’s personal area and start looking through their things. Whatever. The BSC isn’t bothered by trivial things such as politeness and possibly illegal behavior.
Kristy realizes that she isn’t going to find anything and leaves. What was she looking for anyway? A letter from the culprit confessing they switched the glass? If she found a receipt for breakaway glass it means that it was purchased, but I don’t know what that has to do with how it got switched with regular glass. Kristy goes off to find Stacey and Claudia. She’s interrupted by Sheila, who calls her Christine again. Kristy corrects her as politely as possible. I wonder what passes for polite in Kristy. Somehow I think polite behavior for Kristy is managing not to insult someone directly. I can see her “being polite” with a little smirk on her face and snide voice. Sheila asks where Derek is and Kristy tells her. She thinks Sheila can’t make good P.R. about what happened on set. I don’t know. Maybe if she hypes up the accidents as a gigantic scandal people will be interested in the movie. Then again, I know nothing about public relations or advertising.
Chapter 7
Kristy conveniently overhears Frank and Carson discussing Derek. Turns out they aren’t too pleased with Derek upstaging Carson. God forbid a charge of the BSC be average at anything. Is there ever a time when the BSC or their charges don’t excel at whatever they do? I don’t mean that they straight up suck- I mean that they just aren’t the best. Then again, I’m pretty sure everyone would say the person who beat them was cheating or the contest wasn’t fair. Didn’t that happen in the Little Miss Stoneybrook pageant?
Carson says this movie can make his career. The movie doesn’t sound like a hit from what I’ve read. It sounds like narm charm. I’d probably watch the movie if I had nothing better to do, but I would pay money to see it or desperately find a way to see it. Carson is vain and Kristy is disgusted. Being vain is a horrible thing, unless you’re a member of the BSC. But then it’s not being vain or conceited, it’s true. I will laugh my ass off if Carson says that he’s a wonderful actor, but he’s not being vain or conceited, it’s true. Kind of how the BSC says this all the damn time before bragging about their talents. Kristy thinks Carson thinks there’s only room for one star in the movie. Kristy sure thinks there’s room for more than one babysitting club in Stoneybrook. Oh, wait.
Kristy doesn’t think Carson is smart enough to be dangerous, but Frank might be. Derek finds Kristy and they go to the set. They’re doing stunt work with harnesses. Cheryl says she won’t need luck because the stunt is easy and she can do it in her sleep. Haven’t you ever heard of dramatic irony, Cheryl? Some girl with stringy hair begs for a part. The director takes her number even though they’re mostly looking for boys in middle school. Kristy calls her pathetically grateful. The girl isn’t a member of the BSC, so that means she won’t have things like dream vacations and movie parts magically fall into her lap. I wonder if Kristy would take this attitude with someone who was job hunting. Do you think she would call someone who was desperately searching for a job “pathetically grateful” if the manager said they’d take her name and information?
Derek is a good actor. I wonder how good Myriah and Gabbie are? Just a random thought. When it’s time for the stunt, the cable snaps and Cheryl falls from ten feet. She isn’t severely injured. Harry yells for the equipment to be checked out. Wouldn’t it be smarter and safer to check equipment before doing a stunt? Harry tells everyone to take five. Derek thinks the accident was supposed to happen to him. I don’t know how fast word would spread about Cheryl doing the stunts.
This isn’t the worst incident to happen. Later that day Derek asks Kristy to get him some breath mints from his trailer. Kristy goes there and sees an envelope addressed to Derek. Kristy says she would never open anyone’s mail. I doubt that. I don’t think these girls care much for personal privacy. She opens the envelope. There’s a message written in what looks like blood. The message is threatening Derek. Kristy tells his mother. I’m a little surprised at this. I thought the BSC frowned on getting adults and the proper authorities involved in their lives. Mrs. Masters thanks Kristy and says she’ll tell Derek’s agent because the agent will know what to do. This happens on movie sets. But an agent can’t solve the mystery of who is threatening Derek. The agent can’t protect him. This is a job for the BSC. Kristy calls an emergency meeting. So this is the ninth one this week, then?
Chapter 8
The BSC has to protect Derek. How will a bunch of thirteen year olds and two eleven year olds protect him? Are they going to test taste his food in case someone poisoned it? Surround him and follow him around no matter where he goes? Tackle him when someone looks at him suspiciously? I just wish someone would say, “It’s not like I don’t care for Derek, but how exactly are we supposed to help? I don’t think they hire thirteen year olds as bodyguards.”
Claudia says if she were Nancy Drew, she’d draw up a list of possible suspects. Carson and Frank are suspects because Derek is upstaging Carson. Zeke is a suspect because he was fired and might be looking for revenge. I think the BSC is including the breakaway glass incident in the attempts to harm Derek. Here’s the thing. Zeke hadn’t been fired when that incident happened. He could have tampered with the harness as revenge, but I don’t think that’s possible. Zeke is in a motel in town. Shannon says they’ll try to track him down. The poor man. He’s already been fired and now the BSC might come to question him. If the BSC showed up at my door, I’d tell them to screw off. They aren’t the cops and I don’t have to answer to a bunch of middle schoolers.
Claudia says they’ll narrow the suspect list down and keep an eye on the suspects. I can just see the BSC trying to spy and failing miserably at it. I wonder if they’ll wear trench coats and hats that will make them stand out instead of blending in. Shannon thinks Sheila might be a suspect because there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Stacey thinks Cliff might be a suspect but she doesn’t know why he’d want to sabotage his own movie. Maybe he realized the movie was a piece of shit but he couldn’t get out of it so he had to resort to sabatoge.
I love how Kristy thinks Sheila is an unlikely suspect because of how she dresses. Sheila wears matching outfits and heels. Claudia doesn’t wear matching outfits sometimes. Are you implying something, Kristy? But what the hell does wearing matching outfits have to do with being a suspect? This makes no sense. Is the culprit so evil that they won’t even wear matching clothes?
There’s a brief mention of how Claire is still afraid of vampires. Kristy resolves to cure her. It’s not abnormal for a five year old to be afraid of vampires. Sometimes you should just let children be children instead of trying to solve everything you deem as a problem. The BSC is going to keep a real close eye on Derek.
Chapter 9
Shannon is babysitting for Becca and Charlotte. They become bored with blowing bubbles, so they decide to help solve the mystery. Shannon suggests tailing the suspects. So you’re enlisting eight-year olds to do detective work? Why don’t you guys just fire the police department and take over? Everyone knows the BSC runs Stoneybrook anyway. Charlotte gets sunglasses because that will help disguise them. I don’t know how effective sunglasses are as a disguise. Aren’t they going to get hats and trench coats? The sunglasses have pink hearts, rhinestones, and one pair is blue and white striped. I think I’d notice sunglasses like those. And why do they need to be disguised? I don’t think the suspects are going to see a teenager and two little kids and think they’re spying on him. If I see two little kids, my first thought isn’t that I’m being spied on. Besides, has Carson, Zeke, or Frank seen Becca or Charlotte? It’s not like they know the BSC is investigating what’s
happening during filming.
They go to the set. Shannon has to act like she doesn’t know Kristy because it might blow their cover according to Charlotte. The suspects aren’t aware the BSC is investigating. Why would they see Kristy talking to Shannon and get suspicious. Nothing happens and Charlotte gets bored. She goes back to blowing bubbles.
Chapter 10
No luck solving the mystery of who is out to get Derek. Kristy is on set when Cokie approaches. Cokie is wearing an off the shoulder white blouse and a pink flowered skirt. Kristy thinks she looks ridiculous. I think she looks nice. I think the BSC would hate what Cokie is wearing even if they’d wear the outfit themselves. Cokie came to watch because she has a crush on Carson. Kristy can’t believe Cokie has nothing better to do. I can’t believe the BSC has nothing better to do than try to solve every “problem” every child in Stoneybrook has as well as organize festivals for kids constantly. Don’t they have lives outside of their charges? I just wish someone would call them on that and tell them they shouldn’t be so quick to judge people.
Cokie invites the cast to a party. She’s hoping Carson will come and they can have a private party. Carson is uninterested. Cokie isn’t doing anything wrong here. As far as I’m aware, Carson’s single. There’s nothing wrong with flirting if you like someone and they’re single. Granted, it is embarrassing to watch when it’s obvious that the person is completely uninterested.
Kristy goes to the party to keep an eye on Derek. I’m surprised she doesn’t just move into Derek’s house. Claudia and Kristy snark of Cokie’s decorations. Cokie used pink. Kristy is the ultimate tomboy, so she hates pink. Maybe Cokie likes pink. Liking pink doesn’t make you a villain. Claudia and Kristy also make fun of Cokie’s outfit. She’s wearing a pink mini dress, heels, and lipstick to match. That outfit doesn’t sound weird. What’s so weird about wearing a mini dress ?Maybe it’s inappropriate for a middle schooler to wear one, but I don’t know if I would say wearing a mini dress is weird. The BSC just needs reasons to hate Cokie.
Carson doesn’t come to the party. Derek jumps into the pool and Cokie gets splashed. Everyone who went to Cokie’s party got sick. Mary Anne thinks Cokie poisoned them all. I know Cokie’s been a jerk on several occasions, but poisoning seems a little extreme for her. It’s probably food poisoning. Mary Anne thinks Cokie is after Derek. Do these girls make an effort to come to the most ridiculous conclusion ever? If I went to a party and got sick, my first thought wouldn’t be that the host tried to poison me and everyone else. I’d just think there was something wrong with the food.