This one was after my time.
Revisited Reaction
It’s spring break in Stoneybook, and since there are no unrealistic vacations planned, Kristy decides to run a Krusher’s Klinic for her softball team. For some reason she needs a second person to help, even though she normally handles practices by herself. Abby volunteers, but won’t be around every day, and the rest of the BSC isn’t interested. Kristy asks Bart to help, but he’s busy with his own team. But Charlie agrees to help out. He even offers to get some former Mets player, Jack Brewster, (who I’m assuming is not a real person) to come to a practice (he has a “connection”).
The kids all love Charlie, and at first Kristy’s jealous that she’s not “needed.” But then, Charlie starts paying attention to Angelica, this girl who’s at the clinic because she’s baby sitting the Hsus. Kristy’s not a fan, and is annoyed that Charlie isn’t helping as much as he was before. So, she tries to get Charlie back together with his ex-girlfriend Sara by setting them up to have lunch together. It doesn’t work and Charlie just gets annoyed at Kristy.
Meanwhile, Kristy won four tickets to some concert from a radio show, and since Charlie offered to drive, she lets him bring a friend (she gives the 4th to Claudia). But he ends up inviting Angelica. The night of the concert, Charlie asks to borrow Watson’s car, because he’s afraid his will break down on the highway. It’s also because if he was driving his own car, everything that happens next couldn’t have happened. Charlie’s having trouble with Watson’s car, I guess getting used to shifting gears. So, Angelica offers to drive. Charlie’s nervous about it, but agrees. The next thing you know, they’re getting pulled over, and end up crashing while trying to stop. When the cops talk to them, we find out Angelica doesn’t even have a license. The cops insist on bringing them to the station and calling their parents, who of course are pissed.
The next day, Charlie doesn’t show up at the clinic and Jack Brewster’s nowhere to be found, even though Charlie said he was coming. The kids are all disappointed. Kristy runs into Sara, and finds out Jack Brewster’s her uncle (and how Charlie was going to get him to come). Sara arranges for Jack to show up the next day. Then Angelica sends Charlie a note about how her parents won’t let him see her anymore because they think he’s the bad influence. But Watson and Kristy’s mom have already “suggested” Charlie stop seeing her, he’s not really interested anymore anyway, so he doesn’t care. Charlie and Kristy make up, and Charlie admits he’s been stressed thinking about picking a college to go to. He thinks he’s not mature enough, but Kristy says he is, and reminds him how much he helped their mom after their dad left.
On the last day of the clinic, Jack Brewster shows up and everyone is super excited. All the fathers of the kids on the team come to see him, so I guess he’s supposed to be pretty famous. I love how even when these kids don’t have crazy vacations, unrealistic stuff still happens. Also, Charlie and Sara seem on the road to getting back together.
High/Lowlights
- It’s kind of annoying that the girlfriend Kristy doesn’t like, actually turns out to be “bad.” It would be much more realistic if she just didn’t like the girl, but Charlie ended up dating her for awhile anyway.
- Claudia outfit: “She was wearing an old fringed leather vest she’d found in a thrift shop; an oversize plaid shirt with a super-thick striped tie; and bell-bottomed pants with two different colored legs. Her hair was pulled back with a hairclip in the shape of a VCR.”
- I hate how they always show the other BSCers as knowing nothing about sports. In this book, we have Claudia thinking the super-bowl is baseball, and Mary Anne not knowing what grounders are when Kristy makes her help at the clinic. Now, I am not into sports at all, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand simple terminology. Mary Anne’s best friend and boyfriend both play softball/baseball, she goes to lots of games, she’s probably forced to play in gym class, yet she understands nothing about it?
- Fun fact: Jamie Newton is left-handed.
- For some reason all the Pike kids go to the clinic (at least one day), even though Claire, Margo, and Nicky are the only people actually on the Krushers. I could almost buy the triplets going for extra practice, but even Vanessa is playing with them when she’s supposed to hate sports as much as Mallory.
- I find it out of character that when Angelica tells Kristy she’s baby-sitting for the Hsus, Kristy doesn’t freak out about someone else sitting for one of the BSC clients.
- Watson takes Kristy to the mall so she can get a new bat, and while she goes in the sports store, he goes to a gourmet food shop because he’s “not an athlete.” But isn’t Watson a huge sports fan? He helps Kristy get the Krushers started back in book 20. And in later books he’s shown as a baseball fan.
- Kristy tells Charlie he’s just like their father because he stops showing up at practices. Which is a pretty bitchy thing to say, but she does acknowledge that later on.
- Charlie mentions how he’s worried she’s right that he’s like their dad. He says how if their dad was a musician, he probably would have joined a band, if their dad was a writer, he’ I’d probably write for the school newspaper. But since their dad was a jerk, Charlie thinks he could be one to. My issue with this statement is that their father WAS a writer. He was a sports journalist.
- Apparently, Charlie invited Angelica to go to the concert without mentioning Kristy and Claudia were going along. That seems like a big thing to forget.
- When Angelica asks to drive the car, she tells Kristy insurance covers other drivers, and that’s how “it works.” Which made me roll my eyes because it totally isn’t. But it turns out that was just her lying, because insurance doesn’t cover the accident that you knew they were going to have. That’s explained later on.
- Originally, the cops want Charlie to follow them to the police station, but the car won’t start, so they leave it on the side of the road and go in the police car. But would they really just leave the car in the shoulder of a highway?
- When Angelica admits she doesn’t have a license, the cops note that she isn’t even 17. But based on earlier books, the driving age in Connecticut is 16, but some parents don’t let their kids drive until later. I have no idea if that’s really true, but it’s what they’ve said in at least one earlier book.
- Kristy tries to get the cops to drop her and Claudia off at the concert, since they weren’t doing anything wrong. It doesn’t work, but I thought it was funny.
- Is Charlie supposed to be a junior or a senior? I thought he was a senior, but his problem with colleges is about how to pick one out of all the information/brochures he’s getting. If he was a senior, I would have thought he picked a college by now, or at least applied.
- The whole Jack Brewster thing makes no sense. Because Charlie specifically says he’s coming on Saturday, but it turned out he never even called him. Why would he have specified a date before talking to the guy?
- Is it bad that when I read Charlie isn’t allowed to drive for two months (because of letting Angelica drive), all I could think about was how Kristy was going to get to BSC meetings?
- Kristy wins the concert tickets from some radio show, but when they call, she thinks it’s Alan Gray messing with her, because she couldn’t hear the same person talking to her from the radio (because there’s usually a few seconds of delay). So she’s on the air telling Alan to move to Antarctica, which I’d think would embarrass her, but it didn’t.
- I hate to say this, but I feel a bit like Karen. I’ve been spelling clinic with a C, but in the actual book they write it as “Klinic” every time
