Thoughts before reading:
This is really not Claudia's best cover look, yikes...
The basics:
Claudia has a babysitting job with the Braddocks, and they have a new rule that Haley has to do her weekend homework on Friday nights. She's resistant though, so Claudia's put in the awkward position of enforcing it. She tries to be firm without making a big deal over it, even after catching Haley on the phone instead of working. Claudia does ask to see her finished work though, and so Haley shows her a book report. When her parents get home, Claud tells them that the homework is done and she checked it... only to learn Haley showed her an old assignment to trick her. Haley gets grounded for lying, and she blames Claudia for telling on her. She doesn't let it go either, from there telling all her friends that Claudia got her in trouble, so they'll also be mad at her.
Lately Claudia has also been feeling like something's off in her relationship with Josh. They're such good friends, and so comfortable together, that she's not feeling a spark. All this is on her mind when Josh asks her out to the movies, but she has to decline because it's her dad's birthday. Later that evening, she realizes she has the wrong weekend. Instead of calling Josh to tell him she's now free, she decides to take advantage of a rare free night alone, and ends up getting lost in her new Nancy Drew mystery. While she's reading, Josh calls. He wanted to leave her a message, and is surprised to find her at home. She feels guilty that she didn't tell him about her change in plans, so she fibs and says her dad got sick.
The next week Claudia gets another job with the Braddocks. Once again, Haley won't do her homework, and talks on the phone instead. Claudia makes her get off, and tells her she has to show her the finished work again. Once it's all done, Haley immediately gets back on the phone with Vanessa, and Claudia overhears her telling Vanessa that Claudia's a traitor and a tattletale.
When Mrs. Braddock returns, Haley reports that she was trying to go over her math with Vanessa, and Claudia kept interrupting. She also says that Claudia told her homework isn't important. Luckily Mrs. B sees through this and apologizes to Claudia, telling her that lately Haley's been a handful and they aren't sure what to do with her.
Naturally, Kristy promptly starts worrying about the BSC's reputation. Claudia tells Josh about the problem too, but is frustrated because he barely seems to be listening. Later on, he asks her if she thinks things between them are working out. She says yes, but then later wonders if that was honest. She loves him, but doesn't know if she's in love with him.
Abby overhears Haley telling a bunch of other kids that the babysitters are really spies for their parents. It's not long before the whole BSC starts to have trouble with kids not trusting them, believing that they are spying, and giving them a general hard time.
During her next sitting job with the Braddocks, Haley tells Claudia that Matt has to make a poster for school, but he doesn't have any paints to use. Claud calls Stacey, who gets her mom to stop by Claudia's house to pick up hers, then bring them over. After this is all done, Haley claims to have told Claudia to call Nicky Pike and get a lizard book for Matt. Claudia's furious, but Haley just says she's crazy, because she never said that. When her parents get home, Haley then tells them Claudia was hanging out with Stacey and forgot to call about Matt's book... and she told Haley to cover for her, or else she'd tell everyone Haley was lying.
Mrs. B pulls Claudia aside and assures her that she doesn't believe Haley, but they will be using a new sitter for now because Haley's been at her worst when Claudia's around. (Great parenting solution...) Mary Anne takes over the jobs, and predictably has the same problems. She suggests that they try a role play with Haley, to reenact that first sitting job so they can find out what went wrong. (Mary Anne learned this technique in therapy... good continuity!)
Stacey invites Claudia and Josh to NYC with her and Ethan. Claudia confides to her that she never has the desire to kiss Josh. Stacey tells her that it sounds like her romance is turning into a friendship. Realizing she's right, Claudia knows she has to now tell Josh, but she's worried about losing his friendship if she hurts him.
Luckily Josh ends up asking her to talk first, and brings up the same problem. Relieved, they mutually breakup and plan a friend date.
During the reenactment, Haley's still trying to lie about how things happened. When challenged, she finally admits that the book she was supposed to read was too hard, and she runs out crying. Claudia realizes that what's been bothering her all along was really her school work. She opens up to Haley about being held back, and her own struggles. It comes out that all Haley's lying began when Haley lied to her teacher about why her work wasn't done, and the teacher believed her. As the school trouble deepened, lying made her feel powerful.
Side plot: The BSC and Josh are helping out with a girl's basketball league (made all the more random by the fact that chapter 1 begins with this already happening). Apparently Kristy volunteered them all to help at some point.
Timeline:
It's March.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Suzanne Weyn.
*Claudia's allowed to have Josh in her bedroom when her parents aren't home? Even though Janine's there, I'm still very surprised. Most of the other girls have stricter rules, even Stacey, who has to stay in the kitchen with boys.
*When Haley misses basketball practice because she's grounded, Kristy makes Stacey fill in. None of the girls are pleased, and Stacey mentions that she's been playing basketball longer than most of these girls have been alive. Uh, what? The girls in question are 8-9... was Stacey on some sort of toddler basketball league that we've never heard about before?
*Kristy tries to bench Stacey for talking back, which is actually pretty funny.
*One of the kids in here says you can't trust anyone with a double digit age, haha. Definitely kid logic.
*Annoying as Haley was in here, it's about time a kid and a sitter don't get along. It's something that would actually happen a lot, but never does to the BSC. Also, this is the problem with having sitters close in age to yours kids. In real life, there would be a lot of kids refusing to listen to them and questioning their authority.
*Claudia and Josh don't have sexual tension, basically, but the book refers to it as "romantic feelings".
*Haley was a weird choice for this plot, since she's always been so well behaved, and in here she's crazy! This 9 year old is literally gaslighting Claudia, and she's not bad at it, either. She's actually a scary good liar, not to mention manipulator. She easily pulls Claudia into several of these no-win situations.
*Mr. Brooke is still a client.
*Claudia's final regular series book, although as a founding BSC member, she returns in Friends Forever. She narrated 28 books total.
Books mentioned:
*The Great Brain, by John D. Fitzgerald
*The Case of the Artful Crime, by Carolyn Keene
*A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L' Engle
My rating:
2.5 stars. I appreciated the attempt, and even the concept, but this still wasn't very good. It's sad that it's taken until book 128 for something like this to happen...
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