The Baby-Sitters Club #19: Claudia and the Bad Joke



The BSC gets a phone call from Mrs. Sobak, needing a sitter for her daughter Betsy and Claudia gets the job. She hears from other sitters that Betsy is a practical joker and no one will sit for her anymore, but she assumes the same won’t happen to her. Betsy pulls a few harmless pranks, like putting a fake fly in her drink and giving her a dribble glass.

Then they go outside and Betsy directs her to a specific swing. Claudia starts a swinging contest, the swing breaks and she hits the ground, breaking her leg. Betsy apologizes because she knew the swing was broken and told her to use it. She calls Dawn and Mallory, who rush over with their charges and wait for the ambulance to arrive.

Claudia winds up in the hospital for a week. Some of the kids she sits for come by and the BSC visits frequently, plus Stacey calls from NYC. The longer she sits in the hospital, the more the accident freaks her out. She realizes that she could have broke her arm and not be able to draw or paint. When she goes home, she keeps thinking about everything. Finally she tells the BSC that she’s thinking about dropping out.

The Pike house is going stir crazy and keeps pulling jokes on each other. Jessi and Mary Anne trick the kids into thinking an elephant escaped from the circus, which tones things down. Dawn sits for Betsy and she does stuff like putting shaving cream on her ice cream sundae. Dawn gets her to stop by just telling her that she doesn’t like jokes.

 Mallory borrows stuff from the triplets and pulls jokes on Betsy, but nothing seems to work. Kristy sits for her and takes her to the movies. Some other kids make fun of Betsy because she does so many jokes and they don’t like her. Kristy gets back at her by switching seats and making her think she ditched her in the theater. Betsy apologizes and Kristy takes her to apologize to Claudia.

Claudia calls Ashley and tells her she wants to quit sitting. Then she talks to Mimi and Stacey and gets even more confused. She finally decides to stay in the club and they all get excited. They take a few minutes to call Stacey in New York and tell her the news. Then Claudia takes a sitting job for three weeks in the future, when she can start sitting again.

*Mrs. Sobak pays for Kristy’s movie ticket, but doesn’t give her money for sitting Betsy. I think that’s pretty shitty, given that she still has to sit in the theater for two hours without getting paid.

*Mrs. Sobak calls back and asks for a sitter multiple times. That takes some massive balls, given what happened.

*Claudia is in a cast for 3-4 weeks and then a walking cast for like a week. Yeah, I was too except that I broke my ankle in three places and had surgery. Walking casts are usually used a lot longer too.

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