Mallory is excited about the new Short Takes class at SMS. Not only is the topic children’s literature one of her favorites, but she also has the cute, new teacher at school. Once class begins though, she isn’t too thrilled. The teacher spends more time with the guys, especially those from his baseball team. He only gives the girls a few seconds to answer, but lets the guys take forever. He also lets the guys yell out answers, but the girls wait with their hands raised forever.

At the same time, the sixth grade class must plan a fundraising event and use that money for the school. As one of the class officers, Mallory has to help plan the events. She volunteers to check out the old classes and see what they used the money for. One class donated $1,000 for a student lounge in the library, but the money disappeared.

She enlists the help of Sondra, another officer. Sondra is a smart girl, but she keeps dumbing herself down for guys because guys don’t like smart girls. I feel so sorry for my boyfriend right now. She discovers that the money was used by the school to fix the roof and paint a few classrooms. She’s ready to drop things, but Mallory wants answers.

The class officers take their research to the principal. He confesses that they used the money after a bad storm and never put it back. They go to the librarian, who tells them that the school still needs a student lounge and that the school should have a discretionary fund for things like this. They go back to the principal, who tells them that if they raise the original $1,000, then the school will match that and use the funds to build the lounge.

They decide to run five different days and raise money each day: selling flowers, candy, and stuff like that. They naturally raise enough money and the school gets its lounge. After talking things through with the BSC, Mallory confronts Mr. Cobb. He doesn’t believe that he acts the way she says, but then he catches himself doing it in class. He apologizes to everyone and Mallory still manages to get a B in the class. She also talks to Sondra and convinces her to act smart every now and then.

The B-plot involves the Memorial Day parade through town. Buddy Barrett is pissed off because his step-sister gets to march with her Brownie troop. Kristy decides that all the kids should get the option to walk in the parade and comes up with a marching band idea. They give the kids kazoos and even though they have way more kids than they thought, they’re still a hit.

*Mr. Cobb is described as young and hunky, but he looks old, middle aged and gross on the cover!

*Also, Cobb supposedly has a master’s degree in American Literature. Um, I’m not sure how things work in Connecticut, but that wouldn’t qualify him to teach in most states. Here, you have to have a teaching degree and teaching certification for elementary, middle school and high school. He’s qualified to teach college though!

*Cobb calls her Valerie because she’s so quiet that he mishears her name. She totally lets him get away with it for almost a week, but then gets pissed that he’s still doing it.

*At the parade, Kristy asks all parents to drop their kids off 30 minutes before the start. All of the parents drop their kids off way early and she and Jessi are left watching 20+ kids by themselves. Parents literally drop the kids off and drive off without a word. I’m sorry, but I’m not leaving my kids anywhere with two sitters.

*On top of that, kids randomly show up without their parents. So parents in town are just sending their kids out and telling them to look for the BSC members. Yeah, that sounds super safe.

*If the school has a discretionary fund, then why wasn’t it mentioned in the first place? It’s described as extra funds put back for improvements and construction projects, yet they have to twist the principal’s arm to get any of that money.

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