Get Well Soon, Mallory! (RS#69)

Original Publication Date: 1993

Ghostwriter? Yes, Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner

Synopsis:

The BSC is gearing up for another activity. They want to put on a Thanksgiving celebration for the people in the retirement home (or is it a nursing home? Both?). The plan the come up sounds honestly pretty great: thoughtful gift baskets and a carnival the residents get to participate in. Everyone starts pitching in, but Mallory's struggling to keep up. She's still constantly exhausted, and getting worse. Finally, she gets diagnosed with mononucleosis. And since she's Mallory, it's an especially bad case. She's laid up pretty much the whole month of November, causing her family to miss out on attending the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and forcing her to temporarily stop baby-sitting. She thinks the BSC should replace her, but the other members disagree: they want Mallory to recover and come back when she's well. Until then, she's an honorary member.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned

Shannon routinely wears black mascara.

Page 52: "This is the worse thing that's ever happened to me." [emphasis mine] Apparently only two things have ever happened to Mallory.


Their Families:

Vanessa show some Mallory-like traits, breaking up an argument between her younger siblings.

Mrs. Pike makes all the kids lunches to take to school.

In this book, Jessi calls her mother "Mom" instead of her usual "Mama."


The Club: nothing new.

SMS: nothing new.


PSA Time:

It's true that mono can be spread other ways than kissing. A soccer teammate of mine had it one season (she had to sit out the whole time; you could see the swelling of her spleen through her skin). From then on, all the coaches of the sports teams were extra careful to remind us not to share water bottles.

Fruit juice isn't as healthy as most people think. Even the ones that don't have as much sugar as pop still are a far cry from actual fruit.


Misc:

It's Halloween again, plus the first mention of Thanksgiving.

Stacey and Charlotte Johanssen go back to Polly's, the candy store first mentioned in The Truth about Stacey.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 6

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Halloweens in 8th grade: 3 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 6

BSC Fights: 8

SMS Staff and Faculty: 36

Students (other than the BSC): 112; 78 8th graders, 2 7th graders, 19 6th graders, 12 unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 85

Crushes:
Stacey-9
Claudia-8
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1