How could anyone accuse Claudia of cheating?

The Baby-Sitters Club #40: Claudia and the Middle School Mystery

Hmmm. This book was a pleasant surprise. I knew I'd read it before, but only because I remembered the outfit that the blonde girl (Shawna Riverson?) on the cover wore. I totally had a very similar red and white striped sweater and white skirt that was fabulous, while Claudia's cover outfit looks like something my best friend's dad would have worn while feeding the pigs in their barn. Ugh, Claud.

So Janine helps Claudia study for her math test and for once she feels really good about it. After taking the test, she feels like she did really well, so she's thrilled when she gets it back with an A-. Except then, at the end of class, the teacher calls her and Shawna Riverson forward to compare their tests: they're exactly the same! Seriously, who's this dumb? Who doesn't know that you have to change at least a few things when you're cheating off the person sitting next to you? I guess if you're that certain you can frame the other person as the cheater it doesn't matter, but really, Shawna Riverson? That seems like quite a risk. Maybe you are not as smart as Claudia seems to think.

So Shawna Riverson immediately jumps in and denies all wrongdoing, and since Shawna generally gets A's while Claud generally gets C's, Mr. Zorzi (awesome name! He's a long-term sub, too, so he doesn't know about Claudia's impeccable character. Apparently, her real teacher would never accuse her of cheating!) just totally believes her, dismisses her, and tells Claud he'll have to tell the principal and her parents. Dude, Mr. Zorzi sucks. You can't just do that. It could have been either of them. You have no proof except for the fact that Claud was too shocked to really stand up for herself.

The principal calls Mr. and Mrs. Kishi, who tell Claudia they want to believe she's innocent. Dude, the Kishis sort of suck too. It's Janine who adamantly insists that she believes Claudia didn't do it, which jolts her mom and dad to agree, but Claud still worries they don't believe her. Claud asks her parents not to talk to her principal or teacher about this- she wants to deal with it herself. Honestly, Claud, that's moronic.

The BSC goes into crime solving mode after hearing all of this. (Actually, first they all say they believe she's innocent, except Mary Anne, who tells Claud that they would all still love her even if she did it, and if she did, she should confess. Dude, that's a shit move right there, Mary Anne. Thank God Kristy calls her on it. What a bitch!) The baby-sitters start making plans to catch Shawna Riverson, especially after Claudia conveniently overhears her bragging about cheating in the girls' room.

Claudia, Dawn, and Stacey break into Shawna Riverson's locker and find a note from one of her friends congratulating her on cheating off of "C.K." God, stealth is not Shawna Riverson's middle name, is it? She's begging to get caught. Claud ends up putting the note back though, when she realizes that she can't tell anyone how she found it without getting into even bigger trouble. She tries to trap Shawna Riverson (I'm sorry, I just cannot call her Shawna. She simply requires two names, much like Cokie Mason.) in a variety of lame ways, like repeatedly using the word "cheat."

Eventually, Janine (I adore Janine!) has had enough of this nonsense. Janine, who "always had a good relationship with the principal" when she went to SMS (um, okay, Janine. Not sure I want details on that.) goes to talk to him and assure him that Claudia did not cheat. Janine helped her study, and she knew that material. The principal expresses that he had some doubts about which girl cheated (yet he's still totally willing to punish Claud without proof? What an asshole.), so he agrees to allow Claudia to retake the test. This time, she does even better! She only misses two problems on the test.

The next day, when Mr. Zorzi explains this to Shawna Riverson and tells her that she will need to retake the test as well (Why on earth didn't they just do this in the first place???), Shawna Riverson freaks the hell out and starts confessing. She does get suspended for two days, as well as an F on the test, so at least SMS has some standards. That night, Claudia's parents and Janine get her a cake that says "Congratulations, Claudia!" I'm not sure about this. "Congratulations, Claudia" because you proved you didn't cheat? "Congratulations, Claudia" because now we know that you can get A's and we're not going to let you slack anymore? "Congratulations, Claudia" because once again, no adult believes you, but they all believe Janine? I don't know, if I were her, I'd be kind of offended. But then, thank God I'm not her, because I'm rather keen on my spelling skills.

In baby-sitter news, the Pike triplets broke a window playing baseball, and none of them will 'fess up. So Mrs. Pike decides to ground all of them until someone admits fault. This pretty much just drives everyone in the Pike house, baby-sitters included, crazy because the triplets can't handle having no allowance and being stuck in the house all day. Eventually, Mallory gets them to re-enact the event, where she realizes that it was kind of "all of their fault" so they explain this to Mrs. Pike, who decides that that's good enough to unground them. Whatever.

BUT! This was the pleasant surprise I alluded to above- this is the one where Jessi teaches the triplets "Op-talk!" You know, the made up language where you spell everything with the word "op" after it. I loved this language even though it is ungodly annoying. I taught it to my brother and we had a great time with it. I had no idea it was in this book (in fact, I was actually disappointed a few weeks ago when I read "Mallory and the Trouble with Twins" because I thought op-talk was in that one.) Awesome, the things I learned from the BSC. Or, if you will, A-WOP-E-SOP-O-MOP-E.