What's your favorite BSC friendship in the series?

[oldmeanie]

Not gonna add a poll because there are too many combinations (since I'm deviating from the classic best friend pairs). But it's among the sitters only.

On re read, I'm surprised to say that my favorite friendship is Kristy and Abby. They started off clashing, especially in #100, and grew closer as the series went on. I imagine them being best friends in high school, since they read like believable friends with similar interests who poke fun at each other. I think they'll always be sort of competitive, but will never get bored.

I think of all the canon best friend pairs, my favorite is probably Stacey and Claudia. They seem to have a lot of fun together.

[lydifarr]

I agree. Imo Jessi and Mallory were good friends too.

[oldhickory]

For non besties I like Claudia and Mary Anne's relationship a lot. I can imagine them growing up together and hanging out alone while Kristy's busy, and MA was at Claudia's house all the time even before the club (spending time with Mimi).

[sparklymouse]

I liked Claudia and Kristy. They both had goofy enthusiasm when Kristy forgot to be uptight and Claudia forgot to be cool.

[fernmariposa919]

I like the Abby and Kristy friendship too. I like that Abby was the only one who would stand up to Kristy while the others seemed a little afraid to question her authority.

Actually, your question has made me think of different dynamics between the club members. Obviously, we have the best friends: Kristy and Mary Anne, Mary Anne and Dawn (also stepsisters, obviously!), Stacey and Claudia, and Mal and Jessi. But outside of these friendships, the only other dynamics I can think of are the following:

-Stacey and Mary Anne, both of them helping the Pikes in Sea City.

-Claudia and Dawn, they were shipwrecked together for two days, although after that, I can't really think of another time we see them together.

-Kristy and Abby, as mentioned earlier, with both living in the same neighborhood and having the most interaction with each other

-Kristy and Stacey, this is a dynamic I would have liked to see more of. We see them together in the European vacation book and Kirsty is pretty prominent in "Stacey and the Missing Ring", helping Stacey clear her name. I really wish we had seen more of them, especially with Stacey dating Sam!

-Kristy and Dawn, besides Dawn trying to get to know Kristy a little better (like inviting her over to the barn in one of the very first few books), I feel like we never saw these two really share any scenes. Unless I'm missing something obvious. With these two both having Mary Anne as a friend, you'd think they would have more page time together. It would have been hilarious (and a little bitchy) if they had complained about Mary Anne spending too much time with Logan. 

-Abby and Stacey, this is one where I feel like they should have a good friendship since they're both from New York, but I can't think of any instances.

-Dawn and Stacey, there has to be a moment between these two that I'm just not thinking of. The only one I can think of is when Dawn discovers the secret passage in her house and she gets Stacey to help her scare the others at a sleepover at her house, but other than that, I can't think of any moments of them together and you think there would be more since they both moved to Stoneybrook from other places around same time (well, Stacey was one year earlier), they both only eat healthy food (though for different reasons) and they're both blonde and hard to distinguish if they're both on the cover!

Obviously Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne grew up in the same neighborhood. I remember in "Claudia's Book" she went on vacation with Kristy's family when they were ten, but if we're talking about when they're 13, they had the conflict in "Winter Vacation" and they built the float together for the boat show in "Shadow Lake." I cannot come up with any moments Claudia and Mary Anne share together (when they're 13)...but if there's any, please remind me! The only one I can think of is when Claudia gets super angry at her because she overheard Mimi call her "My Mary Anne".

Mallory and Jessi only seem to stick with each other, but we have a few instances of them having dynamics with the older sitters. Jessi went with Stacey to New York and stayed with her when she visited Quint in that one mystery and it was pretty cool to see them hanging out together, especially since she lives in Stacey's old Stoneybrook house. She also helped Kristy with the dog when they were all in New York.

You could say Mallory has had moments with all of them since she's baby-sat with all of them for her siblings, but I don't know if those all count. The one I would count is when Mary Anne ends up staying over at her house because of the snowstorm. Also, Mal and Claud both took the same art class in New York, Mal and Kristy were the only ones who stayed in Stoneybrook while the others were in Hawaii, and Mal and Stacey both live near each other and Mal helped her unpack when Stacey moved back to Stoneybrook and found that old diary.

[oldhickory]

Aug 9, 2023 13:58:15 GMT -5 fernmariposa919 said:

I cannot come up with any moments Claudia and Mary Anne share together (when they're 13)...but if there's any, please remind me! The only one I can think of is when Claudia gets super angry at her because she overheard Mimi call her "My Mary Anne".

The friendly moment I was thinking of for them is in the same book. When MA is writing all those passive aggressive apology notes but sincerely wants to apologize to Claudia because she knew Claudia didn't deserve it.

[booboobrewer]

Good points, fern. Also Dawn and Stacey share the divorced parents thing and Stacey calls her at one point to talk about it and Dawn gives her some advice. I always liked that bit.

[fernmariposa919]

Aug 10, 2023 0:16:23 GMT -5 booboobrewer said:

Good points, fern. Also Dawn and Stacey share the divorced parents thing and Stacey calls her at one point to talk about it and Dawn gives her some advice. I always liked that bit.

Ah, yes! How could I forget they both have divorced parents? And now I do remember when Stacey talked to Dawn about it. Those two really do have a lot in common! 

[oldmeanie]

I didn't realize how many replies this got!

I like your analysis, fern! I think the early series shows the girls bonding more outside the best friend pairs (Kristy and Abby are an exception, and in the case of Kristy and Mary Anne, they don't hang out much). In the later series, they tend to do things as a group.

I really like how Stacey is on Kristy's side in The Truth About Stacey (in regards to gaining more business, like housework and reduced rates), and how Claudia and Mary Anne were on the other side. That was kind of cool. I love how the early books showed how important the club was to each member other than just telling.

In Claudia and the Bad Joke, it's mentioned that Dawn sometimes stayed over for dinner after meetings. This is never mentioned again. I'm assuming it's because she was so lonely after Jeff left and Sharon was working late a lot. It's kind of a nice tidbit. She also brings Claud junk food in the hospital. I wish their interactions were fleshed out more... those two are pretty interesting.

Mallory and Stacey have the towel code thing... which is driving me crazy, because in my re read, I could not find any mention of it other than Stacey's Ex-Best Friend, and I remembered it being mentioned a lot (this isn't early series, more like mid, but still).

One kind of cool tidbit in a later series book: in Claudia and the World's Cutest Baby, Claud, Stacey, and Abby sneak out of the hotel to go get burgers and are just having a blast. This made me realize that Abby kind of works well with each BSC member. Abby has a lot more in common with Kristy, but I think she's more comfortable with herself.

[booklover85]

Definitely Claudia and Stacey. They were really tight until boys entered the picture at the middle of the series and that friendship crumbled in the Friends Forever series.

I also liked Stacey and Mary Anne's dynamic in the Sea City books and Claudia's interaction with Dawn in Island Adventure.

[oldhickory]

Claudia was a really good friend to everyone. She was unselfish to share her room, food, art supplies, and private phone line with the club. She spent a lot of money on them!

I want to shout out Jessi and Mallory. They got along the best and had the fewest arguments out of all the best friend pairs (I think they needed each other more) and even when the older girls argued, they kept the peace. You can tell they just had good chemistry.

[m0drnmoonlight]

Claudia really was a good friend to everyone. And she could be very levelheaded when she needed to be.

[sparklymouse]

I think that Claudia and Mallory were the best friends to everyone, but I don’t remember them being particularly friendly or close to each other. I just think of the cover of Hello, Mallory with Claudia glaring over her shoulder like a B, lol.

My favorite pair was Claudia and Kristy. They had little in common on paper, but their energy matched well.