BLUE STOOD IN HER BEDROOM, there was a large empty spot on her wall.
She held a folded up pride flag in her hands, the rainbow seemed to be staring her down, begging her to put it up.
But she knew she couldn't.
She wasn't out to her family, she didn't even know whether or not they were homophobic, and she didn't know how to bring it up.
Blue was brought out of her trance by a sudden knocking at her door.
Panicked, she quickly tossed the rainbow flag underneath the bed, but she was unaware of a corner that hung out.
Eddie entered the room, "Hey, I've got the car ready. You ready to go?"
Blue nodded rapidly, her arms were crossed over the rainbow flag on her shirt.
"Yeah, I've just gotta grab my jacket," Blue explained.
"Cool. Just meet us outside."
And with that, Eddie left her room.
Blue quickly grabbed her black parka and zipped it up, but only a little bit, just enough the cover the rainbow on her shirt.
She started to pick at her acrylic nails as her heart slightly raced, "It's ok," Blue told herself, running her hands through her hair.
She looked at herself in the mirror, "They won't find out."
BLUE ENTERED CLAUDIA'S ROOM WITH a fake smile plastered on her face. Nobody knew the difference.
The girls were looking through a bunch of photos.
"Wait, Dawn, is this you?" Kristy asked.
"Yeah," Dawn said simply.
Blue walked over and sat down next to Dawn on the floor.
"You look great," Kristy complimented.
"Thanks, Kristy," Dawn replied.
Blue leaned her head on Dawn's shoulder.
Suddenly Mary Anne's phone beeped.
"Logan just texted, he said, "playing", then ramen emoji?" Mary Anne announced, a bit confused.
"Ooh, boy code, let's analyze," Stacey suggested, leaning over to see.
"I'm pretty sure it means he's playing Minecraft, then eating--"
Blue cut her off by rushing over and ripping the phone out of her hand.
"Mary Anne, it's never literal. I would know. I live with Eddie the most masculine man to ever walk the planet, and Enya shaves so unfrequently she could be mistaken for a boy," Blue interrupted.
"Hey! Women shouldn't have to shave just to meet today's misogynistic beauty standards--" Dawn started to rant, but Blue cut her off by planting a soft peck on her lips.
"You, stop talking, we'll get into the stupid, uneducated thing I said, later," Blue added.
"Ooh. Look at you. All on top of everything. You've been on fire this week," Kristy mentioned.
Suddenly Jessi entered, running, "Made it! Sorry."
Blue passed Mary Anne's phone to Stacey, "You, analyze."
Suddenly an alarm went off on Kristy's phone and she got up, for god knows what reason.
Blue plopped down in between Dawn and Jessi.
"You ok? You seem...off," Dawn asked.
"I'm fine," Blue lied.
Jessi picked up a picture of Dawn, Stacey, Mallory, and Blue laughing.
"When was this? You guys look cute."
"Last week. It was magic hour, so I did an impromptu shoot on the way back from the pizza place," Claudia explained.
"You were at ballet," Mallory said to Jessi.
"Well, it looks like you guys had fun," said Jessi.
Kristy put on her iconic visor.
"This meeting is officially in session."
Everyone picked up their things and sat down, Blue and Dawn sat on Claudia's bed with Mallory.
"Now, first order of business, my mom said there's this big town hall meeting in a couple of weeks. They're discussing adding a stop sign on Edgarstone and Kimball," Kristy announced.
"Finally!" Dawn, Jessi, and Blue all exclaimed in unison.
"Jinx! Jinx-lock, can't talk," Blue said quickly, crossing her arms in satisfaction.
"You are a child," Dawn muttered.
"Anyway, all the adults in that neighborhood are going to the meeting and they'll all need sitters for the whole afternoon, so I figured we could plan something fun for the kids and offer a special, discounted group rate," Kristy proposed.
"Supporting community engagement--" Dawn started.
"And special events services. I love it," Stacey cut her off.
"Right? Mary Anne and I counted up all the kids in that general area and we came up with 12. We can watch 12 kids. 1 or 2 for each sitter. Without Jessi, of course," Kristy explained.
The phone began ringing and Stacey picked it up.
"Wait, why without Jessi? Why am I not being counted?" Jessi asked.
"Oh, because you're unavail," said Kristy.
"You gave me all your dance conflicts when you enrolled at your new school. Your winter dance recital is that night," Mary Anne elaborated, turning the iPad around so Jessi could see.
"Wait until you guys see Jessi dance. I cried when she was in The Nutcracker," Mallory admitted.
"What time's the show? Maybe we can do both," Dawn asked.
"Oh, don't worry about it. It's all the way in Stamford and I don't even have a part yet," said Jessi.
"Jessi, we're going to that show, one way or another. Even if we have to cram us, and 12 children into 2 cars like freaking circus clowns," Blue insisted, still keeping up her "optimistic" front.
"You'll get a part. You're gonna be the star. I know it," Mallory encouraged her friend.
"Please hold. Guys, Derek Masters' dad is on the phone. Derek needs a sitter every Thursday for the next few weeks," Stacey explained excitedly.
"Wait, TikTok "Derek The Superbrat" Derek Masters?" Jessi questioned.
"Oh my god. He is the most followed TikTokker under 10," Mallory added.
"I always thought he kind of looked like a young Elijah," Blue brought up.
"He's from Stoneybrook?" Dawn asked.
"When he's in town. He used to be friends with the triplets back in the day," Mallory explained.
"Claudia, you're free. Oh, and Jessi too! No ballet on Thursdays." Mary Anne cheered once she got to Jessi.
"I'm free? I'll take it! Can I take it? Do you mind?"
"No. Take it," Claudia answered.
Blue fake-smiled yet again and rested her head on Dawn's shoulder.
Suddenly her palms began to hurt, like something had pierced through the skin.
She looked down to see that her fists were clenched.
Blue's heart began to speed up, and not in a good way.
"I-i gotta use the bathroom," Blue excused herself as she quickly exited the room.
Once Blue got to the bathroom she unclenched her fists and looked down to see that her nails had gone through the skin.
"S-sh-shit!" Blue stuttered as she leaned over the sink, breathing heavily.
"You're ok. You're ok," Blue whispered to herself as she applied pressure to her right palm with a towel.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, "Hey, Blue, are you ok?" Stacey asked from the other side.
"Y-yeah. Fine," she lied.
"You sure?" Dawn asked her from outside.
"Yeah!" she called.
Blue's heartbeat only sped up more.
"What's happening to me?" Blue whispered, it was more like a breath.
BLUE LAID DOWN IN HER bed trying to do her homework from that day, but struggling a lot.
She sat in a jumble of different papers and books on her bed, and as the hours went by she got more and more frustrated.
She had been stuck on the same question on all of her assignments, so she couldn't just start a new one.
Next thing she knew, Blue was sitting with her head in her hands on the verge of frustrated tears.
She didn't know what was happening to her.
Normally she flew through her homework within an hour, stayed up as long as she wanted, and still felt completely fresh in the morning. Life was amazing. Life was simple. Life was a party.
But now, life didn't feel like such a party after all.
Blue fidgeted as the tears started to stream down her face.
"What is happening to me?"
LATER THAT WEEK, THE BSC was at their meeting, discussing possible options for the group-babysit.
"So the nature scavenger hunt might work, but...Hey, Stace, do you think poison ivy still grows in winter?" Kristy asked.
Everyone began laughing.
"Too soon, Kristy," Stacey said in monotone.
"Still! God," Stacey exclaimed.
"What about the movies? What's wrong with the movies? It's fun and it's warm," Claudia suggested.
"It's also screen time," Kristy mentioned, writing on her large whiteboard.
"Ok, but what if we did like an educational talk-back at the end? About what we thought worked and what didn't," Stacey suggested.
"Oh, yeah. And we could get the kids to figure out, like, how much a single Sour Patch Kid costs depending on the price of the box and other boring math stuff," Claudia added.
"I'll help with the math," said Stacey as the entire club began to laugh.
"Mary Anne, see what's opening and check for available showtimes. Blue, help with the money-managing," Kristy instructed.
"Showtimes. That reminds me. Jessi, how'd it go with the recital?" Mary Anne asked.
Jessi was silent.
"She got the lead!" Mallory answered for her.
The entire club began to cheer and gush at Jessi's success.
In the eyes of the club, she was a true star.
BLUE AND KRISTY STOOD OUTSIDE the Master's house, Kristy had gotten a call about something with Jessi and wanted Blue as backup.
Kristy rang their doorbell and it made a buzzing noise.
"Hello?"
"Kristy Thomas here. Founder and president of the babysitter's club. Accompanied by fundraising officer, Blue Scout."
Blue fiddled with her fingers, "Are you sure this is gonna work?"
"It has to."
"MAKE AS MUCH CONTENT AS you want, Mr. Masters. Obviously you and Derek have a good thing going here," Kristy started.
The girls were talking with Mr. Masters.
"But our thing is babysitting. Not filming videos. When Jessi, or any other sitter, is here, Derek is just like any other kid we babysit. Hope you understand," Blue added.
"It's just a lot. You know, doing this on my own, worrying about Derek. His career. The future," Chaz explained.
"I get it. I was raised by a single mother. But, uh, don't get short with our babysitters, ok?" said Kristy.
Chaz nodded, "Yeah."
Suddenly Kristy's phone went off, "Oh, sorry. It's my work line."
"Please. I understand," he added.
Blue lightly tapped her fingers against the counter.
They looked up and Chaz was holding 3 mason jars.
"Want to try some homemade ice cream?"
THE BSC AND THE 12 kids were all at Jessi's ballet show, waiting for her to come out from backstage.
When she did everyone began cheering in excitement.
The little kids all began to hand Jessi an assortment of colorful, fake flowers made of tissue paper.
"Charlotte, thank you! Myriah I love purple!" Jessi gushed as the kids handed her their gifts.
Blue smiled at her friend and leaned her head on Dawn's shoulder.
"Don't get mad. I know you didn't want us to come, but I thought--" Mary Anne was cut off.
"You were amazing! Serious balanchine vibes," Stacey cheered.
"The way you were the icicle, chills. Literal and figurative," Dawn complimented, making everyone laugh.
"Jessi, you're a star," Blue said with a smile.
"Thank you, guys," said Jessi. She then noticed Mallory was starting to cry, "Mal, don't cry," Jessi hugged Mallory.
"Um, I have many, many gushing points about what an unbelievable athlete you are, but the children are scattering," Kristy brought up.
Everyone went around to try and gather up the kids.
After talking to Derek, the entire club enveloped Jessi into a large group hug.
It was an amazing moment.
"Ok, Stoneybrook Group, follow me!" Jessi's dad announced, gesturing for everyone to follow.
EVERYONE SAT AT A LARGE table at a milkshake place, the girls smiled as Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey handed everyone their ice cream.
Blue gave Dawn a large side hug and kissed her forehead, making Dawn giggle at her.
"Let's get a picture," Derek suggested from the end of the table.
He pulled out a large selfie stick with his phone attached.
"Did you have that with you the whole time?" Jessi asked.
"You know it."
"Duh! He's Derek Masters. Get with the times, Jessi," Blue joked with a fake eyeroll, making the entire group laugh.
Everyone smiled.
"Ok, 1, 2, 3..."
The camera snapped the picture.
It was a picture-perfect moment.
Well...almost.
It was at that moment that Kristy realized, something seemed different in her friend's eyes.
Something very different.
2048 words
A/N: i am ON FIRE with these cliffhangers
also...IT IS NOT POSSIBLE...LEILA UPDATED TWICE IN THE SAME WEEK...
*LE GASP* *sirens in the air* *the fbi opens up* *all the bees die out from SHOCK*