#1 OTP: Mary Anne Misses Logan

I guess you could say my first “OTP” was Mary Anne Spier and Logan Bruno from The Baby-Sitters Club. I wanted to be like Stacey, but I related most to Mary Anne, since I was quiet and shy and unsophisticated, just like her. I always loved the romance between Mary Anne and Logan, and I even remember telling my mom about it when I first read the book where they broke up.

My collection of BSC books are long gone, having gotten water damage in my parents’ garage, but I recently went thrift store shopping and found some BSC books for super cheap. Coincidentally, all of the milestone books for Mary Anne and Logan were available, so I thought it would be fun to re-read them and recap them here, in honor of my first favorite couple.

#46 – Mary Anne Misses Logan

Mary Anne is sitting around missing Logan and thinking about an English assignment where groups of four are going to be randomly assigned and required to study a particular author. The groups are posted on the wall at school, and Mary Anne sees that she is in the group studying Megan Rinehart with two people named Miranda and Pete, along with Logan Bruno himself. She freaks out and cries because it’s going to be so awkward and she thinks Logan hates her.

When their group meets for the first time, Mary Anne and Logan exchange uncomfortable hellos. A teacher comes over with Cokie Mason, who Mary Anne has described as her “mortal enemy,” and says that Cokie wants to switch into their group because Megan Rinehart is the only author she cares about. Mary Anne knows the only thing Cokie cares about is Logan. Miranda jumps at the chance to switch with Cokie, and Mary Anne wants to die. They start talking about the assignment, and when Logan smiles at her, Mary Anne realizes she wants him back. Cokie puts all her attention on Logan and says the author’s name wrong. Dawn confirms that she heard Cokie’s best friend saying Cokie just wants a shot at Logan now that he’s available.

The next group meeting is at Cokie’s house. She fawns all over Logan and ignores the other two. They agree to each read 4 of the author’s books for their project. As Mary Anne is leaving she hears Cokie asking Logan to a movie, and soon enough at school everyone is talking about how Logan and Cokie have gone out several times. They hold the next meeting at Pete’s, where Mary Anne wants to cry because Cokie and Logan sit together and Cokie babbles on about all the things she and Logan have been doing together. They talk more about the project, and Mary Anne gets the feeling that Cokie hasn’t done any of the reading and that Logan hasn’t finished his part. They only have to turn in one paper, so she and Pete might end up doing all the work themselves. She and Pete decide to work together and leave Logan and Cokie out of their future meetings, if the two aren’t going to be any help.

The principal then announces that three authors will be coming to the school for Author Day, and the groups who have those authors will give their projects orally in front of everyone. One of the authors is Megan Rinehart. Pete says that each one of them should read their contributed section. Since Cokie hasn’t started hers and Logan hasn’t finished his, that’s not good news for them. Pete tells Mary Anne that they’ll turn in the complete paper and get a good grade, but Logan and Cokie will be on their own for the presentation, and everyone will be able to tell who put in the work. Mary Anne enjoys the thought of Cokie being embarrassed, but doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Logan.

Logan calls Mary Anne and says that he actually has done his section of the project, but he wants to get together with her to compare notes and make sure he’s on the right track. Mary Anne admits that she and Pete had covered his section for the paper just in case he didn’t do it, and he says he got swept away with Cokie because he misses Mary Anne. They work for hours on rearranging his section to match hers and Pete’s.

At Author Day, Pete, Mary Anne, and Logan read their sections, and then Cokie gets up and reads word-for-word the description that was on the book jacket. They meet Megan Rinehart and get a signed copy of her new book, then Logan asks Mary Anne to have dinner with him as a way for him to say thanks for all her help.

He calls and asks her where she wants to go (which I suppose is an improvement from the days when he was ordering food for her), and Mary Anne tells Dawn that if they get back together, she’d be sure not to let him run her life.

They meet up and say they miss each other. Logan says Cokie means nothing to him, she’s fun but she’s not Mary Anne. He asks her if she’d go out with him again sometime, and they make plans for the following Friday. But Mary Anne is pretty sure they’ll see a lot of each other before then, and he’ll be hanging out by her locker again, and eating lunch together again, and talking on the phone again.

Sure enough, when she gets home, Logan calls and asks what she’s doing the next day. When she says she’s hanging out with Claudia and Dawn, Logan tells her to have fun. As they hang up, she looks down at something she’d been doodling: “MAS + LB 4-Ever.”

Also in the #1 OTP Series:

#10 – Logan Likes Mary Anne

#41 – Mary Anne vs. Logan