Mary Anne made Logan go up to the stage with her to pick up her little plastic trophy. As Pete handed it to her, he said, “I guess this means that we won’t be able to deploy the Jell-O Launcher after all.” Mary Anne blushed so hard that I could see her red face from the back of the auditorium.
Finally all the awards had been given out. But Pete announced that there was one more award to present. “As you know, we try not to be serious on Awards Night,” he said. “But just this once we’re going to be. One of our classmates was responsible for doing something very special recently, and we’d like to acknowledge her for it. If she hadn’t spent so much time organizing people and sticking to the search, a little boy might still be lost. Kristy Thomas, come and get your award!”
I was shocked. My friends were looking at me and grinning. I glanced at Bart, and he leaned over and kissed me — in front of everybody! “You’re terrific, Kristy,” he said. “Go on up there.”
I walked to the stage, feeling like I was dreaming. I took the plaque from Alan, and stood there while everybody clapped. “Thank you,” I said, finally. “This means a lot. But it’s not just mine — I have to share it with everybody who helped with the search. Thanks to them — and especially to a boy named Matt Braddock — Jake is home safe.” I wiped my eyes and smiled. I guess Mary Anne’s not the only one who loves a happy ending.
The author gratefully acknowledges
Ellen Miles
for her help in
preparing this manuscript.
About the Author
ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.
There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.)In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.
Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.
Copyright © 1992 by Ann M. Martin.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition, May 1992
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-69061-4
Kristy and the Missing Child Page 9
