“Cool,” said Dawn.
The phone began to ring and we arranged a few sitting jobs. After Mal had finished talking to Mrs. Barrett she said, “Um, Claud, I couldn’t help but notice. Isn’t that Jordan’s Wrinkle-Away? That jar on your dresser next to the — the crow’s feet remover?”
My friends and I began to laugh.
“Okay, okay,” said Claud. “So the kids are good salespeople.”
“How much of their stuff have they gotten rid of?” asked Kristy.
“Just a little,” said Mal. “But they’ve earned back most of their money. They’re good performers, too.”
“Have they bought their yo-yos?” asked Dawn.
Mal nodded. “Yup. And not just my brothers and sisters. So did Matt, Haley, Buddy, Jake, and a few others. They bought the light-up kind, like David Michael’s.”
“Yesterday,” spoke up Jessi, “I was sitting at the Kuhns’ and Jake said something about a neighborhood yo-yo tournament.”
“The next big project,” commented Mary Anne.
“Children,” said Kristy, “are never boring.”
“Another Deep Thought from Kristin Amanda Thomas,” I said.
When the meeting ended a few minutes later, my friends left Claud’s room. Claudia stood at the front door of her house and waved as the rest of us headed for our bicycles (except for Kristy, who headed for Charlie’s car). Then Jessi rode off in one direction, and Mary Anne, Dawn, Mal, and I rode off in another. By the time I reached my driveway, it was almost dark.
Mom was waiting for me at our door.
“Hi!” I called to her. “See you inside!”
I locked my bicycle in the garage and entered our house through the side door.
“Hi, honey,” said Mom.
“Hi. Yum. Dinner smells good. Hey, the dining room table is set. How come?” (We use the dining room only for special or fancy occasions.)
“You’ll see.”
Dinner that night was salad, vegetable stew, and cornbread. Mom and I ate at opposite sides of the table, two lighted candles between us.
“So? Are we celebrating something?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
“You got a job?” I exclaimed. “Is that it? You got a job?”
“Maybe.”
“Mo-om! Tell me. You’re acting like Kristy.”
Mom smiled. “I mean that maybe I got a job. Remember when I was interviewing for the buyer’s job at Bellair’s Department Store?”
“Yeah.”
“And another interview had been scheduled, but I missed it because I was sick?”
“Yeah? … Hey, wait Mom. You didn’t faint during the Bellair’s interview, did you? That’s not where you were when you collapsed, is it? I mean, because I don’t think that would be a very good recommendation for you as a future employee. Fainting on your boss’s floor.”
“No,” said Mom, laughing. “I missed the Bellair’s interview entirely. And later, when I called the woman to tell her what had happened and that I’d be laid up for awhile, I really didn’t expect to hear from her again. But she called while you were at Claudia’s, and she was delighted to hear I’m all well. She set up the interview for Monday, and she even asked me how soon I’d be able to start working.”
“Oh, Mom, that is so fantastic!” I cried. “Hey, find out about the employee discount. I’m sure you get one, even if you aren’t a salesperson.” I raised my glass to Mom. “Congratulations,” I said seriously.
“Thank you,” she replied.
“When are you going to tell Dad?”
“As soon as it’s official…. Speaking of your father, have you talked to him recently, Stace?”
“Me? Well, no.”
“Not since you saw him in New York?”
“No.”
“A lot of time has passed, honey. Maybe you should call him.”
“I guess. I do have something to tell him.”
“What’s that?”
“What I learned when you were sick. I didn’t figure it out at first. But later I realized something about my decision not to make a decision. Remember that? Remember when I thought not choosing between you and Dad would be easier than making a choice? So I decided to please both of you that weekend. Only you know what? That turned out to be even more complicated. I was in a huge rush. I ruined Dad’s evening. I scheduled your Mom-sitters sloppily and they all showed up at once. Then I sent them home and I fell asleep and you had to ask Mrs. Pike to come back. I didn’t even pack well. My outfit got smushed and Dad and I arrived late to the dinner because I had to iron everything.”
“You know, Stacey, Dad and I appreciate that you try to do what’s best,” said Mom, “but don’t always try to please us. Remember to please yourself. I don’t mean you should act selfishly, but don’t forget about Stacey McGill. She’s an important person, too.”
“I know. It’s just that after a divorce, the rules change. I don’t always know what to do. The game is different now.”
“It’s different for your father and me, as well,” said Mom.
I would remember that. When I wrote the Divorce Handbook I would title one of the chapters “Different Rules,” or something like that.
“Well, maybe I will call Dad tonight,” I said finally.
“Good. I know he’ll like that.”
I was going to phone my father right away, but as I was dialing, I got an idea. I stopped dialing. I hung up the phone. I opened my calendar and located my next free weekend. I hoped it was free for Dad, too.
Then I picked up the phone again, only I called Claudia. “Hi,” I said. “Can you help me with something? Could you design a certificate? … No, bigger than that. One you could frame and hang on your wall. I want to make an award for my father. The Fantastic Father Award.”
I had decided to plan an award ceremony all my own for Dad. I would fix him a dinner and make a speech about him and give him the first annual Fantastic Father certificate.
I would be sure to tell him how much I love him.
I dialed a number on the phone. “Hi, Dad?” I said. “It’s me, Stacey.”
* * *
Dear Reader,
In Stacey’s Choice, Stacey once again has to make some tough decisions as a result of her parents’ divorce. Many people have asked me why so many of the members of the Baby-sitters Club have parents who are divorced. When I began writing the series, I wanted to create characters readers could relate to. I remembered that when I was teaching, nearly half the kids in my class came from families in which the parents were divorced. And so Kristy, Dawn, and now Stacey are “divorced kids.”
I frequently hear from both parents and kids who appreciate finding characters like Stacey in the books. Reading about kids who face the same challenges they do makes those challenges easier to face.
Happy reading,
* * *
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.
Cover art by Hodges Soileau
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, October 1992
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyrigh
t 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 978-0-545-69053-9
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