I cleared my throat.
"Mama, Daddy?" I said.
"Yes?" Daddy answered.
I had rehearsed a whole speech, thinking of just the way I wanted to present my idea, but suddenly I couldn't remember what I had planned to say.
"I was talking to Derek," I said.
Becca dropped her fork. I think she figured she was about to get more information about Lamont. Sorry, Becca, no such luck.
"Well," I stumbled on, "Derek suggested that I move out to L.A." "Move to L.A.?" Now it was Mama's turn to drop her fork.
"I mean, I don't want to go to L.A.," I said quickly. "But Derek suggested I come to L.A. so I could do some modeling or get on commercials. Anyway, that made me think. I might be able to do that here, the way Derek did before he got on TV. There are some modeling and talent agencies in Stamford, and I think they do local commercials and some newspaper and magazine ads." I pulled out the list of numbers I had taken down and passed it to Mama.
"I was thinking of calling them," I said, "to see if they might be interested in me, but, of course, I wanted to check with you first." Mama looked at Daddy. He was already looking at her. Squirt smashed his spoon into his mashed potatoes.
"Po-po!" he cried.
Mama handed the list over to Daddy and he looked it over, too. For the longest time, I thought no one was going to say anything.
"Why do you think you want to do this?" Daddy asked.
I wasn't prepared for that question.
"I don't know," I said. "I just do." "You've got quite a full schedule already with ballet class and the Baby-sitters Club," Mama said.
"And who knows, you may have a full Swan Lake rehearsal schedule coming up," Daddy added.
"I'm probably not going to get into that," I mumbled.
Daddy shot a look at Mama. "Are you nervous about Swan Lake?" he asked.
"I'm not nervous," I said. "I just don't care anymore." "Mmm-hmm," Daddy said. He didn't sound like he believed me.
"Well," I said, "maybe I do care, but I'll tell you, this audition process is driving me crazy. And after I go through all this, I'm probably not going to make it anyway. So it seems to me that I might as well branch out, get some other kinds of work. Modeling can't be as nerve-racking as ballet. I mean, all you have to do is stand there and smile, right?" Mama wiped mashed potatoes off of Squirt's cheeks and chin.
"Well, if you want to look into this," she said, "I don't see why you shouldn't. Why don't you go ahead and make some phone calls. You can find out some more information, and then we'll talk again." "As long as it's limited to Stamford," Daddy added.
"Right," Mama agreed. "That's as far as this chauffeur service goes." "Really?" I jumped up from the table. "I can call?" "Well, not right now," said Daddy, laughing. "I think agencies are closed this time of night, and besides, you've got a plateful of dinner to eat." "Oh. Right," I said.
I sat back down at the table and poked at the food on my plate. Becca was still staring at me. Her mouth was gaping and she hadn't yet picked up her fork.
"You mean you're going to be a TV star, too?" she said.
"Tee-vee!" Squirt cried.
Daddy, Mama, and I just laughed.
Chapter 12.
By midweek, party plans were in full swing. I had made a couple of secret calls to Mrs. Masters to clear the date with her and make sure that she could get Derek and Todd to the party on time. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Masters thought that the party was a great idea.
"We're very touched that you girls have spent so much time helping Derek readjust," she said. "I don't know how he would have done it without you." I was practically beaming on the other end of the phone. It's true, I thought. The Babysitters Club is special that way.
That Wednesday I was scheduled for another sitting job at the Masterses'. Before Mrs. Masters left to go out that day, she wanted to offer some last-minute help with the party. Of course, that was not the easiest thing to do with Derek standing right there, but she managed to get the information across anyway.
It was a funny exchange. First she winked at me. "Tell your mother I have those bowls she wanted," she said. She emphasized the word "bowls" as if it had great significance.
"Bowls?" I asked blankly. I didn't get what she was talking about.
Mrs. Masters winked again, this time more obviously.
"You know what I'm talking about. Those disposable picnic bowls and those plastic spoons?" she said. "Your mother had called me up and asked me where to get them. Well, I happened to go to the store myself and bought plenty. More than enough. So tell your mother I'll give them to her." "Oh," I caught on. "Bowls." Derek gave us an odd look. I guess it was obvious something was going on.
"And do you think your mother would like, maybe, some bagels and cream cheese?" Mrs. Masters asked. "I could bring over some of those, too." "Bagels and cream cheese?" I considered that. "I think my mother would love bagels and cream cheese. That's a great idea. She could have them Saturday morning with her breakfast." "And does she need milk?" asked Mrs. Masters.
Derek looked from his mother to me.
"Is your mother sick or something?" he asked.
"Who? My mother?" I said guiltily. "No, she's fine. Why?" "Oh," Derek looked puzzled. "It just sounds like she can't get to the store by herself or something." "Oh, you know how mothers are," Mrs. Masters said airily. "Sometimes they like to have milk with their bagels." It wasn't quite an answer and it didn't make much sense, but Mrs. Masters gave me a last wink and breezed out the door.
"You two sound cuckoo," said Derek.
"Cuckoo," Todd echoed. "Let's play cuckoo bird." Since neither Derek nor I knew any game called "cuckoo bird," and the truth was Todd probably didn't, either, we decided to play Chinese checkers instead.
While we were setting up the board, Derek asked me about Swan Lake.
"Are you excited about the last audition?" he asked.
"Not really," I answered. "I'm not thinking about it much." "Why not?" asked Derek.
"I'm just not," I said. I wanted to change the subject. "But I am thinking about starting modeling like you suggested. And I do want to ask you some questions about how you got started here in Stamford." "Okay," Derek said.
I had plenty of questions and Derek had plenty of answers. He told me the names of some people I might call and what to expect if I went in to talk with them.
"The agents'll take you through it step by step," he said. "They'll tell you what kind of work you'd be good for, and they'll even set you up with a photographer if you want." "A photographer?" I asked.
"For head shots and things like that.5" "Is that expensive?" "Yeah, but you make the money back on your first job." "Right," I said. This was sounding a little complicated, but Derek didn't think so. He was just getting started.
"First they'll probably get you newspaper work and then magazines and then commercials. And then you'll probably land a TV series, just like me." "Right." I laughed.
"That'll be great!" Derek was serious. "Then you'll have to move out to L.A. You could stay at my house as long as you want. I'm sure Mom won't care. You could be sort of like a sister." "Then you could baby-sit for us all the time!" Todd cried out.
"She might not have time to baby-sit," Derek said seriously. "Once she's got the TV series, she'll be taping all day." Todd's face fell.
"Couldn't you baby-sit just sometimes?" he asked.
I gave him a hug.
"Sure," I said. "But don't count on my coming out to L.A. any time soon. Maybe when I'm older and out of school or something. Right now I think I'll just try to get some work in Stamford." Derek jumped one of his Chinese-checker marbles over three of mine.
"Gotcha!" he said.
I guess I hadn't been paying much attention to the game. My head had been spinning with all these new show biz plans. Forget ballet, I was thinking. Being famous and on a TV series was starting to sound like a lot more fun.
I stretched my legs out on either side of me on the floor.
&nb
sp; "Oh, yeah. Don't forget to tell these agents that you're a ballerina," Derek reminded me. "That's a real plus." "A ballerina," I said vaguely. "Yeah." After the sitting job (Derek creamed me three times at Chinese checkers and even Todd beat me once), I did my usual sprint over to Claudia's house for the Wednesday meeting, which again turned into mpre of a planning session for the party.
Claudia had the invitations she had made spread out all over the floor. Everybody was crowded around them, ooh-ing and ah-ing. The invitations were very clever. Claudia had cut the cards into the shape of TV sets and she had drawn a picture of a cereal commercial on the screens.
"Start your day the party way," she had written on the inside. And then she listed all the necessary information. Since there was still work to be done on the invitations, Mary Anne and Dawn helped Claudia write out the in-sides, and Kristy and Mallory got busy copying onto envelopes names and addresses from the class list Mallory had brought.
I looked over Mallory's shoulder and scanned down the list of names. "Ricky, Betsy, Amy, Tommy," it read. I looked down the names again. There was no one named John.
"Hey," I said, picking up the list. "How come the Superbrat isn't on here?" "Oh, yeah," said Mallory. "I tried to call you. When I asked Nicky about John, he looked completely confused. He said there's no kid by that name in the class." "No John?" I said. "There's gotta be." "I told him it was the kid who was the Superbrat. I mean, I didn't use that word, but I said the kid who was really bothering Derek." "Well, what'd Nicky say?" "He didn't know what I was talking about. He said all the boys had been bothering Derek for awhile, but that had pretty much stopped and that Derek has a lot of friends now." "Hmm," I said. I tried to think back on what Derek had told me. "Maybe he never actually said that John was in his class. Maybe John is from a different class or even from an older grade." "That could be it," said Mallory.
Since my friends had grabbed up all the invitations and there was nothing much for me to do, I stationed myself by the phone and took calls. In between calls, I placed my leg up on Claudia's bed to stretch it out. Without knowing I was doing it, I started humming the music from Swan Lake.
Mallory looked over and smiled.
"Practicing to be a swan?" she asked.
"Hmm?" She jolted me away from my thoughts. "Me? No," I said. "Actually, I was thinking of some calls I have to make. Derek gave me a lot of new tips." Around me, my friends worked away on the invitations, and though I half listened to their conversation, I wasn't fully in the room. In my mind, I was somewhere in Stamford, in a. fancy agent's office. A box of glossy head shots was at my side and the agent was handing me a contract.
"I'll make you a star, kid," he was saying. He lit a cigar and slapped me on the back. "You've got the face. We'll plaster your picture in every magazine across the country." My face. In every magazine across the country. I heaved a big sigh. I probably wouldn't even have time to be in Swan Lake.
Chapter 13.
Party day! Saturday arrived quickly. Well, "quickly" might be putting it mildly. Actually, it arrived like a runaway train. There were lots of last-minute plans to get straight, and everybody in the club was calling everybody else.
Mallory called Kristy about the guest list.
"Nicky says that most of the kids are going to be able to come. Do you think we need another few cartons of juice?" Kristy called Mary Anne about the benches.
"We'll push the picnic tables together and borrow some more from the neighbors, but we're short five chairs. Can you bring some of those folding ones?" Even as late as Saturday morning, the phone calls were still going strong. On her way to the party, Claudia called Kristy from the doughnut shop.
"Do you think kids like chocolate doughnuts better than coconut?" she asked.
"Who cares, Claudia?" Kristy snapped. I guess Kristy had plenty to think about already. "Get them all. Get an assortment!" For my part, I had set my alarm for very early that morning. The day was going to be a big one for me. I not only had the party in the morning, I had my final audition (yipes!) right after. I slipped down to my barre in the basement to wake up my sleepy and very tight muscles. Mmmmm. It always feels so good to get stretched out.
That morning I would've liked to have had a long time at the barre, but I did have to get to the party early, and that left time pretty scrunched up. Mama had promised to pick me up after the party and get me to the audition early so I could do a real warm-up there. (Thank you, Mama.) That morning I had just enough time to throw my toe shoes, leg warmers, and leotard into my dance bag and gather up all the party supplies I had promised to bring. I called Becca (of course, she was invited to the party, too) and hoisted my bags into my arms. Mr. Spier pulled into the driveway with Mary Anne to give us a ride to the party. I hurried out to the car and dropped my bags onto the backseat.
"Did you remember to bring your - ?" Mary Anne didn't even have to finish the sentence.
"Oh, no!" I cried. "Just a minute, okay?" I raced back into the house, up to my room, and grabbed my bathrobe off its hook.
That's right. My bathrobe. This was a goofy idea Kristy had had, and it seemed so silly, we all thought it was great. Her idea was that since it was a breakfast party, all the members of the club should wear bathrobes over their clothes. Since we'd be keeping our eye on so many kids, and since we didn't know a lot of them to begin with, the bathrobes would be kind of like a uniform, and the kids would at least know who was in charge. Kristy had wanted us to go even further with the joke and have us all wear curlers in our hair, too, but Mary Anne and Claudia vetoed that idea right away. I think neither of them wanted to be seen in curlers in public, and the truth was, neither did I.
"Bathrobes are funny enough," Claudia had said.
"How about if we just wear curler caps, then?" Kristy had suggested.
Maybe the party plans had started to get to her.
"Kristy," Claudia said firmly, "this is a good-bye party, not a Halloween party." "Right," Kristy had said.
By the time Mary Anne, Becca, and I arrived at Kristy's house that morning, all the other club members were there. They were throwing paper tablecloths over the picnic tables and setting the places with plates, bowls, and cups.
Mallory was busy farther back in the yard, setting up the one game we had planned. To fit in with the "Good Morning" theme, we had come up with a funny idea for a relay race. The teams of kids would line up and, to start the race, we were going to set off an alarm clock. Each runner had to put on a pair of pants, drink a cup of imaginary juice (we thought it might be dangerous to use real juice since someone might choke), run a comb through his or her hair, grab a book bag, and run to pass the book bag to a teammate across the yard.
Not to sound conceited, but the whole idea for the relay was mine. That's exactly how I feel every morning, like getting ready for school is a relay race. But I can't take all the credit. Mallory was the one who had the idea for the prizes. She had spent the whole morn- ing fishing those little prize packages out of all our cereal boxes. Every kid on the winning team would get one.
Soon the kids began arriving. Of course, we had told them to get there ahead of time so that when Derek arrived, everyone would be gathered for the surprise. The yard started filling up. We club members scattered ourselves around to talk to the kids and keep some kind of general order. The back door opened and Kristy's sister Karen came out to join us. Oh no. She was wearing her "Getting to Be Stars" costume - high heels, gloves, hat, and all. Kristy rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
"You're going to wear that for the relay race?" she asked.
"I have to wear it so Derek'll notice me," Karen answered. "It shows I'm a star." She started across the yard to the picnic tables, her heels sinking into the sod with each step.
I'll tell you, maybe Claudia was wrong. Between Karen in her getup and all of us babysitters in our bathrobes, that party might as well have been for Halloween.
Inside, the kitchen phone rang. Kristy's mom answered it and came to the door to call me.
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"Jessi," she said, "it's Mrs. Masters." Everyone in the yard let out a little gasp. We were all getting excited. The surprise is always the most fun part.
Mrs. Masters was ready to bring Derek and Todd over and was calling to warn us. She and her husband had told the boys that they were going shopping to buy clothes before the move back to California.
"Coast clear?" Mrs. Masters asked.
"Bring them over," I said. "We're ready and waiting." The time between the phone call and their arrival seemed like ten years. The kids started to get really giddy. To tell the truth, so did I. Finally, we heard a car pull into the front drive. Everyone started shushing everyone else. The back door opened again. I heard Mrs. Masters talking to Kristy's mom. Then Mrs. Masters called Derek and Todd.
"Come on, boys," she said. "I promise, we'll head out for the mall in a minute. But before we go I just want to show you something." Derek stepped out of the house and into the yard.
"Surprise!" we all yelled.
He stood there, frozen to the spot. But he didn't have time to be shocked for long, because in a few seconds we were all crowded around him, laughing and talking.
"Were you surprised?" "Your whole class is here." "Did you suspect anything?" "Okay, let's break out the cereal!" That last cry was from Kristy. She rounded up all the kids and herded them to the tables. The rest of us busied ourselves passing around food.
The kid next to me put three doughnuts on his plate and nothing else - no bagels, no Cheerios, and certainly no fruit slices.
"Hey, Claudia!" I yelled across the tables. "You've got a friend over here!" We were all laughing and joking and having a good time.
Derek was sitting at the table with me. Across from him were his mom, his dad, and Todd, and next to him were Nicky and some of the other boys. It was great for me to watch him just sitting and talking like a regular kid with his new friends. It was a happy ending, all right. Or, who knows, maybe some kind of beginning, too. I was still curious about John and what had happened with that, but I knew I'd have to wait until sometime when Derek and I were alone to ask him about it. It was clear I wasn't going to get him alone at this party.
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