Baby-Sitters Club 031
Page 8
"Sure they were," I said soothingly.
"No, really. They were. Anyway, this is just more proof. Jared took them back. Dawn, I swear, I can't be in this room. At least not at night. Will you help me move my stuff into the guest room?" "Of course," I replied.
Mary Anne and I began lugging her furniture into the other room. It wasn't easy, but we worked quickly anyway. And every now and then, as we were hefting up a chair or dragging her desk through the hall, we would look at each other and smile.
We smiled because we were both relieved - and not just that the "haunting" was over. We were relieved that we were each going to get our own space without having to admit that we couldn't share a room. I was sorry I'd scared Mary Anne so badly, but I knew I'd done the right thing. And when Mom and Richard came home they would convince Mary Anne that there was no ghost, and that her imagination was just working overtime. Eventually, she would believe them and forget the whole incident.
When most of Mary Anne's stuff had been moved out of my room, I said, "Mary Anne, I've got something for you." It was my "now-we're-sisters" present, which I had bought and had been saving until Mary Anne and I felt more like sisters. It was a little pin in the shape of a cat. I knew Mary Anne had seen one once and liked it.
Of course, Mary Anne cried when she opened it. But that was okay. I wouldn't expect anything else from my sister.
Chapter 15.
Claudia, for heaven's sake. What are you doing?" I exclaimed.
It was 5:20 on a Friday afternoon. Mary Anne and I had just arrived at BSC headquarters for a meeting. Claudia was the only other person there. She was standing on her head, leaning against the wall. Her face was beet-red.
"I'm trying to get smarter," she said.
At least I was pretty sure that was what she'd said. It was hard to understand her with her long hair puddled around her head.
"You're trying to get smarter?" repeated Mary Anne incredulously.
"Mm-hmm. I heard that if you stand on your head, all your blood rushes to your brain and feeds the cells there. I figure I need all the brain food I can get. I have an English test on Monday." "Don't you think studying would help?" I asked.
Mary Anne nudged me. We were having trouble keeping straight faces.
From behind us a third voice spoke up. It was Kristy, who had just arrived. "I wonder ..." she said tantalizingly.
I just knew she was waiting for someone to ask her what she was wondering about. So I obliged her. "What do you wonder?" I asked.
"Well, I've spent nearly all day sitting down," she replied, "so you can imagine where my blood has settled. I must have the smartest - " "Kristy!" shrieked Mary Anne, and we began to laugh.
Claudia laughed so hard she fell over. When she stood up, she swayed back and forth a little.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm fine. Just light-headed. Is this how it feels to be a genius?" "NO!" shouted Janine from her room.
Claudia rolled her eyes. Then she began rooting around her room - under her bed, under chairs, in boxes, in her desk drawer. At last she came up with a bag of Tootsie Rolls and a box of pretzel sticks.
We settled into our usual places. Kristy put on her visor and stuck the pencil over her ear. We ate and talked. At 5:25 Jessi and Mal arrived, and at 5:29, Stacey ran in.
"Oh, goody," said Kristy. "We're all here." "But we still have one minute before the meeting starts," said Mary Anne, "and I would like to say that - " "Five-thirty!" cried Kristy as Claud's digital clock changed. "Come to order, please, everyone!" "Darn," said Mary Anne.
"Don't worry," Kristy told her. "As soon as the official business is over, you can tell us whatever it is - as long as we're between phone calls." "Okay," said Mary Anne.
Mary Anne and I were sitting next to each other on Claud's bed. It had been four days since I had scared her with the ghost of Jared Mullray. Mary Anne had been sleeping in the guest room ever since. Also, we had been getting along better ever since. It wasn't like the time Mary Anne had slept in the guest room and not spoken to me. When she had moved out then she'd been angry. This time she'd moved out because of the secret passage. Also, all of her belongings were in the guest room, so it didn't feel like the guest room anymore. It felt like her own room. Furthermore, everyone - Mom, Richard, Mary Anne, and I - had been making an effort to work things out better.
One night, much to my surprise, Richard had said stiffly at dinner, "Ahem, ahem. . . . I have a suggestion." "What is it?" asked Mom. She looked puzzled.
"I've been thinking about . . . about how the four of us have been getting along lately." Immediately, Mary Anne and I stared at our hands. While she and I didn't squabble over the room anymore, we'd had a few other squabbles - with each other, with Mom, with Richard. And Mom and Richard were having their share of squabbles. Most of the arguing was over cleaning, cooking, and how neat or messy the house was.
"I propose," Richard went on, "that we make a list of the chores that need to get done around here, decide who's going to do what when, enter those things on a chart - and stick to the chart." Mary Anne and I looked at Mom to see her reaction. Keeping a chore chart was completely against her nature, so I was pretty surprised when she said, "Okay, I agree. But I have something to say about meals in this house." "Fair enough," said Richard.
"I propose," Mom began, "that each weekend, Dawn and I will cook the kinds of foods we like - enough for a week - and you and Mary Anne will cook the kinds of foods you like - enough for a week. Then at dinner each night there won't be any more forcing you to eat tofu or us to eat meat. Ordinarily, I don't like the idea of two different menus for one meal, but I don't see any way around this. Our eating habits are radically different and no one wants to change." Richard looked at Mary Anne.
I looked at Mom.
"Okay," said Richard, Mary Anne, and I at once.
"Good," said Mom in a businesslike way, but I could see she was pleased.
"I - I have one more suggestion," I spoke up timidly. I couldn't believe what I was about to say.
"Yes?" said Mom encouragingly.
"I think we should all be more honest with each other. We should stop trying to please each other so much. We're going along with things we don't like or believe in, or with things that annoy us - just to please each other. And it isn't working." "What do you mean?" asked Richard gently.
"I mean, well, Mom hates bacon, Richard, but you always serve it to her at breakfast and she always says she likes what you serve. And Mary Anne, you can't stand the way my mom cleans, but instead of telling that to her, you just clean up after her. And I knew, and so did Mary Anne, that we shouldn't be sharing a room. But we kept forcing ourselves to try to make it work." (I almost let the cat out of the bag about the ghost just then, but luckily, I kept my mouth shut. Mary Anne would be mortified if she knew what I'd done, and I didn't want to hurt her.) Anyway, after my outburst we were quiet for a moment or two. Then Richard said slowly, "You know, I think that's a good idea." "Are you sure you aren't just saying that to please me?" I teased.
Richard laughed. Then Mom and Mary Anne laughed, too, and finally I joined in. Thank goodness, I thought. What if Richard hadn't taken that as a joke?
After that evening, things got better quickly. We really did make up a list of chores (and we stuck to it), and we really did start being more honest with each other.
"Dawn? Dawn?" I shook myself. I'd been daydreaming - not a great thing to do during a club meeting. Kristy expects us to pay attention.
"Yes?" I said, frantically trying to figure out what had been going on.
"I said," said Mary Anne, "that Dad sold our old house, right?" "Yup," I replied. "Well, almost. He signs the papers next week." "Who's going to move in?" asked Kristy excitedly. "Future baby-sitting clients? That would be great." "I think so," replied Mary Anne. "Dad said a family, didn't he, Dawn?" I nodded.
"But he wasn't sure of the ages of the kids. He did say, though, that they're foreign." "Foreign!" cried Stacey. "Oh, cool! Whe
re are they from?" Mary Anne and I glanced at each other.
"Austria?" I said. "The real estate agent was fuzzy on the details." "Oh. Well, anyway, this is really exciting!" exclaimed Claudia.
"Yeah," agreed the rest of us.
"It would be fun to teach the kids English," added Jessi.
The phone rang then. It was Mrs. Pike needing two sitters for the following Saturday. After we'd lined up Mal and Stacey, I said, "So the Pike Plague is really over, Mal?" "Yes," said Mallory with a sigh of relief. "Really and truly. All us kids are back in school, Mom's on her feet, and Dad can use his hand again. He's going to have a scar, though." "Boy, you were lucky not to be left with any chicken pox scars," Kristy said to Mal. Then she added, "You are unscarred, aren't you?" "For the most part," mumbled Mal, glancing at Jessi.
Jessi started to laugh.
"Okay," said Kristy. "Out with it. Where are your scars?" "In unmentionable places," was all Mal would reply.
Not long after that, the meeting broke up. Mary Anne and I rode our bikes home. Mary Anne was all excited because, just as the meeting had ended, Claud had said, "Mary Anne, we've got to start thinking about redoing your room. We've got to give it a little character. We've got to make your room say, 'Mary Anne Spier lives here.' " " 'Mary Anne Spier lives here,' " Mary Anne repeated to me. "What would make the room say that?" We talked about wallpaper and posters and throw rugs and things until we reached our house. Then we parked our bikes and headed inside.
"I wonder what Mom's doing home at this hour," I said as we passed her car in the driveway. "I hope nothing's wrong." Nothing was. Mom had just finished up early at the office. But what a surprise Mary Anne and I had when we walked into the den after we'd called hi to her. We found Tigger curled up in her lap. He was purring loudly, his eyes half closed.
My mom was reading a book and looking a little sheepish.
"I don't believe it!" Mary Anne couldn't help saying.
I couldn't believe it, either.
"He just jumped up," Mom explained, "and he wouldn't go away. Before I knew it, he was asleep." She cleared her throat, then added, "I kind of like having him here." And I, I thought, like having my new family here.
About the Author ANN M. MARTIN did a lot of baby-sitting when she was growing up in Princeton, New Jersey. Now her favorite baby-sitting charge is her cat, Mouse, who lives with her in her Manhattan apartment.
Ann Martin's Apple Paperbacks are Bummer Summer, Inside Out, Stage Fright, Me and Katie (the Pest), and all the other books in the Babysitters Club series.
She is a former editor of books for children, and was graduated from Smith College. She likes ice cream, the beach, and I Love Lucy; and she hates to cook.
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BSC031 - Dawn's Wicked Stepsister
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