Promises, Promises
Page 1
Be sure to read all of our books:
BOOK 1-worst enemies/best friends
BOOK 2-bad news/good news
BOOK 3-letters from the heart
BOOK 4-out of bounds
BOOK 5-promises, promises
BOOK 6-lake rescue
BOOK 7-freaked out
BOOK 8-lucky charm
BOOK 9-fashion frenzy
BOOK 10-just kidding
BOOK 11-ghost town
BOOK 12-time’s up
BSG Special Adventure Books:
charlotte in paris
maeve on the red carpet
freestyle with avery
katani’s jamaican holiday
Coming Soon:
BOOK 13-green algae and bubble gum wars
SPECIAL ADVENTURE-isabel’s texas two-step
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALADDIN MIX
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
Copyright © 2005 by B*tween Productions, Inc.,
Home of the Beacon Street Girls.
Beacon Street Girls, Kgirl, B*tween Productions, B*Street, and the characters Maeve, Avery, Charlotte, Isabel, Katani, Marty, Nick, Anna, Joline, and Happy Lucky Thingy are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of B*tween Productions, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ALADDIN, ALADDIN MIX, and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Library of Congress Control Number 2008930396
ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-5963-7
ISBN-10: 1-4391-5963-7
Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com
Katani Summers
a.k.a. Kgirl…Katani has a strong fashion sense and business savvy. She is stylish, loyal & cool.
Avery Madden
Avery is passionate about all sports and animal rights. She is energetic, optimistic & outspoken.
Charlotte Ramsey
A self-acknowledged “klutz” and an aspiring writer, Charlotte is all too familiar with being the new kid in town. She is intelligent, worldly & curious.
Isabel Martinez
Her ambition is to be an artist. She was the last to join the Beacon Street Girls. She is artistic, sensitive & kind.
Maeve Kaplan-Taylor
Maeve wants to be a movie star. Bubbly and upbeat, she wears her heart on her sleeve. She is entertaining, friendly & fun.
Ms. Razzberry Pink
The stylishly pink proprietor of the “Think Pink” boutique is chic, gracious & charming.
Marty
The adopted best dog friend of the Beacon Street Girls is feisty, cuddly & suave.
Happy Lucky Thingy and alter ego Mad Nasty Thingy
Marty’s favorite chew toy, it is known to reveal its alter ego when shaken too roughly. He is most often happy.
more on beaconstreetgirls.com
CONTENTS
Part One: Promises to Keep
CHAPTER 1: Tickled Pink
CHAPTER 2: On Second Thought…
CHAPTER 3: And The Race Begins
CHAPTER 4: Two Too Many
CHAPTER 5: Poster Mania
CHAPTER 6: Everyone Has Issues
CHAPTER 7: Piecing It Together
CHAPTER 8: True Colors
CHAPTER 9: Missing in Action
CHAPTER 10: Speech, Speech!
CHAPTER 11: High Sounding Words
Part Two: Miles to Go
CHAPTER 12: The Endless Weekend
CHAPTER 13: Stuck in the Middle
CHAPTER 14: On Edge
CHAPTER 15: In the Middle
CHAPTER 16: Star Search
CHAPTER 17: Giant Zingers
CHAPTER 18: Heart Tones
CHAPTER 19: Almost All Together Again
CHAPTER 20: Election Day
CHAPTER 21: The Results Are In
CHAPTER 22: Seven Sisters
Promises, Promises
Part One
Promises to Keep
CHAPTER 1
Tickled Pink
OH, OH…I forgot. I’ve got some really interesting news!” Maeve exclaimed as she sank down in the middle of her sleeping bag, her giant, fuzzy pink slippers sticking out in front of her. “You’re not going to believe it!”
“Lights out!” Mr. Ramsey called up the steep, ladder-like stairs to the Tower.
Charlotte jumped up to flip off the lights. “Okay, Dad,” she called down. “Good night!”
Charlotte’s dad was pretty great about letting the Beacon Street Girls have sleepovers in the Tower as long as the girls kept the noise level down and cleaned up after themselves. He’d even helped the girls make individual pizzas this evening, and the aroma of homemade dough still lingered in the air.
The sleeping bags were arranged in a starburst pattern so their heads came together in the center of the room.
“Oops,” squealed Charlotte as she tripped over Avery’s legs on her way back to her sleeping bag, catching herself at the last moment before crash-landing right on top of her friend. She stumbled to the sleeping bag, flopped on her stomach, and propped her chin in the palms of her hands.
“Good catch,” laughed Avery.
Charlotte shrugged. Her clumsiness was now just “pulling a Charlotte” to all her friends; her famous cafeteria disaster when the tablecloth got stuck in her zipper was hardly ever mentioned. Nope, she thought, she was just their friend…clumsiness and all. It gave Charlotte a warm and cozy feeling.
Maeve lowered her voice now that the lights were out. “Seriously, I have totally important news,” she repeated as the other four—Charlotte, Isabel, Katani, and Avery—inched closer to the middle so they could hear what Maeve had to say.
Charlotte pushed up at her glasses and squinted through the grainy darkness, trying to focus. Maeve’s animated expressions added so much to whatever story she was telling. Maeve could make a trip to the grocery store sound like an African safari.
“Anyway…” Maeve paused dramatically. “Guess who’s running for…”
A tiny snort filled the momentary silence.
Avery was the first to giggle, but almost instantly, Isabel and Maeve joined in.
Before Maeve could say another word, a louder snort punctuated the silence.
“Charlotte! Is that you?” Katani asked.
No giggle this time. Katani’s comment resulted in an out-and-out belly laugh from Avery. It was hard for the other BSG not to laugh when Avery did. They were all in hysterics now.
The next snort had them rolling on their sleeping bags.
“Charlotte!” Katani said.
“It’s not me!” Charlotte said. She could feel her cheeks turn pink. She knew the girls didn’t really think it was her making that noise, but it was embarrassing just the same.
“But it’s coming from your sleeping bag, Char.” Maeve’s observation was followed by the loudest snort yet.
“It’s Marty!” Charlotte said, falling forward and laughing into her pillow. Marty, the Beacon Street Girls’ mascot, was a wiggly, cuddly, always-getting-into-trouble-but-so-cute-he-gets-away-with-it, dog.
Ever since Marty came to live in the second-floor apartment of the stately Victorian home that Charlotte and her dad rented from their mysterious landlady, Miss Pierce, he had been a constant source of amusement for the BSG.
Marty’s snores were the resu
lt of a full evening. First the “little dude” had greeted each BSG in ceremonial fashion, dancing around their legs and jumping up and licking their faces when they bent to pet him. Then he had supervised the making of the pizzas, dutifully snarfing up any dropped tidbits from the Ramseys’ kitchen floor. He had begged his share of pizza crusts by sitting up, cocking his head to one side, and making pathetic, yet somehow irresistible, whimpering noises.
When Maeve had changed into her pink nightshirt and pink fuzzy slippers, Marty had gone wild! He lunged and pounced on the advancing fuzzies with every step she took, growling, nipping each slipper, and shaking it with intense ferocity if he happened to grab ahold of it.
No wonder he was exhausted. When the girls had finally rolled out their sleeping bags, he’d snuggled into a cute little ball at the end of Charlotte’s sleeping bag and instantly fell asleep.
“How can such a little dog snore so loudly?” Isabel wondered.
Marty snort-snored and the five of them burst into laughter all over again. It seemed the louder they laughed, the louder Marty snored.
“Does he always sound like that?” Isabel asked, her dark eyes wide with amusement.
Charlotte was laughing so hard she couldn’t answer. She buried her head in her pillow and nodded her head.
The next snort-snore sent Avery rolling around on her sleeping bag, clutching her stomach, legs kicking wildly in the air.
“Shhhhh! You’re going to wake him up,” Katani told Avery.
“I don’t see how he doesn’t wake himself up,” Maeve said.
As if he heard that comment, Marty lifted his little head, shifted his body so he was facing away from the girls, and fell immediately back to sleep—this time without any snort-snores.
“Poor little puppy!” Avery said. “He’s exhausted from protecting us from your slippers, Maeve.”
“Who can blame him? Those things are as big as he is!” Charlotte said.
“Size has nothing to do with it. He just hates pink. Good boy!” Avery said as she reached over and petted the sleeping terrier.
Like Marty, Avery was a bundle of endless energy. Also like Marty, Avery was small—so much shorter than Katani, who looked like a contestant on America’s Next Top Model in her blue satin pajamas.
“Leave it to you Katani,” Charlotte said, “to look like a page out of a fashion magazine, even at a sleepover.”
“The Kgirl has to keep up her image,” Katani answered with a mock sigh. “You just never know when there might be paparazzi about.”
“Now you sound like me,” said Maeve, the budding actress of the group.
“No one could sound like you, Maeve,” Katani replied matter of factly, while Charlotte, Avery, and Isabel chorused in laughter.
Maeve shrugged her shoulders. “What can I say? I’m one of a kind. Now…do you all want to hear my news or what?”
In response, Avery threw a pillow at Maeve and the battle was on. Pillows went flying, Marty started barking, and the BSG laughed until the tears came rolling down their faces. The mayhem subsided when they heard footsteps on the stairs to the Tower.
“Do I hear a pillow fight in there?” Charlotte’s father bellowed in a fake English accent, which also meant, “Please quiet down, I am trying to go to sleep.”
“No, Dad. We’re all done,” Charlotte shouted as her voice shook with the giggles.
“Excellent news, Charlotte, I shall retire in peace now.”
“Char, your dad is so funny,” whispered Avery.
“Well, I know he thinks he’s pretty funny,” Charlotte responded. She paused, then added, “No…he is funny.” Her timing was perfect.
The BSG laughed in agreement. Mr. Ramsey was a pretty cool dad. He’d traveled all over the world, but he was a down-to-earth guy and pretty much let the girls do whatever they wanted in the Tower, as long as they didn’t damage any property…and they let him get some sleep!
“As I was saying,” Maeve continued when the giggles died down. “I know who’s running for seventh-grade class president.”
“Duh! Who doesn’t?” Avery said, hitting the side of her head with the heel of her hand. “Dillon Johnson.”
Ms. Rodriguez, their homeroom teacher, had announced Friday morning that elections would be in three weeks. The news had started their Friday off with a bang of excitement that was still lingering on Saturday night. Charlotte was especially excited because this was a new experience for her. She and her father had lived all over the world and had only recently moved back to the United States. None of her other schools had held class elections.
Isabel pushed herself up on her elbows. “What’s up with Pete announcing to the world in the middle of lunch that Dillon is running for class president? Didn’t he hear Ms. R say that if you want to run you should e-mail her by Monday morning? They want to post the candidates on the main bulletin board at the end of school on Monday.”
“Pete Wexler isn’t one to follow the rules,” Avery reminded Isabel.
“But I still can’t believe the way he did it!” Katani added. “I mean jumping up on the chair in the middle of the cafeteria and declaring that the seventh grade needed someone COOL to be president and that Dillon was the ‘King of Cool.’”
“Well,” Maeve said, tossing back her red hair, “he kinda is the King of Cool, but I’m not talking about Dillon. There’s someone else running for class president.”
“How do you know?” Avery asked.
“I found out when I stopped by to talk to Ms. R after school. I saw something on her desk.”
“Whoa! Maeve! Were you snooping on Ms. R’s desk?” Avery asked.
“I was SO not snooping, Avery Madden! I just happened to glance over. It was lying right on top! And it was all typed and formal looking. You couldn’t miss it…it was huge,” Maeve added dramatically.
The girls exchanged looks. Charlotte knew they were all thinking the same thing. Typed and formal looking? That could only be one person! Betsy Fitzgerald. Betsy was nice enough, but besides being a bit of a know-it-all, she had a tendency to make simple things complicated.
“Was it from Betsy Fitzgerald?” Charlotte asked.
“Can you believe it?!”
“Betsy Fitzgerald’s running for class president?” Avery asked.
“So, who do you think you’ll vote for?” Isabel asked. “Dillon or Betsy?”
“I’m really not excited about either of them,” Katani said. “Probably the only reason Dillon is running is so that we can have more school dances. He loves to show off what a great dancer he is.”
“He’s got a one-track mind!” Avery said. “I think we should have gym nights instead.”
“Who has a one-track mind?” queried Charlotte with a hint of amusement.
She was remembering how Avery was like a fish out of water at their first school dance earlier this year. Super-comfortable and totally coordinated on the soccer field, Avery had two left feet on the dance floor. So did Katani, but unlike Avery she loved dressing up. More importantly, Katani loved helping the rest of the BSG dress up, too. Katani was the Makeover Queen of the BSG—a regular Style Miracle Worker! However, to Katani’s eternal frustration, Avery refused to let Katani talk her out of her favorite sweats!
“Maybe you should run for class president with an anti-dance platform, Avery,” Charlotte suggested.
“Well, a pro-dance platform would best represent MY interests,” Maeve said. “In fact, I can’t wait for the election dance. Everyone dresses up fancy; they announce who won; and then we dance the night away. It’s absolutely fantabulous,” she added with a flourish.
The BSG grinned at that one. Not only was she a fabulous dancer, but Maeve had been the first Beacon Street Girl to go out on a date. Well, it was almost a date. Maeve and Dillon had gone to a Celtics basketball game with Dillon’s dad and brother. Of course, Maeve wasn’t supposed to be there, but that was a whole other story.
When Charlotte first met Maeve at the beginning of the school year, she
had almost dismissed her as one of those “boy crazy” girls, but, as she got to know her better, she realized there was so much more to Maeve. Besides being eternally optimistic, Maeve was a bundle of fun, ready to drop anything to help out a friend. And, she was quite talented, too. Still, Charlotte wondered if Dillon became class president if that would make Maeve “First Girlfriend”? Of course, one almost-date does not a girlfriend make, so who knew.
“Give me a break,” Avery said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling and flopping back on her sleeping bag.
“What’s wrong with that?” Maeve asked. “I’d like more school dances.”
“There are issues more important than school dances, Maeve,” Avery told her.
“Avery’s right,” Katani said.
“You mean you’d rather have Betsy?” Maeve asked.
“Betsy Fitzgerald? Please!” Katani said.
“What’s up with Betsy?” Isabel asked.
“That’s a question I’ve never been able to figure out. What is up with Betsy?” Avery asked.
“She’s not such a bad choice. Betsy is very organized,” Charlotte pointed out.
“I’m organized,” Katani said. “Betsy is obsessive. Besides, the class president should be more than organized.”
“I don’t know why you think Dillon’s a bad candidate,” Maeve chimed in. “He’s very popular.”
“Being popular has nothing to do with being a good leader!” Avery said. “In fact, to be a good leader you sometimes have to do things that aren’t popular. That’s why it’s important that our class president know how to make good decisions.”
“About what?” Maeve asked
“Oh, tons of things! Budgets, ecology. Stuff like that,” Avery replied.