Mary Anne And Camp Read online

  Claudia is totally cool. She wants to be an artist. She has had her own private art show and has even won a prize for her work. She sees art potential in everything, even stuff most of us would call junk — such as junk food. Claudia loves junk food and she always keeps a good supply of it stashed around her room, along with the Nancy Drew books she likes to read, and of which her parents also

  disapprove. So it's hardly surprising that she's used junk food as the inspiration for some of her artwork.

  Actually, Claudia herself is a work of art in progress (that's what she would say). She makes most of her own jewelry and she's always trying on outrageous combinations of clothes and colors that shouldn't look good together. On Claudia, though, the clothes and the colors work.

  But although Claudia is very creative and one of the best-looking girls in the school, with her long black hair and, her perfect skin and her dark brown eyes, she is not so cool when it comes to traditional schoolwork. This is ironic, because Claudia's sister Janine is a real, live genius, who takes college courses, although she's only in high school. But Claudia would rather be almost any place except in school. She thinks creatively, and that doesn't always lead to good grades in, well, less creative subjects such as math and spelling.

  Still, although English and spelling are Claudia's least favorite subjects, she once joined the staff of the school newspaper, the SMS Express. She wrote a column called "Claudia's Personals," which she started when she was looking for the perfect boy.

  You've already met Dawn, sort of. Dawn started in the BSC as our alternate officer. Her

  job was to fill in when one of the other officers couldn't do her job, which is what Shannon does now. However, Dawn's taken over as the treasurer since Stacey left. (Or maybe Stacey was fired. At the last meeting of the BSC that she attended, everybody said some pretty awful things. It ended with Stacey saying she quit and Kristy saying Stacey couldn't quit, she was fired. Stacey and Claudia were best friends and they still talk to each other, but mostly we don't mention Stacey. It's very sad.)

  But anyway, Dawn is a good treasurer even if she's not the math whiz of the world like Stacey. She has her own, casual, easy-going style and is as striking as Claudia. Like Claudia's, Dawn's hair is long, but it is pale, pale blonde, almost white, in fact. She has light blue eyes and pale skin and gets freckles if she stays out in the sun too long.

  But freckles aren't enough to stop Dawn from loving the beach. She misses her brother and father — and the California sunshine and the California beaches. She's even a member of another baby-sitting organization when she's in California, one that she helped start because the BSC is such a great idea and because Dawn missed it. It's called the We Love Kids Club.

  Dawn is practically a vegetarian. She's very environmentally conscious. She brings her

  lunch to school in brown paper bags (which she uses over and over again) and never wraps her sandwiches in plastic wrap. And while we consume mass quantities of junk food at Claudia's, Dawn usually munches on an apple.

  In spite of her intense feelings about the environment, Dawn is very laid-back and practical. In fact, it's still a surprise to me that she loves ghost stories so much. And believes in ghosts. Maybe it's part of her willingness to accept people as they are, even ghosts.

  Shannon Kilbourne, who is acting as our alternate officer now, is the only member of the BSC who goes to private school — Stoneybrook Day School. Shannon is very serious about school. She's a member of a couple of dubs, is an honor student, and takes French.

  Shannon lives across the street from Kristy. She has thick, curly blonde hair, high, high cheekbones and blue eyes. She has a Bernese mountain dog named Astrid, who just had puppies. Astrid had puppies once before, and Shannon gave one of them to Kristy's family after Louie died. That's how Shannon and Kristy became friends. In fact, David Michael named the new puppy after Shannon.

  Shannon is sometimes quiet, but she is very sure of herself in her own way, just like Kristy, and very organized in a Kristy-like way, too. Because she is so involved in school, she

  doesn't have time to take as many baby-sitting jobs as the rest of us, but with summer coming, Shannon said she was looking forward to earning some extra money. "Except," she told us, making a face, "they've given us a summer reading list, too."

  We all went "euuuw," but we also knew that Shannon would read every single book on the list.

  Two other BSC members who are best friends are Mal and Jessi. Mal and Jessi are junior officers. As sixth-graders, they aren't allowed to baby-sit at night unless they're taking care of their own siblings, so they take a lot of afternoon jobs.

  Jessi wants to be a ballet dancer and takes special dance lessons every week. She's even danced in a real ballet, a performance of Swan Lake. Jessi is slender with brown eyes and brown skin and carries herself like a ballet dancer. She wears her black hair pulled back in a ballet dancer's bun. She is very disciplined and gets up every morning before her alarm goes off at 5:30 so she can practice ballet at the barre that her family built in the basement for her.

  Like Mal, Jessi is the oldest kid in her family, but she has only two younger siblings — her eight-year-old sister, Becca, and her baby brother, Squirt. And like Mal, Jessi loves horse

  stories, especially horse stories by Marguerite Henry.

  Mal loves horse stories, too. In fact, she'd like to be a children's book writer and illustrator some day, and I wouldn't be surprised if she writes about horses. Meanwhile, she works as hard at her writing as Jessi does on her ballet or Claudia does on her art. Mal has red hair and pale skin with freckles, and to her eternal despair wears glasses and braces. . She's also secretary of her class at school. She used to be one of our baby-sitting charges, but she's a little too old for that now. And when we realized how good she was at baby-sitting and how much experience she'd had (with all her brothers and sisters), it seemed only natural to invite her to join the BSC.

  Logan Bruno (who wasn't at this meeting) is, as you know, an associate member of the BSC. You should also know that he's a good baseball and football player, likes track, and is a good baby-sitter. He's average height, with blue eyes and blondish brown hair. He's got a great sense of humor and he can be very romantic. He can be a good friend, too. Logan is also stubborn and sometimes bossy, which is why we broke up for awhile. But we worked things out and I'm glad we did.

  Finally, there's me. I'm the secretary of the

  BSC, which means I'm in charge of the record book. I keep track of our jobs, and who is available when our clients call to ask for a baby-sitter. And so far, I've never, ever made a mistake.

  In addition to the record book, we have a dub notebook. In fact, as Kristy was answering the phone and taking down the information about a baby-sitting job, Mal was writing in the notebook.

  The notebook was also a Kristy idea. We write up our baby-sitting jobs in it: details about new clients, information about who is having trouble at school, who's developed a dislike for this food or that activity, who might be afraid of ghost stories but love horse stories, . what happened at various jobs. It's very helpful and means we are extra-prepared when we baby-sit. And it is .important for a baby-sitter to be prepared.

  We had a lull in the phone calls. Mal finished writing in the notebook. Claudia took a jujube, put it between two potato chips, and gulped it down.

  I met Mal's eye. "Okay, everybody," I said. "We've got a potential problem."

  Kristy lifted her head like a bull who's seen a red flag. "What're you talking about? Is one of the kids we sit for having trouble?"

  "Nope," I said. "The problem is summer."

  "Summer is never a problem," said Claudia flatly.

  Dawn grinned. "I agree. The beaches are warm, school is out, what could be better?"

  "Business is going to be better," said Mal. "Think about it." Then she explained about camp and the community center and the three-week lag between those activities and the end of school. "Unless we take on more babysitters,
" she concluded, "we may have more work than we can handle."

  "Wow, you're right, Mal." Kristy looked thoughtful.

  "Who else can we get to work with us?" Shannon asked. No one mentioned Stacey. Conspicuously.

  The silence built up. Claudia muttered something, then shook her head.

  "I could ask some friends at my school if they could help out, but..." Shannon's voice trailed off.

  And then Kristy's face lit up. "Camp," she said.

  We waited.

  "Camp," said Kristy again. "Camp BSC. A baby-sitting camp! A day camp! Like the mini-camp you and Dawn once had, Mary Anne."

  It was perfect. We knew immediately that it would take care of the problem. If all eight of

  the current members of the BSC, including Logan and Shannon, were counselors, the camp could probably handle about twenty kids. And .our clients would be very, very happy.

  "Perfect," I said aloud.

  "Super perfect," said Claudia.

  The phone rang again. And again. We were kept very busy the rest of the meeting setting up baby-sitting jobs.

  It looked as though the summer rush had already begun. We'd thought of the idea of Camp BSC just in the nick of time.

  Chapter 3.

  We were gathered in Claudia's room for the Wednesday meeting. Logan had joined us. Kristy hadn't exactly told everyone it was an emergency meeting, but I had a feeling she'd presented the need for everyone's attendance in pretty urgent terms.

  "Tomorrow?" Dawn nodded solemnly at the phone. "I'll check and get right back to you.… Yes.… Thank you." She hung up the phone and looked at us. "Mrs. Papadakis needs someone tomorrow afternoon."

  I flipped open the record book and ran my finger down the list. "Jessi, it's the one day you don't have ballet practice. Do you want to use your free afternoon on a baby-sitting job?"

  "No. problem," said Jessi. "Hannie and Linny and Sari are great kids. Sign me up."

  I did, while Dawn called Mrs. Papadakis back.

  The phone stopped ringing for a moment and Logan stopped throwing popcorn up in the air and trying to catch it in his mouth to ask, "Okay, so what's the deal here?"

  Kristy said, "The deal is summer… but I'll let Mary Anne and Mal explain."

  "You have some complaints about. summer?" Logan pretended to be shocked. I hadn't told him about Camp BSC. I wanted him to come to the meeting with an open mind.

  Mal grinned and pushed her glasses up her nose. "Summer's great, Logan. Unless you're a parent with kids who've just gotten out of school and it's too soon for camp or the community center to have started."

  "Oh…" Logan thought about that for awhile.

  Shannon was quick to get to the point, as usual. She said with her characteristic briskness, "And this is where the BSC comes in."

  "Right!" I said. "We save the day. We fill up the free time…"

  "We sleep late," said Claudia plaintively.

  We all cracked up. Kristy picked up a piece of popcorn and flicked it at .Claudia. "Later, Claud. Later in the summer we sleep late."

  I hid a smile at that. It was hard to imagine Kristy or Shannon sleeping late. Dawn could manage it, I knew from past experience. I

  didn't mind sleeping late myself, although not as a rule. (Also I have this gray kitten who thinks that if he's up at daylight, his owner should be, too. Tigger and I have had many, many discussions about this. I have lost most of them.)

  Logan loved to sleep. He claimed that hot weather and sleep went together naturally. But I knew that nothing would keep him away from a baseball game or a pick-up game of basketball or football.

  Mal?

  She answered the question just then by saying, "Sleep late? The Pike family motto is 'Get up now.’"

  And of course, we all knew that Jessi was up at 5:29, every single day, summer or winter, to practice at the barre.

  "What's the plan, then?" asked Logan.

  Mal and I exchanged glances. I said, "Go for it, Kristy."

  Kristy took a deep breath. "Camp BSC," she said. "A day camp for our clients. We can hold it at Dawn and Mary Anne's. We've done stuff like that there before. Their yard is big. And on rainy days we can move into the barn."

  "Outstanding idea," said Logan.

  Shannon nodded. "I like it."

  Dawn leaned forward. "Mary Anne and I

  talked to Richard and Mom and they've agreed. But since they both work, they want us to have at least one adult nearby on call. We thought Mrs. Prezzioso and Mrs. Braddock might agree to it, since they live nearby and since they are home during the day."

  "Good thinking," said Kristy. "Let's call them."

  I flipped through our record book and read their phone numbers out and Kristy made the phone calls. Both Mrs. Braddock and Mrs. Prezzioso not only said yes, but they thought it was a terrific idea, and Mrs. Braddock signed Matt and Haley Braddock up "full-time" on the spot.

  After that, everything just seemed to fall into place. We agreed that camp would run from ninea.m. to five-thirtyp.m. so parents could drop their kids off on the way to work and pick them up afterward. We also decided kids (and their parents) could choose a half-day or a full-day program.

  "Let's see, we'll need supplies, the usual camp supplies," said Kristy.

  Claudia said, "Art supplies: paint, paper, crayons, glue, glitter, clay ..."

  "Games, sports stuff," said Logan immediately, beginning a list of his own.

  "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said Dawn. "We'll make a list. Then we'll estimate how much

  everything we want is going to cost and see how that stacks up next to how much money we have in the treasury."

  "How much money do we have?" asked Kristy.

  "We're doing pretty well," Dawn said. "But we can't buy everything."

  "Refreshments," said Claud. "Snacks for morning and afternoon. The kids should bring their own lunches, but we can have fruit juice and milk for them to drink."

  "We can buy some of that stuff as we need it. After the parents pay the fees for our camp, we can buy refreshments out of the fees," Shannon pointed out.

  Mal said, "The important thing is having everything set up so it goes smoothly the first day. If the kids have fun the first day, then if something goes wrong after that, they are less likely to notice."

  "First impressions are important," Kristy said seriously.

  My hand was flying across the page as I wrote. We kept firing ideas around the room, stopping only when the phone rang. Claudia agreed to make fliers that we could give or mail to our clients as soon as possible. We discussed field trips and activities and menus.

  And then Kristy said, "Circus! Circuses!"

  As you know by now, Kristy is full of ideas.

  So when she leaps into the middle of a conversation with these random words and sentences, we don't automatically assume she's crazy. Instead we wait. Because we suspect that she's having one of her Ideas.

  She was. "A circus," Kristy explained. 'That should be the theme of Camp BSC. It can be part of the activities, see? Making costumes, athletic activities, decorations, props… and then at the end of the camp we can give a

  circus."

  "Excellent!" exclaimed Claudia. She'd loved circuses when she was little and once had had a circus birthday party. It hadn't turned out quite the way she'd expected, but clearly it hadn't made her dislike circuses.

  "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my," Shannon quoted from the movie The Wizard of Oz.

  "Karen and her friends went to a circus camp once. That's where I got the idea." Kristy said modestly. Karen is her younger stepsister, Karen Brewer. "They loved it, so they should love this, too."

  The phone rang one last time. Kristy took the call and we scheduled one more appointment.

  Then Kristy looked at her watch. "This meeting of the BSC is officially adjourned," she said.

  But we didn't leave right away. Claudia

  said, "Can we have candy apples? I love candy apples. Are they hard to make?"

  Dawn said, "
Candy apples? Do you know what that does to your teeth?" But she was smiling.

  "Cotton candy," said Mal dreamily. "Even with braces, I know I could handle cotton candy."

  "I want to be a ringmaster," Kristy said. She grinned good-naturedly when we all started laughing.

  Just then there was a knock on the door.

  "Hey, come on in," Claudia said.

  It was her sister Janine. "I believe you should know that Kristy's brother is here."

  "Ohmigosh!" Kristy leaped to her feet. "Thanks, Janine. The meeting really is adjourned."

  "Wait for me!" Shannon said. She was getting a ride home with Kristy.

  Kristy and Shannon raced out the door. The rest of us followed a little more slowly. I confess, I was feeling pretty excited about Camp BSC.

  And I knew, with the club involved, it was going to be one super circus camp. Lions, tigers, bears, and all.

  Chapter 4.

  School was out. Just like that. And I hardly noticed it. I mean, I was glad that taking tests and having to get up at the same time every morning and all of that was officially over for the summer.

  But with Camp BSC starting the following Monday, I was almost too busy to take it in.

  Ever since our brainstorming session, we'd been working pretty hard getting everything organized. Twenty-two children had signed up for the camp. They were Kristy's stepbrother Andrew Brewer, Alicia Gianelli, and Jamie Newton, all four years old. The oldest were Vanessa Pike, Haley Braddock, and Linny Papadakis, who are nine. In between were Mal's sibs Nicky, Margo, and Claire; Kristy's stepsister Karen Brewer, and her best friends Hannie Papadakis and Nancy Dawes (all seven); the twins Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold (eight); Matt Braddock (seven); Jessi's sister Becca; Charlotte Johanssen (eight); Kristy's brother David Michael (seven); Bobby Gianelli (seven); Ricky Torres (seven); Natalie Springer (seven); and Chris Lamar (seven).

  Whew.

  More about our BSC campers: Ten of our campers attend Stoneybrook Elementary School: the Pikes, the Arnolds, Haley, Becca, Charlotte, and David Michael. Eight of them attend Stoneybrook Academy: Karen, the Papadakises, Nancy, Bobby, Ricky, Natalie, and Chris. And eight of them had gone to a circus camp before! Karen, the Papadakises, Nancy, Ricky, Natalie, Chris, and Bobby (who'd gone to a different circus camp from the other seven).