Mary Anne Saves the Day Read online

  Dawn nodded.

  “Don’t ever try to butt in front of him on the lunch line. Don’t even try to get in back of him, unless he’s at the end of the line. His hobby is obeying rules.”

  It was Dawn’s turn to laugh. “Who else should I know about?” she asked.

  I pointed out a few other kids. We spent the rest of the lunch hour whispering and laughing. Twice I caught Kristy’s eye. She looked absolutely poisonous. I knew I wasn’t helping our fight, but I kind of liked the idea of getting even with her for not letting me sit at our table.

  “Hey, do you want to come over to my house after school tomorrow?” Dawn asked.

  “Well … well, sure,” I replied. It felt so strange to be talking with somebody besides Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, or the Shillabers. I wasn’t sure that I had ever made a new friend all on my own. Mariah and Miranda had originally been friends Kristy had made, Stacey had been a friend of Claudia’s, and I had just grown up with Kristy and Claudia.

  “Oh, that’s wonderful!” exclaimed Dawn. She must have been really lonely.

  I began to feel guilty. I knew full well that one reason I wanted to go over to Dawn’s house was to make Kristy (and Stacey and Claudia) mad.

  I hoped Kristy would see me leaving school with Dawn the next afternoon. I hoped she would be surprised. I hoped she would be mad (madder than she already was). I even hoped she’d be a little hurt.

  “That would be fun,” I added. “Where do you live?”

  “Burnt Hill Road.”

  “That’s not too far from me! I live on Bradford Court.”

  “Great! We can watch a movie.”

  “Okay!”

  Dawn and I got up and cleared our places.

  “Want to eat lunch again tomorrow?” asked Dawn. “Or will your friends be back?”

  I paused. What if we’d all made up by the next day? I decided to cross that bridge when I came to it. “I don’t know,” I answered.

  “It doesn’t really matter anyway,” said Dawn quietly.

  “Okay. Well … see you.”

  “See you.”

  We left the cafeteria.

  I didn’t see Kristy, Claudia, or Stacey again until school let out that day. Just after the last bell rang, I was standing in the front doorway of Stoneybrook Middle School, looking out across the lawn.

  Then I saw them, all three of them. They were walking home from school, each one alone, each one still probably mad.

  I set out slowly after them. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I had never given Claudia the note I’d written.

  The first thing I thought when I woke up the next morning was, it’s Wednesday. Today is a clubmeeting day. We can’t stay mad much longer or we won’t be able to hold the meeting. And we’ve never missed a meeting. Suddenly, I was sure our fight was over.

  I was so sure that, on my way to school, I stopped at Kristy’s house and rang her doorbell. I thought we could walk to school together and apologize to each other.

  Ding-dong.

  David Michael answered the door. “Hi, Mary Anne!” he said.

  “Hi,” I replied. “Is Kristy still here?”

  “Yup,” said David Michael, “she’s just —”

  “I am not here!” I heard Kristy call from the living room.

  “Yes, you are. You’re right —”

  “David Michael, come here for a sec,” said Kristy.

  David Michael left the front hall.

  A few seconds later, I heard footsteps tiptoeing toward the hall. The front door slammed shut in my face.

  I stood on the Thomases’ stoop, shaking.

  Then I turned and crossed the lawn.

  All the way to school I kept hearing Kristy’s angry voice and the door slamming. Well, I thought, there’s still Dawn. Dawn wasn’t the same as Kristy or my other friends, but she was something.

  We ate lunch together after all. “Your friends are absent again?” Dawn asked. She looked skeptical.

  “Yeah,” I replied. I decided not even to go into it.

  I looked around the cafeteria for the other members of the Baby-sitters Club. Things were a bit different that day. Kristy was still eating with the Shillabers, but the empty chair had been filled by another friend of theirs, Jo Deford. Claudia and Trevor were sitting with Rick and Emily. At the opposite end of their long table were Dori, Howie, Pete, and Stacey. Every so often, Stacey would look up and give Claudia the evil eye, or Claudia would whisper something to Trevor and then look in Stacey’s direction and laugh. Once, she stuck her tongue out at Stacey.

  Things were worse than ever. I wasn’t surprised that Kristy was holding a grudge, but I had sort of expected Stacey and Claudia to make up, or at least to pretend to have made up. I never thought I’d see the day when cool Claudia would stick her tongue out at somebody in front of Trevor Sandbourne.

  “Boy,” I said under my breath.

  “What?” asked Dawn.

  I sighed. “Nothing.”

  When the bell rang at the end of the day, I made a dash for the front door of school. I was supposed to meet Dawn there and was trying to figure out just how to time things so that Kristy would be sure to see me walking off with my new friend. I decided that I should simply meet Dawn and dawdle. As it happened, things worked out better than I could have hoped.

  Almost as soon as I reached the door, kids started streaming past me. I kept my eyes glued to the crowded hallway. After a few moments, I spotted Kristy. She spotted me at the same time and made a face that was a cross between a scowl and a sneer. So what did I do? I smiled. Not at Kristy, but at Dawn, who happened to be right in front of her. I’m sure Kristy thought I was trying to make up with her again.

  Boy, was she surprised when Dawn called, “Hi, Mary Anne!” and ran up to me.

  “Hi,” I replied. I flashed another smile. And as we headed out the door I looked over my shoulder in time to see Kristy standing openmouthed behind me.

  Dawn and I walked across the lawn, talking away a mile a minute. We passed Claudia and Trevor on the way, which only made the afternoon more worthwhile, as far as I could see.

  Dawn’s new house turned out to be very old. “It’s a farmhouse,” she told me, “and it was built in seventeen ninety-five.”

  “Wow!” I said. “You’re kidding! Gosh, you were lucky to be able to buy such an old house.”

  “Yeah, I think so. Even though it needs a lot of work, and it’s not very big. You’ll see.”

  We walked through the front door. “If my dad were here,” said Dawn, “he’d have to duck.”

  I looked up and saw that the top of the door frame wasn’t far above my head. “People were shorter in seventeen ninety-five,” explained Dawn.

  I stepped inside, pulling the door closed behind me. I was standing in the middle of a room strewn with packing cartons — some empty, some half-empty, some still unopened — mountains of wadded-up newspaper, and a jumble of, well, things. I think we were in the living room, but I could see dishes, toys, sheets and blankets, a shower curtain, a bicycle tire, and a can of peaches.

  “My mother isn’t very organized yet,” said Dawn. “Actually ever. Mom!” she called. “Mom, I’m home!”

  “I’m in the kitchen, honey.”

  Dawn and I stepped over and around things, and managed to reach the kitchen unharmed.

  I could see what Dawn meant about the house being small. The kitchen wasn’t even big enough for a table and chairs. And it was dark, the window being blocked off by some overgrown yew bushes outside.

  A pretty woman with short, curly hair that was every bit as light as Dawn’s was standing at the counter slowly turning the pages of a large photo album.

  Dawn took a look at the mess (the kitchen was as jumbly as the living room had been) and then at the photo album. “Mom!” she cried. “What are you doing?”

  Mrs. Schafer looked up guiltily. “Oh, honey,” she said. “I keep getting sidetracked. I was working away, and I unpacked this album and an envelop
e full of pictures marked FOR PHOTO ALBUM, and I just had to stop and put them in.”

  Dawn smiled and shook her head. “I don’t know, Mom. The way we’re going, we might as well leave the house like it is. Then, if we ever move again, we could just throw the things back in the boxes.”

  Mrs. Schafer laughed.

  “Mom, this is my friend Mary Anne. We eat lunch together.”

  Mrs. Schafer shook my hand. “Hi, Mary Anne. Nice to meet you. I do apologize for the mess. If you go up to Dawn’s room, though, you’ll find the one civilized spot in the house. Dawn had her bedroom cleaned, unpacked, and organized the day after we moved in.”

  Dawn shrugged. “What can I say? I’m neat.”

  “Would you like a snack, girls?” asked Mrs. Schafer.

  “Is there actual food?” asked Dawn.

  “Well,” her mother replied, “there is actual grape jelly and an actual can of peaches.”

  “We’ve been eating out,” Dawn told me, “in case you couldn’t tell.” She turned to her mother. “I think we’ll skip the snack, Mom. But thanks.”

  Dawn and I went upstairs. Everything was little or low: a small dining room; a narrow, dark stairway leading to a narrow, dark hall. At the end of the hall was Dawn’s bedroom, also small, with a low ceiling and a creaky floor.

  “Wow, I like your room,” I said, “but, gosh, the colonists must have been midgets.”

  “Maybe,” said Dawn. “But there are two good things about this room. One is this.” She showed me a small, round window near the ceiling. “I don’t know why it’s there, but I love it.”

  “Kind of like a porthole,” I said.

  Dawn nodded. “The other thing is this.” She flicked some switches and the room was flooded with brilliant light. “I can’t stand dim rooms,” she explained, “so Mom let me get lots of lamps and I put one-hundred-watt bulbs in all of them. I just hope the wiring in this old place can take it.”

  “Hey!” I exclaimed. “You have a big TV in your room! Boy, are you lucky.”

  “Well, it’s only temporary, until the rest of the house is in order. Then it goes downstairs to the living room. What movie do you want to see?”

  “What do you have?”

  “Practically everything. My mom’s a movie nut.”

  “Well,” I said, “you probably don’t have The Parent Trap, do you?”

  “Of course we do. That was the last thing she bought before —”

  “Before what?” I asked.

  Dawn lowered her eyes. “Before the divorce,” she whispered. “That’s why we moved here. Because Mom and Dad got divorced.”

  “Why did you move here?”

  “Mom’s parents live here. My mother grew up in Stoneybrook.”

  “Oh! So did my dad. I wonder if they knew each other.”

  “What’s your dad’s name?”

  “Richard Spier. What’s your mom’s name? I mean, what was her name before she got married?”

  “Sharon, um, Porter.”

  “I’ll have to ask my father. Wouldn’t it be funny if they knew each other?”

  “Yeah.” Dawn was still staring at the floor.

  “Hey,” I said, “I guess it’s awful when your parents split up, but there’s nothing wrong with it, you know. Lots of kids have divorced parents. Kristy Thomas, my be — my next-door neighbor, has been a ‘divorced kid’ for years. And her mom dates this nice divorced man. And —” (I was about to tell her that the parents of the Shillaber twins were divorced, but I didn’t really want to talk about the twins.) “And, I mean, I don’t care that your parents are divorced.”

  Dawn smiled slightly. “Where did your mother grow up?” she asked. I guess she wanted to change the subject.

  “In Maryland, but she’s dead. She died a long time ago.”

  “Oh.” Dawn flushed. Then she started the movie. Soon we were wrapped up in The Parent Trap.

  “What a great movie,” said Dawn with a sigh when it was over.

  “I know. One of my favorites.” I looked at my watch. It was 5:15. “I better go,” I said. “This was really fun.”

  “Yeah, it was. I’m glad you came over,” said Dawn.

  “Me, too.”

  We clattered down the midget staircase.

  “See you tomorrow!” I called as I left. I ran all the way to Claudia’s house. My stomach was tied up in knots. It was time for a meeting of the Baby-sitters Club.

  I had no idea what to expect.

  On the way to the Kishis’ house, I told myself that if Claudia answered the door, it would be a good sign. It would be easy for her to let someone else answer it, so if she made the effort, then it probably meant she wasn’t so mad anymore.

  I rang the bell. Mimi opened the door. She looked worried. “Hello, Mary Anne,” she said solemnly.

  “Hi, Mimi.” I hesitated. Usually, I run right upstairs. “Claudia’s here, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, of course. Stacey is here, too….”

  I knew she wanted to say something more but was too tactful.

  “Well, I’ll go on up, too. See you later, Mimi.” I walked up the stairs, dashed by Janine’s room, and entered Claudia’s.

  There were Stacey and Claudia. Stacey was sitting cross-legged on the bed, staring at her hands. Claudia was seated stiffly in her director’s chair, gazing out the window. Neither one spoke when I entered the room.

  Remembering what had happened at Kristy’s house that morning, I decided not to be the one to make the first move. I sat down tentatively on the floor.

  The phone rang. Claudia was nearest to it, so she took the call. “Hello, the Baby-sitters Club … Oh, hi … Saturday morning? … Okay … okay. I’ll call you right back…. Good-bye.”

  Finally, I thought. Now someone will have to say something.

  Claudia hung up the phone. “The Johanssens. They need someone for Charlotte on Saturday morning. Who’s free?”

  “I am,” said Stacey to her hands.

  “Mary Anne?”

  I shook my head.

  “I’m not, either,” said Claudia. “I guess it’s yours, Stacey.”

  “Fine.” Stacey managed to look pleased through her anger. Charlotte is her favorite kid.

  “What about Kristy?” I asked.

  “She’s not here,” said Claudia shortly. “And she knows the rules. She made the rules. If she doesn’t phone to tell us she’ll be late or she can’t make it, then she misses out on jobs. I’ll call Dr. Johanssen and tell her that she” (Claudia shot a dirty look at Stacey) “will be baby-sitting.” When she turned to dial the phone, Stacey stuck her tongue out at her.

  Claudia finished the call and hung up. No one said a word.

  A few minutes later, the phone rang again. When it was on its third ring, Claudia said, “Somebody else get it this time. I’m not a slave.”

  I answered it. “Hello? … Oh, hi, Mrs. Thomas. Is Kristy sick or something? … She’s where? … Oh. No, it’s not important…. For David Michael? Sure, I’ll call you right back.” I hung up. “Kristy,” I said, in case anybody was interested, “is over at the Shillabers’ house, and Mrs. Thomas needs someone to watch David Michael on Thursday afternoon…. I’m free.”

  “So am I,” said Claudia.

  “So am I,” said Stacey.

  Uh-oh. When that happens, we usually start saying things like, “Well, I have two other jobs this week, so you can take this one,” or “I know you haven’t had a chance to sit for David Michael in a while, so you take it.”

  Somehow, I didn’t think anybody was going to say anything like that.

  I was right.

  Instead, Claudia cut out three scraps of paper, drew a star on one, folded them in half, tossed them in a shoe box, and said, “Everybody pick one. The person who gets the star sits for David Michael.”

  Claudia chose the star.

  “Hey!” cried Stacey. “You knew which one it was!”

  “I did not!” exclaimed Claudia. “How would I know that?”

&
nbsp; “You made the scraps of paper.”

  “Are you calling me a cheater?”

  “You said it, I didn’t.”

  Oh, brother, I thought. Here we go again.

  In the end, Stacey allowed Claudia to keep the job. The phone rang two more times before the end of our meeting, and we managed to set up the baby-sitting jobs without actual violence.

  At precisely six o’clock, Stacey stood up and marched out of Claudia’s room without so much as a word. Claudia and I looked at each other, but Claudia didn’t say anything, either, so I followed Stacey. Mimi watched us walk silently out the front door.

  As we stepped onto the lawn, Stacey broke into a run, but for some reason, I turned around and looked back at the house. Claudia was in her window. I hesitated. Then I waved to her.

  She flashed me a hopeful smile and waved back.

  On impulse, I ran up the Kishis’ steps again, opened the door, called Mimi, and handed her the note I had written to Claudia. Then I ran across the street to my house.

  My father hadn’t come home yet. When the numbers on the digital clock flipped to 6:15 and he still wasn’t home, I took it as a sign and decided to call Claudia. If I didn’t talk to her before supper, I’d have to wait until the next morning.

  I dialed her private number.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Claudia,” I said nervously. “It’s Mary Anne.”

  “Oh. Hi.”

  “Well, I —”

  “I got your note. Mimi gave it to me. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I forgive you. And I’m sorry I got mad, too,” Claudia said rather stiffly.

  “Well …” I didn’t know what to say next. Was our fight over? “Well … one reason I’m calling is Kristy. Since she went to the Shillabers’ today,” I said, “and skipped our meeting, I guess that means she doesn’t want to be part of the club. I mean, I don’t know….”

  “I guess for a while, anyway, she doesn’t want to be part of it,” agreed Claudia. “What should we do about the club then? I mean, she is president.”

  “I know. I was thinking about that. We shouldn’t really keep taking jobs without asking her whether she wants them.”