Abby's Book Page 7

  On the first floor were a huge living room, a family room, a big sunny kitchen, a dining room, a den, and a bathroom. Upstairs were an office for Mom, five bedrooms, and three baths. Mom’s bedroom was actually two rooms. And Anna and I each had our own bathroom. My bedroom — my very own bedroom — was perfect! Ah-choo, ah-choo, ah-choo, I sneezed at my new room.

  Even if I was excited and happy, it was still stressful to make a big move. It was also September, the month when my allergies are always at their worst.

  I ran downstairs and back outside to help the movers. That’s when I first met Kristy Thomas, resident of the house two doors away. She looked like a pretty ordinary person.

  Other neighbors, the Papadakises, came to meet us and give us a big platter of food. Then Sylvia Steinert pulled into our driveway. We congratulated her on a great job, but she didn’t pay much attention to our compliments and seemed disappointed to see us.

  “You said you were arriving tomorrow,” she told our mother. Mom explained that we’d decided to come a day early because of her work schedule and that she’d told her assistant to tell Sylvia’s assistant. But Sylvia had never received the message.

  “All the utilities are scheduled to be turned on tomorrow,” she announced. “Phones, electricity, water, gas. You won’t have any of it until then. I’m sorry.”

  Sylvia was a lot more upset by this news than we were. We didn’t care. Especially when Kristy’s mother invited us to dinner and to stay overnight at their house.

  It was great fun to meet the noisy Thomas-Brewer clan — all ten of them. They reminded me of the happy families I had envied on Sanibel Island, only theirs was bigger. There was just one problem with our dinner and sleepover at the mansion. I was allergic to just about everything in that place, including the dinner they’d made for us. But I still had fun. So did Mom. She got along great with Mrs. Brewer. Even Anna was looking happy.

  As for me, I was so excited about my new life in Stoneybrook that I was practically jumping out of my skin. So I did what I always do when I’m excited. I made a lot of not very good jokes, mostly about my allergies. (“My nose is running, but don’t worry, nobody can catch it.”) The younger kids in Kristy’s extended family seemed to like me, but I could tell Kristy thought I was a little over the top. She liked Anna better, which was pretty weird since it was obvious from the beginning that Kristy and I — both being extroverted athletes — had way more in common than Kristy and Anna did.

  The next morning we ate a big breakfast in the kitchen, then went off for our first day of school in Stoneybrook. Kristy and Anna sat together on the school bus, but I sat with a bunch of kids I didn’t know. I liked them right away and I could tell they liked me. I didn’t let myself think about my old life during those first few days in Stoneybrook. I was too busy making new friends.

  Making friends with Kristy was a lot of work. Even though I’d seen her roll her eyes and grimace at some of my jokes, I knew I could make her laugh. So I worked on my material and polished up my style. Every day I tried to make her laugh one more time than the day before.

  Since Kristy loved sports, I let her know that I did too. “Any time you want to toss a ball around, I’m ready,” I told her. “Just give a call, we’ll have a ball.”

  Kristy made a face at my corny pun. She mentioned that a kid she baby-sat for was always rhyming. Then Kristy invited me to help out with coaching her softball team of little kids.

  And here’s the most exciting thing of all — Anna and I were invited to become members of the Baby-sitters Club! I told the club members that I was thrilled that they asked me and I’d love to join. I couldn’t have been happier.

  Anna was happy they invited her to join too, but she turned the invitation down. I could see by Kristy’s expression that she was shocked that Anna didn’t want to be a member of the BSC. I was a little surprised myself. But when Anna explained that she wanted to devote all of her time to music, we understood.

  During those first weeks, Anna adjusted to our move too. She found a new violin teacher whom she liked as much as Randal. And she was asked to play first chair in the school orchestra. Anna also discovered that she had a lot in common with Shannon Kilbourne.

  So, this is the end of my autobiography. All in all, I’d say my life has been pretty interesting. I have had one great sorrow, but I’ve also had lots of good times. I think my dad would be happy to see how we’re all doing in our new life. I want to be someone he would be proud of — and someone who could make him laugh.

  I finished my autobiography late Sunday night. I’d never worked so hard on an assignment in my whole life.

  On the way to school on Monday morning I was the quiet twin. I was still thinking about the things I’d written and wondering what my English teacher, Ms. Belcher, would think of my book. Would she think it was too sad because I wrote so much about my dad’s death? Well, if she did, I thought, that would just be too bad. Because it is sad that my dad died when I was only nine, and it’s my autobiography.

  After I turned in my book, I tried not to think about all the things I’d written. But I couldn’t help it. I’d stirred up memories that kept returning.

  That night, before going to bed, I went into Anna’s room. “Do you think we still look alike?” I asked.

  She looked at me as if I were crazy. “What made you think of that?”

  “I was just wondering if our hair was the same and if we dressed alike, would we look identical? Like when we were little?”

  “You mean like those twins in the shopping mall?” she said.

  “You remember them too!”

  “Are you kidding? I even wrote about them in my autobiography.”

  “Me too,” I told her. “What else did you write about?”

  Anna handed me her autobiography. It was called The Music of My Life. “I titled the chapters with musical terms,” she explained. “The part when we were born is called ‘Lullaby.’ The chapter after that is about being twins. I named it ‘Duet.’ ” She lowered her eyes and added, “And the chapter about Dad is called ‘Requiem.’ ”

  I flipped to the back of the book to see Anna’s grade. I wasn’t surprised to see that she’d received an A.

  “Let’s see if we look alike,” she whispered.

  So we both put on white T-shirts, jeans, and baseball caps. I bunched my hair up under my cap so it would look like it was the same length as Anna’s. Then we stood side by side and gazed at ourselves in her mirror.

  “Your skin is darker,” Anna commented.

  “That’s because I’m outside more than you are,” I told her. I pointed to the scar over my eyebrow. “And I have this.”

  Anna noticed that I looked taller than she did. We decided that was because I was more muscular and stood straighter. “And my arms are a little more built up from playing sports,” I noted. “But our faces still look the same.”

  “I don’t mind when people mix us up now,” Anna said. “It doesn’t happen that often.”

  “I don’t mind being confused with you, either,” I admitted.

  We didn’t say it out loud, but we were both thinking, You’re better than a best friend. You are my twin.

  Just then, Mom came in to say good night to us. “Look at you two!” she exclaimed. “How strange to see you looking so much alike. What’s going on?” We told her that we were seeing if we could still look identical.

  “You girls have become so different from one another that I hardly even think of you as twins anymore,” Mom said.

  “We’re still alike in a lot of ways,” I said. I pulled off the baseball cap to let my hair free, and put my glasses back on.

  “Well, I have to work on this manuscript before I go to sleep,” she said. She checked her watch. “See you in the morning.”

  I ran to Mom and gave her a hug. “Well, well,” she said, “what’s this for?”

  “For you,” I said. Mom gave me a little squeeze back. Then we went to our rooms.

  I went to bed
happy that I was part of my family, even if it was small. We’d been through terrible times and survived. We were three strong women and I was proud of us. Even if Ms. Belcher didn’t give me a good grade for my autobiography, I knew that it was A-OK.

  Fortunately, so did Ms. Belcher.

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Jeanne Betancourt

  for her help in

  preparing this manuscript.

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1997 by Ann M. Martin

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, 1997

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-09275-2