Abby and the Best Kid Ever Read online

  Then we cut to the planning stages. We listened to different kids talk about what they thought the Underground Railroad was. From there I showed our research and planning. I included shots of sewing sessions and art sessions, fitting sessions and rehearsals.

  And then “Vanessa Sawyer” appeared on the screen to announce that it was believed a fugitive was hiding in Stoneybrook, a known stop on the Underground Railroad. Vanessa held up the photocopy of an old Stoneybrook newspaper and read aloud from it. Then she said, “Let’s take a closer look at this train, which has conductors, stations, stationmasters, passengers — but no tracks.”

  I watched the video and the audience. I had seen it so many times as I was working on the tape that I couldn’t be sure anymore if it was as good as I thought it was. The editing was choppy and the performances were amateur. But at the end of the tape, I got a standing ovation.

  I bowed. Then I said to Lou and all the others, “Come up here and take a bow with me.”

  Lou leaped to her feet and raced to the front of the crowd.

  “Come on, come on,” she shouted excitedly at Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, Jessi, Mallory, Mary Anne, Logan, and Shannon.

  So the BSC members came to the front too.

  The applause lasted for almost a minute. And as I listened to it and looked around at my friends, I realized that even if I hadn’t done the best project in the history of the school, I didn’t mind. In spite of all the pressure I’d put on myself — pressure as intense in some ways as the pressure Lou had put on herself — I’d enjoyed working on the project. And I’d learned, all over again, that there was something even more important than doing the best project in the history of the world.

  Having friends.

  Corny? Yes. True? Yes.

  From now on, I resolved, I was going to be a little easier on myself and on other people.

  Although it didn’t seem possible, I grinned even more widely and took another bow.

  The Addisons had waved good-bye to their furniture. The next time they would see it, the movers would be unloading it in their new house in Seattle.

  Tonight, they were going to stay with friends. Tomorrow, they would get on a plane to Seattle.

  We held the going-away party at Kristy’s, since she has the biggest house. (I don’t think that’s the only reason she volunteered her house. I think she likes having parties there because she can be even more in charge.)

  We’re not only expert baby-sitters, we’re expert party givers too. We had adult food (clam dip, eccch!) and kid food (chocolate chip cookies). We had great decorations (thanks to Mallory and Claudia). We had games for the kids to play in the house without tearing it down (Jessi and Stacey were in charge of that), and we had a cleanup committee (all the rest of us).

  When the Addisons arrived, I think my friends and I felt a little worried. Would Sean still be angry with us? We didn’t know what to expect.

  Corrie skipped up the stairs, holding a big roll of white paper. “Claudia!” she cried. “Look! I brought my portrait of Stoneybrook to finish.”

  Mrs. Addison laughed. “I’m not sure how we’re going to carry it on the plane, but she wouldn’t let us pack it and send it with the other stuff.”

  “We can finish it today, and then I’ll mail it to you,” Claudia told Corrie.

  “Can you?” asked Corrie.

  “Absolutely. They make special mailing tubes for things like this.”

  Mr. Addison then introduced us to Mr. and Mrs. Nicholls and their sons, Joey and Nate. He explained that they were moving into the Addisons’ house.

  I nodded. Mary Anne had mentioned the Nichollses.

  “Hello,” I said. “I’m glad to meet you.”

  “Hello,” said Mr. Nicholls. “Joey and Nate, say hello to Abby.”

  “Hello,” the boys said in unison. Mrs. Nicholls murmured something indistinct but friendly.

  “Go and get some refreshments,” Mr. Nicholls commanded.

  The boys started in the direction of the refreshment table. Nate bumped someone’s elbow.

  “Be careful!” Mr. Nicholls barked. “Do you want to make someone spill all over the rug?”

  Nate froze.

  Stacey approached him and said, “Hi, guys. I’m Stacey. Why don’t we get some food and you can meet some of the other kids.”

  The boys looked at their father. He nodded. “Behave,” he ordered.

  They nodded and went off with Stacey.

  I noticed that Mr. Nicholls watched them like a hawk. And I noticed that the boys glanced often in their father’s direction. Sometimes he motioned to them. Sometimes he nodded or shook his head. And sometimes he just gave them a stern look.

  Whatever he did, they seemed to obey, like remote-control puppets. Wow. Was he uptight. I hoped he’d loosen up once their move was over.

  I drifted away and discovered a knot of kids standing around Claudia and Corrie, who had unrolled the big sheet of paper on the floor of the den. It was clearly a kid magnet. Most of Corrie’s friends were standing around, offering suggestions.

  Claudia looked at Corrie. “Maybe we should let everybody draw just one thing on your portrait of Stoneybrook. What do you think?”

  “I think yes,” said Corrie. She looked around. “You all have to draw a self-portrait. And sign your name.”

  Corrie was taking the move well. But what about Sean?

  I glanced around. He was standing at the edge of the room, his hands in his pockets.

  Mary Anne said, “I think we should go talk to Sean.”

  “Okay,” I said. I snagged a cup of punch and a plate of kid food. “Here. We’ll take him this.”

  We walked toward Sean. I admit, I kept a tight hold on the plate, waiting to see how he was going to react. Sean was capable of flipping the plate right out my hands if he was unhappy or angry enough.

  But Sean surprised us. He looked up and his face looked positively woeful.

  “Sean?” said Mary Anne. “We brought you some punch and cookies.”

  He took the punch but said softly, “I’m not very hungry.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because.”

  “Because why?”

  “Because I don’t want to go. I like it here. I know people. And … and … I guess I’ll miss you guys.”

  “You will?” I said in shock.

  Mary Anne dug her elbow into my side and I closed my big mouth. Fortunately, Sean didn’t seem to notice.

  “Yeah. I mean, even if you are baby-sitters, you’re not so bad. I had fun. And you weren’t mean to me about, you know, things that I did that weren’t so good. And I liked being King of the Hour.”

  “Oh, Sean,” said the softhearted Mary Anne. (Okay, I admit it. I was touched as well.) “We’re going to miss you too.”

  “You will?” asked Sean, sounding just as surprised as I had.

  “Of course we will,” said Mary Anne. “There’s nobody like you. You may not have been the easiest kid we didn’t baby-sit for, but things were always interesting when you were around.”

  Well, that was true.

  “Sean,” I said, “when I moved to Stoneybrook, I hated leaving my home and all my friends. I pitched about seven different fits trying to convince my mother not to take her new job. It didn’t work. We moved just the same. And you know what? I’m glad we did.”

  Now both Mary Anne and Sean gave me surprised looks. Mary Anne said, “You are?”

  “Sure,” I answered. “I miss my old friends. But I’ve made some terrific new friends. And I’ve had a lot of fun doing it.”

  Sean didn’t look quite so glum. “Maybe I’ll make new friends,” he mumbled.

  “Maybe you will,” I said. “You won’t know until you check it out, will you?”

  He smiled a little. “I guess not.”

  “How’s your appetite now?” I asked.

  “Better,” Sean replied, his smile growing.

  “Good,” I said. “Have a cookie.”

  At
that moment, Lou ran by. She grabbed a handful of cookies and streaked away shouting “Cookie Monster, Cookie Monster, Cookie Monster!” Karen and Hannie took up the chant.

  “Hey!” Sean said, and took off after them.

  I looked at Mary Anne and we smiled.

  “Hey,” said Mary Anne. “I’m glad too.”

  * * *

  I went jogging the next morning, still spinning on the energy of accomplishment — my video project (an A, with high praise, from Dolly One), a successful going-away party for Sean and Corrie, and the decision to take it a little easier. I turned up one familiar road and down another, checking out who had brought their newspapers inside, who was sleeping late, waving to dogs I knew, avoiding familiar bumps and ruts in the sidewalk.

  A moving van drove by. Was it the Nichollses, moving in? Or some other family new to Stoneybrook?

  I waved and the driver honked. Then I dodged around a mailbox and kept running. Whoever it was, they’d picked a good place to live. My kind of town.

  Come to think of it, it was my town. I wasn’t the new kid anymore.

  I belonged.

  I picked up my pace and ran home.

  * * *

  Dear Reader,

  Abby and the Best Kid Ever is the second book in which Lou McNally appears. She was first introduced in #62 Kristy and the Worst Kid Ever. So many readers asked for another book about Lou that I finally wrote one. My editors and I are always surprised to see which new character strikes a chord with readers. Another character who, like Lou, appealed to kids was Danielle Roberts, who appeared first in #48 Jessi’s Wish and then, after lots of requests from readers, in #82 Jessi and the Troublemaker. Another character who has appealed to readers is Susan Felder from #32 Kristy and the Secret of Susan. So far, Susan hasn’t had another book of her own, but she will make an appearance in Super Special #15, Baby-sitters’ European Vacation!

  There are some other newer characters my editors and I like a lot. So far they have appeared once, but we hope someday to bring them back. One of them is Amy Porter, Dawn’s cousin, from #87 Stacey and the Bad Girls. Mara, Kyle, and Brenda from Stacey and the Mystery at the Mall might also show up again. Unfortunately, we probably won’t see Corrie and Sean Addison again, since they are moving out of Stoneybrook. Sometimes it’s sad to see characters go, but it’s great to meet new ones.

  Happy reading,

  * * *

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Nola Thacker

  for her help in

  preparing this manuscript.

  About the Author

  ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.

  There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.) In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.

  Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.

  Copyright © 1998 by Ann M. Martin

  Cover art by Hodges Soileau

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. 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, February 1998

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-87432-8