Prologue - Kristy
November 1. 1:10 AM. 949 words.
Prologue - Kristy
The announcement Mr. Kingbridge made barely a month ago ended up starting a chain of events that definitely needed to be recorded, but it doesn't fit into the BSC notebook, which is where we talk about our clients, and it didn't fit into the mystery notebook either. So I decided that everyone should write down what was going on, so that we can save it, for posterity. It was one of my great ideas (I've had many great ideas, the biggest of which is the BSC, but I'll explain that later), and everyone agreed.
But it was my idea, and I was so involved in everything that happened, so I should probably go first.
So here it is: the Short Takes class that changed everything started pretty much like every other big assembly at SMS...
SMS is where we go to school. That's Stoneybrook Middle School, which is one of three middle schools in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, where we all live. "We all" is all of the BSC, or Baby-Sitters Club, which is a club- a business, really- that I started in seventh grade. We're pretty well-known in the area. Shannon, like most of the kids who live in my neighborhood, goes to Stoneybrook Day, and a bunch of kids go to Kelsey. But I, as well as pretty much all of my friends, go to SMS. I know a lot of people hate school, but I really like it. Our classes are exciting and fun. Charlie and Sam, my older brothers (Charlie is seventeen and Sam is fifteen) say that I'm crazy to like school so much, but I think the high school just doesn't have as many cool programs as SMS does.
Like debate, which my friend Abby and I were in for a while. Like creative writing, which my friend Mal loves. And like Short Takes.
Short Takes are a series of a few weeks of class that meet three times a week. We learn all sorts of exciting things about topics that we couldn't normally learn, like what careers to go into or how we're going to be parents or anything, really. Short Takes are really exciting.
To start this one off with a bang, they called the entire school to an assembly, sixth through eighth graders instead of our last class of the day. It's always a big deal when they have all of us come there at once. It's such a rare opportunity. Mal and Jessi, who are sixth graders (the rest of us in the BSC are in eighth grade), got to sit with us for once. A few of the other kids around us called Mal 'Spaz Girl', but most of them were pretty quiet, which was good, because I could tell Abby was ready for a fight, and I was too.
Then Mr. Kingbridge showed up, and everyone got really quiet, and then he started explaining our new Short Takes class.
Basically, we'd be taking a class in diversity. Every week or two, we'd handle a different thing that makes people different: race, gender, religion, that kind of thing. And people would come in to talk to us about the topics. Plus, something new: for this section, to show how Diverse we were, we'd have students from all three years in our classes. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders?
"This is so dibbly cool!" squealed Mal as we walked to Claudia’s house after school. I know that lately, Mal's been feeling kind of left out of everything, and of course it was better that this way, she had eight chances of being with a fellow BSC member, instead of just one.
"I know!" I said. "And this sounds really cool."
Abby's eyes were sparkling. "I guess this explains why my rabbi told Anna and me that we might see him pretty soon." Anna is Abby's twin sister. Both of them got Bat Mitzvahed recently, which started this fairly frequent correspondence with her rabbi. A rabbi is kind of like a priest for Jews. A Bat Mitzvah is Jewish service where a girl becomes an adult. Boys have Bar Mitzvahs, which are pretty much the same thing. Abby read out loud in Hebrew, and afterwards she and Anna had a big party that all of us were invited to. It was really cool.
Claudia, who's Japanese-American, was grinning wildly. "I bet I could bring in a bunch of Mimi's things. She's got some amazing clothing from Japan. It's really exciting." Claudia would think first about the clothing. She's an artist, and she sees clothing as a further expression of herself. Mimi was Claud's grandmother, who she was really close to, and I knew Claudia would love to show off some of Mimi's things to her class.
Jessi was the only person who didn't seem really enthusiastic. "I don't know, you guys. Stoneybrook isn't really the most accepting town in the world." When Jessi first moved here, she faced a lot of racism, because not all people were accepting of her, just because she's black. It was really stupid, and luckily, Jessi met Mal, and through Mal she met all of us, and we don't care if she's black or white or purple, so long as she can baby-sit, which she can.
"I bet people have grown since then," Abby said. "Everyone was really nice to me when I moved here, and I'm different."
Jessi shrugged. "Maybe," she said in a voice that implied she didn't think so at all.
But we were all so excited that we barely paid attention.
Looking back, maybe we should have listened to her. Then the rest of what happened wouldn't have been so shocking...
Prologue - Kristy
The announcement Mr. Kingbridge made barely a month ago ended up starting a chain of events that definitely needed to be recorded, but it doesn't fit into the BSC notebook, which is where we talk about our clients, and it didn't fit into the mystery notebook either. So I decided that everyone should write down what was going on, so that we can save it, for posterity. It was one of my great ideas (I've had many great ideas, the biggest of which is the BSC, but I'll explain that later), and everyone agreed.
But it was my idea, and I was so involved in everything that happened, so I should probably go first.
So here it is: the Short Takes class that changed everything started pretty much like every other big assembly at SMS...
SMS is where we go to school. That's Stoneybrook Middle School, which is one of three middle schools in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, where we all live. "We all" is all of the BSC, or Baby-Sitters Club, which is a club- a business, really- that I started in seventh grade. We're pretty well-known in the area. Shannon, like most of the kids who live in my neighborhood, goes to Stoneybrook Day, and a bunch of kids go to Kelsey. But I, as well as pretty much all of my friends, go to SMS. I know a lot of people hate school, but I really like it. Our classes are exciting and fun. Charlie and Sam, my older brothers (Charlie is seventeen and Sam is fifteen) say that I'm crazy to like school so much, but I think the high school just doesn't have as many cool programs as SMS does.
Like debate, which my friend Abby and I were in for a while. Like creative writing, which my friend Mal loves. And like Short Takes.
Short Takes are a series of a few weeks of class that meet three times a week. We learn all sorts of exciting things about topics that we couldn't normally learn, like what careers to go into or how we're going to be parents or anything, really. Short Takes are really exciting.
To start this one off with a bang, they called the entire school to an assembly, sixth through eighth graders instead of our last class of the day. It's always a big deal when they have all of us come there at once. It's such a rare opportunity. Mal and Jessi, who are sixth graders (the rest of us in the BSC are in eighth grade), got to sit with us for once. A few of the other kids around us called Mal 'Spaz Girl', but most of them were pretty quiet, which was good, because I could tell Abby was ready for a fight, and I was too.
Then Mr. Kingbridge showed up, and everyone got really quiet, and then he started explaining our new Short Takes class.
Basically, we'd be taking a class in diversity. Every week or two, we'd handle a different thing that makes people different: race, gender, religion, that kind of thing. And people would come in to talk to us about the topics. Plus, something new: for this section, to show how Diverse we were, we'd have students from all three years in our classes. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders?
"This is so dibbly cool!" squealed Mal as we walked to Claudia’s house after school. I know that lately, Mal's been feeling kind of left out of everything, and of course it was better that this way, she had eight chances of being with a fellow BSC member, instead of just one.
"I know!" I said. "And this sounds really cool."
Abby's eyes were sparkling. "I guess this explains why my rabbi told Anna and me that we might see him pretty soon." Anna is Abby's twin sister. Both of them got Bat Mitzvahed recently, which started this fairly frequent correspondence with her rabbi. A rabbi is kind of like a priest for Jews. A Bat Mitzvah is Jewish service where a girl becomes an adult. Boys have Bar Mitzvahs, which are pretty much the same thing. Abby read out loud in Hebrew, and afterwards she and Anna had a big party that all of us were invited to. It was really cool.
Claudia, who's Japanese-American, was grinning wildly. "I bet I could bring in a bunch of Mimi's things. She's got some amazing clothing from Japan. It's really exciting." Claudia would think first about the clothing. She's an artist, and she sees clothing as a further expression of herself. Mimi was Claud's grandmother, who she was really close to, and I knew Claudia would love to show off some of Mimi's things to her class.
Jessi was the only person who didn't seem really enthusiastic. "I don't know, you guys. Stoneybrook isn't really the most accepting town in the world." When Jessi first moved here, she faced a lot of racism, because not all people were accepting of her, just because she's black. It was really stupid, and luckily, Jessi met Mal, and through Mal she met all of us, and we don't care if she's black or white or purple, so long as she can baby-sit, which she can.
"I bet people have grown since then," Abby said. "Everyone was really nice to me when I moved here, and I'm different."
Jessi shrugged. "Maybe," she said in a voice that implied she didn't think so at all.
But we were all so excited that we barely paid attention.
Looking back, maybe we should have listened to her. Then the rest of what happened wouldn't have been so shocking...