chapter one: mallory
"Mom! Where's my toothbrush?"
"I can't find my suitcase!"
"Jordan's giving me the Bizzer Sign!"
"Do I have to sit next to Margo in the car? She always barfs!"
"What a bright and sunny day/The Pikes will soon be on their way! Everyone's excited and talking loud/Oh, what a wild and crazy crowd!"
Welcome to morning at the Pike Zoo. As my sister Vanessa was rhyming (she wants to be a poet when she grows up), things were pretty wild and crazy. But today was a special kind of wild and crazy--we were about to leave on our trip to Toronto!
Mom and Dad were downstairs in their pajamas, and they hadn't had their coffee yet. It was time for me to take charge. I pulled on my freshest outfit (a bright yellow oversized sweatshirt that said "Future Novelist," a black and yellow plaid skirt, bright yellow tights, and black Mary Janes, with earrings shaped like open books and a "Best Friends" locket from my best friend, Jessi), brushed my curly reddish-brown hair (ugh), put on my glasses (yuck!), and got to work.
First stop, the boys' room. "Byron, you already packed your toothbrush. It's right there in your suitcase. Adam, your suitcase is downstairs in the basement, but you better get packing right now--you know you were supposed to pack last night. Jordan, stop bothering Nicky and go downstairs and see if Dad will need any help packing the car. Nicky, you come with me and we'll write out the instructions for when Becca Ramsey comes to feed our pets."
Nicky followed me into Margo and Claire's room, where Margo looked on the verge of tears.
"What's going on, Margo?" I asked gently, kneeling down next to her.
"Claire's being mean," she said, glaring at our sister, who was busy bundling herself into her winter coat (backwards), mittens (on the wrong hands), and hat (inside out).
"I am not, Mallory-silly-billy-goo-goo," Claire said, winding a large knitted scarf (probably Vanessa's) around her waist. Claire is going through a silly stage, where she attaches "silly-billy-goo-goo" to people's names and calls Mom and Dad "Moozie" and "Daggles." It's mostly harmless, but sometimes it feels like it's been going on for ten years already. "I just said that Margo is a barfy-barf."
"Am not!"
"Are too! You always get sick!"
"She does," Nicky spoke up from behind me. "It's really gross."
Margo does have terrible motion sickness. I could understand why my siblings might think it's gross, even though I know she can't help it. I sighed. "Nicky, you're not helping. Go write out that note for Becca, OK? I'll talk to Margo and Claire."
Nicky ran off, and I turned back to my sisters. "Margo, how about you sit up front with Dad this time? You'll be right there next to the air-conditioner, and you'll be able to open the window whenever you need some fresh air. And Claire, you know it's mean to make fun of people. Why don't you apologize to Margo, and then we'll get your winter clothes straightened out."
Whew! I had just finished untangling Claire from her scarf when the phone rang. "I'll get it!" I cried, racing for the kitchen.
"Hello?"
A loud, confident voice on the other end said, "Hi, Mallory? It's Kristy!"
It was Kristy Thomas, the president of the Baby-Sitters Club.
Maybe now would be a good time to tell you more about the BSC. I'll start with Kristy, since the BSC was her great idea. Kristy's actually pretty famous for her great ideas, like the BSC, and...well...Yeah, Kristy's pretty famous for her great idea for the the BSC. It all started last year, when she was in seventh grade at Stoneybrook Middle School (SMS). See, she and her older brothers, Sam and Charlie, used to take turns watching their younger brother, David Michael, while their mom was at work. Finally, one day, it happened: an afternoon when all three of them were busy, and no one could sit for David Michael. Mrs. Thomas spent a whole night on the phone, calling house after house to find someone to babysit. That's when Kristy had her brainstorm: wouldn't it be great, she thought, if you could call one number and reach a whole group of baby-sitters at once? The next day at school she talked to some of her friends about it, and soon BSC business was booming. What started as four girls who liked to baby-sit has now become a real business, with seven regular members, an honorary member, and even two associate members.
One of the most interesting things about the BSC, to me, is how different we all are, but how well we all work together. Take Kristy, for example. She's definitely not your average eighth-grader. For one thing, she looks a lot younger--she's the shortest girl in school, and she's the only eighth grade girl who doesn't wear a bra yet. Not that it matters to Kristy! She's definitely a tomboy. She loves sports, and even coaches her own softball team, Kristy's Krushers, for kids who are too young or uncoordinated for Little League. And she always wears the same kind of outfit--a Tshirt or a turtleneck and sweater, jeans, and running shoes. Sometimes she'll top it all off with a baseball cap with a collie on it. I've never seen her in a dress outside of a formal school dance.
You would never know by looking at Kristy that she's a millionaire. Well, OK, she's not a millionaire--her stepfather is. See, not long after the BSC formed, her mom got remarried, to this nice guy named Watson Brewer who just happens to be an honest-to-goodness millionaire. So the Thomases moved all the way over to the other side of town into Watson's honest-to-goodness mansion. You'd think that would be enough excitement for one family, right? not for the Thomases! They have a huge, jumbled-up family in their big house--there's Emily Michelle, Kristy's adopted Vietnamese sister; Nannie, Kristy's grandmother, who moved in to help take care of Emily; and sometimes there's also Karen and Andrew, Watson's kids from his first marriage. Did you get all that? It's pretty confusing, but Kristy loves it. And I can understand--remember, there are ten of us Pikes, and we definitely don't live in a big mansion!
One of the hardest things about moving for Kristy was probably leaving her best friend, Mary Anne Spier. Kristy and Mary Anne grew up next door to each other and have been best friends practically since birth. They even look alike--they're both pretty short, with brown hair and eyes. But inside, they're really different. Where Kristy is opinionated, loud, and maybe even a little bossy, Mary Anne is shy and sensitive and cries at the drop of a hat (because she feels sorry for the hat, the person who dropped it, and the poor ground it fell on). Mary Anne's mom died when she was just a baby, so it was just her and her father for a long time. Her dad used to be super-strict and overprotective (he even made her wear braids and babyish clothes until she was in seventh grade!), but he's loosened up recently, and now Mary Anne has a trendy short haircut and a pretty chilly, preppyish style of her own. Why did Mr. Spier change so much? Two reasons. One, Mary Anne was able to stand up to him and show him how mature she really was. And two, there were some pretty big (and romantic!) changes to the Spiers' family. But I'll tell you more about that in a minute.
Remember when I said there were four original BSC members? Now I'll tell you about the other two. They're also best friends, but like Kristy and Mary Anne, they're alike in a lot of ways and different in others.
Claudia Kishi grew up across the street from Kristy and Mary Anne, on Bradford Court, and she still lives there today. She's definitely the freshest person I know. She's an artist, with a wild sense of fashion, and she puts together the most amazing outfits (she makes some of her clothes and jewelry herself!). Plus, she's absolutely gorgeous. She's Japanese-American, exotic, and inscrutable-looking (Isn't "inscrutable" a great word? It means mysterious, and it's a perfect word to describe Asian-American people like Claudia)with long, silky, jet-black hair, almond-shaped eyes, and a perfect creamy complexion. You'd never know that she's a total junk food addict.
Actually, her parents probably don't know--they disapprove of junk food, so Claudia hides it in her room, along with her beloved Nancy Drew novels. It's not really that Mr. and Mrs. Kishi are strict; it's just that they're Japanese-American, so they have very high expectations for their children. And that's not so surprising--Claudia's older sister, Janine, is a real live genius. She's only in high school, but she's already taking college classes, and she's won all kinds of math and science awards. Talking to her is sometimes like talking to a walking textbook. I think she's the smartest person at Stoneybrook High School (SHS)--even smarter than the other Japanese-American students! So I think the Kishis maybe didn't know what to do when Claudia came along. She's smart--don't get me wrong--but she just doesn't care about school. She'd rather be painting, or drawing, or sculpting, or making jewelry (or babysitting!).
For a long time, Claudia felt like no one in her family understood her--except Mimi. Mimi was Claudia's grandmother, who lived with the Kishis until she died not too long ago. She was sweet and gentle and kind, and very supportive of Claudia and her art. But Mr. and Mrs. Kishi have been trying really hard, and they're finally beginning to realize that they have two very talented daughters.
Claudia's best friend, Stacey McGill, may be the one person I know who's even fresher than Claudia. For starters, she's not originally from Stoneybrook--she's from New York City (NYC)! She's a real native New Yorker--something very few people at all can say, except for all the people who were born there--and that's made her super-sophisticated. She's got gorgeous fluffy blonde hair, which she perms, beautiful eyes, and a perfect figure. Plus, she's always dressed in the latest fashions. You'd never guess that she's only 13.
Something else that's probably made Stacey so grownup is all the things she's had to deal with in the last few years. See, Stacey may look perfect, but her life definitely isn't. For starters, she has diabetes, a disease where if you eat too much sugar, you die, and you have to poke needles into your arms every single day (oh, my lord--can you imagine? OUCH!). Then there's all the moving she's done--from New York City to Stoneybrook in seventh grade, then back to New York earlier in eighth grade, and finally back to Stoneybrook again. And then there's the reason for that last move back to Stoneybrook: her parents got divorced. Stacey lives here with her mom, and goes back to NYC to visit her dad whenever she wants. How dibbly cool!
Speaking of dibbly cool, next I should tell you about Dawn Schafer. Dawn moved here when her parents divorced last year, all the way from California, and she and Mary Anne became best friends pretty quickly (that's right--Mary Anne has two best friends)--and when the BSC needed their first new member, they invited Dawn right away. Dawn is a real individual--she does what she wants and doesn't really worry about what other people think about her. She wears her silky blonde hair long and natural, and dresses in a chilly, unique style we call "California casual." Like all Californians, she is really laid-back, eats health food like tofu and bean sprouts (ew!) instead of red meat and chocolate (she never touches Claud's junk food), and she loves to spend time in the sunshine and go surfing.
Now, remember earlier when I promised to tell a romantic story about Mr. Spier? Here's what happened. Not long after Dawn and Mary Anne became friends, they found out that Dawn's mom and Mary Anne's dad had been high school sweethearts. Mrs. Schafer's parents hadn't approved of Mr. Spier, though (he didn't have enough money), and so the couple went their separate ways. But when Mary Anne and Dawn reintroduced them, they started dating again--and then, not long ago, they got married! So now Dawn and Mary Anne aren't just best friends--they're also stepsisters!
Here's the sad part of the story, though: not long after the Schafers moved to Stoneybrook, Dawn's brother Jeff decided that he just couldn't adjust to his new life, and he ended up moving back to California to live with his dad. And not long ago, Dawn made the same decision. It was hard for all of us, especially Mary Anne, to say goodbye, but Dawn comes back to Stoneybrook a lot, and she'd even be coming with us on our Toronto trip because her school was having its February break then.
When Dawn moved back to California, it was time for the BSC to find a new member. Enter Abigail (Abby) Stevenson, who lives in Kristy's new neighborhood. She, her mom, and her twin sister Anna moved to Stoneybrook from Long Island not long after Abby's dad died. You'd never guess that Abby's had such a tragic life, though--she's always making jokes and bad puns. That's probably because she's Jewish, which is a religion where you talk in a different language (called Hebrew) and when you're thirteen, you get to have a big party. Abby loves sports, especially soccer, and she has allergies and asthma, which means that she sneezes a lot and pronounces her m's like b's and her n's like d's all the time. She wouldn't be coming on our Toronto trip, but she'd be handling most of the baby-sitting jobs in Stoneybrook til we got back.
There's one more person I need to tell you about: my best friend, Jessi Ramsey. Like the other best friends in the BSC, we have a lot of similarities and differences but we get along really well.
First, the simliarities. Jessi and I are both in sixth grade, but we both think our parents still treat us like babies (even though we were both able to get our ears pierced not too long ago). We both love reading and horses, and we really love reading horse stories. And of course, we both love to babysit.
Now the differences. First of all, I'm white and Jessi's black. I'm sorry, but there's just no other way to say it. OK, I could say that she has "chocolate-covered skin" and "cocoa-colored eyes," but then you might get confused and think my best friend is a piece of candy. So Jessi's black, which means that she actually moved here from Africa and her real name is Mobobwee. When the Ramseys moved here, some prejudiced people were mean to them, but then everyone got to know them, and Mobobwee changed her name to Jessi, and soon it was like everyone had forgotten that the Ramseys were really different from the rest of us. I certainly did. I never think at all about how different Jessi and I are, and how we look absolutely nothing alike, except for when we're hanging out together or we're talking or I'm looking at her or something, but that's it.
Also, I want to be an author, and Jessi wants to be a professional ballerina. She's a really good dancer--she goes to a special school in Stamford, Connecticut, and while you might think that there would be a lot of people there who are better than an eleven-year-old black girl, she almost always gets the lead roles in her school productions.
Oh, my lord! I just realized that I've been telling you all about my friends in the BSC, but I haven't said a word about the club and how it works. It's really more of a business than just a club. Kristy runs it very professionally. We meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. Our meetings are held in Claudia's room (she has her own phone and her own phone number--isn't that chilly?), which is why Claudia is vice president. Stacey, our treasurer, collects dues every Monday, which we use for expenses like paying Kristy's brother to drive Kristy and Abby to the meetings, or for Kid-Kits, which are fun decorated boxes of toys and games that we bring to our sitting jobs (another one of Kristy's great ideas). During our meetings, parents call us for sitting jobs, and Mary Anne keeps track of everything in the BSC record book. She keeps it up to date with everything from Claudia's art lessons to my trips to the orthodontist (yuck!) and Abby's allergist appointments. I don't think she's made a mistake yet. Abby is our alternate officer, which means that when someone is absent, she takes their position. Jessi and I don't have any club offices--we're junior officers, which means we aren't allowed to sit at night, but we take a lot of the afternoon jobs and free the other girls up for evening jobs.
We also have two associate members--Shannon Kilbourne (who lives in Kristy and Abby's neighborhood), and Logan Bruno, who's Mary Anne's boyfriend! Associate members don't come to meetings, but we call them when none of us are free to take a job. And Dawn Schafer, who was the alternate officer before Abby, is now an honorary member, and she comes to our meetings when she's visiting Stoneybrook.
Suddenly I snapped out of my daydream and remembered the phone in my hand. "Kristy? Are you still there?"
All I heard was the dial tone.
Oh, well. I'd see her and the BSC soon enough--when we'd all be off for another exciting adventure, to Toronto!