"BSC038 - Kristy's Mystery Admirer - Martin, Ann M" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

"I'm not pretty in my Krushers outfit?" I asked. I was just teasing, but Bart blushed even redder. "Come on," I said. "Don't worry about it. I'm just giving you a hard time. So how's school?"
"Fine. The same old stuff."
"Yeah. For me, too."
"How's the Baby-sitters Club?"
"Great!" (My friends and I have a club that is really a business. We baby-sit for the families in our neighborhoods. I'll tell you more about it later.)
"And how are your friends?"
"What is this? A talk show?" I said, laughing.
Bart grinned. "I don't know. I mean, no. I just want to hear about your life . . . instead of softball."
I looked at Bart seriously. "Well, let's see. Mallory's really happy because she's going out with a guy for the first time. Claudia's doing better in school. But I'm a little worried about Stacey."
"Stacey," repeated Bart. "She's the one with diabetes, right?"
I nodded. "She's never really sick. She just doesn't seem well sometimes, if you know what I mean."
Bart nodded.
"How about you?" I asked. "How's everything?"
"Not bad. Kyle gets on my nerves, but I can handle him." (Kyle is Bart's little brother.) "My parents bug me, though. They hate it when my band practices in the basement."
"You have a band?" I said in amazement.
"Yup."
"What do you play?"
"Guitar. Electric, acoustic, any kind."
"I didn't know that. So have you had any . . . what are they called?"
"Gigs," supplied Bart. "Yeah, a couple. We
could get a lot more, though, if we could find a place to practice. No one wants us in their basement."
"What about a garage?"
"The neighbors complain."
"Oh."
Bart and I talked about his band and music and school until, before I knew it, we had reached my house.
Emily, my adopted sister, was sitting on the front steps with Nannie, my grandmother. She came flying out to meet me and gave me a tight hug around the knees.
"Hi, Emily," I said, picking her up. Then I called, "Hi, Nannie!"
Nannie waved to me.
"Well," said Bart, "I better get going. I told Mom I'd come home right after the game. But, urn, I'll see you soon, okay?"
"Next game," I said.
"Maybe before that," Bart replied, and he walked off, whistling. I stared after him.
Chapter 2.
"Hello, Emily-Boo," I said to my little sister.
I carried her back to Nannie.
"I heard about the game today," said Nannie immediately. "David Michael was so excited, he could hardly stand it."
"Yeah, the Krushers played pretty well today." I turned to Emily. "Maybe someday you'll be a Krusher, too. Do you want to play softball?"
"Yes," replied Emily. (I knew she hadn't understood the question.)
Emily and Nannie and I went inside. Our house is sort of big. Actually, it's a mansion. My stepfather, Watson, is a millionaire. But thank goodness for the big house. When Mom married Watson we moved from our tiny house into his and needed room not just for Watson, my mother, my three brothers, and me, but for Karen and Andrew, and now Emily and Nannie. (Nannie is Mom's mother, my
special grandmother who doesn't act like a grandmother at all. She goes bowling, wears pants, and has tons of friends.)
Anyway, Nannie began making dinner, so I watched Emily. When the phone rang, I shouted, "I'll get it!"
I picked up the phone in the den. "Hello?"
"Hi, it's me, Shannon."
"Hi!" Shannon lives across the street and she's the first friend I made when I moved into this ritzy neighborhood. (Well, we became friends after we stopped hating each other.) We don't see each other much, though, since she goes to Bart's school. She is a member of the Baby-sitters Club (BSC), but she doesn't come to meetings. (More about that later.)
"How'd the game go?" Shannon wanted to know.
I told her every last detail, and she was almost as excited as I was.
"Maybe I'll come to the next game," she said.
When we got off the phone, I felt happy — and lucky. I have an awfully nice group of friends in the BSC.
Emily came into the den then to watch Sesame Street. (She can't tell time, but somehow she always knows when the show is on.) I let Bert and Ernie and Big Bird and Cookie Mon-
ster fade into the background as I thought about my friends.
My best friend is Mary Anne Spier, the secretary of the club. (I am the president.) I used to live next door to her until Mom married Watson. Before I moved to Watson's, Mary Anne and I had grown up together. I lived with my mom and my brothers and my father — until he moved out. But Mary Anne lived with just her father, since her mother died when Mary Anne was really little.