"Martin, Ann M - Bsc Special Edition Shannon's Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)
My mom smiled a little. "My grandmother used to garden. But I never did like it very much. You have to wait so long for the flowers to come up after you put the seeds in."
I laughed and shook my head. "You're into instant gratification? I didn't know adults were allowed to do that!"
My mom didn't laugh. In fact, she looked
kind of sad. "I don't know what I'm into," she said after a moment. Then, quickly, "Listen, Shannon, why don't you have your meeting over here? I could make some cookies and . . ."
"We always have it at Claudia's because Claudia has her own phone. Our clients all call us at that number. They expect us to be there, Mom." I tried not to sound impatient, but I knew my mom knew this.
"Oh." A one-two punch. She sounded both disapproving and disappointed.
"Tiffany's garden looked pretty good from the bedroom window, Mom," I went on. "You ought to go check it out." Wow, who did I sound like? In fact, what did this whole conversation remind me of? Well, I didn't have time to think about it just then. I stood up and bounded down the stairs.
"Gotta go," I said and shot past Mom and out the door before she could make any more suggestions. Kristy Thomas, the founder and president of the BSC, is a real stickler for punctuality. She lives across the street from me, and her brother Charlie drives her to meetings. Today he was giving me a ride, too.
Kristy must have been hovering by the front door, because it opened before I even dashed up the steps. "We're ready, Charlie!" she
called back into the house without even saying hello.
That was cool. I was used to Kristy's ways now. When we'd first met, we hadn't liked each other at all. Kristy was new to the neighborhood and she thought I was an awful snob, and I thought she was a jerk who was stealing all my baby-sitting jobs. But we'd gotten past that and Kristy had even invited me to join the BSC as an associate member, to help out when other members couldn't take babysitting jobs. Now, with the BSC's regular member, alternate officer Dawn Schafer, making a long visit to her father and younger brother on the Coast (the West Coast, as in California), I was attending a lot more meetings. And doing a lot more baby-sitting. I didn't mind, though. Not only were the meetings fun and the work, too (mostly), but I was saving every penny for my trip to Paris.
"Punctuality is the courtesy of kings," announced Kristy as Charlie slid into the car, where Kristy had already hustled me. She was talking to Charlie but I knew her comment was also aimed at me. I hid a smile. King Kristy? With Kristy, it just might happen.
"Hey, they're not going to start without the president, are they?" Charlie teased.
Kristy looked stern for a moment longer,
then her face relaxed into a grin. "They'll start on Claudia's stash of treats without me," she said.
"That's for sure/' I agreed and we gave each other a knowing look.
Claudia Kishi, artist and maverick student, is a secret reader of Nancy Drew books. Hidden around her room at any given moment you are likely to find at least half a dozen Nancy Drews. (Claudia's parents just don't understand why Claudia won't read more "serious" books, the way her older sister Janine does. Janine's a high school student who is a genuine genius. She even takes college courses because she's advanced beyond what the high school can teach her in some subjects.)
Guess what. Claudia is also a world-class junk food addict. A collector's cache of junk food is part of Claudia's hidden decor. You think I'm kidding? You haven't watched Claudia reach down behind an open drawer and produce chocolate-covered coffee beans, or slide her hand between her mattress and box springs and pull out chocolate-covered Oreos and half a box of graham crackers.
We rode the rest of the way to Claudia's comparing Claudia Kishi junk food notes (Charlie couldn't believe it!) and we got there with three minutes to spare.
Janine let us in.
"Merci," I said airily as we charged up the stairs to Claudia's room.
"Ban aprЈs-midi," replied Janine, wishing us good afternoon in French without missing a beat. A genius, see what I mean?
Claudia was just passing around a package of Mallomars and a package of oatmeal raisin Frookies. Mallomars are a big club favorite and I knew they'd be gone before the meeting was over. The Frookies, which are special healthy cookies made without sugar, would last a little longer.
The Frookies are for Stacey McGill, mainly, and Dawn (when she's here). You'll hear more about them and everyone in the BSC later, but first I should tell you how the club works.
In what seemed like no time at all, the BSC was set up, meeting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons at Claudia's from 5:30 until 6:00. That's when clients call to set up baby-sitting jobs. The three original members of the BSC, Kristy, Claudia (BSC vice-president
who lived across the street from her), and Mary Anne (BSC secretary who lived next door to Kristy and had been Kristy's best friend forever), weren't sure three people were enough for a club. So they invited Stacey McGill, who was new in town and becoming friends with Claudia, to join. She became the treasurer. Then Dawn Schafer followed, to become the alternate officer. That means she takes over the duties of anyone who can't make a meeting. Then came Jessica Ramsey and Mallory Pike as junior officers. Now there is one other associate member, too: Logan Bruno (who is also Mary Anne's boyfriend). Associate members don't have to attend meetings, but they can, and they also take any jobs that won't fit into the BSC schedule.
Kristy not only thought up the BSC, she also added other Kristy touches — like the record book, the notebook, and Kid-Kits.
The record book is where we keep all our appointments. Plus a list of clients and any special information about them, plus a record of our dues and expenses. The record book is the secretary's responsibility, except for the money part, which is the treasurer's.
We all use the notebook. We have to write about every job in it and read each other's entries. It helps us keep up with what's going on in regular clients' lives (like who's teething
or who's developed a new passion for dogs, for example). It also helps us learn how to deal with new problems that come up — we learn from what others write down.
Kid-Kits? They are boxes we've all fixed up with puzzles, games, toys, books, colored pencils, stamps, stickers, and all kinds of fun things. Some of it is our old sniff. Some of it we buy out of BSC funds. We take the kits on some jobs and the kids love them. Even though some of the toys and books are old, they're new to the kids. And, as Kristy noticed, kids always love to play with other kids' toys!
So. Back to the members of the BSC.
I settled down on the floor with a couple of Mallomars and looked at Stacey as she took a Frookie out of the box, offered them to everyone else, and then put them down on the floor next to her.
Stacey, who as you now know is the BSC treasurer, is a math whiz. She is also diabetic. That means that she has to watch what she eats very carefully (no sugar! yuck) and even give herself shots or else she could get very, very sick. But Stacey is cool about it. In fact, she may be one of the coolest people I know, generally. For one thing, she is from New York City, which makes her just a little more sophisticated than most the kids her age around
Stoneybrook. She is tall and thin and has long blonde hair and is a way cool — no, make that trЈs cool — dresser. (When you have to wear a uniform to school every day you particularly notice these things.)
Stacey lives with her mother. She came to Stoneybrook with her mother and her father, but then they got divorced after her family moved back to New York City. So Stacey returned to Stoneybrook with her mother (and are we ever glad she did.) Now Stacey visits her father in New York, which makes her bi-city (we tease Dawn about being bi-coastal because she has a family on both coasts) and keeps us posted on all the important cool things she thinks we need to know.
Given Stacey's style, it's not surprising that Claudia is her best friend. As I said earlier, Claud is an artist, with her own unique vision of the world (a vision that does not include liking school or being an honor role student!) and of the clothes she wears. For example, today Stacey looked ultra-city in black: black leggings, a black sweater, a big black belt with an oversized buckle, black Doc Martens, and her hair pulled back with a black and gold scarf that picked up the gold of the gold chain earrings she was wearing.
Claudia was beyond the city, maybe into outer space and looking outrageous, artisti-
cally terrific: an enormous pair of pants held up with a man's belt and a pair of neon purple suspenders, an enormous purple T-shirt over a tie-dyed long-underwear top, her long black hair pulled back into a braid clipped at intervals with little-kid barrettes, and these dangly peace-sign earrings.
Claudia always looks incredibly beautiful in anything she wears. In fact, she's probably the only person I know who could wear some of the clothes she wears!
Mary Anne is the opposite of Claudia and Stacey, style-wise and sophistication-wise. Until recently, Mary Anne was an only child, raised by her very caring but very strict father. It's not that Mr. Spier was an ogre, it's just that, as a single parent (Mary Anne's mother died when Mary Anne was just a baby) he didn't want to make any mistakes. Mary Anne had to work pretty hard to convince him she was growing up and could choose her own clothes and not wear her hair in little-kid pigtails. But although Mary Anne is one of the shyest and most sensitive, tender-hearted people in the known universe, she is also one of the strongest underneath. She toughed it out, and not only changed her wardrobe to something a little more typical Stoneybrook Middle School, she acquired a kitten, Tigger, and a boyfriend, Logan Bruno.
And then she acquired a whole new family, with the help of Dawn Schafer.
This is how it happened:
Dawn's mother grew up in Stoneybrook, moved away, and eventually got married. When she and Dawn's father got divorced, Mrs. Schafer moved back to Stoneybrook with Dawn and her younger brother Jeff. When Dawn and Mary Anne discovered that Mr. Spier and Mrs. Schafer were high school sweethearts, they did some matchmaking, and now Dawn and Mary Anne are sisters as well as friends. The new combined Schafer-Spier family lives in an old farmhouse (that might even be haunted), although Jeff eventually decided to move back to California and stay with his dad. Now Dawn is out in California visiting them for awhile.
Dawn is the third blonde in the BSC, except she has pale,, pale long blonde hair. She's a casual dresser, and wears two earrings in each ear. She's very much into ecology and saving the earth, and she eats no red meat and hardly any sugar or junk food. That's why, if Dawn had been at the meeting, she'd be sharing the Frookies with Stacey. Like Mary Anne, Dawn has deep-rooted, strong, and sometimes stubborn feelings (about things such as the environment). But unlike Mary Anne, Dawn is quick to say what's on her mind, although not
in a negative way. Overall, she's pretty easygoing, which makes her a good baby-sitter — and a good alternate officer.
Jessica Ramsey and Mallory Pike are eleven and in sixth grade and are younger than the rest of us (we're all thirteen and in eighth grade). As junior officers, they can't baby-sit at night (unless it's for their own families), just afternoons and weekend days.
Like Kristy and Mary Anne (and Mary Anne and Dawn), and Stacey and Claudia, they are best friends. Mallory comes from a huge family. She has four brothers (three of them are triplets) and three sisters. Needless to say, the Pike family calls on the BSC quite a bit. In fact, that's how the BSC members first met Mallory, who was one of the baby-sittees. But when the club needed more members, it seemed natural to turn to Mallory.
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