Stacey And The Mystery Of Stoneybrook (2 page)

shoes. But Kristy's all right. She's had a crazy year or so, and I'd have to say she's dealing with it really well.

While Kristy was starting the dub, her mom was falling in love with a real, true millionaire named Watson Brewer. They got married, and Kristy moved across town to live in his — get this — mansion. She wasn't crazy about Watson
or
the move at first, but she did like Watson's kids, her new stepbrother and stepsister, Andrew and Karen. And just as the two families were starting to become one, Kristy's mom and Mr. Brewer decided to adopt Emily Michelle, a two-year-old Vietnamese girl. (She's
adorable.)
And then Kristy's grandmother, Nannie, moved in to help take care of Emily! So it's a pretty full house right now, especially when you throw in Shannon, the Bernese mountain dog puppy, and Boo-Boo, the fat, mean, geriatric cat. But they all seem to be getting along well, and Kristy likes her new house, new family, and new neighborhood better all the time.

As I mentioned before, Claudia Kishi (my best friend, remember?) is the vice-president of the dub. Claudia is, well. . .
gorgeous.
She's Japanese-American and has L-O-N-G silky black hair, a perfect complexion (despite her incurable junk-food habit), and almond-shaped eyes. And if there's anyone in town who's a wilder, more sophisticated dresser than me, it's got to be Claud. She's a really talented artist, and she's always putting together the most outrageous outfits, then accessorizing them with even more outrageous jewelry, which, of course, she's made herself.

Claud's likes and dislikes? Likes: reading Nancy Drew mysteries. Dislikes: studying. Has a love/hate relationship with her genius older sister, Janine. Misses: her grandmother Mimi, whom she was really close to. Mimi died not long ago and actually we
all
miss her.

Mary Anne Spier, the club secretary, has brown hair and brown eyes, just like Kristy. But while Kristy is loudmouthed and always in the spotlight, Mary Anne is extremely shy and sensitive. (And I mean
sensitive.
She cries at the drop of a hat — probably because she feels sorry for the poor hat!) Mary Anne grew up with just her father. Her mom died when she was really little. For years, Mr. Spier was incredibly strict with Mary Anne, but he's finally begun to loosen up. He even let her get a kitten!

If there's anybody, besides her father, that Mary Anne loves more than Tigger (that's her kitten), it's her boyfriend, Logan Bruno. I always think it's kind of weird that Mary Anne,

who is the shyest girl in the Baby-sitters Club, is the only one of us who has a steady boyfriend. I guess Logan must like Mary Anne for the same reasons all of us do: She's understanding, a good listener, and really a lot of fun.

Mary Anne is another one who's had a major change in her life recently, but before I go into that, let me tell you about Dawn Schafer, since she's got something to do with that change.

Dawn is the alternate officer of the club, which means that she can fill in for any of the other officers if they can't make it to a meeting. (She was treasurer the whole time I was living in New York.) Dawn moved here from California when her parents got a divorce. Her mom had grown up here, so it was natural that she'd want to come back. Their first year in Stoneybrook was kind of rough. Dawn's little brother, Jeff, didn't adjust well to the move. He never stopped missing his dad and feeling homesick for California. So finally, he moved back there to live with his dad. I know Dawn misses him a lot. But she's really close to her mom, and she loves the house they live in — it was built in 1795 and it has a secret passage and maybe even a real ghost. Honest.

Even though she's lived here for almost two

years now, Dawn still looks like a California girl. She dresses like a true individual, and she's got long, long pale blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. She's into health food in a major way, and it doesn't seem to bother her at all when we all make gagging noises at her tofu salads. Dawn just is who she is: She's got a lot of self-confidence and she doesn't seem to care too much about what other people think.

Now, remember when I said that Dawn had something to do with the big change in Mary Anne's life? Well, get this: Dawn's mother recently got married. Who did she marry? Mary Anne's father! Can you believe it? They used to date each other in high school when they were growing up, right here in Stoneybrook. Then, when Mrs. Schafer moved back here, the romance began all over again.

So Dawn and Mary Anne are now stepsisters! And I can't say that the transition from friends to relatives was an easy one for them. When Mary Anne, her father, and Tigger first moved into Dawn's house, things were more than a little rocky for awhile. But it seems as if they're all getting along much better now.

Okay, there are still two more members of the club, our junior officers, Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey. They were both asked to join

while I was away in New York last year and the other members couldn't quite keep up with all the jobs they were offered. Of course, they're still members even though I'm back now. They're called junior officers because they're two years younger than the rest of us — they're in sixth grade — and aren't allowed to sit at night, except for their own brothers and sisters. But there are plenty of day jobs to keep them busy. Mallory and Jessi are both great sitters, and we were lucky to get them for the club.

Mallory's a good sitter partly because she comes from a huge family. She has seven younger sisters and brothers! The Pikes have always been major clients of ours — Mal is actually someone we used to sit for. But she was a big help even then, and now she's grown up a lot. She knows just about everything about kids — she's seen it all!

Mal loves to read and write — in fact, she's thinking of becoming a children's book author someday. Her favorite books to read are horse stories. I think she's read
Misty of Chincoteague
something like seventy-six times!

Mal's main problem is being eleven. That's right, being eleven. She feels more grown-up than her parents are ready to let her be. (That's a funny way to put it, but you know what I

mean.) She wants to get contacts, instead of wearing glasses, and she hates her braces with a passion. At least her parents finally let her get her hair cut and her ears pierced. As for the rest, I guess she'll just have to be patient. That's easy to say, but I know how hard that can be.

Mallory's best friend is, guess who, Jessi Ramsey. They became best friends almost right away, when Jessi's family moved here last year. I guess Mal really needed somebody right then, and I
know
Jessi did. Her family had a hard time when they first moved to Stoneybrook. Why? Because they're black, and there are hardly any other black families in town. I know, it shouldn't make a difference
what
color someone is, but it did to a lot of people. It was so unfair! I think things are better for the Ramseys now. Jessi's little sister, Becca (short for Rebecca), has a best friend, and her baby brother, Squirt (his real name is John Philip Ramsey, Jr., but Squirt fits him much better), would be happy anywhere. Plus, the neighbors have seen that the Ramseys are simply a very nice family. By the way, guess where Jessi lives — in my old house!

Jessi loves horse stories, too, but her real passion is ballet. Jessi's a really talented dancer, and she puts a ton of work into practicing.

She takes lessons twice a week in Stamford, and believe me, they're
serious
lessons.

So, that's everyone. Oops! I almost forgot to mention our two associate members, Logan Bruno (Mary Anne's boyfriend) and Shannon Kilbourne, a friend of Kristy's from her new neighborhood. They don't come to meetings, but they are available to fill in for us when we have too many jobs to handle ourselves.

Whew! I think that's really everyone. What a crew! As I wheeled my bike into Claud's driveway, I glanced at my watch. Only minutes to spare. I would make it on time after all.

Chapter 3.

I pounded up the stairs, out of breath. Had I made it? Just as I got to the door of Claud's room, I heard Kristy's voice.

"And then, on top of everything, Shannon got into the garbage. I walk into the kitchen and I see coffee grounds and chicken bones all over the floor!"

"Ew! You're kidding! Oh, ew." That was Mary Anne. I had a feeling that Kristy was talking about Shannon the puppy, not Shannon the Associate Member of the Baby-sitters Club.

Club meetings always start at five-thirty on the dot, as soon as Claud's digital clock flips over from five twenty-nine. The clock read five twenty-eight, so I had arrived in plenty of time. I settled onto Claud's bed next to Mary Anne, who was talking to Dawn. (Dawn was sitting backward in Claud's desk chair.) They

were in the middle of an intense discussion regarding the exact color of Cam Geary's eyes, Cam Geary being Mary Anne's favorite star.

Most of Claudia was inside her closet. She was poking her hand into every compartment of her shoe bag. I had an idea of what she might be looking for, and sure enough, when she finally backed out of the closet, she was gripping a bag of M&M's in one hand and a package of Twinkies in the other. Plus she had a Twix bar clenched between her teeth. Claudia's parents, as you might guess, don't exactly approve of her junk-food habit, so she has to stash the stuff all over her room.

I was bursting with all the things I'd done on the weekend. I couldn't wait to tell everyone about how I'd spotted Gary Rockman, but Mallory grabbed their attention first.

"Did you guys see that old house at the end of Elm Street? They're tearing it down!"

That was my street. She must mean the other end, though,
away
from Claudia's house. There weren't all that many really old houses down at this end. But what was the big deal about a house being torn down? I started to say something about Gary Rockman, but Claud interrupted me.

"You're kidding! They're demolishing that

old place? I thought it was some kind of historical landmark. I thought they
couldn't
tear it down."

"I heard that some company wants to build condos there and got around that rule somehow," chimed in Mary Anne. "That house is the only one still standing in that whole area, and they're not about to let it get in their way."

I couldn't believe how fascinated everyone was with the "news" about some dumb old house. I guess that's what happens when you live in Stoneybrook all your life.
Anything
seems exciting.

"Order," said Kristy just then, making all of us jump. I looked at the clock. Sure enough. Five-thirty had just clicked into place. Kristy sat, as usual/in the director's chair. She wore her visor (I guess it makes her feel presidential), and she had a pencil stuck over her ear.

Kristy does a great job as president of the club, I must say. Dawn's always kind of wishing that Kristy would miss a meeting sometime — then, as alternate officer, Dawn would get to be president-for-a-day. But it's never happened yet. It's hard to imagine Kristy missing a meeting, and it's even harder to imagine anyone else as president.

"Has everyone read the club notebook?" Kristy asked. We all groaned.

"I thought you promised not to ask us that anymore," said Claud. "I thought you were going to have some
trust
in your best friends!"

The dub notebook is kind of like a diary of the jobs we've been on. We're all supposed to write in it after every job and read it once a week or so. It's not really a bad idea — often it's pretty interesting to read and lots of times there's information in it that's helpful to us. But there's something about that notebook. . . . Sometimes it's almost like homework — and Kristy's the teacher.

Anyway, we all said we'd read it. It's a habit by now.

"M&M's?" offered Claud, passing them around. Everyone except for Dawn and me shook out a few. I'm really glad Dawn's a health-food freak because then I'm not the only one always turning down Claud's treats.

"Oh, sorry, Stace — sorry, Dawn. Here, let me find . . ." Claud rummaged around in a box under her bed marked
charcaols.
(I told you she hates to study. She's an awful speller.) She came up with a box of whole wheat crackers and tossed it to me. I caught it but handed it right over to Dawn without even opening it. Dawn gave me a curious look, which I pretended not to notice. I didn't really want to call any attention to the fact that my diabetes

seemed harder than ever to control.

"Ahem," said Kristy. "Are we all settled? May we proceed with the business at hand?"

Where'd she learn to talk like
that?
We all looked at each other and started to giggle. Kristy looked a little ticked off at first, but then she cracked up, too.

Just then, the phone rang. The first call! Kristy grabbed the phone. "Baby-sitters Club. Can I help you?" She listened for a moment.

"No problem, Mrs. Newton. We'll get right back to you." Kristy hung up and turned to Mary Anne. "How does the schedule look for tomorrow afternoon?" she asked. "Mrs. Newton needs someone to watch Jamie while she takes Lucy to the pediatrician for a checkup."

I'd have liked the job — Jamie's a great kid, and we all like to sit for him — but Mary Anne looked in the record book and reminded me that I already had a job, sitting at the Pikes' with Mallory. (The Pikes are always a two-sitter job.)

"And Jessi has ballet, and Dawn is staying late at school tomorrow, and Claud, you have art class. That leaves you and me, Kristy," Mary Anne continued. She's incredible, the way she keeps the record book up-to-date with all of our activities. Not only that, she's also on top of all the other stuff in the record book,