Ann Martin - Baby-Sitters Club 037

BSC037 - Dawn and the Older Boy - Martin, Ann M.

Chapter 1.

I don't think orange is your color," Claudia Kishi said thoughtfully. "You're more the peaches-and-cream type, with your light skin and blonde hair." "Mmm, I think you're right." I stared at myself in the mirror and reached for a tissue. The orange lipstick had to go. I looked like I had just kissed a pumpkin.

"Try this," Claudia went on, handing me a tube of gooey pink lip gloss. It reminded me of used bubble gum.

Claudia caught the expression on my face and burst out laughing. "Trust me, Dawn. It will be fantastic on you." Claudia is an artist and can see shapes and colors in a way that nobody else can. It's a good thing that Claudia is creative because she's not the world's best student. (She's an especially bad speller.) And just to make things worse, she has this incredibly brainy older sister named Janine. Janine is the type of girl who sits around doing quadratic equations for fun. Honest.

But back to the story. I glanced around Kristy Thomas's bedroom and saw that all six of my friends were experimenting with lipstick and nail polish. A few of them, like Stacey McGill, were even trying out new hairstyles. It was a sort of mass "make-over," and there was a lot of giggling going on. (And some of the "befores" looked better than the "afters," if you know what I mean.) I guess I should stop right here and introduce everybody before I tell you anything else about the sleepover at Kristy's. First of all, the seven of us are members of the Baby-sitters Club (or BSC), which I'll explain about later. My name is Dawn Schafer, and I am the alternate officer of the club. I live in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, and I am thirteen years old. My friends all say I look like a California girl with my long blonde hair and sparkly blue eyes. This makes sense since I lived in California before my parents got divorced and my mom and my brother Jeff and I moved to Stoneybrook. Now Jeff lives in California again with my father (he just wasn't happy in Connecticut), and sometimes I go back to visit. What else would you like to know? Well, I love the outdoors, I'm a vegetarian, and I try to eat a healthy diet. (Unlike Claudia, who thinks Gummi Bears are nature's perfect food.) Claudia is a beautiful, dramatic-looking Japanese-American who loves exotic clothes. (She's also the vice-president of the BSC.) Claudia's one of those people who can wear anything and get away with it. Today, for example, she had stuck to two colors: black and white. Black cotton bib overalls over a white turtleneck with a shiny black patent leather belt looped around her waist. Black suede ankle boots and white cotton socks. Long black hair swept off her face with giant white plastic barrettes. Anyone else would look like a penguin in that get-up, but Claudia looked great.

"What do you think?" she asked, holding up a white hoop earring next to her face. "Too much?" I nodded. "Maybe just a little." The earring was the size of a doorknob.

"Hey, Dawn, will you take a look at my hair?" asked Mary Anne. Mary Anne Spier is my stepsister (my mother married Richard, her father) and she is also my best friend. Mary Anne is a lot less daring with clothes and makeup than I am, but she has grown up quite a bit in the past year.

When I first met Mary Anne, she looked like a little girl. She was wearing little-girl clothes and, worst of all, she was wearing her brown hair in two long pigtails. Awful! When I got to know her better, I realized that she's really sweet and very sensitive, and that she dressed that way because her father picked out her clothes. See, Mary Anne's mother died when Mary Anne was just a baby, so her father has always been very protective of her. Luckily, he's loosened up a lot since he married my mom, and Mary Anne looks like a regular thirteen-year-old now. And she even has a steady boyfriend. She's the only one of us BSC members who can make that claim. Her boyfriend is named Logan Bruno, and he's part of the club, too. Mary Anne is the club secretary.

"What's the problem?" I asked, scooting over to her side of the room. The minute the words were out of my mouth, I knew the answer.

Stacey McGill (a real New York girl) was busily "scrunching" Mary Anne's long brown hair into a tangled mane that trailed down her back. Very hip, very in, but not very "Mary Anne." I thought it looked fantastic, but I knew that Mary Anne was unhappy with it. Mary Anne usually wears her hair in a smooth style; she's used to seeing herself in a certain way. (I should explain that Mary Anne would never complain to Stacey, because she doesn't like to hurt anyone's feelings.) "Honestly, Mary Anne, if you'd just keep your hands out of the way, this would go a lot quicker." Stacey had scrunched her own hair into a cloud of blonde curls and was trying for the same effect with my stepsister.

Mary Anne shot me a desperate look in the mirror, just as Stacey gave a final pat to her hair and said pointedly, "Doesn't she look great?" I was on the spot. "I think it's a nice change," I began. "Of course, you wouldn't have to wear it that way every day." "She should. It's a big improvement," Stacey said flatly. Stacey McGill, the club treasurer, is very fashion-conscious and always wears the newest, trendiest clothes. She is sophisticated, like Claudia (who happens to be her best friend), and she has boyfriends sometimes, but no steady ones. She's an only child and grew up in New York City until her father's company transferred him to Connecticut. The McGills had lived in Stoneybrook for a year when her father was sent back to New York. We all said tearful good-byes to Stacey and wondered if we would ever see her again. About a year later, Stacey's parents got divorced, and Stacey and her mom returned to Connecticut. Talk about a complicated life! Stacey still seems like a New York girl at heart (just like I am a California girl at heart) and she visits her father in New York whenever she can.

Just to add to Stacey's problems, she has a severe form of diabetes. She's very careful about what she eats and knows how to give herself insulin shots every day. Diabetes is something she has to live with, but at least she can keep it under control. The main thing she has to remember is not to eat sweets. Just imagine a life without sugar and candy, and you'll get the idea. At first, we tried not to have cookies or things lying around where she could see them, but we found out that Stacey has a lot of self-control. She doesn't eat those things because she knows she could get really sick.

"Well, it's finished," Stacey said. She put down the brush and reached for an apple. The rest of us were munching on fudge (except for me - too unhealthy), but that's off-limits for Stacey, of course.

"I appreciate it, I really do," Mary Anne said earnestly. I knew that Mary Anne would never wear her hair that way again, but she managed to look as if she were thrilled with her new style.

"I'll be glad to do it for you anytime," Stacey said. "The thing to remember is to use just a little bit of gel and - " She stopped talking suddenly and sat down on Kristy's bed.

"Are you okay?" Kristy Thomas asked. (Kristy Thomas is the president of the Babysitters Club, and she is a take-charge sort of person.) "I'm fine," Stacey said lightly. She put her hand up to her forehead, just for a second, as though she had a headache.

"You look a little pale," Kristy said, peering at her. I remembered that Stacey hadn't felt well for the past few days.

"Hey, I'm fine. Really." Stacey bounced right back on her feet and picked up her styling brush. "I think I got a little dizzy from all the hair spray," she said with a smile. "Maybe we should get some air in here." "Good idea." As usual, Kristy took command of the situation and marched over to the nearest window. Sometimes I get a little annoyed because Kristy tends to be bossy (wait till you see her at a club meeting, and you'll understand), but I have to admit she really gets things done. It's funny, because in some ways, Kristy seems a little younger than thirteen. She has zero interest in clothes and makeup and practically lives in her favorite outfit: a turtleneck, faded jeans, and running shoes. But in other ways, she seems very mature and is exactly the kind of person you would want to have around in an emergency. Kristy has an interesting family. She has three brothers - Sam and Charlie, who are in high school, and David Michael, who's only seven. For a long time, Mrs. Thomas supported the family all by herself, because her husband had walked out one day and never come back. It was very hard on everyone, but Mrs. Thomas managed to get a good job and keep the family together. Then (and this is the wonderful part) she met a millionaire named Watson Brewer and they married and the Thomases moved across town into his mansion! It sounds like something out of a movie, doesn't it? Watson Brewer has two children, Karen, who has just turned seven, and Andrew, who's four, so Kristy found herself with a new brother and sister. (They only live with their father every other weekend and for two weeks during the summer, though.) Things got even more interesting after that because the Brewers adopted an adorable little Vietnamese girl whom they named Emily. By now Kristy's family was beginning to look like the Brady Bunch, so Nannie, Kristy's grandmother, moved in to help. Kristy loves her new family, and since she's terrific with kids, she's a big help with her younger brothers and sisters.