Mary Anne Saves the Day (10 page)

My father has lost his mind. Honest. I can't believe what he said to me the other day. He said, “Yes.” The amazing thing is that he said yes
after
I said, “Dad, may I have a Baby-sitters Club party at our house?”

So yesterday, Friday, I gave a special party. It was special because, aside from Kristy, Claudia, and Stacey, there was one guest who wasn't a club member — yet. Dawn. I'd told the others all about her, and they wanted to meet her. They knew that I'd like her to become a club member. I wasn't sure how they'd feel about that. We'd had to look for new club members once before, and that was a disaster. But Dawn was different.

My party was held from five to eight. Dad and I ordered a large pizza, and my father even came home from work early to help me toss a salad. (We made a hamburger patty for Stacey, since she shouldn't eat pizza, because of her diabetes.)

At quarter to five, the doorbell rang.

“Yikes! It's starting,” I said to Dad. “And they're early! Well, I think everything's ready.” We were going to hold a getting-to-know-Dawn meeting in my room first, then eat in the kitchen (
with
Dad — he insisted), and then go back up to my room to fool around.

“Don't worry, your party will be fine, I'm sure,” Dad told me. “You better go let your guests in,” he added, as the doorbell rang a second time.

“Okay,” I replied, and it was then that I tripped over the empty pizza box (the pizza was warming in the oven), and fell against the kitchen counter, spilling a glass of diet soda and knocking a pile of carrot peelings to the floor.

“Oh, no!” I cried. My denim skirt was covered with soda.

“Relax, Mary Anne,” said Dad calmly. “I'll get the door. You clean up.”

I sighed. “All right. What a way to start a party.”

Dad adjusted his glasses and headed for the front door. I got out the paper towels and started mopping up.

It took me a moment to realize that after I'd heard the door open, there had been absolute silence. I waited a few more moments, then peeped into the front hall.

What I saw nearly took my breath away. Dawn was in the hall, taking her coat off — and her mother and my father were standing at the door, staring at each other. Dawn saw me, grinned, and gave me the thumbs-up sign.

I opened my eyes wide. Then I grinned, too. Despite the fact that my hands were sticky and little pieces of carrot were clinging to my soda-soaked skirt, I joined the others in the hall.

“Dad,” I said, “this is Mrs. Schafer, Dawn's mother. Mrs. Schafer, this is my dad, Mr. Spier.” I waited for a reaction. “I think you two know each other,” I added.

My father recovered himself. “Yes. Yes, of course we do. Sharon, it's wonderful to see you. It's been years.”

“It's good to see you, too, Richie,” replied Dawn's mother.

Richie!
I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from giggling.

“Please come in,” my father went on.

“Oh, I'd love to, but I can't stay,” said Mrs. Schafer. “I've got to pick up Dawn's brother at hockey practice.”

“Dawn,” I said quickly, “there's a huge mess in the kitchen. Come help me clean it up.”

“Oh, sure,” she replied. We hustled into the
kitchen. But we didn't clean up. We hovered by the door, trying to hear what was going on in the hall.

“I'm glad you're back in Stoneybrook,” my father said. “Would you like to have dinner sometime?”

“I'd love to. When?” was the fast answer.

“When?” Dad repeated, sounding flustered. “Well, how about tomorrow night?”

“Wonderful.”

“I'll see you tomorrow, then,” said my father.

Dawn and I looked at each other. We gripped hands excitedly. A
date
! Our parents were going to go out on a
date
!

“Oh, and I'll drop Dawn off tonight,” added Dad. “No need for you to make another trip.”

Mrs. Schafer thanked my father and left. Dad returned to the kitchen, looking dazed.

Dawn and I were pretty dazed ourselves. I thought I'd never be able to concentrate on the party after what had happened, but by the time the mess had been cleaned up, I'd changed my skirt, the members of the club had arrived, and we were sitting around in my room, I felt much calmer.

I'd introduced Dawn to the other girls as they'd arrived. Now Dawn and Kristy looked at each other warily.

“Mary Anne says you've done a lot of babysitting,” Kristy said.

“Oh, yes,” replied Dawn. “In California — that's where we used to live — I baby-sat all the time. We lived in this neighborhood where there were tons of families and kids. I started sitting when I was nine. I bet I took care of every kid on my street at one time or another.”

“Have you ever had an emergency?”

I could see that Kristy, as our president, was really going to grill Dawn. Then again, that was her job.

“An emergency?” said Dawn. “Well —”

“She was terrific when Jenny Prezzioso was sick,” I interrupted. I had told the others about our hospital adventure.

Kristy nodded.

“And once,” added Dawn, “there was a fire in a house when I sitting. It was a problem with the wiring. I got the kids outdoors and called the fire department.”

“Wow,” exclaimed Claudia, looking impressed. “Then what happened?”

“The firemen came really fast and put the fire out. The kitchen was all wet and smoky and black, but none of the other rooms were hurt.”

“That was a pretty good emergency,” said Stacey, looking hopefully at Kristy.

I smiled at Stacey, saying a silent thank-you.

Kristy wasn't finished, though. “Have you ever taken care of a baby? I mean, a
real
baby — a newborn?”

Dawn paused. “No, not a newborn,” she said slowly. “I think the youngest baby was Georgie Klein. He was about seven months.”

“How late can you stay out?” (That was Kristy's favorite question.)

“Gosh, I'm not sure,” said Dawn. “I'd have to check with my mother. Maybe ten o'clock? I don't know about school nights, though. It's been a while since I baby-sat for anyone besides my brother. The last kid I took care of was in California, since I don't know many people here. Mom's probably changed the rules since we moved.”

Kristy looked satisfied.

“How come you moved, Dawn?” asked Stacey. “Did your father get transferred?”

Dawn glanced at me, then lowered her eyes. “Divorce,” she replied.

“Your parents got divorced?” said Kristy. She sounded sympathetic. “Boy, I know all about that. Mine are divorced, too. It stinks.”

“And I know all about moving,” said Stacey. “My parents and I moved here from New York last summer. That wasn't so great at first, but it's a lot better now.”

“Yeah, that's because she met all these wonderful friends!” Claudia waved her hand around the room, indicating the club members.

“And now Dawn's meeting us,” I said pointedly. I looked at Kristy and raised my eyebrows.

She smiled at me. “We sure have a lot of clients now, more than we know what to do with. We could use some help.” She turned to Claudia and Stacey, who nodded their heads ever so slightly.

“Mary Anne?” said Kristy. “Do you want to say it?”

I grinned. “Sure. Dawn Schafer, would you like to join the Baby-sitters Club?”

The smile that spread across Dawn's face was one of the brightest I'd ever seen.
“Really?”
she cried. “I mean, yes! Yes, I want to join. More than anything! Thanks, you guys.”

I jumped up. “Well,” I said, “the pizza's warming up and I'm hungry. I think the Baby-sitters Club should go pig out.”

Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, Dawn, and I thundered down the stairs and into the kitchen. Kristy and Claudia attacked the pizza with our pizza cutter.

“Dad?” I called. “We're going to eat now!”

My father came into the kitchen. He looked as if he were moving underwater. Dawn and I glanced at each other. We both knew what my dad was thinking about, and we absolutely could not wait until Sunday morning to find out about our parents' date.

I was glad I had the Baby-sitters Club — the
five-member
Baby-sitters Club — to help keep my mind off of Saturday night.

I took a piece of pizza and held it in the air. “Pizza toast!” I cried. Kristy, Claudia, and Dawn raised their pizza, too, and Stacey raised her hamburger. (Dad didn't know
what
was going on.)

“To our new member,” I said.

“To our new member,” said Kristy, Stacey, and Claudia.

“To
me
!” cried Dawn. “Thanks for letting me join the Baby-sitters Club.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN
was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.)

In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include
Belle Teal
,
A Corner of the Universe
(a Newbery Honor book),
Here Today
,
A Dog's Life
,
On Christmas Eve
,
Everything for a Dog
,
Ten Rules for Living with My Sister
, and
Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far)
. She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.

Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.