Ann Martin - Mary Anne's Book

Tears streamed down my face. I couldn't stop them. "I don't want to be in the recital, Dad," I sobbed. "I just don't."

He put his arms around me and I hugged him. "Then you shouldn't be in it, honey. I'll tell your teacher and we'll go home. Okay?"

I pulled off my tiara and handed it to him. Then I stepped out of the tutu and gave him that. "Give these to the teacher," I said. "I'll wait here for you. And tell Kristy and Claudia that I'm okay."

A few minutes later Dad and I were in the car driving home.

"Mary Anne," my father said, "I want you to make me a promise."

"What?" I asked.

"I want you to promise me that the next time you're unhappy about something you'll tell me about it. Will you promise me that?"

"I promise," I said.

My dad and I exchanged a smile. I felt so lucky to have such a wonderful father.

"Now, how's that stomach of yours doing?" he asked.

I swallowed and realized that my stomach was fine. "I feel okay," I said.

"Good," he said. "I thought maybe we'd go to the mall and buy ourselves a new barbecue grill. And then do a big grocery shopping.

Maybe we could have a barbecue tonight and invite the Thomases and the Kishis. Would you like that?"

"That'd be fun," I said. "But can we go home first so I can put on my regular clothes?"

"Absolutely," he said. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"And if it's okay, I don't want to take ballet next summer," I said. "Neither does Kristy."

"No more ballet classes," he promised. I suddenly realized that I couldn't wait to see my friends and hear all about the recital. I wondered when they would have the videotape to show me. I'd love to see the tape now that I wasn't in it.

I started humming the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Dad joined in. We were both happy.

Chapter 6.

"It's the first year we aren't all in the same room," complained Kristy. We were on the way to school for the first day of fourth grade. From the postcards we'd received the week before we knew that Kristy and Claudia were assigned to Class 4A with Mr. Adams and that I would be in Class 4B with Ms. Elison.

"They can't split- us up," Claudia declared. "You have to be in our class, Mary Anne."

"Your dad should go to school and say he wants you in Mr. Adams' class," said Kristy.

"I don't think my dad would do that," I said. Actually, I didn't want to be taken out of Ms. Elison's class. I'd watched her with her classes at school assemblies and in the schoolyard. And once she'd visited our class to tell us about a city-wide poetry contest. To me Ms. Elison was the perfect teacher. She was smart, pretty, self-confident, and cheerful. I wasn't going to give up being in Ms. Elison's class for anything.

"Welcome to fourth grade," Ms. Elison said when I walked into her beautifully decorated classroom on the first day of school. I looked around. One bulletin board told me we'd be studying American history and from another I learned that we'd be studying poetry. I couldn't wait to learn American history and poetry from Ms. Elison.

"Find the desk with your name card on it and take your place, please," Ms. Elison directed.

I found the desk labeled "Mary Anne Spier" and sat down. I checked out my fourth-grade classmates. I counted fifteen kids I'd been in classes with before, including Alan Gray. And I recognized all but one of the other ten kids. The one girl who was totally new to me -and to the school - was sitting at the desk next to mine. I sneaked a look at the name card on her desk and read, "April Livingston." I'd never met a girl named April before. I wondered if I'd ever met anyone named after a month. I reviewed the months of the year in my head. Nope. I hadn't even met a "May" or a "June."

April had curly brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail with a red ribbon. She wore jeans and red high-top sneakers. Her light blue

sweatshirt announced, "I swam with dolphins." I was already fascinated by April Livingston. -

After the principal welcomed us to a new school year over the public address system, Ms. Elison explained our first activity as a class. She would assign us each a partner. The partners were to interview one another and take notes. We would then have fifteen minutes to organize our notes into a paragraph of

introduction of the person we interviewed. Then the pairs would go to the front of the room and introduce one another to the class.

Ms. Elison called out the names of the pairs.

I hoped with all my heart that Alan Gray

would not be my partner. "Mary Anne Spier

and April Livingston," Ms. Elison announced.

I looked in April's direction. She smiled and

gave me a thumbs-up sign. I smiled back.

Giving a speech in front of the room is not a good way for a shy person like me to start off a new school year. But I tried not to think of the standing-in-front-of-the-room part of the assignment. Instead I concentrated on how

interesting it would be to find out all about

the new girl.

Before we broke up into pairs, the whole class worked on a list of questions we might ask each other. We copied the questions into our notebooks as Ms. Elison wrote them on the board. Finally, April and I pushed our desks together and we were ready to interview one another.

"You ask me questions first," suggested

April.

"Okay," I agreed. I opened my notebook and began.

April was fun to interview and I liked everything I learned about her. Her hobbies were biking, swimming, drawing cartoons, and

reading. She wanted to be a comedian and an -actor when she grew up. And she thought Stoneybrook was a fun town. She had an older sister and a younger sister and got- along fine with both of them. The most fun she ever had was swimming with the dolphins in Florida. The nicest thing that ever happened to her was getting a puppy on her sixth birthday, a golden retriever named Alex. The saddest thing that ever happened to her was that her grandmother had died during the - past summer.

"Now I'll interview you," said April. She reached into her desk and took out a silver glasses case. She opened the case -and put on a pair of red-rimmed glasses. April's fun-filled, smiling face brightened up even more with the sparkle of the red frames.

"I like your glasses," I said.

"I just got them," she told me. "I'm always forgetting to put them on." She looked around the room and joked, "Ah, everything is clear now." She smiled at me. "You're even prettier than I thought." She laughed. "And you blush."

"I'm shy," I explained. "I hope I introduce you to the class okay."

"Don't worry," she said. "You can go first so you can get it over with. Anything you forget, I'll say. No problem."

And it wasn't a problem. I wanted to tell everyone all about April. And I wasn't half as nervous as I usually am talking in front of a class. Instead of looking at me, the class was watching April do gestures for everything I said about her. For example, when I said she had two sisters, she held up two fingers. And when I said she liked to read she pretended she was reading a book. And when I said the part about the dolphins she imitated swimming and being a dolphin.

When I'd finished my introduction of April, she said, "Mary Anne, don't forget to say I'm outgoing and friendly." Everyone laughed. They were enjoying our introductions.

I blushed while April introduced me. But I liked when she said, "Mary Anne is quiet, but loads of fun to be with. In her own way, she's outgoing and friendly, too."

"Very nice, girls," Ms. Elison said. "You both did that splendidly."

During math class it started to rain, so we had recess in our room. I asked April, "Can I try on your glasses?"

"Sure," she said.

I put them on. The frames felt good on my face. I loved wearing glasses. "They look great on you," said April. I took them off and put them carefully back in the case. A whole bunch