Ann Martin - Mary Anne's Book

and kissed me on the forehead. "Thank you for inviting me."

I ran happily up the stairs to tell Claudia and Kristy the good news. Mimi - my almost-grandmother - would be my guest

The only person I couldn't share the good news with was my dad. For the next few days I had to be careful not to mention the tea party in front of him. It wasn't easy because during dinner my dad always asked me what I'd done in school that day. Now I had to leave out the most exciting -part of -the school day - preparing for the tea party. I was dying to tell him that we'd each made an illustrated book about our favorite animal that would be on display during the tea party, and that we were going to decorate the room with balloons and crepe paper. I couldn't even tell him that Kristy would be greeting people at the door, and that Claudia and I would be passing around trays of cookies.

The day before the party, Mrs. Frederickson helped us practice introducing - our guests. When it was my turn I said, "I would like to introduce my neighbor and almost-grandmother, Mimi." No one laughed. Claudia turned around and smiled at me.

Mrs. Frederickson had said that we should dress in our Sunday best for the tea party. So the next morning I put on my fancy dress with

the shiny buttons. I covered it with a sweater so my dad wouldn't ask me why I was wearing my best dress to school. I looked outside. It was a beautiful spring day, not a cloud in the sky. I was allowed to wear my shiny patent leather shoes to school when the weather was good. I put them on. That morning I felt as if there were two different Mary Annes. A happy, excited Mary Anne and a sad, guilty one. The excited Mary Anne was dressing up for a special tea party. The guilty Mary Anne hadn't told her dad that she'd invited someone else, and had tricked him by not telling him the date of the party.

I felt terrible at breakfast. I couldn't wait to leave the house. Finally, Kristy rang the doorbell. It was time to go to school. I gave my dad a quick peck on the cheek." 'Bye," I said. "See you tonight."

I was rushing to the door when my dad called after me cheerfully. "Did you forget that today's the tea party? You'll be seeing me at school this afternoon. I arranged it so that I can leave work early today."

I stopped in my tracks. "Okay," I said without turning around. "Bye."

I ran out of the house, past my friends, and across our lawn to the sidewalk. I wanted to get away from my house as fast as possible. I didn't want my dad to see that I was upset.

Claudia and Kristy caught up to me. "What's wrong?" asked Kristy.

"How come you're crying?" asked Claudia. By then we'd met up with Janine, but she was reading and didn't even notice anything was wrong. Kristy, Claudia, and I walked ahead of her and talked about my problem all the way to school.

"But how did my dad even know what day the tea party was?" I asked.

We all thought about that for a minute.

"I know how," Kristy said. "The school mailed the letter they always send when there's something for parents at school. The one with directions on where to park and to remind everybody what time to be there."

"What am I going to do?" I wailed. "I can't have a dad at the tea party. And I can't invite two people. Mrs. Frederickson said so. I broke two rules about the tea party."

"Well, no one is going to laugh at you when your dad comes," Kristy growled. "I'm going to talk to Alan Gray . . ." (she raised her clenched fists) ". . . with these."

"Maybe you should tell Mrs. Frederickson what happened," suggested Claudia.

"Maybe," I said. But I was too shy to do that. Besides, maybe my dad wouldn't be able to make it at the last minute and I wouldn't have a problem after all.

Kristy gave me a tap on the arm with her fist. "Don't worry," she said. "It'll be okay."

"It will?" I said. I wasn't convinced. And judging by the worried looks on my friends' faces, I knew they weren't either.

Mrs. Frederickson was in a great mood that day. She said we all looked lovely and that she thought we even behaved better when we were dressed like ladies and gentlemen. I went through the morning with huge butterflies in my stomach. Everyone else was excited about the tea party, but I was terrified. Especially -when, during penmanship, we each printed a sign in big letters with the name of our guest. "These will be your guests' place cards," Mrs. Frederickson explained. "We'll put them on their chairs."

I faced the blank piece of white cardboard. Which name should I write? "Ms. Mimi Yamamoto"? Or "Mr. Richard Spier"? Maybe I should write "Ms. Mimi Yamamoto and Mr. Richard Spier." I was sitting there pondering this question when Mrs. Frederickson, who was walking around the room to check our work, stopped at my desk. "Well, aren't you the slowpoke today, Mary Anne," she remarked.

"I don't know what to do," I admitted. Maybe, I thought, this is the time to explain that I had invited two guests to the party. But

it was too late. Mrs. Frederickson began scolding me. "Well, you'd know what to do if you'd listened to directions instead of daydreaming."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"The instruction, Miss Spier, is to write the name of your guest. Do you understand now?"

"Yes," I answered.

After Mrs. Frederickson moved on to the next kid, I printed Mr. Richard S pier on the card. Then I turned it over and printed Ms. Mimi Yamamoto on the other side.

I was still hoping one of them wouldn't show up.

During recess, Kristy pulled Alan Gray away from his kickball buddies. I was afraid she would get into a fight with Alan. But instead they just stood there and talked.

"What'd you say to Alan?" I asked Kristy when she walked back to Claudia and me.

"I asked him if he'd laugh if his mother were dead," she explained. "He said - he didn't know you didn't have a mother and he won't make a joke if your dad comes to the party."

"Thanks," I said.

After lunch we went to the music room to practice the songs we would be singing at the tea. When we returned to our classroom I almost didn't recognize it. Crepe paper hung in twisted ioops from the ceiling, and bunches of helium balloons floated from the corners of the bulletin boards. Our desks had been arranged in a big circle. Behind each desk, next

to the student chairs, was a gray folding chair. The name tags we'd made were taped to the backs of the big chairs. I scanned the room until I read Mimi Yamamoto. There was only one guest chair for each student. There was no room for an extra guest. -

In the middle of the circle, a round table was covered with trays of small sandwiches and cookies, stacks of paper cups and napkins, a coffeepot, a teapot, and pitchers of juice. I hoped with all my heart that my dad would have a last minute emergency at his job.

The first guests to knock on our classroom door were Claudia's mother and Mimi. I didn't want Mrs. Frederickson to think that Claudia made a mistake and invited two people, so I went straight to Mimi. I was holding Mimi's hand and showing her the book I'd written and illustrated about cats, when I heard a familiar voice say, "Good afternoon, Mrs. Fred erickson."

I turned and saw my dad. He hurried to Mimi and me. "Why do you look so surprised to see me, Mary Anne?" he asked."I told you I'd be here." He turned to Mimi. "It's nice to see you," he added.

Mimi looked from me to my dad. I stared at the floor. "It's nice to see you, too, Richard," she said.

"Mary Anne, you didn't tell me it was going

to be so fancy," my dad said. He looked around the circle of desks and chairs. I knew he was searching for his name card.

"And didn't Mary Anne make us the prettiest invitations," Mimi said. "Mine was all in blues. What color was yours?"

Fortunately, Claudia had seen the predicament I was in and she came over with her mother. Claudia took Mimi's hand. "Mimi, come see our guinea pig," she said. "Her name is Petunia."