Ann Martin: Mary Anne Saves The Day

I knew that if Kristy were in my shoes, she'd just join some other group of kids, even if she didn't know them very well. But I'd die of

embarrassment first. I could never do that.

I walked around the cafeteria until I found an empty table. I plopped down in a chair and opened my lunchbag. Since I pack my own lunch, I never have to eat things I don't like, such as liverwurst sandwiches. On the other hand, there are never any surprises. Treats, yes; surprises, no.

I spread a paper napkin on the table and arranged my lunch on it: peanut butter sandwich, apple juice in a box, potato chips, banana. I looked it over and realized I wasn't hungry.

I was still staring at it when a voice next to me said, "Excuse me, could I sit here?"

I glanced up. Standing uncertainly by my side was a tall girl with the blondest hair I had ever seen. It was so pale it was almost white, and it hung, straight and silky, to her rear end.

"Sure," I said, waving my hand at all the empty chairs.

She sat down with a sigh, placing a tray in front of her. I looked at her lunch and decided I was glad I had brought mine. I knew Stacey and Claudia think Kristy and I are babies because we still bring our lunches to school, but the macaroni casserole on the girl's tray looked really disgusting. And it was sur-

rounded by mushy, bright orange carrots, a limp salad, and a roll that you'd need a chain saw to slice.

The girl smiled shyly at me. "You must be new, too," she said.

"New?" I blushed. Why else would I be sitting alone? "Oh," I stammered, "um, no. It's just — my friends are all... absent today."

"Oh." The girl sounded disappointed.

"Are — are you new?" I asked after a moment.

She nodded. "This is my second day here. Nobody ever wants the new kid to sit at their table. And I feel embarrassed sitting alone. I thought I'd found the perfect solution —'another new kid."

I smiled. "Well, I don't mind if you sit with me. Even if I'm not new."

The girl smiled back. She wasn't exactly pretty, I decided, but she was pleasant, which was more important. Especially considering three unpleasant people I could think of.

"My name's Dawn," she said. "Dawn Schafer."

"Dawn," I repeated. "That's such a pretty name. I'm Mary Anne Spier."

"Hi, Mary Anne Spier." Dawn's blue eyes, which were almost as pale as her hair, sparkled happily.

"Did you just move here?" I asked. "Or did you switch schools or something?"

"Just moved here," she replied. "Last week." She began to eat slowly and methodically, taking first a bite of macaroni stuff, then a bite of carrots, then a bite of salad. She worked her way around the plate in a circle. "Our house is still a mess," she went on. "Packing cartons everywhere. Yesterday it took me twenty minutes to find my brother for dinner."

I giggled. At that moment, I happened to look up and see Kristy across the cafeteria. She was watching me. As soon as I caught her eye, she began talking to Mariah and Miranda again, making it look as if they were having the time of their lives without me.

Well, two can play that game, I thought. Even though I have never been much good at talking to people I don't know well, I leaned across the table and put my head next to Dawn's conspiratorially.

"You want to know who the weirdest kid in school is?"

She nodded eagerly.

He happened to be sitting at the table next to Kristy's. I took advantage of that to point in her direction. "It's Alexander Kurtzman. The one wearing the three-piece suit. See him?" I whispered.

Dawn nodded.

"Don't ever try to butt in front of him on the lunch line. Don't even try to get in back of him, unless he's at the end of the line. His hobby is obeying rules."

It was Dawn's turn to laugh. "Who else should I know about?" she asked.

I pointed out a few other kids. We spent the rest of the lunch hour whispering and laughing. Twice I caught Kristy's eye. She looked absolutely poisonous. I knew I wasn't helping our fight, but I kind of liked the idea of getting even with her for not letting me sit at our table.

"Hey, do you want to come over to my house after school tomorrow?" Dawn asked.

"Well . . . well, sure," I replied. It felt so strange to be talking with somebody besides Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, or the Shillabers. I wasn't sure that I had ever made a new friend all on my own. Mariah and Miranda had originally been friends Kristy had made, Stacey had been a friend of Claudia's, and I had just grown up with Kristy and Claudia.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" exclaimed Dawn. She must have been really lonely.

I began to feel guilty. I knew full well that one reason I wanted to go over to Dawn's house was to make Kristy (and Stacey and Claudia) mad.

I hoped Kristy would see me leaving school with Dawn the next afternoon. I hoped she would be surprised. I hoped she would be mad (madder than she already was). I even hoped she'd be a little hurt.

"That would be fun," I added. "Where do you live?"

"Burnt Hill Road."

"That's not too far from me! I live on Bradford Court."

"Great! We have a VCR. We can watch a movie."

"Okay!"

Dawn and I got up and cleared our places.

"Want to eat lunch again tomorrow?" asked Dawn. "Or will your friends be back?"

I paused. What if we'd all made up by the next day? I decided to cross that bridge when I came to it. "I don't know," I answered.

"It doesn't really matter anyway," said Dawn quietly.

"Okay. Well ... see you."

"See you."

We left the cafeteria.

I didn't see Kristy, Claudia, or Stacey again until school let out that day. Just after the last bell rang, I was standing in the front doorway of Stoneybrook Middle School, looking out across the lawn.

Then I saw them, all three of them. They were walking home from school, each one alone, each one still probably mad.

I set out slowly after them. It wasn't until I got home that I realized I had never given Claudia the note I'd written.

Chapter 4.

The first thing I thought when I woke up the next morning was, it's Wednesday. Today is a club-meeting day. We can't stay mad much longer or we won't be able to hold the meeting. And we've never missed a meeting. Suddenly, I was sure our fight was over.

I was so sure, that on my way to school, I stopped at Kristy's house and rang her doorbell. I thought we could walk to school together and apologize to each other.

Ding-dong.

David Michael answered the door. "Hi, Mary Anne!" he said.

"Hi," I replied. "Is Kristy still here?"

"Yup," said David Michael, "she's just — "

"I am not here!" I heard Kristy call from the living room.

"Yes, you are. You're right — "

"David Michael, come here for a sec," said Kristy.

David Michael left the front hall.

A few seconds later, I heard footsteps tiptoeing toward the hall. The front door slammed shut in my face.

I stood on the Thomases' stoop, shaking.

Then I turned and crossed the lawn.

All the way to school I kept hearing Kristy's angry voice and the door slamming. Well, I thought, there's still Dawn. Dawn wasn't the same as Kristy or my other friends, but she was something.

We ate lunch together after all. "Your friends are absent again?" Dawn asked. She looked skeptical.

"Yeah," I replied. I decided not even to go into it.

I looked around the cafeteria for the other members of the Baby-sitters Club. Things were a bit different that day. Kristy was still eating with the Shillabers, but the empty chair had been filled by another friend of theirs, Jo Deford. Claudia and Trevor were sitting with Rick and Emily. At the opposite end of their long table were Dori, Howie, Pete, and Stacey. Every so often, Stacey would look up and give Claudia the evil eye, or Claudia would whisper something to Trevor and then look in Stacey's