Ann Martin - Mary Anne And The Secret In The Attic

The really odd thing was that, as I woke up little by little, I remembered that I had had almost exactly that same dream not once but twice before. And all within about three weeks. I guess this was what they call a recurring dream. I was starting to feel almost as if that big, musty building were a real place, and as if those strange old people were real people.

I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them wide. Even though it was already light outside, I didn't feel ready to wake up. I was still sleepy, but I was also afraid to go back to sleep. The dream had been very unsettling, and I didn't really want to repeat it one more

time. Then I turned to look at my clock, and when I saw what time it was, I woke up fast. I was going to have to move it if I didn't want to be late for school!

I got dressed in a hurry, which wasn't too hard. I had laid out my clothes the night before, as I always do. That day I was wearing a pink sweater and chinos, with these cute little boots I'd just bought. I guess you could say that my style is basically pretty preppy.

Then I headed for Dawn's room, to make sure she was up. "Morning," I said, knocking on her door. "Are you awake?"

She opened the door. "Yup," she replied, rubbing her eyes. "Come on in and help me decide what to wear."

Dawn's room was kind of a mess that day. Clothes were flung all over the place. Her jewelry was scattered over her dressing table, and I counted about seven different shoes littering the floor. "How can you even have any idea of what clean clothes you have?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Oh, I know just where everything is," said Dawn. "For example, I'm thinking of wearing my denim skirt today, and it’s hanging on the closet doorknob. And with it, I'll wear my turquoise necklace, which is behind that book." She pointed to her night table. I picked

up the book and saw the necklace. "See?" she asked. "Just like I told you."

I shrugged. "As long as the system works for you," I said. I've learned to live and let live. "Anyway, it sounds like you already know what you're going 'to wear. So let me tell you about this dream I had, while you get dressed." Dawn and I often tell each other our dreams. It's one of the things I absolutely love about having a stepsister.

"Wow," she said, after I'd told her what I remembered. "Strange. So what do you think it means?" Dawn loves to analyze dreams, and usually she's pretty good at it.

"I have no idea," I said. "But it gives me the creeps. I feel like I need to figure it out."

We talked about the dream while Dawn got dressed and brushed her hair. And, since Sharon and my Dad were already done with breakfast by the time we came downstairs, we kept talking about it as we ate our cereal. (I had Sugar Snaps. Dawn had Health-i-os.) But no matter how hard we tried to analyze the dream, we didn't come up with anything that felt right to me. It seemed that the dream was going to be haunting me for awhile longer.

Chapter 2.

"Hey, Mary Anne! Snap out of it!" Kristy snapped her fingers in front of my nose, and I blinked.

"What?" I said. "What’s going on?" I'd been thinking about my dream again, and I guess I'd kind of phased out for a minute.

"We're about to start the meeting, that's all," said Kristy, "and since you are a member, we'd like to have you join us, if you think you can manage it."

Kristy was being sarcastic. She can be that way sometimes. It’s funny — Kristy Thomas and I have been best friends ever since I can remember, but we are such different personality types. She's loud, and bossy, and sure of herself. And I'm exactly the opposite. But I guess it's like the old saying, "opposites attract."

It was later that same day, and I'd been thinking about my dream pretty much non-

stop since I had woken up that morning. All through school I'd thought about it, and all afternoon. By five-thirty, which was when our meeting started, you'd think I'd have been tired of thinking about it. But somehow it still had a grip on me.

I figured that maybe I could forget about my dream if I focused on something else, so I started to think about the BSC. What’s the BSC? It’s the Baby-sitters Club, of course. We call it a club, but it’s really more like a business. Kristy thought it up. She's great at coming up with wonderful ideas. The idea for the BSC was the best one of all, and it’s really one of the simplest. It works like this: Kristy and I and five other baby-sitters meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon from five-thirty until six. Parents call us during those hours if they need to arrange for a sitter, and we figure out which of us should take which jobs. We get plenty of work, the parents get reliable baby-sitting service, and the kids get sitters who really love what they do. Everybody's happy.

The club has worked well from the beginning. We used to advertise with flyers and posters and things — and we still do, sometimes — but generally we have as much business as we want. The BSC has a great reputation in Stoneybrook.

Kristy's had some other great ideas for the club. For example, there's the club notebook. That's like a diary that we each write in after every job we go on. Reading the notebook really keeps us up to date on what's happening with our clients. Another of her ideas was the Kid-Kits. We each have one: a decorated box, filled with coloring books and toys and stickers and all kinds of things that're irresistible to kids. It's not all new stuff. In fact, mine has my first Barbie ever, plus a battered game of Candy Land that I must have played three thousand times when I was little. But Kristy knew that even an old toy can look new and exciting to a kid. My Kid-Kit has been a real lifesaver more than once. It's just the thing for a rainy, dismal day.

Anyway, as you can see, Kristy is always having creative ideas, and she's really good at putting them into action. She's a real "do-er," as my dad would say. Nothing seems to bother her, either. Maybe that's because she's used to being in the middle of a lot of activity. Kristy comes from a large, complicated, chaotic family. Here's who she lives with: her mom, her stepfather Watson Brewer, her two older brothers Charlie and Sam, her little brother David Michael, her adopted baby sister Emily Michelle (she's Vietnamese), and her grandmother Nannie. Plus, every other weekend

and on vacations, Kristy's stepbrother and stepsister Karen and Andrew come to stay. Plus, there's a cat, a dog, and two goldfish.

Whew! it’s lucky Watson is a millionaire (really, he is) and owns a mansion. That family just wouldn't fit in any regular house, Kristy seems to love being part of such a big family. I guess it helps that she's so outgoing and assertive.

How else can I describe Kristy? Well, she loves sports and is kind of a tomboy, she adores kids, and she couldn't care less about clothes or makeup or any of that stuff. She's happiest dressed in a turtleneck, jeans, and running shoes. She's pretty short for her age (like me) and she has brown hair and brown eyes (also like me). And, last but not least, she's president of our club.

The vice-president of our club is Claudia Kishi. It was Claud's room that we were all sitting in that afternoon. In fact, we always meet in Claud's room. Why? Because she has her own phone, with a private line. That means that we don't have to tie up anyone else's line while we take BSC calls. As vice-president, Claud doesn't really have any other duties, besides supplying the phone and the meeting place. But she does supply one other very important thing for the club: junk food. Munchies, snacks, bonbons — Claud's kind of

addicted to junk food, and she loves to share it.

It's hard to believe that Claudia eats as much junk as she does. For one thing, she has title most beautiful complexion, and for another, her figure is terrific. I guess she's just one of those people who is naturally gorgeous, no matter what she eats. Claud has a very exotic look. She's Japanese-American, and has lovely brown almond-shaped eyes and long, long silky black hair. She is a really sophisticated dresser: for example, that day she was wearing a lacy white top over a solid white bodysuit, a black mini skirt with white polka dots on it, lacy white leggings, and red high-tops. Plus some really outrageous black-and-white jewelry (earrings and bracelets and necklaces) that she'd made herself out of papier-mâché". Claud's an excellent artist. You should see the portrait she once painted of Tigger.