Ann Martin - Mary Anne And The Secret In The Attic

Compared to mine and Kristy's, Claud’s family is really small and, well, normal. it’s just her, her mom and dad, and her older sister Janine, who is a true genius. Claud's really smart, too, but she'll never do as well in school as Janine does. She just doesn't seem to care about getting good grades. Except in art.

Claud's best friend is Stacey McGill. She's the treasurer of our club, which means that

she collects dues every Monday. (Ugh! We all hate to part with our money.) Also, she keeps track of how much money is in the treasury. We use the money to cover what Kristy calls "overhead." It helps to pay Claud's phone bill, for example, and we also use some of it to pay Kristy's brother to drive her to meetings. (When her mom married Watson, Kristy moved across town to that mansion of his. She used to live right next door to my old house.) Stacey's a real math whiz, so the job is a breeze for her.

Stacey doesn't exactly look like the stereotypical idea of a math whiz, however. She doesn't have slicked-back hair, and she doesn't wear black-framed glasses or carry pens and a slide rule in her pocket. In fact, her hair is blonde and curly (she often gets it permed), and she's just as cool a dresser as Claud is. I think that’s partly why they're such good friends: they share a certain sophistication the rest of us just don't have.

Actually, Stacey may even be more sophisticated than Claud. She cant help it: she grew up in New York City. She didn't move to Stoneybrook until seventh grade. Stacey's been through some tough times in the past few years. For one thing, she found out she has diabetes. Her body can't process sugars correctly, so she has to be very, very careful about

what she eats. Also, she has to give herself daily injections (ew!) of this stuff called insulin. Stacey's learned how to take care of herself pretty well, and I'm always impressed at how matter-of-factly she deals with having a lifelong disease.

Also, Stacey's parents recently got divorced. Her dad lives back in New York, and Stacey goes to visit him as often as she can. But most of the time it's just Stacey and her mom against the world. (I can relate to that, since it was just me and Dad for so long.)

Anyway, despite her troubles, Stacey's one of the most cheerful, fun-loving people I know. And she loves to be around kids, which makes her a great baby-sitter.

Now that you've met the president, vice-president, and treasurer of our dub, I bet you're wondering who the secretary is. Well, it's me, (Surprise.) I really like my job, maybe because I'm naturally neat and organized. What I do is to keep the record book up to date. The record book is where we write down all kinds of information about our clients — not just their names and addresses and their kids' names, but their kids' favorite foods, favorite games, allergies, and so forth. I love keeping track of those things. I also keep track of the club members' schedules, which isn't as simple as you might think. There are Kristy's softball games (she coaches a team called Kristy's Krushers), Claudia's art lessons, and Stacey's trips to New York to take into account, for example. And I have to be aware of the schedules of our alternate members, Logan Bruno and Shannon Kilbourne. They don't come to meetings, but they can fill in if we need extra sitters. Shannon lives in Kristy's new neighborhood, and I've already told you that Logan is my boyfriend.

I've never had a problem keeping up with the record book, but if I ever couldn't make it to a meeting, Dawn would take over my job. In fact, she could take over anyone's job — she's what we call our alternate officer. I think Dawn's just as happy not to have a major job; she loves the club, but she doesn't exactly crave power or responsibility.

Now Dawn, Stacey, Claudia, Kristy, and I are all thirteen and in the eighth grade. But two of our club members are eleven years old and in the sixth grade. Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey are our junior officers. "Junior" means that they can only sit after school or on weekend days — no nighttime jobs unless they're sitting for their own families. This is fine with them, and fine with us. They get plenty of work, and we get freed up for evening jobs.

Jessi and Mal are best friends and, like me and Kristy, they're a case of opposites attracting. Mal comes from a huge family (eight kids!), has red, curly hair, and glasses and braces, and likes to do quiet things like read and write and draw. She'd like to illustrate children's books some day. Jessi comes from a regular-sized family (three kids), has black hair, brown eyes, and beautiful chocolate-colored skin, and likes to spend her time dancing. She's studying to be a ballerina.

The two of them do have a lot in common, though. They both wish their parents would stop treating them like children (Mal would love to get contacts; Jessi would like to be able to wear mini skirts), they both love to read (especially horse stories), and they're both great baby-sitters.

In fact, that day in Claud's room, Mallory was telling us about baby-sitting for her brothers and sisters the day before. Her face was lit up with excitement. "Nicky and Vanessa are both really into their Heritage Day projects," she said. "I think a lot of our regular clients will be, too. They're making a big deal of it at the elementary school. Everybody's supposed to do some kind of historical research— about their family tree, or about Stoneybrook, or about how their family came to Stoneybrook, or whatever. They're supposed to come up with projects and skits and stuff, and then there's going to be a big fair where

they can show off what they've learned."

Heritage Day sounded like fun — something to look forward to. I left that day's meeting with something new to think about, but you know what? I still hadn't been able to forget about my dream.

Chapter 3.

"Look at this one, Mary Anne!" Charlotte held up an old, sepia-toned photograph of a serious young woman.

"Wow," I said. "Look at those braids piled up on her head. Imagine how long her hair must have been when it was unbraided!"

It was a Friday evening, after a BSC meeting, and I was sitting for Charlotte Johanssen. She's one of our favorite kids to sit for; she's fun to be with, and smart, and almost never gets into mischief. That day she was already hard at work on her Heritage Day project. Charlotte's a great student — in fact, she skipped a grade so that even though she's barely eight years old, she's in third grade.

Charlotte had told me that everyone in her class was working on their family trees. Each student was supposed to research his family history, and find out when and why his family had ended up in Stoneybrook. For some kids,

the job would be fairly easy; if they'd moved to Stoneybrook recently, they wouldn't have to do much research. But a lot of families have lived in this town for generations, and Charlotte's was one of them.

"I asked Dad if he knew why his grandparents moved here," said Charlotte, who was still holding the picture. "But he didn't know. It's going to be really fun to try to find out!" Charlotte loves a mystery, and she's a pretty good detective. She couldn't wait to get started. It's great to see a kid so excited about a school project.

"Is that your great-grandmother?" I asked, still looking at the photo.

"Yup," said Charlotte. "See, here on the back it says her name: 'Berit Marie Hjielholt Johanssen.' I guess Hjielholt was her name before she got married to my greatgrandfather."

"It's so funny to look at this young woman and hear you call her your great-grandmother," I said.

"I know," Charlotte replied. "Isn't it weird to think that these people who I'm related to lived their whole lives so, so long ago? This picture is from when she graduated from college in Denmark."

I looked at the picture again. Charlotte's great-grandmother had been very beautiful.