Ann Martin - Mallory And The Mystery Diary

Stacey McGill is the BSC's treasurer. I know her parents' divorce has been hard on her, but

she does a pretty good job of covering up her feelings, I guess, because so far she has seemed like the old Stace to me. Stacey and Claudia are best friends, and no wonder. They share the same wild taste in clothes and are pretty sophisticated for thirteen, although neither of them has a steady boyfriend. Stacey has blue eyes and short, fluffy, blonde hair, which is often permed. She's a pretty good student, especially in math, which is why she's our treasurer, but she has one big problem (I mean, apart from the divorce). Stacey has diabetes. Actually, she's fine as long as she sticks to her diet and gives herself daily insulin shots. But who wants to keep track of calories all day, avoid sugar and sweets, and give herself injections? Not me. Stacey is philosophical, though. She says she'd rather do those things than get sick.

Stacey is an only child, and I guess from now on she'll be spending vacations and certain weekends with her father inNew York . Her parents have said she can live with whichever one of them she wants, whenever she wants, just as long as the back-and-forth doesn't interfere with her schoolwork.

Our club secretary is Mary Anne Spier. Mary

Anne and Kristy grew up together and are best friends (although Mary Anne has another best friend — Dawn Schafer). Mary Anne is like Kristy in that she is short and also has brown hair and brown eyes, and neither of them is as sophisticated as Stacey or Claudia. But there are major differences between Kristy and Mary Anne. For starters, Mary Anne's family is as simple as Kristy's is complicated. Mary Anne lives with just her dad and her kitten, Tigger. Her mom died so long ago that Mary Anne barely remembers her. When Mr. Spier found himself raising a daughter alone, he decided that the best way to do that would be very strictly. He invented a million rules for Mary Anne about what she could wear, what she could do, and where she could go. Now that Mary Anne's growing up, though, he's relaxed his rules — and two things happened right away. One, Mary Anne began choosing her own clothes, and they are much trendier. Two, she became the first one of us to have a steady boyfriend. His name is Logan Bruno and he's really nice. I think Mary Anne was meant to have a boyfriend. She's extremely romantic, very sensitive (actually, she cries a lot), a good listener, and patient and quiet. How she and loudmouth Kristy have remained friends for

so long is beyond me. Anyway, Mary Anne is a wonderful person.

Dawn Schafer is the club's alternate officer. (I'll explain what that means later.) Dawn has had a difficult year or so. Like Stacey, her parents got divorced. But her mom moved Dawn and her brother, Jeff, all the way fromCalifornia toConnecticut . That's because Mrs. Schafer grew up here and her parents still live in Stoneybrook. Dawn likesConnecticut okay, and she likes being near her grandparents, but she's aCalifornia girl at heart and misses it badly. Her brother missed it so much that he finally moved back there to live with his father, so now Dawn's family is cracked in two. But Dawn copes well.

Dawn is an individual. She's never rude, but she always does what she pleases. She stands up for what she believes in, dresses the way she likes (we call her styleCalifornia casual), and eats health food while the rest of us pig out on junk food and red meat.

Dawn has the L-O-N-G-E-S-T, blondest hair I've ever seen (it's almost white), and sparkly bright blue eyes. Here's an interesting fact about her. She lives in a very old farmhouse with a secret passage, and that passage just might be haunted by the ghost of a long-ago

crazy man named Jared Mullray. This is okay with Dawn since she loves ghost stories, true or made up.

Well, the only two club members left are Jessi and me. We're junior officers, and are very much alike except for two things. I come from a huge family and Jessi comes from a normal-sized one. And I'm white and Jessi is black. These differences haven't affected us much, though. We are the best of friends. We're both eleven and the oldest in our families, we both feel that our parents treat us like babies, we both love to baby-sit (of course), and we both like to read, especially horse stories by Marguerite Henry. Beyond that, our interests are different. I like to write and draw, and I'm thinking of becoming an author and illustrator of children's books. Jessi, though, is an amazing ballet dancer. She's taken lessons for years, and attends a fancy ballet school inStamford,Connecticut , which isn't too far away. She has danced on stage before big audiences. She dances on toe, or as Jessi says, en pointe.

In Jessi's family are her parents, her shy eight-year-old sister, Becca, and her baby brother, Squirt. Squirt's real name is John Philip Ramsey, Jr., but when he was born, he

was so tiny that the nurses in the hospital nicknamed him Squirt. I wish I could say that the Ramseys had an easy time moving to Ston-eybrook earlier this year, but they didn't. They're one of the few black families in town — and Jessi is the only black student in the whole sixth grade. I'm ashamed to say that some people were not very nice to them at first, but things have gotten better for the Ramseys.

"Mallory!" my mother called then. "I think you can take the casserole over to Stacey's now."

"Okay," I replied.

It was time to quit my daydreaming and get moving.

Chapter 2.

Mom's casserole wasn't boiling anymore, but it was still pretty hot, so I had to carry it over to the McGills' with oven mitts.

Claire held our back door open for me.

"Thank you," I said.

"You're welcome, Mallory-silly-billy-goo-goo. . . . Can I come with you?"

I thought about that. Claire loves Stacey, and I would need someone to ring the McGills' bell for me. On the other hand, if I stayed at the McGills', I didn't really want Claire hanging around.

At last I said tactfully, "I think the McGills are still unpacking, Claire. Their house is probably a mess. You know, boxes everywhere. I bet Stacey would rather have you see her house when it's all fixed up."

Claire accepted that. "Okay," she said. "Tell

Stacey I love her. Tell her she's still a silly-billy-goo-goo."

I grinned. "All right. See you later, alligator."

"After awhile, crocodile."

Sometimes, like now, Claire can be absolutely wonderful. At other times she can be a pain ... in ... the ... NECK!

I walked carefully through our backyard, through Stacey's backyard, and around to the front of her house. I climbed her porch steps and stood at the door. Now — how was I supposed to ring the bell? The casserole weighed a ton and I needed both hands to carry it. I tried resting it on my leg long enough to let go with one hand, but — "OW!" The casserole wasn't nearly cooled off. I was about to set it on the porch floor when I heard someone call, "Hello?"

"Hi . . . Stace? It's me, Mallory."

The front door opened. "I thought I heard someone out here," she said, grinning. "Come on in."

"Thanks." I stepped inside. "This is for you and your mom. My mother made it. It's a tuna casserole. And it's burning hot and incredibly heavy."

Stacey hurried me into the kitchen, where I set the casserole on the stove.

"Gosh, that was nice of your mother," said Stacey. "We've been eating take-out food all week, except for Thursday night when the Kishis invited us over for dinner. . . . Mom?" she called. "Hey, Mom!"

Mrs. McGill appeared from somewhere, looking dusty.

"Hi, Mal," she greeted me.

"Hi," I replied.

"Mom, look what Mrs. Pike sent over. A tuna casserole."

"Oh, how nice!" Stacey's mother lifted the lid off the dish and breathed in deeply. "Oh, that smells wonderful!" she exclaimed. "I'll call your mother to thank her as soon as I have a spare moment."